Alex DÕArcyÕs quick links
home publications teaching cv [.pdf] UVic sociolinguistics
research lab UVic
linguistics
research projects
I am a quantitative
variationist sociolinguist, trained in the Labovian paradigm. Linguistic
heterogeneity fascinates me, even more so for its systematicity; uniformity (in
the sense of Guy 1980) is mind-blowing stuff.
IÕm currently
involved in a number of research projects, so visiting the SLRL (Sociolinguistics Research Lab) page will give you an
idea of some of the other work that is currently been done, both here at UVic
and collaboratively with other labs..
The Victoria English Project:
development and current state
Photo by Nik
West, shot on location at the Empress Hotel, Victoria.
ÔPlain, unpretentious Canadian is a lost language in Victoria.Õ W.E. Walsh, 1923, The Canadian Forum
This project was recently named one of UVicÕs Top Stories of 2011 (ÔUVic linguist traces VictoriaÕs
fabled British rootsÕ).
This research is fundamentally about where, and how,
Victorian English speakers fit into the matrix of Standard Canadian English
(SCE) speakers more generally. Why should this matter? The answer is
multifaceted and can be summarized by the three main objectives of the project:
(1) to contribute to the knowledge base of English in Canada; (2) to elucidate
the pathway of change in an urban variety of Canadian English that is
demographically distinct from other major urban contexts (e.g. Toronto,
Vancouver); and (3) to document English in Victoria, from its origins to the
present day.
* Press: Read the article by Peigi McGillivray in The Times Colonist (Nov 27 2011,
p.C05): click here.
* Press: Hear the interview with Jo-Ann Roberts on All
Points West, CBC Radio One (Nov 30 2011): click here (it starts at minute 17.36).
* Press: Read the article by Lindsay
Kines in The Times Colonist (Dec 2 2011,
p.A01): click here.
* Press: There was also an article
by Natalie North in The Saanich News (Dec 5 2011).
This research is
supported by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
Variationist
perspectives on discourse: focus on 'like'
<click here to see a world cloud of
DÕArcy 2007, created by Wordleª>
One of the things I'm
really interested in is where discourse features such as 'like' come from and
how they're used (e.g. Like, Pat is like so cool). These types of linguistic devices aren't usually
subjected to traditional variationist methodology, and one of the fundamental
questions underlying my research into 'like' is: What insights can be gained
from looking at this feature in a framework that considers not just those
places where it is used, but also those where it isn't? I'm also curious about
who uses it, how they use it, and how old a person has to be to use 'like' in
one way or another. One of the most important things I've found is that despite
appearances, 'like' is absolutely not random. If we look at what's been going on
over the past 100 years or so, we find that it has actually developed very
systematically, following regular syntactic parameters. 80, 45, or 15 years
old, we all have a lot in common when it comes to 'like'.
See my publications
page, the abstract from my doctoral dissertation (Like: syntax and
development, University of Toronto, 2005), or email me for more information.
* Press: See the article by Mark Peters in Psychology Today (May/June 2008)
* Press: See the column by Elizabeth Osmers Gordon in The Press (Nov 8 2008)
* Press: Watch the story by Bill Weir on Good Morning America, Weekend Edition
(April 19 2009)
* Press: Hear the interview on Answerman,
hosted by Erik White as part of CBC Radio SudburyÕs Morning
North with Markus Schwabe (August 18 2010): click <here>.
This research was
supported by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
Constructing dialogue in time and
space
An ongoing focus of
my research concerns verbs of quotation and the system in which they operate. Here
I am interested in regional, national, and ethnic factors, as well as in
longitudinal changes that might be taking place within the system. The past ten
years have witnessed an unprecedented amount of interest in the English
quotative system. The reasons are two-fold. One, the system has been the site
of recent and rapid change. The innovative collocation be like has made substantial inroads
since its genesis in the early 1980s. Concomitantly, speakers have been
shifting toward higher rates of reported inner monologue while increased use of
more traditional forms such as the null form, think, and go has also been reported. In other
words, what we appear to be witnessing is whole-scale reorganization of the way
in which dialogue is constructed in discourse. Two, since the early 1990s, be like has
been diffusing vigorously across varieties of English worldwide (Romaine &
Lange 1991). This renders the form a prime test case for investigating
processes of globalization and, in particular, the linguistic processes that
operate at the nexus of global forms and their local indigenization.
If you would like to
know more about this project, please feel free to contact me.
This research was
supported by the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics
and by the College of Arts at the
University of Canterbury.
Other research
IÕm also involved in
a number of other projects with collaborators both here and overseas: Gerry Docherty (Newcastle
University), Bill Haddican (CUNY) (with Hazel Richards and Ann Taylor, University of York), Sali Tagliamonte (University of Toronto); Paul De Decker (Memorial
University of Newfoundland) and I just might have something up our sleeves too.
photo: Sali
Tagliamonte (left), Alex DÕArcy (right) at NWAV 39,
University of Texas
at San Antonio, November 2010
[photo credit:
Patricia Cukor-Avila]
Think youÕd like to
work with me? I am keen to supervise research in the following areas:
á language variation and change
á ethnolinguistic variation
á internet linguistics (and ethics)
á historical sociolinguistics
á grammaticalization
For more details, visit my teaching page.