Table Of ContentThe Lexis and Lexicogrammar of Sri Lankan English
Varieties of English Around the World (VEAW)
issn 0172-7362
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University of Munich (LMU)
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Manfred Görlach
Cologne
Rajend Mesthrie
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University of Essex
Edgar W. Schneider
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University of Fribourg
Walt Wolfram
North Carolina State University
Volume G54
The Lexis and Lexicogrammar of Sri Lankan English
by Tobias Bernaisch
The Lexis and Lexicogrammar
of Sri Lankan English
Tobias Bernaisch
Justus Liebig University Giessen
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
doi 10.1075/veaw.g54
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress:
lccn 2015020904 (print) / 2015021693 (e-book)
isbn 978 90 272 4914 2 (Hb)
isbn 978 90 272 6822 8 (e-book)
© 2015 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
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John Benjamins Publishing Co. · https://benjamins.com
Table of contents
List of figures vii
List of tables ix
List of abbreviations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Chapter 1. Sri Lankan English and Sri Lankan Englishes 1
Chapter 2.The development of Sri Lankan English 19
2.1 Sri Lankan English under British colonial rule (1796–1948) 24
2.2 Sri Lankan English in the postcolonial era (1948–2010) 31
2.3 Sri Lankan English: The state of the debate 39
2.3.1 Sociocultural considerations 39
2.3.2 Sociolinguistic considerations 44
2.3.3 Sociopolitical considerations 49
Chapter 3.Methodology 55
3.1 The corpus environment 56
3.1.1 The International Corpus of English 58
3.1.2 The newspaper corpora 66
3.1.3 The Google Advanced Search Tool 69
3.2 Indicators of structural nativisation in Sri Lankan English 78
Chapter 4.Sri Lankan English lexis 83
4.1 Formality markers 83
4.1.1 Formality markers: Frequency 85
4.1.2 Formality markers: Genre-specificity 95
4.1.3 Formality markers: Case studies 101
4.2 Pan-South Asian English lexemes 105
4.2.1 Pan-South Asian English lexemes: Frequency 106
4.2.2 Pan-South Asian English lexemes: Genre-specificity 111
4.2.3 Pan-South Asian English lexemes: Case studies 114
4.3 Archaism markers 119
4.3.1 Archaism markers: Frequency 120
4.3.2 Archaism markers: Case studies 125
4.4 Sri Lankan English lexis: An overview 133
vi The Lexis and Lexicogrammar of Sri Lankan English
Chapter 5.Sri Lankan English lexicogrammar 137
5.1 Particle verbs 137
5.1.1 Particle verbs: Frequency 140
5.1.2 Particle verbs: Genre-specificity 144
5.1.3 Particle verbs: Unrecorded particle verbs 151
5.2 Light-verb constructions 170
5.2.1 Light-verb constructions: Frequency, genre-specificity and
types 175
5.2.2 Light-verb constructions: Potentially innovative light-verb
constructions 185
5.3 Verb complementation 193
5.3.1 Verb complementation: HATE 197
5.3.2 Verb complementation: LIKE 198
5.3.3 Verb complementation: LOVE 200
5.4 Sri Lankan English lexicogrammar: An overview 202
Chapter 6.A model of (the emergence of) distinctive structural profiles
of semiautonomous varieties of English 205
References 225
Appendix 233
Index 245
List of figures
Figure 1. A political map of Sri Lanka 3
Figure 2. Th e SLE dialect continuum 13
Figure 3. Th e corpus environment of the present study 56
Figure 4. M ean normalised (pmw) frequencies of formality markers
in the ICE, newspaper and GAST data 94
Figure 5. Th e factor scores of the spoken and written ICE genres for Factor 1:
interactive casual discourse vs. informative elaborate discourse 96
Figure 6. N ormalised (pmw) and absolute frequencies of formality markers
in the genres of ICE-SL, ICE-IND and ICE-GB 97
Figure 7. A ssociation plot of formality markers in the genres of ICE-SL,
ICE-IND and ICE-GB 99
Figure 8. R elative and absolute frequencies of formality markers in social
and business letters in ICE 100
Figure 9. M ean normalised (pmw) frequencies of PSA lexemes in the ICE,
newspaper and GAST data 110
Figure 10. N ormalised (pmw) and absolute frequencies of PSA lexemes
in the genres of ICE-SL and ICE-IND 113
Figure 11. R elative and absolute frequencies of lakh and its numeric/lexical
alternatives in the newspaper data 115
Figure 12. R elative and absolute frequencies of tank and reservoir in the
newspaper data 118
Figure 13. M ean normalised (pmw) frequencies of archaism markers
in the ICE, newspaper and GAST data 124
Figure 14. R elative and absolute frequencies of madam and its alternatives
in the correspondence (W1B) sections in ICE 126
Figure 15. R elative and absolute frequencies of sir and its alternatives
in the correspondence (W1B) sections in ICE 128
Figure 16. R elative and absolute frequencies of HAIL from +
place/family/other in the newspaper data 131
Figure 17. N ormalised (pmw) and absolute frequencies of PVs in the ICE
and newspaper data 141
Figure 18. N ormalised (pmw) and absolute frequencies of PVUs, PVOUs
and PVOFs in the genres of ICE-SL, ICE-IND and ICE-GB 146
Figure 19. R elative and absolute frequencies of COPE with and COPE
up with in the ICE, newspaper and GAST data 154
viii The Lexis and Lexicogrammar of Sri Lankan English
Figure 20. N ormalised (pmw) and absolute frequencies of unrecorded
PVOUs in the newspaper and GAST data 159
Figure 21. R elative and absolute frequencies of LEASE and LEASE out
in the newspaper data 160
Figure 22. R elative and absolute frequencies of WAIVE and WAIVE off
in the newspaper data 163
Figure 23. R elative and absolute frequencies of BOAST of and BOAST off
in the newspaper and GAST data 165
Figure 24. R elative and absolute frequencies of DISPOSE of and DISPOSE
off in the newspaper and GAST data 166
Figure 25. N ormalised (pmw) and absolute frequencies of LVCs with GIVE,
HAVE, PUT and TAKE in the ICE and newspaper data 176
Figure 26. A ssociation plot of LVCs with GIVE, HAVE, PUT and TAKE
in ICE 178
Figure 27. N ormalised (pmw) and absolute frequencies of LVCs in the
genres of ICE-SL, ICE-IND and ICE-GB 179
Figure 28. R elative and absolute frequencies of article variants in LVCs
in the ICE and newspaper data 183
Figure 29. R elative and absolute frequencies of LVCs with call in GAST 189
Figure 30. R elative and absolute frequencies of LVCs with nap in GAST 191
Figure 31. R elative and absolute frequencies of LVCs with rest in GAST 193
Figure 32. R elative and absolute frequencies of HATE Ving and HATE to V
in the ICE, newspaper and GAST data 197
Figure 33. R elative and absolute frequencies of LIKE Ving and LIKE to V
in the ICE, newspaper and GAST data 199
Figure 34. R elative and absolute frequencies of LOVE Ving and LOVE to V
in the ICE, newspaper and GAST data 200
Figure 35. M ultiple language contact situations of PCEs (SLE) 209
Figure 36. A model (of the emergence) of distinctive structural profiles
of semiautonomous varieties of English 215
List of tables
Table 1. E ndonormative stabilisation of present-day SLE (adapted from
Mukherjee 2008: 360) 53
Table 2. Th e ICE corpus design for written texts (cf. Greenbaum &
Nelson 1996: 13–14) 59
Table 3. Th e sizes and sources of the newspaper corpora 67
Table 4. E stimates of the number of English words in the top-level country
domains (as on 23 June 2011) 70
Table 5. L imitations in the use of web data 74
Table 6. A n overview of the objects of investigation of the present study 80
Table 7. A bsolute and normalised (pmw) frequencies of formality markers
in ICE 86
Table 8. A bsolute and normalised (pmw) frequencies of formality markers
in the newspaper data 89
Table 9. A bsolute and normalised (pmw) frequencies of formality markers
in GAST 93
Table 10. A bsolute and relative frequencies of definite numeral and other
premodification of persons in the ICE and newspaper data 102
Table 11. A bsolute and normalised (pmw) frequencies of refrigerator
and fridge in GAST 104
Table 12. A bsolute and normalised (pmw) frequencies of PSA lexemes
in ICE 106
Table 13. A bsolute and normalised (pmw) frequencies of PSA lexemes
in the newspaper data 107
Table 14. M ean absolute and normalised (pmw) frequencies of PSA lexemes
in GAST 109
Table 15. A bsolute and normalised (pmw) frequencies of three PSA lexemes
in the genres of ICE-SL 112
Table 16. A bsolute and normalised (pmw) frequencies of three PSA lexemes
in the genres of ICE-IND 112
Table 17. A bsolute and normalised (pmw) frequencies of three usage
patterns of rupee in GAST 117
Table 18. A bsolute and normalised (pmw) frequencies of archaism markers
in ICE 120
Table 19. A bsolute and normalised (pmw) frequencies of archaism markers
in the newspaper data 122
