Left dislocation in Ugandan English

Title data

Ssempuuma, Jude:
Left dislocation in Ugandan English.
2019
Event: 24th International Association of World Englishes (IAWE) , 20-22 June 2019 , Limerick, Ireland.
(Conference item: Conference , Paper )

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Abstract in another language

Left dislocation is a syntactic construction whereby a noun phrase or a prepositional phrase is put in an initial position with a corresponding pronoun or adverb occupying its relevant position in a sentence. In Standard English, this syntactic construction occurs more in colloquial or informal than formal contexts (Greenbaum 1996: 230). Bokamba (1982: 83) and Huber and Dako (2008: 377) argue that the use of this syntactic construction –most especially in L2 varieties on the African continent –is a result of cross-linguistic interference from indigenous languages which have the same syntactic structure. This paper will illustrate the structure of left dislocation according to noun phrase and discourse functions in the three indigenous Ugandan languages, that is, Luganda, Runyankole-Rukiga, and Acholi-Lango. It will then show how speakers of Ugandan English with the three indigenous languages use left dislocation. The spoken Ugandan data used for the analysis consists of 74,545 words of orthographic transcription of semi-structured interviews produced by 23 Ugandan graduates and undergraduates. The findings show that in Ugandan English, left dislocation occurs with a frequency of 5.19 per 1000 words. This is relatively higher than that reported in other varieties of English, for instance, 0.16 for British English and 1.42 for Indian English (Lange 2012: 160). The high frequency of left dislocation in Ugandan English therefore seems to point at the substrate influence from the indigenous Ugandan languages, which have this syntactic construction.