Linguistic Perspectives on a Variable English Morpheme Let‘s talk about –s Laura Rupp · David Britain Linguistic Perspectives on a Variable English Morpheme “Who would have thought there was so much to say about verbal –s? In this engrossing book Laura Rupp and David Britain tie together an immense body of work from historical linguistics, formal linguistics, functional linguistics and sociolinguistics to propose a coherent and convincing account of the linguistic, social and discourse-pragmatic meanings conveyed by verbal –s. Teir remark- able feat points to an entirely new way of thinking about English morphology. Tis book is essential reading!” —Prof. Jenny Cheshire, Department of Linguistics, Queen Mary, University of London, UK “Tis state-of-the-art book on verbal-s is a tour de force that will engage schol- ars interested in novel accounts of the phenomenon’s development or who want to understand its morpho-syntax alongside its social and functional versatility in diverse English dialects from East Anglia to the Antipodes. Te authors’ approach is unique in utilising diachronic, formal, functional and var- iationist models to address the ‘Iconicity Hypothesis’, which proves crucial for explaining the spatial and temporal adaptability of verbal –s.” —Prof. Karen Corrigan, School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Newcastle University, UK Laura Rupp · David Britain Linguistic Perspectives on a Variable English Morpheme Let’s talk about –s Laura Rupp David Britain Faculty of Humanities Department of English Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam University of Bern Amsterdam, Te Netherlands Bern, Switzerland ISBN 978-1-4039-3968-5 ISBN 978-1-349-72803-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-72803-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2019932924 © Te Editor(s) (if applicable) and Te Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2019 Te author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identifed as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Tis work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Te use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifc statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Te publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Te publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional afliations. Cover illustration: Model Matt Stöckli, photographer Dominik Tomasik Tis Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Limited Te registered company address is: Te Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom Acknowledgements We would like to thank Danielle Tod and Selina von Allmen for their help in copy-editing the fnal version of this book, Matt Stöckli for modelling services (!) and Dominik Tomasik for the photo on the front cover. An anonymous reviewer gave us very useful feedback on the fnal draft. Robert, Sue and our families have demonstrated superhu- man patience and stamina during the long long long production of this volume, and for that we are truly truly grateful! v Contents 1 Introduction 1 References 16 2 Verbal –s 25 2.1 Introduction 25 2.2 Verbal –s 26 2.3 Te History of Verbal –s 27 2.4 Verbal –s as a Case of Functional Shift 33 2.4.1 Te Northern Subject Rule (NSR) 39 2.4.2 Other Uses of Verbal –s 72 2.5 Te Iconicity Hypothesis 88 References 111 3 Verbal Zero 129 3.1 Introduction 129 3.2 Te History of Verbal Zero 131 3.3 Verbal Zero: East Anglian and African American Vernacular English 133 vii viii Contents 3.4 Contact and Verbal Zero 140 3.5 A Formal Linguistic Perspective of the East Anglian Subject Rule 150 References 156 4 Past BE 165 4.1 Introduction 165 4.2 Current Patterns of Past BE 166 4.3 Te History of Past BE 168 4.4 Dialectological Research on Past BE 172 4.5 Variationist Analyses of Past BE 176 4.5.1 Preservation of Historical Past BE Forms 177 4.5.2 Analogical Levelling 179 4.5.3 Reallocation 183 4.5.4 Grammatical Conditioning: Te Northern and East Anglian Subject Rules 196 4.6 A Formal Linguistic Perspective on Past BE 205 4.7 Past BE from the Perspective of Exaptation and Diagrammatic Iconicity 210 References 226 5 Verbal –s in Existential there Sentences 237 5.1 Introduction 237 5.2 Description and Formal Analysis of Existential there Sentences 241 5.3 Socio-Historical Linguistic Work on Verbal –s in Existentials 251 5.3.1 Te History of Verbal –s in Existentials 252 5.3.2 Variationist Studies 254 5.4 Tying Together the Aims of Formal Linguistics and Variationist Studies 260 5.4.1 Conditioning of Verbal –s by Properties of the Associate-NP 261 5.4.2 Implications of the Efects of ‘Distance’, ‘Tense’ and ‘Contraction’ 270 Contents ix 5.5 Te Grammaticalisation of Existential there into a Presentative Sign 273 5.6 Discussion 294 References 310 6 Conclusion 321 6.1 Verbal –s 321 6.2 Verbal Zero 322 6.3 Past BE 323 6.4 Existentials 323 References 327 References 329 Index 365 List of Tables Table 2.1 Te present-tense indicative and subjunctive verb paradigm in the OE West-Saxon dialect from 800 28 Table 2.2 Te present tense indicative paradigm in Middle English 29 Table 3.1 Grammatical agreement, ambiguous agreement and anaphoric agreement compared 152 Table 4.1 Te geographical distribution of forms of past BE in the Middle English period 169 xi 1 Introduction Present-day Standard English has little subject-verb agreement morphology. Historically, all verbs were marked for person and/ or number in the present and past tense indicative paradigms. Tis is illustrated by the Middle English data in (1a–b) for the 2nd sing. (thou ) and the 3rd pl. (thei ). In the course of the Middle English period, however, most of this agreement marking was lost as a result of the operation of various phonetic changes, the tendency towards the levelling of diferent forms and the dropping of weak vowels, fnal –n, and so on (see Fisiak (1968: 90–99) for a detailed overview of the diferent stages in this development). Currently, in the present tense indicative, the verb is infected with –s only when the subject is 3rd sing. (compare (2a–c)). As shown in (3a–b), in the past tense, only the verb to be has retained distinctive singular and plural forms. By contrast, lexical verbs have a uniform –ed ending across the past tense paradigm (3c–d): © Te Author(s) 2019 1 L. Rupp and D. Britain, Linguistic Perspectives on a Variable English Morpheme, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-72803-9_1 2 L. Rupp and D. Britain (1) a. Tou partest nat so lightly, by Seint John. (14thC Te Pardoner’s Tale, Chaucer; in Mossé 1952: 98) ‘You sha’n’t depart so easily, by St John.’1 b. [m]any prophetis and kyngis wolden … heere tho thingis, that ȝe heere, and thei herden not. (c1384 WBible(1); in the Middle English Dictionary ) (2011–2014) ‘[m]any prophets and kings have desired … to hear the things which you hear, and have not heard them.’2 (2) a. She goes there all the time, you know. (Clarke 1997: 232) b. People says ‘yeah but look at your weather, you gets it freez- ing cold in the winter, you get_ all the rain.’ c. Tey call_ ’em something like a battlehead or something … (both from Godfrey and Tagliamonte 1999: 89) (3) a. She was here … about three months ago … (Tagliamonte and Smith 1999: 9) b. So you were all—you were all just bairns. (example from Smith 2000; cited by Adger 2006: 512) c. Right away I called the children to send a car … d. Yes, since they killed him. (both from Tagliamonte and Poplack 1993: 179, 192) It has been noted that many varieties of English demonstrate a use of verb forms that difers from the contemporary Standard English sys- tem. In this volume, we will focus on four major non-standard uses: verbal –s, verbal zero, past tense forms of the verb to be (past BE) and verbal –s in existential there sentences. Tese uses are illustrated in (4–7) below, respectively. Verbal –s (in (4)) is the use of the sufx –s in contexts that extend beyond the 3rd sing., which in contemporary Standard English is the only grammatical person where –s is permit- ted. Verbal zero (in (5)) is the opposite: the absence of the –s ending in 3rd sing. contexts.3 Past BE (in (6)) is variation in the distribution of was and were; for example, use of was in plural contexts where Standard English uses were. Verbal –s in existential there sentences (in (7)) has been shown to warrant separate treatment (Tagliamonte 1998, amongst others) and involves –s usage with a plural subject.