1、Aspects of iconicity and economy in the choice between the s-genitive and the of-genitive in English,Anette Rosenbach Mondorf. B. &G.Rohdenburg (eds.) Determinants of Grammatical Variation in English, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter,Aims and overall Method,Isolate several factors and their interaction Pre
2、dict context of occurrence Offer diachronic perspectiveElicitation study with passages based on modern novels,Outline,Scope of the study and details of method Results Explanation offered,Scope and Methods,Choice contexts versus categorical contexts,Meaning:Possessive possessor is full NP The whole c
3、onstruction is definite,s,of,Comparable contexts within the choice contexts,Possessor not ending in -s, -z.-th = Possessor singular Non-complex, non-branching possessum (one modifier allowed Non-complex, non-branching possessor (one modifier allowed Non recursive possessor Stylistic context: novels,
4、Factors studied,Animacy of possessor Topicality of possessor Possessive relation: prototypicality,Making factors operational: Animacy,Positive: +human, no proper nouns (too topical) (= words like girl, mother, ) Negative: - human, no proper nouns (too topical), no geographical or temporal nouns (= c
5、oncrete nouns) Question: why are temporal and geographical nouns? Because we know that they occur often with s genitives! Fine but whatever explanation we get to, ignores those too.,Making factors operational: topicality,Given new Positive: +referential, second mention, definite expression Negative:
6、referential, first mention, indefinite expression Question: what is exactly first mention in a girls future? The proposal looks only at the topicality of the possessor.,Making factors operational: prototypicality,It is characteristic of the possessor to possess the possessum Positive: for animate p
7、ossessors: inalienable possession: body parts, kinship terms, permanent ownership for inanimate possessors: part/whole Negative: for animate possessors: states, abstract possession for inanimate possessors: everything that is not part/whole,Experiment,56 British, 48 American native speakers Task: ch
8、oose one of the constructions in the context of a small text passage adapted from a novel, e.g. A helicopter waited on the nearby grass like a sleeping insect, its pilot standing outside with Marino. Whit, a perfect specimen of male fitness in a black flight suit, opened the helicopters doors/doors
9、of the helicopter to help us board. (adapted from P. Cornwell, 1994. The Body Farm) Conditions: given the three variables with + and - value with have eight conditions; at least 10 items per condition,Results,The boys eyes,The mothers future A girls face A womans shadow The chairs frame The bags con
10、tents A lorrys wheels A cars fumes,-s genitive (blue) versus of=genitive (red),Statistical significance,Chi-square P0.01 Positive for all except the last two conditions American results: similar but the variation in prototypicality is not significant for the +animate condition either,Change,Signific
11、ance,Younger subjects use more s-genitives in the -animate conditions than older ones (chi-square p0.001),British (blue) versus American (red) subjects for +/- animate (1,2), +/-topical(4,5), +/- prototypical(7,8),Significance,Only the -animate conditions are significant with the American subjects u
12、sing the s-genitive more with -animate possessors (chi-square p0.001) In fact the age group is the primary factor and the difference between the British and American is secondary, so Americans are more advanced in this change.,Summary,The three isolated factors are significant Animacytopicalityposse
13、ssive relation Change: more use of -s genitive with -animates, starting with American speakers spreading to younger British speakers This change has been notes already in 1920 but in general as occurring with temporal and geographic nouns which were excluded from this study.,Explanations,Explanation
14、s: iconicity,Word order principle: concepts are serialized in the order in which they come to the mind, animates and topics are more accessible, come earlier This seems to be a universal principle as far as animates are concerned but depends on language typology wrt topicality Principle of conceptua
15、l distance: of-genitive less bounded that s-genitive = used in cases where the possessors and possessions are less closely related,Explanations: economy,Observations about longer term change: S-genitive: decline during Middle English period Increase between 15 and early 17th century 15th century: s-
16、genitive with +animate,+topical+proto but even in that context it was in the minority 16th century: more s-genitives in that context, by early 17th century it has become the preferred construction for those cases Extensions of s-genitive to other cases: recent,Explanations: Economy,Cognitive economy
17、 when there are two options, Choose the one that takes the least mental effort. This on its own explains the spread from 15th to 17th century (?) Note: morphological reanalysis of s from casemarker to clitic going on at the same time; not clear how this fits in. Automatize the choice: leads to categorical choices in preferred environment (iconicity and economy go together) leads to spread to other environments through analogical extension (iconicity and economy go in opposite directions).,Economy summary,
