Constraints on verbal -s/zero marking: New insights from Norwich

IF 1.4 2区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Language Variation and Change Pub Date : 2024-09-11 DOI:10.1017/s0954394524000115

David Britain, Laura Rupp

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Here we investigate present tense verbal -s/zero variability in a dialect of Eastern England in which -s marking can only appear in third-person singular contexts. Our objective is to explore constraints on -s/zero marking, and to consider the grammatical function of -s in such a variety. In order to investigate this, we reanalyzed verbal -s/zero marking in 63 sociolinguistic interviews found in Peter Trudgill’s (1974) corpus from Norwich. The results show not only a significant role for subject animacy (animate subjects mark -s less than inanimates) and lexical (punctual verbs mark -s less than duratives) and structural aspect (punctual and habitual events mark less -s than durative ones), but also an interaction between animacy and aspect. To account for the findings, we draw upon the notion of differential subject marking (e.g., Aissen, 2003), which considers the role of the canonicity of arguments in accounting for morphological marking.

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言语"-"/"0 "标记的限制因素：来自诺维奇的新见解

在这里，我们研究了英格兰东部方言中现在时态动词 -s/zero 的变化，在这种方言中，-s 标记只能出现在第三人称单数语境中。我们的目的是探索 -s/zero 标记的限制因素，并考虑 -s 在这种变化中的语法功能。为此，我们重新分析了彼得-特鲁吉尔（Peter Trudgill，1974 年）诺里奇语料库中 63 个社会语言访谈中的动词-s/零标记。结果表明，主语的灵性（有生命的主语比无生命的主语少标记-s）、词性（准时动词比持续动词少标记-s）和结构方面（准时事件和惯常事件比持续事件少标记-s）不仅起着重要作用，而且灵性和方面之间存在相互作用。为了解释这些发现，我们借鉴了差别主语标记的概念（如 Aissen, 2003），该概念考虑了论据的能指性在解释形态标记中的作用。

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

Language Variation and Change Multiple-

CiteScore

2.60

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Language Variation and Change is the only journal dedicated exclusively to the study of linguistic variation and the capacity to deal with systematic and inherent variation in synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Sociolinguistics involves analysing the interaction of language, culture and society; the more specific study of variation is concerned with the impact of this interaction on the structures and processes of traditional linguistics. Language Variation and Change concentrates on the details of linguistic structure in actual speech production and processing (or writing), including contemporary or historical sources.