Table Of ContentVARIATION, CHANGE AND PHONOLOGICAL THEORY
AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND
HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE
General Editor
E.F. KONRAD KOERNER
(University of Ottawa)
Series IV - CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY
Advisory Editorial Board
Henning Andersen (Los Angeles); Raimo Anttila (Los Angeles)
Thomas V. Gamkrelidze (Tbilisi); John E. Joseph (Edinburgh)
Hans-Heinrich Lieb (Berlin); Ernst Pulgram (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
E. Wyn Roberts (Vancouver, B.C.); Danny Steinberg (Tokyo)
Volume 146
Frans Hinskens, Roeland van Hout and W. Leo Wetzeis (eds)
Variation, Change and Phonological Theory
VARIATION, CHANGE AND
PHONOLOGICAL THEORY
Edited by
FRANS HINSKENS
University of Nijmegen
ROELAND VAN HOUT
University of Tilburg
W. LEO WETZELS
Free University of Amsterdam
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Variation, change, and phonological theory / edited by Frans Hinskens, Roeland van Hout,
and Leo Wetzeis.
p. cm. - (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series
IV, Current issues in linguistic theory, ISSN 0304-0763 ; v. 146)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
1. Language and languages-Variation. 2. Grammar. Comparative and general-Phonol
ogy. 3. Linguistic change. 4. Dialectology. I. Hinskens, Frans. II. Hout, Roeland van. III.
Wetzeis, W. Leo. IV. Series: Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic
science. Series IV, Current issues in linguistic theory : v. 146.
P120.V37V359 1997
417-dc21 97-38868
ISBN 90 272 3650 X (Eur.) / 1-55619-861-2 (US) (Hb : alk. paper) CIP
© Copyright 1997 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O.Box 75577 · 1070 AN Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O.Box 27519 · Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 · USA
Contents
Preface vii
Contributors ix
Frans Hinskens, Roeland van Hout and W. Leo Wetzeis
Balancing Data and Theory in the Study of Phonological Variation
and Change 1
Arto Anttila
Deriving Variation from Grammar 35
Peter Auer
Co-Occurrence Restrictions between Linguistic Variables
A Case for Social Dialectology, Phonological Theory and Variation
Studies 69
і orowsky and Barbara Horvath
L-Vocalization in Australian English 101
Gregory R. Guy
Competence, Performance, and the Generative Grammar of
Variation 125
William Labov
Resyllabification 145
Maria-Rosa Lloret
When does Variability become Relevant to Formal Linguistic
Theory? 181
Marc van Oostendorp
Style Levels in Conflict Resolution 207
vi CONTENTS
Sharon Rose
Featural Morphology and Dialect Variation
The Contribution of Historical Change 231
Norval Smith
Shrinking and Hopping Vowels in Northern Cape York
Minimally Different Systems 267
Author index 303
Language index 309
Subject index 311
Preface
This book grew out of a workshop on language variation and linguistic theory,
held at the University of Nijmegen, September 3-5, 1995. The workshop con
centrated on a small set of theoretical, empirical and methodological questions
regarding the relationship between, on the one hand, theoretical linguistics (here
understood in its narrow meaning of the study of synchronic grammar) and, on
the other hand, variation in language, here understood in its broad sense of
comprising temporal, geographical and social dimensions: historical linguistics,
dialectology, and sociolinguístics. The contributions to the workshop focused on
phonological variation and change. We are grateful to all the participants in the
workshop for their presentations and for their constructive participation in the
discussions, as well as to Jacqueline Berns for providing the administrative and
organisational support needed to make the workshop successful.
Unfortunately, not all the contributors to the workshop succeeded in pre
paring their paper for publication in this volume. Out of the papers submitted,
the contributions that are here presented were chosen after being reviewed by
the editors. Whenever doubt or disagreement justified such action, outside re
viewers were consulted. The introductory paper that we have added intends to
provide the background information necessary for the non-specialist interested in
the topics discussed, as well as to tie together the themes treated in the various
contributions by briefly pointing out a number of issues in connection with the
balance (or lack thereof) between theory and data in the study of phonological
variation and change.
We wish to thank Anne Cutler, Peter Gilles, Ben Hermans, Henk van den
Heuvel, Beth Hume, Haike Jacobs, Judith Schoonenboom, and Laura Walsh
Dickey for discussing the contributions of the key-note speakers at the work
shop and/or reviewing some of the submissions. We are indebted to Bernard
Bichakjian for checking our introductory contribution for grammar and style.
Many thanks also go to Jeroen van de Weijer for correcting the English in some
of the papers, helping to prepare the indexes, as well as for preparing the ca
mera-ready manuscript.
The organisation of the workshop was made possible thanks to the finan
cial assistance of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the
Netherlands Foundation for Scientific Research, the Center for Language Stu
dies, the Foundation for Applied Linguistic Congresses, the Department of
General Linguistics and Dialectology, the Faculty of Arts, as well as the Uni
versity Board of the University of Nijmegen and the Research Group on Lan-
viii PREFACE
guage and Minorities of the University of Tilburg; The Holland Institute of
Generative Linguistics gave financial support from funds provided by the Uni
versitair Stimuleringsfonds of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.. We gratefully
acknowledge their support. Frans Hinskens' contribution to both the organisa
tion of the workshop and the preparation of this book has been made possible in
part by a fellowship of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, and has
profited from a visiting professorship at the Department of Linguistics of the
Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. A particular statement of gratitude
goes to these institutions.
The editors
Nijmegen, July 1997
Contributors
Arto Anttila Frans Hinskens
Linguistics/Department of Modern Department of General Linguistics
Foreign Languages and Literatures and Dialectology
Boston University University of Nijmegen
718 Commonwealth Avenue Erasmusplein 1
Boston, MA 02215 6525 HT Nijmegen
USA The Netherlands
[email protected] [email protected]
Peter A uer Barbara Horvath
Germanisches Seminar Department of Linguistics
University of Hamburg University of Sydney
Von-Melle-Park 6 Sydney, NSW 2006
20146 Hamburg Australia
Germany [email protected]
[email protected]
Tony Borowsky Roeland van Hout
Department of Linguistics Center for Language Studies
University of Sydney Tilburg University
Sydney, NSW 2006 5000 LE Tilburg
Australia The Netherlands
[email protected] [email protected]
Gregory Guy William Labov
Department of Languages, Linguistics Laboratory, Department
Literatures and Linguistics of Linguistics
York University University of Pennsylvania
4700 Keele St. 1106 Blockley, 418 Service Dr.
North York, Ontario M3J 1P3 Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021
Canada USA
[email protected] [email protected]
