This paper presents an investigation of the extent to which Heine's (2003) mechanisms of grammati... more This paper presents an investigation of the extent to which Heine's (2003) mechanisms of grammaticalization-erosion (phonetic reduction), decategorialization (loss of morpho-syntactic properties), desemanticization (semantic bleaching) and extension (context expansion)-are evident in the variation of negative question tags in three varieties of British English spoken in Glasgow, Tyneside, and Salford. The study considers the variation in terms of three types of variant-full (e.g., isn't it), reduced (e.g., int it), and coalesced (e.g., innit)-which each represent a stage in the erosion process. Quantitative variationist analysis of informal conversational data shows that erosion of negative tags occurs to different degrees in each of the three communities. The locality with the least tag erosion-Tyneside-displays particularly strong social stratification in the variation that suggests a change in progress led by younger men. However, there is little to no evidence of decategorialization in the negative tags, nor does variation in tag meaning correlate with phonetic form in a consistent manner. The results therefore suggest that erosion and desemanticization/extension do not occur in lockstep as these constructions grammaticalize, while decategorialization occurs at a later stage in the change.
'Never' originated as a temporal adverb expressing universal quantification over time ('Type 1', ... more 'Never' originated as a temporal adverb expressing universal quantification over time ('Type 1', e.g. 'he's never been to Paris'). As Lucas & Willis (2012) report, it has developed non-quantificational meanings equivalent to 'didn't', starting with the 'Type 2' use which depicts an event that could have occurred in a specific 'window of opportunity' (e.g. 'she waited but he never arrived'). Subsequently, a non-standard 'Type 3' use developed, where 'never' can be used with other predicates (e.g. 'I never won that competition yesterday'). To what extent does variation in the use of 'never' in present-day English reflect the proposed historical development of the form? This study addresses this question by integrating syntactic theory into a quantitative variationist approach, analysing 'never' vs. 'didn't' in Type 2 and Type 3 contexts using speech corpora from three Northern British communities. The results show how syntactic-semantic constraints on 'never' in Type 2 contexts persist in its newer, Type 3 uses, e.g. it is used at higher rates in achievement predicates. While Type 2 contexts are associated with the expression of counter-expectation, 'never' has become pragmatically strengthened in its Type 3 use, where it is often used to contradict a previously-expressed proposition.
Negation with indefinite items in English can be expressed in three ways: any-negation (I didn't ... more Negation with indefinite items in English can be expressed in three ways: any-negation (I didn't have any money), no-negation (I had no money) and negative concord (I didn't have no money). These variants have persisted over time, with some studies suggesting that the newest variant, any-negation, is increasing at the expense of no-negation (Tottie 1991a, 1991b). Others suggest that although this variable was undergoing change in earlier centuries, it is stable in Modern English (Wallage 2017). This article examines the current state of the variability in four communities within two distinctive English-speaking regions: Toronto and Belleville in Ontario, Canada, and Tyneside and York in Northern England. Our comparative quantitative analysis of speech corpora from these communities shows that the rates of no-negation vary between Northern England and Ontario, but the variation is largely stable and primarily conditioned by verb type in a robust effect that holds cross-dialectally: functional verbs retain no-negation, while lexical verbs favour any. The social embedding of the variability varies between the communities, but they share a common variable grammar.
This paper integrates syntactic theory and variationist analysis in an investigation of the varia... more This paper integrates syntactic theory and variationist analysis in an investigation of the variation between English not-negation (I don't have any money), no-negation (I have no money) and negative concord (I don't have no money). Using corpora of three varieties of UK English spoken in Glasgow, Tyneside and Salford respectively, I test two theoretical accounts of the variation. Account 1 applies Zeijlstra's (2004) agreement-based theory of negative concord to all three variants, such that n-words (e.g. nobody) which feature in no-negation and negative concord are not inherently negative but agree with a negative operator in a higher NegP. Under Account 2, no-negation is instead derived via negative-marking within the DP followed by movement to the higher NegP for sentential scope (Kayne 1998; Svenonius 2002; Zeijlstra 2011). These accounts, together with observations about the raising properties of functional versus lexical verbs, lead to the formulation of different hypotheses about the distribution of variants in speech according to verb type, verb phrase complexity, and the discourse status of the propositions expressed. Results of distributional analysis and mixed-effects modelling support Account 2 of the variation over Account 1, suggesting structural identity between not-negation and negative concord (in contrast to no-negation). This supports Tubau's (2016) proposal that English negative indefinites have two distinct structures: one in which negation is marked syntactically in the DP and one in which they agree with a syntactically-higher NegP.
The word canny has long been associated with the dialects of the North East of England, most typi... more The word canny has long been associated with the dialects of the North East of England, most typically in its adjectival sense. However, it has four distinct functions (adjective, adverb, intensifier and modifier in quantifying expressions), which this paper tracks in a diachronic speech corpus. Although the intensifier (e.g. it's canny good) is documented in the Survey of English Dialects (Upton et al. 1994), it appears in the corpus later than expected with the profile of an incoming form. Results from a judgement task corroborate the corpus trends and show that people's intuitions about intensifier canny correlate with age as well as the semantics and position of the following adjective, in such a way that shows the intensifier is not fully delexicalised. The research highlights the value of combining production and perception data in establishing how the origins of a linguistic item affect its distribution in its new function.
This paper presents an investigation of the extent to which Heine's (2003) mechanisms of grammati... more This paper presents an investigation of the extent to which Heine's (2003) mechanisms of grammaticalization-erosion (phonetic reduction), decategorialization (loss of morpho-syntactic properties), desemanticization (semantic bleaching) and extension (context expansion)-are evident in the variation of negative question tags in three varieties of British English spoken in Glasgow, Tyneside, and Salford. The study considers the variation in terms of three types of variant-full (e.g., isn't it), reduced (e.g., int it), and coalesced (e.g., innit)-which each represent a stage in the erosion process. Quantitative variationist analysis of informal conversational data shows that erosion of negative tags occurs to different degrees in each of the three communities. The locality with the least tag erosion-Tyneside-displays particularly strong social stratification in the variation that suggests a change in progress led by younger men. However, there is little to no evidence of decategorialization in the negative tags, nor does variation in tag meaning correlate with phonetic form in a consistent manner. The results therefore suggest that erosion and desemanticization/extension do not occur in lockstep as these constructions grammaticalize, while decategorialization occurs at a later stage in the change.
'Never' originated as a temporal adverb expressing universal quantification over time ('Type 1', ... more 'Never' originated as a temporal adverb expressing universal quantification over time ('Type 1', e.g. 'he's never been to Paris'). As Lucas & Willis (2012) report, it has developed non-quantificational meanings equivalent to 'didn't', starting with the 'Type 2' use which depicts an event that could have occurred in a specific 'window of opportunity' (e.g. 'she waited but he never arrived'). Subsequently, a non-standard 'Type 3' use developed, where 'never' can be used with other predicates (e.g. 'I never won that competition yesterday'). To what extent does variation in the use of 'never' in present-day English reflect the proposed historical development of the form? This study addresses this question by integrating syntactic theory into a quantitative variationist approach, analysing 'never' vs. 'didn't' in Type 2 and Type 3 contexts using speech corpora from three Northern British communities. The results show how syntactic-semantic constraints on 'never' in Type 2 contexts persist in its newer, Type 3 uses, e.g. it is used at higher rates in achievement predicates. While Type 2 contexts are associated with the expression of counter-expectation, 'never' has become pragmatically strengthened in its Type 3 use, where it is often used to contradict a previously-expressed proposition.
Negation with indefinite items in English can be expressed in three ways: any-negation (I didn't ... more Negation with indefinite items in English can be expressed in three ways: any-negation (I didn't have any money), no-negation (I had no money) and negative concord (I didn't have no money). These variants have persisted over time, with some studies suggesting that the newest variant, any-negation, is increasing at the expense of no-negation (Tottie 1991a, 1991b). Others suggest that although this variable was undergoing change in earlier centuries, it is stable in Modern English (Wallage 2017). This article examines the current state of the variability in four communities within two distinctive English-speaking regions: Toronto and Belleville in Ontario, Canada, and Tyneside and York in Northern England. Our comparative quantitative analysis of speech corpora from these communities shows that the rates of no-negation vary between Northern England and Ontario, but the variation is largely stable and primarily conditioned by verb type in a robust effect that holds cross-dialectally: functional verbs retain no-negation, while lexical verbs favour any. The social embedding of the variability varies between the communities, but they share a common variable grammar.
This paper integrates syntactic theory and variationist analysis in an investigation of the varia... more This paper integrates syntactic theory and variationist analysis in an investigation of the variation between English not-negation (I don't have any money), no-negation (I have no money) and negative concord (I don't have no money). Using corpora of three varieties of UK English spoken in Glasgow, Tyneside and Salford respectively, I test two theoretical accounts of the variation. Account 1 applies Zeijlstra's (2004) agreement-based theory of negative concord to all three variants, such that n-words (e.g. nobody) which feature in no-negation and negative concord are not inherently negative but agree with a negative operator in a higher NegP. Under Account 2, no-negation is instead derived via negative-marking within the DP followed by movement to the higher NegP for sentential scope (Kayne 1998; Svenonius 2002; Zeijlstra 2011). These accounts, together with observations about the raising properties of functional versus lexical verbs, lead to the formulation of different hypotheses about the distribution of variants in speech according to verb type, verb phrase complexity, and the discourse status of the propositions expressed. Results of distributional analysis and mixed-effects modelling support Account 2 of the variation over Account 1, suggesting structural identity between not-negation and negative concord (in contrast to no-negation). This supports Tubau's (2016) proposal that English negative indefinites have two distinct structures: one in which negation is marked syntactically in the DP and one in which they agree with a syntactically-higher NegP.
The word canny has long been associated with the dialects of the North East of England, most typi... more The word canny has long been associated with the dialects of the North East of England, most typically in its adjectival sense. However, it has four distinct functions (adjective, adverb, intensifier and modifier in quantifying expressions), which this paper tracks in a diachronic speech corpus. Although the intensifier (e.g. it's canny good) is documented in the Survey of English Dialects (Upton et al. 1994), it appears in the corpus later than expected with the profile of an incoming form. Results from a judgement task corroborate the corpus trends and show that people's intuitions about intensifier canny correlate with age as well as the semantics and position of the following adjective, in such a way that shows the intensifier is not fully delexicalised. The research highlights the value of combining production and perception data in establishing how the origins of a linguistic item affect its distribution in its new function.
Uploads
Papers by Claire Childs