Worldwide Perspectives on English Usage
Worldwide Perspectives on English Usage
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The study of English usage has to take account of changes in grammar, word choice and nuances of communication. In recent decades, developments in linguistic methodologies have catalysed modifications In our approach to linguistic variation, with perspectives changing from a primarily prescriptive to a more descriptive approach. Bringing together contributions from a team of distinguished scholars, this book explores sociolinguistic and structural dimensions of variability in English usage through new research and methods such as corpora and survey instruments. It embraces the variety and diversity of English usage, exploring global attitudes towards language, including examples from countries where English is either a first language, such as Australia and Britain, to second language users from China, South Africa and beyond. Variability is investigated across both a number of media and registers, while lively and engaging discourse is used to introduce the global language landscape to anyone interested in this fascinating field.
- Written by a team of internationally recognised contributors, each chapter highlights diverse, high quality scholarly research for practice and application.
- Provides learners with key insights into linguistic history and development
- Covers a range of world-wide usage issues of both academic and general interest ensuring it is accessible for all readers intrigued by language theory
Product details
- Published: July 2026
- Format: Hardback
- ISBN: 9781009569644
- Length: 412 pages
- Dimensions: 229 × 152 mm
- Availability: Not yet published - available from July 2026
Table of Contents
- Introduction Peter Collins and Adam Smith
- Section 1. Usage Variation and Codification:
- 1. 'All-governing custom': corpus evidence in Pam Peters' Usage Guide Don Chapman
- 2. On national dictionaries: pluricentricity in the transnational context and the example of standard Canadian English Stefan Dollinger
- 3. 'No 'Afringlish', please, we're British': contemporary editorial practice and usage commentaries on South African English since the 1970s Bertus van Rooy, Haidee Kotze and Melanie Ann Law Favo
- 4. Being representative? Standardisation of the spoken word in Australian and British Hansard Adam Smith and Nigel Brew
- Section 2. Usage Variation Amid Social Diversity and Political Change:
- 5. Effects of L1 and social attitudes on English gender-fair pronouns Morana Lukac and Evan D. Bradley
- 6. Lexical influence of migrant languages on English in Australia Loy Lising and Sandra Gotz
- 7. Metaphor variations in public discourse in a dynamic multilingual society Winnie Huiheng Zeng, Kathleen Ahrens and Chu-Ren Huang
- 8. Light-verb constructions vs. simplex verbs in Sri Lankan English: corpus-based explorations of sociobiographic and structural factors Tobias Bernaisch
- 9. Uniformity and diversity at the same time? Artificial intelligence and the standardisation paradox in twenty-first century English Christian Mair
- Section 3. Corpus-Based Research on Variable Usage in Place and Medium:
- 10. Non-standard morphosyntactic features in colloquial Australian English Peter Collins
- 11. Looking forward to meet you: an embryonic pattern in Asian Englishes? Edgar W. Schneider
- 12. More so/moreso: the rise of a new conjunctive adverb? Laurel Brinton
- 13. Changing complementation of antagonistic protest Marianne Hundt
- 14. Evaluating three advanced methods for sociophonetic studies: whisper, LaBB-CAT and PrInDT Andreas Weilinghoff and Sarah Buschfeld
- 15. Triangulating methods to investigate language variation in left- and right-leaning Australian Twitter (X) users: a case study on 'climate' Darcy McCarthy and Monika Bednarek
- Epilogue Kate Burridge
- Index.
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