Course titel
Syntax and variation from a
multi-disciplinary perspective
Teacher
Leonie Cornips
E-mail: Leonie.Cornips@meertens.knaw.nl
Postal
Address:
Meertens Instituut
Postbus 94264
1090 GG Amsterdam
Homepage: http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=142455&Itemid=76
Intermediate
(some background in syntax)
he aim of this course
is to evaluate syntactic variation from various disciplines. Each day we will
discuss a different angle on variation ranging from generative grammar,
sociolinguistics to bilingual child acquisition research. This multidisciplinary
view will disentangle the notion of variation (individual variation, geographic
variation, social variation). In addition, it will enhance our understanding on
'variation' in discussing the interplay between linguistic and external factors.
The linguistic phenomena to be selected are verbal clusters and grammatical
gender. On the one hand, the nature of external factors will be discussed from a
sociolinguistic perspective i.e. relevant social dimensions of speakers that are
considered as potential determinants of language variation, for instance, origin
and area of the speaker, gender, age and ethnicity. On the other, we will
discuss language praxis as a social one bringing about syntactic variation. We
will try to isolate the role of each factor.
Monday - Syntax and Variation: language contact, fieldwork and methodology
Auer P. 2005. Europe’s sociolinguistic unity, or: A typology of European dialect/standard constellations. In N. Delbecque et al (eds.) Perspectives on variation. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Auer, P. & F. Hinskens. 1996. The Convergence and Divergence of Dialects in Europe. Sociolinguistica 10: 1-30.
Cornips, L. 2002. ‘Variation between the infinitival complementizers om/voor in
spontaneous speech data compared to elicitation data'. Syntactic Microvariation, ed. by S. Barbiers, L. Cornips and S. van der Kleij, pp. 75-96. Electronic publication of the Meertens Instituut. http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/projecten/sand/synmic/
Cornips, L. & W. Jongenburger. 2001. ‘Elicitation techniques in a Dutch
syntactic dialect atlas project.’ In: H. Broekhuis & T. van der Wouden (ed.), Linguistics in The Netherlands 2001, 18. John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 57-69
Cornips, L. and C. Poletto. Field linguistics meets formal research: how a microcomparative view can deepen our theoretical investigation Part 2 (sentential negation) manuscript subm to Lingua
Cornips, L. & C. Poletto 2005. ‘On standardising syntactic elicitation techniques. PART I.’ Lingua 115 (7), 939-957.
Cornips, L. 2006. 'Intermediate Syntactic
Variants in a Dialect - Standard Speech Repertoire and Relative Acceptability'. Gradience in Grammar. Generative
Perspectives ed. by Gisbert
Fanselow, Caroline Féry,
Matthias Schlesewsky & Ralf Vogel. pp. 85-105.
Henry, A. 2005. Idiolectal variation and syntactic theory. In: Cornips, L. & K.P. Corrigan Syntax and Variation. Reconciling the Biological with the Social. John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia. 109-122
Labov, W. 1996. When intuitions fail. Papers from the 32nd Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society, 32: 76-106.
Tuesday - Syntax and Variation: generative perspective
Adger, D. and J. Smith 2005 Variation and the minimalist program. In: Cornips, L. & K.P. Corrigan Syntax and Variation. Reconciling the Biological with the Social. John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia. 149-178.
Barbiers, S. 2005. Word order variation in three-verb clusters and the division of labour between generatve linguistics and sociolinguistics. In: Cornips, L. & K.P. Corrigan Syntax and Variation. Reconciling the Biological with the Social. John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia. 233-264
Cornips, L. (2009). Empirical syntax: idolectal variability in two- and three-verb clusters in regional standard Dutch and Dutch dialects. In A Dufter, J Fleischer & G Seiler (Eds.), Describing and modeling variation in grammar (Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 204) (pp. 203-224). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Wurmbrand, AS. 2006 Verb clusters, verb raising, and restructuring. In The Blackwell Companion to Syntax, vol. V, Martin Everaert and Henk van Riemsdijk (eds.), 229-343. Blackwell Publishing: UK.
Zwart, J.W. 1996 Verb clusters in continental West Germanic dialects. In: James R. Black and Virginia Motapanyane (eds.), Microparametric Syntax and Dialect Variation, 229–258. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Wednesday - Syntax and Variation: variationist (Labovian) perspective
Cornips, L. 1998. Syntactic variation, parameters and their social distribution. In: Language Variation and Change 10.1. 1-21.
Cornips, L. 2005 ‘"Variation and Formal Theories of Syntax, Chomskian".’ In: K. Brown (ed) Encyclopedia Language & Linguistics. Elsevier, Oxford, pp. 330-332.
Cornips, L. & K. P. Corrigan 2005 ‘Toward an integrated approach to syntactic variation: a retrospective and prospective synopsis.’ In: L. Cornips & K. P. Corrigan [red.] Syntax and Variation. Reconciling the Biological with the Social. John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 1-27.
Cornips, L. & K. Corrigan. 2005. Convergence and Divergence in Grammar. In: Dialect Change: Convergence and Divergence in European Languages (P. Auer, F. Hinskens & P. Kerswill eds). Cambridge University Press, 96-134.
Thursday - Syntax and Variation as a social practice
Bucholtz, M. & K. Hall. 2005. Identity and Interaction: A Sociocultural Linguistic Approach. Discourse Studies 7 (4-5):585-
614.
Cornips, L. and V. de Rooij. Manuscript. The concept of neger in a Rotterdam youth language and culture
Holmes, J. & M. Meyerhoff 1999. The community of practice: theories and methodolgies in language and gender research. Language in Society 28, 173-183.
Jaspers, J. 2008. Problematizing ethnolects:
naming linguistic practices in an
Johnstone, B. (in press). Indexing the Local. In: N. Coupland (ed.), Handbook of Language and Globalization.
Johnstone, B. 2004. Place, Globalization and Linguistic Variation. C. Fought (ed.) Sociolinguistic variation. Critical Reflections. Oxford: Oxford Press, 65-83
Friday - Syntax and Variation in bilingual child acquisition
Cornips, L. 2008 ‘Loosing grammatical gender in Dutch. The result of bilingual acquisition and/or an act of identity?’ International Journal of Bilingualism - Ethnolects? The emergence of new varieties among adolescents 12 (1&2), 105-124.
Cornips, L. & A. Hulk 2008 ‘Factors of success and failure in the acquisition of grammatical gender in Dutch.’ Second Language Research 24 (3), 267-296.
Cornips, L. & A. Hulk 2006)‘External and Internal Factors in Bilingual and Bidialectal Language Development: Grammatical Gender of the Dutch Definite Determiner.’ In: Lefebvre Claire & White Lydia & Jourdan Christine [red.] L2 Acquisition and Creole Genesis. Dialogues. John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, pp. 355-378. (Language Acquisition & Language Disorders, nr. 42).
Unsworth, S. 2008. Age and input in the acquisition of grammatical gender in Dutch. Second Language Research 24 (3), 365-396.
Background and preparatory readings:
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Course readings:
See day-to-day program
Further readings:
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