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Sommige or sommigen ? Factors conditioning the –e or –en of independently used quantifiers

Sommige or sommigen ? Factors conditioning the –e or –en of independently used quantifiers. Eric Hoekstra. Taalkunde In Nederland-Dag 2013. 2. Two uses of quantifiers. In an attributive construction . Independently used (nominalised). 3. Attributive use.

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Sommige or sommigen ? Factors conditioning the –e or –en of independently used quantifiers

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  1. Sommige or sommigen?Factors conditioning the –e or –en of independently used quantifiers Eric Hoekstra Taalkunde In Nederland-Dag 2013

  2. 2. Twouses of quantifiers • In anattributiveconstruction. • Independentlyused (nominalised).

  3. 3. Attributiveuse Beidefammenbinneoanit dûnsjen.both womenare at the dancing“Both young women aredancing.” NB The attributive quantifier does not display variation between –e and– en.

  4. 4. Independent use Beide/ Beidenbinneoan it dûnsjen.both are at the dancing“Both are dancing.” NB The independently used quantifier may in actual practice be written with –e or with –en. The same facts hold of Dutch.

  5. 5. Prescriptiverulesfor Dutch independentlyusedquantifiers They are writtenwith–n (ANS 1997:366) iff (i) they don’t have an antecedent within the text (ii) they refer to humans. Otherwise, write –e.

  6. 6. Relevant factors (hypotheses) • The semantics of the antecedent (person or not) • The specific lexical item involved • The position in the syntactic structure • The position of the antecedent (intratextual or not) Only factors 1-3 are investigated here.

  7. 7. Type of construction Partitive constructionautomaticallyentailsanintratextual antecedent: Sommige fan ‘e feintsjessome of the boys

  8. 8. Relevance The claims made in the literature are allbased on the author’sintuitions, not on corpus based research, with the exception of Popkema (1979).

  9. 9. Popkema (1979) • Does notcalculatesignificance. • Does notcalculatephi-value (explanatoryvalue). • Has as his aimtoestablish a prescriptiverule. • Presents extensivequantitative data.

  10. 10. Factor 1 Is there a correlationbetween the use of –e or –en, and the presence of a human or nonhuman antecedent? (Significanceandphi-coefficient:http://faculty.vassar.edu/lowry/tab2x2.html)

  11. 11. Quantifier: beide(n) ‘both’ p = 0.9 % phi = 13% source: Popkema -En correlates with human antecedent. The correlation does not explain much of the observed variation (phi = 13 %)

  12. 12. Quantifier: inkelde(n) ‘a few’ p < 0.1 % phi = 66%source: Popkema -En correlates with a human antecedent. The correlationexplains a lot of the observedvariation.

  13. 13. Sommigeand somlike ´some´ p < 0.1 % phi = 60%source: Popkema -En correlates with a human antecedent. The correlationexplains a lot of the observedvariation.

  14. 14. Ferskate ‘several’ p > 5 % source: Popkema Not significant.

  15. 15. Correlation–enwith the presence of a human antecedent The presence of a human antecedent promotes the use of -en, for low degreequantifiers.

  16. 16. Factor 2 Is there a correlationbetween the specificquantifierinvolvedand the choice of –e / -en? (Data on the previous slide alreadysuggestedthis)

  17. 17. Comparisoninkelde ‘a few’ withferskate ‘several’ p < 0.1 % phi = 76 % source: Popkema There is a correlationbetween the choice of quantifierand –E / -EN, anditexplains a lot of the observedvariation.

  18. 18. Comparisonsommige+somlike‘some’ withferskate ‘several’ p < 0.1 % phi = 68%source: Popkema The correlationexplains a lot of the observedvariation.

  19. 19. Conclusion There is a partialcorrelationbetween the use of –e or –en, and the specificquantifierinvolved. Medium degreequantifiersuse the -e more oftenthan low degreequantifiers.

  20. 20. Factor 3 Is there a correlationbetweenthe choice of suffix (–e / -en) and type of construction in which the independentlyusedquantifier is found? Example of syntacticconstruction: the partitive construction.

  21. 21. Partitive construction * Beide(n) fan ‘e feintsjes.both of the boys Inkelde(n) / somlike(n), sommige(n) / ferskate(n) a few some some several fan ‘e feintsjes.of the bousboys Beide ‘both’ is anyhow excluded from the partitive.

  22. 22. Inkelde(n) ‘a few’ p = 1,7 % phi= 41 %source: Popkema The partitive correlateswith–e, as comparedtootherconstructions.

  23. 23. Sommige ‘some’ p < 0.1 % phi= 29 % source: FLC The partitive correlateswith–e, as comparedtootherconstructions.

  24. 24. Somlike ‘some’ p < 0.1 % phi = 32 % source: FLC The partitive correlateswith–e, as comparedtootherconstructions.

  25. 25. Ferskate ‘several’ p > 5% source: FLC Not significant (NB too few instances).

  26. 26. Conclusion The partitive shows a preferencefor–e as comparedwithotherconstructions, for low degreequantifiers. Henceconstruction type is a relevant factor.

  27. 27. Overall conclusions The followingthree factors are relevant forthe choice of suffix (–E / -EN): • Human / nonhumanreference • Specificquantifierinvolved • Type of construction The ANS promotes major and minor tendenciesto absolute prescriptiverules(as far as Frisian is concerned, but byand large Dutch seemstoexhibitsimilarfacts).

  28. Thankyouforyour attention! ehoekstra@fryske-akademy.nl

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