From documentation to grammatical description: Prepositional phrases in Ruhrdeutsch

This paper presents a methodology for generalizing grammatical descriptions from natural speech data characterized by high degrees of variation. In the context of Ruhrdeutsch, a colloquial variety of German spoken in the Ruhr area, an adequate description of case assignment in prepositional phrases can only be achieved if linguistic, sociolinguistic and extra-linguistic factors of variation are acknowledged. Since such an analysis relies on gradual parameters, the various identifiable subsystems have to be conceptualized as points on a dialect/standard continuum rather than discrete grammars. The results of the grammatical description are interpretable in sociolinguistic and diachronic terms such that they mirror the gradual decline of Ruhrdeutsch features in the ongoing process of dialect attrition.