Corpus-based Approaches: Watching English Change

Hundt, Marianne; Gardner, Anne-Christine; Brinton, Laurel J.

doi:10.1017/9781316286562.005

Cited by 42 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Several studies have commented on the decrease of the modal option over the past few decades (e.g. Klein 2009, Hundt & Gardner 2017, Ruohonen 2018 while Waller (2017) observes an increasing rate of complementizer omission. Furthermore, Ruohonen (2018) reports that the rate of subjunctive use is raised by complementizer deletion.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The range of linguistic units: Distance effects in English mandative subjunctive constructions

Berg

Zingler²,

Lohmann

2019

J. Ling.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study examines the role of distance in the decision among grammatical variants. The empirical test case is the English mandative subjunctive construction, which co-occurs with an embedded modal auxiliary, a subjunctive or an indicative verb form. The fact that the subjunctive is triggered by specific lexical items allows one to measure the distance between the triggering unit and the target verb. This distance is found to play a significant role in the grammatical decision process. With increasing distance between trigger and target, the probability of selecting a modal auxiliary increases and the probability of selecting the subjunctive decreases. The theoretical account hinges on the range and strength of linguistic units. Syntactic units (i.e. modals) are claimed to have a wider range than morphological units (i.e. indicative and subjunctive). Furthermore, the indicative is claimed to have a wider range than the subjunctive. Varying ranges are interpreted as varying decay rates. The lower decay rate of syntactic as compared to morphological units results from the syntactic level being superordinated to the morphological level in language production. The inclusion of the semantic and the phonological levels confirms that the position of a level in the structural hierarchy determines its range.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The range of linguistic units: Distance effects in English mandative subjunctive constructions

Berg

Zingler²,

Lohmann

2019

J. Ling.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, the MS is only one of the moods that a speaker can select when trying to express some degree of urgency or intention, along with the should periphrasis, deontic modals and semi-modals, as well as the indicative form, a variant that occurs especially in BrE (Hundt, 2018). Previous research on this subject has reported contrastive results, but overall, evidence shows that that the MS is by far the most preferred alternative in the United States and that it has been gaining momentum in other varieties as well, with speakers of AmE leading this post-colonial revival started in the beginning of the 20th century (Hundt & Gardner, 2017;Hundt, 2018). Contrarily, despite having caught up in this revival around midway through the last century, BrE seems to lag behind in the use of the mandative subjunctive and still prefer subjunctive should.…”

Section: Statement Of the Problemmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Although 20th century grammarians were quick to attest its imminent death (Fowler & Fowler, 1906; Fowler, 1926; Maugham, 1949), based on more recent research, the English subjunctive appears to be alive and well (Nichols, 1987; Serpollet, 2001; Leech et al., 2009; Hundt & Gardner, 2017). In fact, speakers of English around the world are actually using this memory‐clogging ‘barnacle’ that was considered ‘no longer natural’ and from which English needed to be cleansed (Matthews, 1901, p. 63, pp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using VADIS to weigh competing epicentral influence

Peruta

2022

World Englishes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The present study sets out to explore the mandative subjunctive in Canadian English (CanE), vs. its potential epicentre American English (AmE), and its historical input variety British English (BrE) based on a quantitative variationist analysis of the Strathy Corpus of Canadian English (Strathy), the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), and the British National Corpus (BNC). The relevance of this contribution primarily stems from the fact that no previous research has yet focused on a contrastive comparison between CanE and its alleged epicentres, namely ‘a model of English for (neighbouring?) countries’ (Hundt, 2013, p. 185), and that the new method of Variation‐Based Distance and Similarity Modeling (VADIS) has so far never been applied to research in this field. Key findings show that VADIS is indeed a valuable method in detecting epicentral constellations, and pinpoint fruitful suggestions regarding AmE's alleged transnational influence on its neighbor, as well as cross‐border and transoceanic dis/similarities concerning the subject under analysis.

show abstract

“…One of the earliest studies, based on data from the Brown and LOB corpora and a set of predefined mandative triggers, found that the mandative subjunctive was used more often in American than in British English (Johansson & Norheim, 1988). Follow-up studies using the same set of triggers and evidence from the Brown family of corpora (Hundt 1998, Hundt & Gardner 2017, Waller 2017 show that (a) the significant increase in AmE took place in the early years of the twentieth century and (b) the mandative subjunctive has been gaining ground in British English (BrE) in the second half of the twentieth century. However, the change in BrE happens at a much slower rate than in AmE and might already be levelling off at a lower level, judging from the web-based BE06 evidence (see Figure 1).…”

Section: Previous Research: Recent and Ongoing Change In World Englishesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the change in BrE happens at a much slower rate than in AmE and might already be levelling off at a lower level, judging from the web-based BE06 evidence (see Figure 1). 4 4 The data for LOB and Brown are from Johansson & Norheim (1988), those for FLOB and Frown from Hundt (1998); data for the extended Brown family (for the 1930s and 2006, respectively) come from Hundt & Gardner, (2017) and Waller 2017. Note that Waller (2017) finds that proportions of variants in mandative sentences are based on slightly different definitions of the variable across studies, for instance with respect to the inclusion/exclusion of bare forms with plural subjects after past tense triggers (see example (8) below).…”

Section: Previous Research: Recent and Ongoing Change In World Englishesmentioning

confidence: 99%

It is time that this (should) be studied across a broader range of Englishes

Hundt

Deshors²

2018

Varieties of English Around the World

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

English has a choice between modal verb should and a subjunctive in subordinate clauses following mandative expressions such as recommend, request or require. Previous research found that the subjunctive has seen a revival in the twentieth-century in a change led by American English with British English and settler varieties lagging behind. Studies of the subjunctive in second-language varieties of English (ESL) are scarce, and typically look at only one ESL variety, comparing its text frequency with that observed in first language varieties. Previous research also looked at the distribution of subjunctives across spoken and written registers, their co-occurrence with active and passive voice, and/or with individual triggers, but these factors have not yet been studied as predictor variables for the choice between a subjunctive and a modal construction. On the basis of the International Corpus of English, this paper investigates the choice between mandative subjunctives and modal periphrastic constructions with should across a broad range of World Englishes with a view to modelling the relative strength of external predictor variables such as 'variety' and 'medium/register' as well as internal factors like 'lexical trigger' and 'verb'. It uses evidence from the Global Web-based English corpus for a follow-up study on the importance of 'lexical trigger' on a subset of the varieties, since ICE corpora are two small to provide robust evidence on this. The findings do not lend themselves to straightforward interpretation within an individual model of World Englishes.

show abstract

Corpus-based Approaches: Watching English Change

Cited by 42 publications

References 0 publications

The range of linguistic units: Distance effects in English mandative subjunctive constructions

The range of linguistic units: Distance effects in English mandative subjunctive constructions

Using VADIS to weigh competing epicentral influence

It is time that this (should) be studied across a broader range of Englishes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About