Abstract
This paper presents different ways in which the Gallo-Romance data of the Atlas linguistique de la France (ALF) can contribute to syntactic description, typology and analysis. After briefly presenting the SyMiLa project, which aims at making such data accessible, it presents four case-studies. The first one focuses on wh-questions, which provide a horizontal perspective over the whole Gallo-Romance varieties. The complete data set shows how the dominant wh-structures distribute over the Gallo-Romance domain, and how the rarer ones argue for an articulated CP where que ‘that’ stands in Fin, and for a compositional nature of est-ce que. The next section turns to a vertical perspective on the data: it focuses on a very local phenomenon, complementizer doubling, and shows how the ALF reveals an optional but consistent behavior, which adds evidence to a head-movement analysis and suggests that complementizer doubling and recomplementation correspond to two different configurations. The last section deals with isolated data, that could not per se lead to any clear syntactic claim. Anecdotal and unsystematic as they may seem in the atlas, these data signal structures that, as further research shows, can enrich and/or challenge previous generalizations on interrogative clause typing and Negative Concord, respectively. In the latter case, they call for typologies and analyses of Negative Concord that include both optional concord and partial concord.
Highlights
The contribution of Gallo-Romance dialect syntax to syntactic theory, typology or, as concerns the Oïl dialects, even the diachrony of French syntax, is almost null – mostly for lack of documentation
This paper presents different ways in which the Gallo-Romance data of the Atlas linguistique de la France (ALF) can contribute to syntactic description, typology and analysis
6 Conclusion Though the ALF was not conceived to study dialectal syntax, and though the methodology used to collect the data is not perfect for theoretical analysis, I have shown that it can still be an invaluable tool in a domain that dramatically lacks literature
Summary
The contribution of Gallo-Romance dialect syntax to syntactic theory, typology or, as concerns the Oïl dialects, even the diachrony of French syntax, is almost null – mostly for lack of documentation. It was in particular crucial in the planning of the second part of the SyMila project, i.e. the conduct of new surveys, based on a fully syntax-oriented questionnaire, to further our insight into Gallo-Romance dialect syntax The latter is centered on 5 syntactic targets, for which the ALF data have already shown they have non-trivial implications for syntactic typology and analysis: negation and Negative Concord, subjects, clitics, the structure of CP and agreement within DPs. The methodology is, to a large extent, kept similar to the ALF one (translation of a stimulus sentence), in order to get data more comparable to the ALF ones. It will illustrate several ways in which they can contribute to syntactic studies, refine typologies, add independent ground to theoretical proposals and challenge others
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
