Abstract
The considerable demographic shift in the use of English worldwide, with the effect that L2 speakers outnumber L1 speakers, particularly as typified in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) communication, is now widely acknowledged in Applied Linguistics. To a certain extent the resulting impact this has in relation to key issues such as the ownership of English has also been recognised. Description of the linguistic consequences of this shift however is less established, and lingua franca corpora are still in their relatively early stages of development, though growing in momentum. This paper will contribute to the emerging body of work that does report on empirical studies in the field, drawing on two corpora of naturally occurring lingua franca interactions which have been gathered for PhD projects at King's College London. To date reported ELF research projects have tended to focus separately on one or other linguistic system, on phonology (e.g. Jenkins 2000; 2005), and to a lesser extent on pragmatics (e.g. House 1999), and on lexicogrammatical features (cf Seidlhofer 2004). The focus of this paper is to report on findings in both pragmatics and lexicogrammar, and in so doing to identify the interrelationship between the two systems and highlight ways in which they are mutually constitutive. The paper aims to show how pragmatic motives can lead to changes in the lexis and grammar, and in turn how lexicogrammatical innovations impact on pragmatic norms and strategies.
Highlights
The ongoing substantial shifts in the demographic trends of speakers of English have led to a situation which is without precedent in the history of human languages
Even though there is at least some willingness to accept the argument that speakers of lingua franca English be regarded as legitimate English users in their own right, there is still a vast imbalance in the description of ENL and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) in favour of the former, at the expense of the latter
The findings presented in this paper are drawn from two small scale corpora of spoken ELF communication, one where the data are analysed from a pragmatic perspective and the other where the focus is on lexicogrammar
Summary
The ongoing substantial shifts in the demographic trends of speakers of English have led to a situation which is without precedent in the history of human languages. If ELF scholars are accurate in their predictions this figure will consist not of speakers of English in the outer circle and, and largely, of L2 users of English in the expanding circle Far this has remained a concept that has not been accepted in the expanding circle (incidentally the only context where it is still customary to refer to ‘English’ solely in the singular form), in other words where it is customary to momentarily suspend, or perhaps forget, the fundamental sociolinguistic reality of the pluralism inherent in language. Perhaps it would suit our purpose better if we discussed lingua franca Englishes or if we were even more explicit than we already are in stating that the ‘E’ in ELF is to be interpreted plurally
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
