The Oxford Handbook of World Englishes

Markku Filppula · Juhani Klemola · Devyani Sharma

Feb 2017 · Oxford University Press

About this ebook

As the most widely documented language in human history, English holds a unique key to unlocking some of the mysteries of the uniquely human endowment of language. Yet the field of World Englishes has remained somewhat marginal in linguistic theory. This collection heralds a more direct and mutually constructive engagement with current linguistic theories, questions, and methodologies. It achieves this through areal overviews, theoretical chapters, and case studies. The 36 articles are divided between four themes: Foundations, World Englishes and Linguistic Theory, Areal Profiles, and Case Studies. Part I sets out the complex history of the global spread of English. This is followed, in Part II, by chapters addressing the mutual relevance and importance of World Englishes and numerous theoretical subfields of Linguistics. Part III offers detailed accounts of the structure and social histories of specific varieties of English spoken across the globe, highlighting points of theoretical interest. The collection closes with a set of case studies that exemplify the type of analysis encouraged by the volume. As attention is focused on innovative work at the interface of dialect description and theoretical explanation, the book is more succinct in its treatment of applied themes, which are given complementary coverage in other works.

About the author

Markku Filppula is Professor of English at the University of Eastern Finland. His research has focused on present-day and past varieties of English spoken in the British Isles and World Englishes. He is the author of The Grammar of Irish English: Language in Hibernian Style (Routledge, 1999), and co-author of English and Celtic in Contact (Routledge, 2008). He is co-editor of The Celtic Roots of English (University of Joensuu Press, 2002), Dialects Across Borders (Benjamins, 2005), and Vernacular Universals and Language Contacts (Routledge, 2009). Juhani Klemola is Professor of English Philology at the University of Tampere. His teaching and research interests are in dialect syntax, contact linguistics, and historical dialectology. Dr Klemola is co-author of English and Celtic in Contact (2008), and co-editor of a number of publications, including Vernacular Universals and Language Contacts: Evidence from Varieties of English and Beyond (2009), Types of Variation: Diachronic, Dialectal and Typological Interfaces (2006), Dialects Across Borders (2005) and The Celtic Roots of English (2002). Devyani Sharma is professor of sociolinguistics at Queen Mary, University of London. Her research deals with dialect variation in postcolonial and other Englishes, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, language contact, typology, and syntax. She has recently co-edited Research Methods in Linguistics (Cambridge University Press 2013) and English in the Indian Diaspora (Benjamins 2014).