P Collins
Biographic Data
| ID | 9503 |
|---|---|
| NAME | P Collins |
| GIVEN NAMES | P |
| FAMILY NAME | Collins |
| SIGNATURE | COLLINS P |
| AFFILIATIONS | UNSW Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3510-3398 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 175 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1979 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The acceptability of non-standard usages in four postcolonial Asian Englishes
While structural variation in postcolonial World Englishes is extensively documented, empirical studies exploring speaker attitudes toward non-standard grammar remain scarce. This paper investigates the linguistic acceptability of 21 salient morphosyntactic features across four Outer Circle East Asian communities: Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. Drawing on a 5-point Likert scale elicitation questionnaire administered to unive…
Infinitival and Gerund-Participial Catenative Complement Constructions in English World-Wide
Previous research on non-finite catenative complementation (for example, start Ving/to V; force NP into Ving/to V) has largely been restricted to BrE and/or AmE. The present study seeks to expand the regional coverage of such research by analysing a set of catenative constructions in two large web-derived corpora, GloWbE and NOW, both of which comprise 20 subcorpora representing different national varieties of English. The implications of the fin…
Modals and Quasi-Modals in English World-Wide
This study explores the distribution of modals and quasi-modals in the twenty English dialects represented in the Global Web-based English Corpus (GloWbE). Intervarietal trends are observed across and within the Englishes of the “Inner circle” and “Outer circle.” Ratios calculated for onomasiological pairings of modal expressions suggest that Inner circle varieties tend to be associated more closely than Outer circle varieties—and “epicentral” va…
Variation in world Englishes through the lens of negation
This article reports the findings of a study of negation across varieties of English worldwide, with data derived from the Global Web‐Based Corpus of English. Three general categories are explored: negative polarity‐sensitive expressions (lexical verbs such as bother , and idioms such as give a damn ); negators (idioms such as be not half bad , boilerplate no ‐collocations such as no worries , and implicit negators such as bugger all ); and non‐s…
Grammatical variation in World Englishes: An onomasiological study
This study adopts an onomasiological, alternation-based approach to the exploration of grammatical variation across World Englishes, using data sourced from the 1.9 billion-word Global Web-based English corpus. The macro-orientation of the study, which investigates a set of ten alternations known to be susceptible to diachronic change, facilitates identification of a number of general trends, including the typical advancement of the Inner Circle …
Hypercorrection in English: An intervarietal corpus-based study
This article aims to provide a fresh approach to the study of hypercorrection, the misguided application of a real or imagined rule – typically in response to prescriptive pressure – in which the speaker's attempt to be ‘correct’ leads to an ‘incorrect’ result. Instead of more familiar sources of information on hypercorrection such as attitude elicitation studies and prescriptive commentary, insights are sought from quantitative and qualitative d…
Comment markers in world Englishes
This study, an exercise in varietal pragmatics, compares the frequencies and uses of four categories of comment markers – ‘evaluative’, ‘epistemic’, ‘style’, and ‘hearsay’ – across the 20 world Englishes represented in the Global Web‐based Corpus of English. Predictions drawn from the models of world Englishes formulated by Kachru, Schneider, and Mair are used to formulate a set of research questions. The possible covariation of comment marker us…
Colloquialisation and the evolution of Australian English: A cross-varietal and cross-generic study of Australian, British, and American English from 1931 to 2006
This paper investigates whether colloquialisation – a stylistic shift by which written genres come to be more similar to spoken genres – has played a role in the endonormativisation of the grammar of Australian English, a variety which has long been noted for its penchant for colloquialism. The study tracks changes in grammatical colloquialism from the early 20th century against the historical backdrop of the progressive decline in Britishness in…
Theory
Singular agreement in there -existentials: An intervarietal corpus-based study
The phenomenon of “singular agreement” (“SA”) in there -existentials — the combination of a plural post-verbal notional subject and a singular verb — has been the subject of a number of studies which have confirmed its covariation with a range of social, stylistic and grammatical factors. Whereas the focus of most such studies has been on the relative influence of these factors, that of the present study is on the nature and frequency of SA acros…
The Progressive Aspect in World Englishes: A Corpus-based Study
This paper reports the findings of a study comparing the distribution and frequency of the forms, meanings and uses of the progressive aspect across a set of spoken and written categories in nine parallel corpora, representing four inner circle and five outer circle Englishes. Significant regional and stylistic variations were noted. Australian and New Zealand English emerge as the most innovative regional varieties in their use of the progressiv…
Sorting the Sheep from the Goats: Morphological Distinctions between the Mandibles and Mandibular Teeth of Adult and
English in Australia
This unique collection fills a ten-year gap in studies on the nature of Australian English, and it is the first to deal exclusively with varieties of English on the Australian continent. The book contains chapters on the phonology, morphology, syntax and the lexicon of the dialect, and chapters on variation within the dialect that include Aboriginal and ethnic varieties as well as regional and generational differences with a focus on questions of…
Topics for our times: Can we learn from the care of persons with mental illness in developing countries
Topics for our times: can we learn from the care of persons with mental illness in developing countries? E Susser, P Collins, B Schanzer, V K Varma, and M GittelmanCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.86.7.926 Published Online: October 07, 2011
Get-passives in English
A number of claims and counter-claims which have been made concerning get-passives in English are tested via interrogation of a set of written and spoken corpora. Get-passives are shown to form a fuzzy set, with about one-third of corpus tokens belonging to a 'core' whose members have an explicit or at least accessible agent-phrase, a lexical verb with typically dynamic meaning, and which alternate with an active clause. Beyond the core there are…
The mental adjustment to HIV scale: Measurement and dimensions of response to Aids/HIV disease
Attitudes of people with HIV disease towards HIV have seldom been measured. However, a well-established scale to measure attitudes toward cancer in those with the disease, the 38-item Mental Adjustment to Cancer (MAC) scale was modified to assess adjustment to HIV disease. We administered the scale to 107 Australian men with HIV infection, of whom 36 had an AIDS-defining condition, who were patients at an ambulatory care facility and in a researc…
Extern constructions in English 1
This paper explores the similarities and differences between those constructions commonly regarded as being derived via the processes of ‘left‐dislocation’, ‘right‐dislocation’ and ‘topicalisation’. The constructions are here claimed to share in common the presence of an element ‘external’ to the governing clause, but to exhibit certain differences both in terms of their structural properties (notably, the types of syntactic function represented …
Pseudocleft and cleft constructions: A Thematic and Informational Interpretation
Investigating acceptability in Australian English
(1981). Investigating acceptability in Australian English. WORD: Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 15-34
The Evolution of Educational Thought. Lectures on the Formation and Development of Secondary Education in France
Sorting the Sheep from the Goats: Morphological Distinctions between the Mandibles and Mandibular Teeth of Adult and
The Progressive Aspect in World Englishes: A Corpus-based Study
This paper reports the findings of a study comparing the distribution and frequency of the forms, meanings and uses of the progressive aspect across a set of spoken and written categories in nine parallel corpora, representing four inner circle and five outer circle Englishes. Significant regional and stylistic variations were noted. Australian and New Zealand English emerge as the most innovative regional varieties in their use of the progressiv…
Get-passives in English
A number of claims and counter-claims which have been made concerning get-passives in English are tested via interrogation of a set of written and spoken corpora. Get-passives are shown to form a fuzzy set, with about one-third of corpus tokens belonging to a 'core' whose members have an explicit or at least accessible agent-phrase, a lexical verb with typically dynamic meaning, and which alternate with an active clause. Beyond the core there are…
Singular agreement in there -existentials: An intervarietal corpus-based study
The phenomenon of “singular agreement” (“SA”) in there -existentials — the combination of a plural post-verbal notional subject and a singular verb — has been the subject of a number of studies which have confirmed its covariation with a range of social, stylistic and grammatical factors. Whereas the focus of most such studies has been on the relative influence of these factors, that of the present study is on the nature and frequency of SA acros…
Grammatical variation in World Englishes: An onomasiological study
This study adopts an onomasiological, alternation-based approach to the exploration of grammatical variation across World Englishes, using data sourced from the 1.9 billion-word Global Web-based English corpus. The macro-orientation of the study, which investigates a set of ten alternations known to be susceptible to diachronic change, facilitates identification of a number of general trends, including the typical advancement of the Inner Circle …
Colloquialisation and the evolution of Australian English: A cross-varietal and cross-generic study of Australian, British, and American English from 1931 to 2006
This paper investigates whether colloquialisation – a stylistic shift by which written genres come to be more similar to spoken genres – has played a role in the endonormativisation of the grammar of Australian English, a variety which has long been noted for its penchant for colloquialism. The study tracks changes in grammatical colloquialism from the early 20th century against the historical backdrop of the progressive decline in Britishness in…
Pseudocleft and cleft constructions: A Thematic and Informational Interpretation
Topics for our times: Can we learn from the care of persons with mental illness in developing countries
Topics for our times: can we learn from the care of persons with mental illness in developing countries? E Susser, P Collins, B Schanzer, V K Varma, and M GittelmanCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.86.7.926 Published Online: October 07, 2011
The Evolution of Educational Thought. Lectures on the Formation and Development of Secondary Education in France
Investigating acceptability in Australian English
(1981). Investigating acceptability in Australian English. WORD: Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 15-34
Pseudocleft and cleft constructions: A Thematic and Informational Interpretation
Extern constructions in English 1
This paper explores the similarities and differences between those constructions commonly regarded as being derived via the processes of ‘left‐dislocation’, ‘right‐dislocation’ and ‘topicalisation’. The constructions are here claimed to share in common the presence of an element ‘external’ to the governing clause, but to exhibit certain differences both in terms of their structural properties (notably, the types of syntactic function represented …
The mental adjustment to HIV scale: Measurement and dimensions of response to Aids/HIV disease
Attitudes of people with HIV disease towards HIV have seldom been measured. However, a well-established scale to measure attitudes toward cancer in those with the disease, the 38-item Mental Adjustment to Cancer (MAC) scale was modified to assess adjustment to HIV disease. We administered the scale to 107 Australian men with HIV infection, of whom 36 had an AIDS-defining condition, who were patients at an ambulatory care facility and in a researc…
Topics for our times: Can we learn from the care of persons with mental illness in developing countries
Topics for our times: can we learn from the care of persons with mental illness in developing countries? E Susser, P Collins, B Schanzer, V K Varma, and M GittelmanCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.86.7.926 Published Online: October 07, 2011
Get-passives in English
A number of claims and counter-claims which have been made concerning get-passives in English are tested via interrogation of a set of written and spoken corpora. Get-passives are shown to form a fuzzy set, with about one-third of corpus tokens belonging to a 'core' whose members have an explicit or at least accessible agent-phrase, a lexical verb with typically dynamic meaning, and which alternate with an active clause. Beyond the core there are…
English in Australia
This unique collection fills a ten-year gap in studies on the nature of Australian English, and it is the first to deal exclusively with varieties of English on the Australian continent. The book contains chapters on the phonology, morphology, syntax and the lexicon of the dialect, and chapters on variation within the dialect that include Aboriginal and ethnic varieties as well as regional and generational differences with a focus on questions of…
Sorting the Sheep from the Goats: Morphological Distinctions between the Mandibles and Mandibular Teeth of Adult and
The Progressive Aspect in World Englishes: A Corpus-based Study
This paper reports the findings of a study comparing the distribution and frequency of the forms, meanings and uses of the progressive aspect across a set of spoken and written categories in nine parallel corpora, representing four inner circle and five outer circle Englishes. Significant regional and stylistic variations were noted. Australian and New Zealand English emerge as the most innovative regional varieties in their use of the progressiv…
Singular agreement in there -existentials: An intervarietal corpus-based study
The phenomenon of “singular agreement” (“SA”) in there -existentials — the combination of a plural post-verbal notional subject and a singular verb — has been the subject of a number of studies which have confirmed its covariation with a range of social, stylistic and grammatical factors. Whereas the focus of most such studies has been on the relative influence of these factors, that of the present study is on the nature and frequency of SA acros…
Theory
Colloquialisation and the evolution of Australian English: A cross-varietal and cross-generic study of Australian, British, and American English from 1931 to 2006
This paper investigates whether colloquialisation – a stylistic shift by which written genres come to be more similar to spoken genres – has played a role in the endonormativisation of the grammar of Australian English, a variety which has long been noted for its penchant for colloquialism. The study tracks changes in grammatical colloquialism from the early 20th century against the historical backdrop of the progressive decline in Britishness in…
Hypercorrection in English: An intervarietal corpus-based study
This article aims to provide a fresh approach to the study of hypercorrection, the misguided application of a real or imagined rule – typically in response to prescriptive pressure – in which the speaker's attempt to be ‘correct’ leads to an ‘incorrect’ result. Instead of more familiar sources of information on hypercorrection such as attitude elicitation studies and prescriptive commentary, insights are sought from quantitative and qualitative d…
Comment markers in world Englishes
This study, an exercise in varietal pragmatics, compares the frequencies and uses of four categories of comment markers – ‘evaluative’, ‘epistemic’, ‘style’, and ‘hearsay’ – across the 20 world Englishes represented in the Global Web‐based Corpus of English. Predictions drawn from the models of world Englishes formulated by Kachru, Schneider, and Mair are used to formulate a set of research questions. The possible covariation of comment marker us…
Modals and Quasi-Modals in English World-Wide
This study explores the distribution of modals and quasi-modals in the twenty English dialects represented in the Global Web-based English Corpus (GloWbE). Intervarietal trends are observed across and within the Englishes of the “Inner circle” and “Outer circle.” Ratios calculated for onomasiological pairings of modal expressions suggest that Inner circle varieties tend to be associated more closely than Outer circle varieties—and “epicentral” va…
Variation in world Englishes through the lens of negation
This article reports the findings of a study of negation across varieties of English worldwide, with data derived from the Global Web‐Based Corpus of English. Three general categories are explored: negative polarity‐sensitive expressions (lexical verbs such as bother , and idioms such as give a damn ); negators (idioms such as be not half bad , boilerplate no ‐collocations such as no worries , and implicit negators such as bugger all ); and non‐s…
Grammatical variation in World Englishes: An onomasiological study
This study adopts an onomasiological, alternation-based approach to the exploration of grammatical variation across World Englishes, using data sourced from the 1.9 billion-word Global Web-based English corpus. The macro-orientation of the study, which investigates a set of ten alternations known to be susceptible to diachronic change, facilitates identification of a number of general trends, including the typical advancement of the Inner Circle …
Infinitival and Gerund-Participial Catenative Complement Constructions in English World-Wide
Previous research on non-finite catenative complementation (for example, start Ving/to V; force NP into Ving/to V) has largely been restricted to BrE and/or AmE. The present study seeks to expand the regional coverage of such research by analysing a set of catenative constructions in two large web-derived corpora, GloWbE and NOW, both of which comprise 20 subcorpora representing different national varieties of English. The implications of the fin…
The acceptability of non-standard usages in four postcolonial Asian Englishes
While structural variation in postcolonial World Englishes is extensively documented, empirical studies exploring speaker attitudes toward non-standard grammar remain scarce. This paper investigates the linguistic acceptability of 21 salient morphosyntactic features across four Outer Circle East Asian communities: Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. Drawing on a 5-point Likert scale elicitation questionnaire administered to unive…
Linguistics (14 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (13 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Psychology (9 works) · History (8 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (7 works) · World Englishes (6 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works)