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Negative Concord as a Window into the Social Perception of Morphological and Syntactic Variables.

Record Type:	Electronic resources : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	Negative Concord as a Window into the Social Perception of Morphological and Syntactic Variables./
Author:	Robinson, Mary.
Description:	1 online resource (289 pages)
Notes:	Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 84-06, Section: A.
Contained By:	Dissertations Abstracts International84-06A.
Subject:	Linguistics. -
Online resource:	http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=29062624click for full text (PQDT)
ISBN:	9798357552440

Negative Concord as a Window into the Social Perception of Morphological and Syntactic Variables.
Robinson, Mary.

Negative Concord as a Window into the Social Perception of Morphological and Syntactic Variables. - 1 online resource (289 pages)

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 84-06, Section: A.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--New York University, 2022.

Includes bibliographical references

This dissertation is based in the idea that the study of linguistic phenomena is greatly improved by taking a holistic approach that integrates formal theory and quantitative data, a la Labov (1969), Guy (1991), and MacKenzie (2013), among others. Many phenomena cannot be explained by one system (e.g. phonology, syntax) alone, and working at the interfaces and across sub-fields can give us a much deeper understanding of the different factors at play. In this light, this dissertation seeks to test a long-held assumption in sociolinguistic theory, starting with a generative morphosyntactic analysis of a specific linguistic phenomenon, and using experimental methods to test hypotheses made.The long-held assumption in the sociolinguistic literature is that syntactic variation is somehow qualitatively different than phonological or morphological variation because it takes place at a more abstract level than phonological and morphological variation do (see Labov 2001; Eckert & Labov 2017, among many others). This difference is believed to manifest itself in social awareness and perception of syntactic variation. Specially, it has been claimed that the abstractness of syntactic variation makes it less salient and therefore less subject to social evaluation (Labov 2001). This dissertation tests this claim in the realm of perception.Sociophonetic perception studies have shown that much social information (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, geographic region) is conveyed through speech, even if the speaker only says a few words (Purnell et al. 1999). Likewise, perception studies have shown that morphophonological variables also convey social information (Labov et al. 2011), and that morphosyntactic variables can convey social information as well (Levon & Buchstaller 2015). If there is indeed a qualitative difference between phonological and morphological variation on one hand, and syntactic variation on the other hand, it should be reflected in the social perception (or lack of perception) of syntactic variables.In the first half of the dissertation, I adopt a categorization scheme to differentiate morphological variables from syntactic variables that is based in generative morphosyntactic theory (Chomsky 2001; Halle & Marantz 1993). I then present the empirical picture of Negative Concord (NC) across varieties of English, and argue that it is not just one variable, as previous studies have assumed. Instead, I argue that NC is an umbrella term for two distinct types of variation: variation in the placement of negative items in a sentence (Nobody didn't see him - Didn't nobody see him), and variation in the realization of negative items (I didn't see nothing - I didn't see anything). I introduce a new implicational hierarchy of cross-dialectal patterns in the syntactic configurations of NC that proves useful in distinguishing between the predictions of formal syntactic analyses of NC. I adopt the Adapted Movement approach (Robinson & Thoms 2021a,b) as a formal account of NC, a theory which locates variation in the placement of negative items in the syntax and variation in the realization of negative items in the morphology.In the second half of the dissertation, I present a perception experiment that compares how participants from dialect groups in the United States and the United Kingdom rated the social traits of NC versus non-NC speakers (the morphological variation) with the perceived ratings of different syntactic configurations of NC (the syntactic variation). The results of the experiment indicate that both the placement and realization of negative items influence perceptions of a speaker: speakers who invert an auxiliary verb and a subject in a declarative sentence (ex: Didn't nobody see him, Didn't anybody see him) receive negative social evaluations, as do speakers who use morphological NC (I didn't see nothing). These results suggest that a `true' syntactic variable such as inversion can be socially evaluated, whether it shows NC morphology or not.

Electronic reproduction.
Ann Arbor, Mich. :
ProQuest,
2023

Mode of access: World Wide Web

ISBN: 9798357552440Subjects--Topical Terms:

524476
Linguistics.
Subjects--Index Terms:

Experimental linguisticsIndex Terms--Genre/Form:

542853
Electronic books.

Negative Concord as a Window into the Social Perception of Morphological and Syntactic Variables.
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520 $a This dissertation is based in the idea that the study of linguistic phenomena is greatly improved by taking a holistic approach that integrates formal theory and quantitative data, a la Labov (1969), Guy (1991), and MacKenzie (2013), among others. Many phenomena cannot be explained by one system (e.g. phonology, syntax) alone, and working at the interfaces and across sub-fields can give us a much deeper understanding of the different factors at play. In this light, this dissertation seeks to test a long-held assumption in sociolinguistic theory, starting with a generative morphosyntactic analysis of a specific linguistic phenomenon, and using experimental methods to test hypotheses made.The long-held assumption in the sociolinguistic literature is that syntactic variation is somehow qualitatively different than phonological or morphological variation because it takes place at a more abstract level than phonological and morphological variation do (see Labov 2001; Eckert & Labov 2017, among many others). This difference is believed to manifest itself in social awareness and perception of syntactic variation. Specially, it has been claimed that the abstractness of syntactic variation makes it less salient and therefore less subject to social evaluation (Labov 2001). This dissertation tests this claim in the realm of perception.Sociophonetic perception studies have shown that much social information (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, geographic region) is conveyed through speech, even if the speaker only says a few words (Purnell et al. 1999). Likewise, perception studies have shown that morphophonological variables also convey social information (Labov et al. 2011), and that morphosyntactic variables can convey social information as well (Levon & Buchstaller 2015). If there is indeed a qualitative difference between phonological and morphological variation on one hand, and syntactic variation on the other hand, it should be reflected in the social perception (or lack of perception) of syntactic variables.In the first half of the dissertation, I adopt a categorization scheme to differentiate morphological variables from syntactic variables that is based in generative morphosyntactic theory (Chomsky 2001; Halle & Marantz 1993). I then present the empirical picture of Negative Concord (NC) across varieties of English, and argue that it is not just one variable, as previous studies have assumed. Instead, I argue that NC is an umbrella term for two distinct types of variation: variation in the placement of negative items in a sentence (Nobody didn't see him - Didn't nobody see him), and variation in the realization of negative items (I didn't see nothing - I didn't see anything). I introduce a new implicational hierarchy of cross-dialectal patterns in the syntactic configurations of NC that proves useful in distinguishing between the predictions of formal syntactic analyses of NC. I adopt the Adapted Movement approach (Robinson & Thoms 2021a,b) as a formal account of NC, a theory which locates variation in the placement of negative items in the syntax and variation in the realization of negative items in the morphology.In the second half of the dissertation, I present a perception experiment that compares how participants from dialect groups in the United States and the United Kingdom rated the social traits of NC versus non-NC speakers (the morphological variation) with the perceived ratings of different syntactic configurations of NC (the syntactic variation). The results of the experiment indicate that both the placement and realization of negative items influence perceptions of a speaker: speakers who invert an auxiliary verb and a subject in a declarative sentence (ex: Didn't nobody see him, Didn't anybody see him) receive negative social evaluations, as do speakers who use morphological NC (I didn't see nothing). These results suggest that a `true' syntactic variable such as inversion can be socially evaluated, whether it shows NC morphology or not.
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