Volume 8, Issue 2

This paper analyses the alternation between complement clauses with and without complementizer (syndetic and asyndetic), in historical Spanish (15th–18th century). While previous studies have shown that this syntactic alternation was regulated by the degree of integration of the clauses, its stylistic distribution is understudied. In this paper we investigate whether the syndetic/asyndetic alternation is governed by socio-stylistic factors (discourse traditions, audience and speaker design). The analysis of the data from the corpus CODEA+2015, is carried out by using regression models. Our results indicate that the selection of asyndetic complements was predicted by the type of audience (reactive style-shift), employed especially when addressing superiors. Also, asyndetic complements were favored by the use of deferential request verbs such as suplicar (‘to beg’) that represents the petitioner as an inferior (proactive style-shift). Furthermore, the stylistic choice for an asyndetic complement was determined at the sentential level (“micro” discourse traditions), when the writer is also the performer of the speech-act. Thus, we show that in choosing alternative variants, writers are concerned with expressing grammatical meanings but also social identity. Additionally, the diachronic analysis indicates that while the proactive style-shift effect grows stronger over time, the relevance of the reactive style-shift declines, showing that socio-stylistic predictors, similarly to linguistic predictors, can be affected diachronic fluctuations. Our paper evinces the relevance of a multidimensional and diachronic approach to the study of syntactic variation, demonstrating how a monolithic view of the textual dimension can hide fine-grained socio-stylistic effects.

The article studies a subtype of the Finnish generalizing relative clause, referred to as the proverb formula . A generalizing relative clause refers to any person who fills the described condition. The proverb formula is used frequently in the Finnish translations of the Bible in the Book of Proverbs. The study examines two aspects that vary in this structure in Finnish editions from 1642 to 1992: the head pronoun of the relative clause and the order of the relative clause and the main clause. In the oldest of the studied translations, the most frequent one variant or the proverb formula begins with the relative clause, and the relative clause head in the main clause is a personal pronoun ( hän ). For the order of the structure, a clear model is found in the source texts of the translation. In later editions, personal pronoun heads were eliminated. Interestingly, they are not replaced with demonstrative heads, which would follow the most frequent proverb formula structure in Finnish vernacular and would also be recommenced by grammar guides. Instead, a variant with omission of the head pronoun gains in frequency. Variations within the proverb formula increase when the order with the main clause preceding the relative clause gains in frequency. The preference for omission of the head pronouns is not easily explainable. The article proposes that this variant was a conscious stylistic choice for solemn, biblical language.

This study explores convergence in subject position in U.S. Southwest Spanish at the outset of its extensive contact with English. The data analyzed come from two Spanish newspapers published in Tucson, Arizona, in the years following the city’s annexation to the United States through the Gadsden Purchase in 1854: El Fronterizo (1878–1914) and El Tucsonense (1915–1957). During this period of early language contact, the Hispanic population in Tucson faced a gradual process of anglicization that changed its status from majority in 1880 (63.8%) to minority in 1940 (29.9%). If there were structural convergence between the languages at stake, then there should be an English-driven gradual decrease across time in the postverbal subject use exhibited in the newspapers studied, as heritage varieties of Spanish develop. However, regressions with Rbrul show that, in the period analyzed, the probability of using postverbal subjects was not affected by the passing of time. Moreover, regression analyses show that the linguistic constraints affecting subject position in historical Tucson Spanish are basically the same that condition the variable in contemporary varieties: absence of a postverbal phrase, sentential subjects, presence of a preverbal phrase, unaccusative verbs, animate subjects and heavy subjects. This study also shows that the weakest factor groups in contemporary varieties of Spanish started their declining process at least a century ago.

During the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, a number of spelling solutions gradually became established in English as ways to indicate vowel quality , namely whether a vowel sound was different from another, and vowel quantity , that is to say whether a vowel was long or short. Among the solutions that arose to indicate vowel quality, <ea> and <oa> were introduced for spellings like sea and boat . For vowel quantity, ‘single’ consonants in pairs like <g> and <dg>, <ch> and <tch>, as well as <k> and <ck> began to be used for immediately preceding long vowels. My contribution explores all of the examples of vowel diacritic spelling mentioned above in printed English between 1500 and 1700, using a quantitative model for the analysis of patterns across a range of texts from Early English Books Online . The analysis shows an overall process of standardisation occurring between the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, and provides fresh insights into the lexical distribution for the standardisation of vowel diacritic spelling. The discussion reflects upon the development of the spellings, and argues for pragmatic factors within the Early Modern English printing industry as responsible for their modern standardisation.

The Egyptian-Greek contact situation has lasted almost a thousand years and many documents have been preserved to us from this period. In this paper, we apply a new quantitative approach to this rich corpus of documentary papyri to map the relationships between the linguistic variables (the variant spellings) and several non-linguistic variables. A multidimensional scaling of the co-occurrences of the linguistic variables shows that there is a strong association between most of the Greek variant spellings that can be explained by Egyptian phonological transfer, while others do not typically co-occur with them. Several new linguistic variables not yet connected to Egyptian phonological transfer also show a strong relation with the first group of features, some of them representing the same phonological transfer processes. A comparison of the contexts in which these variables are used allows us to further substantiate this observation: several of the previously and newly Egyptian-associated variables turn out to have a strong correlation with bilingual Egyptian-Greek documents or occur in Egyptian dominated environments. The spelling variants are chronologically dependent and different features are typically associated with different historical periods illustrating changes taking place in the Egyptian Greek contact variety over time. A multiple correspondence analysis shows that the variables strongly interact, illustrating the importance of a multifactorial approach combining various linguistic and non-linguistic factors.