Discourse Quotatives in Australian English: Adolescents Performing Voices

This paper examines the discourse quotatives of Australian English (AE) found in sociolinguistic interviews with adolescents. The investigation focuses on a description of the types and linguistic conditioning of the discourse quotatives and a documentation of the discourse meanings and contexts of their realization. Results indicate that the innovation be + like is located in the discourse quotative system of AE but faces opposition from go, say and the null/zero (Mathis & Yule 1994) form. A comparative analysis of AE with North American, Canadian and British English shows that go and null/zero discourse quotatives are prominent in the data, realized with minimal tense variation, i.e. the Historical Present (HP) dominates. Further, the trajectory of be + like in the AE data confounds the typical accessibility pattern for grammatical person. The form has a relatively limited distribution but appears to be grammaticalized for the third person. Analysis of the discourse context highlights the saliency of oppositional experiences, i.e. 'me and them' tales including voices expressing solidarity with the teller's position. The HP successfully captures both meanings—the enduring ongoing voices of 'others' and the chorus of support from their peers. These meanings effectively exclude the innovation be + like. The AE adolescents appear to be embracing the be + like innovation but its implementation in the system is constrained by the discourse role of the voices, expression of solidarity and the continuing 'other', and the propinquity of null/zero forms.