On Definite Reference in World Englishes

Abstract

Abstract Deixis, associated with the gestural dimension of language, connects all language use to context of situation. It governs a number of grammatical and epistemological categories, including topicalization, orientational mapping and definite and unique reference. The focus of this paper is on the category mentioned last in the previous sentence: definite and unique reference across world Englishes. The aim is to explore the uses of definite descriptions (Russell, 1919), i.e., noun phrases with the definite article the, to determine the nature and extent of differences across the varieties. Research on this topic is driven by two observations. The first is recent research findings in corpus linguistics. For example, Poesio and Vieira (1998) suggest that native speakers differ considerably from each other in their judgment of whether a definite noun phrase refers to an antecedent in the text, and if so, which noun phrase is the antecedent. The second is that it seems reasonable to assume that differences in the use of definite descriptions across varieties exist in view of the fact that English is in contact with other languages in different parts of the world. These languages utilize different categories to represent the same reality or imagined reality that are expressed in English by deictic categories. Research has shown that ‘conceptual situation’ and ‘conceptual event’ are largely language‐specifc (see, e.g., Pawley, 1987), and bilinguals and multilinguals transfer their ways of speaking and writing to their use of English. Use of definite descriptions, therefore, is very likely to differ in Englishes used in different parts of the world. In this paper I utilize insights from earlier theories of definite descriptions (e.g., Christophersen, 1939; Hawkins, 1978; Webber, 1979; Prince, 1981, 1992; Heim, 1982) to analyze data from several world varieties of English. I also discuss the implications of my findings to the teaching of grammar in the EIL context.

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