for we (= us).
- The pronoun ‘mun’ (‘min’) is used in those cases, when in the
literary language ‘them’ is used:
e.g. put mun in the house
gie mun to me
I mind (= remember) the first time I seed mun.
- ‘Mun’ is also used instead of ‘him’, ‘it’
e.g. let min alone
it would sarve un right if I telled the parson of mun
- Instead of ‘those’, ‘them’ is used:
e.g. I mind none of them things.
Give us them apples.
Fetch them plaates off o’ th’ pantry shelf.
- In the south-western dialects at the beginning of the sentenu the
personal and impersonal pronouns are often dropped.
- “Whom” is never used in the south-western dialects. Instead of it
‘as’ / ‘at’ is used:
e.g. That’s the chap as (or what) his uncle was hanged.
The man’ at his coat’s torn.
- The nominative case of the personal pronouns is also used before
‘selves’:
e.g. we selves (Somerseshire, Devonshire)
- The standard demonstrative pronoun ‘this’ is used in the south-
western dialects as: ‘this’, ‘this here’, ‘thease’, ‘thisn’,
‘thisna’.
- The standard demonstrative pronoun ‘that’ is used in the south-
western dialects as: ‘thatn’, ‘thickumy’, ‘thilk’:
e.g. I suppose I could have told thee thilk.
- ‘Those’ is never used in the south-western dialects.
“thir’ ans” is used instead of it.
3.5.1 Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns in a Devonshire
dialect.
I’d like to give not only the grammatical description of adjectives
and pronouns in the south-western part of England, but the pronunciation of
demonstrative adjectives and pronouns found in the dialect of south zeal, a
village on the northern edge of Dartmoor. Martin Harris made his research
work in this field:
“The analysis is based on a corpus of some twenty hours of tape-
recorded conversation, collected in the course of work for a Ph.D. thesis,
either in the form of a dialogue between two informants or of a monologue
on the part of a single informant. The principal informant, Mr George
Cooper, has lived for some eighty-five years in the parish, and has only
spent one night in his life outside the county of Devon.
For the purposes of this chapter, only one phonological point needs to
be made. The /r/ phoneme is retroflex in final position, and induces a
preceding weak central vowel [?] when occurring in the environment /Vr/,
(thus [V?r]), when the /V/ in question is /i:/ or /?/. (These are the only
two vowels relevant within this work.). The transcription used for the
actual forms should not give rise to any further problems. In the case of
the illustrative examples, 1 have decided to use a quasi-orthographical
representation, since the actual phonetic/phonemic realization is not
directly relevant to the point under discussion. The prominent syllable(s)
in each example are illustrated thus: “.
We may now proceed to look at the actual forms found in the dialect
(Table 1):
|Singular adjective| | | |
| |/ði:z/ |/ðat/ |/ði-ki:/ |
|Simple |/ðs/ | | |
|First compound |/ði:z/ ji:r/ |/ðat ð?r/ |/ði-ki: ð?r/ |
| |/ðis ji:r/ | | |
|Singular pronoun | | | |
|Simple |/ðis/ |/ðat/ |/ ði-ki:/ |
| |/ði:z/ | | |
|First compound |/ðis ji:r/ |/ðat ð?r/ | |
|Second compound |/ðis ji:r ji:r/ |/ðat ð?r ð?r/ | |
|Plural adjective | | | |
|Simple |/ðejz/ |/ðej/ |/ði-ki:/ |
|First compound |/ðejz ji:r/ |/ðej ð?r/ |/ði-ki: ð?r/ |
|Plural pronoun | | | |
|Simple (only) | |/ðej/ | |
The relative frequency of these forms is shown in Table 2.
|Adjectives |
|Singular |% |Plural |% |
|/ði:z/ |13 |/ðejz/ |23 |
|/ðis/ |11 |/ði:z/ |2 |
|/ði:z ji:r/ |9 |/ðejz ji:r/ |7 |
|/ðis ji:r/ |2 |/ði:z ji:r/ |4 |
|/ðat/ |15 |/ðej/ |49 |
|/ðat ð?r/ |3 |/ðej ð?r/ |2 |
|/ði-ki:/ |43 |/ði-ki:/ |10 |
|/ði-ki: ð?r/ |4 |/ði-ki: ð?r/ |3 |
| |100 | |100 |
|Pronouns |
|/ðis/ |10 | | |
|/ði:z/ |4 | | |
|/ðis ji:r/ |2 | | |
|/ðis ji:r ji:r/ |25 |/ðej/ |100 |
|/ðat/ |22 | | |
|/ðat ð?r/ |2 | | |
|/ðat ð?r ð?r/ |34 | | |
|/ði-ki:/ |1 | | |
| |100 | | |
The paradigm as outlined in Tables 1, 2 presents few morphological
problems. The two pairs of forms /ði:z/ and /ðis/ and /ðejz/ and /ði:z/ do,
however, need examination. In the singular of the adjective, the two forms
/ði:z/ and /ðis/ are both frequent, being used mostly in unstressed and
stressed position respectively. However, some 30 per cent of the
occurrences of each form do not follow this tendency, so it does not seem
profitable to set up a stressed: unstressed opposition, particularly since
such a division would serve no purpose in the case of /ðat/ and /ði-ki:/.
With the ‘first compounds’, the form /ði:z ji:r/ outnumbers /ðis ji:r/ in
the ratio 1 in the adjective position.
When functioning as a pronoun, /ði:z/ is rare as a simple form and
never occurs at all either within a first compound (although ‘first
compounds’ are so rare as pronouns that no generalization can usefully be
made, see Table 2) or within a ‘second compound’, where only /ðis ji:r
ji:r/, never /ði:z ji:r ji:r/, is found. Thus /ðis/ seems to be more
favoured as a pronoun, and /ði:z/ as an adjective; this, of course, is only
a tendency.
In the plural, the position is more clear-cut. The normal adjective
plurals are /ðejz/ and /ðejz ji:r/, which outnumber /ði:z/ and /ði:z ji:r/
by a large margin (see Table 2). Such cases of the latter as do occur may
perhaps be ascribed to Standard English influence, since /ði:z/ is clearly
used normally as a singular rather than a plural form. The absence of any
reflex of /ðejz/ as a plural pronoun is discussed below.
The other forms present little morphological difficulty. There is only
one occurrence of /ði-ki:/ as a pronoun, although as an adjective it almost
outnumbers /ði:z/ and /ðat/ together, so it seems to belong primarily to
the adjectival system. The normal singular pronouns are either the simple
forms or the ‘second compounds’, the ‘first compounds’ being most unusual.
In the plural of the adjective, the simple forms are much more
frequent than their equivalent ‘first compounds’, whereas in the plural of
the pronoun, there is apparently only the one form /ðej/. The status of
this form is discussed below.
The following are examples of those demonstatives which are not
further discussed below. The uses of /ðat/ as a singular adjective, of /ði-
ki:/ as a singular or plural adjective, and of all the pronouns are fully
exemplified in the syntactic section, and thus no examples are given here.
/ði:z/
I come down “here to live in this little old “street.
Well; “this year, I done a bit “lighter.
Now “this season, tis “over.
This was coming “this way.
/ðis ji:r/
There’s all this here sort of “jobs going on to “day.
I was down “there where this here “plough was up “here.
Iðejzl
These places be alright if you know where you’m “going to.
They got to pay the “wages to these people.
I do a bit of “gardening . . . and likes of all these things.
/ðej/
What makes all they “hills look so well?
Where “Jim was sent to, they two “met.
“They won’t have all they sort of people up there.
Tell “Cooper to “shift “they “stones “there.
We may now turn to the functions of those forms whose uses are
identifiably different from those of Standard English.
The most striking feature of the demonstrative system is that, in the
singular adjective system at least, there is apparently a three-term
opposition /ði:z : ðat : ði-ki:/, in contrast with the two-term system of
Standard English. It seems fair to say that the role of /ði:z/ is similar
to that of 'this' in Standard English (but see note on /ði:z ji:r/ below),
but any attempt to differentiate /ðat/ and /ði-ki:/ proves extremely
difficult. There are a number of sentences of the type:
If you was to put “that stick in across “thicky pony . . .
where the two forms seem to fill the same function. The virtual absence of
/ði-ki:/ from the pronoun system, together with the fact that /ði-ki:/ is
three times as frequent as /ðat/ as an adjective, would suggest that /ði-
ki:/ is the normal adjectival form in the dialect, and that /ðat/ has a
greater range, having a function which is basically pronominal but in
addition adjectival at times. This is further supported by the fact that
when presented with sentences of the type:
He turned that “hare “three “times and “he caught it.
the informant claimed that /ði-ki:/ would be equally acceptable and could
indicate no distinction. Thus there are pairs of sentences such as
I used to walk that there “two mile and “half.
You'd walk thicky “nine “mile.
or again
That finished “that job.
I wouldn’t have “thicky job.
There are certain cases where either one form or the other seems to be
required. In particular, /ðat/ is used when actually indicating a size with
the hands:
Go up and see the stones “that length, “that thickness.
while /ði-ki:/ is used in contrast with /t?-ðr/, where Standard English
would normally use ‘one’ or ‘the one’.
Soon as they got it “thicky hand, they’d thruck(?) it away with the
“tother.
In the adjective plural, the contrast between /ði-ki:/ and /ðej/ is
not a real one, since /ði-ki:/ is found only with numerals.
I had thicky “eighteen “bob a “week.
I expect thicky “nine was all “one “man’s sheep.
When presented with /ði-ki:/ before plural nominals, the informant
rejected them. It would therefore be preferable to redefine ‘singular’ and
‘plural’ in the dialect to account for this, rather than to consider /ði-
ki:/ as a plural form; this would accordingly neutralize in the plural any
/ði-ki:/:/ðat/ opposition which may exist in the singular.
In the pronominal system, there is only one occurrence of /ði-ki:/:
My missis bought “thicky before her “died (a radio).
It is true that most of the occurrences of /ðal/ as a pronoun do not
refer to a specific antecedent, e.g. I can’t afford to do “that, but there
are a number of cases where /ðat/ does play a role closely parallel to /ði-
ki:/ above.
As “I was passing “that, and “that was passing “me (a dog).
As there are no other examples of /ði-ki:/ as a singular pronoun,
either simply or as part of a ‘first’ or ‘second compound’, and no cases at
all in the plural, it seems fair to say that any /ðat/:/ði-ki:/ opposition
is realized only in the singular adjective, and that here too it is
difficult to see what the basis of any opposition might be. A list of
representative examples of /ðat/, /ðat ð?r/, /ði-ki:/ and /ði-ki: ð?r/ is
given below, in their function as singular adjectives, so that they can
easily be compared.
/ðat/
All they got to “do is steer that little “wheel a bit.
You’d put in “dynamite to blast that stone “off.
Us’d go “in that pub and have a pint of “beer.
/ðat ð?r/
Good as “gold, that there “thing was.
/ði-ki:/
All of us be in “thicky boat, you see.
‘Thicky “dog’, he said, ‘been there all “day?’
Stairs went up “there, like, “thicky side, “thicky end of the wall.
Thicky place would be “black with people . . .
I travelled thicky old road “four “ year . . .
What’s “thicky “little “place called, before you get up “Yelverton?
Thicky field, they’d “break it, they called it.
He was going to put me and Jan “up thicky night.
“Never been through thicky road “ since.
/ði-ki: ð?r/
Jim Connell carted home thicky there jar of “cyder same as he carted
it “up.
We got in thicky there “field . . .
The morphological status of /ði:z/ and /ðis/ as singulars, and of
/ðejz/ and /ði:z/ as plurals has already been discussed. Syntactically,
their use seems to correspond to Standard English closely, except in one
important respect: the ‘first compound’ forms are used in a way similar to
a non-standard usage which is fairly widespread, in the sense of ‘a’ or ‘a
certain’.
/ði:z ji:r/
He’d got this here “dog.
You’d put this here great “crust on top.
The ‘first compound’ is never used as an equivalent to Standard
English ‘this’, being reserved for uses of the type above, although there
is another form /ði:z . . . ji:r/, which is occasionally used where
Standard English would show ‘this’, eg Between here and this village “here
like.
In the plural, an exactly parallel syntactic division occurs between
/ðejz/ (cf Standard English ‘these’) and /ðejz ji:r/.
These here “maidens that was here . . .
I used to put them in front of these here “sheds.
They got these here “hay-turners . . .
In all the above examples, the ‘first compounds’, both singular and
plural, refer to items which have not been mentioned before, and which are
not adjacent to the speaker; they are thus referentially distinct from the
normal use of Standard English ‘this’.
Although we can fairly say that /ði:z/ and /ðejz/ are syntactically
distinct from their equivalent first compounds, what of the other adjective
compounds /ðat ð?r/, /ði-ki: ð?r/ and /ðej ð?r/? There seems to be no
syntactic division in these cases between them and their equivalent simple
forms, so it is perhaps not surprising that Table 2 shows them to be
without exception much less common than /ði:z ji:r/ and /ðejz ji:r/, which
have a distinct syntactic role. Forms such as
Us got in thicky there “field
and
do not seem any different from
Us “mowed thicky little plat . . .
He turned that “hare “three “times . . .
There is certainly no apparent correlation with any notional degree of
emphasis.
In the case of the singular pronouns, the ‘first compounds’ are
extremely rare, cf.
He done “well with that there. (/ðat ð?r/)
He went out “broad, this here what’s “dead now. (/ði:z ji:r/).
The basic opposition here is between the simple forms and the ‘second
compounds’ /ðis ji:r ji:r/ and /ðat ð?r ð?r/. Here the syntactic division
is fairly clear: the second compounds are used in certain adverbial
phrases, particularly after ‘like’, where the demonstrative refers to no
specific antecedent:
Tis getting like this here “here.
I’ve had to walk home “after that there there.
and also, with reference to a specific antecedent, when particular emphasis
is drawn to the item in question.
I’ve had the “wireless there, this here “here, for “good many years.
One of these here “crocks, something like that there “there.
In all other cases, the simple forms are used.
“This was coming “this way.
Then he did meet with “this.
That’s “one “bad “job, “that was.
/ðat/ is used particularly frequently in two phrases, ‘likes of that
and ‘and that’.
He doed a bit of “farmering and likes of “that.
I got a “jumper and that home “now.
The last question is one of the most interesting. Is there really only
one form /ðej/ functioning as a plural pronoun? At first sight, this would
Ñòðàíèöû: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
