Detecting angloversal tendencies in the outer circle: a pilot study on a Maltese English speaker

Abstract

World Englishes constitute an ever-developing study field where keeping track of the real-time changes which occur in language usage is a challenging task. This chapter aims at broadening the application field of the research on angloversals, described in literature as particular features divergent from Standard English and shared by English varieties across the world regardless of their geographical proximity or cultural affiliation. The present qualitative study hypothesises the presence of angloversals in Maltese English and considers a blended methodological approach to verify the research hypothesis. The study was performed on selected oral excerpts taken from a random interview to a speaker of the Maltese English continuum. Both the interviewee and the interviewer are native Maltese speakers and communicated in English all throughout the interview with no instances of code mixing between the two languages. Syntactical structures containing the overuse of the progressive aspect, article omission and resumptive pronouns, as well as unmarked phonology traits have been included in the angloversal categories by previous research on the matter. Said features are particularly found in contexts where language contact has had an impact on both the substrate and superstrate languages. This is the case for the Maltese context, where explanations for the plausible presence of the above features are to be sought in the realms of transfer from Maltese to English, language universals and pragmatic principles.