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Free Variation in Grammar: Empirical and theoretical approaches
Edited by Kristin Kopf and Thilo Weber
[Studies in Language Companion Series 234] 2023
► pp. 48–73

Chapter 3
Optionality in the syntax of Germanic traditional dialects

On (at least) two types of intra-individual variation

ORCID logo | Universität Zürich

While micro-variation, i.e. variation between dialects or among speakers, has been established and proven in recent years as a research discipline in its own right in (also theoretically informed) linguistics, variation within a speaker that cannot be attributed to sociolinguistic variables has, so far, hardly been studied. We call this form of variation – the occurrence of two different structural options for one function – ‘optionality’. We focus on optionality in syntax and identify at least two different types of optionality: while context or co-text plays a role in the first type, neither constraint seems to be relevant to the choice of one option or the other in the second type.

Keywords: micro-variation, optionality, intra-speaker variation, syntax, Germanic
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Non-true optionality (Level 2)
    • 2.1Apparent optionality
    • 2.2Evidence of apparent optionality
    • 2.3Interim summary
    • 2.4False optionality
    • 2.5Evidence of false optionality
    • 2.6Discussion and interim summary
  • 3.True optionality
    • 3.1Evidence of true optionality
    • 3.2The simple negation/negative spread alternation from a diachronic perspective
  • 4.Summary
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 31 October 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.234.03mos
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