Postcolonial English: Varieties around the world (Cambridge Approaches to Language Contact)

385 Pages·2007·4 MB·English

by  Edgar W. Schneider

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Postcolonial English
TheglobalspreadofEnglishhasresultedintheemergenceofadiverse
range of postcolonial varieties around the world. Postcolonial English
providesaclearandoriginalaccountoftheevolutionofthesevarieties,
exploringthehistorical,social,andecologicalfactorsthathaveshapedall
levelsoftheirstructure.ItarguesthatwhiletheseEnglisheshavedevel-
opednewanduniquepropertieswhichdiffergreatlyfromonelocationto
another, their spread and diversification can in fact be explained by a
singleunderlyingprocess,whichbuildsupontheconstantrelationships
and communication needs of the colonizers, the colonized, and other
parties.Outliningthestagesandcharacteristicsofthisprocess,itapplies
them in detail to English in sixteen different countries across all conti-
nentsaswellas,inaseparatechapter,toahistoryofAmericanEnglish.
Ofkeyinteresttosociolinguists,dialectologists,historicallinguists,and
syntacticians alike, this book provides a fascinating new picture of the
growthandevolutionofEnglisharoundtheglobe.
EDGAR W. SCHNEIDER isProfessorandChairofEnglishLinguistics
in the Department of English and American Studies, University of
Regensburg.HismostrecentbooksincludeDegreesofRestructuringin
CreoleLanguages(2000),andAHandbookofVarietiesofEnglish(2004).

CambridgeApproachestoLanguageContact
GeneralEditor
SalikokoS.Mufwene,UniversityofChicago
EditorialBoard
RobertChaudenson,Universite´ d’Aix-en-Provence
BrajKachru,UniversityofIllinoisatUrbana
RajendMesthrie,UniversityofCapeTown
LesleyMilroy,UniversityofMichigan
ShanaPoplack,UniversityofOttawa
MichaelSilverstein,UniversityofChicago
Cambridge Approaches to Language Contact is an interdisciplinary
seriesbringingtogetherworkonlanguagecontactfromadiverserange
ofresearchareas.Theseriesfocusesonkeytopicsinthestudyofcontact
betweenlanguagesordialects,includingthedevelopmentofpidginsand
creoles,languageevolutionandchange,worldEnglishes,code-switching
andcode-mixing,bilingualismandsecond-languageacquisition,borrow-
ing,interference,andconvergencephenomena.
Publishedtitles
SalikokoMufwene,TheEcologyofLanguageEvolution
MichaelClyne,TheDynamicsofLanguageContact
BerndHeineandTaniaKuteva,LanguageContactandGrammaticalChange
Furthertitlesplannedfortheseries
GuyBaileyandPatriciaCukor-Avila,TheDevelopmentofAfrican-American
English
MaartenMous,ControllingLanguage
ClancyClements,TheLinguisticLegacyofSpanishandPortuguese

Postcolonial English
Varieties around the world
Edgar W. Schneider
UniversityofRegensburg
CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITYPRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB28RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521831406
© Edgar W. Schneider 2007
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2007
ISBN-13 978-0-511-28517-2 eBook (EBL)
ISBN-10 0-511-28517-5 eBook (EBL)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-83140-6 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-83140-7 hardback
ISBN-13 978-0-521-53901-2 paperback
ISBN-10 0-521-53901-3 paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls
for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Contents
Listofmaps,figures,andtables pageix
Serieseditor’sforeword xi
Prefaceandacknowledgments xiii
Listofabbreviations xvi
1 Introduction 1
2 Chartingtheterritory:PostcolonialEnglishesasafield
oflinguisticinvestigation 8
2.1 Ancestry 8
2.2 Approaches 11
2.3 Alternativeperspectivesandissues 17
3 TheevolutionofPostcolonialEnglishes:theDynamicModel 21
3.1 Transformingselvesinmigration:theoreticalbackground 21
3.2 TheDynamicModeloftheevolutionofPostcolonialEnglishes 29
3.3 Variationsonthebasicpattern 55
3.4 Widerapplicability 68
4 Linguisticaspectsofnativization 71
4.1 Structuralnativization:characteristicfeatures 72
4.2 Tracingstructuralnativization:methodologicalandconceptualissues 90
4.3 Theroadtonativization:linguisticprocesses 97
5 Countriesalongthecycle:casestudies 113
5.1 Fiji 114
5.2 Australia 118
5.3 NewZealand 127
5.4 HongKong 133
5.5 ThePhilippines 140
5.6 Malaysia 144
5.7 Singapore 153
5.8 India 161
5.9 SouthAfrica 173
vii
viii Listofcontents
5.10 Kenya 189
5.11 Tanzania 197
5.12 Nigeria 199
5.13 Cameroon 212
5.14 Barbados 219
5.15 Jamaica 227
5.16 Canada 238
6 Thecycleinhindsight:theemergenceof
AmericanEnglish 251
6.1 ‘‘AssembledinAmericafromvariousquarters’’:Phase1
(ca.1587–1670) 254
6.2 ‘‘Englishwithgreatclassicalpurity’’:Phase2(ca.1670–1773) 264
6.3 ‘‘Thattorrentofbarbarousphraseology’’:Phase3
(ca.1773–1828/1848) 273
6.4 ‘‘Ourhonorrequiresustohaveasystemofourown’’:Phase4
(1828/1848–1898) 282
6.5 ‘‘Weknowjustwhowearebyourlanguage’’:Phase5(1898–) 291
6.6 Summaryandoutlook 307
7 Conclusion 309
Notes 318
References 331
Indexofauthors 360
Indexofsubjects 363