Grammatical Change in English World-Wide

The contributions to this volume apply and extend the techniques of corpus linguistics and diachronic linguistics to the challenge of describing and explaining grammatical change in varieties of English world-wide. The book is divided into two parts, with ten chapters on ‘Inner Circle’ varieties such as Australian, Canadian, and Irish English, and eight on ‘Outer Circle’ varieties such as Philippine, Indian, and Nigerian English. Contributors examine a range of topics including the progressive aspect, modal auxiliaries, do-support, verb morphology, and quotatives, using a wide variety of corpus resources. Overarching research questions addressed include the following: Do diachronic tendencies observed in a particular variety converge with, diverge from, or run in parallel with, those in the parent variety? What are the possible causes of changes observed (e.g. English teaching traditions, Americanisation, internal changes in registers)? This book will appeal to linguists, particularly those interested in grammatical description, corpus linguistics and World Englishes.

Valentin Werner, University of Bamberg, in English Language and Linguistics 20(1), (2016):
This volume showcases the merits of a corpus-based diachronic approach to postcolonial varieties of English, and thus extends the view on recent grammatical change in this area.[...] Grammatical change in English world-wide is a highly welcome addition to the field as it represents the first comprehensive effort taking this perspective.[...]The collection succeeds in providing a synopsis of the state of the art in the emerging area of corpus-based diachronic research of postcolonial varieties.