Synchronic variation and loss of case: formal and informal language in a Dutch corpus of 17th-century Amsterdam texts

• Fred Weerman ^[1] ; Mike Olson ^[2] ; Robert Cloutier ^[2]
  1. [1] University of Amsterdam

     University of Amsterdam

     Países Bajos

     
  2. [2] Utrecht University

     Utrecht University

     Países Bajos

     
• Localización: Diachronica: International Journal for Historical Linguistics = Revue Internationale pour la Linguistique Historique = Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Sprachwissenschaft, ISSN 0176-4225, Vol. 30, Nº 3, 2013, págs. 353-381
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1075/dia.30.3.03wee
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • A bias towards formal texts obscures our view of language change and gives a misleading impression of actual developments if ‘changes from below’ are in conflict with ‘changes from above,’ resulting from norms that are visible in particular in formal language. A corpus of 17th-century Amsterdam texts with varying levels of formality is assembled to study the loss of genitive and dative case-marking in Dutch. These results are compared with the use of present participle constructions, which serve as an extra variable to gauge how formal a text is. We argue that nominal case-marking no longer existed in informal language in 17th-century Amsterdam and that the genitive became a feature of formal norms and was hence subject to pressures from above.