Chapter published in:

Corpus Linguistics and African Englishes
Edited by Alexandra U. Esimaje, Ulrike Gut and Bassey E. Antia
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 88] 2019
► pp. 98–117

Chapter 1.4. Introducing a corpus of English(es) spoken in post-independence Namibia

Insights into corpus design and quantitative analyses

Helene Steigertahl | Bayreuth University

The possibility of an evolving “Namibian English” was already suggested more than 30 years ago (Chamberlain 1981: 46). However, detailed analyses of the English(es) used in Namibia were only recently initiated (e.g. Otaala 2006; Buschfeld & Kautzsch 2014; Kautzsch & Schröder 2016; Steigertahl 2017). The present chapter adds to previous research on morphosyntactic structures, introducing the Corpus of English(es) Spoken by Black Namibians post Independence (ESBNaPI). First, the Namibian linguistic situation will be introduced before procedures of data collection and methodology will be presented. Afterwards, morphosyntactic examples from the corpus will be given and compared to South African English(es) (SAE) to address potential generalizations of post-Independence English(es). The overall goal is to raise awareness of corpus resources in southern Africa.

Published online: 13 February 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.88.05ste

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