Chapter 5
Between context and community
Regional variation in register effects in the English dative alternation
This paper investigates the relationship between the stylistic context of utterance production and the
language user’s regional background as influencing factors in one syntactic alternation, i.e., variation between the double
object and the prepositional dative construction. To that end, this chapter zooms in on (1) the competition between stylistic
context and regional community regarding dative choice, (2) cross-regional inter-register variation, and (3) register-specific
coherence (aka intra-register variation). Comparing data from nine varieties of English using corpora that presumably share
the same structure (and registers) reveals that community is more important than context, that the effect of register is
regionally variable and that registers are largely but not fully coherent. These findings do not only stress the variable
nature of probabilistic grammars but also point to the importance of regional effects when studying register variation (all
scripts at
https://osf.io/3djkr/).
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Combining the variationist perspective with register studies
- 3.Data and methodology
- 3.1The data
- 3.2Coding of variables: Language-internal and -external constraints
- 3.3Statistical measures
- 4.Results
- 4.1Overall distribution by register and variety
- 4.2The importance of context vs community
- 4.3Cross-regional variation in register effects
- 5.Discussion
- 6.Conclusion
-
Notes
-
References
-
Appendix
References (81)
References
Baayen, R. Harald. 2008. Analyzing Linguistic Data:
A Practical Introduction to Statistics using
R. Cambridge: CUP. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bao, Zhiming & Hong, Huaqing. 2006. Diglossia
and register variation in Singapore English. World
Englishes 25(1): 105–114. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bates, Douglas, Mächler, Martin & Bolker, Benjamin M. 2013. lme4: Linear
Mixed-effects Models Using Eigen and S4 (R Package Version
1.1–7). <[URL]> (26 May 2021).
Bates, Douglas, Mächler, Martin, Bolker, Benjamin M. & Walker, Steve. 2015. Fitting
linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical
Software 67(1): 1–48. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Behaghel, Otto. 1909. Beziehungen
zwischen Umfang und Reihenfolge von Satzgliedern. Indogermanische
Forschungen 25: 110–142.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Belsley, David A., Kuh, Edwin & Welsch, Roy E. 1980. Regression Diagnostics:
Identifying Influential Data and Sources of Collinearity. New York NY: John Wiley and Sons. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Biber, Douglas. 1988. Variation
Across Speech and
Writing. Cambridge: CUP. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Biber, Douglas. 1995. Dimensions
of Register Variation: A Cross-linguistic
Comparison. Cambridge: CUP. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Biber, Douglas. 2012. Register
as a predictor of linguistic variation. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic
Theory 8(1): 9–37. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Biber, Douglas & Conrad, Susan. 2012. Register,
Genre and
Style. Cambridge: CUP.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Biber, Douglas & Gray, Bethany. 2013. Being
specific about historical change: The influence of sub-register. Journal of English
Linguistics 41(2): 104–134. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Breiman, Leo. 2001. Random
forests. Machine
Learning 45: 5–32. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bresnan, Joan, Cueni, Anna, Nikitina, Tatiana & Baayen, R. Harald. 2007. Predicting
the dative alternation. In Cognitive Foundations of
Interpretation, Gerlof Boume, Irene Kraemer & Joost Zwarts (eds), 69–94. Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Science.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bresnan, Joan & Hay, Jennifer. 2008. Gradient
grammar: An effect of animacy on the syntax of give in New Zealand and American
English. Lingua 118(2): 245–259. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bybee, Joan. 2006. From
usage to grammar: The mind’s response to
repetition. Language 82(4): 711–733. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Collins, Peter. 1995. The
indirect object construction in English: An informational
approach. Linguistics 33(1): 35–49. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Davies, Mark. 2013. Corpus
of Global Web-Based English: 1.9 billion Words from Speakers in 20 Countries. <[URL]> (26 May 2021).
Diwersy, Sascha, Evert, Stefan & Neumann, Stella. 2014. A
weakly supervised multivariate approach to the study of language
variation. In Aggregating Dialectology, Typology, and
Register Analysis: Linguistic Variation in Text and Speech [Linguae & Litterae
28], Benedikt Szmrecsanyi & Bernhard Wälchli (eds), 174–204. Berlin: De Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Finegan, Edward & Biber, Douglas. 1994. Register
and social dialect variation: An integrated
approach. In Sociolinguistic Perspectives on
Register, Douglas Biber & Edward Finegan (eds), 315–347. Oxford: OUP.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fox, John. 2003. Effect
displays in R for generalised linear models. Journal of Statistical
Software 8(15): 1–27. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fox, John & Weisberg, Sanford. 2011. An
R Companion to Applied Regression, 2nd edn. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage. <[URL]> (26 May 2021).
Fuchs, Robert & Gut, Ulrike. 2016. Register
variation in intensifier usage across Asian
Englishes. In Discourse-pragmatic Variation and Change in
English, Heike Pichler (ed.), 185–210. Cambridge: CUP. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Garretson, Gregory, O’Connor, M. Catherine, Skarabela, Barbora & Hogan, Marjorie. 2004. Coding
practices used in the project “Optimality Typology of Determiner
Phrases”. Ms.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gelman, Andrew. 2008. Scaling
regression inputs by dividing by two standard deviations. Statistics in
Medicine 27(15): 2865–2873. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Grafmiller, Jason. 2014. Variation
in English genitives across modality and genres. English Language and
Linguistics 18(3): 471–496. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Greenbaum, Sidney (ed.). 1996. Comparing
English Worldwide: The International Corpus of
English. Oxford: Clarendon Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gries, Stefan T. 2015. The most under-used
statistical method in corpus linguistics: Multi-level (and mixed-effects)
models. Corpora 10(1): 95–125. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Guy, Gregory R. 2005. Letters to
Language. Language 81(3): 561–563. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Guy, Gregory R. 2013. The cognitive coherence
of sociolects: How do speakers handle multiple sociolinguistic variables? Journal of
Pragmatics 52: 63–71. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Guy, Gregory R. & Hinskens, Frans. 2016. Linguistic
coherence: Systems, repertoires and speech
communities. Lingua 172–173: 1–9. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heller, Benedikt, Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt & Grafmiller, Jason. 2017. Stability
and fluidity in syntactic variation world-wide: The genitive alternation across varieties of
English. Journal of English
Linguistics 45(1): 3–27. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hinrichs, Lars & Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt. 2007. Recent
changes in the function and frequency of Standard English genitive constructions: A multivariate analysis of tagged
corpora. English Language and
Linguistics 11(3): 437–474. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hosmer, David & Lemeshow, Stanley. 2000. Applied
Logistic Regression. New York NY: Wiley. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hothorn, Torsten, Hornik, Kurt & Zeileis, Achim. 2006. Unbiased
recursive partitioning: A conditional inference framework. Journal of Computational and
Graphical
Statistics 15(3): 651–674. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hundt, Marianne, Röthlisberger, Melanie & Seoane, Elena. 2021. Predicting
voice alternation across academic Englishes. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic
Theory. 17(1): 189–222. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Janitza, Silke, Strobl, Carolin & Boulesteix, Anne-Laure. 2013. An
AUC-based permutation variable importance measure for random forests. BMC
Bioinformatics 14(119): 1–11. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Koch, Peter & Oesterreicher, Wulf. 1985. Sprache
der Nähe – Sprache der Distanz: Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit im Spannungsfeld von Sprachtheorie und
Sprachgeschichte. Romanistisches
Jahrbuch 36: 15–43. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Labov, William. 1972. Sociolinguistic
Patterns. Philadelphia PA: University of Philadelphia Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Levin, Beth. 1993. English
Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lohmann, Arne. 2011. Help
vs help to: A multifactorial, mixed-effects account of infinitive marker
omission. English Language and
Linguistics 15(3): 499–521. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Loureiro-Porto, Lucía. 2017. ICE
vs. GloWbE: Big data and corpus compilation. World
English 36(3): 448–470. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McDonough, Kim. 2006. Interaction
and syntactic priming: English L2 speakers’ production of dative constructions. Studies
in Second Language
Acquisition 28(2): 179–207. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Menard, Scott. 2010. Logistic
Regression: From Introductory to Advanced Concepts and Applications. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mesthrie, Rajend & Bhatt, Rakesh M. 2008. World Englishes: The
Study of New Linguistic
Varieties. Cambridge: CUP. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Neumann, Stella. 2012. Applying
register analysis to varieties of English. In Anglistentag
2011 Freiburg: Proceedings, Monika Fludernik & Benjamin Kohlmann (eds), 75–94. Trier: WVT.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Neumann, Stella. 2013. Contrastive
Register Variation: A Quantitative Approach to the Comparison of English and
German. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Neumann, Stella & Fest, Jennifer. 2016. Cohesive
devices across registers and varieties: The role of medium in
English. In Variational Text Linguistics: Revisiting Register
in English, Christoph Schubert & Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer (eds), 195–220. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Oushiro, Livia. 2016. Social
and structural constraints in lectal
cohesion. Lingua 172–173: 113–130. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pinheiro, José C. & Bates, Douglas M. 2000. Mixed-effects Models in
S and S-PLUS. New York NY: Springer. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
R Core Team. 2018. R: A Language
and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. <[URL]> (26 May 2021).
Röthlisberger, Melanie. 2018a. Regional
Variation in Probabilistic Grammars: A Multifactorial Study of the English Dative
Alternation. PhD dissertation, KU Leuven.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Röthlisberger, Melanie. 2018b. The
dative dataset of World Englishes (Version v1) [Data set]. KU Leuven. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Röthlisberger, Melanie, Grafmiller, Jason & Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt. 2017. Cognitive
indigenization effects in the English dative alternation. Cognitive
Linguistics 28(4): 673–710. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schaub, Steffen. 2016. The
influence of register on noun phrase complexity in varieties of
English. In Variational Text Linguistics: Revisiting Register
in English, Christoph Schubert & Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer (eds), 251–271. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schilk, Marco, Mukherjee, Joybrato, Nam, Christopher & Mukherjee, Sach. 2013. Complementation
of ditransitive verbs in South Asian Englishes: A multifactorial analysis. Corpus
Linguistics and Linguistic
Theory 9(2): 187–225. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schneider, Edgar W. 2007. Postcolonial English: Varieties
around the
world. Cambridge: CUP. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schubert, Christoph. 2016. Introduction:
Current trends in register research. In Variational Text
Linguistics: Revisiting Register in English, Christoph Schubert & Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer (eds), 1–15. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Scott-Phillips, Thomas C. & Kirby, Simon. 2010. Language
evolution in the laboratory. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences 14(9): 411–417. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Seoane, Elena. 2006. Changing
styles: On the recent evolution of scientific British and American
English. In Syntax, Style and Grammatical Norms: English from
1500–2000, Christiane Dalton-Puffer, Dieter Kastovsky, Nikolaus Ritt & Herbert Schendl (eds), 191–211. Bern: Peter Lang.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Strobl, Carolin, Boulesteix, Anne-Laure, Kneib, Thomas, Augustin, Thomas & Zeileis, Achim. 2008. Conditional
variable importance for random forests. BMC
Bioinformatics 9(307). <[URL]> (26 May 2021). ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Strobl, Carolin, Boulesteix, Anne-Laure, Zeileis, Achim & Hothorn, Torsten. 2007. Bias
in random forest variable importance measures: Illustrations, sources and a
solution. BMC
Bioinformatics 8(25). <[URL]> (26 May 2021). ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt. 2006. Morphosyntactic
Persistence in Spoken English [Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs
177]. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt. 2017. Variationist
sociolinguistics and corpus-based variationist linguistics: Overlap and cross-pollination
potential. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue Canadienne de
Linguistique 42(4): 685–701. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt, Grafmiller, Jason, Bresnan, Joan, Rosenbach, Anette, Tagliamonte, Sali A. & Todd, Simon. 2017. Spoken
syntax in a comparative perspective: The dative and genitive alternation in varieties of
English. Glossa: a journal of general
linguistics 2(1). 86: 1–27. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt, Grafmiller, Jason & Rosseel, Laura. 2019. Variation-based
distance and similarity modeling: A case study in World Englishes. Frontiers in
Artificial Intelligence 2. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tagliamonte, Sali A. 2012. Variationist Sociolinguistics:
Change, Observation, Interpretation. Malden MA: Wiley-Blackwell.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tagliamonte, Sali A. & Baayen, R. Harald. 2012. Models,
forests and trees of York English: Was/were variation as a case study for statistical
practice. Language Variation and
Change 24(2): 135–178. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tamaredo, Iván, Röthlisberger, Melanie, Grafmiller, Jason & Heller, Benedikt. 2019. Probabilistic
indigenization effects at the lexis-syntax interface. English Language and
Linguistics. 24(2): 413–440 ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wälchli, Bernhard & Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt. 2014. Introduction:
The text-feature-aggregation pipeline in variation
studies. In Aggregating Dialectology, Typology, and Register
Analysis: Linguistic Variation in Text and Speech [Linguae & Litterae
28], Benedikt Szmrecsanyi & Bernhard Wälchli (eds), 1–25. Berlin: De Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Xiao, Richard. 2009. Multidimensional
analysis and the study of World Englishes. World
Englishes 28(4): 421–450. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zaenen, Annie, Carletta, Jean, Garretson, Gregory, Bresnan, Joan, Koontz-Garboden, Andrew, Nikitina, Tatiana, O’Connor, Mary Catherine & Wasow, Thomas. 2004. Animacy
encoding in English: Why and how. In Proceedings of the 2004
ACL Workshop on Discourse Annotation, Barcelona, July 2004, Donna Byron & Bonnie Webber (eds), 118–125. East Strouddsburg PA: Association for Computational Linguistics. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Li, Yi, Benedikt Szmrecsanyi & Weiwei Zhang
2024.
Across time, space, and genres: measuring probabilistic grammar distances between varieties of Mandarin.
Linguistics Vanguard 0:0
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Engel, Alexandra, Jason Grafmiller, Laura Rosseel & Benedikt Szmrecsanyi
2022.
Assessing the complexity of lectal competence: the register-specificity of the dative alternation aftergive.
Cognitive Linguistics 33:4
► pp. 727 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.