Northern Subject Rule

The Northern Subject Rule is a grammatical pattern that occurs in Northern English and Scots dialects.[1] Present-tense verbs may take the verbal ‑s suffix, except when they are directly adjacent to one of the personal pronouns I, you, we, or they as their subject. As a result, they sing contrasts with the birds sings; they sing and dances; it's you that sings; I only sings.[2] Various core areas for the rule have been proposed, including Yorkshire[2] and southern Scotland.[3]

The Northern subject rule is also present in Newfoundland English, although a 2011 study by Philip Comeau[4] argues that it differs from the Northern subject rule of British dialects, because it is a marker of habitual aspect or verb stativity.

In several other dialects across England, occasional variations in agreement between subjects and verbs can be found.[5]

  1. ^ Benskin, Michael (2011). "Present Indicative Plural Concord in Brittonic and Early English". Transactions of the Philological Society. 109 (2): 155–185. doi:10.1111/j.1467-968X.2011.01279.x.
  2. ^ a b de Haas, Nynke; van Kemenade, Ans (2014), The origin of the Northern Subject Rule: subject positions and verbal morphosyntax in older English
  3. ^ Rodríguez Ledesma, María Nieves (2017), The Northern Subject Rule in the Breadalbane Collection
  4. ^ Philip, Comeau. "Verbal -s in Vernacular Newfoundland English: A Combined Variationist and Formal Account of Grammatical ChangeVariationist and Formal Account of Grammatical Change". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ^ Robinson, Jonnie. "Grammatical Variation Across the UK".