Literary Dialect: the Study of Southern American English as Appeared in John Steinbeck’s Novels

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine Southern American English (SAE) in literature, using John Steinbeck’s three novels; In Dubious Battle, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath as the samplings, with a focus on phonology, grammar, and lexis. The checklists combined from the frameworks on Southern dialect in literary works were created to collect data of phonological features (from the eye dialect) and grammatical features. For lexical features, the concordance software AntConc was employed. The findings revealed the characteristics of Southern American English together with the use of non-standard English which non-native students can approach without having to observe in a real speech community. Furthermore, it can bring students’ attention on literary dialect, especially on its importance as a reflection of actual language.