World Englishes Flashcards
What is MLE?
- MLE stands for Multicultural London English
- mix of London English, west Indian, west Africa + Bangladeshi influences
What is meant by ‘Basilect’?
- the variety of speech that’s most remote from the prestige variety, esp. in an area where a creole is spoken
- e.g Jamaican creole is the basilect whereas standard Jamaican English is the acrolect/prestige lang
What was Trudgill’s theory on world Englishes?
Trudgill: “Standard English is a dialect”
- differs from other dialects, has greater prestige
- doesn’t have an associated accent
- doesn’t form part of a geographical continuum
- purely a social dialect
What are the reasons for the international status of English?
- historical
- internal political
- external economics
- practical reasons
- intellectual
- entertainment
- personal advantage/prestige
these are reasons according to Crystal, 1997
What is meant by a ‘Pidgin’?
- it’s a mixture of multiple languages where there’s no shared language or lingua franca
- e.g Chinese Pidgin English
What is meant by ‘Neosemy’?
- the process by which an existing word develops a new meaning
In what two senses, is English a global language?
- lexicon is derived from languages all over the world
- used by a billion speakers over the world
What is the ‘Random Fluctuation Theory’ - Charles Hockett (1958)?
- language changes owning to its instability, because of random errors + events within the language system, as a response of the ever-changing context of lang use + its users
- e.g. ‘book’ a synonym for ‘cool’ (predictive texting)
What is a ‘Wave Model’?
- a model of language change in which a new lang feature (innovation) or a new combo of lang features spreads from a central region of origin in continuously weakening concentric circles
- this is similar to waves created when a stone is thrown into a body of water
What is the theory of Polygenesis?
- pidgins + creoles developed independently but in similar ways
- formed in similar social + physical conditions
What is the theory of Monogenesis?
- derived from Portuguese pidgin; used in the world’s trade routes during the 15th and 16th century
evidence for theory:
- many linguistic similarities between present-day Portuguese pidgins and creoles
Why do people around the world want to speak English?
- personal advantage
- communication
- job opportunities
- lingua franca
- more desirable + expensive
- fashionable
- making something seem more authoritative
What is meant by ‘Acrolect’?
- the variety of speech that’s closest to a standard prestige lang, esp. in an area in which a creole is spoken
- e.g standard Jamaican English is the acrolect, where Jamaican creole is spoken
What is the theory of Universal?
- based on similarities between certain pidgins + early speech of children
What is the ‘Nautical jargon’ theory?
phonology:
- ‘o’ in ‘go’ is more similar to vowel sound in ‘caught’, pronounced [wa:]
grammar:
- lack of inflections, e.g. ‘bless’ rather than ‘blessed’
vocab:
- ‘like’, ‘yeah’ as fillers, ‘man’ in terms of address