Sali A. Tagliamonte (faculty) and Jennifer Smith (University of Glasgow) have a new paper in Language Variation and Change, 33(1): "Obviously undergoing change: Adverbs of evidentiality across time and space."
Increasingly globalized communication networks in the modern world may influence traditional patterns of linguistic change: in contrast to an orderly sequential pathway of change, more recently a number of 'mega trends' have been identified, which accelerate simultaneously in time and space. The rise of obviously within the cohort of adverbs of evidentiality - naturally, evidently, clearly, and of course - may be one such trend. To examine this possibility, we conduct a large-scale sociolinguistic analysis of circa 12,000 adverbs of evidentiality across over thirty communities in the UK and Canada. The results reveal parallel development across time and space: obviously advances rapidly among individuals born in the 1960s in both countries. The rise of obviously illustrates key attributes that are beginning to emerge from other rapidly innovating features: 'off the shelf' changes that (1) are easily borrowed, (2) receptive to global trends, but (3) exhibit parallel patterns as the change progresses.
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