An analysis of certain syntactic trends in modern Dutch with age as a variation factor

This article is devoted to a qualitative and quantitative analysis of three syntactic phenomena found in the spontaneous written speech of native speakers of Dutch: the ellipsis of the main sentence constituents, the positioning of non-prepositional elements after the right verbal bracket, and the functioning of pragmatic particles in the right periphery of the sentence. The study is based on the SoNaR written corpus of Dutch and covers texts from SMS messages, chats, and microblogging posts contained in the relevant subcorpora. The texts in the SoNaR corpus are annotated for the authors' age, which makes it possible to obtain frequency data for the phenomena under consideration across different age groups. The article pays particular attention to the relationship between the grammatical norm of Dutch, as presented in the authoritative "Algemene Nederlandse Spraakkunst" ("General Dutch Grammar", 2019 edition), and actual language use as reflected in the corpus data. The syntactic features of the functioning of the selected units are identified. For each phenomenon, its predominant sphere of use is determined. The study also tests for the presence of a statistically significant association between age and the use of specific forms in which the phenomena are realized. The scientific novelty of the research lies in its description of syntactic phenomena in modern Dutch that have received little to no attention in the scholarly literature. The role of age as a factor in the use of specific forms of the phenomena under study is established. The empirical basis of the research consists of contemporary new-media texts which have so far received little scholarly attention. The results show that all three phenomena occupy a peripheral position relative to the core of the grammatical norm and are primarily characteristic of spoken discourse. The hypothesis that the tendency to use elements typical of colloquial spoken language manifests itself most strongly in the spontaneous written speech of younger speakers receives partial confirmation. The data obtained make it possible to conclude that age is a significant factor with respect to the elliptical realization of the 'aan het + infinitive' construction and the functioning of the pragmatic particle 'dan' in the right periphery of the sentence. These results provide a foundation for further research into syntactic variation in Dutch and for testing the proposed hypothesis both on other forms of variation within the areas outlined here and on as yet unexplored material reflecting new tendencies in the syntactic system of Dutch.