Aye, I goes: Non-standard forms of English in modern Scottish literature as a method of indicating Scots

Abstract

This research was conducted to gain insight into the methods used by authors of modern Scottish literature to indicate Scots. By examining the use of non-standard forms of English in the fields of vocabulary and lexicon, syntax and morphology, and orthographic representation of pronunciation, it became clear that the authors of Morvern Callar, How Late it Was, How Late, and Trainspotting used non-standard forms of English in these three fields to a various degree, with Morvern Callar containing the smallest number of non-standard forms, and Trainspotting containing the largest number of non-standard forms. The non-standard forms were not only used to indicate Scots, but also to indicate casual speech.