Morphosyntactic Variation in World Englishes: Apparent-time and diachronic studies
Workshop at BICLCE 2017 (7th Biennial International Conference on the Linguistics of Contemporary English) in Vigo, 28-30 September 2017.
Convenors:
Cristina Suárez-Gómez (University of the Balearic Islands), Lucía Loureiro-Porto (University of the Balearic Islands) and Robert Fuchs (Hong Kong Baptist University)
Corpus-based research on World Englishes has increased exponentially since the 1990s, in particular with the gradual release of various corpora compiled as part of International Corpus of English project (ICE, http://ice-corpora.net/ice/) (Greenbaum 1996), which facilitate synchronic comparative studies of linguistic aspects in different varieties. A number of these corpora contain metadata with information on social variables such as age, gender, native language(s), etc., which allow more detailed sociolinguistic and apparent-time studies. Additionally, several diachronic corpora of World Englishes are currently being compiled or have recently become available, such as, e.g., the Corpus of Oz Early English (COOEE) (see Fritz 2007), the Corpus of Early New Zealand English (CENZE) (see Hundt 2012), Phil-Brown (see Collins et al. 2014), the Historical Corpus of Singapore English (see Hoffman et al. 2012), the Historical Corpus of Ghanaian English (see Brato 2014), among others. This has made it possible to increase the scope of linguistic analysis of World Englishes to include diachronic corpus studies. Both types of corpora have allowed scholars to gain insights into the linguistic features of the different varieties around the world and to discover:
(i) linguistic patterns of convergence with the input varieties,
(ii) linguistic patterns derived from the status of these World Englishes as second-language varieties and therefore products of language acquisition,
(iii) linguistic patterns of divergence, motivated by the different local ecologies in which these varieties developed, and
(iv) more generally, patterns of language change, as shown by diachronic comparisons.
In parallel to the compilation of corpora, different models of analysis of World Englishes have been proposed in the last two decades (cf. Seoane 2016). Kachru’s Concentric Circles Model (1985) was complemented by Schneider’s Dynamic Approach (2003, 2007), which incorporates an evolutionary perspective lacking in previous models. The 21st century dynamics of English, however, are characterized by mobility, mediatization, and the development of English in polyglossic situations, aspects that are arguably captured better by more recent accounts: Mair’s ‘World System of Englishes’ (2013), for example, is based on the sociolinguistics of globalization (Blommaert 2010). Other recent attempts to account for the current situation of English include the concept of ‘Transnational Attraction’, described in Schneider (2014), as well as the model recently sketched out by Buschfeld & Kautzsch (2016) known as the ‘extra- and intra-territorial forces’ (EIF) model, which calls for an integrated approach to ESL and EFL varieties. The study of the integration of these two types of Englishes as well as the attempt to portray the diachronic evolution of these varieties is a novel line of research that needs to be continued.
For this reason, this workshop aims to bring together researchers working in the area of morphosyntactic variation and/or change in World Englishes (be it an L1, a colonial variety or a Foreign Language). In particular, contributions dealing with the following aspects are welcome:
morphosyntactic change, both based on diachronic corpora and apparent-time studies
the paradigm gap between ESL and EFL varieties and their convergent and/or divergent grammars
convergence with the input variety/varieties, motivated by the influence of the superstrate, and/or the learning processes which shape the grammars of indigenized varieties through processes of analogy and transparency.
divergent grammars/grammatical constructions, specifically those motivated by the local ecologies and substrate(s) languages
The workshop will consist of full papers and work-in progress reports, which will be allotted 20 minutes for presentation (plus 10 minutes for discussion). The deadline for submissions of abstracts (ca. 500 words, excluding title, references and keywords) is 10 January 2017. Notification of acceptance will be sent out by the end of January 2017. Abstracts should be sent to biclce.englishes.workshop@gmail.com .
The call is now closed and contributors have been informed of the results of the selection process.
We are planning to publish the papers after peer-review process in an edited volume or a special issue of a reputable journal.
References
Brato, Thorsten. 2014. Compiling a historical written corpus of Ghanaian English: Methodological and theoretical considerations. Paper presented at the 20 Conference of the International Association for World Englishes, New Delhi.
Buschfeld, Sarah & Kautzsch, Alexander. 2016. Towards an integrated approach to postcolonial and non-postcolonial Englishes. World Englishes
Blommaert, Jan. 2010. The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Collins, Peter, Macalinga Borlongan, Ariane & Yao, Xinyue. 2014. Modality in Philippine English: A diachronic study. Journal of English Linguistics 42(1): 68–88.
Fritz, Clemens W. A. 2007. From English in Australia to Australian English. 1788–1900. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Greenbaum, Sidney. 1996. Introducing ICE. In Comparing English Worldwide: The International Corpus of English, Sidney Greenbaum (ed.), 3-12. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hoffmann, Sebastian, Sand, Andrea & Tan, Peter. 2012. The Corpus of Historical Singapore English – A first pilot study on data from the 1950s and 1960s. Paper presented at the 33 ICAME Conference. University of Leuven, Belgium.
Hundt, Marianne. 2012. Towards a corpus of early written New Zealand English – news from Erewhom? Te Reo 55: 51–74.
Kachru, Braj B. 1985. Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: The English language in the outer circle. In English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures, Randolph Quirk & Henry Widdowson (eds), 11-36. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mair, Christian. 2013. The World System of Englishes: Accounting for the Transnational Importance of Mobile and Mediated Vernaculars. English World-Wide 34(3): 253-278.
Schneider, Edgar W. 2003. The Dynamics of New Englishes: From Identity Construction to Dialect Birth. Language 79(2): 233-281.
Schneider, Edgar W. 2007. Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schneider, Edgar W. 2014. New reflections on the evolutionary dynamics of world Englishes. World Englishes 33(1): 9-32.
Seoane, Elena. 2016. World Englishes Today. In World Englishes: New Theoretical and Methodological Considerations, Elena Seoane & Cristina Suárez Gómez (eds.), 1-16. (Varieties of English around the World G57). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins.