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PRODID:-//Columba Systems Ltd//NONSGML CPNG/SpringViewer/ICal Output/3.3-
 M3//EN
VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20160610T141700Z
DTSTART:20160615T120000Z
DTEND:20160615T130000Z
SUMMARY:Cancelled - "Why are you doing that for?" Modelling causal interr
 ogative variation in Multicultural London English
UID:{http://www.columbasystems.com/customers/uom/gpp/eventid/}p9-inh7uyzx
 -538ta2
DESCRIPTION:In this talk we present preliminary results from a case study
  of morphosyntactic variation in Multicultural London English (MLE)---re
 search that is being conducted as part of QMUL’s AThEME grant. Specifica
 lly\, our case study concerns modelling variation in the causal interrog
 ative system of MLE\, where we find four interchangeable alternatives: (
 i) why\, as in “Why are you doing that?”\, (ii) what…for\, as in What ar
 e you doing that for?\, (iii) how come\, as in How come you are doing th
 at?\, and (iv) why…for\, as in Why are you doing that for?.  This last-m
 entioned variant is of central empirical and theoretical interest\, as w
 e initially suspected that it might be an innovation driven by multicult
 ural factors.\n\nUsing techniques from machine learning—conditional infe
 rence trees and random forests—we show that why…for is separable from wh
 y by several influential linguistic predictors: ClauseType (matrix claus
 es favour why…for)\, SubjectPerson (second person subjects favour why…fo
 r)\, ProgressiveAspect (progressive verbs favour why…for)\, FinalInTurn 
 (if the interrogative’s gap is turn final\, why…for is stimulated)\, and
  LinearDistance (the shorter the clause\, the more likely why…for is to 
 occur).  Negation exhibits a categorical effect\, with why…for available
  only in sentences with positive polarity.  Surprisingly\, social featur
 es do not appear to be relevant. We show further that what…for is separa
 ble from why by similar factors\, whereas how come patterns rather diffe
 rently.\n\nWe subsequently address whether and to what extent why…for is
  actually a morphosyntactic innovation of MLE\, by comparing its use in 
 other corpora.  Contrary to our expectations\, we find that the variant 
 is also robustly attested in Havering\, a non-multicultural borough of o
 uter city London. We also find several instances of why…for in an older 
 corpus of British English\, the BNC\, suggesting that the form is not ne
 w\, but has been available as a variant of why since at least the late 1
 980s.\n\nThis seminar is presented by James Brookes (Queen Mary Universi
 ty of London).
STATUS:TENTATIVE
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
CLASS:PUBLIC
LOCATION:Room 2.07\, Humanities Bridgeford Street\, Manchester
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