Attitudes to global Englishes

Question 1

prepone definition?

Answer 1

To bring something forward (by analogy to ‘postpone’ being to put it back) – used in Indian English

Question 2

depone definition?

Answer 2

To testify/declare on oath (‘put down’) – used in legal English

Question 3

What issues does this raise about the link between language and power?

Answer 3

The key here is attitudes to different varieties. Both examples are just using a different prefix and really should be regarded as of equal value. But they are not. The second term is ‘acceptable’ because it’s a formal word. The first term wouldn’t really be regarded as ‘correct’ English perhaps because it’s not used in formal contexts and hasn’t been created by a native speaking community. Some forms of English seem to be more respected/powerful than others, even though there’s no linguistic/morphological reason why this should be so.