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Abstract

Abstract

There is a dearth of studies on existential -occurrence in written Nigerian English. Based on the 400,796-word written sub-corpus of International Corpus of English Nigeria (ICE-Nigeria) and its 17 genres containing 510 files, this study examines existential -clauses (ETCs) in written Nigerian English. The material was printed for data extraction and was revisited several times, focusing on distribution and frequency, syntactic positions, predicators, complements, and adjuncts. Systemic Grammar underlies the study. The data comprises 661 ETCs. The occurrence rate is 1.65 in 1000 words and is highest in Exams (2.62). ETCs are most frequent as independent clauses and least as subjects. While BE represents 98 percent of predicators, and indefinite pronouns account for 6.3 percent of complements, () and are the highest modifiers. 53 percent of ETCs derive from kernel sentences, but their 0.5 percent occurrence as complements of -type imperative clauses questions existing theory and description.

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2026-02-26
2026-03-07

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What else is there to say about existential there?
John Benjamins ; https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.25029.ade
/content/journals/10.1075/eww.25029.ade
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: distribution ; syntactic functions ; syntactic patterning ; occurrence ; predicators ; Existential there-clauses ; complements ; adjuncts ; subject matter and frequency ; semantic and textual functions

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