6 Constructing syntactic dialect maps of American English
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Jim Wood
Abstract
I present a novel (pilot) approach to mapping regional dialects in American English using data collected by the Yale Grammatical Diversity Project. The dataset analyzed consists of acceptability judgment surveys administered online. I use interpolation and tessellation in ArcGIS to project a uniform geographic set of data points, and then the Gabmap clustering tool to identify broader dialect regions. The results correspond closely to traditional dialect boundaries, which is striking, given that (a) the way data was collected, (b) the kind of data collected, (c) the way it was analyzed, and (d) the time period it came from are all very different from the projects that led to previous regions. I then show how Gabmap can be used to explore how regions exhibit varying degrees of distinctiveness, and I emphasize that regions can be characterized not only by the syntactic features they possess, but also by those that they lack.
Abstract
I present a novel (pilot) approach to mapping regional dialects in American English using data collected by the Yale Grammatical Diversity Project. The dataset analyzed consists of acceptability judgment surveys administered online. I use interpolation and tessellation in ArcGIS to project a uniform geographic set of data points, and then the Gabmap clustering tool to identify broader dialect regions. The results correspond closely to traditional dialect boundaries, which is striking, given that (a) the way data was collected, (b) the kind of data collected, (c) the way it was analyzed, and (d) the time period it came from are all very different from the projects that led to previous regions. I then show how Gabmap can be used to explore how regions exhibit varying degrees of distinctiveness, and I emphasize that regions can be characterized not only by the syntactic features they possess, but also by those that they lack.
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
