World Englishes

1st ASSIGNMENT

Submitted to

Dr. Shahida Naz

Submitted By

Uswa Sarwar
Roll no:

12512
Course Title:
World Englishes
Semester:
6th (Morning)

Program:
B.S (Hons)

DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS

GC UNIVERSITY, FAISALABAD

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World Englishes

Question/Answer

1. Major trend in World Englishes?

Ans.
In the early 1980’s the term “World Englishes” was coined by Kachru, one
of the Kachru student says that “The term was controversial in the
beginning”.
“We can no longer simply view English as a worldwide lingua franca;
rather, as many nonnative varieties of English become standardized.”
Braj B. Kachru
The term World Englishes refers to the English language as it is variously
used throughout the world. It's also known as international English and
global English. World Englishes is a term for emerging localized or
indigenized varieties of English, especially varieties that have developed in
territories influenced by the United Kingdom. World Englishes refers to the
different varieties of English and English-based creoles developed in
different regions of the world.

Some major trends in world Englishes

• One common trend that can be discerned across all these Englishes is
that they are created via some form of mixing. They are all the result
of some form of linguistic and cultural contact.
• A second common trend is that the great majority of English speakers
are now native speakers of languages other than English. We have
moved beyond a postcolonial period and are entering a post-
Anglophone period, where it is likely that the multilingual speaker of
English will soon be determining its future and providing classroom
models, rather than the native speaker of an inner circle variety.
• The most significant trends are the teaching of courses and degrees
exclusively in English.
• ‘Turning’ linguistic diversity into a social and economic advantage is
an ambitious objective indeed, especially when this linguistic
diversity appears not to be high on the list of priorities of the citizens

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themselves, who predominantly go for English if given a choice, plus

a few other ‘big’ languages.
• The linguistic side effect of current social phenomena is linguistic
convergence towards a single lingua franca. Language policy cannot
work against these social currents and impose multilingualism from
the top down. It alone will not reverse the trend to use English as a
lingua franca.
• By simultaneously facilitating daily communication in English by
hundreds of millions of non-native speakers around the world.
• A growing movement around the world to teach a denationalized
version of English based on local and regional standards of
pronunciation, syntax and usage, rather than US or British English
(Warschauer 2000), and to use a simplified global English rather than
US or British English in international business correspondence
(McAlpine 2006).
• English as an international lingua franca appears to be shedding its
cultural and ideological association with English-speaking nations.
• And one important common trend involves the challenge to traditional
gatekeepers of English language use, as exemplified by Wikipedia
challenging the Encyclopædia Britannica, the blogosphere challenging
the mainstream media, or tens of millions of youth challenging
notions of correct English. None of these challenges are, in and of
themselves, revolutionary.
The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes
Edited by
Andy Kirkpatrick

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2. Language variations & Levels of Language variations?

Ans.
Language variations
“Variation in language use among speakers or groups of speakers is a
notable criterion or change that may occur in pronunciation, word choice or,
even preferences for particular grammatical pattern concern in
sociolinguistics.”
The English language varies on individual, regional, national and global
levels. Unfortunately, some people are unaware of various social and
regional dialects, and different varieties of English in the world.
Understanding variation within a language is important for every member of
our community, and especially for those who receive a college education.
Language variation presupposes that we have at our disposal a range of
means allowing to speak about the same things in a variety of ways. Two
important points have to be made in this respect: that variation can occur at
different levels of language system and that it can be determined by different
factors.
A variable principally an abstract representation of the source of variation.
Realized by two or more variants.
A variant the actual realization of a variable. Analogous to the phonetic
realizations of a phoneme.
A variety is a relatively neutral term used to refer to languages and dialects.

Different factors affect how a language is spoken within a country. They can
be regional (geographical), ethnic (national and racial), and social (class,
age, gender, socioeconomic status and education). All these factors are
interconnected. They are reflected in every language variety’s
pronunciation, vocabulary, grammatical constructions and syntax.

One of the common misunderstandings of speakers of any language is the

question of standard and non-standard varieties of the language. The
latter is often called a dialect, and people who speak it are considered to be
inferior to the speakers of the standard variety.
It is erroneous to believe that the standard variety is the ‘correct’ one.
Every language has dialects, and no dialect is substandard to other
dialects. We all speak a dialect and we all have an accent.

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All varieties of a language are systematic in their use, have a large number
of speakers and thus have their right for existence. The term dialect refers to
any variety of a language, and from the point of view of sociolinguistics, all
dialects are equally correct, systematic, logical, and meaningful.
The issue of standard vs. non-standard variety of a language is not a
linguistic one, but political. The standard dialect is associated with prestige
in the society. That is why many people prefer it to other varieties. Some
people feel pressured to use the standard dialect to conform to the rules of
the society. However, some speakers of a non-standard dialect prefer to use
it to demonstrate their sense of belonging to their community or social/ethnic
group.
Besides all these variations, there are individual variations of language use
that are called idiolects. We all have unique ways of speaking that reflect
our personal identities. Through our linguistic choices we have an
opportunity to express who we are and where we are from. Our language
changes over time as it gets into contact with various idiolects of people who
we interact with. It changes with our life experiences. There are no two
speakers who speak exactly the same way.
However, people are often unaware of their own dialects/accents, and
sometimes they negatively judge those whose ways of speaking differ from
their own. Often, people who speak non-standard dialects are
erroneously marked as being uneducated, not knowing English or having
a speech pathology. This can lead to discrimination in professional and
educational settings, and irreversible personal tragedies.
These kinds of linguistic misperceptions are among the reasons why
sociolinguistics is important to everyone in our society. People need to know
more about how dialects work to avoid language prejudice.
The English language varies not only on individual and national levels but
also even more on the global level. It is becoming the language of
international communication and is acquiring the status of a global language.
English is a major language because Great Britain and the United States
have been powerful militarily, politically, and economically for the past two
centuries. Crystal (2003) observed that English received its world status due
to “the expansion of British colonial power and the emergence of the United
States as the leading economic power of the twentieth century”. It is used
worldwide in such areas as business, science, aviation, music, sport, and
now the Internet. In spite of its popularity in the world, we need to

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remember that English is not superior to other languages, and the use of
other languages should be respected.

Standard American and standard British English are just two of many
varieties of the language. Many other varieties of English (so called
Englishes) can be found in countries across the world, as well as within each
country where it is widely spoken.

Different varieties of English are used throughout the world. Kachru (1985)
identified three concentric circles:
1. The Inner Circle, which includes countries where English is used as a
primary language, such as the U.S. and Canada
2. The Outer Circle, which consists of countries where English is used as a
second or official language, such as India or Singapore
3. The Expanding Circle, which refers to countries where English is studied
as a foreign language, such as Russia or China
According to Crystal (2003), non-native speakers of English outnumber
native speakers of English. Therefore, it is important to understand that no
variety is superior over another variety, and develop an increased tolerance
for all varieties of English.

The study of sociolinguistics can build people’s awareness of different

varieties of English and help us become more respectful to all other
languages and their dialects.

Levels of Language Variations

The features are ordered into three main “levels of language variation”:
Sounds (described in the discipline of phonetics and phonology), Words
(the units of lexis, or vocabulary), and Structures (we may also call these
“patterns” and describe them by “rules”, i.e. deal with the grammar, or
syntax, of a language variety). Let me briefly have a look at each of these
levels in turn. I point out some principles of how they work and are usually
described, and I illustrate some of the variants we will be encountering when
looking at Englishes around the world.
1. Phonetics, Phonology This is the level of sounds. One must distinguish here
between the set of possible human sounds, which constitutes the area of

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phonetics proper, and the set of system sounds used in a given human
language, which constitutes the area of phonology. Phonology is concerned
with classifying the sounds of language and with saying how the subset used
in a particular language is utilised, for instance what distinctions in meaning
can be made on the basis of what sounds.
2. Morphology This is the level of words and endings, to put it in simplified
terms. It is what one normally understands by grammar (along with syntax).
The term morphology refers to the analysis of minimal forms in language
which are, however, themselves comprised of sounds and which are used to
construct words which have either a grammatical or a lexical function.
3. Syntax This is the level of sentences. It is concerned with the meanings of
words in combination with each other to form phrases or sentences. In
particular, it involves differences in meaning arrived at by changes in word
order, the addition or subtraction of words from sentences or changes in the
form of sentences. It furthermore deals with the relatedness of different
sentence types and with the analysis of ambiguous sentences.
4. Semantics This is the area of meaning. It might be thought that semantics is
covered by the areas of morphology and syntax, but it is quickly seen that
this level needs to be studied on its own to have a proper perspective on
meaning in language. Here one touches, however, on practically every other
level of language as well as there exists lexical, grammatical, sentence and
utterance meaning.
5. Pragmatics The concern here is with the use of language in specific
situations. The meaning of sentences need not be the same in an abstract
form and in practical use. In the latter case one speaks of utterance meaning.
The area of pragmatics relies strongly for its analyses on the notion of
speech act which is concerned with the actual performance of language. This
involves the notion of proposition – roughly the content of a sentence – and
the intent and effect of an utterance.

Thank you