- Series Information
- [UNTITLED]
- Acknowledgments
- About the Editors
- Contributors
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- The Study of Language and Society
- Variationist Sociolinguistics
- Linguistic Anthropology
- Doers and Makers: The Interwoven Stories of Sociology and the Study of Language
- Critical Discourse Analysis
- Conversation Analysis
- The Intersections of Language Socialization and Sociolinguistics
- Psycholinguistic Approaches
- Interdisciplinary Approaches
- Studies of the Community and the Individual
- Experimental Methods for Measuring Intelligibility of Closely Related Language Varieties
- Quantitative Analysis
- Analyzing Qualitative Data: Mapping the Research Trajectory in Multilingual Contexts
- Longitudinal Studies
- Methods for Studying Sign Languages
- Pidgins and Creoles
- Language Maintenance and Shift
- Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition
- Codeswitching
- Sign Language Contact
- Sociophonetics
- Phonology and Sociolinguistics
- Morphosyntactic Variation
- Pragmatics and Variationist Sociolinguistics
- Variation and Change
- Sociolinguistic Variation and Change in Sign Languages
- Language Policy, Ideology, and Attitudes in English-Dominant Countries
- English in Language Policies and Ideologies in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Vernacularization
- Language Policy and Ideology: Greater China
- Language Policies and Politics in South Asia
- Language Policy and Ideology in Latin America
- Language Policy, Ideology, and Attitudes Key Issues in Western Europe
- Language Management in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Post-Soviet Countries
- Language Ideologies, Policies, and Attitudes toward Signed Languages
- Language and Law
- Our Stories, Ourselves: Can the Culture of a Large Medical School Be Changed without Open Heart Surgery?
- Sociolinguistic Studies of Signed Language Interpreting
- Language Awareness in Community Perspective: Obligation and Opportunity
- Linguistic and Ecological Diversity
- Language Revitalization
- Sociolinguistics and Social Activism
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter first reviews early methodological and theoretical debates regarding the nature of variation above the level of phonology. These debates include whether or not the notion of the linguistic variable can be legitimately extended to morphosyntactic variation; the nature of the relationship between quantitative data and the statistical results based on them and linguistic competence; and what role linguistic introspection should play. The discussion deals with current trends in modeling morphosyntactic variation, or, put differently, with the emerging field of socio-syntax. There are two main responses to the question of where morphosyntactic variation comes from. One perspective involves the postulation of multiple grammars, most prominently in Kroch’s Competing Grammars model. The other relies on the Minimalist operations of feature interpretation and feature checking.
Keywords: phonology, morphosyntactic variation, linguistic variable, linguistic competence, linguistic introspection, socio-syntax, Competing Grammars model
Ruth King is Professor of Linguistics at York University, Toronto. Her research deals with patterns of grammatical variation and change in French as well as general issues around language change, including the process by which language contact leads to grammatical change. She is the author of three books and numerous journal articles and book chapters.
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- Series Information
- [UNTITLED]
- Acknowledgments
- About the Editors
- Contributors
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- The Study of Language and Society
- Variationist Sociolinguistics
- Linguistic Anthropology
- Doers and Makers: The Interwoven Stories of Sociology and the Study of Language
- Critical Discourse Analysis
- Conversation Analysis
- The Intersections of Language Socialization and Sociolinguistics
- Psycholinguistic Approaches
- Interdisciplinary Approaches
- Studies of the Community and the Individual
- Experimental Methods for Measuring Intelligibility of Closely Related Language Varieties
- Quantitative Analysis
- Analyzing Qualitative Data: Mapping the Research Trajectory in Multilingual Contexts
- Longitudinal Studies
- Methods for Studying Sign Languages
- Pidgins and Creoles
- Language Maintenance and Shift
- Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition
- Codeswitching
- Sign Language Contact
- Sociophonetics
- Phonology and Sociolinguistics
- Morphosyntactic Variation
- Pragmatics and Variationist Sociolinguistics
- Variation and Change
- Sociolinguistic Variation and Change in Sign Languages
- Language Policy, Ideology, and Attitudes in English-Dominant Countries
- English in Language Policies and Ideologies in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Vernacularization
- Language Policy and Ideology: Greater China
- Language Policies and Politics in South Asia
- Language Policy and Ideology in Latin America
- Language Policy, Ideology, and Attitudes Key Issues in Western Europe
- Language Management in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Post-Soviet Countries
- Language Ideologies, Policies, and Attitudes toward Signed Languages
- Language and Law
- Our Stories, Ourselves: Can the Culture of a Large Medical School Be Changed without Open Heart Surgery?
- Sociolinguistic Studies of Signed Language Interpreting
- Language Awareness in Community Perspective: Obligation and Opportunity
- Linguistic and Ecological Diversity
- Language Revitalization
- Sociolinguistics and Social Activism
- Index