3.1.2 Charts

In order to illustrate the results further, we refer to the following charts. Charts 1 to 3 illustrate the results of each group by percentage. Charts 4 and 5 give an overview of all the three group results in comparison.

Chart 1

BE in % -n = 25

As described under 3.1.1 Tables, the BE informants judged sentence 18 (I looked at myself in the mirror.) to be the most acceptable one rating it with a percentage of 100. The reference sentence 0 ranks sixth out of twenty with an acceptance of 90%. Concerning the use of the reflexive pronoun, inter alia, the ratings of sentences 4 and 15 seem to be suitable for a comparison as they both employ the verb to empty. It can either take the zero variant (Sentence 4) or the reflexive pronoun (Sentence 15). Strikingly, the BE informants prefer the reflexive structure (76,6%) to the zero variant (65,6), which does agree with Rohdenburg’s assumptions, according to which BE speakers do not drop the reflexive pronoun as often as speakers of AE.

Chart 2

AE in % - n = 3

The maximum value of the AE rating was given to sentences 17 and 3.

Sentence 17 deals with the topic of sports which leads to the assumption that it is due to the high frequency of sports-related expressions, especially in a country such as the United States, where sports are deeply ingrained in culture, that a sentence such as number 17; They qualified for the Olympic Games, must seem very authentic and thus very acceptable to the informants of AE.

Chart 3

ALE in % - n = 19

The ALE speakers rated sentence 7 highest, probably because it stands perfectly in line with the German structure (Er machte/tat es für sich selbst.) and the group largely consisted of German native speakers. Of course, the other groups rated the grammatically correct sentence as highly acceptable as well. However, it is noticeable that ALE ranked it highest.

Chart 4 (Comparison)

Chart 5

In comparison, it can be summarised that the ranking of the ALE speakers seemed to be modelled on the AE variant as their use of spoken English is less strict with the grammatical rules, while BE speakers are often said to use language in a more conservative way, i.e. sticking more to the grammatical rules and not being as 'relaxed' as AE speakers. The mini-study conducted here, however, showed quite the opposite concerning the ranking of the BE group. The BE informants largely preferred the 'American model' of choosing the zero variant to the reflexive structure with verbs that can occur with both variants.

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