New Englishes
Global English ‘[…] the English language ceased to be the sole possession of the English some time ago’ (Rushdie, 1991) Loss of ownership over English > no alternative US speakers constitute only the 20% of English speakers worldwide global English: usage is not restricted by countries or by government bodies
Population growth The number of L1 speakers of English are about the same number of L2 speakers countries belonging to the outer circle have a much greater growth rate ( %) than those belonging to the inner circle ( %) There are probably already more L2 speakers of English than L1 speaker
Linguistic change unpredictable linguistic change emergence of new varieties of English >American English vs. British English >vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling >“two countries divided by a common language” (G.B. Shaw) 1960s: ‘New Englishes’
American English ‘Dissertations on the English Language’ (Webster, 1789) American standard: > hono(u)r > common sense > practicality > politics Cassidy p jokes about non- standard
Varieties of English Australian English New Zealand English Canadian English South African English Caribbean English Irish English Scots English Welsh English South Asian English (Indian English) Singapore English West African English East African English Think of Word spell-checker!
Language varieties vs. dialects spread on an international scale applying to whole countries and regions applying to millions official status providing identity (as well as dialects) > international varieties > national identities
Zadie Smith rio/?issue_id=383 rio/?issue_id=383 p.145 When a country becomes independent, there is a natural reaction to leave behind the linguistic character imposed by its colonial past, and to look for indigenous languages to provide a symbol of new nationhood. e.g. Nigeria
Lexical creation Most adaptation in a New English relates to vocabulary Many cultural domains can motivate new words Biogeographical uniqueness Foodstuffs Drinks Medicines Drugs Various practices (Health-care, disease, death)
Grammar grammars have traditionally focused on standard English, i.e. printed English New Englishes are associated with speech rather than writing the role of corpora (written and spoken) for the study of English, e.g. BNC, ICE, etc. grammatical differentiation
Importance of speech Strong prescriptive tradition adjective FORMAL MAINLY DISAPPROVING saying exactly what must happen, especially by giving an instruction or making a rule: Most teachers think the government's guidelines on homework are too prescriptive. We must expect far more attention to be paid to speech
Co-selection Collocation the combination of words formed when two or more words are frequently used together in a way that sounds correct Colligation the grammatical company a word keeps (or avoids keeping) either within its own group or at a higher rank (b) the grammatical functions that the word's group prefers (c) the place in a sequence that a word prefers (or avoids).
Examples p Although each point is relatively small in scope, the potential cumulative effect can be considerable. Whatever grammatical differences between AmE and BrE are likely to be small if compared with the kinds of difference identified in New Englishes Careful interpretation
Vocabulary borrowings from indigenous languages e.g. totem (Native American) the amount of borrowing is influenced by the number of co-existing cultures semantic shift, semantic extension, or semantic expansion (160) >a word or phrase from a well-established variety may be adopted by New Englishes and given a new meaning or use without undergoing structural change e.g. beverage = lemonade (Jamaican English)
Problems Is the word restricted to that country? Representativeness? Lexical items only > collocational distinctiveness not represented