Noun phrase complexity in Ghanaian English

Bibliographic Data

ID3027031
AuthorsThorsten Brato (Department of English and American Studies University of Regensburg Regensburg Germany, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume39
Issue3
Pages377-393
Publication date2020-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Englishes (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0883-2919 • E-ISSN: 1467-971X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/weng.12479
OpenAlexW3015075727
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited29

This study compares the complexity of the noun phrase (NP) in Ghanaian English in a real-time perspective. Based on the Historical Corpus English in Ghana (1966-1975) and the Ghanaian component of the International Corpus of English (mainly 2000s), representing the early and late stages of structural nativisation in the dynamic model, NP complexity is measured using five criteria (NP pattern, complexity of the premodifier, length of the pre- and postmodifier and complexity of the postmodifier). The study uses conditional inference trees, taking into account three potential factors: corpus, text type and syntactic function. The results show that over time the complexity of the NP in Ghanaian English has increased, which is interpreted as Ghanaians becoming more proficient and therefore employing more sophisticated structures. Text type is an important predictor; syntactic function plays only a minor role. By adding a diachronic perspective, the study contributes to current models of the evolution of world Englishes

Biology · Component (thermodynamics · Function (biology · Inference · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Noun · Noun phrase · Perspective (graphical · Phrase · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation · Artificial Intelligence

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