Where is the Surfer? Where is the Hipster?: Spatial Relations in Southern Californian English vs. Pacific Northwestern English

Looking at linguistic research on American English dialects there is no ignoring that the West is an under-researched region. In an effort to compensate for the lack of research, this pilot-sized empirical study will analyse semantic differences using figure-ground relations from Southern Californian English and Pacific Northwestern English. A figure-ground (FG) relation is where one entity, the figure, is being located in relation to another entity, the ground (e.g., ‘the apple is on the table’, ‘apple’ is the figure being located in relation to table, the ground) (Bowerman and Pederson, 1992). FG relations have been discussed extensively across languages, but not across dialects. Following the cross-linguistic approaches of Levinson and Meira (2003), this study uses FG relations to further the distinction between these two English dialects. The project used the BowPed (Bowerman and Pederson, 1992) pictures series that was created to elicit FG relation responses to gather data. Responses were collected from 10 speakers, five born and raised in the Los Angeles area, and five in the Seattle area. The results found 10 instances of split variation between the two regional dialects, falling on the locative used in the FG relations (e.g., ‘the boat is in the water’ vs. ‘the boat is on the water’). The 10 differing locatives make an important addition to the discussion of West Coast English and pose the need for more research.