The English voice system has two passive auxiliaries: the canonical be-passive, and the more recent get-passive. Accounts of the get-passive in the linguistic literature draw from descriptive, historical, corpus linguistic, and variationist perspectives. Much existing work on the get-passive from the former three traditions notes semantic dissimilarities from the be-passive, suggesting that these two forms are not interchangeable and therefore do not constitute a typical sociolinguistic variable. Nonetheless, variationist work has treated the be- and get-passives as alternants expressing the same function. This latter work has focused on social factors alone, setting aside purported linguistic differences. This thesis provides a variationist account of the be- and get-passives, considering not only social factors, but also operationalizing as linguistic factors previously noted semantic characteristics, demonstrating which factors constrain variation and providing a holistic picture of the get-passive in vernacular English. The speakers in this study span a birth range of 1865 to 1996, providing a longitudinal scope from which to view the grammaticalization of the feature. Following the principle of accountability (Labov, 1972), instances of be- and get-passives were extracted from 108 speakers born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (N=1716). Distributional and inferential results show a substantial increase in rates of get-passive over the last 130 years, indicating an active and ongoing change in progress. Social and linguistic factors alike are shown to play meaningful roles in variant selection, revealing a (largely) longitudinally stable variable grammar. The longitudinal scope of the study illuminates grammaticalization pathways into the 20th century and reinforces attested semantic links between the contemporary get-passive and its proposed lexical source(s). / Graduate / 2023-08-17

The aim of this study is to investigate the process of accent levelling in the Regional French of Alsace and its relationship with the social variables of age, gender, social class, urban or rural origin of speakers and feelings of regional attachment. Accent levelling, which can be defined as the process of speakers abandoning local phonological forms in favour of supralocal variants, has been the focus of much recent sociolinguistic research on British English, French and other languages. Since knowledge of Alsatian (a Germanic language spoken in Alsace) is decreasing, it is possible that the resulting lack of interference between Alsatian and French is leading to levelling of the traditional accent features of Alsatian Regional French. In order to provide data for this research project, sociolinguistic interviews were conducted and written questionnaires used in Strasbourg and in the village of Helsheim (a fictional name used for reasons of confidentiality) with 56 informants. The data obtained were then subjected to quantitative analysis with regard to the linguistic variables of aspirate h (which can be realised as a supralocal zero variant or as a regional [h] variant) and the devoicing of canonically voiced plosives and fricatives (for example, sage pronounced [saʃ]). The results of the data analysis revealed that the regional variants of both linguistic variables are used more frequently by older than younger, working class than middle class, rural than urban speakers and that level of regional attachment correlates with use of the linguistic variables, as predicted in the research hypotheses. However, the relationship between levelling and gender proved to be more unexpected, with no clear pattern emerging for the (h) variable and a complex one involving the acquisition of supralocal patterns of sociolinguistic variation as well as the supralocal phonological variant in the case of consonant devoicing.

À is the prototypical preposition used before city names in French, yet there are reports that, since the mid-20th century, sur also appears in this context in vernacular varieties of European French. To date, research on the choice between à and sur has focused on semantic and pragmatic differences between the two, and has relied on made-up examples, small participant usage surveys, or empirical datasets that were not systematically analyzed. Moreover, the influence of social factors has received only scant attention. This thesis addresses these shortcomings by providing a quantitative, variationist and longitudinal account of à/sur alternations. It asks the following question: Which factors (linguistic and social) can account for prepositional variation before city names in Hexagonal French? The data was drawn from two publicly available corpora of spoken Hexagonal French, representing three locales: the Parisian city-centre, a group of suburban cities surrounding Paris, and the midsize provincial city of Orléans. The speakers (N = 151) were born between 1878 and 1994, providing a mixture of real- and apparent-time perspectives on variation. Following variationist methods, the analysis considers all contexts where à/sur variation is possible (N = 2542) and seeks to elucidate the variable grammar. Results indicate important differences between the three areas under study, both in terms of social patterns and in terms of linguistic constraints. In Paris, the use of sur is restricted to a few speakers and a few linguistic contexts, and is overall very infrequent. In the suburbs and Orléans, sur is more widely attested across speakers and contexts, but it remains a minority variant which seems to be on the decline, especially in the suburbs. Further, in Orléans, the variable grammar is less linguistically constrained, suggesting a trajectory of geographic diffusion. Overall, the quantitative findings support some of the semantic and pragmatic hypotheses proposed in earlier work while shedding light on how geographic, social and linguistic factors combine to explain a phenomenon of variation that has never been studied using variationist methods before. / Graduate / 2022-07-19

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / Nesta pesquisa, analisamos a variÃvel concordÃncia nominal de nÃmero entre os constituintes do sintagma nominal (SN) no falar da regiÃo do Cariri cearense à luz dos pressupostos teÃrico-metodolÃgicos da Teoria da VariaÃÃo e MudanÃa LinguÃstica (LABOV, WEINREICH, HERZOG, 2006; LABOV, 1978, l994; 2001; 2003). Nosso objetivo geral foi investigar em que medida os fatores linguÃsticos posiÃÃo dos elementos no sintagma, classe e posiÃÃo em relaÃÃo ao nÃcleo e à posiÃÃo nuclear; classe gramatical do sintagma nominal e processos morfofonolÃgicos de formaÃÃo de plural; tonicidade das sÃlabas dos itens lexicais singulares e marcas precedentes de plural no Ãmbito do sintagma nominal, e fatores extralingÃÃsticos, como sexo; anos de escolaridade e faixa etÃria condicionam o uso de concordÃncia nominal no falar dos municÃpios que formam a regiÃo CRAJUBAR â Crato, Juazeiro do Norte e Barbalha â na regiÃo do Cariri cearense. Para anÃlise quantitativa, coletamos 3304 dados de entrevistas realizadas com 24 informantes nesses trÃs municÃpios. As entrevistas estÃo presentes no corpus O PortuguÃs falado no Cearà do banco de dados do PROFALA . Os dados foram submetidos à anÃlise estatÃstica no programa GoldVarb X. No tocante aos nove grupos de fatores considerados inicialmente, seis grupos foram selecionados como significativos: posiÃÃo dos elementos no sintagma; classe e posiÃÃo em relaÃÃo ao nÃcleo e posiÃÃo nuclear; processos morfofonolÃgicos de formaÃÃo de plural; marcas precedentes de plural no Ãmbito do sintagma nominal; e os fatores extralingÃÃsticos: sexo e faixa etÃria.Quanto aos resultados obtidos, identificamos um alto Ãndice de marcaÃÃo, totalizando um percentual de 76,9 %. As mulheres apresentaram uma probabilidade de marcaÃÃo maior que a dos homens, e os informantes na faixa etÃria de 15 a 25 anos e a partir de 50 anos apresentaram Ãndices maiores que os dos informantes com faixa etÃria de 26 a 49 anos. / This work analyzes the nominal agreement of number between the constituents of the nominal phrase (NP) in Portuguese spoken in region of Cariri, in the state of CearÃ, Brazil, in light of the theoretical-methodological assumptions of the Theory of Variation and Linguistic Change (LABOV, WEINREICH, HERZOG, 2006; LABOV 1978, 1994, 2001). Its general objective is to investigate to what extent the linguistic factors position of the elements in the phrase, class and position in relation to nucleus and nuclear position; grammatical class of the nominal phrase and morpho-phonological processes of formation of plural; tonicity of the syllables of the singular lexical items and precedent marks of plural within the scope of the nominal phrase, and extralinguistic factors sex; years of schooling and age range condition the use of nominal agreement in the speech of the towns that make up the CRAJUBAR region â Crato, Juazeiro do Norte, and Barbalha â in the region of Cariri, in the south of CearÃ, Brazil. For quantitative analysis, it was collected 3304 data from interviews with 24 informants in these three towns. The interviews are present in the corpus PROFALA (The Portuguese spoken in CearÃ). The data were submitted to statistical analysis in the GoldVarb X program. For the nine groups of factors initially considered, six groups were selected as significant: position of the elements in the nominal phrase, class and position in relation to the nucleus and nuclear position; morpho-phonological processes of plural formation; precedent marks of plural in the scope of the nominal phrase and the extralinguistic factors; sex; and age group. Regarding the results obtained, it was identified a high marking index totaling a percentage of 76.9%. Women had a marking probability higher than men, and informants between the ages of 15 and 25 years and 50 years old presented rates higher than the informants with ages ranging from 26 to 49 years.

Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Mary T. Copple / Adjective use and intensification by native speakers of English has been the subject of much study, yet intensification strategies used by non-native speakers have received relatively less attention. The present study compares adjective use by five native English speakers with that of five English L2 speakers at Kansas State University in order to describe in detail how learner patterns of use differ from those of native speakers living in the same community. From conversational data, adjectives were extracted and analyzed for linguistic features such as adjective class, and use of intensification. Results quantify how the non-native speakers have access to a smaller set of adjectives than native speakers, and how those sets differ. Interestingly, the L2 speakers intensify their adjectives at a higher rate than native speakers, again employing a smaller set. The types of adjectives used by the two groups differed in significant ways, with native speakers using more precise, contextually-specific evaluative adjectives such as crappy, elite, retarded, and obsessed, while non-native speakers used more generic adjectives such as happy, nice, long, and famous. The generalized nature of these adjectives, as well as the smaller number of lexemes at the non-native speakers’ disposal, may account for the increased rate of intensification shown by the non-native speakers. Specifically, the depth and complexity of meaning required for conversational interaction is more often handled by native speakers via a variety of specialized adjectives, while non-native speakers must rely more on adjective intensification in order to convey subtle differences in meaning. These results help us better understand how advanced learner language compares to native use. Implications for English language teaching include, but are not limited to, new insight into the types of adjectives taught for conversational English, explicit teaching of intensification strategies, and teaching learners how to construct compound adjectives.

Esta dissertação teve como objetivo articular um estudo do determinante diante das formas possessivas com base em um corpus histórico jornalístico composto de anúncios e cartas de leitores e redatores extraídos de jornais paulistas do século XIX. Focalizamos as formas possessivas seu/seus/sua/suas pré-nominais, observando a presença versus ausência do artigo definido e seus diferentes contextos. Nossas hipóteses buscaram resolver algumas questões teóricas relacionadas à estrutura do DP possessivo no PB, entre elas a da opcionalidade aparente do determinante e a da variação na realização de Número no interior da estrutura. Desenvolvemos respostas e análises às questões a partir da associação de dois quadros teóricos: a teoria dos Princípios & Parâmetros (CHOMSKY 1981, 1986) incluindo alguns refinamentos do Programa Minimalista (CHOMSKY 1995, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2004), e os pressupostos elaborados dentro da Sociolinguística Variacionista (cf. WEINREICH, LABOV e HERZOG (WLH) (1968); LABOV (1972, 1994, 2000)). Consideramos também estudos posteriores que conciliaram a mudança paramétrica internalista da língua (ROBERTS (2007)) com fatores extragramaticais que determinam o percurso das formas linguísticas no tempo histórico (KROCH (1989, 1994, 2000)). Para o estudo da estrutura do DP possessivo usamos a análise sobre os Bare Nouns de Cyrino & Espinal (2014). Os resultados obtidos mostraram que a média geral de ausência do determinante diante de DPs possessivos se manteve a mesma nos dois períodos analisados, configurando uma variação estável. Concluímos que não houve, portanto, indícios de oscilação no uso de uma ou outra variante que pudesse demonstrar o avanço de uma delas em detrimento de outra. / The aim of this thesis is to describe the possessive DP structure and investigate the use of the determiner in possessive noun phrases in Paulista Brazilian Portuguese from the 19th century. For our description and analysis, we use advertisements and letters from readers and writers drawn from a historical and journalistic corpus. This research tries to verify if there is a parametric change and the contexts affected by the change and to propose an analysis for the observed facts. We adopt a minimalist approach based on Chomsky (1995, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2004), within the Principles and Parameters Model (CHOMSKY 1981, 1986). We also adopt a variationist sociolinguistical approach (cf. WEINREICH, LABOV and HERZOG (WLH) (1968); LABOV (1972, 1994, 2000)) and studies of internalist parametric change (ROBERTS (2007)) and social factors (KROCH (1989, 1994, 2000)) to determine the way the possible change takes place. In order to explore possessive DP structure we use the Bare Nouns analyses by Cyrino & Espinal (2014). During the period considered, the use of the article was variable, setting a stable variation.

This paper investigates the possible effect of age on quotative variation in spoken British English with focus on the innovative quotative constructions be like and go and the standard construction say. The study is corpus-based and uses the Spoken British National Corpus 2014 as its material. Using the search tools provided in the corpus, datasets were restricted to include material from female speakers only and for each age-bracket in isolation. The results of the study were analysed in apparent time and through real time comparisons with previous studies. Similarly to previous studies, it was found that be like constructions are still favoured by young speakers, but the results also indicate that be like is used at higher frequencies among middle-aged speakers than previous studies have demonstrated. This indicates that be like is indeed an example of language change and not just an age-graded feature. The second innovative quotative investigated was go. The frequency distribution demonstrated by go was very different to that of be like. The results indicate that the ratio of go in comparison to be like (and say) have decreased drastically in the past twenty years when the results of the present study were compared to previous studies. This may indicate that the presence of two or more quotative variants within a speaker community may lead to the reduction in use of one of these variants due to "linguistic competition". The results of this study strengthen previous arguments that the presence of be like may lead to a decrease in the use of quotative go. The standard form say is still the most common variant for most age-brackets, apart from adolescent and young-adult speakers. However, in comparison to earlier studies the ratios of say have decreased for middle-aged speakers and younger. This may be due to an increased choice of quotative variants which are available to the speaker.

En el marco del variacionismo, en este trabajo se realiza una aproximación sociolingüística al empleo de de repente como introductor de la complicación de la narración en una muestra de 300 narraciones de experiencia personal (Labov y Waletzky 1967, y Labov 1972) de hablantes santiaguinos. Primero, se establece la frecuencia de empleo de dicha partícula. Luego, se correlacionan los factores sociodemográficos de los hablantes con el empleo de de repente y, finalmente, se describe el funcionamiento de esta partícula en las narraciones que conforman la muestra. La hipótesis de trabajo fue que las características sociodemográficas de los hablantes de español en Santiago de Chile están correlacionadas con el empleo de de repente como introductor de complicación de la narración. El análisis de los datos dio cuenta de que de repente tiene una frecuencia de 100 casos, de los cuales 95 (95%) cumplen la función de introducir la acción complicada de los relatos. Asimismo, demostramos que se trata de una partícula que suele emplearse más por informantes mujeres de edad joven (20-34 años). El análisis, a su vez, permitió dar cuenta de que una colocación preponderante es la que se genera entre la forma de repente + presente histórico. / Situated within the variationist sociolinguistic framework, in this paper we analyze the use of de repente as a marker that introduces complication or climax in a sample of 300 personal experience narratives (Labov y Waletzky 1967 y Labov 1972) of Santiago speakers. First, we establish the frequency of use of this particle. Then, we correlate the speakers’ sociodemographic factors with the use of this marker, and finally, we describe the functionality of this particle within the narratives that make up the sample. Our hypothesis was that the sociodemographic characteristics of Santiago Spanish speakers would be correlated with the use of de repente as a phrase that introduces complication or climax within the narrative. The data analysis shows that de repente was used a total of 100 times, of which 95 (95%) function in this manner, or as introducing the complicated action of the story. Additionally, we demonstrate that this particle is used most frequently by female informants from the younger age group (20-34 years old). The analysis, in turn, enabled us to determine that a main collocation is that of de repente + historical present.

Esta dissertação teve como objetivo articular um estudo do determinante diante das formas possessivas com base em um corpus histórico jornalístico composto de anúncios e cartas de leitores e redatores extraídos de jornais paulistas do século XIX. Focalizamos as formas possessivas seu/seus/sua/suas pré-nominais, observando a presença versus ausência do artigo definido e seus diferentes contextos. Nossas hipóteses buscaram resolver algumas questões teóricas relacionadas à estrutura do DP possessivo no PB, entre elas a da opcionalidade aparente do determinante e a da variação na realização de Número no interior da estrutura. Desenvolvemos respostas e análises às questões a partir da associação de dois quadros teóricos: a teoria dos Princípios & Parâmetros (CHOMSKY 1981, 1986) incluindo alguns refinamentos do Programa Minimalista (CHOMSKY 1995, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2004), e os pressupostos elaborados dentro da Sociolinguística Variacionista (cf. WEINREICH, LABOV e HERZOG (WLH) (1968); LABOV (1972, 1994, 2000)). Consideramos também estudos posteriores que conciliaram a mudança paramétrica internalista da língua (ROBERTS (2007)) com fatores extragramaticais que determinam o percurso das formas linguísticas no tempo histórico (KROCH (1989, 1994, 2000)). Para o estudo da estrutura do DP possessivo usamos a análise sobre os Bare Nouns de Cyrino & Espinal (2014). Os resultados obtidos mostraram que a média geral de ausência do determinante diante de DPs possessivos se manteve a mesma nos dois períodos analisados, configurando uma variação estável. Concluímos que não houve, portanto, indícios de oscilação no uso de uma ou outra variante que pudesse demonstrar o avanço de uma delas em detrimento de outra. / The aim of this thesis is to describe the possessive DP structure and investigate the use of the determiner in possessive noun phrases in Paulista Brazilian Portuguese from the 19th century. For our description and analysis, we use advertisements and letters from readers and writers drawn from a historical and journalistic corpus. This research tries to verify if there is a parametric change and the contexts affected by the change and to propose an analysis for the observed facts. We adopt a minimalist approach based on Chomsky (1995, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2004), within the Principles and Parameters Model (CHOMSKY 1981, 1986). We also adopt a variationist sociolinguistical approach (cf. WEINREICH, LABOV and HERZOG (WLH) (1968); LABOV (1972, 1994, 2000)) and studies of internalist parametric change (ROBERTS (2007)) and social factors (KROCH (1989, 1994, 2000)) to determine the way the possible change takes place. In order to explore possessive DP structure we use the Bare Nouns analyses by Cyrino & Espinal (2014). During the period considered, the use of the article was variable, setting a stable variation.

A aplicação do subjuntivo português falado em Maputo, Moçambique, é avaliada neste estudo variacionista, utilizando um corpus baseado em 20 entrevistas semiestruturadas de 2007. O objetivo da investigação é identificar e procurar explicações para a alternância do modo subjuntivo, avaliando efeitos potenciais de tendências de simplificação e o contato linguístico com as línguas bantu Ronga e Changana. Os dados identificados são codificados em 17 variáveis, onde a maioria das variáveis independentes são variáveis linguísticas. Os resultados sugerem que o modo subjuntivo é usado em 62,5% dos casos, com a maioria das variáveis seguindo a baixa aplicação. A análise propõe que tendências de simplificação são relevantes para serem consideradas o principal motivador da variedade. Porém, influências das línguas bantu pode afeitar a aplicação de algumas variáveis também. / The application of the Portuguese subjunctive spoken in Maputo, Mozambique, is evaluated in this variationist analysis. The thesis is based on 20 semi-structured interviews from 2007. The objective of the investigation is to identify and seek explanations for the alternation of the subjunctive mode, evaluating potential effects of simplification trends as well as linguistic contact with the Bantu languages Ronga and Changana. The identified data is mapped into 17 variables, out of which the majority of the independent variables are linguistic variables. The results suggest that the subjunctive mode is used in 62.5% of cases, with most variables following the low application. The analysis proposes that simplification trends could be considered the main driver of the variety. However, influences from the Bantu languages can affect the application of some variables as well.