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SUMMARY:Variation won't give the ghost up: verb-particle constructions in 
 and out of grammar - Daniel Ezra Johnson\, Lancaster University
DTSTART:20131121T143000Z
DTEND:20131121T153000Z
UID:TALK48960@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Bert Vaux
DESCRIPTION:The English particle verb alternation exemplified in "John put
  on the\nkettle" vs. "John put the kettle on" is one of the best - and\nbe
 st-researched - examples of a referentially-free word order\nalternation i
 n English. This talk situates the variable historically\,\nsociolinguistic
 ally\, and grammatically\, and goes on to discuss two\nacceptability judgm
 ent experiments\, work conducted in collaboration with Bill Haddican.\nThe
  experiments show that the known effects of object weight and\ninformation
  structure can be observed in perception as well as\nproduction data\, and
  their independence can be seen more clearly. The judgment method also all
 ows us to see how these factors affect the two word orders separately. Ins
 tead of imposing a binary-choice framework on the alternation\, we argue t
 hat in some cases one emerges from the data. Speakers' judgments give evid
 ence for "grammar competition".\nThe between-speaker correlations in the e
 xperimental results take us into more uncharted territory. We explore the 
 possibility that the\nquantitative co-variation of two effects can be take
 n as evidence for\ntheir grammatical similarity. Interaction between effec
 ts\, again under\nsome theoretical assumptions\, means they must operate a
 t the same\nlevel. But despite these tools\, we are far from an elegant un
 derstanding of the particle verb 'alternation'. For if both phonology and 
 discourse affect word-order variation\, through a processing-based competi
 tion\, we are led to question the role of syntax in variation\, if indeed 
 any remains.
LOCATION:Keynes Hall\, King's College
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