Verb Complementation Patterns in African Englishes
Final Report Abstract
The project examined innovative patterns of verb complementation in three African Englishes (Ghanaian, Kenyan, and Nigerian English). The first objective of the study was descriptive, examining the nature of innovative verb complementation patterns and determining to what extent such innovations are shared across the three varieties. The second objective was methodological - the research project went beyond the usual description of verb complementation patterns as attempted by earlier corpus studies by including an acceptability judgement task in order to determine the extent to which those constructions have stabilised across the English varieties and how acceptable they were in the speech communities. These two objectives provided a platform from which patterns in the three varieties were compared to patterns in other New Englishes. The third objective was to extrapolate the theoretical implications of the findings of the study with regard to the positioning of the three varieties in Schneider’s Dynamic Model. The project demonstrated a mixed-methods approach that is context-sensitive and integrated the users’ perspective. The project combined corpus and experimental data, which were essential for the investigation of the differences across varieties with regard to their use of verbal constructions, and shed light on the social acceptance of the respective structure in the speech communities. These perceptional insights will help to understand the variation described in the corpus analysis. Finally, the project advanced a theoretical approach that treats New Englishes as independent varieties and highlighted structural features that make the varieties indigenised, nativised Englishes. In this regard, it specifically took into account the cognitive perspectives (e.g. explicitness, isomorphism, and hyperclarity) as well as the sociolinguistic perspectives on the evolution of New Englishes.
Publications
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Corpus and Grammar. In Unuabonah, F.O., Oladipupo, R.O., & Daniel, F.O. Readings in Corpus Linguistics: A Teaching and Research Guide for Scholars in Nigeria and Beyond, pp. 171 - 199. Ibadan: Krafts Books
Oyebola, F.
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Verb Complementation Patterns in African Englishes: A Corpus-based Study. 44th International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English Conference (ICAME 44), North-West University, South Africa, held from 17-21 May, 2023
Folajimi Oyebola
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Verb Complementation Patterns in African Englishes: A Preliminary Corpus-based Study. In Unuabonah, F.O., Oladipupo, R.O., & Daniel, F.O. Readings in Corpus Linguistics: A Teaching and Research Guide for Scholars in Nigeria and Beyond, pp.271 - 299. Ibadan: Krafts Books
Oyebola, F.
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Verb Complementation Patterns in Postcolonial Englishes. 1st EUT Conference on Languages: Inter/Multilingualism in a Postcolonial Era - Languages and European Values, held from 24-26 January, 2023
Folajimi Oyebola
