Into-causatives in World Englishes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Brunner
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Model ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Frequency Variation ◽  
Global English ◽  
Web Based ◽  
British English ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Linguistic Evolution ◽  
Causative Construction

Abstract The paper analyses the frequency and use of the relatively rare, yet highly productive into-causative construction in twenty varieties of English on the basis of the 1.9-billion word Corpus of Web-based Global English (GloWbE; Davies 2013)1 and Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Model. It hypothesises differences in frequency, variation in the preference for particularly frequent fillers as well as productivity differences in line with Schneider’s stages of linguistic evolution. However, it shows that only frequency differences reflect the Dynamic Model; with regard to the preference for frequent realisations and productivity, postcolonial varieties turn out to be very similar to British English. These results come as a surprise against the background of similar studies of the way-construction, where all of these effects have been documented convincingly. It is argued that the properties of into-causatives themselves (e.g. their idiomatic and semantic simplicity) might contribute to their more native-like usage patterns in postcolonial varieties of English.

Mandative subjunctive versus should in world Englishes: a new take on an old alternation

Corpora ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-241
Author(s):  
Sandra C. Deshors ◽  
Stefan Th. Gries
Keyword(s):  
World Englishes ◽  
Conditional Inference ◽  
Global English ◽  
Web Based ◽  
British English ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
Conditional Inference Trees

This study explores the alternation between the mandative subjunctive and its modal alternative with should across native and non-native Englishes. Methodologically, we try to improve on existing standards by investigating over 3,300 occurrences of the alternation from the Corpus of Web-based Global English and annotated for a range of linguistic factors analysed with a forest of conditional inference trees; also, we are exemplifying a new strategy for the use of random or conditional inference forests in corpus-based alternation studies. We obtain a forest with significant prediction accuracies and a good C-score and discuss the strongest predictors of the subjunctive versus should alternation across Englishes. Contrasting with existing research, our multi-factorial results: ( i) suggest that in British English the mandative subjunctive may not be dying out as much as we thought; and ( ii) individual suasive verbs influence speakers' use of the two variants more than their variety of English.

Chinese Netizens’ reactions to the use of English as a lingua franca

English Today ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Weihong Wang ◽  
Fan (Gabriel) Fang
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Linguistic Capital ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Global English ◽  
Local Varieties ◽  
British English ◽  
Linguistic Imperialism ◽  
The World

With the spread of English around the globe, academics increasingly seek to figure out what global English means to the world. Some accept English globalisation as a reality and take it as natural, neutral and beneficial for international and intercultural communication (Crystal, 2003). Some recognise English skills as important linguistic capital and must-have global literacy (Park & Wee, 2012; Tsui & Tollefson, 2007). However, others associate the global expansion of English with linguistic imperialism and the death of indigenous languages (Phillipson, 2009). Some regard globally spread English as native English varieties, particularly American and British English (Modiano, 2001; Trudgill, 1999), others argue for the rise of local varieties of World Englishes (WE) (Bolton, 2005; Kachru, 1986) and the international use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) (Jenkins, 2007; Seidlhofer, 2011). Although these generic interpretations of English have solid arguments from their own perspectives, none is sufficient to elucidate all the ‘complexity of ideological ramifications of the spread of English in [any] particular locality’ (Pan, 2011: 79).

The way-construction in World Englishes*

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Brunner ◽  
Thomas Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Model ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Web Based ◽  
The Way

Abstract The way-construction (e.g. He sang his way into our hearts) is a highly idiomatic English Argument Structure construction. Apart from a brief discussion in Davies and Fuchs (2015: 13), however, no study has looked at the construction in World Englishes. Drawing on more than 14,000 tokens from the Corpus of Global Web-Based English (GloWbE), we present the first in-depth empirical analysis of the construction across various types of World Englishes. Our results provide support for Hoffmann’s (2014) claim of the correlation of Dynamic Model stage (Schneider 2003, 2007) and constructional productivity: the overall frequency of the construction as well as the productivity of the verbal, nominal, and prepositional slots of the construction correlate positively with a variety’s phase in the Dynamic Model. Moreover, it turns out that the less entrenched a variety is according to the Dynamic Model, the stronger is its tendency to select specific prototypical, or frequent, fillers in the constructional slots. Finally, we find no evidence for the reliteralisation hypothesis, i.e. that less advanced varieties exhibit a preference for concrete verbs or nouns.

Marginal Argument Structure constructions: the [V the Ntaboo-wordout of]-construction in Post-colonial Englishes

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Dynamic Model ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Global English ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Taboo Word ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Human Event

AbstractArgument Structure constructions – abstract, schematic constructions that are considered to encode basic human event construals – have received considerable attention in the constructionist literature. At the same time, languages sometimes also possess what can be considered Marginal Argument constructions that are partly lexically filled and considerably more specialized in meaning, such as the V the Ntaboo-wordout of-construction. The present study focusses on the latter construction drawing on the Corpus of Web-based Global English (GloWbE). In particular, it provides empirical evidence that the productivity of the verb slot can be shown to correlate positively with the phase of a variety in the Dynamic Model.

Lexical bundles in conversation across Englishes

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-324
Author(s):  
Zeping Huang ◽  
Gavin Bui
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Dynamic Model ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Canadian English ◽  
British English ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Hong Kong English

Abstract This study adopts Nelson’s (2014) methodological framework to investigate core and peripheral lexical bundles (i.e. recurrent multi-word sequences) in conversation, using data from the British, Canadian, Singapore, and Hong Kong components of the International Corpus of English (ICE). The overlap and non-overlap comparisons reveal (dis)similarities in the use of bundles across the four World Englishes (WEs). Our findings suggest that in terms of discourse building blocks, the more advanced a variety is according to Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Model of New Englishes, the more lexical bundles it shares with the common core in conversation. Canadian English (CanE) shares the most common ground with British English (BrE). As a nascent variety, Hong Kong English (HKE) differs most from BrE, while Singapore English falls between CanE and HKE. Though the results do not correlate with Schneider’s Dynamic Model at the level of recurring chunks, they allow us to test predictions of WEs models. Quantitative and qualitative analyses enable the identification of bundles with significantly high frequency in each regional variety, thus enriching comparative research of WEs.

scholarly journals Structural and interactional aspects of adverbial sentences in English mother-child interactions: an analysis of two dense corpora

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Laura E. DE RUITER ◽  
Heather C. P. LEMEN ◽  
Elena V. M. LIEVEN ◽  
Silke BRANDT ◽  
Anna L. THEAKSTON
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Complexity ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Descriptive Data ◽  
British English ◽  
Parent Child Interactions ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Parent Child

Abstract We analysed both structural and functional aspects of sentences containing the four adverbials “after”, “before”, “because”, and “if” in two dense corpora of parent-child interactions from two British English-acquiring children (2;00–4;07). In comparing mothers’ and children's usage we separate out the effects of frequency, cognitive complexity and pragmatics in explaining the course of acquisition of adverbial sentences. We also compare these usage patterns to stimuli used in a range of experimental studies and show how differences may account for some of the difficulties that children have shown in experiments. In addition, we report descriptive data on various aspects of adverbial sentences that have not yet been studied as a resource for future investigations.

Rethinking Language Education policy in the Context of Multilingual/ Multicultural English

2021 ◽  
Vol X (2) ◽  
pp. 49-53
Author(s):  
Aicha Rahal ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Language Education Policy ◽  
Global English

Globalization has brought about a phenomenal spread of English. This spread has led to the emergence of the newborn varieties which has created serious challenges to language teaching pedagogy and language education policy. Bangbose (2003) has clearly pointed to this issue, stating “as researchers in world Englishes, we cannot consider our job done if we turn a blind eye to the problems of educational failure or unfavorable language policy outcomes” (as cited in the Council of Europe, 2007, p. 31). It seems that there is a mismatch between the advances that happened in the field of applied linguistics and language education policy. This paper focuses on language education policy in the context of global English because it is considered one of the influential factors in the gap between English lingua franca reality and English as a native language. First, it gives a brief overview of the recent situation with regard to English and shows the recent reality of multilingual English and its multifarious aspect (Rahal, 2018 & 2019). It also discusses the conceptual gap in language education policy. It points to the conceptual gap between the sociolinguistic reality of English and the language education policy that is still oriented towards English as a native language. Then, the paper points to the need for a language policy that includes linguistic diversity.

scholarly journals Kiasu

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Ebensgaard Jensen
Keyword(s):  
World Englishes ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Cultural Schema ◽  
Set Up

This paper presents a study of grammatical usage patterns of the word kiasu in the GloWbE corpus of World Englishes. Kiasu has been borrowed from Hokkien into Singaporean and Malaysian English as a linguistic ‘glocalization’ process enabling speakers to verbalize an important local cultural schema. A grammatical profile is set up that draws on the techniques from linguistic profiling. This study identifies a range of patterns that illustrate how the interaction between grammar and lexis amount to specific semantic construals of the underlying cultural schema of the word.

Hypercorrection in English: an intervarietal corpus-based study

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
PETER COLLINS
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Web Based ◽  
British English ◽  
Incorrect Result ◽  
Outer Circle ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Inner Circle ◽  
Elicitation Studies

This article aims to provide a fresh approach to the study of hypercorrection, the misguided application of a real or imagined rule – typically in response to prescriptive pressure – in which the speaker's attempt to be ‘correct’ leads to an ‘incorrect’ result. Instead of more familiar sources of information on hypercorrection such as attitude elicitation studies and prescriptive commentary, insights are sought from quantitative and qualitative data extracted from the 2-billion-word Global Web-based English corpus (GloWbE; Davies 2013). Five categories are investigated: case-marked pronouns, -ly and non-ly adverbs, agreement with number-transparent nouns, (extended uses of) irrealis were, and ‘hyperforeign’ noun suffixation. The nature and extent of hypercorrection in these categories, across the twenty English varieties represented in GloWbE, are investigated and discussed. Findings include a tendency for hypercorrection to be more common in American than in British English, and more prevalent in the ‘Inner Circle’ (IC) than in the ‘Outer Circle’ (OC) varieties (particularly with established constructions which have been the target of institutionalised prescriptive commentary over a long period of time).

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