bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sociolinguistic context and second‐language acquisition: acculturation and creativity in Malaysian English
Authors: LOWENBERG PETER H.
Published: February 2007

Abstract: Apparent similarities between linguistic processes involved in second‐language acquisition and in the nativization of norms in non‐native varieties of English have led many researchers to interpret nativization as merely the fossilization at a societal level of an interlanguage of native speaker varieties of English [e.g. Platt, John and Weber, H. (1980) English in Singapore and Malaysia—Status: Features: Functions; and Selinker, L. (1972) International Review of Applied Linguistics, 10, 209–231]. This paper presents evidence to the contrary from the output of one such process, lexical transfer, in the nativization of Malaysian English. The paper presents an historical summary from the colonial era of the sociolinguistic context of Malaysian English, focusing on the domains of English and Malay in Malaysia, and on the relative socioeconomic and political status of Malaysia's major ethnic populations. Analyzed within this context, data presented from English language newspapers and ESL textbooks demonstrate that transfer from Malay to standard Malaysian English does not result from ‘interference’ leading to fossilization. Rather, it is a creative process reflecting a high degree of bilingual proficiency in Malay and English, by which English is acculturated in a sociolinguistic context unique to Malaysia (e.g. ethnicity, identity and status.)
English in the linguistic transformation of Hawaii: literacy, languages and discourse
Authors: BUCK ELIZABETH
Published: February 2007

Abstract: The event of contact with the West has always been for the Other a moment of violence, rupture and discontinuity. As a colonized Other, Hawaii was not just modernized and modified, but transformed and reformed. The interactive forces that had constituted the dynamic of Hawaiian history before Cook were suddenly and radically skewed, eliminated and replaced by Western forces of power—not the least of these being language. What had been the totality of the world for the Hawaiians was suddenly only a part, a small part, of a global system containing other cultures, other languages, and other epistemes of knowledge and discourse. In this paper I will focus on language and the linguistic transformation of Hawaii, viewing language as socially constitutive, as creative and recreative, as consciousness that is saturated by and that saturates all social activity. Working within this constitutive view of language, the linguistic intrusion of the West takes on a significance, as significance, that is integral to every aspect of the Western penetration of Hawaii. Three fundamental changes in language were initiated with Western contact: (1) the radical shift from orality to literacy, (2) the displacement of Hawaiian by English as the dominant language of discourse, and (3) the repositioning and redefinition of Hawaii, the Hawaiians and their material and symbolizing practices by discourses informed by English, particularly ideologies embedded in American English. The first two involved fundamental changes in cognitive processes and social consciousness; all three reconstituted social relationships. Forms and practices of symbolic representation, including the most basic one of language itself, are never exterior to material forces. They are part of ideological social practices that are inscribed by history and embedded in social praxis. The English language and practices of that language, were integral to the social restructuring of the Hawaiian islands by Western capitalism, the dispossession and alienation of the Hawaiians, and the ultimate redistribution of power.

What, then, is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms—in short, a sum of human relations, which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are; metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power; coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins (Nietzsche, 1968: 46–47).
Exotic Other: Western representation of India in English literature and film
Authors: DISSANAYAKE WIMAL
Published: February 2007

Abstract: This paper seeks to point out the power of language and the power of the visual image in determining and constituting thought and imagination, and to demonstrate how this power operates within a certain knowledge system and cultural discourse. This paper focuses attention on Western representations of India in creative literature and film. One could have illustrated this by selecting for analysis works of literature and cinema which do not enjoy a wide reputation as creative and serious efforts and which present obvious stereotypes. However, such a course of action would not have allowed the opportunity to examine the complex implications of the thesis explored in this study. Instead this investigation is based on an outstanding novelist and a well respected filmmaker—E. M. Forster and David Lean. The work analyzed in this paper is the novel, A Passage to India, and its film version. Forster is considered to be one of the most important English novelists of the twentieth century, and David Lean is a highly gifted film director who has successfully translated into cinema distinguished novels of Dickens and Pasternak. This study shows that even such highly esteemed creative artists as E. M. Forster and David Lean were unable to rise above the dictating and determining power of language and image, and the discourse that it instituted.
Language as power: Gabriel Okara's The Voice as a paradigm
Authors: THUMBOO EDWIN
Published: February 2007

Abstract: This paper briefly discussses the nature and mode of expression of power as a prelude to stressing the importance of contexts when considering language—with English as the primary focus—as power. That the sense of power varies from culture to culture has implications for the study of how English is used in the non‐Anglo‐Saxon nations, particularly in connection with the status of English and the new literatures in English that have emerged. Representative attitudes to its use as a literary medium are noted and discussed through a selective analysis of Gabriel Okara's The Voice. Because his approach was systematic, broadly comprehensive and sustained, Okara explores a variety of possible directions of nativisation of creative purposes. Moreover it is undertaken within the larger intention of how the decolonisation of English is to reflect the character of a particular society whose shape and ethos are both distinctive and new to the creative reach of English.
English in advertising: multiple mixing and media
Authors: BHATIA TEJ K.
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: The aim of this paper is threefold: to focus on the neglected aspect of language mixing‐multiple‐language mixing‐in South Asian languages with special reference to English; to examine the pattern of language modernization as reflected in the professionalization of South Asian languages; and to analyze the linguistic (including socio‐and psycholinguistic) impact of this pattern on South Asian languages as well as on their readers. The three aims are achieved by analyzing the formal and functional properties of Hindi in magazine or press advertising. The paper reveals that Hindi advertising media adopt an all‐inclusive approach and receive input from a wide variety of languages, ranging from classical languages such as Sanskrit and Persian to modern European languages such as English. English, although a newcomer on the Indian linguistic scene, participates vigorously in the process of multiple‐language mixing at the sentence as well as discourse level and thus leaves a deep and ever‐growing mark on Hindi press advertising. The conclusions drawn about Hindi media are representative of the professionalization of South Asian languages in many important respects, but no claim is made that the analyses presented and conclusions drawn in this study will apply to all South Asian languages in all details.
APPLIED LEXICOGRAPHY
Authors: Zgusta Ladislav
Published: February 2007

Dictionaries, Lexicography and Language Learning. Robert Ilson
TEACHING ENGLISH PROSODY
Authors: Kreidler Charles W.
Published: February 2007

An Introduction to English Prosody. By Elizabeth Couper‐Kuhlen.
The meaning of grammatical consciousness‐raising
Authors: RUTHERFORD WILLIAM E.
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: The pros and cons of grammatical consciousness‐raising (C‐R) in pedagogy are still very much a part of current discussion on the proper relations between theories of second‐language acquisition and classroom learning and teaching. While it seems clear from these studies that grammatical C‐R should be given a place in the language‐teaching curriculum, it by no means follows that we have a clear idea of what that role ought to be. There would presumably be little dispute with the notion that whatever it is that is raised to consciousness should be maximally consistent both with what we presently know of the nature of language and its organizing principles and with how all of that gets absorbed by the learner—i.e. the nature of language acquisition. Yet it can easily be argued that what has invariably been singled out for pedagogical attention, even over the many centuries of documented language teaching, amounts at best to a misrepresentation of these principles—where it seems to have been widely assumed that the essence of language is the sum total of its putative combinatorial units and that the task of the teacher is to ‘impart’ these units directly to the learner. This is essentially a ‘product approach’ to grammatical C‐R, and one in which the learner is presumed to be a tabula rasa. It will be argued, however, that meaningful research on the issue of whether or not formal instruction makes a difference will need to abandon notions of language learning as the accumulation of language entities and consider C‐R with regard to grammatical processes and the learner's progressive restructuring of prior knowledge.
THE HEARER IN LANGUAGE STUDY
Authors: MACK MOLLY
Published: February 2007

Family Quarrels: towards a Criticism of Indian Writing in English. By Feroza F. Jussawalla
Cohesive devices and discourse competence
Authors: EHRLICH SUSAN
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the development of cohesive discourse among second‐language learners in light of native speaker discourse norms. Previous studies of cohesion in second‐language acquisition have counted cohesive devices as a means of assessing the overall cohesion of texts. I argue that such studies have failed to measure cohesion accurately because they have neglected to consider restrictions on the distribution of cohesive devices in English. I formulate two such restrictions and demonstrate how they are relevant to the measurement of cohesion in second language learner discourse.
English and Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin English) in Papua New Guinea
Authors: ROMAINE SUZANNE
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin English) is becoming increasingly important as a lingua franca in Papua New Guinea, even though English is the country's official language. This paper examines urban vs rural, and spoken vs written varieties of Tok Pisin, and the influence of English on Tok Pisin. Papua New Guinea English is also examined as a new variety of English.
English in Vanuatu
Authors: CROWLEY TERRY
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: The position of English in Vanuatu is unique in the Pacific because it shares official status with French, and at the same time has a particular constitutionally declared role with respect to the English‐derived pidgin known as Bislama. Prior to independence in Vanuatu, education was offered in schools that operated through the medium of both languages, and the numbers of enrolments were approximately equal in both systems throughout the condominium. Since independence in 1980 however, enrolments in English‐medium schools have increased dramatically at the expense of French‐medium enrolments. This was mainly because the French‐medium system has provided very few opportunities for people to gain employment or further study, while English‐educated students have gone on to gain university degrees overseas and have returned to the country to occupy senior government positions. Bislama also has a much higher status in Vanuatu than is the case with other varieties of Melanesian Pidgin, because it has become a compromise language between the two colonial languages, which have operated to divide ni‐Vanuatu.
Language and schooling in Western and American Samoa
Authors: HUEBNER THOM
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: The two Samoas present an interesting case for the study of the role of English in language use and social change in the Pacific islands. Beginning with missionization, this paper reviews the history of English and schooling in the Samoas to independence (in the case of Western Samoa) and post‐World War II trusteeship (in the case of American Samoa). The discussion focuses on the social, political, economic and educational factors related to levels of English and native language literacy in the two Samoas, and to the decline of native language literacy in American Samoa over the past several years.
Evaluation of institutionalized varieties of English and its implications for placement and pedagogy
Authors: KENKEL JAMES M. , TUCKER RICHARD W.
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: Traditionally, ESL programs in the United States have not distinguished between students coming from countries where English has been institutionalized, such as Nigeria, and those from countries where it has not been, such as Japan. However, the legitimacy of these institutionalized or nativized varieties has become more and more accepted. In spite of this acceptance, scant attention has been focused on how ESL programs might adapt to the growing consensus. This paper outlines an application of theoretical understandings of nativized varieties to the very practical concerns of ESL programs; namely, testing, placement and pedagogy. First, through analysis of placement essays written by Nigerian and Sri Lankan students at an American university, we demonstrate that the non‐recognition of the legitimacy of nativized varieties can have the very real effect of lowering a student's placement. We then suggest a two‐tiered evaluation which discriminates between those students competent in English but significantly unfamiliar with the American variety and those whose competence in English is deficient. Finally, we advance a pedagogical approach and techniques which we believe appropriate for speakers who are competent in a non‐native variety, but are unfamiliar with the American idiom and culture.
African English expressions in The Gambia
Authors: RICHMOND EDMUN B.
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: Localized varieties of English have been in Africa since the 16th century. The first English to be used on that continent was a contact variety, streamlined for trading with local populations. British government and religious representatives arrived with their metropolitan versions of the language, and the continent was exposed to a second variety. British colonial educational policies in the area attempted to produce a metropolitan English spoken by Africans: however, after independence, most British teachers left the continent, leaving the ex‐colonies without native‐speaker models. English developed less to European standards, and more closely to modified African perceptions. This third type of English, the localized variety, has flourished to the present. This paper focuses on the localized African English spoken in The Gambia. A brief history of the area is included, along with a sample of the vocabulary and expressions found in Gambian English.
Code‐mixing, style repertoire and language variation: English in Hindi poetic creativity
Authors: KACHRU YAMUNA
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: In studies on code‐mixing considerable attention has been paid to certain genres of writing in prose. However, there is a paucity of studies on how code‐mixing and the resulting code variation may be exploited in various types of poetic creativity. This paper examines the Hindi poetry of the last three decades to determine the effects—aesthetic and other—of such language and dialect mixing in which English is one partner. This programmatic study focusses on the following: style repertoire in the context of Hindi literature; functions of code‐mixed varieties in Hindi literary works in general; analysis of illustrative texts with mixing from English in poetic works by Madan Vatsyayan, Muktibodh, and others; and finally, the implications for sociolinguistics of such investigations from linguistic and stylistic perspectives.
Code‐mixing and borrowing in a New York Puerto Rican community: a cross‐generational study
Authors: TORRES LOURDES
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: Few studies have focused on borrowing and code‐mixing across generations of United States Spanish speakers. This study focuses on code‐mixing and borrowing across two generations of New York Puerto Ricans. A principle aim of this study is to explore the possibility of the existence of a ‘life cycle of language use’ in the community, as suggested by the Language Policy Task Force (1980). This concept is explored with reference to the use of Spanish, English, borrowing and code‐mixing by two generations of adult Puerto Ricans in New York City.
Myth, identity and the colonial experience
Authors: ROSCA NINOTCHKA
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: The Philippines consists of 150 languages, 7100 islands, a past characterized by political and cultural discontinuity, and a present subject to endless extraneous influences. These facts have a powerful bearing on the construction of self. Moreover, as the author demonstrates, the Filipino writer must work out his or her fictional ‘self’ in not one but many languages, in the midst of an ongoing tussle between the language of reality and the language of writing that is further exacerbated by the colonial heritage of the country. In this paper, the author examines the question of what it is to write creatively in English in this context, making, as it does, vital connections with myth, identity and the colonial legacy.
Corpus linguistics and non‐native varieties of English
Authors: SCHMIED JOSEF
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT:This article derives from the internal discussions of a project that has just been launched and which may provide a useful example of modern comparative linguistics: the International Corpus of English (ICE). It concentrates on the problems which arise when the principles of corpus compilation, which were developed in native communities (ENL corpora) in the pre‐sociolinguistic age, are applied to non‐native communities (ESL corpora) such as Africa. In my opinion this reveals a crucial difficulty in corpus compilation that has been neglected in most corpus‐linguistic work: the contrast and relationship between variation according to use and that according to user, or between stylistic sampling categories based on text types and sociolinguistic ones based on speaker/writer identity. Examples of such problems will be derived from the second‐language corpus I am primarily concerned with, the Corpus of East African English, but the principles of socio‐stylistic variation in native and non‐native varieties of English go far beyond this immediate context. They aim at combining two modern quantitatively oriented linguistic subdisciplines to their mutual benefit. After a brief introduction to the ICE project the following points are dealt with: first, the uses of computer‐readable corpora for modern grammars and dictionaries in general (Section 2) and for applied (Section 3) and theoretical (Section 4) research on non‐native varieties of English in particular, then the text type approach applied in ENL corpora so far (Section 5) and the sociolinguistic dimension with its relationship to stylistic variation (Section 6), followed by practical considerations for Third World Englishes (Section 7), and finally a multidimensional approach to socio‐stylistic variation (Section 8) which may be necessary for transferring the ENL‐based methodology of corpus compilation to ESL varieties.
Did the butler do it?: on an analogue of Butler English in Natal, South Africa
Authors: MESTHRIE RAJEND
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: South African Indian English (SAIE) refers to a stabilised L1 variety of New English that is spoken by descendants of Indian immigrants who came to work mainly in the sugar plantations of Natal in South Africa. Although the first immigrants had no knowledge of English, it had become the lingua franca amongst a majority of Indians by the 1950s. Since then, English has gone through the processes of nativisation and has finally been established as a native language. There are three major mainstream varieties of SAIE: the acrolect, mesolect and basilect. In addition to these three varieties, there is a fourth that may be termed the pre‐basilect, which is quite uncharacteristic of SAIE today. This paper examines the formal features of the pre‐basilectal variety, and compares these with what is termed Butler English as used in India. The striking similarities between the two varieties raise the question of their historical relationship.
A sociolinguistic analysis of English borrowings in Japanese advertising texts
Authors: TAKASHI KYOKO
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: This paper reports a sociolinguistic analysis of English borrowings in Japanese television commercials and print advertising. The two hypotheses formulated and tested were: (1) the primary reason for loanword use in the language of advertising is to make the product seem more modern and sophisticated, and (2) there exists a relationship between loan functions and the audience characteristics (e.g. gender, age, occupation and background). The results have shown these to be true. The age and occupation/background of the audience turned out to be important factors in determining the frequency and distribution of loan functions. The positive attitude of students and a young and ‘more modern’ audience toward English and the international value these people associate with English seem to be skillfully used by advertisers to catch the audience's attention and to affect their desire to be cosmopolitan.
Invigorative and hermetic innovations in English in Yaoundé
Authors: MBANGWANA PAUL
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: This study seeks to demonstrate that a certain type of new speech is developing among the students of the University of Yaoundé. It examines the linguistic processes of word formation and the meanings expressed by these linguistic innovations. This investigation reveals that for most of the time the meaning of these words is highly metaphorical, playful and hermetic as words come from a variety of sources and are reassigned different meanings or given a refreshing slant. The resurgence of such a variety of speech cuts outsiders off as users distort the forms of the words, coin colourful expressions, blend words from two or three different sources, and articulate them in a certain jocular manner. This usage is a highly coded one, so that only insiders can really be at home with it. In fact this slang, being impenetrable by outsiders, gives the users a certain sense of security and a certain measure of entertainment which animates their difficult conditions of life where success is a constant battle to achieve.
GOOD ENGLISH AND THE GRAMMARIAN
Authors: BARON DENNIS
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: Good English and the Grammarian. By Sidney Greenbaum.
COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING: THE BRITISH PERSPECTIVE
Authors: BERNS MARGIE
Published: February 2007

Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, Volume 8, 1987. Edited by Robert B. Kaplan.
Topic confusion in English‐Asian discourse
Authors: SCOLLON RON , WONG‐SCOLLON SUZANNE
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT:Most communication between Asians and Westerners takes place in English. This misleads us into believing that little translation work is required for East and West to understand each other. Nevertheless, when speakers of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese use English there is a tendency for them to introduce topics in ways which are unexpected from the point of view of English‐speaking Westerners. The Asian inductive, or delayed, introduction of topics leaves Westerners confused about what the topic is. Conversely, Westerners introduce topics early in a conversation. This deductive pattern strikes the Asian as abrupt or rude while the Asian pattern tends to feel evasive or ‘inscrutable’ to the Westerner. Since these patterns of topic introduction are largely unconscious, conversants are not able to locate the source of their confusion in the discourse structure and so have the tendency to blame their conversants. Some of the stereotypical attitudes of East and West toward each other can be shown to be the direct outcome of these unconsciously differing discourse practices in the introduction of topics.
A genre‐based approach to ESP materials
Authors: BHATIA VIJAY K.
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: A genre‐based approach to discourse analysis has great potential for the teaching of English for specific purposes (ESP), particularly for the teaching of business writing, where communicative intentions and strategies used to realize such intentions, in the context of complex interpersonal relations between the participants involved in the communication process, are considered very crucial. This paper takes the communicative intentions of the writer of a particular type of business letter as the basis for its analysis as a genre and claims that this perspective will allow ESP practitionersi to teach business writing more effectively and economically. This paper demonstrates the process by taking examples from the UNDP‐Government of Singapore Project in Meeting the Needs of Business and Technology, where an attempt has been made to analyse authentic business letters as a genre to derive pedagogically utilizable insights and use them in the design of self‐access English for business and technology materials for tertiary levels in Singapore.
The range and depth of English‐knowing bilinguals in Singapore
Authors: PAKIR ANNE
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: The concept ‘English‐knowing bilingualism’ is particularly worthy of exploration in Singapore because of the rapidly evolving special nature of ‘bilingualism’ there and the penetration of English into several domains. The discourse of ‘English‐knowing bilinguals’ in two main domains—at home and at school—is examined in terms of the range and depth of functional uses previously suggested. The discourse is explained with a new model, that of ‘expanding triangles’ involving an increasing English‐speaking base population and two distinctive English speech clines in Singapore, graded on formality and proficiency considerations. The instrumental, regulative and interpersonal functions of language call for the subvariety of English found at the lower ends of the English speech clines in Singapore. The representative or informative and the heuristic functions have been served by the subvariety at the upper ends of the speech clines. The imaginative or innovative function has been traditionally served by a high variety of English but the lower varieties are also increasingly being used in codified texts such as poems, short stories and plays by Singaporean writers. The concept of expanding triangles in English‐knowing bilingualism is detailed in this paper to enable some comprehension of an otherwise haphazard and infinite array of linguistic diversity involving the functions of English in Singapore.
ENGLISH PLUS
Authors: ROSE KENNETH R.
Published: February 2007

Not Only English: Affirming A merica's Multilingual Heritage. Edited by Harvey A. Daniels.
Obituary announcements as communicative events in Nigerian English
Authors: NWOYE ONUIGBO G.
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: Announcements and remembrances of deaths in Nigerian newspapers written in English are communicative events. Their information load goes far beyond the ordinary communication of the news that a death has occurred. Various aspects of these announcements, like size, position in the newspaper, the use of photographs, the frequency of appearance in one or more newspapers, are examined to show how they communicate information about the socioeconomic status of both the deceased and his/her survivors. Obituary announcements in Nigerian newspapers are compared with similar death notices in English, German and Indian newspapers, and their similarities and differences observed. They all share in the strategy of using metaphors to avoid a direct mention of, or reference to, death. While English and German death notices merely announce deaths. Nigerian obituaries are both longer and more elaborate in the information they carry. As a nativized variety of English, the Nigerian English used in obituary announcements exhibits certain peculiarities which are the results of its co‐existence with Nigerian indigenous languages in the context of its use. This paper argues for these peculiarities to be seen not as ‘errors’ or ‘mistakes’, but rather as the productive liveliness of a vibrant variety of the English language which has implications for sociolinguistic and pragmatic as well as language teaching and learning theories.
Sociocultural variation in Indian English speech acts
Authors: TINKHAM THOMAS
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: This study examines variation in South Asian English which may be attributed to differences in the social classes of the speakers using the language. The study has the following aims: first, to provide data which substantiate the claim that Westernized speakers of Indian English are more apt to express directive speech acts in the form of questions than are their less‐Westernized countrymen, who tend to express directives in the form of imperative statements; second, to present data that support the contention that Westernized speakers of Indian English are more likely to employ as expressive speech acts the formulaics ‘Thank you’ and ‘I'm sorry’ than are non‐Westernized Indians; and finally, to support the contention that English literature as it is written by authors for whom English may be an additional language is a valid source of data for researchers interested in making cross‐cultural comparisons of the use of English as it is spoken not only around the world but also by people of different sociocultural backgrounds and levels within a particular geographic area.
Curriculum for Jamaican Creole‐speaking students in New York City
Authors: PRATT‐JOHNSON YVONNE
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: Jamaican students constitute a significant segment of the New York City public school population. Many Jamaican students have a solid grasp of Standard American English (SAE) at the time they enroll in the New York City public school system, but others speak only Jamaican Creole (JAC), a variety of English spoken by native Jamaicans in everyday conversation. Many New York teachers claim that JAC is incomprehensible. Moreover, classroom teachers who are newly exposed to the spoken and written forms of JAC are not familiar with Jamaican culture or trained to handle the linguistic and cultural differences. Consequently, they may refer these students to English as a second language and/or special education classes. This paper outlines some of the problems encountered by JAC students in New York City public schools and by the teachers who instruct them; it argues the need for a specialized curriculum and instruction for these students, and it offers recommendations and suggestions for a model program which will accommodate those needs.
The Americanization of Nigerian English
Authors: AWONUSI V. O.
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: Nigeria is a member of the British Commonwealth, having once been a colony of Britain. The English language that developed as a result of the contact with Nigerian indigenous languages over three or more centuries, is the standard British variety mediated by some Nigerian linguistic colour. It can therefore be described as distinctly Nigerian, but British norm‐dependent. Years of political, social and economic interaction between Nigeria and the USA have motivated an increasing use of the American variety of English (in addition to British English) in Nigeria. This paper examines some of the linguistic features of the emerging Americanisms in Nigerian English, especially at the phonological and lexical levels, and attempts to account for these features. Findings point in the direction of a growing bidialectism ‐ American and British norms ‐ in Nigerian English. The paper also analyzes Nigerian usage quantitatively in relation to some sociological variables. It concludes that Nigerian speakers of English now face challenges much more complex than bi‐competence in the language.
English in maritime radiotelephony
Authors: JOHNSON BARRY
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: Recent attention on English as the international maritime language has focused on Seaspeak for deck officers, the equivalent of Airspeak for airline pilots. However, Seaspeak is not the only reduced language used at sea, and this study draws attention to the language of the ship's radio officer in the setting up of telephone link calls between the ship and the shore telephone network. Although the format for such communication has to some extent been officially standardized into a reduced language, these procedures do not cover all eventualities, while features of natural language such as elision and varied politeness strategies persist, and unanticipated problems such as communication difficulties also result in departures from the standard procedures. Current trends in shipping policy are leading to a decline in the proportion of native English speakers among radio officers, and even to the redundancy of radio officers in general. This paper argues for the continuing role of shipboard communication specialists, and the necessity for adequate linguistic preparation during their training.
Englishization and contact linguistics
Authors: KACHRU BRAJ B.
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: This issue‐oriented paper presents several dimensions of the hegemony of the English language across some of the world's major languages, and their implications for various approaches to contact linguistics. The importance of the issues raised here is related to the multidimensional character of the spread of English; the unique sociolinguistic contexts of English across cultures; the ‘love‐hate’ attitudes toward the language; and the development of CONTACT LITERATURES in world Englishes (e.g., in South and West Asia, South, West and East Africa). It is argued that, to explore the all‐pervasive impact of English, interdisciplinary research is needed on various literatures of the world; processes of literary creativity; introduction of new or modified literary genres; expansion of the thematic range; patterning of the discoursal and stylistic strategies, and issues of ideology and power. The discussion is divided into the following major sections: The spheres of Englishization; Deficit vs. dominance hypothesis; Exponents of Englishization; Englishization beyond the sentence; ‘Great tradition’ vs. ‘Little tradition’; Thematic range and literary experimentation; Englishization and code development; Englishization and linguistic schizophrenia; Contact linguistics and language policies. Finally, as an aside, the paper draws attention to Englishization and APPLIED contact linguistics.
The English language in Brunei Darussalam
Authors: CANE GRAEME
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: This paper attempts to give a brief overview of the variety of English spoken in the small sultanate of Brunei Darussalam in Northwest Borneo. After outlining the role played by English in the country and, in particular, in the Bruneian education system, the paper describes some of the grammatical and lexical features which differ most obviously from the imposed exonormative educational model, Standard British English. The transcribed interviews and examples included have been taken from a corpus of spoken data recorded between 1990 and 1993 by the author in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. The article also attempts to place Brunei English within the context of the other varieties of English spoken in Southeast Asia and suggests that, once the effects of the country's nationwide Malay‐English bilingual education policy have taken full effect, there will be further distinctive developments in the variety of English spoken in Brunei Darussalam.
Norm as a pedagogical paradigm
Authors: ANDREASSON ANNE‐MARIE
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT:This paper is concerned with the concept of norm and its place in a theory of linguistics: a number of factors need to be taken into consideration when deciding on a particular norm in the case of the teaching of English as an international language. When English is taught as a foreign (EFL) and a second (ESL) language the native standard of English‐speaking countries is transferred. While this may have been the obvious and simplest solution at the beginning of the international spread of English, the historical development of the language and its unprecedented spread have given rise to a number of very different contexts to which the same paradigms cannot necessarily be applied. In this respect, it is important to distinguish the situation in the Outer Circle from the situation in the Expanding Circle. The paper discusses various factors which contribute to the complexity of ESL/EFL teaching and which should be weighed in any decision about a standard. These are: the issue of participation as freedom and responsibility, the subjectivity of the speaker, the issue of power, the bilingual's creativity, the concept of identity, intelligibility and the expectations of students. It is recognized that there is no simple and general solution to the problem of norm as a pedagogical paradigm.
Received Pronunciation and Realphonetik
Authors: SHIBLES WARREN
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT:An analysis of the literature and dictionaries regarding Received Pronunciation (RP) shows that RP is improperly and ambiguously defined, uses inconsistent phonetic transcriptions, lacks standard vowel and articulatory charts, uses and substitutes generic phonemic transcription for actual phonetic transcription, is not based on a clear policy as to its appropriate areas of application or relationship to other dialects, is not established on the basis of enlightened majority rule, and serves to impose a tiny minority and arbitrary standard on a vast worldwide majority, thereby producing intolerance and linguistic oppression, or what is called ‘linguistic imperialism.’ To correct such problems and put RP on a more scientific basis, the logic of definition is used to define RP; standard articulation and an extended vowel chart are proposed; 1989/1993 IPA. phonetic symbols are used, and other corrections and analyses given. A proposal is made to replace RP with ‘British Pronunciation’(BP), which would be based on an actual and adequate descriptive phonetics, called here,Realphonetik.Guidelines and requirements are proposed if it is to be used as a standard. It is proposed that BP, as well as other dialects, including American pronunciation, be taught in the schools, but that IPA phonetics be taught as well so that the various pronunciations may be properly compared and rendered. A comprehensive English language phonetics bibliography is included at the end of the analysis.
COMMUNITY LANGUAGES IN AUSTRALIA
Authors: Phillipson Robert , Skutnabb‐Kangas Tove
Published: February 2007

Community Languages. The Australian Experience. Michael Clyne.
Alreadyin Singapore English
Authors: ZHIMING BAO
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT:In this article I show thatalreadyin Singapore English expresses two aspectual properties: the completion of an action (perfectivity) or the beginning of an action (inchoativity). The sentenceMy son go to school alreadyis potentially ambiguous: it could mean that my son has already gone to school, or my son now goes to school, having reached the school‐going age. The perfective (or completive) use ofalreadyis consistent with its lexical meaning in Standard British English, but the source of the second, inchoative use, I argue, is the Chinese particlele, which expresses perfectivity and inchoativity, depending on its position within the sentence.
Pakistani English: acceptability and the norm
Authors: BAUMGARDNER ROBERT J.
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: This paper analyzes the data from three questionnaires administered to Pakistani male and female journalists, teachers, and university students in Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore during a period from 1987 to 1992. The first questionnaire deals with respondents’(320) choice of a model of English (British, American, or Pakistani). The second and third questionnaires measure the acceptability of selected Pakistani English lexical and grammatical items (150 respondents) and complementation types (165 respondents). Results show that while an exonormative model of English (British) still has considerable influence in the former colony (in both ‘ideal’ as well as in reported ‘actual’ usage), a Pakistani norm is also beginning to emerge. This trend is most evident in respondents’ acceptance of typically Pakistani features of English such as Urdu borrowings, Urdu‐English hybrids, and local morphological and syntactic innovations.
The International Corpus of English (ICE) Project
Authors: GREENBAUM SIDNEY , NELSON GERALD
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT:ICE (the International Corpus of English) was initiated to provide the resources for comparative studies of the Englishes used in countries where it is either a majority first language or an official additional language. The national or regional corpora that constitute the components of ICE are expected to conform to a specified common design. Software has been created to facilitate the grammatical annotation of the corpora and to enable the retrieval of lexical and grammatical information. Various applications of the data are envisaged.
Get‐passives in English
Authors: COLLINS PETER C.
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: A number of claims and counter‐claims which have been made concerning get‐passives in English are tested via interrogation of a set of written and spoken corpora. Get‐passives are shown to form a fuzzy set, with about one‐third of corpus tokens belonging to a ‘core’ whose members have an explicit or at least accessible agent‐phrase, a lexical verb with typically dynamic meaning, and which alternate with an active clause. Beyond the core there are a number of subclasses displaying progressively fewer features in common with core members. On the borderline of the set are copular constructions, with get a ‘resulting copula’ and the participle fully adjectivalized. The data suggest that get‐passives are very often associated with two types of pragmatic implicature: one, that the subject‐referent is responsible for initiating the process (very evident in the semantically‐related complex reflexive construction); the other, that the process is (usually) unfavourable or (less often) favourable for the subject‐referent. Finally, the corpus provides evidence of at least three types of variation with get‐passives: regional (their frequency is comparable in American English and British English, higher in Australian English than in both of these, and higher in Indian English than in Australian English); stylistic (they tend to be avoided in more formal styles); and diachronic (they are increasing in popularity over time in Australian English, and probably in the other varieties).
Analyzing the style of East African newspapers in English
Authors: SCHMIED JOSEF , HUDSON‐ETTLE DIANA
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT:This case study looks at one important source of linguistic data ‐newspapers ‐and discusses related problems of text‐type classification and feature interpretation. With texts from the East African ICE components as a database an attempt is made to assess the influence of different production contexts on the formal composition of texts. The issue of house‐style and problems of text categorization are discussed, a distinction being made between different types of reportage (splash and brief articles) and popular informational and persuasive texts (editorials). These genre samples are analysed for the particularly polysemous and multivalued/multifunctional variable of ‐ingconstructions, ranging from obligatory and optional (adverbial) clauses to verbal progressives. The analysis exemplifies the possibilities and problems of stylistic variation studies in different sociolinguistic contexts and the importance of recording all possibly influential text‐production features during the corpus collection process for a valid interpretation of the data.
CALIBAN'S AGONY
Authors: Dissanayake Wimal
Published: February 2007

Caliban in Exile: the Outsider in Caribbean Fiction. By Margaret Paul Joseph.
Rhetorical uses of theme in newspaper editorials
Authors: HAWES THOMAS , THOMAS SARAH
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: In this paper we look at some ways in which thematization can be used to control hortatory rhetoric. Varying the complexity of thematic structure, for instance, can produce minimalistic, informal text or an academic formal style, reminiscent of Bernstein's restricted and elaborated codes, respectively. More or less discourse participant themes can create an impression of outspokenness or impartiality and marked themes may be a measure of hortatory content in general. We examine how different choices of thematic progression as text organizers can produce different effects. Constant progression, for example, may suit the demagogue, while derived progression is calculated to appeal to a more intellectual audience. Then we find correlations with the problem‐solution patterns: different theme types may signal the various sections, and opponents or friends may be attacked or supported by thematizing them within problem or solution sections. Lastly, we draw pedagogical implications from the study.
Attitudes toward English in Malaysia
Authors: CRISMORE AVON , NGEOW KAREN YEOK‐HWA , SOO KENG‐SOON
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: Language attitudes form the basis for the acceptance and growth of language varieties within a society. In situations in which the standard norm of a language and its non‐native variety are used almost in tandem with one another, the users of these languages can provide insights into language trends. Perceptions and attitudes are indicators of the growth or decline of a variety of English. Teachers’ language attitudes are important because of their effects on their students’ attitudes toward language variation and on literacy. The researchers used a 16‐item Likert Scale questionnaire to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of 60 teachers and 439 students at the university level toward the use and acceptance of Malaysian English. The findings show that our respondents, Malaysian speakers of English, accept the functionality of Malaysian English but are, nevertheless, determined to learn Standard English because they regard Malaysian English as ‘wrong’ English. The results imply the need for further research into varieties of English: for example, the roles of both varieties of English must be investigated and defined. Societies which have adopted either the standard or non‐standard variety of English as its norm must be studied to determine the effects and consequences of the decision.
World English in an Asian context: The Macquarie Dictionary Project
Authors: BUTLER SUSAN
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACT: This paper briefly outlines the conceptualization and methodology behind the lexicographical project on World English in an Asian context. The thinking behind this project has evolved from the past experience of the Macquarie Dictionary (1981). The paper discusses the motivations for such a dictionary, the corpus, the types of lexical items from various registers of Asian Englishes, and finally, the market for an Asian‐English dictionary.