5 - A Limited Identity

Summary

Having outlined the key theoretical constructs on which this study is based in Chapters 1–4, this chapter begins the detailed analysis of the newspaper corpus. It uses quantitative and qualitative analytical techniques to discover whether there are indeed appropriacy constraints operating on Scottish newspapers which affect where and in what quantities Scots lexis is used. If so, this would suggest that there are limitations operating on the linguistic construction of identity. In addition, it considers whether the Scots words and phrases found occur in passages of dense or thin Scottish-English, and also whether the items found tend to be non-cognate or cognate lexis. The previous chapter suggested that newspapers are expected to uphold certain standards, and hence institutional expectations may mean that the newspaper needs to distance itself from the use of Scots. Thus the extent to which Scots lexis is restricted to direct speech contexts and regular feature columns is also investigated. Status constraints mean that Scots is often thought to be preferred for use in humorous rather than serious contexts. Does the newspaper data exhibit this pattern of usage? The final section of this chapter looks for evidence of the Scottish newspapers' potential role as a force for standardisation in their spelling conventions for Scots lexis.