2024/07/14 by Stephanie Rotter, Mingya Liu · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Phonetics and Phonology Research #Multilingual Education and Policy
paper · pdf · doi:10.1515/ling-2023-0016
openalex publication_date 2024/07/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Abstract Negative concord (NC) is used in many English varieties but usually considered ungrammatical in ‘standard’ contemporary English, where negative polarity items (NPIs) are used. In this paper, we take a novel experimental approach to the use of NC versus NPI constructions in relation to register, i. e., sets of speech repertoires linked to specific situational and functional parameters. We report on two rating experiments with American and British English participants using interlocutor relations as a formality manipulation. Results show that (i) across both samples, NC constructions were rated as less appropriate than NPI associates, and (ii) there was a register effect in the American English data in that NC was rated less appropriate in formal than informal contexts. Our study is the first to provide experimental evidence for the register-sensitivity of NC constructions in American English.