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This paper presents the first large‐scale multivariate analysis of future‐time reference (FTR) variation in world Englishes. On the basis of 7,922 hand‐coded tokens from eight corpora of the International Corpus of English suite, the study probes the effect of eight predictor variables on the choice between will and BE going to (BGT) as FTR markers. Statistically significant effects for all conditioning variables except polarity are found, as well as two significant interaction terms involving modality. By contrast, the predictor variety enters the model only as a main effect, but is not involved in any interactions. This is interpreted as a sign of strong unity in the system of FTR variation in English world‐wide. At the theoretical level, the paper argues for a stronger focus on such tendencies towards unity among global varieties of English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political instability has been a mainstay in Libya since the Italian occupation in 1911. In the intervening years, the shifting political landscape has had an undeniable influence on the presence of English in the country. In this paper, I argue that Libya presents an ideal case study for Kachru's Concentric Circles of English, where 'linguistic ammunition' (Kachru, 1986: 121) is used to manipulate and control the masses and spread anti‐Western sentiment in this expanding circle country. To provide a much‐needed socio‐historical context for a country whose English language and linguistic history remains understudied (Hillman et al., 2020), this paper touches on key events in Libya's political history that have influenced the status of English and language use; from the Italian colonization, to Qaddafi's decade‐long ban of English, to the 2011 Revolution, and beyond. This paper is divided into six sections: (1) critical approaches to language policy (Tollefson, 1991) and Foucault's governmentality approach (1991); (2) demographic and geographic description of Libya; (3) historical and political overview; (4) educational language policy and the development of the education system; (5) English language policy in Libya (the ban on use of English in 1986 following the 1969 coup that brought Qaddafi to power and the reintroduction of English in the mid‐1990s); and will conclude with (6) English language in post‐Qaddafi Libya. Understanding these key moments in Libyan political history will provide the context needed to understand how a generation of Libyans found themselves without the linguistic skills necessary to compete in the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While previous studies have investigated the productivity of the better construction (in the forms had better, ’d better and better) in British and US English (USE), to present knowledge, no large‐scale comparisons on the use of this construction in other English dialects have been carried out. The present paper aims to address the existing research gap by exploring the synchronic use and grammaticalization rate of better in 20 world Englishes. The analysis of corpus data reveals that better is more grammaticalized in USE than in British English, and even more in Singapore English (SgE) data, where the construction seems to be more grammaticalized than in any other dialect. The hypothesis of a functional need in SgE for deontic better is tested. It is shown why SgE ‘needs’ alternative deontic constructions in a modal system where (semi‐)modals of necessity have been shown to express higher rates of ‘dynamic’ modality than in other dialects. The substrate reinforcement from a parallel construction in Mandarin is presented as a potential driving factor justifying the selection of better as a deontic marker in this particular variety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The massive expansion of English in Germany over the past few decades has not challenged a robustly exonormative orientation, which still by and large recognises standardised British and American English as the most authentic and prestigious representations of the language. Attitudes to the use of English in the national context are diverse, ranging from enthusiastic embracement via grudging acceptance to active resistance. This diversity of opinion reflects the fact that English is currently transitioning from a foreign language (EFL) to a lingua franca (ELF). On the national scale, ELF use is promoted in business, academia and, more generally, among young and well‐educated Germans with an international orientation, but deeply resented by sectors of society. This paper argues that English (in its lingua franca function) has become the only language other than German that has open prestige. The task ahead will be to develop strategies of intelligent multilingualism that will help to 'domesticate' English in the national sociolinguistic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English is the most popular foreign language in present‐day Italy. Most Italians believe that it is useful in the job market and a symbol of modernity, professionalism and technological advancement. Italy has been in contact with English‐speaking countries for centuries, but only after the end of World War II have the English language and Anglo‐American culture influenced Italian society in a visible way. English has transferred many loanwords into Italian, especially in the specialized terminologies of ICT, economy and finance. English buzzwords, slogans or pseudo‐English neologisms are ubiquitous in the Italian linguistic landscape. Starting from a picture of the current situation, this paper tries to outline the status of English today, considering the growing pressures of internationalization in business, education and media communication. Favourable attitudes are widespread in the younger generations, while more conservative views on the hegemony of English in Italy are held by some linguists, institutions and nationalist opinion‐makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notwithstanding current indications that English might soon become the country's dominant L1, the structures of English in the Maldives have—despite laudable exceptions—not yet received sufficient academic attention. The present paper studies the contrast between simplex verbs (e.g. COMPRISE) and their innovative particle–verb alternatives (e.g. COMPRISE of) (a) in a short‐term diachronic database of Maldivian newspaper texts and (b) with the help of acceptability ratings of the forms concerned collected through an online survey. The research questions address the relative frequencies of use of innovative particle verbs as opposed to corresponding simplex verbs, the diachronic variability of these relative frequencies and the degree to which the local speech community accepts innovative verb–particle combinations. While the well‐established simplex verbs constitute the overall dominant structural choices, each of the innovative particle verbs has become more frequent in the course of the 14‐year time period observed. These corpus‐based insights align with the generally high acceptability ratings for the innovative particle–verb constructions evident from the survey data, where young women display the largest degree of acceptance towards the innovative particle verbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of Rodrigo Duterte to power after the 2016 national elections in the Philippines quickly and drastically altered the country's political landscape. This is observed in the language choices of Duterte, in political speeches delivered during his administration. However, these ‘dutertisms’ have already been observed even before the national elections. This paper considers the years before Duterte became President and analyses his language practices in some of his campaign speeches. Using Davis's Lapu‐Lapu Factor as a lens, I attempt to trace how Duterte has successfully weaponised his brand of English, heavily textured by his heritage language Davao Bisaya, to win votes in the national elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considers a corpus‐based approach for analysing adjective amplifier systems (very, really, so, etc.) in Hong Kong English (HKE), Indian Englsih (IndE) and Philippine English (PhiE) based on data from the International Corpus of English. The current study adds to existing research by providing insights into the understudied adjective amplifier systems of Asian Englishes. The study describes the amplifier systems in HKE, IndE and PhiE, and it ascertains if these amplifier systems are undergoing change. In the latter context, the analysis assesses if really or so is replacing very as the dominant adjective amplifier in these varieties—a trend shown to be at work in Inner Circle varieties of English. The results of Conditional Inference Trees show that the amplifier systems of HKE and IndE are very stable and amplifier choice in these varieties is determined predominately by intra‐linguistics factors (adjective type, syntactic context and semantic category). In contrast, the amplifier system of PhiE shows notable signs of ongoing change, which is driven predominately by social factors (age and gender of speakers). The results indicate that during stasis and initial stages of change, language‐internal factors determine amplifier choice, while social factors become more important once changes have reached the midrange. The paper argues that once certain variants (really and so) gain social meaning, it is this social meaning (the association with specific social groups) that drives and accelerates change as speakers want to associate with social groups that carry covert prestige. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a sociolinguistic profile of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a focus on the status and functions of English in contemporary UAE society. With less than a 12 per cent local population, the UAE presents a unique linguistic laboratory for the spread of English among an expanding foreign and a shrinking local demographic. Contributing to the current literature on English in Expanding Circle countries, I first present a sociohistorical review of foreign and English language presence in the UAE from the ninth century to the present day. By employing archival research, governmental artifacts, and first‐hand observations, I follow this with a description of contemporary users and the four functions of English in the UAE context. The paper then provides a summary of users' attitudes towards English and Arabic and concludes with an evaluation of key findings and avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a study of the English of Olaudah Equiano. His autobiography, published in 1789, was the first book written in English by a Nigerian. It tells how, sold when a boy into slavery and transported to the Caribbean, he later purchased his freedom, settled in England, and became a prominent abolitionist. Literary English of the late eighteenth century adhered to neo‐classical models, with complex sentences and a Latinate vocabulary, and these features are much in evidence in Equiano's writing. The principal focus of the paper is on his use of tenses, especially the present perfect, which in Equiano's day was used much as it is now; but he sometimes uses it in ways that are difficult to account for. Thus his mastery of the language was not flawless; but the flaws do not compromise the literary merits of the work or impede our understanding of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the first large‐scale corpus study of double modal usage in Australian and New Zealand Englishes, based on a multi‐million‐word corpus of geolocated automatic speech recognition transcripts from YouTube. Double modals are considered rare grammatical features of English, which have long been extremely difficult to observe in natural language due to low frequencies, non‐standardness, and restriction to oral speech registers. In addition, it has generally been assumed that they make up small sets of diachronically related forms, whose geographical distribution is mainly restricted to the Southern US and the North of the UK. Our results challenge these long‐standing assumptions by presenting the first inventory of double modals observed outside of these regions, thanks to computational sociolinguistic methods. Overall, we identify and map 474 double modal tokens distributed in 51 types, an unexpectedly large collection of forms used with varying frequencies across Australia and New Zealand. We consider the relevance of our results for three specific new claims concerning the diversity, complexity, and origins of double modals in English world‐wide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been written and said about the roles, functions, and status of English and its diverse implications in local contexts and for people therein. However, Northern Cyprus stands out as a 'blind spot' as it is often annexed in studies related to Turkey or diluted within discussions focusing on Cyprus – which collectively leads to limited, partial, and tangential accounts of the complexities embedded in the local context. Departing from this premise, the current paper offers a comprehensive sociolinguistic profile of English in Northern Cyprus. More specifically, it portrays a historical account of the sociolinguistic situation with present‐day connections to statuses, roles, attitudes, functions, domains, policies, and practices in the local context. It is concluded that as the island morphed first into a postcolonial context and later into a partitioned sociopolitical entity, the linguacultural hegemony of English remained in Turkish Cypriots' linguistic repertoires, collective psyche, and educational curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines satiric parody in Hinglish tweets that users created in response to the censorship in India of the James Bond movie Spectre. The analysis reveals the creativity with which users conflated two different cultures (Indian and Western) and languages (Hindi and English) in their tweets for a parodic portrayal of James Bond in an Indianized avatar and a satirical criticism of the underlying conservative ideology behind the censorship of the movie. Rather than taking the form of acrimonious debate on the issue of censorship, the #SanskariJamesBond tweets show how users dealt with the issue through satirical user‐generated Twitter memes. This study demonstrates that parody through code‐mixed tweets is an effective way of highlighting controversies, taking a stand on them, and, simultaneously, countering conflicting views through a collective public response on a social media platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the sociolinguistic history of English in one of the post‐Soviet Eastern European countries ‐ Lithuania ‐ covering three post‐1990 decades. The aim is to examine the dynamics of the spread of English in relation to the 'non‐native' Russian, the main lingua franca and L2 in this region after WWII until 1990. Based on a set of attitudinal, educational and self‐assessment data as well as mixed language use for identity construction, the study shows that English was not accepted as rapidly as is sometimes claimed. With lower English scores and additional Russian, the 'periphery' of the Expanding Circle remains noticeably distinct from the European context. In demographic terms, however, the end of the third post‐1990 decade can be considered a turning point in the sociolinguistic development of the community, led by the youth generations born around 1990 and after. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous work on norm orientations in the Caribbean Englishes has focussed largely on phonological norms, such as accents, and, to a lesser extent, grammatical norm orientation. Outside of the publication of dictionaries, however, lexical norms and their spread have received little attention. This paper examines lexical norm orientations in Trinidadian English, presenting the results of a corpus‐based study and survey study of the lexical preferences of speakers of Trinidadian English. The findings suggest that while there is evidence of American influence on Trinidadian lexicon, British variants persist. Indeed, British and American variants often coexist, albeit with different connotations in Trinidadian English. From a methodological standpoint, this paper demonstrates the benefits of using a mixed‐methods approach in looking at norms, particularly with regard to lexicon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing numbers of scholars from around the world now engaged in international publishing to further their careers, many authors for whom English is not their first language worry about the acceptability of their language to journal editors. In this article we explore this issue by focusing on a key component of fluent academic writing: the high frequency fixed‐word collocations known as lexical bundles, strings which are 'glued together' and help characterize smooth production. Here we compare their use in the pre‐submission drafts of authors with different first languages with published papers in leading international journals. Our results suggest that language background certainly contributes to the differences between our EAL texts and published papers, but that seniority and discipline also significantly impact these language choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces the first version of the Corpus of Singapore English Messages (CoSEM), a 3.6‐million‐word monitor corpus of online text messages collected between 2016 and 2019, compiled and managed by a group of scholars who share an interest in Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) research. The paper explains the motivations behind developing a new corpus for the investigation of CSE. It also documents the process of compiling and organizing CoSEM and describes the corpus's initial structure and composition. We further discuss the social variables used in tagging the data, as well as ethical challenges, advantages, and disadvantages unique to online message datasets. In addition, we present preliminary analyses of two selected CSE features: (1) the Hokkien‐derived expression (bo)jio and (2) sentence‐final adverbs (already, also, only). As CoSEM is an ongoing project, we conclude the article with notes on future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young speakers and women have been identified as leaders of language change in the English language. However, sociolinguistic studies addressing grammatical variation according to the age and gender of speakers are infrequent in world Englishes mainly due to the dearth of corpora with explicit detailed metadata. In this paper we explore the effect of these two factors on language innovation and creativity as represented in the International Corpus of English (ICE). For that purpose, we have selected two high‐frequency grammatical phenomena: (i) the expression of perfect meaning, which exhibits variability between different forms; and (ii) relative clauses, with variation in the use of relativizers. A preliminary analysis of the variable age shows that young speakers behave differently as regards both the expression of perfect meaning and the choice of relativizers. With this study we hope to contribute to this still small but growing body of sociolinguistic research on grammatical variation in world Englishes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive work on the description of Indian English(es), only limited attention has been paid to attitudes towards the variety among its speakers. This paper reports on semi‐structured interviews eliciting language attitudes with 32 educated young students and professionals in Hyderabad, India. Results reveal that Indian English is occupying an increasingly legitimate position within the popular consciousness, and that there is an increasing sense of ownership of a supra‐local or pan‐dialectal 'Indian English'. There is an expressed desire for Indian English to continue to expand, and to be accepted as one of the authentic languages of India. The participants exhibited relatively high levels of linguistic security, and while a certain 'nostalgia' for British English was retained by some, Indian English appears to be emerging as an authentic carrier of Indian identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to contribute to the current discussion of world Englishes by showing how English is used in popular music reviews in Russia, a context that has not been addressed in previous research. Drawing on sets of textual and ethnographic data, we argue that English and Anglicisms contribute to the expressiveness and precision of musical reviews, enhance promotion of musical products and become part of the unique identity that ties Russian music fans together. We show how English evokes connections to global contexts in the local community and how Russian speakers use English resources creatively, adapting them to local needs and modifying English musical terms through Russian word‐formation mechanisms, to make them more local. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the concept of developmental world Englishes by exploring the role of English in providing socioeconomic elevation for non‐elite communities in Cambodia. Contemporary Cambodia has seen the rise of English as the language of choice for international communication, resulting in English being viewed as a pathway for various opportunities and socioeconomic advancement. English language research has tended to focus on elite communities and contexts, and little is known outside of these domains. The present study discusses these issues from the perspectives of Cambodian hotel workers. The implications for what needs to be done in terms of English language education for non‐elite communities in Cambodia and other similar contexts are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a comparative sketch of two emergent creoles: St. Lucia Creole English and Dominica Creole English. With very similar circumstances surrounding their formation and emergence, it is expected that they will have many features in common. While this is generally the case, however, this paper also outlines some areas in which their grammars diverge. This research represents original data for varieties that are somewhat under‐documented and calls for further data collection and fieldwork to confirm the patterns found here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Varieties of English in the Caribbean have been claimed to have characteristic pitch patterns. However, there is little empirical research on prosodic aspects of English in the region. This paper provides a comparative phonetic analysis of several pitch parameters (pitch level, range, dynamism, rate of change, variability in rate of change, and tone rate) in English language data from Dominica, Grenada, and Trinidad that comprises read and spontaneous speech from 243 speakers. The results show that a wide pitch range and a high degree of variability in pitch, as mentioned in previous works, are not necessarily characteristic of English in the Caribbean overall, but that there are considerable cross‐territorial prosodic differences, with English in Trinidad showing more variability than in Dominica and Grenada, particularly among female speakers. Socioprosodic variation, largely specific to Trinidad, was also identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research bibliography presented in this paper lists some of the major research outputs on Englishes in the Caribbean. While selected foundational studies are listed, the focus lies on works published since the year 2000. Considering the linguistic diversity of the anglophone Caribbean, the publications listed include works on English‐based Creoles, Englishes, mesolectal language use and mixed codes, as well as English‐related contact varieties. A particular focus is on works investigating standardized (or standardizing) varieties of English spoken in the region. Efforts were made to represent both larger and smaller territories and islands. Potential limitations notwithstanding, we hope that this bibliography will prove useful to researchers and students interested in Caribbean varieties of English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigates variation in the marking of two aspectual subcategories of the imperfective in Bahamian English. First, it looks into variable auxiliary be use in progressive and future constructions, that is, the variation between full, contracted and zero be in non‐past V‐ing environments and related contexts. Second, the paper examines variable application of preverbal does/is/'s in non‐past habitual environments. The two variables were selected to represent the 'informal' and 'anti‐formal' group respectively, that is, one feature that classifies as a reduction of English structure and one direct transfer from the creole (Allsopp, 1996, pp. lvi–lvii). Thus, in addition to examining the linguistic constraints, the study will take a close look at the stylistic factors conditioning the variation, placing a special focus on the distribution of the non‐standardized variants over various registers as well as how speakers employ them to create linguistic styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates attitudes and perceptions of Barbadians toward British and American English on the one hand, and the degree of structural Americanization of contemporary Barbadian English as documented in a corpus of Facebook comments on the other hand. The results indicate a discrepancy between explicitly formulated preferences and actual production patterns; while American English is devalued by most respondents, the advancement of cross‐linguistic influence of American English on the levels of orthography and lexicon of Barbadian English is undeniable. The findings further suggest a continued linguistic identification with British norms in the perception of many Barbadians, while the awareness of an emerging local standard variety is only slowly gaining ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an analysis of discourse markers in English(es) spoken by Zanzibaris, using data from sociolinguistic interviews. The focus is on you know and I think. In English as a lingua franca (ELF), both have been shown to be used differently than by 'native' speakers, especially marking subjectivity or speaker‐centeredness. The data show similarities with ELF communication, that is the markers express subjectivity in highlighting or evaluating part of the discourse, and convey speaker‐centeredness as 'fumbling devices'. Thus, the paper raises the question as to whether these and similar sociolinguistic interviews applied for the documentation of New Englishes should be analyzed as lingua franca communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much has been written about the unique set of discourse particles in colloquial Singapore English, other discourse markers which belong to the common core of English have been neglected. This paper deals with basically, a rather recent addition to the paradigm of discourse markers which typically move along the following clines in their development: clause‐internal adverbial > sentence adverbial > discourse particle; scope within the proposition > scope over the proposition > scope over discourse. This paper will use the evidence from the Singaporean subcorpus of the International Corpus of English (ICE) to trace the functions and contexts for basically and to determine whether the grammaticalization clines proposed on the basis of British English also hold for an Outer Circle variety such as Singapore English with its rich array of indigenized discourse particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much has been published on Outer Circle varieties of English in Asia and Africa, Outer Circle Englishes in the South Pacific (SPE) are still relatively unknown. This paper focuses on Samoan English, a newly emerging variety in Samoa, an island state in Polynesia. The paper discusses the role of English in Samoa's past and present and describes major structural features of Samoan English in terms of its phonology, lexicon and grammar. Local discourse and pragmatic strategies will also be touched upon. The study is based on recordings of Samoan speakers made during a field trip and a newspaper corpus of 300,000 words from the Samoa Observer, a local newspaper. The study demonstrates that we can indeed speak of Samoan English as a variety in the making and that it is useful to consider SPE to gain a better understanding of the evolution and nature of Outer Circle Englishes in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apart from the occurrence of now as a temporal adverb and as an attention pragmatic marker, there is the existence of a third type of now which until now has not been explored in Nigerian English. This paper, examines the phonetic properties, meaning, frequency, syntactic patterns, and extended discourse‐pragmatic functions of an indigenised now in Nigerian English. The paper takes its data from conversations in the International Corpus of English‐Nigeria and analyses this nativised now from a grammatical‐pragmatic approach. The results reveal that this third type of now has adopted the tonal structure of some indigenous Nigerian languages and occurs mainly at the final position of utterances. This Nigerian indigenised now performs only interpersonal functions as it serves as an emphasis marker and as a mitigation marker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a descriptive case study of the status and functions of English in contemporary Lebanon. It consults archival research (primary and secondary sources), firsthand observations, and governmental artifacts for data collection purposes. I use such data to portray the spread of English in various domains of use and build an evidence‐based argument about the relationship between policy making/implementation and its effects on local users for practicing agency in promoting the status of English. The paper includes a sociohistorical overview of the Lebanese context and discusses findings in relation to the uses of English, the role of educational institutions in enforcing language policies, and users' interactions with language policy and planning. The sociolinguistic profiling of English in Lebanon facilitates a unique analysis of a multifaceted argument in favor of linguistic pragmatism over linguistic colonialism for institutionalizing the uses and functions of English in an Arabic speaking country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper offers a fundamental discussion of constituent parameters and relevant issues associated with the concepts of pluricentricity and epicentres. It proposes an explicit division into a weak reading, highlighting the co‐existence of national varieties of languages, and a strong one, focusing on influence exerted by some varieties on others. Parameters which constitute epicentres include size and speaker numbers, geographical proximity, intensity of mutual relations, directionality of influence, and attitudinal factors. Methodologically, a fully convincing documentation of epicentral influence would call for diachronic data from both varieties in question, an investigation of detailed usage conditions of forms compared, and a plausible account of the potential for contact – though for now this seems very difficult to achieve. It is suggested that the perspective taken should not only encompass standard varieties and that the weak version of pluricentricity has strong roots in language attitudes and perception rather than production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper makes a case for regarding Nigerian Pidgin (Naijá) and Jamaican Creole (Patois) as informal linguistic epicentres in the global English Language Complex. This requires a few modifications to current definitions of linguistic epicentres but leads to a sociolinguistically realistic and more comprehensive account of the profound influence that Jamaica and Nigeria have had on the development of Englishes in their regions and in the world at large. In the absence of large corpora, qualitative methods from linguistic ethnography and interactional sociolinguistics were used for the study of possible epicentral effects of Naijá and Patois. They allow access to speakers' language attitudes and language ideologies, a shaping factor of epicentral influences that generally deserves more attention in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the possibility of epicentral influence from two endonormative varieties of English – Australian English (AusE) and New Zealand English (NZE) – on a norm‐developing variety, Papua New Guinean English (PNGE). Through a keyword analysis of recent parliamentary Hansard data, we are able to identify some structural language features that distinguish the Pacific varieties from British English (BrE) – the use of got, going (to) and choice of pronoun case. While each of these features showed the Pacific varieties to have shared usage patterns that distinguished them from BrE, a diachronic analysis of them for AusE and NZE did not produce clear patterns from which a source of epicentral influence could be identified. Further study, with more detailed diachronic data, could well prove useful in explaining current trends and identifying whether AusE or NZE act as epicentres within the Pacific region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the overall results of a research project that investigated factors determining how speakers of Ugandan English express futurity, ability and obligation. Findings reveal that forms identified to convey these meanings in American, Indian, Kenyan or Nigerian English, and whose use would reveal influence from these, are seldom used. Rather, persisting exonormative orientation towards British English and first‐language influence seem to determine how many forms are tolerated and which ones are preferred. This challenges epicentre theory, according to which an endonormatively stable variety influences varieties in neighbouring countries, as well as models that assume that varieties with a high impact in terms of the demographic and economic weight of their speakers influence those with a lower impact, whilst findings furthermore indicate that regular long‐term exposure to another variety results in accommodation, making this a factor that needs to be better accounted for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper investigates India's potential role as a linguistic epicentre for Nepal by conducting a short‐term diachronic follow‐up study of Bernaisch and Lange (2012) that is based on the South Asian Varieties of English corpus. Based on the recently updated version of the corpus with similar data from a decade later, a potential spread of the presentational itself construction with an adverbial focus, which has allegedly spread in Nepal originating in Indian English, is investigated. Also, possible instances of invariant use of itself, that are frequently used in Indian English, will be scrutinized. While findings indeed show an increase of the adverbial focus construction, supporting India's role as an epicentre for the region, only one invariant use of the feature can be documented in Nepali English, which can tentatively be interpreted as a selection process that might be at play in the acceptance and spread of certain epicentrally induced features over others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue focuses on key issues in epicentral research. Against the background of a brief discussion of the epicentre metaphor in the world Englishes paradigm, the various regional constellations in Africa, America, Asia and Australasia relevant to the concept of linguistic epicentres are highlighted and the temporal framing of epicentral influence is discussed with regard to often‐assumed evolutionary prerequisites of potential linguistic epicentres. More fine‐grained methodological perspectives on linguistic epicentres are subsequently provided with regard to: (1) linguistic variables studied; (2) data sources available; and (3) statistical approaches. Before short summaries of the papers featured in this special issue are presented, the role of linguistic epicentres as a component in modelling world Englishes is scrutinised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Americanization has been described as one of the major sociocultural processes of language change currently affecting varieties of English worldwide; it is generally linked to the post‐World War II rise of the United States to global superpower status in political, military, economic, and cultural terms. Owing to their immediate geographical proximity, the Bahamas always had closer demographic, cultural, and institutional links with the North American mainland than other British colonies. The present paper applies the notion of epicentral influence, in the sense of a regionally dominant model influencing developments in neighboring areas, to Bahamian‐American linguistic relations and attempts to disentangle global from epicentral American influence. It considers not just standard Bahamian English but also Bahamian Creole, all levels of language, diachronic and synchronic data, and corpus findings as well as attitudinal studies and discusses the theoretical and methodological implications of the Bahamian data for the epicentre idea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by a fundamental discussion of the relation between theoretical and statistical modelling, the present paper takes stock of the research history of linguistic epicentres in the world Englishes paradigm and seeks to provide suggestions for future epicentral studies. Based on a review of earlier research into potential epicentral constellations, we provide an overview of the genesis of the concept of linguistic epicentres, describe different methodological approaches that have been chosen and/or recommended for their study and provide statistical comments. With a view to future epicentral research, we aim at (i) refining the theoretical construct of linguistic epicentres, (ii) suggesting empirical methods that allow identifying epicentral constellations more reliably than in the past and (iii) making statistical recommendations particularly relevant to epicentral research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A list of forthcoming papers and reviews for the journal is presented, on topics including cultural linguistics, code-mixing on billboards in India, and English language advertising in Colombia, all in relation to world Englishes.

In this paper we provide an overview of the current status as well as broad functions of Englishes in South Africa. We also provide a discussion of some of the contemporary concerns related to the complex and multivaried nature of English in the country. This paper further serves to introduce the major themes that are of concern to those researchers that are interested in the study of South African Englishes, through an introduction of the papers that form part of this Special Issue. Finally, we discuss the current state of the art with regards to researching English in the country where we suggest potential future areas of investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pragmatics of postcolonial Englishes including backchannels have so far remained in the periphery of academic inquiry. As pragmatic principles may be regarded as culture‐sensitive and various cultural differences have been attested between Great Britain and South Asia, the present paper studies backchannels in British, Indian and Sri Lankan English. Drawn from the respective spoken parts of the International Corpus of English, 3,212 backchannels are multifactorially modelled via a conditional inference tree and random forests including recent methodological improvements. Indications of pragmatic nativisation with backchannels are evident in Indian and Sri Lankan English with their distributions and forms in the light of various sociobiographic factors such as age and gender, but also type‐token ratio and conversational topic resonate with cultural differences across the speech communities. Lexical echo backchannels only attestable in the South Asian varieties instantiate a creative pragmatic innovation adding to the existing repertoire of backchannels in world Englishes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As South Asian Englishes have been studied regarding their structural levels but only few studies have focused on their pragmatics, this study investigates thanking strategies in the spoken parts of the British, Indian, and Sri Lankan components of the International Corpus of English. The paper answers the questions: Do variety, speaker age and gender, context formality, position within the speaker turn, and the presence of a benefactor, intensifier, and reason influence the choice between thank and thanks; and what implications do these findings have for the notion of pragmatic nativisation? In a multifactorial analysis, a conditional inference tree identifies age, benefactor, intensifier, and variety as significant predictors while a random forest highlights the importance of variable interactions with variety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positioned within and contributing to the body of scholarship around Social Media Critical Discourse Studies (SM‐CDS) and as part of a larger research project examining digitally mediated discourses of regional/national(ist) identity within 'social media paradigm of communication' (KhosraviNik, 2017a), the current paper explores various discursive manifestations of an imagined pan‐Arab identity in a body of user‐generated content on digital platforms. The paper aims to integrate social media theories with critical discourse studies to explore the linguistic, technological, and argumentative aspects of an under‐researched conflict in the Middle East by investigating bottom‐up discursive practices. Confronted with the hegemony of English in scholarly publishing and the challenges of recontextualizing source texts especially in cross language qualitative research, the paper also sheds some light on translation challenges and their implications on data analysis and interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The victory of India's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2014, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has shaped current socio‐political discourse through the lens of Hindu fundamentalism. Driven by right‐wing Hindu nationals in the party that advocate the hegemony of the Hindu way of life, or Hindutva ('Hindu nationalism'), contemporary political narrative can be seen to recontextualise the country's history through 'saffronisation' of public space, social practice, and education. This paper will explore how under the governance of the ruling party, socio‐political sentiment is perceived to be shaped increasingly through Hindutva, by analysing the media framing of political ideology. To conduct the analysis, the paper draws on Bhatia's (2015) theoretical framework of the Discourse of Illusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article lists papers that will be published in future issues of the journal, including "African Englishes and creative writing," by Eyamba Bokamba; "Creative writing pedagogy for world Englishes students," by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim; and "The ownership of English in Taiwan," by Mark F. Seilhamer.

The article lists papers that will appear in subsequent issues, including "Modelling the Development of English in Hong Kong," by Stephen Evans; "Creative Writing Pedagogy for World Englishes Students," by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim; and "Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes," by Farzad Sharifian.