Description
Book SynopsisThis edited volume, based on papers presented at the 2017 Georgetown University Round Table on Language and Linguistics (GURT), approaches the study of language variation from a variety of angles. Language variation research asks broad questions such as, "Why are languages' grammatical structures different from one another?" as well as more specific word-level questions such as, "Why are words that are pronounced differently still recognized to be the same words?" Too often, research on variation has been siloed based on the particular question—sociolinguists do not talk to historical linguists, who do not talk to phoneticians, and so on. This edited volume seeks to bring discussions from different subfields of linguistics together to explore language variation in a broader sense and acknowledge the complexity and interwoven nature of variation itself.
Table of ContentsContentsIllustrationsPreface 1. Re-thinking variable properties in language: IntroductionDavid W. Lightfoot and Jonathan Havenhill 2. Contrastive feature hierarchies in phonology: Variation and universalityB. Elan Dresher 3. Scope variation in contrastive hierarchies of morphosyntactic featuresElizabeth Cowper and Daniel Currie Hall 4. Allophonic systems as a variable within individual speakersBetsy Sneller 5. A label theoretic explanation of the resultative parameterDaniel Milway 6. Adverbial -s: so awks but so natural!Norbert Corver 7. The acquisition of English article alternations: Variation, competition, and the defaultMarjorie Pak 8. Verb second word order in Norwegian heritage language: Syntax and pragmaticsMarit Westergaard and Terje Lohndal 9. Acquisition of morphosyntax: A pattern learning approachHeidi Getz 10. How to be faithful to the input in a situation of language contactAlicia Avellana, Lucía Brandani, Hannah Forsythe, and Cristina Schmitt 11. Variation and mental representationGregory Guy 12. Variation and competing I-languages in creole genesis: A synchronic and diachronic viewMarlyse Baptista 13. Transmission revisited Gillian Sankoff 14. The value of small communities in a big data world: Investigating Smith Island English in real and apparent timeNatalie Schilling 15. All zeros are not equal in African American EnglishLisa Green ContributorsIndex
