The uses of 'some' as determiner in BSAfE

Abstract

The determiner some is used primarily as an indication of an unspecified, but particular quantity. The question of whether this core meaning of some is extended in Black South African English (BSAfE) is addressed in this paper. In an intercorpus comparison, it is found (unexpectedly) that the determiner some occurs significantly less frequently in the BSAfE corpus than in the Indian English corpus. However, it is also found that the determiner some precedes plural nouns significantly more frequently in BSAfE than in Indian English. Similar differences are not observed in a comparison of BSAfE with a Kenyan English corpus. In the BSAfE intracorpus investigation, a collexeme analysis indicates a strong collocational attraction between the determiner some and a number of plural nouns. A co–varying collexeme analysis among all possible determiners and five frequently occurring non–singular nouns provides further confirmation of the strong association between some and plural nouns.