Master's Theses

Department

English

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Abstract

A Kansas Glossary: A List of Words and Phrases Characteristic of Kansas Speech has a twofold purpose: the presentation of a dialect vocabulary of Kansas and the testing of the use of prose fiction in dialect lexicography. The elements of the purpose are interrelated. The glossary was compiled by adding words and phrases which were isolated and verified during the experiment with prose fiction to those vocabulary items from previously done studies of Kansas speech which were not considered standard by Webster's Third New International Dictionary. The experiment in the use of prose fiction in Kansas dialectology was undertaken because the American Dialect Society recommended the use of fiction in dialect lexicography, but the Society did not specify a method. For this purpose, fifteen works by seven Kansas fiction writers were selected. The test demonstrated that other works by Frank Harris, Margaret Hill McCarter, William Allen White, and Paul I. Wellman which deal with Kansans would merit investigation. Further, the methodology experiment showed that the use of prose fiction as a source for vocabulary items is valid when the works are examined within the frame of reference of tile author's dialect and the general principles of dialect geography. The glossary contains 744 items which it is hoped will be useful in compiling a questionnaire for any future linguistic study in Kansas.

Keywords

Vocabulary, Kansas, Linguistic atlases, English, Dictionaries, Terminology

Advisor

Dr. Samuel J. Sackett

Date of Award

Summer 1965

Document Type

Thesis - campus only access

Rights

© The Author(s)

Comments

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