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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Daniel DuncanORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Variable use of the canonical participle for the canonical preterite is attested cross-dialectally in English. However, most variationist studies of this phenomenon focus on variability for one or a few verbs rather than the full set of verbs with canonically distinct preterites and participles. This study examines participle-for-preterite variation across this full set of verbs in Tyneside English. We find that variability is lexically and morphophonologically restricted, and overall subject to change from above toward use of the canonical preterite. At the same time, there may be a countervailing trend in which low-frequency verbs that form the participle by changing the stressed vowel to /ʌ/ are changing toward usage of the participle for the preterite. We suggest that the pattern of variation indicates that although the canonical forms of two categories are varying, the categories themselves remain distinct in speakers’ grammars.
Author(s): Serbicki S, Lan R, Duncan D
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: English World-Wide
Year: 2023
Volume: 45
Issue: 1
Pages: 30-60
Online publication date: 26/10/2023
Acceptance date: 17/07/2023
Date deposited: 03/07/2023
ISSN (print): 0172-8865
ISSN (electronic): 1569-9730
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00081.ser
DOI: 10.1075/eww.00081.ser
ePrints DOI: 10.57711/p18m-ah79
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