This book investigates –s marking in English verbs, specifically its manifestations in main verbs, in the past tense of BE, and in existential constructions. It embraces the many ways in which –s marking varies across the English speaking world, and considers both how it arose in these places historically and the ways in which it has since developed. The authors propose a story which holistically accounts for these different manifestations of –s, drawing upon evidence from a wide range of subdisciplines in linguistics, including sociolinguistics, generative syntax, historical linguistics, dialectology, and discourse-pragmatics. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars in these and related fields.

The worldwide spread, diversification, and globalization of the English language in the course of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries has significant implications for English Language Teaching and teacher education. We are currently witnessing a paradigm shift towards Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL) that aims to promote multilingualism and awareness of the diversity of Englishes, increase exposure to this diversity, embrace multiculturalism, and foster cross-cultural awareness. Numerous initiatives that embrace TEIL can be observed around the world, but ELT and teacher education in Germany (and other European countries) appear to be largely unaffected by this development, with standard British and American English and the monolingual native speaker (including the corresponding cultural norms) still being very much at the center of attention. The present volume addresses this gap and is the first of its kind to showcase recent initiatives that aim at introducing TEIL into ELT and teacher education in Germany, but which have applicability and impact for other countries with comparable education systems and ‘traditional’ ELT practices in the Expanding Circle. The chapters in this book provide a balanced mix of conceptual, empirical, and practical studies and offer the perspectives of the many stakeholders involved in various settings of English language education whose voices have not often been heard, i.e., students, university lecturers, trainee teachers, teacher educators, and in-service teachers. It therefore adds significantly to the limited amount of previous work on TEIL in Germany and bridges the gap between theory and practice that will not only be relevant for researchers, educators, and practitioners in English language education in Germany but other educational settings that are still unaffected by the shift towards TEIL.

AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS The new eighth edition of An Introduction to Sociolinguistics brings this valuable, bestselling textbook up to date with the latest in sociolinguistic research and pedagogy, providing a broad overview of the study of language in social context with accessible coverage of major concepts, theories, methods, issues, and debates within the field. This leading text helps students develop a critical perspective on language in society as they explore the complex connections between societal norms and language use. The eighth edition contains new and updated coverage of such topics as the societal aspects of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), multilingual societies and discourse, gender and sexuality, ideologies and language attitudes, and the social meanings of linguistic forms. Organized in four sections, this text first covers traditional language issues such as the distinction between languages and dialects, identification of regional and social variation within languages, and the role of context in language use and interpretation. Subsequent chapters cover approaches to research in sociolinguistics—variationist sociolinguistics, ethnography, and discourse analytic research—and address both macro– and micro-sociolinguistic aspects of multilingualism in national, transnational, global, and digital contexts. The concluding section of the text looks at language in relation to gender and sexuality, education, and language planning and policy issues. Featuring examples from a variety of languages and cultures that illustrate topics such as social and regional dialects, multilingualism, and the linguistic construction of identity, this text provides perspectives on both new and foundational research in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Eighth Edition, remains the ideal textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate course in sociolinguistics, language and society, linguistic anthropology, applied and theoretical linguistics, and education. The new edition has also been updated to support classroom application with a range of effective pedagogical tools, including end-of-chapter written exercises and an instructor website, as well as materials to support further learning such as reading suggestions, research ideas, and an updated companion student website containing a searchable glossary, a review guide, additional exercises and examples, and links to online resources.

The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes constitutes a comprehensive introduction to the study of World Englishes. Split into six sections with 40 contributions, this Handbook discusses how English is operating in a wide range of fields from business to popular culture and from education to new literatures in English and its increasing role as an international lingua franca. Bringing together more than 40 of the world’s leading scholars in World Englishes, the sections cover historical perspectives, regional varieties of English from across the world, recent and emerging trends and the pedagogical implications and the future of Englishes. The Handbook provides a thorough and updated overview of the field, taking into account the new directions in which the discipline is heading. This second edition includes up-to-date descriptions of a wide range of varieties of English and how these reflect the cultures of their new users, including new chapters on varieties in Bangladesh, Uganda, the Maldives and South Africa, as well as covering hot topics such as translanguaging and English after Brexit. With a new substantial introduction from the editor, the Handbook is an ideal resource for students of applied linguistics, as well as those in related degrees such as applied English language and TESOL/TEFL.

Urban Panamanian English presents the first detailed account of the English used by the descendants of the Afro-Caribbean builders of the Panama Canal. It offers an up-to-date sociolinguistic account of the Panamanian West Indian community of Panama City and Colón, including empirical coverage of the advanced state of language shift taking place among bilinguals. The book also showcases spoken interview data and takes stock of the variety’s grammatical features. In particular, it provides an advanced quantitative study of variation in the use of verbal -s which contributes to longstanding discussions regarding the principles constraining this variable in Englishes world-wide. This work of documentation and description richly complements existing research on Panamanian Creole English and spotlights Panama as part and parcel of the English-speaking Caribbean. As such, this book is of interest to all scholars and students of language contact, variation, and change.

The plural form 'Englishes' conveys the diversity of English as a global language, pinpointing the growth and existence of a large number of national, regional and social forms. The global spread of English and the new varieties that have emerged around the world has grown to be a vast area of study and research, which intersects multiple disciplines. This Handbook provides a comprehensive and authoritative survey of World Englishes from 1600 to the present day. Covering topics such as variationist sociolinguistics, pragmatics, contact linguistics, linguistic anthropology, corpus- and applied linguistics and language history, it combines discussion of traditional topics with a variety of innovative approaches. The chapters, all written by internationally acclaimed authorities, provide up-to-date discussions of the evolution of different Englishes around the globe, a comprehensive coverage of different models and approaches, and some original perspectives on current challenges.

The city as a complex socio-cultural structure plays a central role, economically, administratively as well as culturally. Factors such as higher population density, a more expansive infrastructure, and larger social and cultural diversity compared to rural areas have a substantial impact on urban society and urban communication. Focusing on the latter, the contributions to this volume discuss the characteristics and dynamics of urban language use, considering aspects such as contact, variation and change, as well as identity, indexicality, and attitudes, but also spatial factors including mobility, urbanisation/counterurbanisation, and diffusion processes. The collected articles provide an update of ‘first wave’ approaches of variationist sociolinguistics, but also establish a connection to ‘third wave’ research for readers from a broad range of fields, especially sociolinguistics, variationist linguistics, and dialectology. The book presents modern methodological and conceptual ideas and a wealth of new findings but also serves as a reference work, combining theoretical discussions with results from recent empirical studies.

This is the first of two volumes emanating from the Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages held at the University of Texas at Austin in February 2005. It features the keynote address delivered by Denis Bouchard on exaptation and linguistic explanation, as well as seventeen contributions by emerging and internationally recognized scholars of Spanish, French, Italian, as well as Rumanian. While the emphasis bears on formal analyses, the coverage is remarkably broad, as topics range from morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics and language acquisition. Each article seeks to represent a new perspective on these topics and a variety of frameworks and concepts are exploited: distributive morphology, entailment theory, grammaticalization, information structure, left-periphery, polarity lattice, spatial individuation, thematic hierarchy, etc. This volume will challenge anyone interested in current issues in theoretical Romance Linguistics.

Quotative marking in modern English is a highly dynamic domain which has been undergoing progressive expansion, with newcomer variants, notably quotative be like, entering the scene and restructuring the entire system. Given that this feature is being put foward by the younger generation in native-speaker communities, the crucial question is, How do younger speakers living in different parts of the non-Anglophone world appropriate this feature in their L2 English? This volume tackles this question by exploring the sociolinguistic mechanisms guiding the adoption of the newcomer be like by young adults speaking English as a second and as a foreign language. In so doing, it also explores the role of sociolinguistic salience and language attitudes in the process of adaptation of global linguistic innovations.

This fascinating book challenges the idea that languages are equally complex. Eighteen scholars look at evidence from a wide range of times and places. They consider the links between linguistic structure and change and social complexity. Their conclusions challenge conventional ideas about the nature of language and contemporary theory.