LingLunch : Meredith Tamminga

Meredith Tamminga (UPenn)
Architectural implications of the dynamics of variation

In this talk I discuss the proposal from Tamminga, MacKenzie and Embick (forthcoming) of a framework that recognizes three types of factors conditioning linguistic variation: sociostylistic (s-), internal linguistic (i-), and psychophysiological (p-). I elaborate on the point that p-conditioning and i-conditioning are distinct in their mental implementation, and discuss what implications this point has for a) understanding the locality of the factors conditioning alternations, b) the universality and language-specificity of variation, and c) the general question of whether grammar and language use are distinct.