Dialect geography and linguistic theory:

The dialectal distribution of periphrastic DO

Juhani Klemola

Fri. 9-10:40 B

This paper begins with a discussion of the geographical distribution of unstressed periphrastic DO in affirmative statements in traditional dialects of England. The data comes from the unpublished field-worker notebooks of the Survey of English Dialects (SED). The present-day distribution of unstressed periphrastic DO forms the basis of a backward projection of the dialectal distribution of DO. It will be argued in the paper that, contrary to the commonly held opinion, unstressed periphrastic DO in affirmative statements has never been a feature of Northern and North Midlands varieties of English.

In the second half of the paper this geographical distribution of DO will be discussed in the light of Kroch and Taylor's (1994) recent findings about the differences in the syntax of verb movement between Northern and Southern varieties of Middle English. Kroch and Taylor argue essentially that in Southern varieties of ME the movement is V-to-I, whereas Northern varieties of ME have V- to-I movement followed by I-to-C. It will be argued in the paper that - assuming that Northern varieties of ME had no V-to-I movement but the mainland Scandinavian type V-to-C movement instead - the differences in the syntax of verb movement between Northern and Southern varieties of ME go a long way towards explaining the dialectal distribution of periphrastic DO.

Reference

Kroch, Anthony and Ann Taylor. 1994. The syntax of verb movement in Middle English: dialect variation and language contact. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics. 1:45-69.