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*Morphosyntactic Variation in World Englishes: *

*Apparent-time and diachronic studies*

* *

Workshop at BICLCE2017 (7^th Biennial International Conference on the
Linguistics of Contemporary English, https://biclce2017.wordpress.com/)
in Vigo, 28-30 September 2017**

*Convenors: *

Cristina Suárez-Gómez (University of the Balearic Islands), Lucía
Loureiro-Porto (University of the Balearic Islands) and Robert Fuchs
(Hong Kong Baptist University)

Corpus-based research on World Englishes has increased exponentially
since the 1990s, in particular with the gradual release of various
corpora compiled as part of International Corpus of English project
(ICE, http://ice-corpora.net/ice/) (Greenbaum 1996), which facilitate
synchronic comparative studies of linguistic aspects in different
varieties. A number of these corpora contain metadata with information
on social variables such as age, gender, native language(s), etc., which
allow more detailed sociolinguistic and apparent-time studies.
Additionally, several diachronic corpora of World Englishes are
currently being compiled or have recently become available, such as,
e.g., the Corpus of Oz Early English//(COOEE) (see Fritz 2007), the
Corpus of Early New Zealand English (CENZE) (see Hundt 2012), Phil-Brown
(see Collins et al. 2014), the Historical Corpus of Singapore English
(see Hoffman et al. 2012), the Historical Corpus of Ghanaian English
(see Brato 2014), among others. This has made it possible to increase
the scope of linguistic analysis of World Englishes to include
diachronic corpus studies. Both types of corpora have allowed scholars
to gain insights into the linguistic features of the different varieties
around the world and to discover:

(i) linguistic patterns of convergence with the input varieties,

(ii) linguistic patterns derived from the status of these World
Englishes as second-language varieties and therefore products of
language acquisition,

(iii) linguistic patterns of divergence, motivated by the
different local ecologies in which these varieties developed, and

(iv) more generally, patterns of language change, as shown by
diachronic comparisons.

In parallel to the compilation of corpora, different models of analysis
of World Englishes have been proposed in the last two decades (cf.
Seoane 2016). Kachru’s Concentric Circles Model (1985) was complemented
by Schneider’s Dynamic Approach (2003, 2007), which incorporates an
evolutionary perspective lacking in previous models. The 21st century
dynamics of English, however, are characterized by mobility,
mediatization, and the development of English in polyglossic situations,
aspects that are arguably captured better by more recent accounts:
Mair’s ‘World System of Englishes’ (2013), for example, is based on the
sociolinguistics of globalization (Blommaert 2010). Other recent
attempts to account for the current situation of English include the
concept of ‘Transnational Attraction’, described in Schneider (2014), as
well as the model recently sketched out by Buschfeld & Kautzsch (2016)
known as the ‘extra- and intra-territorial forces’ (EIF) model, which
calls for an integrated approach to ESL and EFL varieties. The study of
the integration of these two types of Englishes as well as the attempt
to portray the diachronic evolution of these varieties is a novel line
of research that needs to be continued.

For this reason, this workshop aims to bring together researchers
working in the area of morphosyntactic variation and/or change in World
Englishes (be it an L1, a colonial variety or a Foreign Language). In
particular, contributions dealing with the following aspects are welcome:

* morphosyntactic change, both based on diachronic corpora and
apparent-time studies
* the paradigm gap between ESL and EFL varieties and their convergent
and/or divergent grammars
* convergence with the input variety/varieties, motivated by the
influence of the superstrate, and/or the learning processes which
shape the grammars of indigenized varieties through processes of
analogy and transparency.
* divergent grammars/grammatical constructions, specifically those
motivated by the local ecologies and substrate(s) languages

The workshop will consist of full papers and work-in progress reports,
which will be allotted 20 minutes for presentation (plus 10 minutes for
discussion). *The deadline for submissions is 15 December 2016
(abstracts of up to 500 words, exclusive of title and references).
*Notification of acceptance will be sent out by the end of January 2016.
Abstracts should be sent to [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>.

We are planning to publish the papers after peer-review process in an
edited volume or a special issue of a reputable journal.

*References*

Brato, Thorsten. 2014. Compiling a historical written corpus of Ghanaian
English: Methodological and theoretical considerations. Paper presented
at the /20 Conference of the International Association for World
Englishes/, New Delhi.

Buschfeld, Sarah & Kautzsch, Alexander. 2016. Towards an integrated
approach to postcolonial and non-postcolonial Englishes. /World Englishes/

Blommaert, Jan. 2010. /The Sociolinguistics of Globalization/.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Collins, Peter, Macalinga Borlongan, Ariane & Yao, Xinyue. 2014.
Modality in Philippine English: A diachronic study. /Journal of English
Linguistics/ 42(1): 68–88.

Fritz, Clemens W. A. 2007. /From English in Australia to Australian
English. 1788–1900/. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.

Greenbaum, Sidney. 1996. Introducing ICE. In /Comparing English
Worldwide: The International Corpus of English/, Sidney Greenbaum (ed.),
3-12/. /Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Hoffmann, Sebastian, Sand, Andrea & Tan, Peter. 2012. The Corpus of
Historical Singapore English – A first pilot study on data from the
1950s and 1960s. Paper presented at the /33 ICAME Conference/.
University of Leuven, Belgium.

Hundt, Marianne. 2012. Towards a corpus of early written New Zealand
English – news from Erewhom? /Te Reo/ 55: 51–74.

Kachru, Braj B. 1985. Standards, codification and sociolinguistic
realism: The English language in the outer circle. In /English in the
World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures,/ Randolph
Quirk & Henry Widdowson (eds), 11-36. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mair, Christian. 2013. The World System of Englishes: Accounting for
theTransnational Importance of Mobile and Mediated Vernaculars./English
World-Wide /34(3): 253-278.

Schneider, Edgar W. 2003. The Dynamics of New Englishes: From Identity
Construction to Dialect Birth. /Language/ 79(2): 233-281.

Schneider, Edgar W. 2007. /Postcolonial English: Varieties around the
World/. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Schneider, Edgar W. 2014. New reflections on the evolutionary dynamics
of world Englishes. /World Englishes/ 33(1): 9-32.

Seoane, Elena. 2016. World Englishes Today. In /World Englishes: New
Theoretical and Methodological Considerations/, Elena Seoane & Cristina
Suárez Gómez (eds.), 1-16. (Varieties of English around the World G57).
Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins.

Hot off the press: Speech Rhythm in Varieties of English. Evidence from
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Universal or Diverse Paths to English Phonology
<http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/248043> (de Gruyter)

Are you a non-native speaker of English? Please help us by taking this
short survey on when and how you use the English language:
https://lamapoll.de/englishusageofnonnativespeakers-1/

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