English As A Contact Language

Recent developments in contact linguistics suggest considerable overlap of branches such as historical linguistics, variationist sociolinguistics, pidgin/creole linguistics, language acquisition, etc. This book highlights the complexity of contact-induced language change throughout the history of English by bringing together cutting-edge research from these fields. Special focus is on recent debates surrounding substratal influence in earlier forms of English (particularly Celtic influence in Old English), on language shift processes (the formation of Irish and overseas varieties) but also on dialects in contact, the contact origins of Standard English, the notion of new epicentres in World English, the role of children and adults in language change as well as transfer and language learning. With contributions from leading experts, the book offers fresh and exciting perspectives for research and is at the same time an up-to-date overview of the state of the art in the respective fields.

Highlights the complexity of contact-induced language change throughout the history of English by bringing together cutting-edge research from historical linguistics, variationist sociolinguistics, pidgin/creole linguistics and language acquisition. With contributions from leading experts, the book offers fresh and exciting perspectives as well as an up-to-date overview of the respective fields.

Discusses disparate findings to examine the dynamics of contact between languages in an immigrant context.

This book reflects on the future of the English language as used by native speakers, speakers of nativized New Englishes, and users of English as a lingua franca (ELF). The volume begins by outlining the current position of English in the world and accounts for the differences among native and nativized varieties and ELF usages. It offers a historical perspective on the impact of language contact on English and discusses whether the lexicogrammatical features of New Englishes and ELF are shaped by imperfect learning or deliberate language change. The book also considers the consequences of writing in a second language and questions the extent to which non-native English-speaking academics and researchers should be required to conform to ‘Anglo’ patterns of text organization and ‘English Academic Discourse.’ The book then examines the converse effect of English on other languages through bilingualism and translation. This volume is essential reading for students and scholars in English language, sociolinguistics, language acquisition, and language policy.

The importance of integrating the teaching and learning of language and culture has been widely recognised and emphasized. However, how to teach English as an International Language (EIL) and cultures in an integrative way in non-native English speaking countries remains problematic and has largely failed to enable language learners to meet local and global communication demands. Developing students’ intercultural competence is one of the key missions of teaching cultures. This book examines a range of well-established models and paradigms from both English-speaking and non-English speaking countries. Exploring questions of why, what, and how to best teach cultures, the authors propose an integrated model to suit non-native English contexts in the Asia Pacific. The chapters deal with other critical issues such as the relationship between language and power, the importance of power relations in communication, the relationship between teaching cultures and national interests, and balancing tradition and change in the era of globalisation. The book will be valuable to academics and students of foreign language education, particularly those teaching English as an international language in non-native English countries.

This book is an innovative contribution to contact linguistics as it presents a rarely studied but sizeable diaspora language community in contact with five languages – English, German, Italian, Norwegian and Spanish – across four continents. Foregrounded by diachronic descriptions of heritage Croatian in long-standing minority communities the book presents synchronically based studies of the speech of different generations of diaspora speakers. Croatian offers excellent scope as a base language to examine how lexical and morpho-structural innovations occur in a highly inflective Slavic language where external influence from Germanic and Romance languages appears evident. The possibility of internal factors is also addressed and interpretive models of language change are drawn on. With a foreword by Sarah Thomason, University of Michigan

Over the past few decades, the book series Linguistische Arbeiten [Linguistic Studies], comprising over 500 volumes, has made a significant contribution to the development of linguistic theory both in Germany and internationally. The series will continue to deliver new impulses for research and maintain the central insight of linguistics that progress can only be made in acquiring new knowledge about human languages both synchronically and diachronically by closely combining empirical and theoretical analyses. To this end, we invite submission of high-quality linguistic studies from all the central areas of general linguistics and the linguistics of individual languages which address topical questions, discuss new data and advance the development of linguistic theory.