The existential there construction in spoken South Asian Englishes

Abstract

The study of South Asian Englishes has long focused on the largest and oldest local English as a second language variety, Indian English (IndE). Methodologically, research on South Asian Englishes has predominantly relied on descriptive statistics and monofactorial analyses while multifactorial analyses – although statistically superior – have remained rare. Against this background, the present article compares the use of the existential there construction (ExT) in spoken IndE and spoken Sri Lankan English (SLE) along with British English (BrE) as a reference variety, considering a variety of socio-biographic and structural predictors. The latter are shown to guide the speakers’ choice of either initial or non-initial ExTs. Likewise, the findings indicate a highly significant difference between the proportional uses of said choice across the three varieties, with IndE employing non-initial ExTs more frequently than SLE and BrE.

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