De Syntactische Atlas van de Nederlandse Dialecten

Abstract

This paper discusses the design, methodology and results of the project Syntactic Atlas of the Dutch Dialects (SAND) that was carried out between 2000 and 2004. The project involved data collection, description and analysis of the syntactic variation in 267 dialects of Dutch spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium and Northern-France. The results so far include: (i) the research tooI DynaSAND, a linguistically enriched on-line database with search engine and cartographic tooI to visualize the geographic distribution of syntactic variables; (ii) a two-volume printed atlas SAND; Volume 1 gives an overview of the syntactic variation in the left periphery of the clause, subject pronouns and subject agreement, reflexive systems and fronting; Volume 2 concerns variation in the verbal system and negation; (iii) four dissertations dealing with specific syntactic phenomena in the Dutch dialects, i.e. ellipsis (Van Craenenbroeck), first conjuct and complementizer agreement (Van Koppen), negation (Zeijlstra) and subject pronouns and agreement (De Vogelaer). The paper ends with a section on prospects for future research in syntactic microvariation. The bibliography contains all the publications that came out ofthe SAND project.