Abstract

AbstractCan ‘non‐native’ speakers of English innovate in English? This seemly simple question bothers sociolinguists and sociolinguistic research because we feel uncertain whether the ‘inventive’ productions by ‘non‐native’ speakers should be treated as evidence of creativity or mistakes. This article aims to tackle this question from a translanguaging perspective, using data from social media communication amongst multilingual English users in the Sinophone world. Examples include a range of creative expressions that mix elements of English with those from other languages and semiotic means. A translanguaging perspective raises questions about the very notion of named languages and offers a radically different way of analysing these expressions as socio‐politically meaningful linguistic innovations. The theoretical and methodological implications of the translanguaging approach for the study of linguistic innovation by multilingual language users and for the study of world Englishes are discussed.

Highlights

  • I began this paper with the question: should examples like those in Figures 1 and 2 be considered as linguistic innovation in English? My own answer to the question is yes and no

  • No, I would not consider them as innovations in English or any single, named language. They challenge the very notion of language by transcending the boundaries of named languages and the boundaries between language in the narrow sense of conventionalised speech and writing and other semiotic means, including colour, scriptal system, size, space, image, and sign

  • The translanguaging perspective focuses on the transgression, subversion, and turbulence that innovative and creative acts of the kind we have analysed in this paper promote

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

The central question that I am concerned with in this article is: should examples like these be considered linguistic innovation and change in English? I analyse the two examples above in more detail and give some further examples from the Sinophone world, highlighting the innovations multilingual language users of English make that transcend the boundaries of named languages as well as the boundaries between linguistic and other semiotic resources. This is followed by an account of the translanguaging approach.

BIASES IN STUDIES OF LINGUISTIC INNOVATION AND CHANGE
The English and European bias
The monolingual bias
The lingual bias
INNOVATIONS FROM THE SINOPHONE WORLD
THE TRANSLANGUAGING PERSPECTIVE ON LINGUISTIC INNOVATION
CONCLUSION
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