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Are non-standard dialects more ‘natural’ than the standard? A test case from English verb morphology1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2010

LIESELOTTE ANDERWALD
LIESELOTTE ANDERWALD*
Affiliation:
Kiel University, Germany
*
Author's address: English Department, Kiel University, Olshausenstr. 40, D-24098Kiel, Germany[email protected]
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Abstract

In this article, I argue that at least in some subsets of grammar, non-standard dialects are indeed more natural than their standard counterparts. I present data from the new Freiburg English Dialect corpus FRED, for the first time comparing and quantifying traditional dialect data from across the whole of Great Britain. The most frequent non-standard verb forms cluster around forms like drink – drunk – drunk and sing – sung – sung. The framework of Natural Morphology (Wurzel 1984, 1987) in combination with Bybee's Network Model (Bybee 1985, 1995) is employed to define the notion of naturalness and to explain why this verb class has been strengthened historically, and is still attracting new members today.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , July 2011 , pp. 251 - 274
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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Footnotes

[1]

This paper has greatly benefited from the insightful comments of two anonymous JL referees, to whom I would like to express my thanks. Needless to say, any remaining mistakes and oversights are entirely my own.

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