English in the World Review

Lingua Franca

A common language which can be used by different groups whose native language are different

Global Language

A language spoken across different countries who

1. use it as their first language or mother tongue

2. have adopted it as their offical (second) language

3. teach it as their foreign language of choice in schools

Mutual Intelligibility

people being able to understand each other despite having different native languages

Language Contact

The changes that happen when speakers of different languages (or diff dialects of the same language) interact with one another, leading to a transfer of linguistic features

Three Circles Theory

Inner-Circle English: A spread from the U.K to countries where native english speakers have settled down in large numbers, English is first language for many. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, United States

Outer-Circle English: English is usually a second language for many, and english has a current status as an offical language, and/or has has such status in the past. Hong Kong, India, Bangladesh, Singapore, the Phillipines, Nigeria, Ghana

Expanding Circle English: Where English is a foreign language. Germany, Hungary, Poland, Egypt, China, Kora, Japan.

Descriptivism

How language is being used, there isnt just one correct way to speak a language

Prescriptivism

Belief that there are correct and wrong ways to speak a language, rules should be followed

Creoles

 occurs in unnatural situations (such as colonization and enslavement) when people are forced to speak a pidgin for survival for generations; because pidgins are too limited to communicate complex concepts and emotions, the enslaved or colonized people add vocabulary and grammar to the pidgin from their native languages (as well as borrow additional rules and vocabulary from the colonizer’s language) to create a new language; Haitian Creole is a French Creole, English creoles include Gullah, Jamaican Patois, South African English, and Tok Pisin.

Pidgin

a made-up language with lexis from one language and grammatical structures from another; no native speakers; allows communication for a specific and limited purpose (usually trade)

Endnormative Stabilization

Over several generations, people who are colonized take the colonizers language and make it their own

Exonormative Stabilization

A colonizing country forces a language on native people

Lingustic Imperialism

The dominance of one language over others, often as a result of political, economic, and cultural power dynamics, leading to the marginalization or suppression of other languages and cultures.

language attrition/language death

Fewer and fewer people speak a language each generation; it dies if it completely goes extinct

language revitalization

people make efforts to teach a language to new generations and increase its number of speakers

Language Fragmentation

Over time, one language splits into several new ones

Variety

Form of language in a country, varieties of English include Nigerian English, South African English, British English, etc.

Dialect

A regional form or social variety of a language

Codification

 this process involves creating a standard form of a language and recording the rules for it in resources like grammars, dictionaries, and style guides

overt prestige

credibility gained from speaking the standard version of a language (people think you sound educated)

Covert Prestige

credibility gained in specific situations from speaking a nonstandard version of a language that is usually looked down upon (people think you sound cool or other people who speak it find you relatable)

prescriptivism

the belief that the standard version of a language is the correct way to write and speak and that every other way is bad or wrong

descriptivism

 the belief that all versions of languages are neutral and equally worth studying

Power Theory (Crystal)

The power of nations influences the spread and development of language—cultural, economic, political, and military power. His theory relates closely to linguistic imperialism.

Substratum Theory (Labov)

Native people will often retain grammar, vocabulary, or other aspects of their native language when speaking a dominant language. This term relates closely to endonormative stabilization.

Cultural Transmission Theory (Hartl and Clark)

If there is a perceived benefit in a culture to doing so, people will change the way they speak.