Warren Maguire - NESPS
	The precise geolinguistic and sociolinguistic patterning of many phonological and (morpho-)syntactic features of vernacular UK English is not known. Practically all of the work which has been carried out on vernacular variants deals with only one local variety and investigates features which are either phonological or (morpho-) syntactic. To date, apart from Cheshire, Kerswill and Williams' work (2005), there has been no systematic attempt to compare the (socio)linguistic reality of both phonological and syntactic variables, and so we do not know whether they are indeed comparable, linguistically, socially or geographically. The Survey of English Dialects and the Linguistic Survey of Scotland give some overview of certain phonological and (morpho-)syntactic features, but they focused primarily on lexical dialectology and on the most traditional forms of speech, and were carried out many decades ago. This project aims to be the first step in filling key gaps in our knowledge of the coherence of dialect syntax and phonology. It is self-contained and will produce results of interest in their own right, and, at the same time, will lay the groundwork for a four-year research project: the production of a Linguistic Atlas of Northern English and Scots (LANES). NESPS focuses on two linguistic features, one phonological and one (morpho-)syntactic, sampled at a single locality in Scotland (Hawick) and another in North-East England (Newcastle). Fieldworkers have interviewed 8 speakers at each locality and have tested the patterning of linguistic features which have been reported in previous work but which are not fully understood linguistically, socially or geographically within these regions, namely, the 'T-to-R rule' and the 'Northern Subject Rule' (NSR). This project is funded by the British Academy (principal investigator Patrick Honeybone, co-investigators Warren Maguire and Isabelle Buchstaller).
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