Variation of verbal constructions in Estonian dialects

Abstract

Traditional Estonian dialect classifications are based on the phonology, morphology, and lexis, and there are very few studies about syntax available. The present article is the first quantitative syntactic study of Estonian dialects. We concentrate on constructions consisting of finite and non-finite verbs, and we apply contemporary statistical methods to explore the syntactic variation. Our results show that even bare token frequencies can identify syntactic patterns quite well, and that analyses exploiting collostructional methods makes the variational patterns even clearer. We use correspondence analysis and clustering to detect geographic influence on variation. The results suggest a syntax-based classification of dialects differs from the traditional classifications based mainly on phonology and lexis. Our data reveal systematic differences between eastern and western dialects at the syntactic level, whereas analyses based on phonology and lexis distinguish mainly between northern and southern dialects. The western dialects make more use of analytic constructions consisting of a finite and a non-finite verb form.