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The role of sociocognitive salience in the acquisition of structured variation and linguistic diffusion: Evidence from quotative be like

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2020

Julia Davydova
Julia Davydova*
Affiliation:
Pädagogissche Hochschule Vorarlberg, Feldkirch, Austria
*
Address for correspondence: Julia Davydova, Pädagogissche Hochschule Vorarlberg, Vorarlberg University of Higher Education, Liechtensteinerstraße 33-37, 6800 Feldkirch, Austria julia.davydova@ph-vorarlberg.ac.at
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Abstract

Quotative be like is a much discussed variable linguistic feature recruited in this investigation in order to revisit the hypothesis of linguistic diffusion (Labov 2007) predicting re-ordering of original patterns by L2 populations. As a sociocognitively salient variant spreading above the level of conscious awareness, be like has been appropriated by adult speakers from two distinctive L2 English ecologies with a high degree of precision, a finding previously not reported in studies exploring the acquisition of structured variation. In this article, I explain how, supported by frequency and constraint complexity, sociocognitive salience may have contributed to the generally accurate replication of the variable grammar for be like and, by this token, how it can inform existing models of language change. (Sociocognitive salience, linguistic diffusion, L2 acquisition of structured variation, variationist sociolinguistics, World Englishes, be like)

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Language in Society , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , April 2021 , pp. 171 - 196
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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