The semantic distinctiveness of Kenyan English

Abstract

This study entitled, "The semantic distinctiveness of Kenyan English," looked at the divergences of the meanings of words in Kenyan English. These meanings were gauged from the Standard International English. Meanings entered in International English dictionaries. The meanings of the words in Kenyan English were accounted for within the lexico-semantic dynamism and Stern's seven classes of meaning change. The processes of meaning change and the factors that cause them are also discussed. The study targeted Kenyan speakers of English with post-secondary education, and who have either had or are in the process of undertaking university education. These are speakers who are expected to exhibit high standards of proficiency in Standard International English. Forty-one of such speakers were the respondents to the questionnaire specially designed to determine the acceptance level of the Kenyan English meanings. A total of fifty - four words were selected and several meanings, including at least a Kenyan English meaning and a standard International English meaning, provided for each word. The standard International English (StdnE) meanings were picked from the Oxford Advanced Leamer's Dictionary, 6th Edition (2001) and the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English :rt Edition (1995). These meanings were counter-checked from the multi-volume Oxford English Dictionary, ?' edition (1989). The respondents to the questionnaire were required to mark a tick (~ ) against the meanings that were familiar or acceptable to them. The number of 'ticks' for each meaning were counted and expressed as a percentage. The higher the percentage, therefore the higher the acceptability level for the KenE meaning. From the study, there are words with high acceptability levels (70% and above) of the Kenyan English meanings to the extend that less than 20 per cent of the respondents marked acceptability of their StdintE meanings. This is the group of words that have acquired altered meanings in KenE. There is another category of words whose KenE meanings are used together the StdIntE ones. The acceptability percentages of the KenE and StdINTE meanings of these words do not vary a great dear. The third group comprises words that have acquired distinct KenE forms through morphological rules of the English language and given KenE meanings. Comparative acceptability percentages for this group are not provided because the words have not yet been absorbed into StdintE. The final category of words consists of words borrowed from the local languages and integrated into English. The findings of the study reveal that the meanings of words are bound to have a recognizable character that is distinct to the Kenyan English variety