Corpus linguistics and New Englishes

Abstract

The rising status of English as a world language has resulted in the emergence of new varieties of English that have been legitimized by such expressions as New Englishes and New Varieties of English. Accepting the idea of New Englishes has allowed much-needed movement away from the previously accepted notions of nativeness and non-nativeness (Mesthrie 2010), and today, they are seen as systems unto themselves as opposed to deviant forms of traditional native varieties (Jenkins 2003). The current study investigates spoken and written registers of contemporary Indian English and demonstrates, through the investigation of WH-questions, and the circumstance adverbials also and only that Indian English shows the same kind of internal variation present in more traditional “native” varieties. Keywords: Indian English; register; circumstance adverbials; wh-questions