The missing amn't
In her article titled "The *amn't gap: The view from West Yorkshire" Judith Broadbent discusses the absence of I amn't (first person, present tense, negative form contraction) from the West Yorkshire (WY) dialect. She argues that while some would say there is a "gap in the paradigm" she believes that the gap in WY, as well as Standard British English (SBE) is "man-made rather than grammatical in nature" (251).
In West Yorkshire speakers use the contraction "I'm not" exclusively in declaratives. The contractions "I [aːnt]" and "I [aːt]" can be use in both declaratives and interrogatives (261). The following examples are taken from Broadbent's research. Notice how the contractions are able to be used to ask a question.
In her article titled "The *amn't gap: The view from West Yorkshire" Judith Broadbent discusses the absence of I amn't (first person, present tense, negative form contraction) from the West Yorkshire (WY) dialect. She argues that while some would say there is a "gap in the paradigm" she believes that the gap in WY, as well as Standard British English (SBE) is "man-made rather than grammatical in nature" (251).
In West Yorkshire speakers use the contraction "I'm not" exclusively in declaratives. The contractions "I [aːnt]" and "I [aːt]" can be use in both declaratives and interrogatives (261). The following examples are taken from Broadbent's research. Notice how the contractions are able to be used to ask a question.
Broadbent suggest that there are two possible reasons for this. The first possiblility is that the gap has not been plugged with the default contraction: aren't. The explanation for this is that "be" is the only verb in the language with a special first person singular form. Because of this, a "...conflict arises between the between first person singular am and the default negative from aren't. In standard forms of English, when someone wishes to produce a first person singular from of Be which is also negative, this conflict produces a gap in declarative sentences, because neither am nor aren't is exactly what is required" (255).
However, Broadbent is critical of this explanation saying that the alternative does not assume "I [aːnt]" and "I [aːt]" are based off of "aren't" but rather they are manifestations of amn't. In conclusion, we can see that gather that the amn't gap is not a matter of grammer, at least according to the research of Judith Broadbent. Instead the gap has been created by speakers who avoid the n't contracted forms for Be. The lack of any first person, present tense, negative form contraction seems to be caused simply because the society avoided it.
However, Broadbent is critical of this explanation saying that the alternative does not assume "I [aːnt]" and "I [aːt]" are based off of "aren't" but rather they are manifestations of amn't. In conclusion, we can see that gather that the amn't gap is not a matter of grammer, at least according to the research of Judith Broadbent. Instead the gap has been created by speakers who avoid the n't contracted forms for Be. The lack of any first person, present tense, negative form contraction seems to be caused simply because the society avoided it.