Noun phrase complexity in Nigerian English

Structural simplicity/complexity is an important variable with which New Englishes and native varieties are identified and conceptualised, but predicting such variation in complexity has received little attention in the literature. New Englishes, especially the outer circle varieties such as Nigerian or Indian English, differ in form and function from the inner circle varieties, such as British or American English, but the extent of such variation varies greatly and merits further investigation. According to Gorlach (1998), we should expect New Englishes to demonstrate simplification at the levels of morphology, lexis, and syntax. This has indeed been shown to be the case in some varieties, but it has also been shown that this variation differs according to different linguistic and non-linguistic factors. Most recently, Schilk and Schaub (2016) have shown how noun phrase (NP) structure can reveal the underlying structural simpification predicted in the New Englishes varieties. Brunner (2014) examined NP complexity across three New Englishes (British, Singaporean, and Kenyan English), explicating how grammars of the indigeneous languages in Singapore and Kenya influence NP simplicity/complexity.

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A rose by any other name? Learner English and variety–status labelling: the case of English in South Korea

English Today ◽

10.1017/s0266078416000122 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 32 (4) ◽

pp. 56-62 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Jae Jung Song

Keyword(s):

Popular Culture ◽

Native Speakers ◽

American English ◽

English Speakers ◽

Indian English ◽

Negative Attitudes ◽

British English ◽

Outer Circle ◽

The Face ◽

Inner Circle

One of the major achievements of Braj Kachru's (1991) ‘liberation linguistics’ is that it has squarely placed Outer Circle varieties such as Indian English, Nigerian English and Singaporean English on a par with Inner Circle varieties such as American English and British English – in the face of negative attitudes, ranging ‘from amused condescension to racist stereotyping’ (Bruthiaux, 2003: 160). Following in Kachru's footsteps, many scholars have demonstrated that these Outer Circle Englishes are legitimate varieties of English, with distinct characteristics and with growing numbers of native speakers (e.g. Deterding, 2007; Jowitt, 1991; Sailaja, 2009). Indeed these Outer Circle English varieties are increasingly used, in respective countries, not only as the major or default medium of communication but also in the context of important domains such as education, media, government, literature and popular culture. The Kachruvian perspective has also given rise to the ‘egalitarian’ view that Inner Circle English speakers are no longer the only ones who can lay claim to the ownership of English. Outer Circle English speakers are now thought to be as much custodians of English as Inner Circle English speakers are.

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Social stigma and grammatical autonomy in nonnative varieties of English

Language in Society ◽

10.1017/s0047404503321025 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

pp. 23-46 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

BAO ZHIMING

Keyword(s):

Social Stigma ◽

Autonomous Systems ◽

Outer Circle ◽

Form And Function ◽

Vernacular English ◽

Phonological Features ◽

Expanding Circle ◽

Inner Circle ◽

And Function ◽

And Diffusion

The spread of English has created a rich array of varieties, which are often grouped into a tripartite division: the ENL, ESL, and EFL of Quirk, or the inner-circle, outer-circle, and expanding-circle of Kachru. These varieties, especially ESL, differ among themselves in both form and function. It is often assumed in the literature that these varieties are autonomous systems of communication. This article challenges this assumption by showing that the innovative phonological features of one ESL variety, the vernacular English spoken in Singapore, cannot be analyzed without reference to native English. These change-in-progress features fall into two types: those that originate in phonemes, and those that originate in words. Social stigma associated with them poses a formidable barrier to their stabilization and diffusion, and consequently to their autonomization. Nonnative English is grammatically dependent on native English.

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Emergence of the Unmarked in Indian Englishes with Different Substrates

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199777716.013.007 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Caroline R. Wiltshire

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Optimality Theory ◽

Learning Algorithm ◽

Indian English ◽

Form And Function ◽

First Languages ◽

And Function ◽

Insight Into

This study uses data from Indian English as a second language, spoken by speakers of five first languages, to illustrate and evaluate the role of the emergence of the unmarked (TETU) in phonological theory. The analysis focusses on word-final consonant devoicing and cluster reduction, for which the five Indian first languages have various constraints, while Indian English is relatively unrestricted. Variation in L2 Indian Englishes results from both transfer of L1 phonotactics and the emergence of the unmarked, accounted for within Optimality Theory. The use of a learning algorithm also allows us to test the relative importance of markedness and frequency and to evaluate the relative markedness of various clusters. Thus, data from Indian Englishes provides insight into the form and function of markedness constraints, as well as the mechanisms of Second Language Acquisition (SLA).

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The polemics of Singlish

English Today ◽

10.1017/s0266078401001055 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 39-45 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Lee-Wong Song Mei

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

United Kingdom ◽

Sri Lanka ◽

The United States ◽

The Philippines ◽

Linguistic Ideology ◽

Outer Circle ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Inner Circle ◽

And Function

An examination of the culture, identity and function of English in Singapore.The widespread use of English in Singapore has placed Singapore in the Outer Circle, along with India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Nigeria, the Philippines and others, in contrast with Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and others who belong to the Inner Circle (Kachru,1991). Placing countries in different circles – inner vs outer or expanding, based on the concept of nativization – has generated questions of democracy in linguistic ideology and related issues of norms and standards. These are discussed.

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THE USE OF LOCATIVE DEIXIS FROM A COGNITVE-LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE: A CROSS-CULTURAL MULTIMODAL ANALYSIS

NORDSCI Conference proceedings, Book 1 Volume 3 ◽

10.32008/nordsci2020/b1/v3/21 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Maira Avelar

Keyword(s):

Function Analysis ◽

American English ◽

Spatial Relations ◽

Brazilian Portuguese ◽

Form And Function ◽

Multimodal Analysis ◽

Late Night ◽

Linguistic Annotation ◽

Referential Function ◽

And Function

For structuring spatial relations, Brazilian Portuguese has four basic deictic forms: “aqui” (nearer to the speaker), “aí” (nearer to the addressee), “ali” (near to both speaker and addressee), and “lá” (distal from both speaker and addressee), whereas American English has a two-way distinction, linguistically expressed by “here” (near to the speaker) and “there” (distal from both the speaker and the hearer). Considering these differences, we aim at investigating how manual gestures operate along with speech, to point out to referents both located in the immediate interactional scene, the Ground [1], and projected in a non-immediate scene, narrated by the speaker. To do so, we collected 60 videos [2], 10 for each deictic, from late-night talk shows broadcasted in Brazilian, as well as in American TV broadcasts. As we carried out a gestural form and function analysis, the Linguistic Annotation System for Gestures [3], was adopted, which provided categorization tools to describe and analyze the verbo-gestural compounds encompassing locative deictic expressions both in American English and in Brazilian Portuguese. Results from both languages data samples support the hypothesis that the most frequent gestures that go along with the verbally uttered deictic expression is the pointing gesture. However, Brazilian Portuguese speakers predominantly use Pointing with Index Finger, associated to more prototypical deictic uses [4]. On the other hand, American English speakers mostly use Pointing with Open Hand, which is more associated to abstract ideas related to the conversational topic [4]. Considering gesture functions, it was also supported the hypothesis that referential function was predominant in both data samples. However, when the referential function was divided into concrete and abstract, Brazilian Portuguese shows a predominance of abstract deictic [5] uses, locating objects or entities in the imagined narrative scene. American English shows a predominance of concrete referential uses, locating objects or entities on the immediate scene. Finally, when the use of the verbo-gestural compounds is related to the ICM of Deixis [6], the comparison between Brazilian Portuguese and American English datasets indicates a cognitive resemblance between both languages, even though the deictic spatial relations are linguistically established in different ways on the same discursive genre.

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Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) of DNA and RNA

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100152148 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 47 ◽

pp. 34-35

Author(s):

Patricia G. Arscott ◽

Gil Lee ◽

Victor A. Bloomfield ◽

D. Fennell Evans

Keyword(s):

Molecular Structures ◽

Inorganic Materials ◽

Resolving Power ◽

Scanning Tunneling ◽

Tunneling Microscopy ◽

Form And Function ◽

Dna And Rna ◽

Calf Thymus ◽

And Function ◽

The Relationship

STM is one of the most promising techniques available for visualizing the fine details of biomolecular structure. It has been used to map the surface topography of inorganic materials in atomic dimensions, and thus has the resolving power not only to determine the conformation of small molecules but to distinguish site-specific features within a molecule. That level of detail is of critical importance in understanding the relationship between form and function in biological systems. The size, shape, and accessibility of molecular structures can be determined much more accurately by STM than by electron microscopy since no staining, shadowing or labeling with heavy metals is required, and there is no exposure to damaging radiation by electrons. Crystallography and most other physical techniques do not give information about individual molecules.We have obtained striking images of DNA and RNA, using calf thymus DNA and two synthetic polynucleotides, poly(dG-me5dC)·poly(dG-me5dC) and poly(rA)·poly(rU).

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