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Article published In:
English World-Wide
Vol. 44:2 (2023) ► pp.184–218

Grammatical variation in World Englishes

An onomasiological study

| University of New South Wales
This study adopts an onomasiological, alternation-based approach to the exploration of grammatical variation across World Englishes, using data sourced from the 1.9 billion-word Global Web-based English corpus. The macro-orientation of the study, which investigates a set of ten alternations known to be susceptible to diachronic change, facilitates identification of a number of general trends, including the typical advancement of the Inner Circle varieties and of the South-East Asian varieties, the hypercentrality of American English, and the epicentrality of Indian English in South Asia. Possible explanatory factors include colloquialisation, grammatical simplicity/complexity, developmental status, and areal proximity.
Keywords: onomasiology, alternation, grammatical variation, World Englishes, GloWbE, colloquialisation, epicentrality
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data and methodology
  • 3.Explanatory considerations
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Perfect aspect
    • 4.2Progressive aspect
    • 4.3Passive voice
    • 4.4Subjunctive mood
      • 4.4.1The subjunctive mandative
      • 4.4.2The subjunctive-were conditional
    • 4.5Non-finite complementation
      • 4.5.1 Prevent NP (from) Ving
      • 4.5.2 Help NP (to) V
      • 4.5.3 Start Ving vs start to V
    • 4.6Concord with collective nouns
    • 4.7First person inclusive imperatives
  • 5.Discussion of findings
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 7 November 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.21055.col
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Collins, Peter
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2024. Variation in world Englishes through the lens of negation. World Englishes 43:1 ► pp. 47 ff. DOI logo

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