Phraseology and Culture in English

Cause / Goal 
The 
preposition 
for functions in Aboriginal English to signal the intended 
prey / harvest, when used in connection with a hunting or gathering trip, 
as in: 
then they went for kangaroos ‘then they were hunting kangaroos’ 
we was goin for gwirra 
‘we were hunting [a particular bird]’ 
he went out there for bimba 
‘he went out to gather [a kind of berry].’ 
big tall Wongi, e rush for us 
‘a big tall Wongi [desert tribesman] rushed 
to catch us’ 
The same preposition carries the meaning of ‘on account of’ when used 
with reference to human relationships, as in: 
all the people was just happy for us ‘the people were happy to see us 
[when we returned after being lost]’ 
I cry for my cousin 
‘I missed my cousin’ or ‘I feel sad 
for my cousin’ 
I’m pregnant for you 
‘I am pregnant on account of you.’ 
4. Syntactic 
Adjustment 
A number of other multiword units in Aboriginal English may be loosely 
grouped together as syntactic modifications of the English language which are 
occasioned by the expressive demands of Aboriginal speakers. Five such mo-
difications which affect the noun phrase will be mentioned here. 
a) Noun 
anticipation 
Speakers of Aboriginal English may employ the noun thing / ting / sing
as an anticipatory marker before the noun, as in: 
you get a ting, stone 
‘you get a stone’ 
we lookin round for ting, Mavis ‘we were looking around for Mavis.’ 
Perhaps this feature entered the language as a feature of interlanguage, to 
enable speakers to hesitate while hunting for a word. While it may be 
present in the speech of bilingual (and, to a limited extent, of some other 
Australian English) speakers, it now occurs more widely as well and is a 
stylistic marker of Aboriginal English. The use of ting before the noun 
may also reflect the enduring influence of the Indigenous language fea-
ture of using classifiers (cf. 1a, above). 
b) Noun 
substitution 
As in colloquial Australian English, but to a greater extent, the lexeme 
thing (and, in Aboriginal English, its allomorphs ting / sing) may also 
substitute for a common or proper noun when the speaker is not able to 
recall it, as in: 
he pull the thing 
‘he pulled the thing’ 
he got stuck on top o’ the sing 
an e couldn’t get down 
‘he got stuck on top of the thing and he 
couldn’t get down’ 
Mr Thing weren’t there. 
‘Mr what’s-his-name wasn’t there’. 

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Ian G. Malcolm and Farzad Sharifian
c) Noun 
post-modification 
Thing, or one of its allomorphs, may also be placed immediately after a 
noun to provide some qualification to its meaning, suggesting that it has 
been used with some vagueness, (a feature also shared to some extent 
with colloquial Australian English) as in: 
e fell straight down into dis 
hole thing 
‘he fell straight down into a sort of hole.’ 
The 
term 
part may occupy the same position, with the meaning that the 
noun which it follows is in a part-whole relationship to a larger entity, as in: 
I hit it on the tail part 
‘I hit [the creature] on its tail’ 
we goin along this crossing part 
‘The part of the land where we were 
going was the crossing.’ 
d) Noun phrase indefinite extension 
Aboriginal speakers of English often attempt to contextualize what they 
are saying against a background of which they want to retain awareness 
though it is not in focus. In order to do this, they use devices which en-
able an indefinite extension of the noun phrase, as in: 
We used to live next to all the criminals an everythink 
One time I went to Junction…and that 
an all dis limestone an dat 
this man came aroun wid all yoghurt an dat. 
For this purpose and that may have human referents, as in: 
Uncle Mark…an deir son Christopher an dat 
and no one could bring my cousins and friends and that. 
Since Aboriginal English is typically employed in oral communication 
among familiars, the indefinite extension may be intended to allude to 
shared schemas which do not need to be made explicit.