Variation and Optionality in Determiner Systems across the World Languages

Dear Colleagues,

Variation across time and space is one of the characterizing features of language that ground language change and dialectal differentiation. In current syntactic theories, this type of variation is viewed as different ways in the form to express the same meaning and function at different times or places. Variation can be viewed as a sum of separate jumps or as a continuum, or even as coexisting variants available to a speaker. This gives rise to optionality.

In the minimalist framework, in which Full Interpretation and Last Resort are the grounding principles, true optionality, that is two or more possible outputs with the same interpretation is problematic. The solutions offered to date are diverse: the assumption of coexisting grammars (Kroch 1989, Roeper 2000), the hypothesis of equally costly derivations (Biberauer and Richards 2006), the proposal of homophonous lexical items with a (minimally) different bundle of features (Adger 2015). The latter approach interfaces with sociolinguistic insights that treat different outputs as probabilistic variants (Labov 1972, Cedegren and Sankoff 1974, Berruto 2010).

Most of the above literature focuses on optionality in phonology, feature sharing (agreement or concord), and word order (optional movement), less so on optional insertion and position of determiners. This is rather surprising, since variation in the distribution of determiners is a crucial feature of language change, initial stages of acquisition, and diatopic / diastratic / diamesic variation.

This Special Issue will focus on how determiner systems may provide new perspectives on the two sides of variation, as fine-grained diversification of meanings vs true optionality. The empirical focus can be on any language, including but not limited to local vs. regional vs. national varieties; heritage languages; typical and atypical first and second language acquisition. Theoretical, applied and experimental approaches are welcome including but not limited to formal syntax, functional grammar, construction grammar, optimality theory, dialectometrics, quantitative and qualitative variationist linguistics, experimental linguistics, and computational linguistics. The ultimate purpose is to bring scholars of different areas and persuasions to collaborate in the search of the relevance of variation and optionality in determiner systems to the understanding of the complex interaction of the biological and social nature of language (Cornips and Corrigan 2005; Delbeque, van der Auwera and Geeraerts 2005).

The volume will usefully supplement the vast literature on determiner systems with the novel perspective of distinguishing true optionality from fine-grained variation in the spirit of recent work on indefinite determiners by Cardinaletti and Giusti (2018; 2020).

We request that prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400-600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors Giuliana Giusti (giusti@unive.it) and Anna Cardinaletti (cardin@unive.it) or to /Languages/ editorial office (languages@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

The tentative completion schedule is as follows:

• Abstract submission deadline: 5 May 2023
• Notification of abstract acceptance: 15 May 2023
• Full manuscript deadline: 30 October 2023

References

Adger, D. 2016. Language variability in syntactic theory. In Eguren, L., Fernandez-Soriano, =. & Mendikoetxea, A. (eds.) Rethinking Parameters. Oxford, OUP. DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190461737.003.0002

Berruto, G. 2010. Identifying dimensions of linguistic variation in a language space. In Peter Auer & Jürgen Schmidt (eds.), Language and space; an international handbook of linguisti variation vol. 1, 226-241. Berlin, De Gruyter.

Biberauer, T & Richards, M. 2006. True optionality: when the grammar doesn‘t mind. In Cedric Boeckx (ed.) Minimalist Essays, 35-67. Amsterdam: Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/la.91.08bib

Cardinaletti, A. & Giusti, G. 2018. Indefinite determiners: Variation and Optionality in Italo-Romance, in D’Alessandro, R. & Pescarini, D. Advances in Italian Dialectology, 135-161. Amsterdam, Brill.

Cardinaletti, A & Giusti, G. 2020. Indefinite determiners in informal Italian. A preliminary analysis. Linguistics 58(3), 679-712. https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/ling/58/3/article-p679.xml   

Cedegren, H & Sankoff, D. 1974. Variable rules: performance as a statistical reflection of competence. Language 50:333-355. https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.265

Cornips, L. & Corrigan, K.P. 2005. Syntax and variation: reconciling the biological and the social. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins.

Delbeque, N., van der Auwera, J. & D. Geeraerts (eds.) 2005. Perspectives on Variation. Sociolinguistic, Historical, Comparative. Berlin - New York, Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110909579

Kroch, A. 1989. Reflexes of Grammar in patterns of language change. Language Variation and Change 1:199-244. doi:10.1017/S0954394500000168

Labov, W. 1972. Language in the inner city. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Roeper, T. 2000. Universal bilingualism. Language and Cognition 2:169-186. doi:10.1017/S1366728999000310

Prof. Dr. Giuliana Giusti
Prof. Dr. Anna Cardinaletti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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