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The status of the U.S. Midland as a separate dialect area has been a topic of discussion for quite some time, and Murray and Simon (2006b) strive for resolution by defining the Midland as a dialect area characterized by a core set of seventeen morpho-syntactic features that co-occur in the region but are not necessarily used by all or only Midlanders. In this article, the author argues that need + prepositional adverb (e.g., The dog needs out) belongs among the features of the Midland and presents data to show that this construction parallels the regional, social, and stylistic distributions of other Midland constructions. In addition, the author proposes that need + prepositional adverb has indirect links to Scotch-Irish English and is likely a U.S. or, at the very least, a recent innovation that arose by analogy to other Scotch-Irish features. Finally, need + prepositional adverb is a modern Midland feature that provides evidence against the Midland as simply a transition zone. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates whether the position of adverb phrases in sentences is regionally patterned in written Standard American English, based on an analysis of a 25 million word corpus of letters to the editor representing the language of 200 cities from across the United States. Seven measures of adverb position were tested for regional patterns using the global spatial autocorrelation statistic Moran's I and the local spatial autocorrelation statistic Getis-Ord Gi*. Three of these seven measures were indentified as exhibiting significant levels of spatial autocorrelation, contrasting the language of the Northeast with language of the Southeast and the South Central states. These results demonstrate that continuous regional grammatical variation exists in American English and that regional linguistic variation exists in written Standard English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regional, social, and stylistic distributions of want + prepositional adverb (e.g., I can move if you want by) are poorly understood in spite of a long history of documentation and the inclusion of one form--want off--in major dialectology projects. This article investigates the acceptability of a range of forms of want + prepositional adverb in the United States and finds a wider than expected regional distribution, differences in the acceptability of different forms, and in the dialect area that boasts the greatest concentration of use--the Midland--little variation across social variables yet greater variation across styles. The author argues that the findings support the use of acceptability judgments in the study of morpho-syntactic features; indicate change from below in progress with the spread of want + prepositional adverb from the Midland; give additional evidence for an independent Midland dialect area; and call into question current assumptions about the relationship between social and stylistic variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the status of two vowel mergers in a rural area of the United States. The front-lax merger has traditionally been a southern US merger, and the low-back merger has traditionally been a northern or western US merger. In areas of West Virginia, the same speakers demonstrate both. This geographic overlap of both mergers reinforces the idea that West Virginia is a transitional dialect region. In addition, the traditionally distinct dialect regions of West Virginia are finding increased unity in this overlap of mergers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]