Dialect differences: Grammar

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Dialect differencesGrammar

• P Trudgill (1994) Dialects. London Routledge.
• A Hughes et al. (2005) English accents and
  dialects (4th ed). London Hodder Arnold. Chapter
  2
• J Cheshire (1982) Variation in an English
  dialect. Cambridge CUP.

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Grammatical differences

• Rather like phonetic differences in that
• We are comparing with RP as a standard
• We will avoid making value judgments
• But note that nonstandard grammar is often
  denegrated
• Less like phonetic differences in that we have
  differences of
• System
• Distribution
• Incidence
• Realisation

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Grammar differences between two dialects

• Differences of grammar system
• Additional distinctions (very rare) distinctions
  missing
• Differences of distribution
• equivalent morphemes/grammatical devices, but the
  contexts in which they occur differ
• Differences of incidence
• equivalent morphemes, but in particular
  constructions, a different morpheme is chosen
• Differences of realisation
• equivalent morphemes, but the realisation differs

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Grammatical systems

• Grammar can refer to everything from morphology
  to syntax
• Morphology in English mostly refers to
  suffixes, but there are a few cases of ablaut
  (strong verbs, irregular plurals)
• Typical morphosyntactic phenomena in English
  include number (N and V), tense (V), agreement
  (only in present tense verbs), case (only in
  pronouns)
• Syntax refers to issues about word order

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1. The verb to be
RP am is are was were am
not arent isnt wasnt werent being have/has
been
several am is are were were aint
/ amnt aint aint werent werent being Ø
been no sg in past
several is is is was was int int
int want want being been no pl form
SW be be be wor wor baint baint ba
int want want bein been !!!
Examples of different distribution, different
incidence, different realisation,
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2. Pronouns

• RP marks pronouns for case, number and gender

1S 2S
MS FS NS 1P 2P 3P Nominative
I you he she it
we you they Accusative me
you him her it us you
them Possessive adj my your his
her its our your their Possessive
pronoun mine yours his hers its ours
yours theirs

• Several dialects use us for 1S accusative eg
  give us a break
• Some dialects still distinguish 2S and 2P, as in
  OE
• thou, thee, thy, thine
• usually with 2P as a polite form for single
  addressee
• Or have an explicit plural form
• yall, youse, yiz, you-uns, ye (you for 2S)
• me for my is quite widespread

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2. Pronouns

• RP marks pronouns for case, number and gender

1S 2S
MS FS NS 1P 2P 3P Nominative
I you he she it
we you they Accusative me
you him her it us you
them Possessive adj my your his
her its our your their Possessive
pronoun mine yours his hers its ours
yours theirs

• Conflation of nom and acc, esp in pl us, them
• Regularisation of reflexive
• accusative meself, usselves possessive
  hisself, theirselves
• Alternate forms, especially of FS nominative
• her, oo,
• Dorset ee (MS, FS), er (NS), ie animate
• N Irish mines for mine
• Hypercorrection me ? I, eg between you and I

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2. Pronouns

• Differences of system
• 2nd person singplural distinction
• Differences of distribution
• Use of me rather than my in meself
• Both me and my are found, but not in the same
  contexts
• Differences of incidence
• Use of us where youd expect me
• Use of me where youd expect my
• Us and me are also used where you would expect
  them
• Differences of realisation
• Oo she

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3. Past tense of strong verbs

• Weak verbs have a single past-tense form used for
  both simple past and perfect (ed)
• I worked, I have worked
• Strong verbs (mostly) have a different form for
  these two (vowel ablaut, sometimes en)
• swim/swam/swum, see/saw/seen, write/wrote/written
• come/came/come, get/got/got, have/had/had,
  put/put/put
• Mixed verbs (t/d) in this case are like weak
  verbs
• buy/bought, lose/lost, leave/left, find/found,
  feed/fed

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3. Past tense of strong verbs

• In many dialects there is a strong tendency to
  bring the strong verbs into line with the weak by
• collapsing the distinction between simple past
  and past participle
• merging one with the other, in either direction
• I seen him, I done it (using PP for simpe past)
• I have wrote, I have went, I have saw (vice
  versa)
• or using the present form, on the model of come,
  run
• I see him yesterday, I give him what for
• or using an anomalous variant form
• writ, thunk
• or using a form of analogical levelling
• drawed
• historical cases of this have found their way
  into RP
• dived (was dove), got (was gotten), behoved (was
  behoove)

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4. Negation

• Multiple negation is widely found in nonstandard
  dialects
• I didnt have no dinner
• Double negative is an inaccurate term
  linguists prefer negative concord
• She never told no one nothing.
• Negative concord was part of standard dialect,
  but RP has diverged (not v.v.)
• cf other languages, eg French ne pas

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4. Negation

• Other aspects of negation vary across
  dialects
• aint as negative form of all forms of both be
  and have
• I aint coming, I aint seen him, they aint
  eaten
• other idiosyncratic negative forms
• divnt, amnt, baint
• never as simple negative instead of not or didnt
• He said I skipped school but I never
• Even though he was unmarked, he never hit the
  target
• I put the key in the lock but it never turned
• but restricted with non-past-tense verbs
• Thats never my brother
• I never smoke (? I dont smoke)

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4. Negation

• no (or nae) rather than not
• Hell no do that again in a hurry
• use of not after the pronoun, rather than nt,
  especially in questions
• I told you did I not? Are you not coming? Did he
  not tell you?
• Shell not go, Ive not got one
• some non-modal/auxiliary verbs have a negative
  form with nt
• ???

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5. Participle forms

• Use of progressive or past partciple with verbs
  like want, need
• Southern England, RP
• I want it washed, it wants washing
• Midlands, Northern England
• I want it washing, it wants washing
• Scotland, Ireland
• I want it washed, it wants washed

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6. Have
Have acts as both an auxiliary verb, and a full
verb meaning possess

• As an auxiliary verb
• it has a negative form
• hasnt, havent, hadnt
• it can form interrogatives by simple inversion
  when an auxiliary, but not as a modal
• Have you seen it? Has the man gone?
• it can be emphasised simply by the addition of
  stress
• He has eaten. The man has gone.
• it can participate in tag questions
• he has eaten, hasnt he? they havent arrived
  yet, have they?

• As an full verb it needs auxiliary do
• to form the negative
• He doesnt have a car.
• He hasnt a car
• to form an interrogative
• Does he have a car?
• Has he a car?
• to show emphasis
• He does have / has a car
• He doesnt have / hasnt a car
• in tag questions
• He has a car, doesnt he/ hasnt he ?
• He doesnt have a car, does he ?
• He hasnt a car, has he ?

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6. Have

• Some dialects use the auxiliary properties even
  with the full-verb have
• ie the examples on previous slide are OK
• It also has a modal use (must) with mixed
  behaviour
• Do you have to go ? Have you to go?
• I dont have to go ? I havent to go.
• Other differences surround use of phrases like
• Do you have Have you got
• Did you have Had you
• In some dialects, be also can take or requires
  auxiliary do
• He do be a funny chap
• Do you be living here?

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7. Word order differences

• Order of direct and indirect objects
• Standard English has IOgtDO
• She gave the man a book
• She gave him a book
• She gave him it
• Several dialects also allow
• She gave it him (quite common)
• She gave it the man (common in North, in South)
• She gave a book him (not common, but possible in
  North, esp with contrastive stress)
• She gave a book the man (ditto)
• Alternate forms of particle verb constructions
• He turned out the light. Put on your coat. She
  took off her shoes.
• He turned the light out. Put your coat on. She
  took her shoes off.
• Both acceptable, but southerners prefer (b),
  northerners prefer (a)

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8. Relative pronouns

• Who which that as in
• That is the man who did it who(m) I saw
• that did it that I
  saw
• That is the brick which did it which I saw
• that did it that I
  saw I saw
• Various dialects allow
• That is the man what done it
• which done it
• as done it
• at done it
• done it
• Whose often replaced by whats or thats
• Thats the man whats son did it
• Thats the man what his son did it
• Thats the man thats son did it

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Conclusion

• There are many other examples
• Many nonstandard features are common to many
  dialects, though some other things are still very
  particular
• Some could be analysed as lexical or even
  phonetic examples
• no for not, aint for arent
• Grammar covers everything from morphology to
  word order
• Not quite so easy to categorise