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Syntactic Geolectal Variation: Traditional approaches, current challenges and new tools
Edited by Alba Cerrudo, Ángel J. Gallego and Francesc Roca Urgell
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 34] 2021
► pp. 109–146

Chapter 4
A microsyntactic study of Pyrenean negative emphatic polarity particles with the help of data from linguistic atlases

| Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge

In this chapter we show the interest of the data gathered in linguistic atlases and traditional dialectology materials in the context of the significant development of formal studies in dialect syntax. We present a case study based on almost unexplored dialects in the Central Pyrenean region with the purpose of showing how dialectal data can contribute to an in-depth knowledge of the grammar of natural languages. We present an already-tested roadmap to develop a micro-syntactic investigation that aims at providing a fine-grained description of synchronic variation in the use of negative minimizers and, at the same time, seeks to determine the formal features of such items, as well as the consequences of different feature specification for the negative concord.

Keywords: emphatic negation, syntactic variation, minimizers, Pyrenean Occitano-Romance dialects
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The study of dialect syntax
    • 2.1Why are the studies in dialect syntax interesting?
      • 2.1.1Advantages of the theoretical approach to dialectal data
      • 2.1.2Data gathered from traditional dialectology applied to formal research
    • 2.2Dialect syntax studies in the Romance varieties of the Transpyrenean area
  • 3.Microvariation studies in the Transpyrenean area. The case study of m-negs
    • 3.1General overview of the phenomenon studied
    • 3.2Presence of the studied phenomenon in the sources of traditional dialectology
    • 3.3A new approach to linguistic atlases as sources for formal studies of m-negs
  • 4.The analysis
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Selected sources
Published online: 26 November 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.34.04nay
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