Variation in the imperfective in Bahamian English

Abstract

The current study investigates variation in the marking of two aspectual subcategories of the imperfective in Bahamian English. First, it looks into variable auxiliary be use in progressive and future constructions, that is, the variation between full, contracted and zero be in non‐past V‐ing environments and related contexts. Second, the paper examines variable application of preverbal does/is/’s in non‐past habitual environments. The two variables were selected to represent the ‘informal’ and ‘anti‐formal’ group respectively, that is, one feature that classifies as a reduction of English structure and one direct transfer from the creole (Allsopp, 1996, pp. lvi–lvii). Thus, in addition to examining the linguistic constraints, the study will take a close look at the stylistic factors conditioning the variation, placing a special focus on the distribution of the non‐standardized variants over various registers as well as how speakers employ them to create linguistic styles.