Omission of direct objects in New Englishes
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Hanna Parviainen
Abstract
This chapter examines the omission of direct objects of transitive verbs as in A: Do you know Malayalam? B: Oh yes I speak. (ICE-IND) in contexts where the verb does not function intransitively. The English varieties examined for this study come from Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Kenya, the Philippines and Singapore and the superstrate varieties from Britain and America were also included in the data. The study analyses the frequency of the phenomenon in sentences where the verbs bring, buy, enjoy, find, give, love, make, offer and show are used transitively. The focus of this quantitative study is on spoken language while possible substrate influences on the varieties are also discussed. The data for Fiji, Hong Kong, Indian, Jamaican, Kenyan, Philippine, Singaporean and British English were obtained from the spoken sections of the International Corpus of English (ICE), whereas American English was studied by using the Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English (SBCSAE). The results of the study indicate that the tendency to omit direct objects is strongest in IndE and SinE, while the feature was rarest in BrE, JaE and AmE.
Abstract
This chapter examines the omission of direct objects of transitive verbs as in A: Do you know Malayalam? B: Oh yes I speak. (ICE-IND) in contexts where the verb does not function intransitively. The English varieties examined for this study come from Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Kenya, the Philippines and Singapore and the superstrate varieties from Britain and America were also included in the data. The study analyses the frequency of the phenomenon in sentences where the verbs bring, buy, enjoy, find, give, love, make, offer and show are used transitively. The focus of this quantitative study is on spoken language while possible substrate influences on the varieties are also discussed. The data for Fiji, Hong Kong, Indian, Jamaican, Kenyan, Philippine, Singaporean and British English were obtained from the spoken sections of the International Corpus of English (ICE), whereas American English was studied by using the Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English (SBCSAE). The results of the study indicate that the tendency to omit direct objects is strongest in IndE and SinE, while the feature was rarest in BrE, JaE and AmE.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Table of contents v
- List of abbreviations vii
- Changing English: global and local perspectives xi
-
I. Towards the study of Global English
- Editors’ Introduction to Part I 3
- Crisis of the “Outer Circle”? – Globalisation, the weak nation state, and the need for new taxonomies in World Englishes research 5
- The Ecology of Language and the New Englishes: toward an integrative framework 25
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II. Ongoing changes in Englishes around the globe
- Editors’ Introduction to Part II 59
- The Present Perfect as a core feature of World Englishes 63
- Innovative structures in the relative clauses of indigenized L2 Asian English varieties 89
- Morphosyntactic typology, contact and variation: Cape Flats English in relation to other South African Englishes in the Mouton World Atlas of Variation in English 109
- Omission of direct objects in New Englishes 129
- The definite article in World Englishes 155
- Aspects of Verb Complementation in New Zealand Newspaper English 169
- Extended uses of the progressive form in Inner, Outer and Expanding Circle Englishes 191
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III. Expanding the horizons: lingua franca, cognitive, and contact-linguistic perspectives
- Editors’ Introduction to Part III 219
- A glimpse of ELF 223
- Lending bureaucracy voice: negotiating English in institutional encounters 255
- On the relationship between the cognitive and the communal: a complex systems perspective 277
- Transfer is Transfer; Grammaticalization is Grammaticalization 311
- Subject index 331
- Languages and Varieties index 340
- Author Index 343
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Table of contents v
- List of abbreviations vii
- Changing English: global and local perspectives xi
-
I. Towards the study of Global English
- Editors’ Introduction to Part I 3
- Crisis of the “Outer Circle”? – Globalisation, the weak nation state, and the need for new taxonomies in World Englishes research 5
- The Ecology of Language and the New Englishes: toward an integrative framework 25
-
II. Ongoing changes in Englishes around the globe
- Editors’ Introduction to Part II 59
- The Present Perfect as a core feature of World Englishes 63
- Innovative structures in the relative clauses of indigenized L2 Asian English varieties 89
- Morphosyntactic typology, contact and variation: Cape Flats English in relation to other South African Englishes in the Mouton World Atlas of Variation in English 109
- Omission of direct objects in New Englishes 129
- The definite article in World Englishes 155
- Aspects of Verb Complementation in New Zealand Newspaper English 169
- Extended uses of the progressive form in Inner, Outer and Expanding Circle Englishes 191
-
III. Expanding the horizons: lingua franca, cognitive, and contact-linguistic perspectives
- Editors’ Introduction to Part III 219
- A glimpse of ELF 223
- Lending bureaucracy voice: negotiating English in institutional encounters 255
- On the relationship between the cognitive and the communal: a complex systems perspective 277
- Transfer is Transfer; Grammaticalization is Grammaticalization 311
- Subject index 331
- Languages and Varieties index 340
- Author Index 343
