Here’s looking at youse: Understanding the place of yous(e) in Australian English

Book chapter


Mulder, Jean and Penry Williams, Cara 2020. Here’s looking at youse: Understanding the place of yous(e) in Australian English. in: Allan, K. (ed.) Dynamics of Language Changes: Looking Within and Across Languages Singapore Springer. pp. 57-72
AuthorsMulder, Jean and Penry Williams, Cara
EditorsAllan, K.
Abstract

This chapter further documents the place of yous(e) in Australian English (AuE) by analyzing occurrences in Australian literature taken from the Macquarie Dictionary’s OzCorp. Firstly, we substantiate that in AuE yous(e) has developed a singular usage alongside the plural. Analysis of the reference in 308 tokens within our subcorpus of literature finds 40% clearly have a singular referent and that such forms occur in just over half of the texts. Secondly, we provide an analysis of its social evaluation as a stigmatized form by examining its utilization in the voices authors give to their characters. Focussing on texts with high use, we uncover yous(e) is linked both to particular ‘types’ and to certain fictional worlds/milieus. In both cases, the authors draw on understandings of it as Australian and working class, with recognition of its claimed Irish origins only (potentially) indirectly indexed.

KeywordsAustralian English; Second person pronouns; Folklinguistics; Indexicality; Australian fiction
Page range57-72
Year2020
Book titleDynamics of Language Changes: Looking Within and Across Languages
PublisherSpringer
Place of publicationSingapore
Edition1st
ISBN9789811564307
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6430-7
Web address (URL)https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811564291
hdl:10545/625153
File
File Access Level
Open
Output statusPublished
Publication dates01 Sep 2020
Publication process dates
Deposited04 Sep 2020, 11:09
AcceptedApr 2020
ContributorsUniversity of Melbourne, Australia and University of Derby
Permalink -

https://repository.derby.ac.uk/item/922x8/here-s-looking-at-youse-understanding-the-place-of-yous-e-in-australian-english

  • 82
    total views
  • 36
    total downloads
  • 0
    views this month
  • 0
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

A common language and shared understanding of family violence? Corpus-based approaches in support of system
Penry Williams, Cara and Stebbins, Tonya N. 2023. A common language and shared understanding of family violence? Corpus-based approaches in support of system. Corpora. 18 (1), pp. 1-34. https://doi.org/10.3366/cor.2023.0273
Discovering intercultural communication: From language users to language use
Kim, Hyejeong and Penry Williams, Cara 2021. Discovering intercultural communication: From language users to language use. Palgrave Macmillan/ Springer.
A sociolinguistic perspective on the (quasi-)modals of obligation and necessity in Australian English
Penry Williams, Cara and Korhonen, Minna 2020. A sociolinguistic perspective on the (quasi-)modals of obligation and necessity in Australian English. English World-Wide. 41 (3), pp. 267 - 294. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00051.pen
Folklinguistics and social meaning in Australian English.
Penry Williams, Cara 2019. Folklinguistics and social meaning in Australian English. Abingdon, Oxfordshire Routledge.
Patient and clinician engagement with health information in the primary care waiting room: A mixed methods case study
Penry Williams, Cara, Elliott, Kristine, Gall, Jane and Woodward-Kron, Robyn 2019. Patient and clinician engagement with health information in the primary care waiting room: A mixed methods case study. Journal of Public Health Research. 8 (1), pp. 19-25. https://doi.org/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.4081/jphr.2019.1476
A preservice teacher’s learning of instructional scaffolding in the EAL practicum
Nguyen, Minh Hue and Penry Williams, Cara 2019. A preservice teacher’s learning of instructional scaffolding in the EAL practicum. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. 42, p. 156–166. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03652035
Appeals to semiotic registers in ethno-metapragmatic accounts of variation
Penry Williams, Cara 2019. Appeals to semiotic registers in ethno-metapragmatic accounts of variation. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 29 (3), pp. 1-32. https://doi.org/10.1111/jola.12213
Losing people: a linguistic analysis of minimisation in First World War soldiers’ accounts of violence
Penry Williams, Cara and Rice-Whetton, John 2019. Losing people: a linguistic analysis of minimisation in First World War soldiers’ accounts of violence. in: Laugesen, A. and Fisher, C. (ed.) Expressions of War in Australia and the Pacific Language, Trauma, Memory, and Official Discourse Camden, London Palgrave. pp. 17-42
Sort of in Australian English: The elasticity of a pragmatic marker
Mulder, Jean, Penry Williams, Cara and Moore, Erin E. F. 2019. Sort of in Australian English: The elasticity of a pragmatic marker. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication. 29 (1), pp. 9-32. https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.00019.mul
Understanding the place of Australian English: exploring folk linguistic accounts through contemporary Australian authors
Mulder, Jean and Penry Williams, Cara 2018. Understanding the place of Australian English: exploring folk linguistic accounts through contemporary Australian authors. Asian Englishes. 20 (1), pp. 54-64. https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2018.1422323