Becky Childs
James Madison University, English, Faculty Member
- Coastal Carolina University, English, Faculty Memberadd
- Sociolinguistics, Language Variation and Change, Research Methodology, English language and linguistics, Anthropological Linguistics (Languages And Linguistics), Language and Gender, and 17 moreAppalachian Studies, Dialects of English, Linguistics, Ethnographic Studies, Fieldwork in linguistics, Language in Society, Language and Identity, American South, Sociophonetics, Languages and Linguistics, English, Difference Of Lexical Items, Education, Social Sciences, Discourse Analysis, Newfoundland English, and Newfoundland and Labradoredit
- Becky Childs is Professor of English and Academic Unit Head of the Department of English at James Madison University.... moreBecky Childs is Professor of English and Academic Unit Head of the Department of English at James Madison University. Dr. Childs' research focuses on language variation and change in English looking closely at phonetic and phonological change. She has worked on English in Appalachia, the Bahamas, Newfoundland, the Southern United States, and on African American English.edit
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Research Interests:
The field of dialectology, the study of the language of an area or group of people, has a long tradition within linguistics. From the earliest dialect studies, a focus on rigorous methodological practices has been an ever-present... more
The field of dialectology, the study of the language of an area or group of people, has a long tradition within linguistics. From the earliest dialect studies, a focus on rigorous methodological practices has been an ever-present component of this discipline. Traditional methodologies can be seen in the work of the early dialect atlases, which relied heavily on mail questionnaires or fieldworkers that would chronicle the pronunciation, grammatical features, and lexicon of residents of particular regions. More recent technological innovations, such as GIS and online survey methods and applications, have brought multidisciplinary approaches to the study of dialects, as well as allowing for broader and more robust studies of geographic areas and social groups.The influence and interface of dialectology on various linguistic disciplines is noteworthy. Dialectological methods have most commonly been utilized in historical linguistics, sociolinguistics/language variation and change, and l...
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Our findings indicate that urbanization forefronts language stereotypes. The totemic status of these variables interacts with speaker consciousness and identity to produce new (and still emerging) constraints on their use. Although we do... more
Our findings indicate that urbanization forefronts language stereotypes. The totemic status of these variables interacts with speaker consciousness and identity to produce new (and still emerging) constraints on their use. Although we do see a predictable pattern of dissipation for both variables from older to younger age groups, rates of decline and constraints (especially lexical effects) are distinct for each
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The Atlas of North American English (ANAE) is a remarkable achievement and the most important work in American linguistic geography ever published. ANAE is a stunningly beautiful and very large book. Every image is hand-somely colored and... more
The Atlas of North American English (ANAE) is a remarkable achievement and the most important work in American linguistic geography ever published. ANAE is a stunningly beautiful and very large book. Every image is hand-somely colored and thoughtfully laid out. Historically, ...
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Research Interests:
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The centralization of the low upgliding diphthong (typically called Canadian Raising, here just Raising), is frequently cited as an example of phonological opacity. Conditioned by a following voiceless segment, Raising continues to apply... more
The centralization of the low upgliding diphthong (typically called Canadian Raising, here just Raising), is frequently cited as an example of phonological opacity. Conditioned by a following voiceless segment, Raising continues to apply when an underlying unstressed/t/is flapped on the surface. Dialects which have both Raising and Flapping, then, maintain the distinction between “writer” and” rider” in the quality of the vowel, rather than the voicing of the stop.
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In this paper, we examine the identities of eight women who share similar demographic profiles but exhibit different language practices. These middle-aged and older women belong to two social groups which, we argue, constitute two... more
In this paper, we examine the identities of eight women who share similar demographic profiles but exhibit different language practices. These middle-aged and older women belong to two social groups which, we argue, constitute two communities of practice within a small black Appalachian community in the Southern United States. From interview data, we analyze six diagnostic sociolinguistic variables (third singular-s absence, copula absence, rhoticity, consonant cluster reduction, habitual be) and also examine ...