The Handbook of World Englishes, 2nd Edition

32Creative Acts of Gender in World Englishes

TAMARA M. VALENTINE

1 Introduction

The past 50 years witnessed the transformation of English from an international language to a global language. Rejecting the notion of only one English, the study of world Englishes gives emphasis to the diverse linguistic, cultural, attitudinal, and ideological dimensions associated with the functional and formal variations; the divergent sociolinguistic contexts and ranges; the linguistic, sociocultural, and literary creativities; and the various identities that the English language has assumed as a result of acculturation in new sociolinguistic environments around the world (B. Kachru 1997). Central to this view is a pragmatically and functionally realistic model that accepts the role of English as a global contact language with multilingual English users and emerging indigenized English varieties with multiple cultural and linguistic identities (B. Kachru 1986a, 2005). Fundamental is the notion of pluralism and pluricentrism. The pluralistic, pluricentric nature of the English language represents many distinct native cultural identities or “cultural emblems” and “cross‐cultural reincarnations” (B. Kachru 2000: 18).

Within this tradition, the spread of English is depicted as three concentric circles, each circle representing the spread and functional domains in which English is used throughout the world. English as a “culturally pluralistic world language” (B. Kachru 2006: 451) is the norm; multiple ...