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The Variability of Current World Englishes

The Variability of Current World Englishes

by Charles F. Meyer, Eugene Green
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Release Date: August 2014
ISBN: 9783110394917
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Book Description

Faces of English explores the phenomenon of increasing dialects, varieties, and creoles, even as the spread of globalization supports an apparently growing uniformity among nations. The book's chapters supply descriptions of Jamaican English in Toronto, English as an L2 in a South African mining township, Chinese and English contact in Singapore, unexpected, emergent variants in Canadian English, and innovations in the English of West Virginia. Further, the book offers some perspective on internet English as well as on abiding uniformities in the lexicon and grammar of standard varieties. In the analyses of this heterogeneous growth such considerations as speakers' sociolinguistic profiles, phonological, morpho-syntactic, and lexical variables, frequencies, and typological patterns provide ample insight in the current status of English both in oral and electronic communities. The opening chapter presents a theoretical framework that argues for linguistic typology as conceptually resourceful in accommodating techniques of analysis and in distinguishing the wide arrays of English found throughout the globe. One clear function for Faces of English is that of a catalyst: to spur studies of diversities in English (and in other languages), to suggest approaches to adapt, to invite counterargument and developments in analysis.

Table of Contents

  1. Topics in English Linguistics
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Foreword
  5. Contents
  6. Introduction
    1. 1 Perspectives
    2. 2 Chapters 1–4: Methodological issues in distinguishing varieties
    3. 3 Chapters 5–10: Studies of features in particular contexts
    4. References
  7. Part 1: Methodological issues in distinguishing varieties
    1. New Englishes and the emergence of the unmarked
      1. 1 Introduction
      2. 2 New Englishes
      3. 3 Markedness
      4. 4 Surveying vowel inventories
      5. 5 Markedness: consonants and clusters
      6. 6 Conclusions
      7. References
    2. Methodological choices in language variation analysis
      1. 1 Introduction
      2. 2 Language Variation Patterns: interpretative possibilities and deciding points
      3. 3 Discussion
      4. 4 Conclusion
      5. References
    3. Globalisation and the transnational impact of non-standard varieties
      1. 1 Introduction
      2. 2 The World Language System and the World System of (Standard and Non-Standard) Englishes
      3. 3 Visual ethnolinguistic repertoires: Jamaican Creole and Nigerian Pidgin in computer-mediated communication
      4. 4 Global linguistic flows and urban spaces: the new multilingualism in the English-speaking world’s global cities
      5. 5 Conclusion
      6. References
    4. The circle of English: an exploration of the “core” and “periphery” of world Englishes
      1. 1 Introduction
      2. 3 Examining the “core” of English
      3. 4 Part-of-speech tagging and lemmatization
      4. 5 The present study: annotating ten corpora
      5. 6 The size of the core and periphery
      6. 7 The grammar of the core and periphery
      7. 8 The semantics of the core and periphery
      8. 9 Discussion
      9. References
  8. Part 2: Studies of features in particular contexts
    1. A robust, living substratum: contact and sociolinguistic factors in the evolution of a variety of Black English in Kimberley, South Africa
      1. 1 Introduction
      2. 2 Developing a Linguistic perspective
      3. 3 Selected lexical items
      4. 4 Discourse and register
      5. 5 Conclusion
      6. References
    2. Got in Singapore English
      1. 1 The grammar of got
      2. 2 The use of got
      3. 3 Got as base form: Evidence from SCoRE
      4. 4 Conclusion
      5. References
    3. Diasporic mixing of World Englishes: the case of Jamaican Creole in Toronto
      1. 1 Introduction
      2. 2 Data and Method
      3. 3 Analysis
      4. 4 Towards a conclusion
      5. References
    4. System and society in the evolution of change: the view from Canada
      1. 1 Introduction
      2. 2 Issues in language change in English
      3. 3 The Ontario Communities
      4. 4 Methods
      5. 5 Linguistic analysis – Southern Ontario
      6. 6 Linguistic analysis – Northern Ontario
      7. 7 Conclusions
      8. References
    5. A diachronic study of pseudo-titles and related appositives in the press reportage of British and American newspapers
      1. 1 Methodology
      2. 2 Appositions as Constructions
      3. 3 The Development of APNs over Time
      4. 4 Focus and Emphasis
      5. 5 The Shift in the Placement of Proper Nouns
      6. 6 APNs with Proper Nouns in the First unit
      7. 7 Proper Nouns in the Second units of APNs
      8. 8 Future Developments for APNs
      9. References
    6. The Diffusion of I need you to + infinitive in world Englishes
      1. 1 Introduction
      2. 2 An overview of the data
      3. 3 Qualified conditions in defining uses of I need you to + infinitive
      4. 4 Semantic and grammatical valence in the uses of I need you to + infinitive
      5. 5 Statistical comparison of I need you to + infinitive functions in inner and outer Englishes
      6. 6 Statistical analysis of sociolinguistic variables in the uses of I need you to + infinitive
      7. 7 Discussion
      8. References
  9. Index