Are non-standard dialects more ‘natural’ than the standard? A test case from English verb morphology

The loss of inflectional categories is often thought of as a type of simplification. In this paper we present a survey of phenomena involving the reduction of adjective agreement in Scandinavian, using examples from Norwegian, and discuss their diachronic origins, including a new account of the development of indeclinability in adjectives such as kry ‘proud’. These examples each involve lexically restricted non-canonical inflection – syncretism, defectiveness, overdifferentiation and periphrasis – in particular paradigm cells or syntactic environments. They show that the loss of inflection does not necessarily simplify grammar, and in some cases, can increase grammatical complexity by adding lexical exceptions to general rules. This excludes simplification as the motivation, even if it is the eventual result. We argue from these historical developments that speakers are liable to analyse idiosyncratic patterns of inflection as lexically specified, even where more general (but perhaps more abstract) alternatives are possible. Thus speakers do not always operate with a maximally elegant, reductionist approach to inflection classes.

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Making sense of grammatical variation in Norwegian

Enger

Spilling

Sameien

2018

Studies in Language Companion Series

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This study examines two examples of grammatical variation in Norwegian inflection, strong versus weak verb conjugation and affixal versus periphrastic adjective comparison. The main claim is that they are not as arbitrary as one may think, they rather indicate a division of labour. The strong verb inflection tends to be motivated not only by phonology, but also by semantics. The affixal and periphrastic adjective comparisons tend to be used with different sets of adjectives and for different semantic purposes. These observations support the Principle of Contrast, the idea that a difference in forms normally will relate to a difference in some kind of meaning.

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Are non-standard dialects more ‘natural’ than the standard? A test case from English verb morphology

Abstract: Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0022226710000241How to cite this article: LIESELOTTE ANDERWALD (2011). Are non-standard dialects more 'natural' than the standard? A test case from English verb morphology.

Cited by 6 publications

References 48 publications

Ideology and Language Change

Ideology and Language Change

The loss of inflection as grammar complication

Making sense of grammatical variation in Norwegian

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