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Kenyan English: Domains of Use, Forms, and Users' Attitudes focuses
on the unique issues that concern language researchers in Kenya and
elsewhere. Edited by Martha M. Michieka and Evans Gesura Mecha, the
collection examines the English language forms and usages to
describe the reality of Kenyan English use. The contributors
address questions such as: What are the characteristics that
distinguish Kenyan English from other national varieties? How is
English taught, and what impact does that kind of teaching have on
learner proficiency? What is the place of English in mass media, in
politics, in the churches, and in multilingual homes? The
contributors, all experienced language practitioners based in Kenya
or currently conducting language-related research in Kenya, bring
fresh perspectives to the topic at hand and give readers a glance
into contexts that have not yet been addressed in this way. They
highlight the sociolinguistic reality of the English language in
present-day Kenya and raise questions that will prompt further
research.
The work explores how the pragmatic functions, topic and focus,
influence the formal organization and content of two discoursal
components: word order, and referential coherence, based on
Ekegusii, a Bantu language spoken in Kenya. It uses an eclectic
approach in describing the role of information structure in
Ekegusii. Lambrecht's model of Information Structure and
Bidirectional Optimality Theory are used to capture both production
and comprehension aspects in discourse. It demonstrates that
information structural constraints at the sentential level mainly
influence the information state of both canonical and non-canonical
constructions word orders. Information structure influences the
interpretation, through the pragmatic structuring of propositions,
helping the hearer differentiate what is information (focus) in
relation to a given topic, and this may induce movement, insertion
or deletion of some sentential constituents. Information structure
also interacts with referential coherence: alternative ways of
coherently referring to participants using nominal expressions in
the roles of grammatical subject object and oblique depend on
pragmatic functions.
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