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Volume 46, Issue 2
  • ISSN 0172-8865
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9730
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Abstract

This study analyses the structural and aspectual variants of , and light verb constructions (LVCs) (e.g. ) in mesolectal Malaysian English (MalE). A synchronic corpus of online forum data representing contemporary English use in Malaysia was developed for the analysis, and the Spoken British National Corpus 2014 was used as a reference. Findings show that, structurally, MalE LVCs prefer unmodified constructions with an indefinite article in active voice while, aspectually, they are mostly telic. To identify significant structural and aspectual variants of LVCs specific to either MalE or British English (BrE), a correlational analysis was conducted. MalE shows a higher proportion of zero-article LVCs, active voice LVCs, and bounded LVCs marked by prepositional phrase (PP)- indicating telicity. Notably, mesolectal MalE aligns with BrE in its use of LVCs but diverges in other grammatical forms.

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2025-07-17
2026-05-17

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/content/journals/10.1075/eww.23026.ong
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Give, take, and make light verb constructions in mesolectal Malaysian English
English World-Wide 46, 213 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.23026.ong
/content/journals/10.1075/eww.23026.ong
/content/journals/10.1075/eww.23026.ong
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): aspectual; corpus linguistics; light verb constructions; Malaysian English; structure; variants

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