{"title":"Into-causatives in World Englishes","authors":"Thomas W. Brunner","doi":"10.1075/eww.21068.bru","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n The paper analyses the frequency and use of the relatively rare, yet highly productive\n into-causative construction in twenty varieties of English on the basis of the 1.9-billion word Corpus of\n Web-based Global English (GloWbE; Davies 2013)1 and Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Model. It hypothesises\n differences in frequency, variation in the preference for particularly frequent fillers as well as productivity differences in\n line with Schneider’s stages of linguistic evolution. However, it shows that only frequency differences reflect the Dynamic Model;\n with regard to the preference for frequent realisations and productivity, postcolonial varieties turn out to be very similar to\n British English. These results come as a surprise against the background of similar studies of the\n way-construction, where all of these effects have been documented convincingly. It is argued that the properties\n of into-causatives themselves (e.g. their idiomatic and semantic simplicity) might contribute to their more\n native-like usage patterns in postcolonial varieties of English.","PeriodicalId":45502,"journal":{"name":"English World-Wide","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2021-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"English World-Wide","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.21068.bru","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
The paper analyses the frequency and use of the relatively rare, yet highly productive
into-causative construction in twenty varieties of English on the basis of the 1.9-billion word Corpus of
Web-based Global English (GloWbE; Davies 2013)1 and Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Model. It hypothesises
differences in frequency, variation in the preference for particularly frequent fillers as well as productivity differences in
line with Schneider’s stages of linguistic evolution. However, it shows that only frequency differences reflect the Dynamic Model;
with regard to the preference for frequent realisations and productivity, postcolonial varieties turn out to be very similar to
British English. These results come as a surprise against the background of similar studies of the
way-construction, where all of these effects have been documented convincingly. It is argued that the properties
of into-causatives themselves (e.g. their idiomatic and semantic simplicity) might contribute to their more
native-like usage patterns in postcolonial varieties of English.
期刊介绍:
English World-Wide has established itself as the leading and most comprehensive journal dealing with varieties of English. The focus is on scholarly discussions of new findings in the dialectology and sociolinguistics of the English-speaking communities (native and second-language speakers), but general problems of sociolinguistics, creolistics, language planning, multilingualism and modern historical sociolinguistics are included if they have a direct bearing on modern varieties of English. Although teaching problems are normally excluded, English World-Wide provides important background information for all those involved in teaching English throughout the world.