Explanations in Sociosyntactic Variation

Frontpage
Frontmatter
Contents
Figures
Tables
Contributors
Series Editor's Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Analysing and Explaining Syntactic Variation (Christensen & Jensen)
How to ‘Say the Same Thing’ Syntactically
Delimiting Syntax for Variation Studies
Social Conditioning of Syntactic Variation
Explanations for Syntactic Choice
Presentation of Chapters
References
Comparing Syntactic Variables (Tagliamonte)
1.1 Introduction
1.2 The Variables – Complementizers and Relative Pronouns
1.3 The Data
1.4 Method
1.5 Variable (that)
1.5.1 Summary
1.6 Variable Relative Pronouns
1.6.1 Summary of Relative Pronouns
1.7 Discussion
1.7.1 Function of ‘That’
1.7.2 Function of ‘Who’
1.8 Conclusion
References
Mapping Syntax and the Sociolinguistic Monitor (Smith & Holmes-Elliott)
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Data and Methodology
2.3 The Variables
2.3.1 Negative Concord
2.3.2 Never for Didn’t
2.4 The Analyses
2.4.1 Negative Concord
2.4.1.1 Circumscription of the Variable Context
2.4.1.2 Results
2.4.2 Never for Didn’t
2.4.2.1 Circumscription of the Variable Context
2.4.2.2 Results
2.5 Discussion and Conclusion
References
A Columbia School Perspective on
Explanation in Morphosyntactic Variation (Otheguy & Shin)
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Study of the Variable Use of Spanish Subject Personal Pronouns
3.2.1 Overt and Null Subject Pronouns
3.2.2 Categorical and Variable Uses of the Pronouns
3.3 Columbia School Linguistics
3.3.1 Sign-Based Theory
3.3.2 The Locus of Meaning
3.3.3 The Construct of the Sentence
3.3.4 The Categories of the Sentence
3.4 Consequences of the Columbia School View for the Study of Variation
3.4.1 Sign-Based Variation
3.4.2 Variation between Units with Different Meanings
3.4.3 Variation Articulated in Terms of Signs
3.4.4 Same Status for Categorical and Variable Linguistic Behavior
3.4.5 The Analysis Covers the Entire Distribution
3.4.6 Categorization in Terms of Presence versus Absence, Not Overtversus Null
3.4.7 Explanation of Variability
3.4.8 Variants with Different Meanings
3.5 The Meaning of Spanish Subject Pronouns
3.6 The Statistical Treatment of the Spanish Subject Pronouns
3.7 Statistical Results
3.8 Explanation and the “Expected” Results of the Continuity Variable
3.9 A Prediction Supporting the Post Hoc Explanation
3.10 Discussion and Conclusion
References
On the Inevitability of Social Meaning and
Ideology in Accounts of Syntactic Change:
Evidence from Pronoun Competition in
Netherlandic Dutch (Grondelaers et al.)
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The Variable
4.3 A Speaker-Evaluation Experiment to Assess the Prestige Boosts for Subject-Hun
4.3.1 Method
4.3.2 Results
4.3.3 Discussion
4.4 Understanding the Distribution of Subject-Hun in Tweets
4.5 Discussion and Conclusion
References
The Predictability of Social Stratification
of Syntactic Variants (Cornips)
5.1 The Research Question: The Predictability of Syntactic Variation Showing Social Stratification
5.2 The Community of Heerlen and Speaker Variables
5.3 The Infinitival Complementizers Om and Voor
5.4 The ‘Object’ Pronoun Hun as a Sentence Subject
5.5 Habitual Doen ‘Do’ + Infinitive
5.6 Word-Order Variation in the Two-Verb Cluster
5.7 Double Object Constructions
5.7.1 Dative Inalienable Possessive Construction
5.7.2 The Dative Benefactive Construction
5.8 Discussion
5.8.1 Frequency, Synonymy/Functional Equivalence and the Interface Domain
5.8.2 The Sociolinguistic Monitor
5.9 Conclusion
References
When Variants Lack Semantic Equivalence:
Adverbial Subclause Word Order (Christensen & Jensen)
6.1 Syntactic Variation and the Equivalence Problem
6.2 Testing Semantic Differences
6.3 Word Order in Subordinate Clauses
6.3.1 Linguistic Predictors
6.3.1.1 Integration
6.3.1.2 Adverbial Types
6.3.1.3 Position of the Subclause Relative to the Main Clause
6.3.1.4 Length in Words
6.3.1.5 Factuality
6.3.1.6 Disfluency
6.3.1.7 Conjunction
6.3.2 Non-linguistic Predictors
6.4 Data
6.5 Method
6.6 Results
6.6.1 Statistical Significance Assessed through Mixed-Effect Modelling
6.6.2 Relative Importance of Predictors
6.6.3 Analyses of Sub-corpora
6.7 Discussion and Conclusion
References
Index