The Politics of English as a World Language
New Horizons in Postcolonial Cultural Studies
Published on 1. January 2003
Book
Hardback
518 pages
978-90-420-0876-2 (ISBN)
Description
The complex politics of English as a world language provides the backdrop both for linguistic studies of varieties of English around the world and for postcolonial literary criticism. The present volume offers contributions from linguists and literary scholars that explore this common ground in a spirit of open interdisciplinary dialogue.
Leading authorities assess the state of the art to suggest directions for further research, with substantial case studies ranging over a wide variety of topics - from the legitimacy of language norms of lingua franca communication to the recognition of newer post-colonial varieties of English in the online OED. Four regional sections treat the Caribbean (including the diaspora), Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Australasia and the Pacific Rim.
Each section maintains a careful balance between linguistics and literature, and external and indigenous perspectives on issues. The book is the most balanced, complete and up-to-date treatment of the topic to date.
Leading authorities assess the state of the art to suggest directions for further research, with substantial case studies ranging over a wide variety of topics - from the legitimacy of language norms of lingua franca communication to the recognition of newer post-colonial varieties of English in the online OED. Four regional sections treat the Caribbean (including the diaspora), Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Australasia and the Pacific Rim.
Each section maintains a careful balance between linguistics and literature, and external and indigenous perspectives on issues. The book is the most balanced, complete and up-to-date treatment of the topic to date.
Reviews / Votes
"...an immensely enjoyable collection of essays..." in: Anglia, Band 123, Heft 1, 2005More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Publishing group
Brill
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 230 mm
Width: 155 mm
Weight
1012 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-420-0876-2 (9789042008762)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
CHRISTIAN MAIR is a professor of English linguistics at Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet Freiburg. While his major research interest is the corpus-based study of change and variation in present- day English, he has always made a point of placing his linguistic activities in a wider context. He is the author of two widely used introductory handbooks (Englisch fuer Anglisten, 1995; Das heutige Englisch, with Emst Leisi, 1999) and has championed a linguistically based approach to Caribbean cultural studies in numerous articles in journals and contributions to books.
Content
C. MAIR: Linguistics, Literature and the Postcolonial Englishes: An Introduction
RESISTING (IN) ENGLISH: GLOBALIZATION AND ITS COUNTER-DISCOURSES
A. PENNYCOOK: Beyond Homogeny and Heterogeny: English as a Global and Worldly Language
R. PHILLIPSON: English for the Globe, or Only for Globe-Trotters? The world of the EU
T. SKUTNABB-KANGAS: Linguistic Diversity and Biodiversity: The Threat from Killer Languages
M. TOOLAN: English as the Supranational Language of Human Rights?
P. MUEHLHAEUSLER: English as an Exotic Language
R.J. ALEXANDER: G.lobal L.anguages O.ppress B.ut A.re L.iberating, Too: The Dialectics of English
P. LYSANDROU & Y. LYSANDROU: Proregression and Dynamic Stasis: The Ambivalent Impact of English as Reflected in Postcolonial Writing
S. MUEHLEISEN: Towards Global Diglossia? English in the Sciences and the Humanities
J. PRICE: The Recording of Vocabulary from the Major Varieties of English in the Oxford English Dictionary
B. SEIDLHOFER & J. JENKINS: English as a Lingua Franca and the Politics of Property
THE CARIBBEAN AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA IN NORTH AMERICA AND BRITAIN
H. DEVONISH: Language Advocacy and 'Conquest' Diglossia in the 'Anglophone' Caribbean
H. SIMMONS-McDONALD: Decolonizing English: The Caribbean Counter-Thrust
F. DARROCH: Re-Reading the Religious Bodies of Postcolonial Literature
M. MEYER: An African's Trouble with His Masters' Voices
P. TOURNAY: Home, Hybridity and (post)colonial Discourse in Caryl Phillips's A State of Independence
ENGLISH AND ENGLISH-LANGUAGE WRITING IN AFRICA
N.M. KAMWANGAMALU: When 2+9=1: English and the Politics of Language Planning in a Multilingual Society: South Africa
KEMBO-SURE: The Democratization of Language Policy: A Cultural-Linguistic Analysis of the Status of English in Kenya
S.T.A. MAFU: Postcolonial Language Planning in Tanzania: What Are the Difficulties and What is the Way Out?
E. CHIAVETTA: 'Hear from my own lips': The Language of Women's Autobiographies
D. DEUBER & P. OLOKO: Linguistic and Literary Development of Nigerian Pidgin: The Contribution of Radio Drama
H. FRANK: 'That's all out of shape': Language and Racism in South African Drama
H. RAMSEY-KURZ: Beyond the Domain of Literacy: The Illiterate Other in The Heart of the Matter, Things Fall Apart and Waiting for the Barbarians
R. SAMIN: 'The nuisance one learns to put up with': English as a Linguistic Compromise in Es'kia Mphahlele's Fiction
THE POLITICS OF ENGLISH ON THE ASIAN SUBCONTINENT
D.C.R.A. GOONETILLEKE: The Interface of Language, Literature and Politics in Sri Lanka: A Paradigm for Ex-Colonies of Britain
P. PAUL: The Master's Language and its Indian Uses
R. WIJESINHA: Bringing Back the Bathwater: New Initiatives in English Policy in Sri Lanka
V. ALEXANDER: Cross-Cultural Encounters in Amit Chaudhuri's Afternoon Raag and Yasmine Gooneratne's A Change of Skies
Y. TAN: Imperial Pretensions and The Pleasures of Conquest
C. VOGT-WILLIAM: 'Language is the skin of my thought': Language Relations in Ancient Promises and The God of Small Things
NEW ZEALAND, CANADA, THE PHILIPPINES: ENGLISH IN MULTILINGUAL CONSTELLATIONS AROUND THE PACIFIC RIM
P.H. MARSDEN: From 'carefully modulated murmur' to 'not a place for sooks': New Zealand Ways of Writing English
M. KEOWN: Maori or English? The Politics of Language in Patricia Grace's Baby No-Eyes
J. HOLMES, M. STUBBE & M. MARRA: Language, Humour and Ethnic Identity Marking in New Zealand English
E. HASEBE-LUDT: Metissage and Memory: The Politics of Literacy Education in Canadian Curriculum and Classrooms
K. KNOPF: 'Joseph you know him he don trus dah Anglais' Or: English as Postcolonial Language in Canadian Indigenous Films
D. MANARPAAC: 'When I was a child I spake as a child': Reflecting on the Limits of a Nationalist Language Policy
CONTRIBUTORS
RESISTING (IN) ENGLISH: GLOBALIZATION AND ITS COUNTER-DISCOURSES
A. PENNYCOOK: Beyond Homogeny and Heterogeny: English as a Global and Worldly Language
R. PHILLIPSON: English for the Globe, or Only for Globe-Trotters? The world of the EU
T. SKUTNABB-KANGAS: Linguistic Diversity and Biodiversity: The Threat from Killer Languages
M. TOOLAN: English as the Supranational Language of Human Rights?
P. MUEHLHAEUSLER: English as an Exotic Language
R.J. ALEXANDER: G.lobal L.anguages O.ppress B.ut A.re L.iberating, Too: The Dialectics of English
P. LYSANDROU & Y. LYSANDROU: Proregression and Dynamic Stasis: The Ambivalent Impact of English as Reflected in Postcolonial Writing
S. MUEHLEISEN: Towards Global Diglossia? English in the Sciences and the Humanities
J. PRICE: The Recording of Vocabulary from the Major Varieties of English in the Oxford English Dictionary
B. SEIDLHOFER & J. JENKINS: English as a Lingua Franca and the Politics of Property
THE CARIBBEAN AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA IN NORTH AMERICA AND BRITAIN
H. DEVONISH: Language Advocacy and 'Conquest' Diglossia in the 'Anglophone' Caribbean
H. SIMMONS-McDONALD: Decolonizing English: The Caribbean Counter-Thrust
F. DARROCH: Re-Reading the Religious Bodies of Postcolonial Literature
M. MEYER: An African's Trouble with His Masters' Voices
P. TOURNAY: Home, Hybridity and (post)colonial Discourse in Caryl Phillips's A State of Independence
ENGLISH AND ENGLISH-LANGUAGE WRITING IN AFRICA
N.M. KAMWANGAMALU: When 2+9=1: English and the Politics of Language Planning in a Multilingual Society: South Africa
KEMBO-SURE: The Democratization of Language Policy: A Cultural-Linguistic Analysis of the Status of English in Kenya
S.T.A. MAFU: Postcolonial Language Planning in Tanzania: What Are the Difficulties and What is the Way Out?
E. CHIAVETTA: 'Hear from my own lips': The Language of Women's Autobiographies
D. DEUBER & P. OLOKO: Linguistic and Literary Development of Nigerian Pidgin: The Contribution of Radio Drama
H. FRANK: 'That's all out of shape': Language and Racism in South African Drama
H. RAMSEY-KURZ: Beyond the Domain of Literacy: The Illiterate Other in The Heart of the Matter, Things Fall Apart and Waiting for the Barbarians
R. SAMIN: 'The nuisance one learns to put up with': English as a Linguistic Compromise in Es'kia Mphahlele's Fiction
THE POLITICS OF ENGLISH ON THE ASIAN SUBCONTINENT
D.C.R.A. GOONETILLEKE: The Interface of Language, Literature and Politics in Sri Lanka: A Paradigm for Ex-Colonies of Britain
P. PAUL: The Master's Language and its Indian Uses
R. WIJESINHA: Bringing Back the Bathwater: New Initiatives in English Policy in Sri Lanka
V. ALEXANDER: Cross-Cultural Encounters in Amit Chaudhuri's Afternoon Raag and Yasmine Gooneratne's A Change of Skies
Y. TAN: Imperial Pretensions and The Pleasures of Conquest
C. VOGT-WILLIAM: 'Language is the skin of my thought': Language Relations in Ancient Promises and The God of Small Things
NEW ZEALAND, CANADA, THE PHILIPPINES: ENGLISH IN MULTILINGUAL CONSTELLATIONS AROUND THE PACIFIC RIM
P.H. MARSDEN: From 'carefully modulated murmur' to 'not a place for sooks': New Zealand Ways of Writing English
M. KEOWN: Maori or English? The Politics of Language in Patricia Grace's Baby No-Eyes
J. HOLMES, M. STUBBE & M. MARRA: Language, Humour and Ethnic Identity Marking in New Zealand English
E. HASEBE-LUDT: Metissage and Memory: The Politics of Literacy Education in Canadian Curriculum and Classrooms
K. KNOPF: 'Joseph you know him he don trus dah Anglais' Or: English as Postcolonial Language in Canadian Indigenous Films
D. MANARPAAC: 'When I was a child I spake as a child': Reflecting on the Limits of a Nationalist Language Policy
CONTRIBUTORS