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Braithwaite
ID: 806007430
Assignment: 4-Trinidadian English pronouns: function, structure and usage across selected
corpora.
Abstract
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LING 6401 806007430 Dr. Braithwaite
on the noun itself, the placement of the possessed noun before the of-phrase and the use of
possessive pronouns (Biber et.al., 82). The inventory of possessive pronouns in English is: his,
ours, mine, yours, hers and theirs. Possessive determiners are: my, our, your, his, her, its and
their. The possessive determiners are used before nouns and the possessive pronouns can replace
a noun in a sentence. Hence, the main difference between the possessive determiners and
possessive pronouns is that the latter can constitute the entire noun phrase. For example, the
sentence; The book belongs to Henry can be restructured to The book is his. However, in many
varieties of English, there is variation in the use of possessive pronouns, one such variety is
Trinidadian English. No similar study has been undertaken in the context of the Anglophone
Amongst the differences in possessives found in Trinidadian English are the substitution
of possessive pronouns and the formation of compound pronoun form. In Trinidadian English,
possessive pronouns are sometimes replaced by the third person male and female pronoun, he
and she e.g. The bag is he one/own. Solomon described this occurrence as characteristic of
English Lexicon Creoles in which possession “is expressed simply by the juxtaposition of the
nominals, with the ‘possessor’ first and the item ‘possessed’ following” (50). There are also
several alternative compound forms of possessive pronouns using –own and –one. This form is
used either with the English possessive pronouns e.g. his own or her one or with the third person
male and female pronouns, e.g. she own and he one. However, it must be noted that, the
and his/her one is present in other varieties of English e.g. British English. The structure’s
purpose is to make the noun phrase emphatic (Biber et. al., 97).
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the International Corpus of English-Trinidad and Tobago, Great Britain and Jamaica, (ICE-T&T)
(ICE-GB) and (ICE-JA), was obtained. In addition, the online corpora of the British National
Corpus (BNC) and Corpus of Contemporary American (COCA) will be used as reference points.
The ICE-TT, ICE-GB and ICE-JA data was extracted using a corpus computer programme,
WordSmith®. Using this programme, a collocate list for each pronoun was obtained. Each
collocate list included one word to the right (R1) and one word to the left (L1) of the possessive
1. Which of the forms, i.e. –own or –one, has a higher incidence in Trinidadian
English? This will be done by searching for incidents of each form in the ICE-
T&T corpus.
the selected corpora? By compiling collocate lists from the different corpora the
3. The possessive determiner + own construct is used for emphasis in English, is this
the same for Trinidadian English? This will be done by collecting samples of the
construct from each corpora and describing the feature in each with the use of
Possessive pronouns are less frequent than personal pronouns in the English language. In
addition, it is used more in speech than writing. Possessive pronouns have been divided into a
weak and strong set (Quirk et. al., 361). The weak set refers to possessive determiners which
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have a determinative function and the strong set refers to possessive pronouns independent in the
noun phrase. In addition, possessives in English can refer to parts of the body, personal
The possessive pronouns generally have two distinct series, the attributive and absolute
(Huddelton, 294). The possessive pronouns are absolute and are predicative in nature, i.e. occur
after the subject or absolute categories For example, The book is mine. The possessive
determiners are attributive and occur in the pre-head position e.g. My book is on the table.
Despite most possessives falling into the attributive series there are exceptions. For example, his
is both attributive and absolute, as seen in His bag is old and The old bag is his.
The possessive does not have any modifier or determiner except own. It is described as an
“emphatic determiner” (Quirk et. al., 362). It intensifies meaning, e.g. The book is not Henry’s, it
is my own means mine and no one else’s. It also shows the relationship between the possessive
and subject. For examples, Joe makes his own bed means he makes his bed for himself. The
emphatic determiner own also removes ambiguity. An example can be seen in The Government
is encouraging citizens to grow their crops. Their can refer to either the Government of the
citizens. By changing the sentence to The Government is encouraging citizens to grow their own
crops; it becomes clear that the intended meaning is the citizens. Possessive determiners and not
pronouns can precede own and can be used without a head noun after it, e.g. It has a style of its
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Possessive pronouns cannot become part of the possessive + own construction; the
possessive determiner alone can fill that role. Hence, your own is acceptable but not yours own.
Possessive pronouns can also be part of a post modifying of-phrase, e.g. Jerome is a friend of
hers (Biber et. al., 341). This allows a noun to be specifies by both a determiner and possessive
marker.
Methodology
The corpora used in the research are from the International Corpus of English (ICE). In
addition to Trinidad and Tobago, the ICE corpora from Great Britain and Jamaica will also be
used. ICE-T&T and ICE-JA are two of the components of the ICE corpus for the Anglophone
Caribbean. The ICE corpora were selected due to the quality and quantity of linguistic data that
is searchable and readily available. ICE collects the standard speech of adults in a territory and
tries to ensure that both written and spoken discourse is collected. The ICE corpora consists of
private dialogues e.g. phone calls, public dialogues e.g. parliamentary debates, unscripted
ICE-T&T consists of teacher conversations and lessons in the secondary school context
of Trinidad (Deuber, 24). The sample used contained only speech. ICE-JA and ICE-GB on the
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other hand consists of written text from newspapers and a wider variety of spoken discourse, for
example news broadcasts. The ICE-T&T corpus is still in its initial stages and relatively small.
1. Which construction, the possessive + own or possessive + one, is more prevalent in ICE-
T&T?
3. Does the construction in question 1 have the same function as the possessive + own
construction in English?
Limitations
The ICE-T & T corpus only contains speech not writing, possessive pronouns occur
primarily in speech. In addition, the speech collected is only from that of teachers and not wider
society. This means that the use of possessive in Trinidadian English across registers cannot be
determined as yet. The corpus is relatively small with approximately fifty files compared to the
over one hundred and fifty in ICE-JA. Sociolinguistic factors such as ethnicity, sex and age are
not taken into consideration so sociolinguistic variation in the usage of possessives cannot be
determined in the current paper. A study of possessive in Trinidadian English or any other
variety has not been done using a corpus based approach. Hence, there is a no research to
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Corpus findings
Figure 1: Pie chart showing the frequency of Possessive Pronouns and Possessive Determiners in
the ICE-T&T corpus.
Figure 2: Pie chart showing the frequency of Possessive Pronouns and Possessive Determiners in
the ICE-JA corpus.
Figure 3: Pie chart showing the frequency of Possessive Pronouns and Possessive Determiners in
the ICE-GB corpus.
Figure 5: Table showing the frequency of the Possessive + Own construction across corpora.
Figure 6: Table showing the frequency of the Possessive + One construction across corpora.
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Standard English in Trinidad and Tobago coexists with a mesolectal creole in Trinidad
and a basilectal one in Tobago. Standard English is the official language of the territory and is
taught in schools. This results in English being a second dialect in the territory along with creole.
In Trinidad, the contact varieties are a mesolectal Trinidadian English Creole and Standard
English, a few creole features deemed prestigious have become tentatively accepted in
Trinidadian English.
For the purpose of this paper the definition of Trinidadian English will follow the line of
Allsopp (lvi) as that of educated nationals and their “spoken English as is considered natural in
formal social contexts.” The linguistic situation has often been described as a continuum with
English and basilectal creole at opposite ends. Due to social and situational factors an individual
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may occupy an area along the continuum as opposed to a fixed spot. As a result, the differences
Figure 1 suggests that the inventory of possessive pronouns and possessive determiners
are the same in Trinidadian English and the other corpora. Hence the information in Table 1 is
supported by the corpora. The ICE-T&T, ICE-JA and ICE-GB corpora are also uniform in the
corpora.
Table 2 shows that in English, speakers prefer to use the possessive determiner over the
possessive pronoun. This means that there is low affixiation when it comes to possessives in
English. There is a preference to rely on the syntactic relationships that the possessive determiner
plus noun represent. A point to note is that amongst the possessive pronouns, his, has the highest
occurrence (See Figures 1-3). An explanation for this is that his is both a pronoun and
determiner.
In ICE-JA and ICE-GB, the two possessive determiners that show the greatest frequency
are my and their e.g. He wanted to share but I wanted my own room1, We would assume that
kings did not do their own secretarial work2 (See Figures 2-3). These represent the first person
and third person possessive determiner respectively. On the other hand ICE-T&T has a high
incidence of the previously mentioned possessives in addition to the second person possessive
pronoun your e.g. You will also need your own paint brushes3 (See Figure 1).
1 ICE-JA
2 ICE-GB
3 ICE-T&T
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Figure 5 suggests that Trinidadian English has the highest incidence of the possessive +
own construction. It must be mentioned that the ICE-T&T corpus currently only has speech texts,
while ICE-JA and ICE-GB includes written discourse. As possessives are more common in
speech, this can account for the frequency of the construction in ICE-T&T. Regarding the
semantics of the possessive + own construction, the selected corpora all use the construction for
emphasis. This can be illustrated from analysing three random samples from each corpora.
brushes
ICE-T&T There is not much of children The children’s colleagues and no one
half.
ICE-GB The legal system itself broadly The legal system’s ideals and no one
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Table 3: Table showing the semantics of random sentences with the Possessive + own
The use of the possessive + one construction is the area of greatest divergence amongst
the corpora. Firstly in Trinidadian English, the construction of a possessive + one is most
frequent (See Figure 6). However, the figure suggests that the construction is restricted in usage.
A reason for this can be stigmatisation as a creole feature. The use of the third person pronoun as
possessive pronouns e.g. he, she and we has been described by Winford and Youssef (38),
Deuber (27) and Soloman (50) as creole features. In mesolectal speech in Trinidad, these
converted pronouns join with one to have the same function as the possessive + own feature. As
such, the possessive + one feature is stigmatised as being creole and substituted with the
possessive + own.
In Trinidadian English the possessive + one and the possessive + own constructions have
the same semantics and function (See Table 4). This means that my one and my own in ICE-T&T
are both possessives and mean “mine and no one else’s”. In the ICE-JA corpus, the possessive +
one is used to a less extent that ICE-T&T. There is also a difference in meaning as the structure
came be used for emphasis and to single out a noun. For example, Miss Katie stuck common
pins into the bottom of his one foot so his ghost would not come back4. The use of one in this
sentence singles out one foot. Due to no collocates being found in ICE-GB,COCA and BNC
were used as a reference point. In the two corpora, the possessive + one structure was found but
with a different meaning. In both COCA and BNC the possessive + one structure is used to mean
“only”. For example, His one ambition was to devote himself to horses.5
my one.
4 ICE-JA
5 BNC
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Hence, the construction may be similar at first glance the semantics separates them across the
corpora.
Conclusion
Possessives in English are divided into possessive determiners and possessives pronouns.
More than 75% of the possessives used in the selected corpora were possessive determiners.
Possessives cannot be modified except for the addition of own. In Englishes in the Caribbean
modification is allowed to a limited degree with the possessive + one construction. This is
particularly so for Trinidadian English. In Trinidadian English, the possessive + own structure is
markedly more frequent than the possessive + one. The meaning of the possessive + one feature
is distinct across the corpora. In ICE-T&T it has an emphatic effect to mean no one else’s. In
ICE-JA it has the meaning as in ICE-T&T but also serves to single out the noun referred to. In
The research has also posed some questions for further investigation:
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Works Cited
Biber, Douglas et. al., Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Essex:
Pearson Education Limited. 2002. Print.
Deuber, Dagmar. “Standard English and Situational Variation.” ICAME Journal, 24-40 2010 34.
Web. 23 Apr.2011.
Greenbaum et. al. A Grammar of Contemporary English. London: Longman. 1972. Print
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Solomon, Dennis. The Speech of Trinidad: A Reference Grammar. St. Augustine: U.W.I School
of Continuing Studies. 1993. Print.
Quirk et. al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Longman. 1995.
Print.
Youssef and James. “The creoles of Trinidad and Tobago: Morphology and syntax.”Varieties of
English: The Americas and the Caribbean. Ed. Edgar W. Schneider. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter, 2008. Print.
Youssef, Valerie. “The Language Range of Tobagonians”. The Languages of Tobago. Ed.
Winford James and Valerie Youseff. St. Augustine: School of Continuing Studies
UWI, 2002. Print
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