LINGUIST List 25.708
Tue
Feb 11 2014
Diss: English,
Sociolinguistics: Schulz: 'Morphosyntactic
Variation in British English Dialects
...'
Editor for this issue:
Xiyan Wang <xiyanlinguistlist.org>
Date: 11-Feb-2014
From: Monika Schulz
<monika.schulz
hpsl.uni-freiburg.de>
Subject: Morphosyntactic
Variation in British English Dialects: Evidence
from possession, obligation and past
habituality
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Institution: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität
Freiburg
Program: English Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2012
Author: Monika Edith Schulz
Dissertation Title: Morphosyntactic Variation
in British English Dialects: Evidence from
possession, obligation and past habituality
Dissertation URL:
http://www.freidok.uni-freiburg.de/volltexte/8511/pdf/Dissertation_Monika_Edith_Schulz.pdf
Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics
Subject Language(s):
English (eng)
Dissertation Director:
Christian Mair
Bernd Kortmann
Dissertation Abstract:
In its most narrow conception, the present
study contributes to research on
the patterning of markers of possession,
modality and aspect in traditional
British English dialects. The degree of
grammaticalization of the systems
of past possession, past obligation and past
habituality marking in the
Midlands and the North will be compared to
findings from phonological
studies to establish whether relic and
transition areas postulated on the
basis of phonology hold for the distribution of
morphosyntactic features as
well or if the areal spread of morphosyntactic
innovations differs from the
areal spread of phonological innovations.
On a more general level, the study uses the
synchronic variation found in
past possession, past obligation and past
habituality marking as a
spotlight on different stages of the
grammaticalization of modal and
aspectual subsystems of the auxiliary verb
system in English. It aims to
uncover which kinds of developments can be
deduced from the synchronic
variation found, whether the same changes or
developments can be observed
in all dialect areas, and what the differences
between the dialect areas
tell us about the nature of language
change.
From a methodological point of view, the
present study contributes to the
growing body of literature that employs the
methodological tools of
variationist sociolinguistics to measure and
model degrees of
grammaticalization. Relative frequency of use
and the patterning of
constraints on the use of different variants of
a linguistic variable will
be compared and constrasted to establish their
merit as possible indicators
of degrees of grammaticalization.
The present study complements this body of
research with a corpus-based,
comparative investigation into the systems of
past possession, past
obligation and past habitual marking in two
different dialects of English,
informed by current theories of language
variation and change and the
methodological advances of variationist
sociolinguistics.
The chapters on possession and obligation
discuss the correlation between
the layering of past possession markers and the
layering of past obligation
markers in the dialect data. The system in the
Midlands, which shows
layering of HAD and HAD GOT as well as HAD TO
and HAD GOT TO, will be
argued to be further grammaticalized than the
system in the North, where
HAD and HAD TO are the sole markers of past
possession and past obligation.
The chapters on past habituality focuses on the
patterning of WOULD and
USED TO. The degree of grammaticalization of
USED TO is established via its
relative frequency and observable reflexes of
its original restriction to
combinations with animate subjets and
non-stative verbs. A higher relative
frequency of USED TO and weaker disfavoring
effects of inanimate subjects
and stative verbs in the Midlands counties are
interpreted as indicators of
a higher degree of grammaticalization.
Page Updated: 11-Feb-2014