A principled distinction between error and conventionalized innovation in African Englishes
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Bertus van Rooy
Abstract
A distinction between error and conventionalized innovation is essential to understanding if and how New Varieties of English develop new conventions. This chapter proposes two criteria, grammatical stability and acceptability, to identify conventionalized innovations. It draws on the distinction drawn by Croft (2000) between the narrow process of creating new forms (innovation in the narrow sense) and the subsequent diffusion thereof, which are characterized as individual/psycholinguistic and social respectively. Three features from African Englishes are examined: the so-called extension of the progressive aspect to stative verbs and the use of “can be able to” in Black South African English, as well as the complementation of “enable” with bare infinitive clauses in East African English. The analyses indicate that while these features may have originated as errors due to analogy or overextension of existing patterns, which may also happen in the process of acquiring English as a foreign Language, the context of New Varieties of English is such that stabilization and conventionalization of these innovations may occur. Genuine new linguistic conventions emerge from forms that may have started out as errors.
Abstract
A distinction between error and conventionalized innovation is essential to understanding if and how New Varieties of English develop new conventions. This chapter proposes two criteria, grammatical stability and acceptability, to identify conventionalized innovations. It draws on the distinction drawn by Croft (2000) between the narrow process of creating new forms (innovation in the narrow sense) and the subsequent diffusion thereof, which are characterized as individual/psycholinguistic and social respectively. Three features from African Englishes are examined: the so-called extension of the progressive aspect to stative verbs and the use of “can be able to” in Black South African English, as well as the complementation of “enable” with bare infinitive clauses in East African English. The analyses indicate that while these features may have originated as errors due to analogy or overextension of existing patterns, which may also happen in the process of acquiring English as a foreign Language, the context of New Varieties of English is such that stabilization and conventionalization of these innovations may occur. Genuine new linguistic conventions emerge from forms that may have started out as errors.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Modal auxiliaries in second language varieties of English 7
- English in Cyprus 35
- From EFL to ESL 55
- Formulaic sequences in spoken ENL, ESL and EFL 79
- Studying structural innovations in New English varieties 101
- Interrogative inversion as a learner phenomenon in English contact varieties 125
- Overuse of the progressive in ESL and learner Englishes – fact or fiction? 145
- Typological profiling 167
- A principled distinction between error and conventionalized innovation in African Englishes 189
- Discussion forum 209
- Bionotes 219
- Index 221
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Modal auxiliaries in second language varieties of English 7
- English in Cyprus 35
- From EFL to ESL 55
- Formulaic sequences in spoken ENL, ESL and EFL 79
- Studying structural innovations in New English varieties 101
- Interrogative inversion as a learner phenomenon in English contact varieties 125
- Overuse of the progressive in ESL and learner Englishes – fact or fiction? 145
- Typological profiling 167
- A principled distinction between error and conventionalized innovation in African Englishes 189
- Discussion forum 209
- Bionotes 219
- Index 221
