Elsevier

Language Sciences

Volume 33, Issue 1, January 2011, Pages 138-153
Language Sciences

Syntactic variation and communicative style

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2010.08.008Get rights and content

Abstract

Advances in the study of morphosyntactic variation make it possible to move beyond the view of variants as merely formal alternatives conveying a single meaning and covarying with social features and formality of the situation. Alternating grammatical structures always entail certain communicative differences at the discursive-pragmatic and cognitive levels, and speakers can deploy their formal choices as stylistic resources. In this paper we will outline some basic tenets for a comprehensive theoretical approach to variation, starting from a concept of style as the construction of meaning in interaction. We will survey some cases of syntactic variation in Spanish, showing how the approach proposed can help explain their existence within the system by taking their communicative and perceptual foundations into account.

Research highlights

► Variation in linguistic form always entails some parallel alteration in meaning. ► Formal variability configures perceptions of reality as diffuse and ever-changing. ► Linguistic choice aims to configure meaningful styles in interaction. ► All internal and external levels of meaning are connected under the concept of style. ► Cognitive notions like salience and informativity help explain syntactic phenomena.

Section snippets

Style and sociolinguistic structure

Style can be seen as the third component of sociolinguistic variation, aside from the linguistic and the social (Rickford and Eckert, 2001, p. 1). It is also the less homogeneous one, encompassing variation within the speaker as an individual and not (just) as a member of a speech community and/or social group. Stylistic variation is considered basic, though not exclusively individual in nature, and comprises the range of expressive possibilities whereby a speaker or group of speakers manage

Variation, meaning and cognition

From the preceding discussion it should be inferred that any further development of variationist research on morphosyntax will require approaching grammar from an eminently semantic perspective. This will mean setting aside the traditional requirement of descriptive or referential sameness and viewing differences in meaning as the way to explain the existence of formal variation (Aijón Oliva, 2006a, Aijón Oliva, 2006b, Serrano, 2010, Serrano, 2011). For this reason, we see current cognitivist

Variation in verbal clitics

Starting from Finegan and Biber’s (2001) approach to style as an effect of the functional communicative demands of the situation, it has been possible to confirm the relevance of stylistic factors on morphosyntactic variation, and specifically in the paradigm of Spanish verbal clitics as used in mass media language. Aijón Oliva, 2006a, Aijón Oliva, 2006b) assumes that it is not only the frequency of a formal variant that varies according to the situation, but also that of the internal and

Conclusions

In this paper we have argued for an approach to syntactic variation that takes into account both its cognitive foundations and the possibilities these offer for the creation of stylistic meanings in social interaction. Adopting a cognitive viewpoint along the lines exposed means accepting that whenever we speak we choose not only the form of a message, but also its content. When some linguistic structure is formulated instead of other possible ones, a particular orientation of the utterance is

Role of funding sources

Research project entitled: “Los estilos de comunicación y sus bases cognitivas en el estudio de la variación sintáctica en español” (FFI2009–07181/FILO), funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.

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