Some speakers of American English use the form dove as the paste tense of dive (as in He dove into the water) while others use the past tense form dived. At which level of linguistic structure does this dialectal variation exist?

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The question asks where the dialectal variation between dove and dived resides in the structure of language.
Option 1: Semantic or lexical. This would involve differences in meaning or vocabulary items. The dove/dived variation is not about different meanings or word choices, but about how a single verb’s past tense is formed, so this option is incorrect.
Option 2: Syntactic or grammatical. Syntactic or grammatical level concerns sentence structure and how words combine to form phrases and sentences. The dove/dived split is not about word order or grammatical rules of sentence construction, so this choice does not capture the locus of the variation, making it incorrect.
Option 3: Phonetic or Phonological. This level deals with sounds and sound patterns, including pronunciation differences. The dove/dived distinction is not primarily a difference in pronunciation; it is about the past tense form itself, not how it sounds, so this option is not appropriate.
Option 4: Morphological. Morphology is the study of word formation and internal structure of words, including how tense is marked on verbs. The variation between dove (an irregular past tense form) and dived (a regular past tense form) exists at the morphological level since it concerns different affixes or stem changes used to indicate past tense. This option correctly identifies the locus of the difference.

LING 200 A Quiz 7 (Socioling)

Some speakers of American English use the form dove as the paste tense of dive (as in He dove into the water) while others use the past tense form dived. At which level of linguistic structure does this dialectal variation exist?

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