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Third-person present singular verb inflection in early British and American English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Merja Kytö
Merja Kytö
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
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Abstract

This study concentrates on the development of the third-person indicative present singular verb inflection in Early Modern British and American English. Within the framework of sociohistorical variation analysis, corpus-based comparisons focus on a number of extralinguistic and linguistic factors that have influenced the choice of the forms over successive periods of time. During the period studied, the main line of development is the replacement of the -th by the -s ending; the zero from is clearly in decline, as is the use of the -s and the -th endings in the third-person present plural inflection. The type of the verb (notably have and do vs. other verbs) and stem-final sounds play an important role in the choice of the form. The text type, the level of formality, and the sex of the author can also be seen to influence the distribution patterns. The -s ending had already been firmly established in everyday usage before the settlers left for the New World. Contrary to what has usually been attributed to the phenomenon of “colonial lag,” the rate of change was more rapid in the colonies than in the mother country.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , July 1993 , pp. 113 - 139
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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