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University of Cape Coast Dative Alternation In © University of Cape Coast https://erl.ucc.edu.gh/jspui UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST DATIVE ALTERNATION IN GHANAIAN AND BRITISH VARIETIES OF ENGLISH BY DORIS NYANTA Thesis submitted to the Department of English of the Faculty of Arts of the College of Humanities and Legal Studies, University of Cape Coast, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Master of Philosophy degree in English JULY 2017 Digitized by Sam Jonah Library © University of Cape Coast https://erl.ucc.edu.gh/jspui DECLARATION Candidate’s Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own original work and that no part of it has been presented for another degree in this university or elsewhere. Candidate’s Signature ………………………… Date …..……………… Name: Doris Nyanta Supervisors’ Declaration We hereby declare that the preparation and presentation of the thesis were supervised in accordance with the guidelines on supervision of thesis laid down by the University of Cape Coast. Principal Supervisor’s Signature ………………… Date ………….….. Name: Dr. Joseph Arko Co-Supervisor’s Signature: …..………………… Date ………………. Name: Prof. S. T. Babatunde ii Digitized by Sam Jonah Library © University of Cape Coast https://erl.ucc.edu.gh/jspui ABSTRACT Despite the many studies on Ghanaian English, the structure of the verb phrase and, particularly, the relationship between the verb and its arguments have not featured prominently in these kinds of studies. Meanwhile, researchers in probabilistic linguistics who have shown some interest in non-native varieties of English have indicated that studies in dative alternation are crucial in affirming the validity and viability of a variety of English, as well as hold the key to the determination of specific varieties of English (Bresnan et al. 2007). This study thus focuses on the use of the dative alternation in Ghanaian English to determine the differences between the native British and non-native Ghanaian varieties. It also examines the contextual features which influence the dative choices. The corpus-based methodology is used to examine the lemmas of the verb give in dative alternation patterns in the International Corpus of English-Ghana (ICE-GH), and the Lancaster-Oslo/Bergen Corpus of British English (FLOB). The study reveals that the dative alternation of the forms of the verb give are manifested in both corpora, and the Ghanaian English dative alternation choices and their predictor variables are not considerably different from those of the British English. The study observes a common grounds of significance with regard to complexity at the levels of both few and lengthy, pronominality at the level of pronoun, definiteness at the level of definite, animacy at the level of animate, person at the levels of both local and non-local, number at the level of plural, and concreteness at the level of concrete. The implications of the findings are that the Ghanaian variety shares many resemblances than differences with the British English. iii Digitized by Sam Jonah Library © University of Cape Coast https://erl.ucc.edu.gh/jspui ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my profound gratitude to a number of people who assisted me in the course of this study. I am grateful to my supervisors, Dr. Joseph Arko, without whom the road leading to this thesis would have been close to impossible, and Prof. S. T. Babatunde, both of the Department of English, University of Cape Coast, for their invaluable guidance, able supervision, constructive criticism and unwavering concern during the supervision of this work. I give special thanks to the lecturers of the Department of English, especially, Dr. Richmond Sadick Ngula, whose presentation on how to analyse a text using the Antconc corpus analytical tools gave me insight in analyzing my data. I am also highly indebted to Prof. J. A. Afful and Prof. L. Owusu- Ansah, for showing interest in my work and encouraging me to finish in time. Their constant questions about the state of my work often had me feeling very uncomfortable, and helped to put me on my toes. A million thanks also go to Dr. Sampson Twumasi-Ankrah (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana), who painstakingly assisted me with the statistical analysis of my data. I definitely cannot end this page without mentioning my husband Ing. Paul Frederick Assabil for his love, prayers, patience and support throughout this programme. You are such a darling! I honestly couldn’t have asked God for a better man. To my children, I say thank you for your support and prayers. iv Digitized by Sam Jonah Library © University of Cape Coast https://erl.ucc.edu.gh/jspui DEDICATION To my beloved husband and children. v Digitized by Sam Jonah Library © University of Cape Coast https://erl.ucc.edu.gh/jspui TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION ii ABSTRACT iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv DEDICATION v LIST OF TABLES x LIST OF FIGURES xi LIST OF ACRONYMS xii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 Background of the Study 1 Problem Statement 6 Purpose of the Study 8 Research Questions 9 Significance of the Study 10 Delimitation of the Study 11 Organization of the Study 12 Chapter Summary 12 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 14 Introduction 14 World Englishes 14 Kachru’s Three Circles 16 Moag’s Life Cycle of Non-native Englishes 20 Schneider’s Dynamic Evolutionary Cycle 23 The Concept of Nativisation 28 vi Digitized by Sam Jonah Library © University of Cape Coast https://erl.ucc.edu.gh/jspui English as a Global Language 30 Valency of the Verb 31 Types of Verb Valency 36 Verb Classification and Alternation 39 Theoretical Discussions on Verb Alternations 40 Dative Alternation 43 The Monosemy View / Single Meaning Approach 45 The Polysemy View / Multiple Meaning Approach 46 The Information Structure View 47 Factors that Constrain the Dative Alternation 48 Empirical Studies 51 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 62 Introduction 62 Corpus Linguistics as a Methodology 62 Corpora Description 65 The Native Corpus- FLOB Corpus 65 The Variety Corpus- ICE Ghana 66 Data Sample 68 Coding 70 The Chi-Square Distribution 76 Logistic Regression 76 Chapter Summary 77 CHAPTER FOUR: ANALYSES AND DISCUSSIONS 78 Introduction 78 The Syntactic Structure of the Dative Alternation 78 vii Digitized by Sam Jonah Library © University of Cape Coast https://erl.ucc.edu.gh/jspui The Frequency Distribution of the Forms of give in ICE-GH AND FLOB 79 Bivariate Analysis of the Variety and Reference Dataset 81 Statistical Analysis of the Independent Variables 83 Test of the Predictor Variables of the Dative Alternation on the Dataset 85 Concrete Transfer of Possession 86 Abstract Transfer of Possession 86 Communication of Information 86 Future Transfer 87 Prevention of Possession 87 Complexity of Recipient and Theme 87 Pronominality of Recipient and Theme 89 Definiteness of Recipient and Theme 90 Animacy of the Recipient and Theme 92 Accessibility of Recipient and Theme 94 Person of Recipient and Theme 95 Number of Recipient and Theme 96 Concreteness of Theme 96 Statistical Analysis of Predictor Variables 98 Logistic Regression Analysis and its Interpretation of Data Output for ICE-Ghana 98 Explanation of the Significant Predictors of ICE-Ghana 101 Interpretation of Data Output for FLOB 102 Explanation of the Significant Predictors for FLOB 104 Comparison between the FLOB (L1) and ICE-GHANA (L2) 104 Discussion of Findings 107 viii Digitized by Sam Jonah Library © University of Cape Coast https://erl.ucc.edu.gh/jspui Chapter Summary 117 CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, IMPLICATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 118 Introduction 118 Summary of Key Findings of the Study 118 Conclusion 122 Implications 123 Recommendations for Further Study 124 Conclusions of the Study 124 REFERENCES 129 APPENDICES 151 ix Digitized by Sam Jonah Library © University of Cape Coast https://erl.ucc.edu.gh/jspui LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 The Development Phases in Schneider’s model 23 2 Intralinguistic Variables Used in the Study 72 3 Frequency Distribution of the Forms of “Give” in ICE-GH 80 4 Frequency Distribution of the Forms “Give” in FLOB 80 5 Frequency of Occurrence of both Varieties 82 6 Logistic Regression Analysis: Full Model showing the Predictors Estimates, Standard Error, P-Value, Odds Ratio and Confidence Interval (CI) of the Odds Ratio (ICE-GH) 99 7 The Reduced Model of the Logistic Regression Analysis of ICE-GH 100 8 Logistic Regression Analysis: Full Model with the Predictors, Estimates, Standard Error, P-Value, Odds Ratio and Confidence Interval (CI) of the Odds Ratio (FLOB) 102 9 Logistic Regression Analysis Showing the Reduced Model with the Estimates, Standard Error, Odds Ratio, P-Value (FLOB & ICE GHANA) 103 10 Summary of the Comparison between L2 and L1 Speakers 106 11 FLOB and ICE-GH Compared 151 12 Percentage Points of the Chi-Square Distribution 152 13 Bivariate Results of Contextual Features of ICE-GH 153 14 Bivariate Results of Contextual Features of FLOB 154 x Digitized by Sam Jonah Library © University of Cape Coast https://erl.ucc.edu.gh/jspui LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Kachru’s Concentric Circles. Source: Kachru (1986) 17 2 Moag’s Life cycle. Source: Moag (1982) 20 xi Digitized by Sam Jonah Library © University of Cape Coast https://erl.ucc.edu.gh/jspui LIST OF ACRONYMS BNC British National Corpus BROWN The Brown University Standard Corpus of American English CLEC Chinese Learner English Corpus DA dative alternation DOC double object construction EFL English as a foreign language ENL English native variety ESL English as a second language FLOB The Freiburg-Lancaster-Oslo/Bergen Corpus of British
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