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‘Doing Cornishness’ in the English periphery: embodying ideology through Anglo-Cornish dialect lexis

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posted on 2023-06-09, 06:56 authored by Rhys Sandow, Justyna RobinsonJustyna Robinson
In the current chapter, we explore the social meaning of onomasiological variation of the concept lunch box among males in the Cornish town of Redruth. Collected data point us towards the relevance of the Anglo-Cornish dialect forms crib box and croust tin in projecting speakers’ regional identity. Speakers with a stronger sense of Cornish identity recognise, and ultimately use, local dialect lexis more than those with a weaker sense of Cornish identity. Also, declining local dialect terms occur more frequently in careful speech styles of older speakers. We argue that this unexpected pattern occurs because, when speakers are highly aware that their vocabulary is being observed, they ‘perform’ their Cornish identity through Anglo-Cornish dialect lexis. This study also showcases a new methodological framework for collecting data which allows us to analyse socio-semantic variation.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Publisher

Palgrave Macmillan

Page range

333-361

Book title

Sociolinguistics in England

Place of publication

Basingstoke

ISBN

9781137562876

Department affiliated with

  • English Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Editors

Sandra Jansen, Natalie Braber

Legacy Posted Date

2017-06-29

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