Abstract
This paper introduces a new resource designed to facilitate the quantitative investigation of syntactic variation in spoken language from a comparative perspective. The datasets comprise homogeneously annotated collections of “interchangeable” (i.e. competing) genitive and dative variants in four varieties of English: American English, British English, Canadian English, and New Zealand English. To showcase the empirical potential of the data source, we present a suggestive analysis that investigates the extent to which the probabilistic grammar of genitive and dative variant choice differs across varieties. The statistical analysis reveals that while there are a number of subtle probabilistic contrasts between the regional varieties under study, there is overall a striking degree of cross-varietal homogeneity. We conclude by outlining directions for future research. This article is part of the Special Collection: Probabilistic grammars: Syntactic variation in a comparative perspective
Highlights
In an effort to pool various pre-existing materials, work has been underway by the authors to create two comprehensive and homogeneously annotated datasets designed to facilitate the investigation of syntactic variation in spoken language from a comparative perspective.1 Dataset 1 (: the “genitive dataset”) covers the English genitive alternation, as in (1); dataset 2 covers the English dative alternation with the verb give, as in (2).(1) The genitive alternation a. [anthropology]possessor‘s [history]possessum is implicated in the scientific construction b. it forces us to rethink [...] [the history]possessum of [American anthropology]possessorArt. 86, page 2 of 27Szmrecsanyi et al: Spoken syntax in a comparative perspective (2) The dative alternation a
A secondary, smaller batch of AmE genitives which is in the dataset but not included in the analysis presented in this paper, derives from the Corpus of Spoken American English (CSAE)2 and was first analyzed in Szmrecsanyi (2006: Chapter 5). (N = 1104 Switchboard; N = 319 CSAE)
Based on this new resource, we investigated the extent to which patterns in the English genitive and dative alternations differ across four major regional varieties of English
Summary
In an effort to pool various pre-existing materials, work has been underway by the authors to create two comprehensive and homogeneously annotated datasets designed to facilitate the investigation of syntactic variation in spoken language from a comparative perspective. Dataset 1 (: the “genitive dataset”) covers the English genitive alternation, as in (1); dataset 2 ( the “dative dataset”) covers the English dative alternation with the verb give, as in (2). Szmrecsanyi et al: Spoken syntax in a comparative perspective (2) The dative alternation (exemplification adapted from Tagliamonte 2014: 297) a. We introduce the new datasets to the community, and summarize the sources, the definitions of the variable contexts, annotation procedures, and so on. We use these datasets to address the extent to which the probabilistic grammars of genitive and dative choice (by which we mean the set of constraints, their effect directions and effect strengths, and the constraint rankings) differ or resemble each other across varieties of English, and we discuss how these differences or resemblances speak to theoretical questions about the usage- and experience-basedness of (knowledge of) variation.
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