ABSTRACT

Queen's English (QE), a linguistic symbol of the royal or upper class, is a particular variety or an aristocratic form of English. However, QE has been dethroned by a surprising finding that it shifted phonologically towards common people's English (CE) between the 1950s-1980s, arousing a debate on its existence. Based upon Queen's Christmas Messages (1952-2018) and BNC, this study quantitatively investigated whether QE has experienced diachronic changes and drifted towards CE. Our PCA analysis shows QE's fluctuating lexical richness, increasing lexical complexity and synthetism, and steady syntactic features during the six decades. Piecewise regression and statistical results indicate 1) QE is drifting towards CE in lexical richness and complexity between the 1950s-1980s; 2) QE exhibits an interaction between a “drifting force” and a “deviating force” towards or from CE between the 1950s-1980s in syntactic features; 3) QE maintains a synthetic form distinct from the analytical one of CE over the 66 years. These phenomena are likely related to the collapsing social structure between the 1950s-1980s, identity building in Queen's early reign and age factor. This study firstly quantify the drift of QE towards CE lexically and syntactically, which may shed some light on quantitative investigation of diachronic language changes.

摘要

女王英语（QE）是皇室或上流社会的语言符号，是英语的一种特殊变体或贵族形式。然而，QE 在 1950 年代至 1980 年代期间在语音上转向普通人的英语 (CE)，这一令人惊讶的发现而被废黜，引发了对其存在的争论。基于女王的圣诞致辞 (1952-2018) 和 BNC，本研究定量调查了 QE 是否经历了历时变化并向 CE 漂移。我们的 PCA 分析显示了 QE 在这六个十年中不断波动的词汇丰富度、不断增加的词汇复杂性和综合性以及稳定的句法特征。分段回归和统计结果表明 1) QE 在 1950 年代至 1980 年代之间的词汇丰富性和复杂性正在向 CE 倾斜；2) QE 在句法特征上表现出 1950 年代至 1980 年代之间朝向或背离 CE 的“漂移力”和“偏离力”之间的相互作用；3) 66 年来，QE 保持了一种不同于 CE 的分析形式的综合形式。这些现象可能与 1950 年代至 1980 年代之间的社会结构崩溃、女王早期统治时期的身份建立和年龄因素有关。本研究首先在词汇和句法上量化了 QE 向 CE 的漂移，这可能为历时语言变化的定量研究提供一些启示。女王早期统治和年龄因素的身份建立。本研究首先在词汇和句法上量化了 QE 向 CE 的漂移，这可能为历时语言变化的定量研究提供一些启示。女王早期统治和年龄因素的身份建立。本研究首先在词汇和句法上量化了 QE 向 CE 的漂移，这可能为历时语言变化的定量研究提供一些启示。