The envelope of variation as a formal diagnostic

A key early stage of a variationist study is to identify the envelope of variation: for the variable under study, in which linguistic contexts do we see variation, and in which contexts does one of the variants simply occur categorically? This is important for studying variation, because it enables us to better understand how robust the variability is. In this talk, my aim is to show how identifying the envelope of variation can inform formal analysis of linguistic structure. To illustrate this, I’ll focus on two patterns of variation in Tyneside English: 1) variable use of the participle for the preterite (and vice versa), and 2) variable use of us as a singular object and we as a plural object.