Contact-induced variation in clausal verb complementation: the case of REGRET in World Englishes

Abstract

It has been argued that in language contact situations both transfer processes from the substrate languages (Thomason, 2008) and cognitive effects derived from the language contact situation itself (Schneider, 2012(Schneider, , 2013 can constitute important catalysts for language variation and change. Regarding the verbal complementation system, Steger and Schneider (2012: 172), for example, notice a preference for finite patterns over non-finite structures in World Englishes (WEs), that is, a preference for more explicit forms (hyperclarity and isomorphism). On the contrary, Schneider's study (2012) does not confirm such a preference for more explicit forms in WEs in the competition between finite and non-finite patterns. This article intends to shed some light on the differences between the distribution of finite and nonfinite complementation patterns in WEs by exploring the complementation profile of the verb REGRET in two metropolitan varieties, British and American English, and comparing them to three geographically distant varieties with different substrate languages, historical contexts, and degrees of language contact: on the one hand, two ESL varieties, Hong Kong English and Nigerian English, and on the other, one ESD variety, Jamaican English, where contact is more pronounced. The main aim of this paper is, therefore, to investigate whether potential differences in the verbal complementation systems between varieties of English are product of cognitive processes derived from the language contact situation, a matter of transfer-induced change, or a combination of both.

Negation as a predictor of clausal complement choice in World Englishes

“…The difference in distribution between L1 and L2 varieties of English has a number of possible explanations, including the cognitive processes involved in the language contact and second language acquisition situations in which these varieties develop (Steger & Schneider 2012), and the influence of substrate languages (Romasanta 2017). Other (Romasanta 2019a), or even 'colonial lag' (Marckwardt 1958), also known by the more neutral term 'extraterritorial conservatism' (suggested by Hundt 2009).…”

“…The search query used to find all examples of the verb regret was regret*_v*. This search retrieved a number of false positives and invalid examples, which were discarded (for more details, see Romasanta 2017). A precision and recall analysis was performed to test the accuracy of the data obtained, the results of which were very positive, with values of over 90 percent in almost all varieties, with the exception of BrE (89.2% recall; Romasanta 2019b).…”

“…Studies on negation in English focus mainly on British and American English, thus excluding the many non-native L2 varieties of World Englishes (WEs). These varieties have been shown to exhibit a preference for finite patterns as part of their tendency to use more transparent and isomorphic structures (Schneider 2012;Steger & Schneider 2012;Romasanta 2017). In a recent study on the verb REGRET (Romasanta 2019a), L2 varieties of English (in particular Hong Kong English and Nigerian English) were found to favor finite that/zero-complement clauses over nonfinite (S) -ing clauses, with different intra-linguistic factors showing a significant effect on the alternation, such as subject coreferentiality, animacy of the subject in the complement clause, temporal relation and length of the complement clause (see examples (1) and (2), respectively).…”

“I Regret Lying" vs. “I Regret that I Lied": Variation in the Clausal Complementation Profile of REGRET in American and British English

“…This article is an attempt to contribute to existing research by looking at the complementation profile of regret, a verb that has been shown to exhibit variation between finite that-clauses and non-finite -ing clauses in earlier periods of English (Heyvaert and Cuyckens 2010;Cuyckens et al 2014;Romasanta 2017Romasanta , 2019Romasanta , 2021aRomasanta , 2021b. In particular, I aim to explore differences in the alternation between that-and -ing complement clauses with the verb regret in American English (AmE) and British English (BrE), as in the examples shown in (1) below, as well as the factors that may influence a speaker's choice of one pattern over the other, as attested in data from the Corpus of Global Web-Based English (GloWbE;Davies 2013).…”

Structural Nativization in Postcolonial Englishes: The Complementation Profile of REMEMBER As a Case in Point

“…Bernaisch, Gries & Mukherjee 2014;Gries & Bernaisch 2016;Röthlisberger, Grafmiller & Szmrecsanyi 2017;Szmrecsanyi et al 2016), clausal verbal complementation has barely been investigated at all (although cf. Bernaisch 2015;Deshors 2015;Deshors & Gries 2016;García-Castro 2019, 2020Romasanta 2017;Steger & Schneider 2012). Furthermore, these studies have usually concentrated on existing patterns (an exception being new ditransitive verbs; 1 cf.…”