By the time Alabama and Louisiana voters approved their states’ new constitutions in 1901 and 1898, respectively, the two states were far behind their Deep South peers in disfranchising African Americans. Georgia’s 1877 poll tax had functionally eliminated Black voting in that state, Mississippi created a template for constitutional disfranchisement in 1890, and South Carolina had followed that template in 1895. Each of those three states eliminated Black voting either before the peak of the “Populist Moment” in the South or (in the case of South Carolina) in the near-total absence of a Populist threat.

The Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark) are situated off the coast of Normandy (France), west of the Cotentin peninsula. A brief look at a map shows that, from a geographical point of view, they are much closer to France than to England. As the original language in these islands is a form of Norman French, they have traditionally been regarded in dialectology as a French-speaking area. However, the exclusive interest of traditional dialectology in Channel Islands French is not an adequate reflection of the current linguistic situation. Today, English is clearly the dominant language in the Channel Islands. The number of speakers of Norman French is rather small and steadily decreasing. Over the past 200 years, English has gained more and more influence and has gradually replaced the local Norman French dialects. Indeed, there are clear indications that they will become extinct in the not-too-distant future.

This chapter investigates the continuum which exists between vernacular speech and standard language and examines various issues which arise in this area. Key to the continuum of speech in any Western-style society is the notion of a supraregional variety which, on the one hand, embodies sufficient vernacular features to fulfil the identity function of language but, on the other hand, does not contain features which are stigmatised in a speech community. Supraregional varieties are dynamic entities and are thus subject to language variation and change. Such varieties are only occasionally explicitly codified. However, speakers in any speech community will be aware of stigmatised and non-stigmatised features (with regard to accepted usage in more formal situations) and can move along the continuum of relative vernacularity in given contexts.

Chapter 2 describes four regular challenges for lexicographers when they are composing their semantic definitions for individual words, and it shows how each of these challenges has led to disputed meanings in lawsuits. First, just about every word of English has more than one basic sense and disputes can center around which meaning is intended. An example is given from a patent for a dental prosthesis involving SUBSTANTIALLY. It can have a “booster” meaning or a “downtoner” meaning, and which one is selected determines whether there is patent infringement or not. Second, there is the issue of the precise extent of the meaning of a word and its permitted “vagueness.” What exactly does APPROXIMATELY (300 acres) cover in a real-estate contract? And how broadly or narrowly is the word DISEASE understood in a medical insurance contract? Third, words can be used with nonliteral and extended meanings, as in metaphors. Some lawsuits are described involving FIGHTING, CHEATING, and MURDER, where the dispute centered on whether the intended meaning was literal or extended. Fourth, how are dictionary definitions impacted by the changing technological world around us? The word TANGIBLE is discussed from a movie contract fifty years ago when the objects referred to where in plastic or paper form. Are they still TANGIBLE today when they exist on a computer screen?

For people to effectively share an environment, they usually also must effectively share knowledge about that environment. While seemingly obvious and intuitive, this insight is often overlooked in literature about governing resources as commons. Focusing on the knowledge commons associated with an environmental commons helps to illuminate a host of complex governance dilemmas. This chapter examines the interrelationship between environmental and knowledge commons, weaving together different strands of commons research and practice. Examples discussed include shared pastures, forests, road systems, computer servers, social media platforms, living rooms, and antimicrobial effectiveness/resistance.

The English language has been attested in Ireland since the late twelfth century but did not become widespread until the beginning of the seventeenth century when vigorous planting of English settlers took place. Distinct forms of Irish English began to develop which were a mixture of diverse dialectal inputs from England and transfer phenomena from Irish as the native population began to switch to the language of the colonisers. Almost as the same time as planting of English settlers started there was a movement out of Ireland, either by deportation or voluntary emigration, largely due to economic circumstances. This led to areas in overseas anglophone regions showing centres of Irish emigration, e.g. Appalachia with eighteenth-century Ulster Scots or the north-eastern coast of the USA with nineteenth-century southern Irish Catholics. At these locations the linguistic impact of Irish English was slight but traces can be found still which testify to this input.

As hip-hop grew between the 1980s and 1990s, rising from a set of small regional aesthetic and cultural practices, it slowly turned into fodder for billion-dollar businesses, broadening from music to include fashion, film, and television. This chapter explores the configuration of white business interests, the creativity of working-class communities of color, and the investments of avant-garde artists who created hip-hop as a commercial art form. These circumstances extended what was initially a regional set of expressions and practices of youth subcultures into a globally celebrated aesthetic. Cinema was central in the transitioning of street art forms like graffiti and vernacular dance into a set of codes and practices shared by practitioners around the world.

The ecological paradigm in stormwater management mimics natural hydrology by diverting stormwater into well-designed green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) practices that also enhance biodiversity and community resilience. The challenge for municipalities is to devise institutions to encourage the adoption of GSI. Detroit, Michigan, imposed a drainage charge on all city property owners based on the extent of impervious areas. Property owners can reduce the drainage charge by using GSI. This analysis situates an economic model within the Governing Knowledge Commons (GKC) framework. The team evaluated fourteen properties where the owner installed GSI. Properties with positive net present values for their GSI tended to be less complicated and offered more cobenefits. Information gathered from broader conversations suggests that many property owners did not know how to reduce their drainage charges with GSI practices. Therefore, the drainage charge’s price signal may not work as intended. The GKC institutional analysis showed that noneconomic factors, such as prosocial values or corporate policy, also influence GSI adoption. Sharing information may encourage others to adopt GSI practices. Nongovernmental organizations can act as information brokers to share knowledge that might otherwise be proprietary or hard to find. Highly visible projects may educate property owners about GSI practices.