S/PSII/Ü: World Englishes
This seminar will deal with postcolonial varieties of English, the single language that now arguably affects the lives of the majority of people around the world. We will address reasons why English has spread around the globe, which historical and linguistic processes have been involved and what the eventual outcome of these developments - that is, the various “New Englishes” - presently looks like from a structural point of view.
Besides, issues such as convergence and divergence of these varieties, globalization and nativization, English as a lingua franca and attitudes towards English will be discussed as well as different models of World English and more general features of language contact, standard vs. non-standard varieties and language politics.
- Moderator/in: Valentin Werner