LINGUIST List 15.409

Sat Jan 31 2004

Diss: Semantics: HO-ABDULLAH: 'A usage-type...'

Editor for this issue: Takako Matsui <takolinguistlist.org>

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1. imranho, A usage-type analysis of three prepositions

Institution: University of Otago
Program: Linguistics Section
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 1999

Author: Imran HO-ABDULLAH

Dissertation Title: A usage-type analysis of three prepositions:
at, in and on in a corpus of written Malaysian English

Dissertation URL: http://pkukmweb.ukm.my/~iha/thesis.pdf

Linguistic Field: Semantics
 
Subject Language: English (code: ENG)

Dissertation Director 1: Claudia Brugman
Dissertation Director 2: John Taylor

Dissertation Abstract:

This study is an investigation of the use of the three basic English
prepositions - at, in and on - in Malaysian English. The investigation
takes the form of a corpus-based description of Malaysian English
whose properties are systematically compared with those derived from
comparable corpora of New Zealand and British English. The corpus
based approach has enabled frequencies at the inter-lexemic (wordform)
level, and at the intra-lexemic (usage-type) level, to be examined
across the three varieties. The usage-type analysis utilises Dirven's
(1993) cognitive lexical-semantic radial network analysis to resolve
and categorise the prepositional usage data. The radial networks of
the domains of usage for these items allow us to make observation
regarding the "central" uses of these items in the different varieties
of English as well as the relationship between uses in the different
domains. The systematic use of a cognitive linguistic lexical-semantic
analysis as a basis for examining the intervarietal differences in
prepositional usage has proved to be a promising approach to lexical
variation. The study found that there are differences in the
distribution of various usage-types of these prepositions in Malaysian
English as well as different usage nuances of these basic prepositions
in Malaysian English. In particular, some usage-types such as
at-Temporal, on-Temporal, at-Area, on-Area and at-Cause serve to
distinguish ME from NZE or BrE.