Chapter 10 The pluricentricity and ownership of English
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Nkonko M. Kamwangamalu
Abstract
English is the most widely spread and spreading language around the world. As English has spread and new varieties of English have emerged in former British and American colonies as well as in countries with no colonial ties to Britain or the United States, questions have been raised about how to model this diversity of English and about who owns the language. In his ‘new Englishes’ paradigm, Braj Kachru has proposed three concentric circles of English - the inner circle, the outer circle, and the expanding circle - which some ‘new Englishes’ scholars equate with the ENL-ESL-EFL trichotomy. Kachru has argued that English belongs to all who use it, regardless of how the literature defines them, as natives or non-natives. This chapter critiques and calls into question the theoretical and functional usefulness of the distinction between native and non-native Englishes (NS/NNS). The chapter revisits the concept of English as a first language and argues that the term better captures the evolving nature and changing face of English in both post-colonial as well as non-colonial contexts, where English has also been acculturated and is used by some as first or only language in their daily language practices. Drawing on data from African Englishes, the chapter highlights some of the processes involved in the acculturation of English in support of the advanced argument, with a focus on lexical transfer from the indigenous languages into English, internal lexical creativity, idiomatic expressions, and selected syntactic features.
Abstract
English is the most widely spread and spreading language around the world. As English has spread and new varieties of English have emerged in former British and American colonies as well as in countries with no colonial ties to Britain or the United States, questions have been raised about how to model this diversity of English and about who owns the language. In his ‘new Englishes’ paradigm, Braj Kachru has proposed three concentric circles of English - the inner circle, the outer circle, and the expanding circle - which some ‘new Englishes’ scholars equate with the ENL-ESL-EFL trichotomy. Kachru has argued that English belongs to all who use it, regardless of how the literature defines them, as natives or non-natives. This chapter critiques and calls into question the theoretical and functional usefulness of the distinction between native and non-native Englishes (NS/NNS). The chapter revisits the concept of English as a first language and argues that the term better captures the evolving nature and changing face of English in both post-colonial as well as non-colonial contexts, where English has also been acculturated and is used by some as first or only language in their daily language practices. Drawing on data from African Englishes, the chapter highlights some of the processes involved in the acculturation of English in support of the advanced argument, with a focus on lexical transfer from the indigenous languages into English, internal lexical creativity, idiomatic expressions, and selected syntactic features.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction: The changing face of the “native speaker” 1
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Part one: Conceptual discussions
- Chapter 1 Why the mythical “native speaker” has mud on its face 25
- Chapter 2 The multilingual and multicompetent native speaker 47
- Chapter 3 New speakers: New linguistic subjects 71
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Part two: Practices and representations
- Chapter 4 Is there a native speaker in the class? A didactic view of a problematic notion 103
- Chapter 5 On the paradox of being native speakers of two “competing” languages: Turkish as the mother or the father tongue of Greek nationals 133
- Chapter 6 What kind of speakers are these? Placing heritage speakers of Russian on a continuum 155
- Chapter 7 The out-of-sight of “native speaker”: A critical journey through models of social representations of plurilingual identities 179
- Chapter 8 Practice-proof concepts? Rethinking linguistic borders and families in multilingual communication: Exploiting the relationship between intercomprehension and translanguaging 209
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Part three: Policies and controversies
- Chapter 9 Provenance and possession: Rethinking the mother tongue 233
- Chapter 10 The pluricentricity and ownership of English 253
- Chapter 11 “I want to be bilingual!” Contested imaginings of bilingualism in New Brunswick, Canada 285
- Chapter 12 Questioning the questions: Institutional and individual perspectives on children’s language repertoires 315
- Afterword 347
- Index 353
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction: The changing face of the “native speaker” 1
-
Part one: Conceptual discussions
- Chapter 1 Why the mythical “native speaker” has mud on its face 25
- Chapter 2 The multilingual and multicompetent native speaker 47
- Chapter 3 New speakers: New linguistic subjects 71
-
Part two: Practices and representations
- Chapter 4 Is there a native speaker in the class? A didactic view of a problematic notion 103
- Chapter 5 On the paradox of being native speakers of two “competing” languages: Turkish as the mother or the father tongue of Greek nationals 133
- Chapter 6 What kind of speakers are these? Placing heritage speakers of Russian on a continuum 155
- Chapter 7 The out-of-sight of “native speaker”: A critical journey through models of social representations of plurilingual identities 179
- Chapter 8 Practice-proof concepts? Rethinking linguistic borders and families in multilingual communication: Exploiting the relationship between intercomprehension and translanguaging 209
-
Part three: Policies and controversies
- Chapter 9 Provenance and possession: Rethinking the mother tongue 233
- Chapter 10 The pluricentricity and ownership of English 253
- Chapter 11 “I want to be bilingual!” Contested imaginings of bilingualism in New Brunswick, Canada 285
- Chapter 12 Questioning the questions: Institutional and individual perspectives on children’s language repertoires 315
- Afterword 347
- Index 353
