South Pacific Englishes – Unity and diversity in the usage of the present perfect
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Carolin Biewer
Abstract
The outer circle varieties of English in Fiji, Samoa and the Cook Islands show similarities as well as differences, due among other things to the Melanesian and Polynesian substrate influence. Possible candidates would be a preference for conversion (to broom the room) or the special usage of invariant tags (Mugler & Tent 2004: 778; Lynch & Mugler 1999: 10). Another possible source for the unity and diversity of South Pacific Englishes is the fact that – due to geographical, political and economic reasons – New Zealand English may in some of the islands supersede the former prestigious American and British varieties as a model for the national standard. This paper discusses the extent to which we can talk about different varieties of Fiji English, Samoan English and Cook Island English, and which features rather call for a ‘Pan-Pacific English’ perspective. To test the unity and diversity of these new varieties of English the internet was used to create a corpus of editorials and letters to the editor collected from newspapers representing the different outer circle varieties in question. The focus will be on the usage of the present perfect. The paper discusses the results as a first step towards a general description of ‘South Pacific Englishes’ as well as the suitability of the www as a source for such a study.
Abstract
The outer circle varieties of English in Fiji, Samoa and the Cook Islands show similarities as well as differences, due among other things to the Melanesian and Polynesian substrate influence. Possible candidates would be a preference for conversion (to broom the room) or the special usage of invariant tags (Mugler & Tent 2004: 778; Lynch & Mugler 1999: 10). Another possible source for the unity and diversity of South Pacific Englishes is the fact that – due to geographical, political and economic reasons – New Zealand English may in some of the islands supersede the former prestigious American and British varieties as a model for the national standard. This paper discusses the extent to which we can talk about different varieties of Fiji English, Samoan English and Cook Island English, and which features rather call for a ‘Pan-Pacific English’ perspective. To test the unity and diversity of these new varieties of English the internet was used to create a corpus of editorials and letters to the editor collected from newspapers representing the different outer circle varieties in question. The focus will be on the usage of the present perfect. The paper discusses the results as a first step towards a general description of ‘South Pacific Englishes’ as well as the suitability of the www as a source for such a study.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Exploring the dynamics of linguistic variation through public and private corpora 1
-
Part I. Creating discourse
- Introduction 13
- ' And so now …': The grammaticalisation and (inter)subjectification of now 17
- Self-repetition in spoken English discourse 37
- Modal adverbs in interaction – obviously and definitely in adolescent speech 61
- Pressing -ing into service: I don't want you coming around here any more 85
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Part II. Moving across varieties
- Introduction 101
- Conversations from the speech community: Exploring language variation in synchronic dialect corpora 107
- The English modals and semi-modals: Regional and stylistic variation 129
- Patterns of negation: The relationship between NO and NOT in regional varieties of English 147
- Verb-complementational profiles across varieties of English: Comparing verb classes in Indian English and British English 163
- Angloversals? Concord and interrogatives in contact varieties of English 183
- South Pacific Englishes – Unity and diversity in the usage of the present perfect 203
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Part III. Levelling out variability
- Introduction 223
- Feature loss in 19th century Irish English 229
- The written wor(l)ds of men and women in early white Australia 245
- The progressive and phrasal verbs: Evidence of colloquialization in nineteenth-century English? 269
- Probabilistic determinants of genitive variation in spoken and written English: A multivariate comparison across time, space, and genres 291
- Her daughter's being taken into care or her daughter being taken …? Genitive and common-case marking of subjects of verbal gerund clauses in Present-day English 311
- Subject index 335
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Exploring the dynamics of linguistic variation through public and private corpora 1
-
Part I. Creating discourse
- Introduction 13
- ' And so now …': The grammaticalisation and (inter)subjectification of now 17
- Self-repetition in spoken English discourse 37
- Modal adverbs in interaction – obviously and definitely in adolescent speech 61
- Pressing -ing into service: I don't want you coming around here any more 85
-
Part II. Moving across varieties
- Introduction 101
- Conversations from the speech community: Exploring language variation in synchronic dialect corpora 107
- The English modals and semi-modals: Regional and stylistic variation 129
- Patterns of negation: The relationship between NO and NOT in regional varieties of English 147
- Verb-complementational profiles across varieties of English: Comparing verb classes in Indian English and British English 163
- Angloversals? Concord and interrogatives in contact varieties of English 183
- South Pacific Englishes – Unity and diversity in the usage of the present perfect 203
-
Part III. Levelling out variability
- Introduction 223
- Feature loss in 19th century Irish English 229
- The written wor(l)ds of men and women in early white Australia 245
- The progressive and phrasal verbs: Evidence of colloquialization in nineteenth-century English? 269
- Probabilistic determinants of genitive variation in spoken and written English: A multivariate comparison across time, space, and genres 291
- Her daughter's being taken into care or her daughter being taken …? Genitive and common-case marking of subjects of verbal gerund clauses in Present-day English 311
- Subject index 335
