Social stereotypes,personality traits and regional perception displaced: Attitudes towards the ‘new’ quotatives in the U.K.1

This article investigates the attitudes of British respondents towards the quotatives be like and go. The results of a matched guise test and a social attitudes survey are presented and compared with the findings of studies on be like and go‐perception in the U.S. It is found that the perceptual load of the two quotatives on both sides of the Atlantic is similar in some respects and different in others. This effectively means that, in cases of borrowing, the stereotypes attached to linguistic items are not simply taken over along with the surface item. Rather, the adoption of global resources is a more agentive process, whereby attitudes are re‐evaluated and re‐created by speakers of the borrowing variety. It is suggested that attitudinal information presents an important backdrop to distributional studies in cases of global language trends.     

The Sociolinguistic Distribution of and Attitudes Toward Focuser like and Quotative like

This paper accomplishes three tasks: it considers the actual age and gender distribution of like in a corpus of informal U.S. English, compares the findings of that study with the perceived age and gender distribution as determined by a questionnaire study and a matched-guise study, and analyzes specific sociolinguistic stereotypes associated with this usage. It is found that younger people use both kinds of like more often than older people do, and that men and women use it approximately equally often. The perceived age and gender distribution is quite different, however; young women are perceived as using like most often. Additionally, informants guess the age of like guises as younger than they do the age of non-like guises in a matched-guise study, and also rate like guises more positively in terms of solidarity-based criteria, but less positively in terms of status-based criteria.     

Be like et al. beyond America: The quotative system in British and Canadian youth

In this paper we study the quotative system of contemporary British and Canadian youth. Multivariate analysis of nearly 1300 quotative verbs demonstrates that the innovative form belike is productive in both Canada and Britain. Traditional quotatives such as say, go,think, are used according to somewhat different patterns in the two corpora. We suggest that this is the result of differing narrative styles across varieties. However, the linguistic trajectory of the innovative form belike is remarkably parallel, not only across the British and Canadian corpora, but is also comparable with previous reports of this form in the United States. This finding provides evidence for a systematic global diffusion of belike across geographically separated speech communities and calls for further research into the social and linguistic mechanisms underlying such internationally circumscribed linguistic change.     

Localized globalization: A multi‐local,multivariate investigation of quotative be like1

We conduct a multi‐local, multivariate analysis of be like in comparable datasets from three discontinuous geographic settings (the U.S.A., England, and New Zealand). Previously, comparative cross‐variety analysis of this form has been fundamentally hampered by key methodological differences. A methodologically coherent analysis reveals that the ‘classic factors’ ( Tagliamonte and D’Arcy 2007 : 203) grammatical person and content of the quote, as well as the effect of mimesis, are transferred to the receptor variety, albeit with varying degrees of completeness. Other conditioning factors are particularized to the local system into which be like is adopted, which leads us to define its spread as a case of weak transfer. We suggest that there are at least two explanations for this finding: (1) global innovations must be considered in light of the local systems into which they are adopted; and (2) the form and amount of contact must be correlated with respect to the knowledge transfer they allow.     

Second‐Generation Decline or Advantage? Latino Assimilation in the Aftermath of the Great Recession

This article addresses the debate on second‐generation advantage and decline among Latinos by providing a post‐recession snapshot based on geocoded data from the Current Population Survey (2008–2012). It reports three findings. First, second‐generation Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are at a disadvantage, whereas other Latinos have achieved parity with native majority peers. Second, second‐generation Latinos report significant progress compared to their parents and there is no evidence of a second‐generation decline. Third, there is no difference in outcomes among second‐generation Mexicans by immigrant destination type. Overall, these analyses yield an optimistic assessment of second‐generation progress, while noting potential stagnation among third‐ and higher‐generation Mexicans.     

The mediated innovation model: A framework for researching media influence in language change

Linguistic innovations that arise contemporaneously in highly distant locations, such as quotative be like, have been termed ‘global linguistic variants’. This is not necessarily to suggest fully global usage, but to invoke more general themes of globalisation vis‐à‐vis space and time. This research area has grown steadily in the last twenty years, and by asserting a role for mass media, researchers have departed intrepidly from sociolinguistic convention. Yet they have largely relied on quite conventional sociolinguistic methodologies, only inferring media influence post hoc. This methodological conservatism has been overcome recently, but uncertainty remains about the overall shape of the new epistemological landscape. In this paper, I review existing research on global variants, and propose an epistemological model for researching media influence in language change: the mediated innovation model. I also analyse the way arguments are constructed in existing research, including the use of rhetorical devices to plug empirical gaps – a worthy sociolinguistic topic in its own right.     

Synchronic and diachronic variation in the use of spatial frames of reference: An analysis of Japanese route instruction

By focusing on everyday use of spatial ‘frames of reference’ (FOR) in route instruction, we propose some possible explanations for the seemingly contradictory trends observed in FOR‐based and deixis‐based spatial expressions in Japanese. We examined the data obtained in a series of longitudinal surveys conducted in Japan over 50 years (1953, 1972 and 2008). Our GoldVarb analysis confirmed what is called a ‘retrograde’ lifespan change. This indicates that, first, synchronically, the preference for External FOR (that is, based on North‐South‐East‐West) increases as community members grow older. This means they shift toward the local norm through ‘age‐grading’. Secondly, diachronically, the preference for Internal FOR (based on Right‐Left‐Front‐Back) has gradually increased over the past century. There is, therefore, a ‘generational change’ motivated by the linguistic marketplace. In contrast, as a community‐wide preference for Internal FOR expressions prevails, there is an accompanying gradual decrease in the use of deictic expressions such as ‘here/there/over there’. This indicates a partially complementary relationship between deixis and Internal FOR.     

HAS PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT IMPROVED SINCE 1984?

The growth rate of GDP stabilized around 1984, and improvements in production management have been cited as a possible cause. This article examines this rationale with two‐digit SIC manufacturing data. The empirical questions are whether there is evidence of structural change in industry output around 1984 and, if so, did output track demand more closely following the change? The results indicate that only two industries exhibited structural change in the 1982–86 period. There is evidence that output has tracked demand more closely in recent years, but this is because demand shocks have become less persistent. (JEL C15, D21, E22)     

Changing Sibship Size and Educational Progress During Childhood: Evidence From the Philippines

This paper investigates the association between changes in coresident sibship size and children's educational progress in the Philippines. When conceptualized at the household level, sibship size is a dynamic aspect of the family context with potentially important implications for resources needed to support a child's education. Individual‐level change models suggested that adding younger siblings in early childhood (from birth to age 9) and losing both younger and older siblings later in childhood (from age 9 to 19) were associated with less educational progress by the focal child between ages 9 and 19. These effects were additive and indicated the importance of assessing both type of change and timing in evaluating the relationship between coresident sibship size and educational progress during childhood.     

ROUTINIZATION‐BIASED TECHNICAL CHANGE AND GLOBALIZATION: UNDERSTANDING LABOR MARKET POLARIZATION

There is now ample evidence that jobs and wages have been polarizing at the extremes of the skill distribution since the early 1990s. Possible explanations include, among others, routinization‐biased technical change (technical progress substituting more easily for labor in performing routine rather than nonroutine tasks) and globalization (more specifically, offshore outsourcing by multinational firms). In this article, we develop a unified theoretical general equilibrium model and examine the implications of each competing hypotheses for labor market polarization. (JEL J21, J23, J24, F66)     

Think really different: Continuity and specialization in the English dual form adverbs

This paper analyses variation between ‐ly and ‐ø in English dual form adverbs by examining conversational data from York, U.K. Using multivariate analysis and the comparative method we assess the constraint ranking, significance and relative importance of external factors (age, sex, education level) and internal factors (lexical identity, function and meaning). The results show that ‐ly is dominant and has increased dramatically in apparent time. However, cross‐tabulations with individual lexical items reveal that this correlation with speaker age is restricted to a single item–really. In conjunction with evidence from the history of English, we suggest that this does not reflect ongoing developments in English adverb formation, but is the result of continuous renewal in the encoding of ‘intensity’. In contrast, separate analysis of the other adverbs shows that variation between ‐ly and zero is retained in part as a socio‐symbolic resource, in particular for marking less educated male speech. Underlying this social meaning however, is a linguistic constraint which operates across all speakers. The zero adverb encodes concrete, objective meaning–a tendency which can be traced back 650 years or more. This provides yet another example of the interface between social and historical developments in language variation and change.     

Girlz II women: Age‐grading,language change and stylistic variation

Informed by abstract models of language change or stability over time, we present a longitudinal study of two African American females, first interviewed as teenagers, and re‐recorded twenty years later. As teenagers, they used morpho‐syntactic features of AAVE voraciously. But as working adults, these women distance themselves from their teenage activities and social networks, and display a considerably reduced vernacular usage that accords with their articulated concern to get ahead. The diachronic interpretation that best characterizes their transformation is age‐grading rather than generational change, since change at the individual level is accompanied by stability at the community level. The picture is complicated by intermediate recordings showing that one of the speakers is a stylistic chameleon, capable since her teenage years of varying copula absence rates depending on addressee, topic, and projected persona. But the age‐grading interpretation of change at the individual level remains valid based on the evidence of her reduced use of habitual be2, and third singular present tense –s absence. The case highlights the importance of paying more attention to stylistic variation and including more than two time points in sociolinguistic studies of change in real and apparent time.     

Welfare Reform and Teenage Pregnancy,Childbirth, and School Dropout

This study estimates the effect of welfare reform on adolescent behaviors using a difference‐in‐differences approach. After defining the prereform and reform cohorts and considering the life course development of adolescent behavior by following each cohort from age 14 to age 16, we compare the welfare‐target and nontarget populations in the two cohorts. The difference‐in‐differences estimates are obtained using an event history model. Our analysis suggests that welfare reform has not reduced teenage fertility and school dropout. We find modest evidence that welfare reform is associated with higher risk of teenage births for girls in welfare families and higher risk of school dropout for girls in poor families. A combination of a difference‐in‐differences approach and a life course perspective can be a useful way to delineate the effect of societal‐level change on family phenomena.     

Self Processes in Adolescent Depression: The Role of Self‐Worth Contingencies

Although biased self‐evaluation is a component of several disorders, most measures focus on the content of self‐concepts or level of self‐worth rather than the process by which self‐worth is maintained. This longitudinal study examines the distinctive role of self‐worth contingencies—the extent to which adolescents link self‐worth to external feedback and success in four domains (social, academic, activities, and appearance) in the development of depressive symptoms among a sample of 110 adolescents (age mean=13.62, SD=.52; 58.2% girls). Contingencies predicted change in depressive symptoms over time, but depressive symptoms did not predict change in contingencies over time. This pattern did not hold for the association between self‐worth and depression. Findings provide support for contingencies as a predictor, rather than a symptom, of depressive symptoms among adolescents. Evaluation of contingencies as a diathesis revealed an interaction effect for the social, but not academic domain. The findings have implications self‐worth contingencies as an important cognitive vulnerability to depressive symptoms during adolescence.     

The Impact of Behavioral Couple Therapy on Attachment in Distressed Couples

Emotion‐focused therapy (EFT; Greenberg & Johnson, 1988 Emotionally focused therapy for couples. New York: Guilford Press) is anchored in attachment theory (Johnson, 2003 Attachment processes in couples and families. New York: Guilford) and considers change in attachment schemas essential in the process of improving satisfaction in relationships (Johnson, 1999, Research and couples therapy: Where do we go from here? American Family Therapy Academy Newsletter). However, there are little data on how measures of attachment change over the course of EFT or any other couple therapy. The current study examines whether increases in attachment security predict improvements in marital satisfaction during behavioral couple therapy, which would suggest that change in attachment style is a key process variable even for a non‐attachment‐focused treatment. Multilevel models of data from 134 couples participating in a randomized clinical trial of integrative behavioral couple therapy and traditional behavioral couple therapy (Christensen et al. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72, 2004, 176) indicate that although there is a trend for early change in attachment‐related anxiety and avoidance to predict later change in marital satisfaction, early change in marital satisfaction strongly predicts change in attachment‐related anxiety through the end of treatment and 2‐year follow‐up. These findings suggest that changes in satisfaction may lead to changes in attachment rather than the reverse and that change in attachment may not be the mechanism of change in all efficacious couple therapy.     

THE POWER OF THE LITTLE BLUE PILL: INNOVATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF LIFESTYLE DRUGS IN AN AGING POPULATION

The launch of Viagra in April 1998 led to a historically unprecedented high usage of erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs. We test whether Viagra's introduction significantly influenced outcomes for its target population such as sexually transmitted disease (STD) rates of older men, as well as its nontarget populations, such as divorces, natality, the distribution of the age spread within couples, female STDs, and sexual assault rates. We find causal evidence that Viagra's introduction increased gonorrhea rates in older men by 15%–28%. We find no significant evidence of any effects on other variables. We take this as evidence that this lifestyle drug causes significant changes in choices only which affect short‐term outcomes, while long‐term planned decisions are unaffected. Overall, we find that the welfare impacts of Viagra with respect to our outcomes of interest are positive and large. (JEL I1, J1, O33)     

Early Theory of Mind Competencies: Do Infants Understand Others’ Beliefs?

Recent studies suggest that even infants attend to others’ beliefs in order to make sense of their behavior. To warrant the assumption of early belief understanding, corresponding competences need to be demonstrated in a variety of different belief‐inducing situations. The present study provides corresponding evidence, using a completely nonverbal object‐transfer task based on the general violation‐of‐expectation paradigm. A total of n = 36 infants (15‐month‐olds) participated in one of three conditions. Infants saw an actor who either observed an object’s location change, did not observe it, or performed the location change manually without seeing it (i.e., variations in the actor’s information access). Results are in accordance with the assumption that 15‐month‐old infants master different belief‐inducing situations in a highly flexible way, accepting visual as well as manual information access as a proper basis for belief induction.     

THE EFFECT OF INSURANCE COVERAGE ON PREVENTIVE CARE

Despite the growth in health insurance products that differentially cover preventive care and nonpreventive care, little is known about how preventive care utilization responds to targeted changes in coverage. Using administrative data from a large company, this paper examines the implementation of an insurance benefit design which differentially increased the price of nonpreventive care while decreasing the price of prevention. Leveraging a difference‐in‐differences research strategy, we find that preventive care utilization did not increase and even declined due to the differential price change. This evidence indicates a meaningful negative cross‐price effect, suggesting that nonpreventive care and preventive care are complements. (JEL I13, I11)