Thursday April 16

Speaker: Marjo van Koppen (Universiteit Utrecht) and Jeroen van Craenenbroeck (KU Leuven)
Title: Identifying Parameters
Date: Thursday April 16

Venue: Huizinga 4
Time: 15:15 – 16:30 hrs

Abstract

This talk (i) explores a new tool that offers a unique window into microparameters, namely variation in transition zones between dialects areas, (ii) identifies the microparameters that are at work in the dialect Dutch C-domain, (iii) shows that these microparameters conspire, rendering certain combinations of paramater settings highly infrequent and others very common, and (iv) provides an in-depth analysis of the attested parameter interaction.

The central data are from the C-domain of two major Dutch dialect areas: Brabantic and Flemish, and the transition zone between these dialect areas, the Dender region. We focus on the interaction between complementizer agreement, clitic doubling, short do-replies, agreement and clitics on `yes’ and `no’, and negative clitics.

We show the variation between Flemish and Brabantic and show that the picture becomes more complicated as soon as the transition zone in between these dialects is taken into account. We then analyze the variation within these three dialects by formulating three microparameters. We then extend our analysis to the variation found in the Dutch dialects more in general, showing how these parameters interact.

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