Though politicians consciously or unconsciously vary their speech style to create a more positive response from the voting public, we have little empirical evidence attesting to its effectiveness. This study investigates the attitudes of 254 Singaporeans (aged 21–70) towards the use of two English varieties, Standard Singapore English (SSE) and Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) by politicians using both a modified matched‐guise technique followed up with a semi‐structured interview. Participants listened to enacted recordings of political speeches in both English varieties and made personality trait ratings. The results reveal that SSE is rated significantly higher on trustworthiness, reliability and status and these are correlated with higher socioeconomic status. Age‐related patterns are found for the solidarity traits as the younger adults evaluate CSE significantly more favourably. This paper presents a nuanced analysis of English as a political language medium and the ideologies that contribute to resistance or support for the different English varieties.
{"title":"Perception of language variation in the speech of Singaporean political leaders","authors":"Sheryl W. X. Lim, B. C. Ng","doi":"10.1111/weng.12682","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12682","url":null,"abstract":"Though politicians consciously or unconsciously vary their speech style to create a more positive response from the voting public, we have little empirical evidence attesting to its effectiveness. This study investigates the attitudes of 254 Singaporeans (aged 21–70) towards the use of two English varieties, Standard Singapore English (SSE) and Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) by politicians using both a modified matched‐guise technique followed up with a semi‐structured interview. Participants listened to enacted recordings of political speeches in both English varieties and made personality trait ratings. The results reveal that SSE is rated significantly higher on trustworthiness, reliability and status and these are correlated with higher socioeconomic status. Age‐related patterns are found for the solidarity traits as the younger adults evaluate CSE significantly more favourably. This paper presents a nuanced analysis of English as a political language medium and the ideologies that contribute to resistance or support for the different English varieties.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141385266","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}
Denisa Latić, Frank Polzenhagen, Hans‐Georg Wolf, Arne Peters
This research bibliography lists some of the hallmark works in the field of Cultural Linguistics and has an exclusive thematic focus on cultural‐linguistic approaches to world Englishes. Therefore, other important and congenial works that have been published under the umbrella of, for example, Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) or deal with langauges other than English are excluded but can be found in the respective references of the individual contributions of this special issue. The research bibliography offers reference works for research strands of the World Englishes framework, such as English language teaching and language use in multicultural and multilingual contexts, as well as language use in the public space. Furthermore, with a collection of publications ranging from the 1980s to most recent state‐of‐the‐art works from the year 2024, the authors identify trends and topical developments in the synthesized research of Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes and offer an outlook on new frontiers in this realm.
{"title":"A research bibliography for World Englishes and Cultural Linguistics","authors":"Denisa Latić, Frank Polzenhagen, Hans‐Georg Wolf, Arne Peters","doi":"10.1111/weng.12654","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12654","url":null,"abstract":"This research bibliography lists some of the hallmark works in the field of Cultural Linguistics and has an exclusive thematic focus on cultural‐linguistic approaches to world Englishes. Therefore, other important and congenial works that have been published under the umbrella of, for example, Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) or deal with langauges other than English are excluded but can be found in the respective references of the individual contributions of this special issue. The research bibliography offers reference works for research strands of the World Englishes framework, such as English language teaching and language use in multicultural and multilingual contexts, as well as language use in the public space. Furthermore, with a collection of publications ranging from the 1980s to most recent state‐of‐the‐art works from the year 2024, the authors identify trends and topical developments in the synthesized research of Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes and offer an outlook on new frontiers in this realm.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141383026","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}
Frank Polzenhagen, Hans‐Georg Wolf, Denisa Latić, Arne Peters
This article explores the evolution of Cultural Linguistics, its fusion with Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Sociolinguistics, and its application to the study of world Englishes, emphasising the cultural dimension of language and cognition. It investigates key theoretical concepts in Cultural Linguistics such as cultural categories, schemas, conceptualisations, keywords, models and scenarios as essential analytical tools for examining the interplay between thought, language and culture. Using examples from English varieties in sub‐Saharan Africa, Great Britain, India and Hong Kong, this article demonstrates how these conceptual phenomena interact at increasing levels of conceptual complexity. The discussion also distinguishes conceptual metaphor (and metonymy) from the somewhat problematic concept of ‘cultural metaphor’, previously used in some cultural‐linguistic approaches to world Englishes. Finally, the article delves into Conceptual Blending Theory as a possible extension of Cultural Linguistics that synthesises diverse cultural knowledge to interpret culture‐specific expressions in contemporary multilingual settings.
{"title":"World Englishes and Cultural Linguistics: Theory and research","authors":"Frank Polzenhagen, Hans‐Georg Wolf, Denisa Latić, Arne Peters","doi":"10.1111/weng.12655","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12655","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the evolution of Cultural Linguistics, its fusion with Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Sociolinguistics, and its application to the study of world Englishes, emphasising the cultural dimension of language and cognition. It investigates key theoretical concepts in Cultural Linguistics such as cultural categories, schemas, conceptualisations, keywords, models and scenarios as essential analytical tools for examining the interplay between thought, language and culture. Using examples from English varieties in sub‐Saharan Africa, Great Britain, India and Hong Kong, this article demonstrates how these conceptual phenomena interact at increasing levels of conceptual complexity. The discussion also distinguishes conceptual metaphor (and metonymy) from the somewhat problematic concept of ‘cultural metaphor’, previously used in some cultural‐linguistic approaches to world Englishes. Finally, the article delves into Conceptual Blending Theory as a possible extension of Cultural Linguistics that synthesises diverse cultural knowledge to interpret culture‐specific expressions in contemporary multilingual settings.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141385644","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 aims to expand the scope of Philippine English studies by investigating the viability of Philippine English as a resource for the contestation of the global–local interface, a perspective that remains understudied in Philippine English studies. We do this by analysing the language of t‐shirts that creatively reappropriate global brands into the local domain, demonstrating the dynamics of t‐shirt production and consumption in the Philippines. Our analysis shows that the use of Philippine English in these products can be viewed as a commodified resource for the expression of local sensibilities amidst the dominance of global consumerism. However, while this reappropriation can be viewed as a form of local expression, it is not devoid of ideological complexities. Although the linguistic market of pop culture provides people with opportunities to contest the global–local dichotomy, it may still tacitly reflect or reinforce structures of linguistic inequality.
本文旨在扩大菲律宾英语研究的范围,研究菲律宾英语作为全球-本地界面竞争资源的可行性,菲律宾英语研究对这一视角的研究仍然不足。为此,我们分析了将全球品牌创造性地重新融入本地领域的 T 恤衫语言,展示了菲律宾 T 恤衫生产和消费的动态。我们的分析表明,在这些产品中使用菲律宾英语可以被视为在全球消费主义主导下表达本地情感的一种商品化资源。然而,尽管这种再利用可以被视为一种本地表达形式,但它并非没有意识形态的复杂性。尽管流行文化的语言市场为人们提供了挑战全球-本地二分法的机会,但它仍可能暗中反映或强化语言不平等的结构。
{"title":"Philippine English and commodity formation","authors":"Paolo Niño M. Valdez, Raymund Vitorio","doi":"10.1111/weng.12684","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12684","url":null,"abstract":"This article aims to expand the scope of Philippine English studies by investigating the viability of Philippine English as a resource for the contestation of the global–local interface, a perspective that remains understudied in Philippine English studies. We do this by analysing the language of t‐shirts that creatively reappropriate global brands into the local domain, demonstrating the dynamics of t‐shirt production and consumption in the Philippines. Our analysis shows that the use of Philippine English in these products can be viewed as a commodified resource for the expression of local sensibilities amidst the dominance of global consumerism. However, while this reappropriation can be viewed as a form of local expression, it is not devoid of ideological complexities. Although the linguistic market of pop culture provides people with opportunities to contest the global–local dichotomy, it may still tacitly reflect or reinforce structures of linguistic inequality.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141273599","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}
The study at hand is an exploration of the alternation between the mandative subjunctive and its equivalent modal construction with the verb should in Indian English. The study complements the growing body of research on the morphosyntax of the variety and it enhances our understanding of the relatively under‐researched alternation. It adds a special focus on the short‐term diachronic development of the subjunctive alternation in Indian English by using data from the South Asian Varieties of English corpus and its 2020 update. The following research questions are being investigated in the paper: Which factors influence the alternation between subjunctive and should in Indian English; are there short‐term diachronic adjustments to the subjunctive paradigm? A multifactorial model was fitted on 508 extracted data points with the following predictors: lexical diversity, newspaper, word count, distance, gender, linking word, negation, subject number, subject person, time and trigger lemma. The results show minor diachronic adjustments and highlight well‐known predictors of the alternation like voice as important factors.
{"title":"The subjunctive alternation in Indian English","authors":"Karola Schmidt","doi":"10.1111/weng.12683","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12683","url":null,"abstract":"The study at hand is an exploration of the alternation between the mandative subjunctive and its equivalent modal construction with the verb <jats:italic>should</jats:italic> in Indian English. The study complements the growing body of research on the morphosyntax of the variety and it enhances our understanding of the relatively under‐researched alternation. It adds a special focus on the short‐term diachronic development of the subjunctive alternation in Indian English by using data from the <jats:italic>South Asian Varieties of English</jats:italic> corpus and its 2020 update. The following research questions are being investigated in the paper: Which factors influence the alternation between subjunctive and <jats:italic>should</jats:italic> in Indian English; are there short‐term diachronic adjustments to the subjunctive paradigm? A multifactorial model was fitted on 508 extracted data points with the following predictors: <jats:sc>lexical diversity, newspaper, word count, distance, gender, linking word, negation, subject number, subject person, time</jats:sc> and <jats:sc>trigger lemma.</jats:sc> The results show minor diachronic adjustments and highlight well‐known predictors of the alternation like <jats:sc>voice</jats:sc> as important factors.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141147024","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 explores the relationship between Philippine English and the Lannangs, individuals with Filipino and Southern Chinese cultural heritage. It highlights the multifaceted nature of this English variety by discussing how it interacts with non‐English languages in contemporary Lannang communities located in Manila, Iloilo and Cebu. Using corpus data from 10 Lannang linguistic varieties used in these areas, I found that Philippine English has assumed three primary linguistic roles (that of a lexifier, a substrate and a lexical contributor)—dynamic roles that are conditioned by the (sociohistorical) context, domain of use and conventions of the specific community. In conjunction with existent accounts of non‐Lannang Philippine English(es), my findings justify complexity‐based representations or models of Philippine English that has multiple levels (degrees of English influence) and centres (ethno‐regional context) that interact with each other across different planes (e.g. social), such as the concentric‐pluricentric interactional‐interplanar (CPII) model proposed in this paper. They problematize and challenge the notion of a monolithic Manila‐based ‘Philippine English.’ The proposed model presents a framework/blueprint for analyzing English in multilingual settings.
{"title":"Philippine Englishes in the Sino‐Philippine Lannang context: Towards a concentric‐pluricentric interactional‐interplanar model of English","authors":"W. D. Gonzales","doi":"10.1111/weng.12666","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12666","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the relationship between Philippine English and the Lannangs, individuals with Filipino and Southern Chinese cultural heritage. It highlights the multifaceted nature of this English variety by discussing how it interacts with non‐English languages in contemporary Lannang communities located in Manila, Iloilo and Cebu. Using corpus data from 10 Lannang linguistic varieties used in these areas, I found that Philippine English has assumed three primary linguistic roles (that of a lexifier, a substrate and a lexical contributor)—dynamic roles that are conditioned by the (sociohistorical) context, domain of use and conventions of the specific community. In conjunction with existent accounts of non‐Lannang Philippine English(es), my findings justify complexity‐based representations or models of Philippine English that has multiple levels (degrees of English influence) and centres (ethno‐regional context) that interact with each other across different planes (e.g. social), such as the concentric‐pluricentric interactional‐interplanar (CPII) model proposed in this paper. They problematize and challenge the notion of a monolithic Manila‐based ‘Philippine English.’ The proposed model presents a framework/blueprint for analyzing English in multilingual settings.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141101950","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 focuses on a foundational text in the history of English in the Philippines, that is, the 1925 document, A Survey of the Educational System of the Philippine Islands, which came to be known as ‘The Monroe Report’. Although the Report has often been cited as an emblematic example of colonial control and hegemony, a close scrutiny of the text, as well as a consideration of the historical context, makes possible other more nuanced readings, which situate the Report in the educational progressivism of early 20th century United States, and simultaneously remind us of the continuing relevance of the Report today.
{"title":"The Monroe Report, US colonialism and English language education in the Philippines","authors":"Daniel R. Davis","doi":"10.1111/weng.12664","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12664","url":null,"abstract":"This article focuses on a foundational text in the history of English in the Philippines, that is, the 1925 document, A Survey of the Educational System of the Philippine Islands, which came to be known as ‘The Monroe Report’. Although the Report has often been cited as an emblematic example of colonial control and hegemony, a close scrutiny of the text, as well as a consideration of the historical context, makes possible other more nuanced readings, which situate the Report in the educational progressivism of early 20th century United States, and simultaneously remind us of the continuing relevance of the Report today.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141117030","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}
Creativity in Englishes in the Philippines is evident in both literary and non‐literary works produced in current contexts of multilingualism. The term ‘creativity’ is traditionally associated with language use in literary texts, suggesting that a systematic study of creativity in language use lies only in the esoteric fields of literary studies and creative writing. However, I wish to approach ‘creativity’ in the sense of what Carter describes as ‘not simply a property of exceptional people but an exceptional property of all people’. I approach creativity in Englishes in the Philippines as ‘everyday creativity’, beginning with a discussion of Braj Kachru's concept of ‘bilinguals’ creativity’, introduced in a 1985 groundbreaking work. This Kachruvian concept of creativity is revisited in the light of 21st century sociolinguistic realities. In this revisiting, I extend the concept of bilinguals’ creativity beyond traditional approaches to creativity in English language use.
{"title":"Linguistic and literary creativity in Philippine Englishes","authors":"Isabel P. Martin","doi":"10.1111/weng.12667","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12667","url":null,"abstract":"Creativity in Englishes in the Philippines is evident in both literary and non‐literary works produced in current contexts of multilingualism. The term ‘creativity’ is traditionally associated with language use in literary texts, suggesting that a systematic study of creativity in language use lies only in the esoteric fields of literary studies and creative writing. However, I wish to approach ‘creativity’ in the sense of what Carter describes as ‘not simply a property of exceptional people but an exceptional property of all people’. I approach creativity in Englishes in the Philippines as ‘everyday creativity’, beginning with a discussion of Braj Kachru's concept of ‘bilinguals’ creativity’, introduced in a 1985 groundbreaking work. This Kachruvian concept of creativity is revisited in the light of 21st century sociolinguistic realities. In this revisiting, I extend the concept of bilinguals’ creativity beyond traditional approaches to creativity in English language use.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141114219","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 study is set in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand and investigates the influence of cultural knowledge on the type of topics that speakers of New Zealand Englishes (NZEs) associate to in their narrations. A storytelling task based on picture prompts of New Zealand landscapes shows a major difference between the cultural associations of Māori and Pākehā (New Zealand European) participants. The difference can be captured in two cultural frames that underlie the preferred topics chosen by the two groups. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for defining NZEs, and they also bear ramifications for theory development in Cultural Linguistics, highlighting the nested and flexibly construable nature of cultural conceptualisations. For research on world Englishes, the study is an example of how cultural‐linguistic analyses can be extended towards larger cultural framings to explain cultural variation among speakers of Englishes.
本研究以新西兰奥特亚罗瓦(Aotearoa New Zealand)为背景,调查文化知识对新西兰英语(NZEs)使用者在叙述中联想到的话题类型的影响。一项基于新西兰风景图片提示的讲故事任务显示,毛利人和 Pākehā(新西兰欧洲人)参与者的文化联想之间存在很大差异。这种差异可以从两个文化框架中体现出来,而这两个文化框架正是两个群体所选择的首选主题的基础。我们讨论了这些发现对界定新西兰欧洲人的影响,它们还对文化语言学的理论发展产生了影响,突出了文化概念的嵌套性和可灵活解释性。对于世界英语的研究来说,这项研究是一个范例,说明了文化语言学分析如何能够扩展到更大的文化框架,以解释英语使用者之间的文化差异。
{"title":"Cultural variation in New Zealand English stories about place","authors":"Marta Degani, A. Onysko","doi":"10.1111/weng.12659","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12659","url":null,"abstract":"This study is set in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand and investigates the influence of cultural knowledge on the type of topics that speakers of New Zealand Englishes (NZEs) associate to in their narrations. A storytelling task based on picture prompts of New Zealand landscapes shows a major difference between the cultural associations of Māori and Pākehā (New Zealand European) participants. The difference can be captured in two cultural frames that underlie the preferred topics chosen by the two groups. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for defining NZEs, and they also bear ramifications for theory development in Cultural Linguistics, highlighting the nested and flexibly construable nature of cultural conceptualisations. For research on world Englishes, the study is an example of how cultural‐linguistic analyses can be extended towards larger cultural framings to explain cultural variation among speakers of Englishes.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140973523","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}
Kantian philosophy describes space as a universal cognitive primitive because all humans contend with attributes of space as they navigate their environments and communicate the location of things or their location in relation to the location of things. These spatial conceptualisations are encoded in human language and their grammars as either prepositions or postpositions, where different cultures and languages conceptualise space differently because of their different environments. It also means that linguistic terms about spatial relations, such as prepositions, contain not only linguistic information but also conceptual information as well as cultural schemas. This paper explores the variations in the use of prepositions in Ghanaian English and argues that such variations, which may contribute to marking off the variety of English spoken in Ghana as a distinct variety, may be motivated by the cultural conceptualisations of relational terms in the primary language(s)/culture(s) of the speakers of Ghanaian English.
{"title":"Cultural conceptualisations and spatial cognition in Ghanaian English","authors":"Gladys Nyarko Ansah","doi":"10.1111/weng.12675","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12675","url":null,"abstract":"Kantian philosophy describes space as a universal cognitive primitive because all humans contend with attributes of space as they navigate their environments and communicate the location of things or their location in relation to the location of things. These spatial conceptualisations are encoded in human language and their grammars as either prepositions or postpositions, where different cultures and languages conceptualise space differently because of their different environments. It also means that linguistic terms about spatial relations, such as prepositions, contain not only linguistic information but also conceptual information as well as cultural schemas. This paper explores the variations in the use of prepositions in Ghanaian English and argues that such variations, which may contribute to marking off the variety of English spoken in Ghana as a distinct variety, may be motivated by the cultural conceptualisations of relational terms in the primary language(s)/culture(s) of the speakers of Ghanaian English.","PeriodicalId":23780,"journal":{"name":"World Englishes","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140975510","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}