Complementation of ditransitive verbs in South Asian Englishes: a multifactorial analysis

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines parallels and differences between South Asian Englishes and British English with regard to various factors driving the selection of verb-complementation patterns. Focusing on the prototypical ditransitive verb give and its complementation, we use large web-derived corpora and distinguish between two possible response cases, one based on the dative and prepositional construction (i.e. the dative alternation), the other including monotransitive complementation. Our data has been additionally coded for a number of potential driving factors, such as pronominality and discourse accessibility of the participants in the constructions. Applying a model-exploration technique we isolate the main driving factors for the varieties under scrutiny (Indian English, Pakistani English and British English) and analyze their influence on pattern selection based on a multinomial logistic regression formulation. Our findings show that, while there is a large area of overlap between the varieties, Pakistani English is closer to British English with regard to relevant driving factors than Indian English. Furthermore, we reveal interesting parallels between all three varieties in the use of monotransitive complementation.