Areal Features of the Anglophone World (Topics in English Linguistics [TiEL] Book 80)

The intention of the present volume is to unite the research of a range of scholars who have been working on features of non-standard, vernacular English which show an areal distribution, i.e. which cluster geographically across the world. Features common to an area can be due to (i) shared dialect input, (ii) common but separate innovations after settlement, or (iii) area-internal diffusion from one variety to another and/or others. The relative weighting of these factors is an important topic in the book and is a key focus in the 17 chapters. The book is divided into two large blocks, the first one consisting of case studies (8 chapters) and the second with features complexes (9 chapters). The former look at major anglophone locations from an areal perspective while the latter examine linguistic categories and features with a view to determine whether these could be areally based or not. Case Studies. English in England -- David Britain ; English and Scots in Scotland -- Warren Maguire ; English in Ireland -- Raymond Hickey ; English in the United States -- Matthew J. Gordon ; English varieties in the Caribbean -- Jeffrey P. Williams ; English in Africa -- Thorsten Brato and Magnus Huber ; English in Asia -- Umberto Ansaldo and Lisa Lim ; Shared features in New Englishes -- Devyani Sharma ; English in Australia and New Zealand -- Pam Peters and Kate Burridge Feature complexes. Global features of English vernaculars -- J. K. Chambers ; Phonological inventories -- Daniel Schreier ; Negation in varieties of English -- Lieselotte Anderwald ; Tense and aspect -- Kerstin Lunkenheimer ; Verbal concord -- Lukas Pietsch ; Pronominal systems -- Susanne Wagner ; Reflexive and intensive self-forms -- Peter Siemund, Georg Maier and Martin Schweinberger ; Vocabulary -- Stephan E. Gramley ; Pragmatics -- Klaus P. Schneider ;-- Subject index ;-- Name index ;-- Language index.

The intention of the present volume is to unite the research of a range of scholars who have been working on features of non-standard, vernacular English which show an areal distribution, i.e. which cluster geographically across the world. Features common to an area can be due to (i) shared dialect input, (ii) common but separate innovations after settlement, or (iii) area-internal diffusion from one variety to another and/or others. The relative weighting of these factors is an important topic in the book and is a key focus in the 17 chapters.

The book is divided into two large blocks, the first one consisting of case studies (8 chapters) and the second with features complexes (9 chapters). The former look at major anglophone locations from an areal perspective while the latter examine linguistic categories and features with a view to determine whether these could be areally based or not.

The present volume seeks to unite the research of a range of scholars working on features of non-standard, vernacular English which show an areal distribution, i.e. which cluster geographically across the world. The volume is concerned with dialect input, innovations among varieties of English andthe areal diffusion of features among varieties. These and similar issues form the central focus of the volume. Biographical note: Raymond Hickey, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany