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Current research into language change and evolution focuses on native varieties of English, Schneider’s (2007) settler strand, but we have little knowledge concerning diachronic changes in non-native varieties of English, Schneider’s (2007) indigenous strand. Such a theory must take into account language contact as well as theories pertaining to Second Language Acquisition. This dissertation describes the diachronic changes which occur in one feature of Black South African English (BSAE), namely the progressive aspect. Current synchronic research on BSAE suggests that the progressive aspect is overextended to include stative verbs. This dissertation aims to evaluate the value of this hypothesis, and determine whether there is evidence of this overextension in diachronic data. In order to observe instances of language change, a diachronic corpus of BSAE was complied. This corpus consisted of data from letters, fiction, and newspapers ranging from the 1870s until the 2000s. Using this corpus, analyses were performed in order to determine the frequency of progressive use, the distribution of aktionsart categories, and which temporal meanings were denoted by stative verbs and activity verbs used in the progressive aspect. These analyses were then repeated for data taken from the historical corpus of White South African English (WSAE), in order to ascertain whether changes in BSAE developed parallel to WSAE, or if it follows its own trajectory of change. One further analysis was conducted on BSAE: the aspectual categories of 71 state verbs were analysed in order to determine whether speakers of BSAE indeed do overextend the –ing progressive form onto stative verbs describing states and qualities. The results indicate that the frequency of verbs used with the progressive aspect increases for BSAE, but decreases for WSAE. The comparison of aktionsart distribution indicates that BSAE has a higher overall frequency of communication verbs and accomplishments, while WSAE has a higher frequency of activity verbs, verbs denoting the future, and stative verbs. Achievements are used as expected by both varieties. The analysis of the temporal meanings of stative verbs indicates that speakers of WSAE denote the prototypical short duration associated with the progressive aspect for 74.83% of the verbs, while BSAE uses an extended temporal meaning for 46.86% of the verbs, indicating that speakers of BSAE more likely to overextend the temporal duration of stative verbs than WSAE speakers. The temporal meanings for activities were the same for both varieties; the prototypical short duration is denoted by 77.83% of the total activities in BSAE, and 77.11% of the activities in WSAE. The extended duration in both varieties may be due to language change in general, while the additional temporal meanings for statives in BSAE are a result of substrate transfer. / MA (English)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015

Current research into language change and evolution focuses on native varieties of English, Schneider’s (2007) settler strand, but we have little knowledge concerning diachronic changes in non-native varieties of English, Schneider’s (2007) indigenous strand. Such a theory must take into account language contact as well as theories pertaining to Second Language Acquisition. This dissertation describes the diachronic changes which occur in one feature of Black South African English (BSAE), namely the progressive aspect. Current synchronic research on BSAE suggests that the progressive aspect is overextended to include stative verbs. This dissertation aims to evaluate the value of this hypothesis, and determine whether there is evidence of this overextension in diachronic data. In order to observe instances of language change, a diachronic corpus of BSAE was complied. This corpus consisted of data from letters, fiction, and newspapers ranging from the 1870s until the 2000s. Using this corpus, analyses were performed in order to determine the frequency of progressive use, the distribution of aktionsart categories, and which temporal meanings were denoted by stative verbs and activity verbs used in the progressive aspect. These analyses were then repeated for data taken from the historical corpus of White South African English (WSAE), in order to ascertain whether changes in BSAE developed parallel to WSAE, or if it follows its own trajectory of change. One further analysis was conducted on BSAE: the aspectual categories of 71 state verbs were analysed in order to determine whether speakers of BSAE indeed do overextend the –ing progressive form onto stative verbs describing states and qualities. The results indicate that the frequency of verbs used with the progressive aspect increases for BSAE, but decreases for WSAE. The comparison of aktionsart distribution indicates that BSAE has a higher overall frequency of communication verbs and accomplishments, while WSAE has a higher frequency of activity verbs, verbs denoting the future, and stative verbs. Achievements are used as expected by both varieties. The analysis of the temporal meanings of stative verbs indicates that speakers of WSAE denote the prototypical short duration associated with the progressive aspect for 74.83% of the verbs, while BSAE uses an extended temporal meaning for 46.86% of the verbs, indicating that speakers of BSAE more likely to overextend the temporal duration of stative verbs than WSAE speakers. The temporal meanings for activities were the same for both varieties; the prototypical short duration is denoted by 77.83% of the total activities in BSAE, and 77.11% of the activities in WSAE. The extended duration in both varieties may be due to language change in general, while the additional temporal meanings for statives in BSAE are a result of substrate transfer. / MA (English)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans une série d’études récemment entamées qui cherchent à caractériser les lectes d’apprenants avancés de l’anglais. Nous présentons une analyse de quelques facteurs sémantiques, discursifs et inter-linguistiques qui sous-tendent l’emploi des formes verbales en anglais langue étrangère par des apprenants avancés francophones et catalanophones en milieu guidé. À partir d’un corpus de narrations orales élicitées à partir d’un livre en images, nous examinons la distribution de la morphologie temporo-aspectuelle par rapport à l’aspect sémantique des prédicats (l’hypothèse de l’aspect) et le type d’information temporelle que ces prédicats encodent dans la narration (l’hypothèse du discours). L’emploi de la morphologie verbale est considéré également du point de vue du style rhétorique de l’apprenant, c’est-à-dire des choix systématiques faits dans une tâche communicative spécifique à partir d’un répertoire appris de formes cibles, mais aussi à travers le filtre inconscient du mode de sélection et d’organisation de l’information en langue maternelle. Même si l’anglais, le français et le catalan grammaticalisent des distinctions aspectuelles, ceci ne permet pas aux apprenants étudiés de faire un emploi de la morphologie verbale tout à fait semblable à celui des locuteurs natifs. Des coalitions prototypiques entre la sémantique des prédicats et celle de la forme verbale, qui caractérisent l’emploi de la morphologie verbale aux stades moins avancés, persistent dans l’emploi des prédicats duratifs (a)téliques et débouchent sur un emploi généralisé du progressif en anglais, souvent dans des contextes où la présence de ce marqueur génère une tension avec le type d’information temporelle encodée. Les moyens d’encoder le déroulement dans la langue maternelle des apprenants semble brouiller leurs hypothèses relatives à l’emploi du progressif en discours dans la langue cible. Seul un sous-ensemble d’apprenants très avancés utilise la morphologie verbale d’une façon véritablement libérée du sémantisme de la construction verbale, de façon similaire aux locuteurs natifs. Pour ces apprenants, le progressif acquiert une fonction discursive et sa présence n’est plus systématique dans les contextes où l’information sur le caractère non-borné d’une situation peut être récupérée à partir d’autres éléments, sémantiques ou syntaxiques. Il existe en effet des légères différences entre les productions des apprenants et des locuteurs natifs en ce qui concerne la palette de fonctions discursives que les formes verbales présentent dans la narration. L’analyse du marquage aspectuel d’une relation temporelle spécifique, celle de simultanéité, nous a permis d’identifier quelques traits qui distinguent des stades successifs dans la variété d’apprenants avancés de l’anglais, ainsi que la présence d’une perspective temporelle en anglais langue cible manifestement construite à partir des choix linguistiques transférés de la langue maternelle des apprenants, même très avancés. Notre étude ouvre des pistes de recherche sur l’étanchéité des oppositions grammaticales dans le domaine de la morphologie verbale, sur les coalitions atypiques qui peuvent surgir en discours et la façon dont ces usages périphériques peuvent s’apprendre (et s’enseigner) dans un milieu guidé. Il en résulte aussi que la production orale chez des apprenants avancés se construit à travers le filtre d’une façon de penser le monde qui reste, de façon irréductible, celui de la langue maternelle. / Our dissertation belongs to a recently initiated line of studies seeking to characterise the advanced English L2 variety. We present an integrated analysis of some semantic, discourse and cross-linguistic factors underlying the use of verb forms by advanced French and Catalan learners of English as a foreign language. Using a corpus of oral picture book narratives, we explore the distribution of tense-aspect morphology in relation to the aspectual class of predicates (the Aspect Hypothesis) and the temporal information they encode in narrative discourse (the Discourse Hypothesis). The use of tense-aspect forms is also considered from the perspective of the so called L2 rhetorical style, the systematic linguistic choices learners make in a given communicative task drawing on their learnt repertoire of L2 devices but also on information selection and organisation patterns unconsciously transferred from their L1. While English, Catalan and French grammaticalise aspectual distinctions, this does not ensure a nativelike use of aspectual marking in English L2. Prototypical predicate/form coalitions in learner production were found to remain strong in the use of tense-aspect morphology with durative (a)telic predicates and to lead to an across-the-board reliance on aspectual marking, often in tension with the plot-advancing role of the predicate. The degree of grammaticalisation of the progressive aspect in learners’ L1 seems to interfere with the hypotheses of use concerning the progressive form in English L2. Only a subset of the learners, the most advanced ones, employ tense-aspect forms in a way which is genuinely liberated from the semantic congruence with the predicate, similar to what was observed in English L1. In this case, the progressive has a discourse-specific function and becomes optional when viewpoint information can be retrieved from other elements in the context. Form-function mappings in the domain of tense-aspect morphology remain, nevertheless, more limited or do not match the ones observed in English L1. The analysis of the expression of simultaneity allows us to identify certain proficiency-related traits in the advanced English L2 variety regarding the distribution of the progressive and the non-progressive forms and the use of other linguistic devices, in coalition with tense-aspect morphology. The cross-linguistic comparison with Catalan and French L1 reveals the existence of a subtle L1 temporal perspective in the expression of simultaneity in English L2, even with the most proficient learners. These findings invite to a reflection on the margins of grammaticalised contrasts, where atypical coalitions arise, and how learners can grasp such peripheral uses in an instructional setting. They also indicate that L2 oral production at the advanced stages remains bound to a way of thinking the world which is the legacy of our L1.