Word Order. (sample format) CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION - FOR USE BY AUTHORIZED EMPLOYEES FOR THE PARTIES HERETO ONLY AND IS NOT FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION WITHIN OR OUTSIDE THEIR RESPECTIVE COMPANIES EXHIBIT K-1 CSG.WEB - DESCRIPTION OF SERVICE - SERVICE BUREAU -------------------------------------------------
Word Order. Playing with word order is one of the most effective and reader-friendly ways of depicting dialect. We have a strong sense of how words are typically arranged in a written sentence, but many dialectic variations are still perfectly good English, or, at the very least, perfectly comprehensible English. We can, therefore, create sentences that feel unusual and convey the feeling of a dialect without confusing the reader or harming the prose. An example of this is the use of direct and indirect objects. Often in written English, the direct object is placed before the indirect object, for example, ‘He gave the money to me.’ The direct object ‘money’ is placed before the indirect object ‘me’. In northern dialects, this would often be switched around, so the sentence would become, ‘He gave me the money.’78 It’s a subtle difference but when strung together with other dialectic phrasings, a dialectic tone and dialectic vocabulary it builds into a convincing but accessible voice. She’d brought a blanket with her, thick one full of duck feathers, and it smelled like her. She gave me it and sat down on the bed.79 Other smaller but suggestive examples include the inversion of verb phrases. A typical verb phrase might be, ‘Xxxxxx always got good grades at school.’ In northern dialects, some speakers will invert it to, ‘Always got good grades at school, Xxxxxx did.’80 Like many informal dialects, Cumbrian does not require do-support auxiliary verbs in negatives and questions. Instead of, ‘Do you know what the time is?’ it could be, ‘You know what the time is?’ or, ‘Have you the time?’ And Cumbrians speakers often prefer an alternative formation of negatives. Instead of, ‘He won’t go to the shops’ it might be, ‘He’ll not go to the shops’. 81 Instead of, ‘He doesn’t have to do it,’ it might be, ‘He hasn’t to do it.’82 I’ve stayed in this Yow House all these years. I’ll not call it living, I’ll not call it my home, and you’ll not know it for the place it was.83 78 Xxxxxx, Xxxxxxxx, and Xxxx, English Accents & Dialects, 20.
Word Order. According to typological literature, agreement is more likely for subjects preceding predicates [Xxxxxxx 2006: 180; Creissels 2010; Iemmolo (in press); Пекелис 2013]. Xxxxxxx [2000: 210] mentions that in Cairene Arabic “real distance” had an important role: in structures of the VXS type agreement is more likely than in structures of the VS type: Table 7. Effect of distance of target from controller in Cairene Arabic [Xxxxxxx 2000: 210] Distance from head (in words) Plural (semantic) agreement % N 2 36 115 3-5 43 141 6-8 47 57 9-45 91 64 Table 8. Word order and plural marking of the predicate (Bashkir data)1 –PL +PL Total N % N % N SXV 17 20% 69 80% 86 SV 23 82% 5 18% 28 VS 2 2 4 VXS 1 2 3 TOTAL 43 36% 78 64% 121 Insufficent data for making any conclusion with respect to preverbal (SV, SXV) vs. postverbal (VS, VXS) subjects (but NB: postverbal subjects can trigger agreement).
