Análisis de datos

Colloquial contractions are reduced or contracted written forms such as ya or gonna which reflect informal pronunciation and thus socially-charged speech, as well as emotions of anger or affection: in other words, they establish tone (Weber 1986: 420; Androutsopoulous 2000: 521). As examples show, contractions can involve word shortenings (you to ya) or combine two words (going to to gonna). Although, as Crystal (2003: 275) points out, many now have established written forms, they differ from standard contractions in not being formally recognised in dictionaries or schools, not using apostrophes, involving at times just one word, and being largely limited to written discourse representing direct speech such as below.

Figure 5.2 Written discourse exploiting colloquial contractions in representing speech (fromWeber

1986: 421 and Crystal 2003: 275/416)

 Comic strips, jokes and humour

 Journalism, including interviews representing direct quotation,

 Dialogue in prose fiction, plays and other forms of literature, as a basis for characterisation, where idiosyncrasy and regional background are reflected in distinctive spelling

 Marketing

1 _{In the current system, the is spelt <the> both before consonant (pronounced /ðə/) or vowel sounds} (pronounced /ðɪ/); and is spelt <and> regardless of differences between its weak and strong forms; bath is spelt the same throughout the UK, although some pronounce the vowel // and others /a:/.Representation of regional pronunciations, however, was once commonplace (Leith 1983; Baron 2000; Crystal 2003). Although spelling was standardised through printing and mass education, regionally distinct spellings surviving into the 1700s remain apparent in irregular forms such as fox and vixen, in which /f/ represents the East Midlands dialect of Middle English, and /v/ the Southern spelling (Baron 2000: 106).

2 _{As standard forms, these are not explored here. However, they raise relevant points: firstly, in not} representing the full range of variation in informal speech, they highlight the selectivity involved in any representation of speech; secondly, they highlight its arbitrariness: many Elizabethan contractions are used only in old literary language (Partridge 1964): tis, twas, ne’er. Most significantly, they show how the use of spelling exists as a widespread and established means for indicating informality as well as evoking spoken forms. In terms of the form the standard contractions take, it is also of interest to note the use of an apostrophe to indicate the missing letter; as we shall see, this is not found either in colloquial contractions or, as we shall see, the standard contractions found in many text messages

 Popular culture including pop and rock songs: ‗Gotta Serve Somebody‘ (Bob Dylan); ‗I wanna hold your hand‘ (Beatles); ‗Never Gonna Happen‘ (Lily Allen).

Limitations of Weber‘s (1986) investigation of colloquial contractions, in respect to the current investigation, is that the material she uses (comic strips, magazine interviews and anecdotes, as well as casual observations of other written material) features American English and sources date from over twenty years ago; however, it appears that even idiosyncratic forms represent patterns reflecting those in present-day British English.

Table 5.1 Colloquial contractions (following Weber 1986)1

progressive verbs -ing → in‘ also used for other words ending in ‗ing‘—

something, building.

going to → gonna goin’ to rarely used to form the present

continuous

auxiliary verbs does → -‘s

did → -‘d do → -da

‗What‘s that mean?‘ ‗How‘d it go, handsome?‘

‗Whadda ya call a …?‘2

have → a ‘ve shortened to: coulda, shoulda, woulda,

mighta

catenative verbs got to → gotta

have to→ hafta want to → wanna

a represents unstressed schwa; while the deletion of the ts in wanna reflects a regular informal pronunciation rule (that is, the elision of /t/ between two vowels following the sound /n/ as in winter or without /n/ as in beauty, represented by Weber as [VntV] – [VnV])

personal pronouns him → ‗im

her → ‗er them → ‗em

reflect the regular deletion of /h/ preceding unstressed vowels in rapid informal speech.

you → ya, yuh, y‘ the most frequent is ya, y’ appears as the

subject in conversational expressions such as y’know and y’see. Crystal (2003) lists ya among other forms which represent elision in colloquial speech including dunno, yeah, yup,

1 _{In keeping with our recognition that spelling follows grammar as well as sound, they are grouped below} according to grammatical features (as in Weber), rather than the phonemes they represent.

2 _{Another example which could be added to the category of auxiliary verbs is the colloquial contraction innit} (isn’t it) as noted by Crystal (2003:275) which represents the spoken elision in a common discourse marker used similarly to the French ‗ne c‘est pas‘ in certain regions of the UK, including the south-west of England.

c’mon, trific or triffic, nuf or nuff, em, and innit—the last sometimes used as a rhetorical device by humorous writers as a light-hearted way of making a point

you → -cha reflects assimilation of /j/ after /t/ in gotcha,

doncha, watcha. Unlike other forms, -cha omits the letter that represents the identity of the pronoun in standard spelling and variants. Crystal (2003) describes gotcha as an accurate representation of a colloquial assimilation, and comments on its effective use as a headline in The Sun when the British navy sank the General Belgrano during the Falklands War.

others of → a lotta (lot of); coupla (couple of); buncha

(bunch of); sorta (sort of); kinda (kind of); outa (out of).

give me → gimme let me → lemme

object me added to verbs, final consonants of the verbs are deleted and the doubling of the consonant is due to the rule which indicates that the preceding vowel is lax.

deletion of d after /l/ or /n/ ol’; an’ aphaeresis of because and

about

‗cause; ‗bout

unique forms c’mon; li’l

Although uncodified, the colloquial contractions follow recognised patterns. Use of <a> in representing schwa, to take Weber‘s (1986: 424) example, is now a strong pattern in English1 conformed to in gonna, gotcha, kinda and in the advertising slogan: Drinka Pinta

Milka Day (Carney 1994: 447).2 Another way in which colloquial contractions conform to familiar spelling patterns can be seen in gotta, where the consonant doubling conventionally marks the preceding vowel as short.3 As described later, these patterns are reflected in texting.

1

<a> replaced <e>, which commonly represented schwa through the Middle and Early Modern English periods, due to borrowings from classical languages such as agenda, bacteria, parka, sofa, and yoga.

2 _{As Crystal points out, the letter r is also frequently used in such stylistic effects: larf, lorra, luvverly, har har,} shurrup.

3

A final point made by Weber (1986: 424) of relevance to the present study is the lack of apostrophes in these colloquial contractions (in contrast to the standard contractions outlined above and see footnote 2, p.104),

Other attempts to imitate informal speech include regional respellings and what I call

colloquial respellings. Regional respellings, described variously as regiolectal respellings

(Androutsopoulous 2000: 521) and literary dialect1 (Ives 1971 in Weber 1986: 420), are representations of regional varieties through spelling. As Weber (1986: 420) explains, there are ‗few definite rules‘ but ‗recurrent strategies‘ she notes include omitted and shifting sounds in some’ers for somewheres and mout’ for mouth; and the use of <h> to represent ‗r- lessness‘ as in caht or describe vowel sounds: mah for my. Other respellings, however, are perhaps better known as colloquial respellings, in that, although non-standard pronunciation is suggested, it does not have regional associations and nor is the word shortened (as with colloquial contractions). Examples include yeah or nope, lengthier than

yes and no and used widely in informal speech.2 The distinction between regiolectal and colloquial respellings, however, is unclear. Omission of <h>, for example, categorised by Weber (1986) as a colloquial contraction, is also associated with estuary or cockney English.3 Nonetheless, bearing this caveat in mind, it is useful to distinguish respellings in Txt suggesting regional varieties from those suggesting features found generally in conversational English. The role of all three in indicating informality and identity is explored below.