Categories of grammar and categories of speech
-
Shana Poplack
Abstract
This chapter tracks the response to morphosyntactic variability in a massive corpus of prescriptive grammars of French dating from the 16th century through the present, and relates it to current mainstream approaches. Analysis shows that although variant forms have been recognized since the earliest times, only rarely have they been acknowledged as variant expressions of the same meaning or function. Instead three major strategies are marshaled to factor variability out. Their aim is not to prescribe or even describe, but simply to associate each form with a dedicated context of occurrence, in keeping with the dictates of the traditional grammatical categories from which they derive. This state of affairs is encapsulated in the Doctrine of Form-Function Symmetry. Although it fails to account for the data of spontaneous speech (which reveals asymmetry in the form of robust variability subject to regular conditioning instead), it continues to mold both prescriptive and formal linguistic treatments of variability, contributing to the growing gulf between prescription, description, and actual usage.
Abstract
This chapter tracks the response to morphosyntactic variability in a massive corpus of prescriptive grammars of French dating from the 16th century through the present, and relates it to current mainstream approaches. Analysis shows that although variant forms have been recognized since the earliest times, only rarely have they been acknowledged as variant expressions of the same meaning or function. Instead three major strategies are marshaled to factor variability out. Their aim is not to prescribe or even describe, but simply to associate each form with a dedicated context of occurrence, in keeping with the dictates of the traditional grammatical categories from which they derive. This state of affairs is encapsulated in the Doctrine of Form-Function Symmetry. Although it fails to account for the data of spontaneous speech (which reveals asymmetry in the form of robust variability subject to regular conditioning instead), it continues to mold both prescriptive and formal linguistic treatments of variability, contributing to the growing gulf between prescription, description, and actual usage.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- First principles in linguistic inquiry 1
- Categories of grammar and categories of speech 7
- Letter from Ricardo Otheguy to Shana Poplack 35
- Variable grammars 45
- Discovering structure 67
- The justification of grammatical categories 91
- Spooky grammatical effects 133
- Ditransitives and the English System of Degree of Control 157
- LatinUs* and linguistics 189
- Reviving the unicorn 209
- Bilingual acquisition 245
- An incomplete disquisition against ‘incomplete acquisition’ 269
- Index 291
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- First principles in linguistic inquiry 1
- Categories of grammar and categories of speech 7
- Letter from Ricardo Otheguy to Shana Poplack 35
- Variable grammars 45
- Discovering structure 67
- The justification of grammatical categories 91
- Spooky grammatical effects 133
- Ditransitives and the English System of Degree of Control 157
- LatinUs* and linguistics 189
- Reviving the unicorn 209
- Bilingual acquisition 245
- An incomplete disquisition against ‘incomplete acquisition’ 269
- Index 291
