English Features in Saudi Arabia: A Syntactic Study Within the World Englishes Framework

Abstract

Saudi English has recently emerged as a new variety within the World Englishes framework. Many scholars have argued that there is still a gap in the literature and more studies on Saudi English are needed. This study hopes to contribute to the growing research interest in Saudi English studies. The current study aims to identify Saudi English syntactic characteristics classified in relation to noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase, and clausal structure. Data were collected using three methods: conversation in natural settings, open-ended questions, and students' writings. The findings confirm that substrate-superstrate interaction affects many syntactic characteristics of Saudi English.

A blueprint of Saudi English typology: A substrate effect

“…These findings confirm the results found in previous studies in SE literature (Al-Rawi, 2012;Al-Shurafa, 2014;Barnawi, 2022;Elyas, 2011;Elyas et al, 2021;Fallatah, 2017;Mahboob, 2013;Mahboob & Elyas, 2014). AlShurfa et al (2022) recent paper has given a brief overview of the main morphosyntactic and lexical features of Saudi English. It has been conveyed that the expansion of the role of English in Saudi Arabia and the increased number of English speakers has resulted in a variety of English that is distinct from SE (Elyas et al, 2021;Mahboob & Elyas, 2014).…”

“…We argue along the lines of Al-Rawi (2012); Mahboob and Elyas (2014);AlShurfa et al (2022);AlRawi et al (2022) that the 7 Saudi English features illustrated in Table 1 are the result of the influence of the substrate Arabic system. The first and the most pervasive feature is the invariant present tense due to the zero marking for the third person singular, which is Kortmann and Szmrecsanyi's feature #53 as shown in example (1) below.…”

“…Note that this feature is reported by Al-Rawi (2012) to be stable among all levels of educated users, unlike other features where the occurrence is affected by the level of education (Al-Rawi, 2012). It is ascertained to be a common feature accepted by the society (AlRawi et al, 2022;AlShurfa et al, 2022;Mahboob & Elyas, 2014). On the other hand, Saudi English shares with Caribbean English more features than Asian English.…”

“…Fallatah (2017) has detected a routine usage of religious phrases indicating an infused Saudi discourse with the Islamic religion. Since then, SE has been claimed as an emerging variety of English (Al-Rawi, 2012;AlRawi et al, 2022;AlShurfa et al, 2022;Barnawi, 2022;Elyas et al, 2021;Fallatah, 2017;Mahboob & Elyas, 2014). Nevertheless, in the same token, there is still a gap in the literature and more studies on SE are needed.…”

“…In this paper, SE was chosen being both a variety in the Expanding Circle and among the so-called ʻArabicised-Englishʼ (Al-Rawi, 2012;AlRawi et al, 2022;Al-Shurafa, 2009;AlShurfa et al, 2022;Elyas et al, 2021;Mahboob & Elyas, 2014) to distinguish substratesuperstrate interaction. Unlike the post-colonial English varieties used as the basis for the typological classification (Kortmann & Szmrecsanyi, 2004), Saudi English is a variety that relies on external norms (Kachru, 1985, p.5) through showing an "endonormative" (Schneider, 2004) attitude, or ʻat least one that does not overcompensate to avoid transferʼ (Sarmah et al, 2009, p. 207) from the mother tongue.…”