Article published in:
Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2009: Selected papers from 'Going Romance' Nice 2009Edited by Janine Berns, Haike Jacobs and Tobias Scheer
[Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 3] 2011
► pp. 239–254
Typology or reconstruction
The benefits of Dialectology for diachronic analysis
Michèle Oliviéri | Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis
By and large in the generative framework, syntactic comparisons concern isolated mechanisms within different languages in a typological perspective. However, comparison can provide more if, as dialectologists, we consider that variation between closely genealogically related languages throws light on diachronic reconstruction. Indeed, if diatopic variation represents different stages of a change, then different dialects in a homogeneous area display different stages of the evolution and the speakers’ I-language for the earlier stages becomes accessible.
Considering the Null ‘Subject’ Parameter, we focus on the dialects at the boundaries of Occitania since they display subject clitics for some persons only. Our data illustrate the gradual change between a stage zero (with no subject clitics, e.g. Latin) and a stage n (with subject clitics for all persons, e.g. Standard French). Analyzing clitics as bundles of features, we propose a progression in their emergence, which ties in with a functional ‘motivational cycle’ of the morpho-syntactic elements.
Published online: 30 November 2011
https://doi.org/10.1075/rllt.3.14oli
https://doi.org/10.1075/rllt.3.14oli
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