Dative Alternation in Nigerian English: A Corpus-based Approach

Mayowa Akinlotan; Akande Akinmade

doi:10.1515/glot-2019-0005

Article

Dative Alternation in Nigerian English: A Corpus-based Approach

Mayowa Akinlotan and Akande Akinmade

Published/Copyright: February 18, 2020

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From the journal Glottotheory Volume 10 Issue 1-2

Abstract

Dative alternation is that sort of construction which requires a choice from two available choices; the double object (DOC) (i. e. Please give Mary the book) and the preposition construction (TOC) (i. e. Please give the book to Mary). Empirical evidence detailing the characteristics and motivations of dative choices in different varieties have been put forward in the literature. Albeit, nothing is known about the nature and motivations of this phenomenon in Nigerian variety of English, an important source of empirical evidence in the English-world-wide paradigm. With 739 sentences extracted from International Corpus of English, we examined the effects of 16 predictors on this construction in the Nigerian variety; showing how the behavior of these predictors compares with findings reported in other varieties. Among other findings, we found that overall Nigerian variety is closer to American variety than Indian variety, and pronominality as the strongest predictor, outweighing register as a reputable predictor.

Keywords: dative alternation; Nigerian English; World Englishes; variation; corpus linguistics; linguistic variables

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Published Online: 2020-02-18

Published in Print: 2020-02-25

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https://doi.org/10.1515/glot-2019-0005

Keywords for this article

dative alternation; Nigerian English; World Englishes; variation; corpus linguistics; linguistic variables