A corpus-driven description of when-adverbial in Nigerian and British Englishes

Mayowa Akinlotan

doi:10.1515/glot-2021-2003

Article

A corpus-driven description of when-adverbial in Nigerian and British Englishes

Mayowa Akinlotan
Mayowa Akinlotan is currently a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and works at Catholic University of Ingoldstadt-Eichstatt Germany. His research interest cut around corpus linguistics, varieties of English, sociolinguistics, construction and usage-based grammar, cognitive linguistics, structural variation and complexity, syntactic alternation, semantic-syntax interface, etc. His works have drawn data from English, Nigerian Pidgin, and Yoruba languages, using both quantitative and qualitative methods at basic, intermediate, and advanced levels.

Published/Copyright: October 4, 2021

Published by

Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Author Information Explore this Subject

From the journal Glottotheory Volume 12 Issue 2

Abstract

Syntactic alternation allows us to understand how structural variation, including crucial factors relevant to their meaning and interpretation, operates linguistic varieties. Empirical evidence from such syntactic alternation study can provide insights into how new varieties differ from the established ones. The present study aims at increasing contributions that show the nature of syntactic alternation from new Englishes such as Nigerian English, and how they differ from established varieties such as British English. Taking when adverbial construction in Nigerian English as a reference point (When Trump realised his reelection loss, he changed his political expectations versus Trump changed his political expectations when he realised his reelection loss), the study shows the extent to which previously tested factors influence the ordering of the construction and how they differ from findings reported in British English. Relying on corpus data, together with descriptive distributional analysis, the study shows that, unlike British English in which functional and cognitive factors strongly influence structural patterning, functional factors outweigh cognitive factors in Nigerian English.

Keywords: constructional choice; corpus evidence; Nigerian English; structural complexity; syntactic alternation; when adverbial construction; World Englishes

Corresponding author: Mayowa Akinlotan, Department of English Language and Linguistics, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Universitätsallee 1, Ehemalige Orangerie eO 008-1, 85072 Eichstätt, Germany, E-mail: mayowa.akinlotan@ku.de

About the author

Mayowa Akinlotan

Mayowa Akinlotan is currently a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and works at Catholic University of Ingoldstadt-Eichstatt Germany. His research interest cut around corpus linguistics, varieties of English, sociolinguistics, construction and usage-based grammar, cognitive linguistics, structural variation and complexity, syntactic alternation, semantic-syntax interface, etc. His works have drawn data from English, Nigerian Pidgin, and Yoruba languages, using both quantitative and qualitative methods at basic, intermediate, and advanced levels.

References

Anthony, Laurence. 2014. Ant conc (Version 3.4.3) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University Available at: https://www.laurenceanthony.net/software/antconc/.Search in Google Scholar

Arnold, Jennifer E., Thomas Wasow, Losongco Anthony & Ginstrom Ryan. 2000. Heaviness vs. newness: The effects of structural complexity and discourse status on constituent ordering. Language 76. 28–55. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2000.0045.Search in Google Scholar

Akinlotan, Mayowa & Akande Akinmande. 2019. Dative alternation in Nigerian English: A corpus-based approach. Glottotheory: An International Journal of Theoretical Linguistics 10(1–2). 103–125.10.1515/glot-2019-0005Search in Google Scholar

Akinlotan, Mayowa & Alex Housen. 2017. Noun phrase complexity in Nigerian English: Syntactic function and length outweigh genre in predicting noun phrase complexity. English Today 33(3). 31–38. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266078416000626.Search in Google Scholar

Akinlotan, Mayowa. 2016. Determiner number (dis) agreement in Nigerian English. In Moreno Antonio Ortiz & Chantal Hernandez-Perez (eds.), CICL 2016 EPic series in language and linguistics 1, 1–8. Malaga: Spanish Association for Corpus Linguistcs (AELINCO). Avaiable at: https://easychair.org/publications/volume/CILC2016.Search in Google Scholar

Akinlotan, Mayowa. 2018a. Noun phrase complement in Nigerian English. Brazilian English Language Teaching Journal 9(2). 342–363. https://doi.org/10.1515/glot-2018-0001.Search in Google Scholar

Akinlotan, Mayowa. 2018b. Structural patterns of postmodifier in Nigerian noun phrase. Glottotheory: An International Journal of Theoretical Linguistics 9(1). 41–75. https://doi.org/10.1515/glot-2018-0001.Search in Google Scholar

Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad & Finegan Edward. 1999. Longman grammar of spoken and written English, 9th edn. Harlow: Longman.Search in Google Scholar

Birner, B. Jean & Gregory Ward. 1998. Information status and noncanonical word order in English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/slcs.40Search in Google Scholar

Chafe, Wallace. 1984. How people use adverbial clauses. Berkeley Linguistics Society 10. 437–449. https://doi.org/10.3765/bls.v10i0.1936.Search in Google Scholar

Croft, William. 2003. Typology and universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511840579Search in Google Scholar

Diessel, Holger. 1996. Processing factors of pre- and postposed adverbial clauses. Berkeley Linguistics Society 22. 71–82. https://doi.org/10.3765/bls.v22i1.1344.Search in Google Scholar

Diessel, Holger. 2001. The ordering distribution of main and adverbial clauses: A typological study. Language 77. 343–365. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2001.0152.Search in Google Scholar

Diessel, Holger. 2004. The acquisition of complex sentences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511486531Search in Google Scholar

Diessel, Holger. 2005. Competing motivations for the ordering of main and adverbial clauses. Linguistics 43. 449–470. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2005.43.3.449.Search in Google Scholar

Diessel, Holger. 2008. Iconicity of sequence: A corpus-based analysis of the positioning of temporal adverbial clauses in English. Cognitive Linguistics 19(3). 465–490.10.1515/9783110335255.225Search in Google Scholar

Eckert, Penelope. 2018. Meaning and linguistic variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781316403242Search in Google Scholar

Ford, Cecilia. 1993. Grammar in interaction. Adverbial clauses in American English conversations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511554278Search in Google Scholar

Givón, Talmy. 1990. Syntax. A functional-typological introduction, vol. II. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/z.50Search in Google Scholar

Gorlach, Manfred. 1998. Varieties of English world-wide: Where we stand. Links and Letters 5. 13–36.Search in Google Scholar

Gries, Stefan. 2017. Syntactic alternation research: Taking stock and some suggestions for the future. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 31. 7–27.10.1075/bjl.00001.griSearch in Google Scholar

Haiman, John. 1978. Conditionals are topics. Language 54. 564–589. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1978.0009.Search in Google Scholar

Haiman, John. 1983. Iconic and economic motivations. Language 59. 781–819. https://doi.org/10.2307/413373.Search in Google Scholar

Hawkins, John. 1994. A performance theory of order and constituency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511554285Search in Google Scholar

Hawkins, John. 2004. Efficiency and complexity in grammars. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199252695.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Kachru, Braj. 2019. World Englishes and culture wars. London: Cambridge University Press.10.1002/9781119147282.ch25Search in Google Scholar

Lehmann, Christian. 1974. Prinzipien für “Universal 14”. In Hansjakob Seiler (ed.), Linguistic workshop II, 69–97. Munich: Wilhem Fink.Search in Google Scholar

Prince, Ellen. 1980. Towards a taxonomy of given-new information. In Peter Cole (ed.), Radical pragmatics, 223–256. New York: Academic.Search in Google Scholar

Rosenbach, Anette. 2005. Animacy versus weight as determinants of grammatical variation in English. Language 81(3). 613–644. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2005.0149.Search in Google Scholar

Schilk, Macro & Steffen Schaub. 2016. Noun phrase complexity across varieties of English: Focus on syntactic function and text type. English World-Wide 37(1). 58–85. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.37.1.03sch.Search in Google Scholar

Thompson, Sandra A. 1987. ‘Subordination’ and narrative event structure. In Tomlin Russell (ed.), Coherence and grounding in discourse, 435–454. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.11.19thoSearch in Google Scholar

Verstraete, Jean-Christophe. 2004. Initial and final position of adverbial clauses in English: The constructional basis of the discoursive and syntactic differences. Linguistics 42. 819–853. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2004.027.Search in Google Scholar

Wasow, Thomas. 2002. Postverbal behavior. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2020-10-20

Accepted: 2021-02-25

Published Online: 2021-10-04

You are currently not able to access this content.

Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/glot-2021-2003

Keywords for this article

constructional choice; corpus evidence; Nigerian English; structural complexity; syntactic alternation; when adverbial construction; World Englishes