Particle verbs versus simplex verbs in Maldivian English

Abstract

Notwithstanding current indications that English might soon become the country's dominant L1, the structures of English in the Maldives have—despite laudable exceptions—not yet received sufficient academic attention. The present paper studies the contrast between simplex verbs (e.g. COMPRISE) and their innovative particle–verb alternatives (e.g. COMPRISE of) (a) in a short-term diachronic database of Maldivian newspaper texts and (b) with the help of acceptability ratings of the forms concerned collected through an online survey. The research questions address the relative frequencies of use of innovative particle verbs as opposed to corresponding simplex verbs, the diachronic variability of these relative frequencies and the degree to which the local speech community accepts innovative verb–particle combinations. While the well-established simplex verbs constitute the overall dominant structural choices, each of the innovative particle verbs has become more frequent in the course of the 14-year time period observed. These corpus-based insights align with the generally high acceptability ratings for the innovative particle–verb constructions evident from the survey data, where young women display the largest degree of acceptance towards the innovative particle verbs.