For over half a century, Philippine English has existed as a linguistic issue in the Philippines. Despite the numerous studies on it, more aspects of it demand research investigation. One of these is its grammatical features, particularly its subject–verb agreement. Subject–verb agreement is an overlooked grammatical aspect of Philippine English especially in academic registers.

This study analyzes Philippine English subject–verb agreement in published research articles (RAs) written by Filipino researchers across disciplines. Using Bautista’s subject–verb agreement framework and D’Souza’s criteria for linguistic innovation, disciplinary RAs were analyzed through manual coding and independent inter-coding. Being widespread, systematic, rule-governed, and formally and competently used, only the intervening prepositional
phrase under verb-related agreement was consistently present across 11 qualitative and quantitative disciplinary RA sub-registers. It appears that this could be an acceptable Philippine English grammatical innovation in academic research writing across disciplines. The study yields implications for Philippine English itself, academic writing instructions, and academic research journals.

The study is significant for three reasons. First, it forwards new insights to broaden and deepen the knowledge and skills of Filipino research writers in writing academic research in their respective disciplines. Second, it may elevate or advance the current status of Philippine English (i.e., the Filipinos’ own and legitimate variety of English) especially in academic writing, which is a conservative register of language. Finally, it offers applied implications for Philippine English itself, academic writing instruction, and academic research journals.

Read full article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13488678.2023.2222347