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The English of current Caribbean newspapers

American, British, in between or neither?
  • Dagmar Deuber and Eva Canan Hänsel
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Corpus Linguistics, Context and Culture
This chapter is in the book Corpus Linguistics, Context and Culture

Abstract

The present paper analyses newspaper corpora from Jamaica and three small island nations in the Caribbean, namely St. Kitts & Nevis, Dominica and St. Vincent & the Grenadines, with the aim of shedding more light on the issue of American influence in written Standard English in the Caribbean. Spelling, lexis and selected grammatical features are analysed. This is complemented by investigating the perspectives of newspaper staff and readers. The results for spelling are mixed and can be interpreted to show that language use in the small Caribbean countries tends to be more susceptible to American influence. Concerning lexis, the findings are limited but suggest that several lexical items associated with American English are well established across the different Caribbean countries. In terms of grammatical forms and constructions, all the Caribbean corpora are characterised by a distinctive tendency towards formal variants. Finally, the study suggests that next to exonormative influences, endonormative attitudes need to be considered when assessing the current state of written Standard English in the Caribbean.

Abstract

The present paper analyses newspaper corpora from Jamaica and three small island nations in the Caribbean, namely St. Kitts & Nevis, Dominica and St. Vincent & the Grenadines, with the aim of shedding more light on the issue of American influence in written Standard English in the Caribbean. Spelling, lexis and selected grammatical features are analysed. This is complemented by investigating the perspectives of newspaper staff and readers. The results for spelling are mixed and can be interpreted to show that language use in the small Caribbean countries tends to be more susceptible to American influence. Concerning lexis, the findings are limited but suggest that several lexical items associated with American English are well established across the different Caribbean countries. In terms of grammatical forms and constructions, all the Caribbean corpora are characterised by a distinctive tendency towards formal variants. Finally, the study suggests that next to exonormative influences, endonormative attitudes need to be considered when assessing the current state of written Standard English in the Caribbean.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I: Discourse contexts and cultures
  5. Patterns of discursive urban place-making in Brooklyn, New York 13
  6. The English of current Caribbean newspapers 43
  7. Corporate identity and its variation over time 75
  8. Applying Geographical Information Systems to researching historical corpora 109
  9. Corpus linguistics: Widening the remit 137
  10. Part II: Contexts of lexis and grammar
  11. Family collocation 165
  12. Factors influencing the translation of -ing participial free adjuncts 197
  13. The diachronic productivity of native combining forms in American English 223
  14. Advise against -ing: An emerging class of exceptions to Bach’s Generalization 253
  15. Subjective progressives in the history of American English 275
  16. Part III: Learner contexts
  17. A syntactic analysis of the introductory it pattern in non-native-speaker and nativespeaker student writing 307
  18. Phraseological teddy bears 339
  19. “Dear Man men and women madam, dear xxx sir” 363
  20. Marked themes in advanced learner English 387
  21. Phrasal verbs in the spoken and written modes of Norwegian L2 learner English 409
  22. Conversational gesture corpus analysis 437
  23. Corpus research for SLA 467
  24. List of contributors 483
  25. Index 487
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110489071-003

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I: Discourse contexts and cultures
  5. Patterns of discursive urban place-making in Brooklyn, New York 13
  6. The English of current Caribbean newspapers 43
  7. Corporate identity and its variation over time 75
  8. Applying Geographical Information Systems to researching historical corpora 109
  9. Corpus linguistics: Widening the remit 137
  10. Part II: Contexts of lexis and grammar
  11. Family collocation 165
  12. Factors influencing the translation of -ing participial free adjuncts 197
  13. The diachronic productivity of native combining forms in American English 223
  14. Advise against -ing: An emerging class of exceptions to Bach’s Generalization 253
  15. Subjective progressives in the history of American English 275
  16. Part III: Learner contexts
  17. A syntactic analysis of the introductory it pattern in non-native-speaker and nativespeaker student writing 307
  18. Phraseological teddy bears 339
  19. “Dear Man men and women madam, dear xxx sir” 363
  20. Marked themes in advanced learner English 387
  21. Phrasal verbs in the spoken and written modes of Norwegian L2 learner English 409
  22. Conversational gesture corpus analysis 437
  23. Corpus research for SLA 467
  24. List of contributors 483
  25. Index 487
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