Null Subjects in Englishes


Book Description

This book presents the first systematic quantitative study of null subjects not only in British English, but also in the contact varieties Indian, Hong Kong and Singapore English. Analysing informal spoken language, it addresses issues relevant for language contact and World Englishes, corpus linguistics and variationist sociolinguistics, linguistic typology and syntax.




Null Subjects


Book Description

This book provides an accessible and original account of null subject phenomena, and encompasses the most recent findings and developments.




Unexpressed Subjects in English


Book Description

Unexpressed Subjects in English: An Empirical Analysis of Narrative and Conversational Discourse challenges previous assumptions of what is grammatically possible in English through an examination of contexts in which speakers omit subjects, demonstrating how language structure is influenced by communicative needs. Through corpus-based analysis of both interactive conversations and monologic narratives, Amy M. Lindstrom reveals how the discourse/pragmatic factors of accessibility and chronological ordering, the prosodic effect of linking, and the mechanical effect of priming intersect to provide a rigorous account of subject (un)expression in spoken American English. Higher degrees of linking, cohesion, and connection lead to more unexpressed subjects. Lindstrom also analyzes frequent constructions with unexpressed subjects vis-à-vis paths of grammaticalization. The author presents a measurement of discourse connectedness that shows how the intersection of prosody and pragmatics illustrates the powerful effect of spontaneous discourse in shaping grammar. This study adds to our understanding of language and cognition by contributing to our knowledge of the conceptualization, categorization, and representation of experience and memory.




The Variability of Current World Englishes


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.




English Grammar


Book Description

This book is intended primarily for undergraduate students of English, though it will also be useful for undergraduates in linguistics focusing on English. It shows how a restricted set of principles can account for a wide range of the phenomena of English syntax. While the main focus of the book is empirical, it introduces important theoretical concepts: theta theory, X-bar theory, case theory, locality, binding theory, economy, full interpretation, functional projections. In doing so it prepares the student for more advanced theoretical work. The authors integrate many recent insights into the nature of syntactic structure into their discussion. They present information in a gradual way: hypotheses developed in early chapters are reviewed and modified in subsequent ones. The authors also pay attention to the relation between structure and interpretation and to language variation, and particularly to register variation. They include a wide range of diverse exercises, giving the student an opportunity for creative individual work on English.




Spanish Second Language Acquisition


Book Description

This book is a reference that provides an overview of the major work done in Spanish second language acquisition. It contains a section on the major theoretical approaches (generative, cognitive, and sociocultural), a section on the major elements of language (phonemes, morphemes, tense, syntax, discourse, pragmatics), and a concluding chapter on the effects of different instructional approaches. We are publishing it primarily for its potential course use, but the quality of the contributors will also attract attention from scholars.




Brunei English


Book Description




Emerging Englishes


Book Description

This book encourages further conversation on the expanding circle in World Englishes, offering a detailed look at ‘China English’ through the academic writing of Chinese students at a British university. The volume seeks to blur the simplistic binary of ‘Chinglish’, a broad term often understood to encompass grammatical or lexical errors or seemingly ‘unnatural’ expressions, and ‘China English’, which the authors articulate here as its own variety, as evidenced in language use marked by predictability. The research framework begins with analysing student essays in one programme at the University of Manchester, predominantly made up of Chinese students. In highlighting recurring features and supported by online surveys of the students, the authors demonstrate how ‘China English’ displays the systematicity in grammar and lexis observed in varieties of English. In focusing on academic writing, a genre which bears prominence in assessment, the book raises key questions about implications for teaching, what is considered appropriate language, and whether, rather than seeking to replace ‘Standard English’, the notion of what is ‘standard’ might be broadened to encompass other varieties. The book further promotes implications beyond pedagogies, to include learning more broadly, marking, curriculum/policy, training, and identity negotiation. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in language and education, World Englishes, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics.




Children’s English in Singapore


Book Description

Combining the World Englishes framework with First Language Acquisition methodology, this book investigates children’s acquisition of L1 English in the context of multilingual Singapore, one of the traditional Kachruvian Outer Circle or ESL countries. The book investigates language choice, use, and dominance in Singaporean families, identifies common linguistic characteristics of L1 Singapore English, as well as the acquisitional route that Singaporean children take. It discusses characteristics at the different levels of language organization, i.e., phonological, morphosyntactic, lexical, and pragmatic features, drawing on a variety of systematically elicited data and Praat-based acoustic analyses. Comparing the results to similar data obtained from children living in England (both mono- and bi-/multilingual), the book also sheds light on how the acquisitional steps taken by Singaporean children differ from or are similar to traditional native speakers of English and children from immigrant families in England.




Acquisition and Variation in World Englishes


Book Description

This book is the first of its kind to provide an integrative look at World Englishes, (second) language acquisition, and sociolinguistics in a variety of contexts of English around the globe with a focus on the language of children and adolescents. It thus aims to bridge the paradigm gaps that have been identified between these approaches but have rarely been explored in greater detail. The range of topics includes the areas of first and second language acquisition; sociolinguistic variation and awareness; language use and choice; family language policies; language attitudes and perception; modelling children’s and adolescents’ language in World Englishes; the role of child language acquisition in processes of language change; as well as methodologies of eliciting speech and writing from children and adolescents. The book combines qualitative and quantitative approaches and draws on psycholinguistic, corpus-linguistic, and ethnographic methodologies. What unites the contributions to the volume is that they all address the theoretical implications that a joint approach between World Englishes, sociolinguistics, and language acquisition has, i.e. why it is fruitful and how it can contribute to a deeper understanding of the different research paradigms.