New voices in the canon
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Jill Hallett
Abstract
Literature in non-canonical Englishes is infused with distinct culture, history, and politics. Should the creative writer adhere strictly to traditional English literary norms, language use would seem artificial and unconvincing, and social nuances would be lost. This paper tests this hypothesis with African-American English (AAE) literature. One passage was scanned for AAE features, and examined for social nuances these features convey. European-American and African-American respondents received passages as written and with AAE features deleted, with follow-up questionnaires. Results indicate connections made between language used in the text and identification of character background and desire to read more by this author. The function of non-traditional linguistic elements is demonstrated, supporting their inclusion in pedagogical texts.
Abstract
Literature in non-canonical Englishes is infused with distinct culture, history, and politics. Should the creative writer adhere strictly to traditional English literary norms, language use would seem artificial and unconvincing, and social nuances would be lost. This paper tests this hypothesis with African-American English (AAE) literature. One passage was scanned for AAE features, and examined for social nuances these features convey. European-American and African-American respondents received passages as written and with AAE features deleted, with follow-up questionnaires. Results indicate connections made between language used in the text and identification of character background and desire to read more by this author. The function of non-traditional linguistic elements is demonstrated, supporting their inclusion in pedagogical texts.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Series editor’s preface ix
- Acknowledgements xiii
- Introduction xv
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1. Focus on
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1.1 Africa
- Deracialising the GOOSE vowel in South African English 3
- Codifying Ghanaian English 19
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1.2 The Caribbean
- Corpus linguistics meets sociolinguistics 39
- Rhoticity in educated Jamaican English 61
- Standard English in the secondary school in Trinidad 83
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1.3 Australia and New Zealand
- Australian English as a regional epicenter 107
- Finding one’s own vowel space 125
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1.4 Asia
- Language in Hong Kong 143
- The roles of English in Southeast Asian legal systems 155
- Not just an “Outer Circle”, “Asian” English 179
- “Where’s the party yaar !” 207
- Innovation in second language phonology 227
- Intelligibility assessment of Japanese accents 239
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2. The global perspective
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2.1 Comparative studies
- World Englishes between simplification and complexification 265
- Global feature — local norms? 287
- The shared core of the perfect across Englishes 309
- Word-formation in New Englishes 331
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2.2 New approaches
- The indigenization of English in North America 353
- Perspectives on English as a lingua franca 369
- A discourse-historical approach to the English native speaker 385
- World Englishes and Peace Sociolinguistics 407
- New voices in the canon 415
- Index 433
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Series editor’s preface ix
- Acknowledgements xiii
- Introduction xv
-
1. Focus on
-
1.1 Africa
- Deracialising the GOOSE vowel in South African English 3
- Codifying Ghanaian English 19
-
1.2 The Caribbean
- Corpus linguistics meets sociolinguistics 39
- Rhoticity in educated Jamaican English 61
- Standard English in the secondary school in Trinidad 83
-
1.3 Australia and New Zealand
- Australian English as a regional epicenter 107
- Finding one’s own vowel space 125
-
1.4 Asia
- Language in Hong Kong 143
- The roles of English in Southeast Asian legal systems 155
- Not just an “Outer Circle”, “Asian” English 179
- “Where’s the party yaar !” 207
- Innovation in second language phonology 227
- Intelligibility assessment of Japanese accents 239
-
2. The global perspective
-
2.1 Comparative studies
- World Englishes between simplification and complexification 265
- Global feature — local norms? 287
- The shared core of the perfect across Englishes 309
- Word-formation in New Englishes 331
-
2.2 New approaches
- The indigenization of English in North America 353
- Perspectives on English as a lingua franca 369
- A discourse-historical approach to the English native speaker 385
- World Englishes and Peace Sociolinguistics 407
- New voices in the canon 415
- Index 433
