Pierre Larrivée | Normandie Université, UCBN and CRISCO (EA4255)
Labov’s idea that the vernacular is the most stable variety of a language raises questions especially where languages of wider communication are concerned. Whether the vernacular practices of a language’s geographical varieties are convergent synchronically and historically can be established by looking at particular variables. One such variable is investigated in this paper on the co-occurrence of a clausal negator with a n-word (e.g. I didn’t do nothing, i.e. anything). The quantitative study of negative doubling in Quebec and France historical and contemporary vernacular sources demonstrates overall stability for France from the 14th century to the present. That negative doubling is ten-fold more frequent in contemporary vernacular Quebec French than in contemporary vernacular France French may be dues to difficulty in accessing the vernacular in France French and in the presumed lesser impact of normative pressures in Quebec. Tracking one variable over six centuries provides evidence that stability characterises vernacular varieties.
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Cited by (5)
Cited by five other publications
Labelle, Marie
2019. The French Jespersen’s Cycle and Negative Concord. In Contributions of Romance Languages to Current Linguistic Theory [Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 95], ► pp. 155 ff.
Coveney, Aidan, F. Neveu, G. Bergounioux, M.-H. Côté, J.-M. Fournier, L. Hriba & S. Prévost
2016. La quête du vernaculaire dans l’étude de la variation grammaticale. SHS Web of Conferences 27 ► pp. 01003 ff.
Dagnac, Anne, Heather Burnett, F. Neveu, G. Bergounioux, M.-H. Côté, J.-M. Fournier, L. Hriba & S. Prévost
2016. Concordance négative optionnelle : contrastes forts et faibles entre picard et québécois. SHS Web of Conferences 27 ► pp. 13003 ff.
Larrivée, Pierre
2016. The Markedness of Double Negation. In Negation and Polarity: Experimental Perspectives [Language, Cognition, and Mind, 1], ► pp. 177 ff.
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