Australian English as an epicentre in world English

Australian English has been conceptualised as an epicentre within its region (Leitner 2004), a claim which calls for investigation from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. The theory itself is rather underdeveloped, apart from inputs by Hoffman et al. (2011) and Hundt (2013) that provide scope for further lines of inquiry. Empirical research so far has focused on lexicographic data shared by Australia and New Zealand (Peters 2007), and syntactic data from Indian English and neighbouring varieties, as in Heller et al. (2017). The importance of diachronic data has been recognised, as well as the need for volumes of synchronic corpus data for apparent-time demonstrations of usage and peripheral takeup. The question remains as to how many linguistic parameters it takes to make an epicentre. Contextual sociological and historical data also seems highly desirable, to explain how epicentral influence works in the region, and the takeup of linguistic innovations by recipient varieties. In some conceptions of epicentricity, the donor variety must already have attained its endonormativity in Schneider’s (2007) terms, although there may be data to show earlier asymmetrical patterns of borrowing between neighbouring varieties -- if not epicentral influence. This paper examines these issues in relation to the status of Australian English within its region, exemplifying them with data from regional dictionaries and very large corpora such as GloWbE, to discuss the trans-Tasman linguistic relationship in the twenty-first century.

References

Heller, Benedikt, Bernaisch,Tobias & Gries, Stefan 2017 Empirical perspectives on two potential epicenters: the genitive alternation in Asian Englishes. ICAME Journal v.41

Hoffman, Sebastian, Hundt, Marianne & Mukherjee, Joybrato 2011 Indian English –an emerging epicentre. Anglia 129 (3-4)

Hundt, Marianne 2013 The diversification of English: old, new and emerging epicentres. In D.Schreier & M.Hundt eds English as a contact language Cambridge University Press

Leitner, Gerhard 2004 Australia’s many voices 2 vols Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter

Peters, Pam 2007 Australian English as a regional epicenter. In T. Hoffmann & L. Siebers eds World Englishes – Problems, Properties and Prospects. Amsterdam, John Benjamins

Schneider, Edgar 2007 Postcolonial English Cambridge University Press