2017 Participants
Samantha Cooke
A relative clause modifies a head noun and is introduced by a relativizer such as “that”, “who”, “which”, “what”, or no relativizer at all. Research into how speakers choose between these relativizers has found some similarities across varieties of British English, but these studies have focused exclusively on white speakers. My project asks: do black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) adolescents in London share the same constraints on relativizer choice as white speakers? I analysed 1302 relative clauses produced by London BAME speakers and compared them with previous results for white speakers? I found that BAME speakers share with white speakers constraints argued to facilitate the processing of complex relative clauses. Relative clauses are crucial to successful communication because they specify exactly who orwhat speakers are talking about. Therefore, my results suggest that mitigating unsuccessful intra- and inter-ethnic communication is an overriding principle governing relativizer choice.
Funding source: Newcastle University
Supervisor: Dr Heike Pichler