- 418 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
Describing and Modeling Variation in Grammar
About this book
While variation within individual languages has traditionally been focused upon in sociolinguistics, its relevance for grammatical theory has only recently been acknowledged. On the methodological side, there is an ongoing competition between large-scale statistical analyses and investigations that rely more heavily on introspection and elicited grammaticality judgements.
The aim of this volume is to bridge the 'cultural gap' between empirical-variationist and formal-theoretical approaches in linguistics. The volume offers case studies that seek to combine corpus-based and competence-based approaches to the description of variation. In doing so, it opens up new avenues for locating and analyzing variability, both at the level of the individual speaker and between speakers of different dialects and generations. The contributions document the plurality of current research into models of grammatical competence that live up to the challenge of variationist data. More specifically, parameter-based (e.g. Minimalist), constraint-based (e.g. Optimality Theoretic), and usage-based (e.g. Construction Grammar) approaches to variation are discussed.
The volume therefore is of interest to a broad public within linguistics, including syntacticians of different theoretical persuasion, morphologists and sociolinguists. While a majority of contributions addresses facets of variation in English and German, the volume also includes variationist studies written by specialists of French, Dutch, Icelandic, and Uralic.
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Table of contents
- Frontmatter
- Table of contents
- Introduction
- Methodological considerations on grammar variation. The right periphery as an OV/VO deciding parameter more so than the left periphery: Gradience in the verb cluster
- Variation as lexical choice: have, got and the expression of possession
- Variation in Icelandic morphosyntax
- The predicative as a source of grammatical variation
- Morphological variation:A declarative approach
- Different notions of variation and their reflexes in Swiss German relativization
- From documentation to grammatical description: Prepositional phrases in Ruhrdeutsch
- Can we factor out free choice?
- Empirical syntax: Idiolectal variability in two- and three-verb clusters in regional standard Dutch and Dutch dialects
- Towards a multivariate model of grammar: The case of word order variation in Dutch clause final verb clusters
- Synchronic variation in diachronic perspective: Question formation in Québec French
- Agreement in English dialects
- Semi-modal variation
- Variation in Komi object marking
- How lexicalization reflected in hyphenation affects variation and word-formation
- Variation in German adjective inflection: A corpus study
- Backmatter