Adult L2 acquisition of for-complementation in Chinese Pidgin English and Hong Kong English

Abstract

This paper examines the emergence of for-complementation in Chinese Pidgin English (CPE) and Hong Kong English (HKE) from a sociohistorical perspective. Although CPE and HKE arise under different contact situations and time periods, surprisingly speakers of these varieties show parallelism in the use of for to introduce purposive clauses. The origins of for as a complementizer in CPE will be argued to be contributed by convergence of meanings and functions in Cantonese and English – the major input languages in the feature pools of both varieties. It will be shown that L2 learning provided the mechanism for the emergence of for in purposive clauses in CPE and HKE. Variation in sentential complementation in these two varieties of English supports one of the tenets in variationist historical sociolinguistics, namely synchronic and diachronic variation can inform and complement each other.