The role of transparency and language contact in the structural nativization of relative clauses in New Englishes

Abstract

[eng] The present paper explores structural nativization in relative clauses in three varieties of English (India, Hong Kong, and Singapore Englishes). All three of these emerged as the consequence of British colonization, developed as varieties through educational systems, and are now consolidating as independent, linguistically different (local) prestige varieties. An analysis of comparable samples from the spoken component of the International Corpus of English (ICE) is carried out; in addition to the varieties mentioned above, data from ICE-GB are included for comparison. The analysis shows that certain features and structures predominate in specific varieties, and also illustrates constructions which are specific to the Asian varieties under investigation. These nativized relative clauses can be explained as cross-linguistic tendencies that go beyond the influence of the local language(s), and hence they are further analyzed in light of cognitive determinants of learning, which favor isomorphism and aim at maximizing transparency.