Ebaregulaarsused

Ebaregulaarsused is a term used in linguistics to describe irregular language uses that deviate from a language’s standard or prescriptive grammar. It is employed mainly within sociolinguistic and corpus-linguistic research to categorize patterns of nonstandard forms that recur across speakers, regions, or genres, rather than isolated mistakes. The concept serves to distinguish systematic irregularities from random error, highlighting how languages can admit predictable departures from normativity in real use.

Origin and usage of the term are informal and vary by scholarly tradition. The compound appears to blend elements implying irregularity (eba-) with a reference to regular uses (regulaarsused), signaling its role as the counterpoint to standard constructions. In practice, researchers adopt ebaregulaarsused as a working label to discuss recurring nonstandard patterns without branding them as incorrect in all contexts.

Identification of ebaregulaarsused relies on corpus data, field observations, and elicitation methods. Analysts may set criteria such as frequency thresholds, contextual constraints, and cross-dialect comparisons to classify forms as irregular uses rather than mere lapses. Annotated corpora and statistical analyses help reveal which irregular patterns are stabilized within particular speech communities versus those that are transient.

Typical examples include irregular morphological or syntactic forms that appear with some regularity, nonstandard inflection patterns, unconventional word order in specific constructions, or shifts in pronoun or determiner use. These patterns can reflect sociolinguistic factors such as age, register, or geographic variation, and may contribute to language change over time.

See also: irregular morphology, language variation, sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics.