Regional variance in the use of quantitative "er"

Dekker, Nadège (2021) Regional variance in the use of quantitative "er". Bachelor's Thesis, Artificial Intelligence.

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Abstract

The Dutch word “er” loosely translates to “there”, and is considered an unstressed form of the word “daar” (“there”). The word “er” may therefore be expected to be strictly locative (erL), though in reality it has four possible functions in Dutch. These different uses of “er” are subject to grammatical rules, and while there is some room for interpretation by the speaker, the Dutch are quite specific in how they prefer to use the word “er”. This article specifically investigates the use of erQ by speakers from different regions of the country, if this use agrees with literature, and whether the animacy of the object that “er” refers to makes speakers more or less likely to use “er” in a sentence. It is expected according to literature that the southern provinces will use erQ1 more often than strictly required by grammar rules. 177 participants were asked to fill out a survey. The questions were all multiple choice, giving participants the choice between neither, one or two of the responses to a posed question. Their preferred responses were recorded and analysed by use of an ANOVA (Analysis Of Variance) test. Participants from the northern three provinces used erQ less frequently than other participants [F(2, 169) = 20.62, p = 9.69∗e −9 ], which stands in contradiction with literature (Haeseryn, Romijn, Geerts, de Rooij, and van den Toorn (1997)). Furthermore, participants were significantly more likely to use “er” when referring to an inanimate object than an animate object, regardless of which province they inhabited [t(349)=3.53, p=4.72 ∗ e −4 ].

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor's Thesis)
Supervisor name:	Jones, S.M.
Degree programme:	Artificial Intelligence
Thesis type:	Bachelor's Thesis
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	29 Jul 2021 07:21
Last Modified:	31 Aug 2021 13:56
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/25219

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