A Socio-grammatical Analysis of Linguistic Gaps and Transitional Forms

Abstract

This chapter shows that integration of sociolinguistic and generative approaches is necessary to explain systematic linguistic gaps and transitional forms. It provides two case studies to illustrate what the geographic distribution of linguistic forms tells us about language as a cognitive system. The first case study discusses lexical variation in reflexives such as HIMSELF in dialects of Dutch. The wealth of forms of reflexives, with a clear geographical distribution, is constrained by a morphosyntactic agreement condition on their lexico-syntactic structure. The occasional attestation of a form that violates this is explained from its geographic distribution. It is a fudged form that only occurs in dialect contact zones. The second case study discusses word order variation in clause-final three-verb clusters. The wealth of word order variation is constrained, among others, by a principle that requires linearization to be harmonic. The occasional attestation of a word order that violates harmonic linearization is explained from its geographic distribution. It is a fudged order that only occurs in dialect contact zones. Combining formal theoretical and geographical analysis thus makes it possible to distinguish between lexical forms and word orders that are systematic and forms and word orders that are unstable violations of systematic constraints.