5 Variation and the English participle/preterite relation
-
Daniel Duncan
Abstract
This chapter demonstrates that close attention to variability and the variants that surface can assist us in the formal analysis of natural language. I take as a case study the relation between the English (past) participle and preterite, which display variable syncretism between the categories. In Tyneside English, variable syncretism is robust in the participle, but lexically and phonotactically restricted in the preterite. I argue that the variation on display is most efficiently generated if the participle and preterite are related via overlapping decomposition: the participle shares a feature with the bare verb and a feature with the preterite, but the bare verb and preterite do not share features.
Abstract
This chapter demonstrates that close attention to variability and the variants that surface can assist us in the formal analysis of natural language. I take as a case study the relation between the English (past) participle and preterite, which display variable syncretism between the categories. In Tyneside English, variable syncretism is robust in the participle, but lexically and phonotactically restricted in the preterite. I argue that the variation on display is most efficiently generated if the participle and preterite are related via overlapping decomposition: the participle shares a feature with the bare verb and a feature with the preterite, but the bare verb and preterite do not share features.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
-
Part 1: Sociosyntactic theory
- 1 Introduction 1
- 2 Sociosyntax and the weight of the linguistic within sociolinguistics 25
- 3 Spelling out grammatical variation 59
-
Part 2: Sociosyntactic evidence
- 4 Comparative relativizers in American English: A puzzle from the margins of like 97
- 5 Variation and the English participle/preterite relation 125
- 6 Constructing syntactic dialect maps of American English 163
-
Part 3: Sociosyntactic approaches
- 7 “People widnae understand that, wint they no?”: Negative anchor tag questions in northern British Englishes 193
- 8 A snapshot of the emerging because-X construction 227
- 9 Polish newcomers acquiring questions and questioning in a local dialect 257
- Index
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
-
Part 1: Sociosyntactic theory
- 1 Introduction 1
- 2 Sociosyntax and the weight of the linguistic within sociolinguistics 25
- 3 Spelling out grammatical variation 59
-
Part 2: Sociosyntactic evidence
- 4 Comparative relativizers in American English: A puzzle from the margins of like 97
- 5 Variation and the English participle/preterite relation 125
- 6 Constructing syntactic dialect maps of American English 163
-
Part 3: Sociosyntactic approaches
- 7 “People widnae understand that, wint they no?”: Negative anchor tag questions in northern British Englishes 193
- 8 A snapshot of the emerging because-X construction 227
- 9 Polish newcomers acquiring questions and questioning in a local dialect 257
- Index
