Welsh–English social-media lexicon in comparative context: adjectives of positive evaluation and terms of address

Book section : Chapter

This chapter uses social-media data to identify and map lexical items that are particularly characteristic of English as used in Wales. Using a 36 m-word corpus of Twitter posts localized to Wales and comparator corpora from the north and south of England, it presents two case studies investigating and mapping the distribution of adjectives of positive evaluation and of terms of address. The results allow us to see fine-grained details of contemporary usage patterns that can be set in a historical perspective and help us to establish a narrative for the emergence of distinctive Welsh-English lexicon. The result highlights both the historical processes that have led to the enregisterment of conservative forms once used in English more widely as distinctively Welsh and the significant degree of diversity within English in Wales.

Authors: Willis, D

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Routledge
• Host title: Sociolinguistic Approaches to Lexical Variation in English
• Pages: 58-84
• Chapter number: 4
• Series: Routledge Studies in Sociolinguistics
• Place of publication: New York
• Publication date: 2025-11-27
• Edition: 1
• DOI: 10.4324/9781003510581-5
• EISBN: 9781003510581
• ISBN: 9781032835259
• Language: English
• Keywords: lexical variation; Welsh English; sociolinguistics; terms of address
• Subtype: Chapter