Homogeneity and heterogeneity in lexical stress placement among Ugandan speakers of English as an L2: a view from usage-based perspective

Monica Adokorach; Bebwa Isingoma

doi:10.2478/exell-2023-0006

Abstract

The study delineates divergences that set apart the Ugandan accent from RP with respect to primary lexical stress placement, as well as divergences that evince variability among Ugandans. For example, differences from RP were (almost) homogenously observed in the words effect, cassava, agreement, arrest, alarm, with stress placed on the first syllable of all these nouns, while inter-speaker variability was substantially observed in words such as bursar, further, with some speakers placing stress on both syllables of the words, while others had the stress on the first syllable only. Analogy and underlying substrate influence account for the divergences, with substrate influence considered along the lines of what Wells (1982) refers to as ‘lexical distribution.

References

Adokorach, Monica, Bebwa Isingoma (2020). Homogeneity and heterogeneity in the pronunciation of English among Ugandans. English Today 148, 18(1): 15–26. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266078420000152.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Amarorwot, Sarah, Bebwa Isingoma (2021). Structural nativization of English in Uganda: Evidence from number agreement and interrogatives among Acholi speakers of English. Journal of Studies in the English Language 16(2): 52–82. https://doi.org/10.46687/yxuv9786.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Atechi, Samuel N. (2004). The intelligibility of native and non-native English Speech: A comparative analysis of Cameroon and American and British English. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Chemnitz: Chemnitz University of Technology.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Berowa, Annie Mae C., Shirley N. Dita (2021). Illustrating the suprasegmental features of Philippine English phonology: A mother tongue-based approach. The Asian ESP Journal 17 (4.3): 89–111.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Blevins, James P., Juliette Blevins (2009). Introduction. In Blevins, James P., Julliette Blevins, eds. Analogy in Grammar: Form and Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199547548.001.0001.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Boersma, Paul, David Weenink (2006). Praat. Doing phonetics by computer (Version 6.2.23), https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/. (Accessed January 2022).
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Buchstaller, Isabelle, Ghada Khattab (2013). Population samples. In Podesva J. Robert, Devyani Sharma, eds. Research Methods in Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 74–95. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139013734.006.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Buregeya, Alfred (2006). Grammatical features of Kenyan English and the extent of their acceptability. English World-Wide 27(2): 199–216. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.27.2.05bur.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Collins, Beverley, Inger M. Mees (2013). Practical Phonetics & Phonology: A Resource Book for Students. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203080023.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Edmunds, Paul (2009). ESL speakers’ production of English lexical stress: The effect of variation in acoustic correlates on perceived intelligibility and nativeness. PhD thesis: University of New Mexico. Available at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ling_etds/10 (Accessed May 20, 2022).
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Fisher, Allestree E. C. (2000). Assessing the state of Ugandan English. English Today 16: 57–61. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266078400011470.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Greenbaum, Sidney, Gerald Nelson (1996). The International Corpus of English (ICE) Project. World Englishes 15: 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-971x.1996.tb00088.x.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Gut, Urlike (2013). Analysing phonetic and phonological variation on the supraseg-mental level. In Krug Manfred, Julia Schlüter, eds. Research Methods in Language Variation and Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 244–259. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511792519.017.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Hung, Tony T. N. (2000). Towards a phonology of Hong Kong English. World Englishes 19(3): 337–356. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-971x.00183.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Isingoma, Bebwa (2013). Innovative pragmatic codes in Ugandan English: A relevance-theoretic account. Argumentum 9: 19–31.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Isingoma, Bebwa (2018). Accounting for variability in the linearization of ditransitive constructions in English among native speakers. Argumentum 14: 383–399.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Isingoma, Bebwa (2021). Politeness strategies in Ugandan English: Making requests and responding to thanks. Brno Studies in English 47(1): 7–29. https://doi.org/10.5817/bse2021-1-2.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Isingoma, Bebwa, Christiane Meierkord (2016). Ugandan English –challenges to, and food for, current theories. In Meierkord, Christiane, Bebwa Isingoma, Saudah Namyalo, eds. Ugandan English: Its Sociolinguistics, Structure and Uses in a Globalizing Post-Protectorate. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g59.01isi.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Isingoma, Bebwa, Christiane Meierkord (2022). Between exonormative traditions and local acceptance: A corpus-linguistic study of modals of obligation and spatial prepositions in spoken Ugandan English. Open Linguistics 8: 87–107. https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2022-0185.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Ježek, Miroslav (2012). The double-edged sword of RP: The contrasting roles of a pronunciation model in both native and non-native environments. Research in Language 10(2): 133–142. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10015-011-0037-6.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Jubilado, Rodney C. (2016). Where is the CR? A description of Philippine English in Hawaii. Philippine ESL Journal 1: 86–101.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kaji, Shigeki (2009). Tone and syntax in Rutooro, a toneless Bantu language of Western Uganda. Language Sciences 31(2-3): 239–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2008.12.006.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Katamba, Francis (1989). An Introduction to Phonology. London: Longman.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kawalya, Deo, Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, Koen Bostoen (2018). From conditionality to modality in Luganda (Bantu, JE 15): A synchronic and diachronic corpus analysis of the verbal prefix -andi-. Journal of Pragmatics 127: 84–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2018.01.011.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Lomotey, Charlotte F. (2018). Fluidity and variation in lexical stress placement in Ghanaian English discourse: A case of systematicity in communication in world Englishes. The Journal of English as an International Language 13(1): 37–56.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Meierkord, Christiane (2012). Interactions across Englishes: Linguistic choices in Local and International Contact Situations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139026703.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Meierkord, Christiane (2016). Diphthongs in Ugandan English: Evidence for and against variety status and interactions across Englishes. In Meierkord Christiane, Bebwa Isingoma, Saudah Namyalo, eds. Ugandan English: Its Sociolinguistics, Structure and Uses in a Globalizing Post-protectorate. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 121–147. https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g59.06mei.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Meierkord, Christiane, Bebwa Isingoma (2022). Between first language influence, exonormative orientation and migration: Future time expressions in post-protectorate Ugandan English. English World-Wide 43(2): 220–248. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.21014.mei.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Namyalo, Saudah, Bebwa Isingoma, Christiane Meierkord (2016) Towards assessing the space of English in Uganda’s linguistic ecology. In Meierkord Christiane, Bebwa Isingoma, Saudah Namyalo, eds. Ugandan English: Its Sociolinguistics, Structure and Uses in a Globalizing Post-protectorate. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 19–50. https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g59.02nam.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Nassenstein, Nico (2016). A preliminary description of Ugandan English, World Englishes. 35(3): 396–420. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12205.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Ndoleriire, Oswald, Celestin Oriikiriza (1996). Runyakitara language. Course manual. (ms). Makerere University.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Noonan, Michael (1992). A Grammar of Lango. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110850512.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. London. Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/. (Accessed April 30, 2022).
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Oxford English Dictionary (OED). http://www.oed.com/ (Accessed April 15, 2022).
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Oyaro, Jennifer (2020). A description of some phonetic and phonological aspects of the Acholi language. MA dissertation. Kampala: Makerere University.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Roach, Peter (2005). English Phonetics and Phonology: A practical Course. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Roach, Peter (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology: A practical Course. Fourth Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Schleef, Erik, Miriam Meyerhoff (2010). Sociolinguistic methods for data collection and interpretation. In Meyerhoff Miriam, Erik Schleef, eds. The Routledge Sociolinguistics Reader. London/New York: Routledge, 1–26.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Schneider, W. Edgar (2007). Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511618901.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Schröder, Anne, Frederic Zähres, Alexander Kautzsch (2021). The phonetics of Namibian English: Investigating vowels as local features in a global context. In Schröder, Anne, ed. The Dynamics of English in Namibia: Perspectives on an emerging variety. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 111–133. https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g65.06sch.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Simo Bobda, Augustin (1994). Aspects of Cameroon English Phonology. Peter Lang, Inc.; European Academic Publishers: Bern.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Simo Bobda, Augustin (2001). East and Southern African English accents. World Englishes 20(3): 269–284. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-971x.00215.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Styler, Will (2022). Using Praat for linguistic research. Available at http://savethevowels.org/praat. (Accessed June 26, 2022).
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Tiffen, Brian W. (1974). The intelligibility of Nigerian English. PhD thesis, University of London.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Uganda Bureau of Statistics (2016). The National Population and Housing Census 2014- Main Report, Kampala Uganda.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Upton, Clive (2004). Received pronunciation. In Schneider, Edgar W., Kate Burridge, Bernd Kortmann, Rajend Mesthrie, Clive Upton, eds. A Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol. 1: Phonology. Berlin: Mouton, 217–230. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110175325.1.217.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English: An Introduction. Cambridge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article

Homogeneity and heterogeneity in lexical stress placement among Ugandan speakers of English as an L2: a view from usage-based perspective

Abstract

Paradigm

My account