Abstract
This thesis deals with and analyses the fictional representation of Glaswegian dialect,
and brings to bear on that central issue techniques and concepts from linguistics and
from the structure and history of -English. It also pays attention more tangentially to
ideological and cultural connotations of matters of dialect. A prominent feature of the
dissertation is a characterisation - at all relevant linguistic levels - of the linguistic
features of Glaswegian speech, and of the fictional representation of written Glaswegian
(with accompanying close analyses of representative extracts).
The detailed contents of the thesis deal with the following topics: the relation between
language varieties and their components, the different ideological evaluations of the
standard variety, the discourse dimension of spoken and written language, the
diachronic development of Standard English and Lowland Scots, a synchronic
structural description of Glaswegian (including its representation in writing in relation
to standard and Scots spelling), and a theoretical model for the analysis of written
fictional Glaswegian The source material used for exemplification and analyses is
drawn from a range of 201 century Glasgow novels and from some short stories.
There is an appendix of word lists. The thesis is also accompanied by materials
incorporated in a loose leaf folder inside the back cover. These materials constitute a
collection (for ease of reference) of all passages analysed throughout the thesis.
