Subsystem Features Of AE (Australian English) - What features differentiate it from other Englishes

Lexical Features

• Borrowings - migrant (ethnolects) and Aboriginal

• Swear words and dysphemisms (You’re a rat, you are a nasty bloke)

• Slang and creative word formation (for covert prestige - to enhance in-group membership)

Key characteristic

Australian English has a more descriptivist attitude (doesn’t always adhere to strict linguistic norms - is flexible with language)

The variety is ever-changing, mirroring its “laid back” and “relaxed” characteristics, typically associated with Australians

Adam Wording

Australians’ descriptivist approach to language use (take no heed in adhering to rigid linguistic norms, but instead being flexible with language) strongly mirrors the ‘laid-back’ and ‘relaxed’ characteristics typically associated with the Australian identity.

Morphological Changes

Hypocoristic suffixation

Nicknames

• Shortenings (use some hand ‘sany’ in the ‘arvo’ - note the ‘o’ being a diminutive)

• Blends (Scomo)

• Contractions (can’t)

• Initialism - DNA

• Acronym - ANZAC, ASIO

• Hyphenation (abso-bloody-lutely, compounding)

Examples Of Hypocristic Suffixation

• Examples of suffixes:

  • -ie - conveys smallness (mozzie)

  • -o - conveys toughness (smoko)

  • -s/z - conveys familiarity

  • ‘Albo’ for Albanese

There are many more - if it looks like a hypocristic suffixation usage, then it probably is

Nicknames - Strongly AE related (use of hypocristic suffixation)

• Australian English is famous for using diminutives with endings like -o, -ie/-y:

  • John → Johnno

  • Sharon → Shazza

  • Barbecue → Barbie

  • Breakfast → brekky

• This pattern is very strongly associated with AE and contributes to its identity.

A nickname shows affection, and also suggests that the friends obviously know each other and are comfortable with their real names not being used. Being called with a nickname makes someone feel special, liked by a certain individual, hence attending to their positive face needs.

Why are such morphological changes done

This all reflects Australian identity, reflects being laid-back and playful with language, [linguistic innovation] rebellious towards rigid linguistic standards and norms - a very Aussie thing to do.

Syntactic Features (Pronouns) - Unclear

Pronouns - “youse” (to convey 2nd person plural)

Discourse Features (Unique to AE)

• Downgraders e.g ‘I guess’, ‘kinda’ - mirrors value of understatement and humbleness

• Indirect Speech (the lack of imperatives) - ‘its a bit cold in there’ (imply to close door)

• Interrogative tags - aye?, eh?, huh?, yeah?

Why are the discourse features used

Pertains to the values of Australian society

Table outline