Nominal Recategorization in Ghanaian English: A Corpus-Based Study

Abstract

The pluralization of the English language has led to several world Englishes. Following extensive debates on the existence of Ghanaian English since the 1970s, relatively recent research has proceeded to describe aspects of its phonology, vocabulary, and grammar. The present study investigates nominal recategorization in Ghanaian English using corpus data from International Corpus English (ICE)-Ghana. The study adopts a two-pronged theoretical framework, comprising Braj Kachru’s (1995) Three Concentric Circles and Edgar Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Models. The study is qualitative, using a corpus-based approach. From the analysis, three findings were revealed. Firstly, nominal recategorization in Ghanaian English undergoes three processes: from mass to count nouns, count to mass nouns, and dual to count or collective nouns. These recategorizations are marked by the addition and/or omission of linguistic items and semantic implicatures. Secondly, the morphosyntactic indicators in the recategorization process consist of adding the plural inflection morpheme (-s) to originally mass nouns, modification by quantifiers and determiners, and using partitive constructions. Nominal recategorization is common among educated Ghanaians, possibly highlighting the transcendence of the variety from homes to educational contexts (Afful, 2006; Ngula, 2015). On some of the implications offered, the study restricts the generalization of the theories used to all contexts. Additionally, the dominance of nominal recategorization in written discourse reflects some developments in standardizing GhE. Further research on sociolinguistic factors characterizing recategorized forms was proposed as one of the recommendations.