English as a lingua franca through a usage-based perspective: merging the social and the cognitive in language use

Abstract

The focus on English as a lingua franca (ELF) has changed from one on form to one on function, with the interest shifting from the observed regularities of the code to multiple ELF uses in intercultural contexts. This article criticises both form- and function-oriented views on ELF for relegating an unprecedented linguistic phenomenon to the narrow confines of surface-level grammatical descriptions or pragmatically oriented strategic competencies. It offers instead a usage-based perspective which takes grammar as the cognitive (re-)organisation of the language user's experience with English in sociocultural contexts of intercultural communication. ELF interactants use the language to mediate cognition, with recurring commonalities in forms and functions leading to transitions from variation to variety through grammaticalisation processes. The emerging variety is unique because, unlike native language competence, it rests primarily on an explicit knowledge of English operationalised through controlled processes of cognition subserving its use. Nevertheless, the possibility exists for explicit knowledge to become implicit in time, with contextually guided ‘usage events’ bringing about the gradual mapping of sociocognition onto the grammar of an emerging variety of English, namely, ELF.