Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T03:34:53.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Formalizing formality: an analysis of register variation in Sinhala

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2000

JOHN C. PAOLILLO
JOHN C. PAOLILLO
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Arlington
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Variation in language on the basis of formality (register variation) is often neglected both in grammatical descriptions and in sociolinguistic analyses. I demonstrate here that in Sinhala, and perhaps in other diglossic languages, register variation in syntax cannot be ignored. In a Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) analysis based on a corpus of naturally occurring Sinhala texts, I propose an analysis of register variation in which the syntax of all observed registers is accounted for within a single grammar. I further explain how the approach to register variation developed here can be extended to other types of sociolinguistic variation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , July 2000 , pp. 215 - 259
Copyright
© 2000 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This work began as my dissertation research, supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (BNS-9013361). I would specifically like to acknowledge the following people for insightful comments and discussion on previous versions of this paper: Emily Bender, Chris Culy, Michael Darnell, Jim Gair, Susan Herring, Ivan Sag, Peter Sells, Elizabeth Traugott, Rev. K. Nāgita, Rev. T. Sutadhara and two anonymous but thoughtful JL referees. Any errors of fact or analysis are the sole responsibility of the author.