LOT Winter School 2007, 15-19 January Variation matters! Friday, 16.00-18.30, Room GN6 Bernd Kortmann The historical dimension: grammaticalization processes in non-standard varieties: do Do AS A TENSE AND ASPECT MARKER IN VARIETIES OF ENGLISH 1. Why interesting? 2. Do as a tense and aspect marker in varieties of English 2.1 Progressive 2.2 Habitual 2.3 Perfect and related categories 2.4 Unstressed tense carrier in affirmatives 2.5 Summary 3. Do/doen/tun as TAM markers in Germanic 4. T/A do in English varieties from a typological perspective: Grammaticalization paths 5. Conclusion 1. Why interesting? • (a) with regard to grammaticalized uses of do: interesting range of variation across varieties of English, first and foremost in the tense and aspect (T/A) domain (-> focus of today's talk): completive/perfect (1a,b), progressive (1c-f), habitual (1g,h), unstressed tense carrier in affirmatives (1i,j); (1) a. a don klin di hos gud. ('I have cleaned the house well.'; Belizean Creole) b. I don know you stupid ('I have (always) known…'; Trinidad Creole) c. ??Don't be talking like that. (IrE; EF, but at best marginally progressive in meaning) d. Do rain, don't it? ('It's raining, doesn't it'; very trad. SW; 18th/19th c. SW) e. Gregg duh hide. ('Gregg is hiding.'; older form in Gullah Creole) f. i di go maket. ('I am going to the market'; Cameroonian Pidgin) g. He do/did go to the cinema every week. (WelE) h. Two lorries of them [i.e. turf] now in the year we do burn. (IrE) i. This man what do own this,... (SW; West Somerset) j. I did see thee this morning, [thee]' know (SW; Wiltshire) first task: 'mapping' this cross-varietal variation of do as tense and aspect marker (section 2); only cursorily today: DO as mood marker in Germanic (section 3) other non-standard uses of grammaticalized do in varieties of English: (2) a. invariant don't in negation: She don't come. b. do as conjunction ('otherwise'; East Anglia; Trudgill 1995: 139-142): You lot must have moved it, do I wouldn't have fell in. c. morphological distinction main verb – AUX: done – did He done it, didn't he? (cf. also in Low German; Rohdenburg 2002) (b) this variation is fascinating to judge against cross-linguistic variation in the TMA domain (e.g. Dahl 1985, Bybee/Dahl 1989, Bybee et al. 1994, Dahl 2000); an approach as yet hardly ever adopted (but cf. Gachelin 1997; related in spirit: van der Auwera 1999, Siemund 2001, 2002; Schneider 2000) 2 (in parentheses note: do-periphrasis in Standard English is rare enough in the world's languages (cf. van der Auwera 1999: e.g. no analogue in the world for using a do-AUX in questions; for negation: virtually no analogue in Europe (cf. Bernini/Ramat 1996); emphatic positives: more widespread, e.g. in Gmc & Celtic (especially Welsh)) general context of this topic: Freiburg project on English dialect syntax • history of do as tense and aspect marker: do-periphrasis in general (e.g. Stein 1990, 1992, Denison 1993, Garrett 1998; Baekken 1999), Celtic substrate vs. dialectal superstrate debate with regard to Irish English, AAVE, English-based pidgins and creoles (e.g. Harris 1986, Montgomery 2001, Tristram 1997, van der Auwera/Genee fc.) • the story of do in English: fascinating from the following perspectives: grammaticalization, variation, typology, history and spread of English (e.g. superstrate-substrate debate) 2. Do as a tense and aspect marker in varieties of English • "It emerges that a number of non-standard dialects have a rather richer range of aspectual distinctions available than does the standard dialect."(Trudgill/Chambers 1991:145) • "Pidgins and creoles are often said to differ from European superstrate languages in having aspect-prominent verbal marking, rather than tense-prominent systems…" (Patrick 1999: 169; cf. also Parkvall 2000: 87); • in fact: with one exception (section 2.4), the T/A marker do is used exclusively for the marking of aspect in varieties of English: PROG (2.1), HAB (2.2), PFCT (2.3) 2.1 Progressive • virtually non-existent outside English-based pidgins and creoles (cf. (1e,f) and (3)); of all three aspectual categories lowest degree of grammaticalization (PROG-marking optional and use of DO form as PROG-marker optional) (3) a. You da sleepin? (Barbados; Holm 1989: 449) b. Jaaj did a plie wid mi kyaa wen mi neba de. (Jam. Creole; Craig 1991: 190) 'George was playing with my car when I was not there.' c. di man di sel bins an rays (Belizean Creole; Greene 1999: 43) 'The man is selling beans and rice' d. i di go maket. (Cameroonian Pidgin; Mühlhäusler 1986: 186) e. wan gò giv sain se somebodi dè kam (Ghanaian Pidgin; Huber 1999: 225) 'one will give a sign that somebody is coming' f. A dè wash plet (Nigerian Pidgin; Faraclas 1996: 204) 'I am washing the dishes.' g. I still de(z) look (Sea Island Creole; Cunningham 1992: 49) • British Isles: remember the shaky (IrE) or very traditional (SW) examples (1c,d); more frequent in EModE and older stages of SW dialects (but even for SW unclear evidence; cf. Klemola 1996: 122f.): so in principle available as a superstrate model 2.2 Habitual • strongest aspectual category in all varieties with T/A do • PRS do(es)/do be vastly preferred over did (did: extremely rare in IrE and in SW more restricted than invariant PRS form do); in several P&Cs: doz both in present and past contexts • British Isles: most distinctive aspectual property of IrE (4a-c); distinctive also of southern (i.e. early anglicised) dialects of WelE (4d) and SW dialects (4e,f); (occ. in other dialects) 3 -> British Isles powerful superstrate model (especially IrE; Harris 1986; note also: model for P & C doz not available in SW; and yet Gachelin (1997: 42): SW likely starting point for aspectual do in Atlantic creoles) (4) a. There does be a meeting of the company every Tuesday. (IrE; in Tristram 1997: 404) b. They do be cheering. (IrE; same source) c. Two lorries of them [i.e. turf] now in the year we do burn. (IrE; Filppula 1999: 130) d. He do/did go to the cinema every week. (WelE; Thomas 1985 in Tristram 1997: 405) e. … and you do do it like that all the way. (pronounced like Fr. de; SW, Wiltshire; FRED) f. It was all theory, yes, yes. And then what you did do, what I used to do, …. (SW; FRED) (5) a. He does catch fish pretty (Barbados; Holm 1989: 449) b. hau hi doz raid bru lai-an (Comm. Windward Is.; Holm 1989: 459) 'how he HAB ride Brother Lion ' c. dyuurin di paas yeer she a/doz waak tu skuul. (Guyanese; Gibson 1982: 208) 'During the past year she has been walking to school.' d. Ai doz gow siy niyli ebriy sondey” (Panamanian Creole; Craig 1991: 189) 'I go to the beach nearly every Sunday' e. dε fait dè go on, dè dè kil pipu. (Ghanaian Pidgin English; Huber 1999: 225) 'The fight went on, they killed people.' f. Sometime we does hadi get cabbage for food. (Bahamas Creole; Holm 1989: 490) 2.3 Perfect • non-existent in British Isles; possibly once existent in ScE dialects (16th century) • clearly P&C innovation (across superstrate languages); English-based P&Cs adopting done; in P&Cs of all three aspectual categories highest degree of grammaticalization • mind terminology: perfect/anterior/resultative in typological studies vs. perfect, completive, anterior in P&C studies 2.3.1 Completive ('finish, stop', 'have already V-ed'; completed action) • exclusively in P&Cs (-> near-'universal' property of Atlantic creoles) (6) a. He don don (Guyanese Creole; Edwards 1991a: 242) 'He is/has already finished.' b. You done ate what I has sent you? (Dutch Windward Is.; Holm 1989: 454) c. Jeemz no riid di buk don yet. (Jamaican English; Winford 1993: 46) 'James hasn`t finished reading the book yet.' d. Jan don plant di rais. (Jamaican English; Winford 1993: 48) 'John has finished planting / has already planted the rice.' e. a don klin di hos gud. (Belizean Creole; Greene 1999: 47) 'I have cleaned the house well.' f. I don go maket (naunau) (Cameroonian Pidgin; Mühlhäusler 1986: 186) 'She has (just) gone to market.' g. I done finish. (St. Helena; Hancock 1979?: 21/22) 2.3.2 Perfect (experiential perfect, continuative perfect) • rare and exclusively in P&Cs (7) a. Hii did-a plee krikit evasens (Barbados; Craig 1991: 190) 'He has played cricket ever since' 4 b. I don know you stupid (Trinidad Creole; Edwards 1991a: 244) 'I have (always) known…' c. I done tak to am. (Gullah Creole; Mufwene 1991: 126) 'I have talked / finished talking to him' 2.3.3 Anterior (tense: Past or Past Perfect) • can correspond to Past & Past Perfect BUT relative to Topic Time rather than CT • rare and almost exclusively in P&Cs (8) a. i sey, `a did tayad an neva kom. (Miskito Coast Creole; Holm 1989: 475) 'he says `I ANT tired and didn`t come' b. Wa di inglish stuor did niem agen? (Jamaican Creole; Holm in Patrick 1999: 149) 'What was the English store called again?' c. Daa taim ai don nuo wo hii see aredi. (Barbados; Craig 1991: 190) 'That time I knew what he said already' d. im did win a tawzn dalaz in Kolown. (Providencia Creole; Holm 1989: 469) 'He had won a thousand dollars in Colón' e. Wen ai did smaal / tiΝ woz chiyp. (Panamanian Creole; Craig 1991: 189) 'When I was small / things were cheap.' f.