In:Syntactic Variation in Insular Scandinavian
Edited by Höskuldur Thráinsson, Caroline Heycock, Hjalmar P. Petersen and Zakaris Svabo Hansen
[Studies in Germanic Linguistics 1] 2017
► pp. 19–52
On quantity and quality in syntactic variation studies
Published online: 18 July 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/sigl.1.02thr
https://doi.org/10.1075/sigl.1.02thr
Abstract
This paper discusses some methodological issues in variation studies, drawing mainly on experience gathered in work on syntactic variation in Insular Scandinavian. First, it demonstrates the importance of having a large number of informants if you want to get a reliable picture of the distribution of certain variants or the ongoing development behind syntactic variation. Second, it is shown that different elicitation methods, e.g. absolute vs. relative judgments, can complement each other since they do not always yield the same kind of information. Third, the paper gives a partial answer to the question whether Faroese is moving towards Mainland Scandinavian.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Doing large scale studies to avoid the Forrest Gump Effect
- 3.Relative judgments and absolute judgments can complement each other
- 4.Correlations between judgments – and limits of strictly parametric approaches
- 4.1Correlation between acceptance of the NIP and selected constructions
- 4.2Looking for correlations between syntactic constructions in Faroese
- 4.3The limits of parametric approaches to variation
- 5.Is Faroese moving away from Insular Scandinavian?
- 6.Concluding remarks
Notes References
References (48)
Angantýsson, Ásgrímur. 2011. The Syntax of Embedded Clauses in Icelandic and Related Languages. Doctoral dissertation, University of Iceland. Reykjavík: Hugvísindastofnun.
Árnadóttir, Hlíf, Thórhallur Eythórsson and Einar Freyr Sigurðsson. 2011. “The Passive of Reflexive Verbs in Icelandic.” In Relating to Reflexives 2011, ed. by Tania Strahan. Nordlyd 37: 39–97. [Accessible at [URL].]
Bard, Ellen Gurman, Dan Robertson and Antonella Sorace. 1996. “Magnitude Estimation of Linguistic Acceptability.” Language 72: 32–68.
Barðdal, Jóhanna. 2001. Case in Icelandic – A Synchronic, Diachronic and Comparative Approach. Doctoral dissertation, University of Lund, Lund.
Bentzen, Kristine. 2014. “Embedded Verb Second (V2).” Nordic Atlas of Language Structures (NALS) Online 1,1. [Accessible at [URL].]
Bobaljik, Jonathan D. 2002. “Realizing Germanic Inflection – Why Morphology Does Not Drive Syntax.” Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 6: 129–167.
Bobaljik, Jonathan D., and Höskuldur Thráinsson. 1998. “Two Heads Aren’t Always Better than One.” Syntax 1: 37–71.
Chambers, J. K., and Peter Trudgill. 1998. Dialectology. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cornips, Leonie, and Cecilia Poletto. 2005. “On Standardising Syntactic Elicitation Techniques.” Lingua 115: 939–957.
Cowart, Wayne. 1997. Experimental Syntax. Applying Objective Methods to Sentence Judgments. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Eythórsson, Thórhallur. 2008. “The New Passive in Icelandic Really Is a Passive.” In Grammatical Change and Linguistic Theory – The Rosendal Papers, ed. by Thórhallur Eythórsson, 173–219. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Field, Andy. 2005. Discovering Statistics Using SPSS (and Sex, Drugs and Rock ’n’ Roll). Second edition. London: Sage Publications.
Garbacz, Piotr, and Janne Bondi Johannessen. 2013. “Negation in Imperative Clauses.” Nordic Atlas of Language Structures (NALS) Online 1,1. [Accessible at [URL].]
Heycock, Caroline, Antonella Sorace and Zakaris Svabo Hansen. 2010. “V-to-I and V2 in Subordinate Clauses – An Investigation of Faroese in Relation to Icelandic and Danish.” The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 13: 61–91.
Heycock, Caroline, Antonella Sorace, Zakaris Svabo Hansen, Frances Wilson and Sten Vikner. 2012. “Detecting the Late Stages of Syntactic Change – The Loss of V-to-T in Faroese.” Language 88: 558–600.
Heycock, Caroline, Antonella Sorace, Zakaris Svabo Hansen and Frances Wilson. 2013. “Acquisition in Variation (and Vice Versa) – V-to-T in Faroese Children.” Language Acquisition 20: 5–22,
Holmberg, Anders. 2010. “Parameters in Linguistic Theory – The Case of Scandinavian.” Theoretical Linguistics 36: 1–48.
Holmberg, Anders, and Christer Platzack. 1995. The Role of Inflection in Scandinavian Syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jóhannsdóttir, Kristín M. 2015. ““Nafnháttarsýki.” Um eðli og þróun orðasambandsins vera að + nafnháttur.” [‘“Infinitive sickness”. On the nature and development of the [progressive aspect] construction vera að + infinitive.’]
Íslenskt mál
37: 9–69.
Jónsson, Jóhannes Gísli. 2000. “Definites in Icelandic Expletive Constructions.” In The Nordic Languages and Modern Linguistics 10, ed. by Guðrún Thórhallsdóttir, 125–134. Reykjavík: Institute of Linguistics, University of Iceland.
Jónsson, Jóhannes Gísli, and Thórhallur Eythórsson. 2010. “Structured Exceptions and Case Selection in Insular Scandinavian.” In Expecting the Unexpected – Exceptions in Grammar, ed. by Heike Wiese and Horst Simon, 213–241. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Kroch, Anthony S. 1989. Reflexes of Grammar in Patterns of Language Change. Language Variation and Change 1: 199–244.
2001. Syntactic Change. In The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory, ed. by Mark Baltin and Chris Collins, 699–729. Oxford: Blackwell.
Maling, Joan, and Sigríður Sigurjónsdóttir. 2002. “The “New Impersonal” Construction in Icelandic.” Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 5: 97–142.
Nowenstein, Iris Edda. 2012. Mig langar sjálfri til þess. Rannsókn á innri breytileika í fallmörkun frumlaga. [‘I want to do this this myself. A study of inner intra-speaker variation in subject case assignment.’] BA-thesis, University of Iceland, Reykjavík.
. 2014. Tilbrigði í frumlagsfalli á máltökuskeiði. – Þágufallshneigð og innri breytileiki. [‘Variation in subject case during language acquisition. Dative substitution and intra-speaker variation.’] MA-thesis, University of Iceland, Reykjavík.
Petersen, Hjalmar P. 2009. “Tann nýggi noktandi rótarboðshátturin í føroyskum.” [‘The new negative root-imperative in Faroese.’] Íslenskt mál 30: 141–152.
Schütze, Carson T., and Jon Sprouse. 2013. “Judgment Data.” In Research Methods in Linguistics, ed. by Robert J. Podesva and Devyani Sharma, 27–50. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sigurðsson, Halldór Ármann. 1989. Verbal Syntax and Case in Icelandic. Doctoral dissertation, University of Lund, Lund.
Thráinsson, Höskuldur. 1996. “On the Non-Universality of Functional Categories.” In Minimal Ideas – Syntactic Studies in the Minimalist Framework, ed. by Werner Abraham, Samuel D. Epstein, Höskuldur Thráinsson and Jan-Wouter Zwart, 253–281. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
. 2010. “Predictable and Unpredictable Sources of Variable Verb and Adverb Placement in Scandinavian.” Lingua 120: 1062–1088.
. 2013a. “Ideal Speakers and Other Speakers: The Case of Dative and Some Other Cases.” In Variation in Datives: A Micro-Comparative Perspective, ed. by Beatriz Fernández and Ricardo Etxepare, 161–188. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
. 2013b. “Full NP Object Shift – The Old Norse Puzzle and the Faroese Puzzle Revisited.” Nordic Journal of Linguistics 36: 153–186.
. 2015. Tilbrigði í færeyskri og íslenskri setningagerð. [‘Variation in Faroese and Icelandic syntax.’] In Frændafundur 8. Greinasavn frá føroysk‒íslendskari ráðstevnu í Tórshavn 24. og 25. august 2013 [‘Frændafundur 8 ‒ Papers from a Faroese-Icelandic conference in Tórshavn, August 24‒25, 2013’], ed. by Turið Sigurðardóttir and María Garðarsdóttir, 183–213. Tórshavn: Fróðskapur.
. In press. On the Softness of Parameters. An Experiment on Faroese. Appearing in Order and Structure in Syntax II, ed. by Laura R. Bailey and Michelle Sheehan. Berlin: Language Science Press.
Thráinsson, Höskuldur, Ásgrímur Angantýsson, Einar Freyr Sigurðsson, Sigrún Steingrímsdóttir and Thórhallur Eyþórsson. 2013. “Efnissöfnun og aðferðafræði.” [‘Elicitation and methodology.’] In Tilbrigði í íslenskri setningagerð. I. Markmið, aðferðir og efniviður [‘Variation in Icelandic syntax. I. Goals, methods and material’], ed. by Höskuldur Thráinsson, Ásgrímur Angantýsson and Einar Freyr Sigurðsson, 19–68. Reykjavík: Málvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands.
Thráinsson, Höskuldur, Hjalmar P. Petersen, Jógvan í Lon Jacobsen and Zakaris Svabo Hansen. 2012. Faroese – An Overview and Reference Grammar. 2nd edition. Tórshavn: Fróðskapur, and Reykjavík: Institute of Linguistics, University of Iceland.
Thráinsson, Höskuldur, Sigríður Sigurjónsdóttir, Hlíf Árnadóttir and Thórhallur Eythórsson. 2015. “Um þolmynd, germynd og það
.” [‘On passive, active and það.’] In Tilbrigði í íslenskri setningagerð II, ed. by Höskuldur Thráinsson, Ásgrímur Angantýsson and Einar Freyr Sigurðsson, 77–120. Reykjavík: Málvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands.
Thráinsson, Höskuldur, and Theódóra Torfadóttir. 2015. “Um vera að og vera búinn að
.” [‘On [the aspectual constructions] vera að and vera búinn að.’] In Tilbrigði í íslenskri setningagerð II, ed. by Höskuldur Thráinsson, Ásgrímur Angantýsson and Einar Freyr Sigurðsson, 121–153. Reykjavík: Málvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands.
Thráinsson, Höskuldur, Ásgrímur Angantýsson and Einar Freyr Sigurðsson (eds.). 2015. Tilbrigði í íslenskri setningagerð. II. Helstu niðurstöður – Tölfræðilegt yfirlit. [‘Variation in Icelandic syntax. II. Main results ‒ a statistical overview.’] Reykjavík: Málvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands.