Chapter published in:
The Dynamics of English in Namibia: Perspectives on an emerging variety
Edited by Anne Schröder
[Varieties of English Around the World G65] 2021
► pp. 169–194

Chapter 8
The question of structural nativization in Namibian English

Some answers from extended uses of the progressive

| TU Dortmund University
The question of whether the English as spoken in Namibia can be considered a (second-language) variety or should rather be considered a learner English was first addressed in Buschfeld and Kautzsch (2014). The present study approaches this question from a quantitative perspective, focusing on the use of progressive morphology (i.e., verb+ing) in Namibian English (NamE). The findings suggest that NamE is characterized by local and innovative, extended uses of progressive marking. I discuss whether these can be considered nativized features and conclude that this is a complex question in which a variety of factors have to be considered, most importantly the fact that NamE is not a monolithic whole but stratified along the lines of speakers’ ages and ethnicities.
Keywords: Namibian English, structural nativization, EFL, ESL, progressive marking
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Contextualizing the progressive: Diachronic and synchronic perspectives
  • 3.Progressive marking and the question of structural nativization in Namibian English(es)
    • 3.1Some remarks on structural nativization
    • 3.2Data collection and participants
    • 3.3Data analysis
    • 3.4Results
  • 4.Discussion of results
  • 5.Conclusion: Structural nativization in NamE?
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 September 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g65.08bus
References
Bernaisch, Tobias, Gries, Stefan T. & Mukherjee, Joybrato
2014 The dative alternation in South Asian English(es): Modelling predictors and predicting prototypes. English World-Wide 35(1): 7–31. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Biber, Douglas, Johansson, Stig, Leech, Geoffrey, Conrad, Susan & Finegan, Edward
1999 Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Pearson.Google Scholar
Blevins, Margaret
2018 Towards a constructional analysis of the progressive aspect in Texas German. In Constructions in Contact: Constructional Perspectives on Contact Phenomena in Germanic Languages [Constructional Approaches to Language 24], Hans C. Boas & Steffen Höder (eds), 73–113. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Breed, Adri
2017 Periphrastic progressive constructions in Dutch and Afrikaans: A contrastive analysis. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 29(4): 305–378. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Buschfeld, Sarah
2013 English in Cyprus or Cyprus English? An Empirical Investigation of Variety Status [Varieties of English Around the World G46]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Buschfeld, Sarah & Kautzsch, Alexander
2014 English in Namibia: A first approach. English World-Wide 35(2): 121–160. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2017 Towards an integrated approach to postcolonial and non-postcolonial Englishes. World Englishes 36(1): 104–126. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Peter
2008 The progressive aspect in World Englishes: A corpus-based study. Australian Journal of Linguistics 28(2): 225–249. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2015 Recent diachronic change in the progressive in Philippine English. In Collins (ed.), 271–296. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(ed.) 2015 Grammatical Change in English World-Wide [Studies in Corpus Linguistics 67]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Filppula, Markku
1999 A Grammar of Irish English. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fuchs, Robert & Gut, Ulrike
2015 An apparent time study of the progressive in Nigerian English. In Collins (ed.), 373–388. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Haacke, Wilfrid H. G.
1976 A Nama Grammar: The Noun-Phrase. MA thesis, published by the University of Cape Town, South Africa. https://​open​.uct​.ac​.za​/handle​/11427​/16618> (27 September 2020).
2006 Syntactic focus marking in Khoekhoe (“Nama/Damara”). ZAS Papers in Linguistics 46: 105–127. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hackert, Stephanie, Laube, Alexander & Wengler, Diana
2020 English in the Bahamas and developmental models of World Englishes: A critical analysis. In Modelling World Englishes: A Joint Approach to Postcolonial and Non-Postcolonial Varieties, Sarah Buschfeld & Alexander Kautzsch (eds), 251–273. Edinburgh: EUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hothorn, Torsten, Hornik, Kurt & Zeileis, Achim
2006 Unbiased recursive partitioning: A conditional inference framework. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics 15(3): 651–674. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hulk, Aafke C. J. & Müller, Natascha
2000 Bilingual first language acquisition at the interface between syntax and pragmatics. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 3: 227–244. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hundt, Marianne
2004 Animacy, agentivity, and the spread of the progressive in modern English. English Language and Linguistics 8(1): 47–69. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hundt, Marianne & Vogel, Katrin
2011 Overuse of the progressive in ESL and learner Englishes – fact or fiction? In Exploring Second-Language Varieties of English and Learner Englishes: Bridging a Paradigm Gap [Studies in Corpus Linguistics 44], Joybrato Mukherjee & Marianne Hundt (eds), 145–166. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hundt, Marianne, Rautionaho, Paula & Strobl, Carolin
2020 Progressive or simple? A corpus-based study of aspect in World Englishes. Corpora 15(1): 77–106. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kautzsch, Alexander & Schröder, Anne
2016 English in multilingual and multiethnic Namibia: Some evidence on language attitudes and on the pronunciation of vowels. In Anglistentag Paderborn 2015: Proceedings, Christoph Ehland, Ilka Mindt & Merle Tönnies (eds), 277–288. Trier: WVT.Google Scholar
Kautzsch, Alexander, Schröder, Anne & Zähres, Frederic
2017 The phonetics of Namibian English: Investigating local features in a global context. Paper presented at the IAWE Conference, Syracuse NY.Google Scholar
Kirk, John M.
2015 The progressive in Irish English: Looking both ways? In Collins (ed.), 87–118. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
de Klerk, Vivian & Gough, David
2002 Black South African English. In Language in South Africa, Rajend Mesthrie (ed.), 356–78. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kortmann, Bernd
2010 Variation across Englishes: Syntax. In English as a Lingua Franca in ASEAN: A Multilingual Model, Andy Kirkpatrick (ed), 400–424. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kortmann, Bernd & Lunkenheimer, Kerstin
(eds) 2013 The Electronic World Atlas of Varieties of English. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. http://​ewave​-atlas​.org> (15 February 2019).
Kortmann, Bernd & Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt
2004 Global synopsis: Morphological and syntactic variation in English. In A Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol. 2: Morphology and Syntax, Bernd Kortmann, Edgar W. Schneider, Clive Upton, Kate Burridge & Rajend Mesthrie (eds), 1142–1202. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William
1972 Some principles of linguistic methodology. Language in Society 1: 97–120. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Laporte, Samantha
2012 Mind the gap: Bridge between world and learner Englishes in the making. English Text Construction 5: 264–291. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey, Hundt, Marianne, Mair, Christian, & Smith, Nicholas
2009 Change in Contemporary English: A Grammatical Study. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Levshina, Natalia
2015 How to do Linguistics with R: Data Exploration and Statistical Analysis. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mair, Christian
2003 Kreolismen und verbales Identitätsmanagement im geschriebenen jamaicanischen Englisch. In Zwischen Ausgrenzung und Hybridisierung, Elisabeth Vogel, Antonia Napp & Wolfram Lutterer (eds), 79–96. Würzburg: Ergon.Google Scholar
Mair, Christian & Hundt, Marianne
1995 “Why is the progressive becoming more frequent in English?” A corpus-based investigation of language change in progress. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 43: 111–122.Google Scholar
Mair, Christian & Leech, Geoffrey
2006 Current changes in English syntax. In The Handbook of English Linguistics, Bas Aarts & April McMahon (eds), 318–342. Oxford: Blackwell. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Makalela, Leketi
2004 Making sense of BSAE for linguistic democracy in South Africa. World Englishes 23(3): 355–66. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Meriläinen, Lea
2017 The progressive form in learner Englishes: Examining variation across corpora. World Englishes 36(4): 760–783. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Meriläinen, Lea, Paulasto, Heli & Rautionaho, Paula
2017 Extended uses of the progressive form in Inner, Outer and Expanding Circle Englishes. In Changing English: Global and Local Perspectives, Markku Filppula, Juhani Klemola, Anna Mauranen & Svetlana Vetchinnikova (eds), 676–696. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Möhlig, Wilhelm J. G. & Kavari, Jekura U.
2008 Reference Grammar of Herero (Otjiherero): Bantu Language of Namibia. With a Glossary Otjiherero-English-Otjiherero [Southern African Languages and Cultures 3]. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Paulasto, Heli
2006 Welsh English Syntax: Contact and Variation. Joensuu: Joensuu University Press.Google Scholar
2014 Extended uses of the progressive form in L1 and L2 Englishes. English World-Wide 35(3): 247–276. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
van Pottelberge, Jeroen
2004 Der am-Progressiv: Struktur und parallele Entwicklung in den kontinentalwestgermanischen Sprachen. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
R Development Core Team
2014 R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.Google Scholar
van Rooy, Bertus
2006 The extension of the progressive aspect in Black South African English. World Englishes 25(1): 37–64. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2014 Progressive aspect and stative verbs in Outer Circle varieties. World Englishes 11(2): 157–172. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
van Rooy, Bertus & Piotrowska, Caroline
2015 The development of an extended time period meaning of the progressive in Black South African English. In Collins (ed.), 465–484. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Salles Bernal, Soluna
2015 Synchronic analysis of the progressive aspect in three varieties of Asian Englishes. Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies 51: 87–107.Google Scholar
Schilk, Marco & Hammel, Marc
2014 The progressive in South Asian and Southeast Asian varieties of English – mapping areal homogeneity and heterogeneity. Language and Computers 78(1): 147–171. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schmied, Josef
1991 English in Africa. London: Longman.Google Scholar
2006 East African Englishes. In The Handbook of World Englishes, Braj B. Kachru, Yamuna Kachru & Cecil L. Nelson (eds), 188–202. Oxford: Blackwell. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W.
2003 The dynamics of New Englishes: From identity construction to dialect birth. Language 79(2): 233–281. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2007 Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schröder, Anne & Schneider, Klaus P.
2018 Variational pragmatics, responses to thanks, and the specificity of English in Namibia. English World-Wide 39(3): 338–363. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schröder, Anne & Zähres, Frederic
2020 English in Namibia: Multilingualism and ethnic variation in the Extra- and Intraterritorial Forces Model. In Modelling World Englishes: A Joint Approach to Postcolonial and Non-Postcolonial Varieties, Sarah Buschfeld & Alexander Kautzsch (eds), 38–62. Edinburgh: EUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schröder, Anne, Frederic Zähres & Alexander Kautzsch
2020 Ethnic variation in the phonology of Namibian English: A first approach to Baster English. English World-Wide 41(2): 193–224. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sharma, Devyani
2009 Typological diversity in New Englishes. English World-Wide 30(2): 170–195. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ssempuuma, Jude, Bebwa Isingoma & Christiane Meierkord
2016 The use of the progressive in Ugandan English. In Ugandan English: Its Sociolinguistics, Structure and Uses in a Globalising Post-protectorate [Varieties of English Around the World G59], Christiane Meierkord, Bebwa Isingoma & Saudah Namyalo (eds), 173–199. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt, Grafmiller, Jason, Heller, Benedikt & Röthlisberger, Melanie
2016 Around the world in three alternations: modelling syntactic variation in varieties of English. English World-Wide 37(2): 109–137. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali & Baayen, Harald
2012 Models, forests, and trees of York English: Was/were variation as a case study for statistical practice. Language Variation and Change 24: 135–178. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, Gary M.
2004 Mining with rarity: A unifying framework. ACM SIGKDD Explorations 6(1): 7–19. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Zähres, Frederic
2016 A case study of code-switching in multilingual Namibian keyboard-to-screen communication. 10plus 1 2: 31–46.Google Scholar