Morphosyntactic variation in spoken English in Dominica.

Deuber, Deuber Lacoste, Véroquique

Research article (journal) | Peer reviewed

Abstract

In the anglophone Caribbean, varieties of English typically coexist with English-based Creoles in a continuum of sociolinguistic variation. In the small Eastern Caribbean island of Dominica, English has historically coexisted with a Frenchbased Creole. Only in recent decades has a major shift towards Dominican English Creole (DEC) occurred. This study investigates morphosyntactic variation in spoken English based on speech data from interviews conducted at two Dominican secondary schools. A cline is found where the teachers incorporate DEC features least into their speech, while the students from one of the schools use these and other non-standard morphosyntactic features the most. Furthermore, different features seem to be associated with DEC to different degrees, another finding which supports the notion of a continuum. The absence of stylistic uses of DEC morphosyntactic features can be attributed to the interview situation. At the same time, given limited recognition and identification with DEC, stylistic uses in connection with the expression of identity in discourse are not necessarily expected. The further development of variation in spoken English in Dominica in connection with the ongoing language shift will merit further investigation.

Details about the publication

JournalLingua
Volume308
Page range1-19
Article number1
StatusPublished
Release year2024 (19/07/2024)
Language in which the publication is writtenEnglish
DOI10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103777
Link to the full texthttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103777
KeywordsMorphosytax; Variation Linguistics; Spoken English; Dominica

Authors from the University of Münster

Deuber, Dagmar
Professur für Variationslinguistik (Prof. Deuber)