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Linguistic Perspectives on a Variable English Morpheme pp 129–163Cite as

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Verbal Zero

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Abstract

In Chapter 2 we probe verbal zero, which is the opposite of verbal –s: the absence of –s in the 3rd sing. (e.g. the boy walk_). We show that in both historical and contemporary uses, verbal zero typically emerges in varieties of English that have experienced language contact (e.g. English varieties in East Anglia and Tristan da Cunha, African American Vernacular English, and English as a Lingua Franca). We identify a new constraint on verbal zero which is the reverse of the Northern Subject Rule (NSR) and which we call the East Anglian Subject Rule (EASR). Specifically, in the EASR, the use of the morpheme –s is favoured by pronouns over nouns. We provide a formal syntactic account of the EASR and conclude that in verbal zero varieties, –s is a 3rd sg. agreement that has been imposed by standardisation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Humanities, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Laura Rupp

  2. Department of English, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    David Britain

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  1. Laura Rupp
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  2. David Britain
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Rupp, L., Britain, D. (2019). Verbal Zero. In: Linguistic Perspectives on a Variable English Morpheme. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-72803-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-72803-9_3

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