Determinants of Grammatical Variation in English (review)

This book contains sixteen thematically arranged empirical studies that deal with various determinants of grammatical variation in English, including the question of constraint interaction, that is, reinforcing versus conflicting factors.

Manfred Krug investigates the role of string frequency and transitional probability in grammatical variation and change, and discusses their promoting and retarding effects. Julia Schlüer looks at clashes between the phonology and morphosyntax in four different variables. She argues that grammatical variation might be (co)determined by phonological factors. The complex interplay of factors influencing the behavior and ordering of postverbal constituents lies at the heart of Thomas Wasow’s and Jennifer Arnold’s paper. They argue against categorical factors and in favor of language-processing models based on interacting defeasible constraints. Thomas Gries deals with the more abstract question of ‘structure’ versus ‘function’. In his study on particle placement, he points to the importance of corpus data and multifactorial analyses, as well as the combination of functional and formal aspects. John Hawkins also looks at variability in head-modifier relationships and asks why zero-marked phrases are closer to their heads than those with more complex morphological marking.

The issue of cognitive complexity and the horror aequi principle, that is, the avoidance of (semantically unmotivated) identity effects, play a role in Günter Rohdenburg’s paper. He evaluates these two factors in the use of interrogative clause linkers in English. Horror aequi also figures in Uwe Vosberg’s paper on the development of -ing complements in Modern English. Christian Mair also investigates -ing gerunds versus to infinitivals, discussing both grammatical and sociolinguistic factors in the complementation patterns of start and begin. He shows on the basis of extensive corpus data that a successful account needs to invoke both internal and external, synchronic and diachronic factors. The age-old problem of periphrastic versus inflectional comparative forms in English is seen in a new light in Britta Mondorf’s paper on ‘Support for more- support’. She suggests that greater explicitness facilitates processing on all linguistic levels. Dirk Noél compares AcI (accusative infinitive) versus that complement clauses and finds there is much more pragmatics in the sense of text-building practice involved than would appear at first sight.

Anette Rosenbach explores iconicity and economy as influential factors in grammatical variation. In her diachronic study on the two possessive structures of English, she concludes that iconicity and economy start off as joined forces and only later become oppositions. Anatol Stefanowitsch also investigates the two genitives of English. From the viewpoint of construction grammar he argues that the observed variation patterns do not stem from animacy, givenness, or syntactic weight, but from distinct role constructions and relations. For Stefanowitsch, the aforementioned factors only figure in subordinate cases of specification and stylistic influences. Olga Fischer investigates the idea of grammaticalization in its relation to linguistic reality. She is interested in what Determination involves and how synchronous factors may have long-term repercussions in linguistic structures. Peter Siemund takes a crosslinguistic perspective in his paper on intensifiers and reflexives. On the basis of data from varieties of English, German, Swedish, Mandarin, and many other languages, he suggests that the variability observed in English and its varieties is not language specific, but reflects general and typologically attested principles. Lieselotte Anderwald also employs a comparative perspective in her paper on negation in nonstandard English. Her detailed description of varietal negation patterns emphasizes markedness and constructional iconicity as typologically valid factors. Sali Tagliamonte investigates have versus have got and got in three geographical varieties of British English. She finds a similar directionality of change and consistent patterning in all three varieties and concludes that this is a case of syntactic persistence and of...