English World-Wide - Volume 40, Issue 2, 2019

Abstract

The decline of central modal must and the increase in frequency of the semi-modals have (got) to, need (to), and want to is one of the most conspicuous grammatical changes that inner-circle varieties of English underwent in the second half of the 20th century. Such a replacement correlates with the increasing grammaticalization of the semi-modals in terms of semantic and quantitative developments. The current paper explores the differential grammaticalization of these items in four Asian varieties of English – those spoken in India, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Philippines – with the aim of building a grammaticalization index that will allow us to measure the extent to which the replacement of modal must with the semi-modals is completed in each of the varieties as compared to British English. After analyzing data from the private dialogue sections of the corresponding ICE corpora, Hong Kong English is shown to be the variety in which the replacement is closest to British English, followed by the Philippines, Singapore and India.

Abstract

L1 background is often described as the main factor accounting for variation in postcolonial ESL varieties. However, recent studies (e.g. Mesthrie 2009, 2017) suggest that variation patterns in ESL varieties can in some cases also be linked to identity factors rooted in local patterns of intergroup relations. This study examines the interrelation between L1 background and such identity factors in the phonetic patterns found in the English varieties spoken in Namibia. The data consist of a corpus of careful style elicited via sociolinguistic interviews from an ethnically stratified sample of L2 English speaking Namibian students with Afrikaans, Bantu languages (Oshiwambo and Otjiherero), and Khoekhoeghowab as L1s. Individual speakers tend to be related in their phonetic behaviors if they share the same L1. However, some features cannot be directly attributed to L1 background, so their distribution is best read against the background of Namibian inter-ethnic relations and ethnolinguistic vitality differentials.

Abstract

The English words for daily meals constitute a complex lexical variable conditioned by social and linguistic factors. Comparative sociolinguistic analysis of 884 speakers from more than a dozen locations in Ontario, Canada reveals a synchronic system with social correlates that are reflexes of the British and American founder populations of the province. Toronto and Loyalist settlements in southern Ontario use the highest rates of dinner while northerners with European and Scots-Irish roots use supper. Dinner is taking over as the dominant form among younger speakers, exposing a cascade pattern (Trudgill 1972; Labov 2007) that is consistent with sociolinguistic typology (Trudgill 2011).

Abstract

This article provides a comparative analysis of the suppletive allomorphy of two personal pronouns in the five African English-lexifier Creoles (AECs) Krio (Sierra Leone), Pichi (Equatorial Guinea), Ghanaian Pidgin English, Nigerian Pidgin, and Cameroon Pidgin. The alternation of the 3sg object forms =àm (a clitic) and ín (a non-clitic) is conditioned by a tonal obligatory contour principle (ocp), a vowel height ocp, animacy, and focus in different constellations across the five AECs. In addition, an epenthetic /r/ is recruited in four of the AECs to ensure that the ocp is not breached. The analyses suggest that pronominal suppletion in the AECs has been fashioned by processes of change and differentiation typical of geographically extensive language families, such as migration from linguistic homelands, acquisition by non-founder populations, interlectal cross-diffusion, as well as contact and convergence with adstrate, substrate, and superstrate languages.

This article reviews Language and Slavery: A Social and Linguistic History of the Suriname Creoles105.00978-90-272-5276-0

This article reviews Rethinking Linguistic Creativity in Non-Native Englishes90.00978-90-272-0146-1