V Variation matters! Structure of the talk

1. Dialect syntax in dialectology and modern Basic issues: Placing the Study of linguistic theory Dialect Syntax in Context 2. The partnership between dialectology and typology: the current state 3. New data sources 4. Areality of syntactic phenomena Bernd Kortmann 5. Some generalizations to be explored in the future (Freiburg University)

2

Dialect syntax in past and present dialectology • hardly any studies on syntax in dialect • variation (including regional variation) research for all periods of English starts to matter only from 1980s onwards • problems of the SED data (Survey of English Dialects) • interest from 2 directions: • dialect research (Anglo-American, Germanic) at the end of 20th century: study of dialect • formalist syntactic models syntax still plays a minor role • functional typology

3 4

• generative grammar: • language typology: a typological approach to the (a) Principles & Parameters Approach study of dialect syntax (Freiburg project) (b) from cross-linguistic to language-internal variation (macroparametric syntax > microparametric (a) cross-dialectal variation in light of cross- syntax); hopes for further development of linguistic variation generative theory: more insights into (i) form and range of syntactic parameters, and (ii) variation (b) a corrective for the preoccupation of language along a single parameter typology with standard varieties; note in (c) variation in Optimality Theory (1990s): the particular: “the distinction between spoken and significance of (violable universal) constraints and written varieties has consequences for (language-particular) constraint rankings; language typology." (Miller, J./R. Weinert 1998: Æ Stochastic OT 338) Literature: Abraham/Bayer 1993; Benincá 1989; Black/Motapanyane 1996; Barbiers et al. 2002; Bresnan/Deo 2001; Adger/Trousdale. to appear. 5 6

1 The Freiburg project on English dialect syntax

English Dialect Syntax from a Typological Perspective: The Freiburg Project 2. The partnership between (March 2000 until September 2005) dialectology and typology: aim: exploring cross-dialectal variation in light of cross- linguistic variation the current state funded by DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)

for further information consult homepage: http://www.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de/institut/lskortmann/

7 8

Since the distinction between language and dialect is to a Towards a unified account of linguistic variation large extent grammar-external, typologists who aim at discovering the range of attested variation may miss some Croft: integrative functionalism, or: the dynamic of it if they concentrate on languages without taking into paradigm in the study of linguistic variation, i.e. account the potential of structural variation hidden behind the term of “language”. integrating what we know about The following quotation from DuBois (1985) clearly describes how easily relevant pieces of linguistic variation • cross-linguistic variation even within dialects may be overlooked: • intra-linguistic variation Volumes of so-called functionalism are filled with ingenious appeals to perception, cognition or other system-external • historical variation functional domains, which are used to ‘explain’ why the (e.g. ongoing language change; grammaticalization language in question simply has to have a grammatical particularity that it does – when a moment’s further reflection processes; socially driven language change, role of would show that another well-known language, or even just language contact in language change) the next dialect down the road, has a grammatical structure diametrically opposed in the relevant parameter. (DuBois cf. also Bisang 2004, pp.13-15 9 1985: 353) 10

What typology can contribute to dialectology (e.g. the study of English dialect syntax) Figure 1': The new role of typology in exploring linguistic • findings, generalizations, explanations in language variation ('dynamic typology' Croft 1990) typology as additional reference frame for evaluating language-internal syntactic variation historical linguistics (-> correspondingly: microparametric variation in light of macroparametric variation) • non-standard varieties more "well-behaved" than contrastive linguistics (functional) typology dialectology StE: in many domains conform to majority patterns in the world's languages and cross-linguistic tendencies where StE does not (e.g. PROG > dialectology: more than just the junior partner of typology? IMPFCT, negative concord in a European context, zero relativization (gapping) in subject position) 11 12

2 What dialectology can contribute to typology • serving as a crucial corrective: (a) doing away with the convenient fiction of homogeneous • rich additional data source, including typologically rare features languages (-> acknowledging language-internal variation, (e.g. gendered pronouns, Northern Subject Rule, do as a tense frequency of use; impact of society structure, social and aspect marker) and/or features not described for a given attitudes, language contact on language structures and language family or geographical area (e.g. Europe) language change); -> functional explanations alone are not sufficient for explaining language variation and change b) including spoken varieties (especially of well-described • refining typological parameters and formulating more robust languages); note in particular: “the distinction between generalizations (e.g. grammaticalization processes in spoken spoken and written varieties has consequences for language) language typology." (Miller, J./R. Weinert 1998: 338) (c) in individual domains of grammar, non-standard varieties • making significant contributions to areal typology (e.g. linguistic represent a different language type than the (written) convergence areas in Europe, Europe as a linguistic convergence standard varieties area: SAE) -> a methodological issue of fundamental importance 13 14

Anderwald, L. 2002. Negation in non-standard British English: Gaps, regularizations and asymmetries. London/New York: Routledge. Pietsch, Lukas. 2005. Variable grammars: verbal agreement in Northern dialects of English. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Kortmann, B. et al. 2005. A comparative grammar of British English dialects: Agreement, gender, relative clauses. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 3.1 FRED - The Freiburg English Varieties of Kortmann, B. and E. Schneider Dialect Corpus with R. Mesthrie/K. Burridge/C. Eng- in the Upton, eds. 2004. A handbook of English varieties of English. Vol. 1: lish dialects Phonology; Vol. 2: Morphology and syntax. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. world West Germanic > World Germanic Kortmann, B. ed. 2004. Dialect- ology meets Typology. Berlin/New Europe York: Mouton de Gruyter. 15 16

Rationale Procedure

• dialect grammar needs much text • archives, museums, libraries, collections • no established dialect corpora • sifting materials • wealth of materials collected for other • re-dialectization of existing transcripts purposes • transcription of lone tapes • Oral History Projects • electronic compilation • temporally homogeneous

17 18

3 FRED Data distribution

• 2,5 mio words (excluding interviewer utterances) words in 1,000 • 372 texts, 300 hours of speech 700 600 • 431 speakers 500 400 300 • mainly recorded 1970s and 1980s 200 100 • 4 large dialect areas in England (2 mio words) 0

E s L • 5 small dialect areas in Scotland and Wales S th les an SW r Sc ScH Heb land No Wa f M (500,000 words) id M Isle o 19 20

Informants Informants 2

• FRED contains data from 431 different informants • lower class • 277 (64.3%) are male and 132 (30.6%) are • little formal education female. • manual labour • non-mobile • 77.8% of the textual material is produced by male speakers, and 21.3% by female speakers. • 89% born before 1920 Ö NORMs

21 22

Informants 3 Recordings The material included in FRED has been recorded between The oldest of FRED's informants was born in 1877. 1968 and 2000. A detailed breakdown of recording dates can be seen from the table below. • 13 informants (3.0%)were born between 1880 and 1889, • 62 informants (14.4%) were born between 1890 and 1899, • 101 informants (23.4%) were born between 1900 and 1909, • 64 informants (14.8%) were born between 1910 and 1919.

• 89% of all informants in FRED born before 1920.

23 24

4 Data: advantages Data: disadvantages

• machine readable: WordSmith, TACT, ... • lower-frequency phenomena: • high-frequency phenomena: qualitative analysis only qualitative and quantitative analyses • some phenomena not represented • regional comparison • no social comparison • statistical evaluation • no age comparison

25 26

Completed PhD and postdoctorate theses: http://www.anglistik.uni- freiburg.de/institut/lskortmann/FRED/index.htm Anderwald, L./S. Wagner. 2006. "The Freiburg English Negation in Non-Standard British English (Lieselotte Dialect Corpus (FRED) – Applying Corpus-Linguistic Anderwald, 2002) Research Tools to the Analysis of Dialect Data." In: J. Non-Standard Verb Paradigms in Traditional British English Beal/K. Corrigan/H. Moisl (eds.) Using Dialects: Morphological Naturalness and Comparative Unconventional Digital Language Corpora. Vol. 1: Dialect Grammar (Lieselotte Anderwald,) Synchronic Corpora. Basingstoke: Palgrave Relative Clauses in English Dialects. A Typological Approach Macmillan. 35-53. (Tanja Herrmann, 2003) Kortmann, B./S. Wagner. 2005. “The Freiburg English Subject-Verb Agreement in English Dialects: The Northern Dialect Project and Corpus”. In: B. Kortmann/T. Subject Rule (Lukas Pietsch, 2003) Herrmann/L. Pietsch/S. Wagner. A Comparative Gender in English Pronouns (Susanne Wagner, 2003) Grammar of British English Dialects: Agreement, Morphosyntactic Persistence in Spoken English (Benedikt Gender, Relative Clauses. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 1-20. Szmrecsanyi, 2006) 27 28

Kortmann, Bernd/Edgar Schneider in collab. With Kate Burridge/Raj Mesthrie/Clive Upton, eds. 2004. A Handbook of Varieties of English. 2 vols. Berlin/ New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 3.2. World Atlas of Morphosyntactic Variation in English • about 100 contributors • some 60 (groups of) varieties • almost exclusively non- standard • all spoken

29 30

5 … coming with the handbook: Varieties covered in the Handbook

• main national varieties The World Atlas of • distinctive regional, ethnic, and social varieties Morphosyntactic • major contact varieties (pidgins and creoles) Variation in English • major English as a Second Language varieties (CD-ROM)

31 32

Distribution of 46 non-standard varieties across world regions World Varieties for which feature Total Total Total region classifications are available L1 L2 P/C 76-features catalogue according to feature groups: British Isles Orkney and Shetland, ScE, 8 0 0 IrE, WelE, North, East Anglia, Southwest, Southeast Pronouns 13 Negation 9 America NfldE, CollAmE, AppE, OzE, 7 1 1 IsSE US, Urban AAVE, Earlier AAVE, Gullah, ChcE NP 7 Agreement 8 Caribbean BahE, JamC, Tob/TrnC, 0 0 5 SurCs, BelC T & A 13 Relativization 7 Australia CollAusE, AusVE 2 0 2 Modals 2 Complementation 5 (Tasmania), AusCs, AbE Pacific Bislama, TP, SolP, Fiji E, 2 1 4 Verb morph. 6 Discourse Organization Norfolk, regional NZE; HawC and Word Order 4 Asia ButlE, PakE, SgE, MalE 0 4 0 Adverbs 2 Africa NigP, GhE, GhP, CamE, 1 5 3 CamP, EAfE, WhSAfE, InSAfE, BlSAfE 33 34

(a) Northern Ireland Transcribed Corpus of Speech (machine-readable; some 230,000 words; recorded in mid-70s) 3.3 Other data sources (b) relevant parts from the spontaneous speech section of the British National Corpus (approx. 1 million words; primarily in the initial phase of the project) (c) the fieldworker notebooks of the Survey of English Dialects (compiled in 1950s; informants born between 1870 and 1890)

35 36

6 The Newcastle Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English (NECTE) is a corpus of dialect speech from Tyneside in North-East England. It is based on two pre-existing corpora, one of them collected in the late 1960s by the Tyneside Linguistic Survey (TLS) project, and the other in 1994 by the Phonological Variation and Change in Contemporary Spoken English (PVC) project. NECTE amalgamates the TLS and PVC materials into a single Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)- conformant XML-encoded corpus and makes them available in a variety of aligned formats: digitized audio, standard orthographic transcription, phonetic transcription, and part-of-speech tagged.

• another project on Lancashire/Northern England: Hollmann,W./A. Siewierska. 2006. “Corpora and (the need for) other methods in a study of Lancashire dialect.” ZAA 54.2: 203-216.

37 38

• Dutch/Flemish dialects: www.meertens.nl/sand/zoeken/index.php • Swiss German dialects: www.ds.unizh.ch/dialektsyntax/ • Italian dialects: asis-cnr.unipd.it/index.en.html 4. Areality of syntactic phenomena • Portuguese dialects: www.clul.ul.pt/english/frames.html • Romani dialects: www.llc.manchester.ac.uk/Research/Projects/romani/ • German dialects: www.diwa.info/main.asp

39 40

• on dialect syntax & areality in general: Glaser (1997, 2003), Patocka (1989) Case studies: • not only local/regional non-standard phenomena are relevant, but supraregional phenomena, too • agreement: Northern Subject Rule (Auer 2004) (NSR) • gender diffusion some examples below: • relativization • surprises concerning • negation Î known regionally restricted non-standard phenomena Î known regionally non-restricted non-standard phenomena • transition zones (e.g. Midlands in England) Î dialect continua in the domain of morphosyntax …and their stability over time 41 42

7 NSR: Regional distribution in Northern Ireland •NSR • one central northwest–to–southeast belt "Every verb in the present tense can take an s-ending unless its subject is an immediately adjacent simple • most NSR usage NOT in the core Ulster Scots areas rd pronoun + 3 person singular verbs always take the s- but those to the south of it (contrary to the widespread ending" view: NSR historically most closely linked to Scots)

•Examples: thus: a. I sing, *I sings NSR in Ulster is a heritage not only from Scots, but has its historical roots in both the Scottish and the b. Birds sings. English settlers’ varieties c. I sing and dances.

43 44

regional distribution in SW England: Gendered Pronouns/Gender Diffusion # of # of exx per # of exx county examples locations location speakers speaker Cornwall 163 7 23,3 20 8,2 • typologically very rare Dorset 40 5 8 8 5,0 Devon 126 11 11,5 26 4,8 • SW England, Newfoundland, Tasmania Wiltshire 70 9 7,8 15 4,7 – it: mass nouns Somerset 88 13+1 6,3 28 3,1 – he: count nouns (+male humans, non-humans) Total 487 46 10,6 97 5,0 – she: count nouns (+female humans) Speakers from Cornwall produce by far most of the gendered pronouns and are responsible for almost exactly a third (163 out of Pass the bread – it‘s over there. 487; 33.5%) of all examples. Speakers from Dorset, Devon and Pass the loaf – he‘s over there. Wiltshire are close to the average of 5 forms per speaker, while Somerset lags behind. Source: PhD thesis Wagner (in Kortmann et al. 2005) 45 46

Multiple Negation/Negative Concord Multiple negation (or: negative concord) per dialect area

50 45 • Very wide-spread 40 35 30 • Unexpected north-south division: 25 20 first observed in BNC (Anderwald 2002); 15 %NC 10 corroborated by FRED (Anderwald 2005) 5 0 • Scandinavian language contact? North Wales Scotland Midlands Southeast Southwest

Source: Anderwald (in Iyeiri 2005) 47 48

8 c) "remorphologization" of was/were distinction (Anderwald 2001, 2002a; exaptation) was were favoured in not found/reported for a. was-generalization in positive and negative Englishes outside any variety of English Brit. Isles (-> US contexts (-> wasn't) - dialects, AAVE) wasn't (1) b. were-generalization in positive and negative contexts (-> weren't) only occuring occurs in dialects mixed type (Brit. weren't (3) (2) in England (e.g. c. mixed system: was-generalization in positive Isles, USA: North) Ocracoke) contexts and weren't-generalization in negative contexts Diagram N 1: Possible and actual combinations of Æ advantage of pattern: maximized formal distinction generalization strategies iconically codes a maximal cognitive difference

49 50

regional distribution: zero that what as North Northern Ireland: 46.9% 50.1% - 0.5%

Scotland: 23.6% 46.2% 0.4% -

Central North: 34% 43.5% 2.4% 1.4%

Central Midlands: 17.7% 40.3% 5.8% 2.4%

East Anglia: 20.4% 22% 15.9% -

South Central Southwest: 28.9% 26.5% 22.3% -

Figure 1. Distribution of relative markers along the North- South axis in percentages Source: Anderwald (2002a: 187) Source: 51 Herrmann, T. In: Kortmann et al. (2005) 52

North-South contrast 5. Some generalizations to • there seems to be a whole bundle of features that can be explored in the future be associated with a basic North-South contrast; these two regions are highly distinctive based not only • a higher degree of regularity and consistency (e.g. on traditional features, but possibly also (or analyticity) in non-standard varieties of English as particularly) based on “new” features that were either opposed to Standard (written!) English? too stigmatised to be studied in detail before (e.g. multiple negation) or too unremarkable to warrant detailed analyses (e.g. that / what-contrast)

53 54

9 (a) regularization (-> a higher degree of simplification) of morphological paradigms (e.g. irregular • regional > supra-regional/social variety (> spoken verbs, inflectional paradigms in the Present standard: "'standardizing' non-standard variety of Tense: generalized –s or never –s, negation English", "colloquialization of the norms of written markers: invariant don't/ain't, formation English") patterns of reflexive pronouns: possessive pronouns + -self/selves) • including also non-standard varieties (L1, L2, P/C) in the anglophone world: overall tendencies in terms of the (b) analyticity (e.g. possessive markers, do-periphrasis) degrees of simplification and complexification? • comparative studies of dialect syntax in the (c) consistency (e.g. gapping in object and subject position, Westgermania (and for other language families) do-periphrasis, loss of S-V agreement (-> Hudson 1999, 2000): was/were-general- • areal typology of Europe ization, Northern Subject Rule, invariant don't/ain't, inversion in normal (i.e. non- embedded) and embedded interrogatives) 55 56

Literature Bucheli, C./E. Glaser. 2002."The syntactic atlas of Swiss German dialects: empirical Abraham, W./J. Bayer, eds. 1993. Dialektsyntax. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag. and methodological problems." In: S. Barbiers/L. Cornips/S. van der Kleij, eds. Abraham, W. 1999. "Introduction: Characteristic properties of spoken vernaculars." Syntactic microvariation. Amsterdam: SAND. 41-74. In: W. Abraham, ed. Folia Linguistica XXXIII/1, special issue. 3-9. Chambers, Jack. 2004. "Dynamic typology and vernacular universals". In: B. Adger, David and Graeme Trousdale. Forthcoming. “Variation in English syntax: Kortmann, ed. 127-145. theoretical implications.” (special volume) English Language and Linguistics. Cornips, L./K. Corrigan, eds. 2005. Syntax and Variation: Reconciling the Biological Anderwald, L. 2002. Negation in Non-standard British English: Gaps, and the Social. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Regularizations and Asymmetries. London/New York: Routledge. Croft, W. 2000. Explaining Language Change: An Evolutionary Approach. Harlow: Anderwald, L. 2005. "Unexpected regional distributions: Multiple negation in FRED." Longman. In: Y. Iyeiri, ed. Aspects of Negation. Kyoto: Kyoto University Press. 113-137. Croft, W. 2001. Radical Construction Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Auer, P. 2004. "Non-standard evidence in syntactic typology – Methodological Croft, W. 2003². Typology and Universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. remarks on the use of dialect data vs spoken language data." In: B. Kortmann, ed. Fleischer, J. 2004. "A typology of relative clauses in German dialects." In: B. 69-92. Kortmann, ed. 211-243. Barbiers, S./L. Cornips/S. van der Kleij, eds. 2002. Syntactic Microvariation. Glaser, E. 1997. "Dialektsyntax: Eine Forschungsaufgabe". In: Schweizerdeutsches Amsterdam: SAND. http://www.meertens.nl/books/synmic/. Wörterbuch: Bericht über das Jahr 1996. Rotkreuz: Zürcher Druck. 11-30. Benincá, P., ed. 1989. Dialect Variation and the Theory of Grammar. Dordrecht: Glaser, E. 2003. "Schweizerdeutsche Syntax. Phänomene und Entwicklungen." Foris. Germanistica Friburgensia 18: 39-66. Berthele, R. 2004. "The typology of motion and posture verbs: A variationist Goebl, H. 2001. "Arealtypologie und Dialektologie." In: M. Haspelmath et al., eds. account." In: B. Kortmann, ed. 93-126. vol. 2: 1471-1491. Bisang, W. 2004. "Dialectology and typology – An integrative perspective." In: B. Haegeman, L./J. Guéron. 1999. English Grammar. A Generative Perspective, Oxford: Kortmann, ed.11-45. Blackwell. Black, J.R./V. Motapanyane, eds. 1996. Microparametric Syntax and Dialect Haspelmath, M. 2001. "The European linguistic area: Standard Average European". In: Variation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. Haspelmath, M. et al., eds. Language Typology and Language Universals. Bresnan, J./A. Deo. 2001. Grammatical Constraints on Variation: ‘Be’ in the Survey Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 1492-1510. of English Dialects and (Stochastic) Optimality Theory. Unpubl. Ms., Stanford Hollmann,W./A. Siewierska. 2006. “Corpora and (the need for) other methods in a University. 57 study of Lancashire dialect.” ZAA 54.2: 203-216. 58

Hudson, R. 1999. "Subject-verb agreement in English." English Language and Miller, J./R. Weinert. 1998. Spontaneous Spoken Language. Syntax and Discourse. Linguistics 3: 173-207. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Hudson, R. 2000. "*I amn’t". Language 76: 297–323. Nevalainen, T./J. Klemola/M. Laitinen, eds. to appear 2006. Types of Kortmann, B. 2002. "New prospects for the study of dialect syntax: Impetus from Variation: Diachronic, Dialectal and Typological Interfaces. (Studies in Language syntactic theory and language typology." In: S. Barbiers/L. Cornips/S. van der Companion Series). Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Kleij, eds. Syntactic microvariation. Amsterdam: SAND. 185-213. Patocka, F. 1989. "Dialektsyntax und Syntaxgeographie - Möglichkeiten und Grenzen." Kortmann, B. 2003. "Comparative English Dialect Grammar: A Typological In: W. Putschke/W. Veith/P. Wiesinger, eds. Dialektgeographie und Dialektologie: Approach". In: I.M. Palacios, M.J. López Couso, P. Fra and E. Seoane, eds. Fifty Günter Bellmann zum 60. Geburtstag von Schülern und Freunden. Marburg: Years of English Studies in Spain. A Commemorative Volume. Santiago de Elwert. 47-56. Compostela: Univ. of Santiago. 65–83. Pietsch, L. 2005. The Grammar of Variation: Verbal Agreement in Northern Dialects of Kortmann, B. 2006. "Syntactic Variation in English: A Global Perspective". In: B. English. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Aarts/A. McMahon, eds. Handbook of English Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell. Rohdenburg, G./B. Mondorf, eds. 2003. Determinants of Grammatical Variation in 603-624. English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Kortmann, B. et al. 2005. A Comparative Grammar of British English Dialects: Seiler, G. 2004. "On three types of dialect variation and their implications for linguistic Agreement, Gender, Relative Clauses. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. theory. Evidence from verb clusters in Swiss German dialects." In: B. Kortmann, Kortmann, B./B. Szmrecsanyi. 2004. "Global Synopsis – Morphological and Syntactic ed. 367-399. Variation in English". In: B. Kortmann/E. Schneider/K. Burridge/R. Mesthrie/C. Szmrecsanyi, B./B. Kortmann. forthcoming. “The morphosyntax of varieties of English Upton et al., eds. 1142-1202. worldwide: A quantitative perspective”. Special issue of Lingua. Kortmann, B./S. Wagner. 2005. “The Freiburg English Dialect Project and Corpus”. In: van der Auwera, J./A. Neuckermans. 2004. "On the interaction of predicate and B. Kortmann et al. 1-20. quantifier negation in Flemish." In: B. Kortmann, ed. 453-478. Kortmann, B. ed. 2004. Dialectology meets Typology. Berlin/New York: Mouton de van der Auwera, J. et al. “Analogie und die Verbreitung der verbalen Kongruenz bei Gruyter. Imperativen, Konjunktionen und Antwortpartikeln.“ (manuscript) Kortmann, B. and E. Schneider with K. Burridge/R. Mesthrie/C. Upton, eds. 2004. A Werlen, I. 1994. "Neuere Fragestellungen in der Erforschung der Syntax deutscher Handbook of Varieties of English. Vol. 1: Phonology; Vol. 2: Morphology and Dialekte". In: K. Mattheier/P. Wiesinger, eds. Dialektologie des Deutschen: Syntax. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Forschungsstand und Entwicklungstendenzen. Tübingen: Niemeyer. 49-75. Krug, Manfred. 2003. "Frequency as a Determinant in Grammatical Variation and Change". In: G. Rohdenburg and B. Mondorf, 7-67. 59 60

10