Describing and Modeling Variation in Grammar

419 Pages·2009·2.197 MB·English

by  Andreas Dufter, Jörg Fleischer, Guido Seiler (eds.)

Describing and Modeling Variation in Grammar
≥
Trends in Linguistics
Studies and Monographs 204
Editors
Walter Bisang
Hans Henrich Hock
Werner Winter
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York
Describing and Modeling
Variation in Grammar
edited by
Andreas Dufter
Jürg Fleischer
Guido Seiler
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York
MoutondeGruyter(formerlyMouton,TheHague)
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Describing and modeling variation in grammar / edited by Andreas
Dufter,JürgFleischer,GuidoSeiler.
p.cm.(cid:2)(Trendsinlinguistics.Studiesandmonographs;204)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-3-11-020590-9(hardcover:alk.paper)
1.Languageandlanguages(cid:2)Variation. 2.Grammar,Compara-
tiveandgeneral. 3.Sociolinguistics. I.Dufter,Andreas. II.Flei-
scher,Jürg. III.Seiler,Guido.
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2009003855
ISBN 978-3-11-020590-9
ISSN 1861-4302
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Editors’Preface
Thepresentvolumeoriginatesfromaworkshop on“DescribingandModeling
Variation in Grammar” that we convened at the 28th Annual Meeting of the
German Linguistics Society (DGfS) in Bielefeld, Germany, February 22–24,
2006.Thisworkshophadapredecessor,entitled“VariationundihreErkla¨rung”,
which was organized by Ju¨rg Fleischer and Guido Seiler at the 3rd Biannual
Meeting of the Swiss Linguistic Society (SSG / SSL) in Berne, Switzerland,
October1,2004.Bothworkshopsstimulatedlivelydiscussionsbetweenlinguists
ofdifferenttheoreticalpersuasions andareasofexpertise.Thepresentvolume
offersaselectionofthepaperspresentedattheBielefeldworkshopaswellasa
numberofinvited additional contributions.
We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge our debt of grati-
tudetoanumberofpeople:First aheartfeltthanks to allcontributors fortheir
commitment,dedication andunfailing patience.Specialthanksarealso dueto
our anonymous reviewers, who readily agreed to furnish their expert advice
despitenumerousotherobligations.Ourimpression,whichhasbeenconfirmed
byexplicit feedbackfromseveralofourcontributors, isthattheircriticalcom-
mentswereofgreathelpinimprovingandrefiningtheargumentationputforth
in the papers. Finally, we wish to thank the managing editors of theTrends in
Linguistics. Studies and Monographs series foraccepting the volumefor pub-
lication as well as the editorial staff at Mouton de Gruyter, especially Birgit
Sievert,fortheircooperationandsupport.
Munich,MarburgandManchester AndreasDufter,
September2008 Ju¨rgFleischer,
Guido Seiler

Table of contents
Editors’Preface v
Introduction
AndreasDufter, JürgFleischerandGuidoSeiler 1
Parameter-basedandMinimalistapproaches
Methodological considerations ongrammarvariation.
TherightperipheryasanOV/VOdecidingparametermore
sothantheleftperiphery:Gradienceintheverbcluster
WernerAbraham 21
Variationaslexicalchoice:
have,got andtheexpressionofpossession
FayeChalcraft 59
VariationinIcelandicmorphosyntax
Thórhallur EythórssonandJóhannesGísli Jónsson 81
Constraint-basedapproaches
Thepredicativeasasourceofgrammaticalvariation
JudithBerman 99
Morphological variation:Adeclarativeapproach
MartinNeef 117
Differentnotions ofvariationandtheirreflexes
inSwissGermanrelativization
MartinSalzmann 135
Fromdocumentationtogrammaticaldescription:
PrepositionalphrasesinRuhrdeutsch
RenéSchiering 163
viii Tableofcontents
Usage-based,construction-basedandstatisticalapproaches
Canwefactoroutfreechoice?
BertCappelle 183
Empiricalsyntax: Idiolectalvariabilityintwo-andthree-verbclusters
inregionalstandardDutchandDutchdialects
LeonieCornips 203
Towardsamultivariatemodelofgrammar:
ThecaseofwordordervariationinDutchclausefinalverbclusters
GertdeSutter 225
Transplanteddialectsandlanguagechange:
Question formationinQuébec
Martin ElsigandShanaPoplack 255
AgreementinEnglishdialects
VerenaHaserandBerndKortmann 271
Semi-modalvariation
Katarina Klein 297
VariationinKomiobjectmarking
GersonKlumpp 325
Howlexicalizationreflectedinhyphenation affectsvariation
andword-formation
Britta Mondorf 361
VariationinGermanadjectiveinflection:Acorpusstudy
SaidSahel 389
Index 407
∗
Introduction
Andreas Dufter, Ju¨rg Fleischer and Guido Seiler
1. Thediscoveryof variation
Forthosewhoarewillingtothinkaboutgrammarasanalgorithmicdevicethat
relates mental representations to well-formed linguistic expressions, variation
might appear as a rather unwelcome facet of parole, impeding the discovery
ofinteresting generalizationsaboutindividual languagesand,ultimately, about
languageaspartofourbiologicalandcognitiveendowment.Infact,ithasbeen
statedthat“thegeneralprogramofalllinguistsbeginswiththesearchforinvari-
ance” (Labov 1975: 7). This research program seems to imply that variation,
ratherthanitsabsence,issomethingtobeexpectedinlinguistic behavior.Con-
versely,it suggests that identifying invariant aspectsbehind surfacevariability
oflinguisticformwillnotalwaysbeatrivialtask.Rough-and-readydefinitions
of variation as “different ways of saying the same thing” or as “differences
thatdon’tmakeadifference”aregroundedindenotationalortruth-conditional
equivalence relations and have been put to much use in structuralist theoriz-
ingaboutallo-relationsinphonologyandmorphologyandaboutthedichotomy
betweenemicandeticlevelsofanalysis.Inearliergenerativeterms,thisdistinc-
tion has been recast in terms of input-output correspondences, with variation
manifestingitselfasdifferentoutputs generatedfromasingleinput. Insyntax,
notalllinguistswouldagreethatvariationcaninsightfullybeanalyzedasarising
fromnon-deterministic input-output mappings, all themoresosince theexact
natureofthesyntacticinputcontinuestobeunderheavydebate.Lexicalistand
feature-drivenapproachessetouttorestoredeterminismbyenrichingsyntactic
inputswithspecificationsrelated,amongotherthings,tothestructuringofinfor-
mationanddiscourse.Atthesametime,syntacticvariationhasbeendescribed
inmoresurface-orientedways,byappealingtounderspecifiedconstructionsor
constructionhierarchies,or“re-arrangements”of‘canonical’constituentorders
andargumentstructures.
Whatever strategy one chooses to adopt, variation in syntax, but also in
other components of grammar, might appear at first sight to constitute just
anotheraspect of linguistic diversity. Indeed, in muchrecent theorizing, it has
become customary to treat “macro-variation” – i.e., differences across lan-
guages – and “micro-variation” – i.e., linguistic variation observed within an
individual language – on a par, subject to the same universal principles and,