De-isolation and identity in Newfoundland

Muhic, Ismar (2021) De-isolation and identity in Newfoundland. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This thesis investigates two linguistic variables prone to change in the English language, stative possession and deontic modality. By investigating the change in progress in two Newfoundland communities, this thesis will explore the relationship between language and identity. Newfoundland has undergone a deisolation process over the course of the past century and has seen great societal changes with a lot of money and power from the “outside” having played a large role in this transformation. This thesis will investigate how this societal change might have attested itself in language. The Uniformitarian Principle assumes that the same processes that operate now have operated in the past, but it would be foolish to assume that this principle extends to a social factor such as prestige. This thesis will investigate what counts as prestigious in Newfoundland and how this is not necessarily what we would assume would be prestigious, i.e. the high linguistic variant.

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