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In:Exploring Future Paths for Historical Sociolinguistics
Edited by Tanja Säily, Arja Nurmi, Minna Palander-Collin and Anita Auer
[Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics 7] 2017
► pp. 157–186

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Relativisation in Dutch diaries, private letters and newspapers (1770–1840)

A genre-specific national language?

 | Leiden University
 | Leiden University
Published online: 19 December 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ahs.7.07kro
The paper focuses on three important themes in historical sociolinguistics: (1) the emergence of national language planning in the Netherlands around 1800, (2) the influence of historical prescriptivism on usage, and (3) genre as a crucial factor in explaining variation and change. The case study deals with relativisation, particularly the neuter relative pronoun in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Dutch. Analysing both internal and external factors, we show that the definiteness of the antecedent does not explain the variation, contrary to what is assumed in the research literature. Likewise, a strong effect of language norms on usage patterns cannot be established. The crucial factor turns out to be genre.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Historical-sociolinguistic background
  • 3.The variable
    • 3.1Changes in relativisation
    • 3.2Focusing on Dutch relative pronouns
    • 3.3The neuter relative pronoun in Late Modern Dutch
    • 3.4Norms for relativisation in Late Modern Dutch
  • 4.Methodology
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Diachronic overview
    • 5.2Definiteness of the antecedent
    • 5.3Geographical variation
    • 5.4Gender variation
    • 5.5Zooming in on genre
  • 6.Discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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Cited by (3)

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Krogull, Andreas & Gijsbert Rutten
2021. Reviving the genitive. Prescription and practice in the Netherlands (1770–1840). Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics 7:1 ► pp. 61 ff. DOI logo
Rutten, Gijsbert, Andreas Krogull & Bob Schoemaker
2020. Implementation and acceptance of national language policy: the case of Dutch (1750–1850). Language Policy 19:2 ► pp. 259 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2019. Language Planning as Nation Building [Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics, 9], DOI logo

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