This study investigates the relationship between English language proficiency and socioeconomic status (ELP–SES relationship) through a quantitative cross‐national analysis of 30 jurisdictions in Asia. It aims to uncover the degrees and patterns of the ELP–SES relationship by analysing AsiaBarometer surveys conducted in the mid‐2000s. Specifically, it assesses how English proficiency correlates with seven demographic and SES factors: generation, gender, education, occupational status (employment status and job categories), economic status, and residential location. Through cross‐tabulation and hierarchical cluster analyses, it was found that although a clear and close connection between English proficiency and SES exists in most parts of Asia, the extent and pattern of this connection significantly vary across jurisdictions. The most pronounced correlations, or English divides, were observed in former British and American territories and in less developed countries, while Central Asia and Japan showed relatively smaller correlations. Additionally, the degree and pattern observed did not always align with previous findings from case studies.
{"title":"Relationship between English proficiency and socioeconomic status in Asia: Quantitative cross‐national analysis","authors":"Takunori Terasawa","doi":"10.1111/weng.12705","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12705","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the relationship between English language proficiency and socioeconomic status (ELP–SES relationship) through a quantitative cross‐national analysis of 30 jurisdictions in Asia. It aims to uncover the degrees and patterns of the ELP–SES relationship by analysing AsiaBarometer surveys conducted in the mid‐2000s. Specifically, it assesses how English proficiency correlates with seven demographic and SES factors: generation, gender, education, occupational status (employment status and job categories), economic status, and residential location. Through cross‐tabulation and hierarchical cluster analyses, it was found that although a clear and close connection between English proficiency and SES exists in most parts of Asia, the extent and pattern of this connection significantly vary across jurisdictions. The most pronounced correlations, or English divides, were observed in former British and American territories and in less developed countries, while Central Asia and Japan showed relatively smaller correlations. Additionally, the degree and pattern observed did not always align with previous findings from case studies.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":"72 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141863112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper examines how the Windrush generation uses phonological and morphosyntactic elements of Jamaican Creole (JamC), London Jamaican (LonJam) and standard British English (SBE) to do identity work in interviews broadcast as part of a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush. The data comprise oral history interviews with four members of the Windrush generation. The recordings were analysed using the method of lectal focussing in interaction. Results show variation across the four speakers, with some speakers using very few LonJam and SBE features, while others’ speech contains almost exclusively standard British variants. The use of JamC features clustered around topics such as home and family reunification, whereas LonJam features were especially present when interviewees talked about their youth. The study broadens the scope of world Englishes studies by including diasporic and elderly speakers and has important implications for the study of language and identity.
{"title":"Language and identity in the Windrush generation","authors":"Guyanne Wilson","doi":"10.1111/weng.12701","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12701","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines how the Windrush generation uses phonological and morphosyntactic elements of Jamaican Creole (JamC), London Jamaican (LonJam) and standard British English (SBE) to do identity work in interviews broadcast as part of a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush. The data comprise oral history interviews with four members of the Windrush generation. The recordings were analysed using the method of lectal focussing in interaction. Results show variation across the four speakers, with some speakers using very few LonJam and SBE features, while others’ speech contains almost exclusively standard British variants. The use of JamC features clustered around topics such as home and family reunification, whereas LonJam features were especially present when interviewees talked about their youth. The study broadens the scope of world Englishes studies by including diasporic and elderly speakers and has important implications for the study of language and identity.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141863111","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper explores how a distinctive politeness token can establish itself in a variety of world English by virtue of its pragmatics. It examines the usage of no worries as a negative politeness thanking response in a large multigenerational corpus of informal dialogues by men and women recorded at the University of Western Australia (UWA). Data from this UWA corpus reflect the steady evolution of no worries, from its indexical association with Australian men's talk to be taken up by younger Australian women. Though rooted in laconic spoken exchanges, the data also show extended uses of no worries in quoted speech as well as narrative reconstructions of spoken encounters to highlight their outcomes. In its further linguistic evolution, it works as a stance adverbial in dramatized interior monologues. It thus acquires new functions in various discourse contexts where a modicum of negative politeness adds value to the narrative or argument.
{"title":"Negative politeness and no worries in Australian English","authors":"Pam Peters, Isabelle Burke","doi":"10.1111/weng.12702","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12702","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores how a distinctive politeness token can establish itself in a variety of world English by virtue of its pragmatics. It examines the usage of <jats:italic>no worries</jats:italic> as a negative politeness thanking response in a large multigenerational corpus of informal dialogues by men and women recorded at the University of Western Australia (UWA). Data from this UWA corpus reflect the steady evolution of <jats:italic>no worries</jats:italic>, from its indexical association with Australian men's talk to be taken up by younger Australian women. Though rooted in laconic spoken exchanges, the data also show extended uses of <jats:italic>no worries</jats:italic> in quoted speech as well as narrative reconstructions of spoken encounters to highlight their outcomes. In its further linguistic evolution, it works as a stance adverbial in dramatized interior monologues. It thus acquires new functions in various discourse contexts where a modicum of negative politeness adds value to the narrative or argument.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":"65 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141863115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Scottish English has characteristic phonological features including rhoticity, the /ʍ/‐/w/ contrast and the lack of the nurse merger. However, recent studies have found ongoing changes in Scottish English phonology such as the gradual loss of rhoticity, the merging of /ʍ/‐/w/ and a partial merger of the nurse vowels. This paper investigates possible covariation between these features across speakers of Standardised Scottish English. The speech of 30 speakers taken from ICE‐Scotland was analysed for their realisations of the nurse lexical set, <wh‐> and rhotics. Underlying structural covariation among these variables was investigated using Principal Components Analysis. The results show covariation between the overall rate of the traditional /ʍ/ variant and rhoticity but not with the realisation of nurse. More generally, Standardised Scottish English appears to comprise a range of individual covariation patterns that combine more traditional and more modern pronunciation variants to varying degrees.
{"title":"Covariation of phonological features in Standardised Scottish English","authors":"Zeyu Li, Ulrike Gut, Philipp Meer","doi":"10.1111/weng.12692","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12692","url":null,"abstract":"Scottish English has characteristic phonological features including rhoticity, the /ʍ/‐/w/ contrast and the lack of the <jats:sc>nurse</jats:sc> merger. However, recent studies have found ongoing changes in Scottish English phonology such as the gradual loss of rhoticity, the merging of /ʍ/‐/w/ and a partial merger of the <jats:sc>nurse</jats:sc> vowels. This paper investigates possible covariation between these features across speakers of Standardised Scottish English. The speech of 30 speakers taken from ICE‐Scotland was analysed for their realisations of the <jats:sc>nurse</jats:sc> lexical set, <wh‐> and rhotics. Underlying structural covariation among these variables was investigated using Principal Components Analysis. The results show covariation between the overall rate of the traditional /ʍ/ variant and rhoticity but not with the realisation of <jats:sc>nurse</jats:sc>. More generally, Standardised Scottish English appears to comprise a range of individual covariation patterns that combine more traditional and more modern pronunciation variants to varying degrees.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141863114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this paper, we explore the role of Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE) proverbs in language contact settings and their impact on the development of idiomatic phraseology in Nigerian English (NgE). In a set of 100 NPE proverbs, we identified lexical keywords that served as anchors for searches in the large‐scale Nairaland corpus to detect recurrent collocational patterns that in further proximity searches yielded frequent, lexico‐grammatically variable patterns that may be interpreted as innovations at the early stages of idiom formation. The findings suggest that cognitively motivated key lexical items of NPE proverbs may serve as a basis for the formation of variable but also lexico‐grammatically more condensed idiomatic expressions in NgE.
{"title":"Pidgin English proverbs as a source of structural nativization in Nigerian English","authors":"Marcus Callies, Folajimi Oyebola","doi":"10.1111/weng.12699","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12699","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we explore the role of Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE) proverbs in language contact settings and their impact on the development of idiomatic phraseology in Nigerian English (NgE). In a set of 100 NPE proverbs, we identified lexical keywords that served as anchors for searches in the large‐scale Nairaland corpus to detect recurrent collocational patterns that in further proximity searches yielded frequent, lexico‐grammatically variable patterns that may be interpreted as innovations at the early stages of idiom formation. The findings suggest that cognitively motivated key lexical items of NPE proverbs may serve as a basis for the formation of variable but also lexico‐grammatically more condensed idiomatic expressions in NgE.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141863113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Among the first English speakers in Namibia, South African Coloureds came to form an essential part of an ethnically fluid intermediate social class in colonial Namibia. This study seeks to pinpoint to what extent Coloured English varieties have been contributing to Namibian English and how much prestige is attached to them. To this end, this study simultaneously uses linguistic and perceptual data. One dataset consists of English phonetic data elicited from a representative urban sample of young Namibians. That dataset is analysed to establish what phonetic features mark out Coloured Namibian English varieties and to what extent they are found in other ethnolinguistic varieties and across social classes. The study then reports on a verbal guise experiment whose aim is to establish how young Namibians rate Coloured Namibian English varieties. Finally, the study analyses folk comments on Namibian English accents elicited from young Namibian focus groups. The study finds that, in terms of vowel realization patterns, Coloured Namibian English varieties sit in between White and Black Namibian English varieties, forming part of a continuum of which one extremity displays a White South African English imprint. The less ‘Afrikaans‐accented’ Coloured English varieties—associated with women—are developing middle‐class indexicalities. The fact that these varieties are targeted by young Black women and are perceived as ‘General Namibian English’, the study concludes, confirms that Namibian English is norm‐developing, as befits any Outer Circle variety. It is loosely tied to (South African) Inner Circle norms and has entered Phase 4 (‘endonormative stabilization’) of E. Schneider's Dynamic Model. The normative influence of Namibian Coloured English, the study argues, shows that the Dynamic Model needs fundamental adjustment to properly account for the role of non‐Europeans in Outer Circle dynamics.
在纳米比亚最早讲英语的人中，南非有色人种成为殖民地时期纳米比亚一个种族流动的中间社会阶层的重要组成部分。本研究试图确定有色人种英语在多大程度上对纳米比亚英语做出了贡献，以及有色人种英语的声望有多高。为此，本研究同时使用了语言和感知数据。其中一个数据集包括从具有代表性的城市纳米比亚年轻人样本中获得的英语语音数据。对该数据集进行分析，以确定纳米比亚有色人种英语的语音特征，以及这些特征在其他民族语言中和不同社会阶层中的存在程度。然后，该研究报告了一项语言伪装实验，其目的是确定纳米比亚年轻人如何评价纳米比亚有色人种英语。最后，研究分析了纳米比亚青年焦点小组对纳米比亚英语口音的民间评论。研究发现，就元音实现模式而言，有色纳米比亚英语介于白种纳米比亚英语和黑种纳米比亚英语之间，是一个连续体的一部分，其中一个极端显示出南非白种英语的印记。'南非口音'较少的有色人种英语--与妇女有关--正在发展中产阶级索引性。研究得出结论，这些英语种类以年轻黑人女性为目标，并被视为 "通用纳米比亚英语"，这一事实证明纳米比亚英语是规范发展型的，与任何外圈英语种类相匹配。它与（南非）内圈规范紧密相连，并已进入 E. Schneider 动态模型的第 4 阶段（"内圈规范稳定"）。本研究认为，纳米比亚有色人种英语的规范性影响表明，动态模型需要进行根本性调整，以正确解释非欧洲人在外圈动态中的作用。
{"title":"The ‘Coloured’ connection of Namibian English","authors":"Gerald Stell","doi":"10.1111/weng.12691","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12691","url":null,"abstract":"Among the first English speakers in Namibia, South African Coloureds came to form an essential part of an ethnically fluid intermediate social class in colonial Namibia. This study seeks to pinpoint to what extent Coloured English varieties have been contributing to Namibian English and how much prestige is attached to them. To this end, this study simultaneously uses linguistic and perceptual data. One dataset consists of English phonetic data elicited from a representative urban sample of young Namibians. That dataset is analysed to establish what phonetic features mark out Coloured Namibian English varieties and to what extent they are found in other ethnolinguistic varieties and across social classes. The study then reports on a verbal guise experiment whose aim is to establish how young Namibians rate Coloured Namibian English varieties. Finally, the study analyses folk comments on Namibian English accents elicited from young Namibian focus groups. The study finds that, in terms of vowel realization patterns, Coloured Namibian English varieties sit in between White and Black Namibian English varieties, forming part of a continuum of which one extremity displays a White South African English imprint. The less ‘Afrikaans‐accented’ Coloured English varieties—associated with women—are developing middle‐class indexicalities. The fact that these varieties are targeted by young Black women and are perceived as ‘General Namibian English’, the study concludes, confirms that Namibian English is norm‐developing, as befits any Outer Circle variety. It is loosely tied to (South African) Inner Circle norms and has entered Phase 4 (‘endonormative stabilization’) of E. Schneider's Dynamic Model. The normative influence of Namibian Coloured English, the study argues, shows that the Dynamic Model needs fundamental adjustment to properly account for the role of non‐Europeans in Outer Circle dynamics.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141863225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mohamed Hafiz, Mie Hiramoto, Jakob R. E. Leimgruber, Wilkinson Daniel Wong Gonzales, Jun Jie Lim
Colloquial Singapore English (CSE), also known as ‘Singlish’, features a wide range of sentence‐final particles (SFP) influenced by local languages such as Hokkien, Cantonese, Mandarin and Malay. This study focuses on the SFP sia, a relatively new and less‐explored particle with Malay roots. We examine sia and its variants (sia, sial, siak and siol) using data from the Corpus of Singapore English Messages, a 6.9‐million‐word text‐message corpus from 2016 to 2022.While previous research has associated sia and its variants with strong illocutionary contexts, particularly among young male Singaporeans due to its vulgar and masculine connotations, our data indicate that sia is now used more broadly among CSE‐speaking youth. It is employed in both strong and weak illocutionary contexts, suggesting a shift away from its negative/vulgar associations. Sia and its variants are emerging as general phatic markers reflecting the identity of CSE‐speaking youth.
新加坡口语英语（CSE），又称 "Singlish"，其特点是受福建话、广东话、普通话和马来语等本地语言的影响，使用了多种句末语气词（SFP）。本研究的重点是 SFP sia，这是一个相对较新且较少被研究的句末语气词，其根源是马来语。我们使用新加坡英语信息语料库（Corpus of Singapore English Messages）中的数据研究了 sia 及其变体（sia、sial、siak 和 siol），该语料库是一个从 2016 年到 2022 年的 690 万字的文本信息语料库。它在强势和弱势语境中都被使用，表明其负面/粗俗的含义正在发生变化。Sia 及其变体正逐渐成为反映讲 CSE 的年轻人身份的一般语音标记。
{"title":"Sociolinguistic variation in Colloquial Singapore English sia","authors":"Mohamed Hafiz, Mie Hiramoto, Jakob R. E. Leimgruber, Wilkinson Daniel Wong Gonzales, Jun Jie Lim","doi":"10.1111/weng.12700","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12700","url":null,"abstract":"Colloquial Singapore English (CSE), also known as ‘Singlish’, features a wide range of sentence‐final particles (SFP) influenced by local languages such as Hokkien, Cantonese, Mandarin and Malay. This study focuses on the SFP <jats:sc>sia</jats:sc>, a relatively new and less‐explored particle with Malay roots. We examine <jats:sc>sia</jats:sc> and its variants (<jats:italic>sia, sial</jats:italic>, <jats:italic>siak</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>siol</jats:italic>) using data from the Corpus of Singapore English Messages, a 6.9‐million‐word text‐message corpus from 2016 to 2022.While previous research has associated <jats:italic>sia</jats:italic> and its variants with strong illocutionary contexts, particularly among young male Singaporeans due to its vulgar and masculine connotations, our data indicate that <jats:sc>sia</jats:sc> is now used more broadly among CSE‐speaking youth. It is employed in both strong and weak illocutionary contexts, suggesting a shift away from its negative/vulgar associations. <jats:italic>Sia</jats:italic> and its variants are emerging as general phatic markers reflecting the identity of CSE‐speaking youth.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":"56 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141741657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Linnea Garlepow, Nina Funke, Barbara Ann Güldenring
The present paper provides a corpus‐based study of war and corruption metaphors in South Asian Englishes (specifically Indian English, Bangladeshi English, Nepali English and Pakistani English). Considering the highly news‐relevant nature of these concepts, the South Asian Varieties of English corpus (SAVE2020) serves as the database. In an initial step, we outline the source domains at different levels of schematicity used to construe war and corruption, revealing the salient domains at location and person. By pursuing a multifactorial approach, this study aims at answering the question whether the choice of source domain is governed by the sociolinguistic factors gender and variety, and intra‐linguistic factors, for example, length and semantic prosody of the metaphor‐related words. It furthermore investigates whether multifactorial analyses, which are still a novelty within research on metaphor variation, constitute a suitable methodological approach. By doing so, our research demonstrates the need to complement this quantitative approach with a qualitative one that offers a more fine‐grained description of the source domains used to structure metaphorical concepts like war and corruption.
{"title":"A multifactorial approach to war and corruption metaphors in South Asian Englishes","authors":"Linnea Garlepow, Nina Funke, Barbara Ann Güldenring","doi":"10.1111/weng.12703","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12703","url":null,"abstract":"The present paper provides a corpus‐based study of <jats:sc>war</jats:sc> and <jats:sc>corruption</jats:sc> metaphors in South Asian Englishes (specifically Indian English, Bangladeshi English, Nepali English and Pakistani English). Considering the highly news‐relevant nature of these concepts, the South Asian Varieties of English corpus (SAVE2020) serves as the database. In an initial step, we outline the source domains at different levels of schematicity used to construe <jats:sc>war</jats:sc> and <jats:sc>corruption</jats:sc>, revealing the salient domains <jats:sc>at location</jats:sc> and <jats:sc>person</jats:sc>. By pursuing a multifactorial approach, this study aims at answering the question whether the choice of source domain is governed by the sociolinguistic factors <jats:sc>gender</jats:sc> and <jats:sc>variety</jats:sc>, and intra‐linguistic factors, for example, length and semantic prosody of the metaphor‐related words. It furthermore investigates whether multifactorial analyses, which are still a novelty within research on metaphor variation, constitute a suitable methodological approach. By doing so, our research demonstrates the need to complement this quantitative approach with a qualitative one that offers a more fine‐grained description of the source domains used to structure metaphorical concepts like <jats:sc>war</jats:sc> and <jats:sc>corruption</jats:sc>.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141741660","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article assesses mainstream sociolinguistic theory and methods in the context of world Englishes. Despite its obvious applicability, sociolinguistic theory has not always been the primary analytic model for world Englishes. The multilingual and sometimes mobile circumstances of world Englishes contexts do not always fit the usual definition of a Labovian speech community. This article extends classic sociolinguistic theory and method to studies of Outer Circle English situations to test their validity and scope. Predictions for class, gender, age, peer effects and identity are assessed, all initially developed in monolingual urban Western contexts. Methodological constructs such as apparent time, the sociolinguistics interview and social network metrics are also critically evaluated. The discussion shows that, although these new contexts challenge claims of universality, they often also uphold the original insights. A falsifiable theory of sociolinguistic variation and associated methods remain crucial for a principled understanding of variation and change in world Englishes.
{"title":"Testing sociolinguistic theory and methods in world Englishes","authors":"Devyani Sharma","doi":"10.1111/weng.12693","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12693","url":null,"abstract":"This article assesses mainstream sociolinguistic theory and methods in the context of world Englishes. Despite its obvious applicability, sociolinguistic theory has not always been the primary analytic model for world Englishes. The multilingual and sometimes mobile circumstances of world Englishes contexts do not always fit the usual definition of a Labovian speech community. This article extends classic sociolinguistic theory and method to studies of Outer Circle English situations to test their validity and scope. Predictions for class, gender, age, peer effects and identity are assessed, all initially developed in monolingual urban Western contexts. Methodological constructs such as apparent time, the sociolinguistics interview and social network metrics are also critically evaluated. The discussion shows that, although these new contexts challenge claims of universality, they often also uphold the original insights. A falsifiable theory of sociolinguistic variation and associated methods remain crucial for a principled understanding of variation and change in world Englishes.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141741662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
One particularly prominent methodological development in linguistics is what has been termed the “quantitative turn”: Not only are more and more studies using statistical tools to explore data and to test hypotheses, the complexity of the statistical methods employed is growing as well. This development is particularly prominent in all kinds of corpus‐linguistic studies: 20 years ago chi‐squared tests, t‐tests, and Pearson's r reigned supreme, but now more and more corpus studies are using multivariate exploratory tools and, for hypothesis testing, multifactorial predictive modeling techniques, in particular regression models (and, increasingly, tree‐based methods). However welcome this development is, it, and especially its pace as well as the fact that few places offer rigorous training in statistical methods, comes with its own risks, chief among them that analytical methods are misapplied, which can lead imprecise, incomplete, or wrong analyses. In this paper, I will revisit a recent regression‐analytic study in the research area of English varieties (on clause‐final also and only in three Asian Englishes) to: highlight in particular three fundamental yet frequent mistakes that it exemplifies;discuss why and how each of these mistakes should be addressed;reanalyze the data (as far as is possible with what is available) and show briefly how that affects the analysis's results and interpretation.
语言学方法论的一个特别突出的发展就是所谓的 "定量转向"：不仅越来越多的研究使用统计工具来探索数据和检验假设，而且所使用的统计方法也越来越复杂。这种发展在各种语料库语言学研究中尤为突出：20 年前，卡方检验、t 检验和皮尔逊 r 是最重要的检验方法，但现在越来越多的语料库研究开始使用多元探索工具，并在假设检验中使用多因素预测建模技术，特别是回归模型（以及越来越多的基于树的方法）。无论这一发展多么可喜，它，尤其是它的发展速度，以及很少有地方提供严格的统计方法培训这一事实，都伴随着自身的风险，其中最主要的是分析方法的错误应用，这可能导致不精确、不完整或错误的分析。在本文中，我将重温最近在英语变体研究领域进行的一项回归分析研究（关于三种亚洲英语中的分句末尾也是和只是），以：特别强调其中体现的三个基本但却经常出现的错误；讨论为什么以及如何解决每个错误；重新分析数据（尽可能利用现有数据），并简要说明这对分析结果和解释的影响。
{"title":"On regression modeling in varieties research","authors":"Stefan Th. Gries","doi":"10.1111/weng.12694","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12694","url":null,"abstract":"One particularly prominent methodological development in linguistics is what has been termed the “quantitative turn”: Not only are more and more studies using statistical tools to explore data and to test hypotheses, the complexity of the statistical methods employed is growing as well. This development is particularly prominent in all kinds of corpus‐linguistic studies: 20 years ago chi‐squared tests, <jats:italic>t</jats:italic>‐tests, and Pearson's <jats:italic>r</jats:italic> reigned supreme, but now more and more corpus studies are using multivariate exploratory tools and, for hypothesis testing, multifactorial predictive modeling techniques, in particular regression models (and, increasingly, tree‐based methods). However welcome this development is, it, and especially its pace as well as the fact that few places offer rigorous training in statistical methods, comes with its own risks, chief among them that analytical methods are misapplied, which can lead imprecise, incomplete, or wrong analyses. In this paper, I will revisit a recent regression‐analytic study in the research area of English varieties (on clause‐final <jats:italic>also</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>only</jats:italic> in three Asian Englishes) to: <jats:list list-type=\"bullet\"> <jats:list-item>highlight in particular three fundamental yet frequent mistakes that it exemplifies;</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>discuss why and how each of these mistakes should be addressed;</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>reanalyze the data (as far as is possible with what is available) and show briefly how that affects the analysis's results and interpretation.</jats:list-item> </jats:list>","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141741661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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