When to (not) split the infinitive: factors governing patterns of syntactic variation in Twitter-style Philippine English

IF 0.9 2区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

English Language & Linguistics Pub Date : 2024-02-14 DOI:10.1017/s1360674323000631

WILKINSON DANIEL WONG GONZALES

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The variability of adverbial placement in the modified infinitive construction (i.e. split infinitives vs. full infinitives with adverbial pre- and post-modification) has been widely discussed in the (American English) literature. Yet a convincing generalized explanation for the variation that simultaneously incorporates language-internal and language-external factors has yet to be found, particularly in English varieties that have not received as much scholarly attention as standardized varieties. This article investigates modified infinitive syntactic variation in Twitter-style Philippine English (PhE) using a 135-million-word Twitter corpus. It adopts a Bayesian approach in conducting a multiple multinomial regression analysis of the said variation, with the help of Deep-Learning-based demographic inference tools. Although the conditioning effects of some factors diverge from patterns discussed in prior work, the results generally show that language-internal (e.g. stress and rhythm, adverb type, adverb length) and language-external factors (i.e. time, age, sex, geography) jointly shape the choice to split the infinitive in this linguistic style of PhE.

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何时（不）拆分不定式：推特风格菲律宾英语句法变化模式的影响因素

在（美国英语）文献中，副词在修饰不定式结构中的位置变化（即带副词前后修饰的分式不定式与全式不定式）已被广泛讨论。然而，对于这种同时包含语言内部因素和语言外部因素的变异，尚未找到令人信服的普遍解释，尤其是在学术界关注度不及标准化变体的英语变体中。本文使用 1.35 亿字的 Twitter 语料库研究了 Twitter 风格菲律宾英语（PhE）中的修饰不定式句法变异。文章采用贝叶斯方法，借助基于深度学习的人口推断工具，对上述变异进行了多元多项式回归分析。尽管某些因素的调节作用与之前研究中讨论的模式有所不同，但研究结果总体上表明，语言内部因素（如重音和节奏、副词类型、副词长度）和语言外部因素（如时间、年龄、性别、地理位置）共同影响了这种语言风格的 PhE 中不定式分拆的选择。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

English Language & Linguistics Multiple-

CiteScore

2.70

自引率

10.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： English Language and Linguistics, published twice a year, is an international journal which focuses on the description of the English language within the framework of contemporary linguistics. The journal is concerned equally with the synchronic and the diachronic aspects of English language studies and publishes articles of the highest quality which make a substantial contribution to our understanding of the structure and development of the English language and which are informed by a knowledge and appreciation of linguistic theory. English Language and Linguistics carries articles and short discussion papers or squibs on all core aspects of English, from its beginnings to the present day, including syntax, morphology, phonology, semantics, pragmatics, corpus linguistics and lexis.