Testing the Dynamic Model

Abstract

A recent special issue of the Journal of English Linguistics has highlighted the paucity of empirical research into the evolutionary dynamics of Outer Circle varieties of English. This article seeks to narrow this conspicuous research gap by presenting the findings of a corpus-based study of the evolution of the Hong Kong English (HKE) lexicon. The investigation was inspired by Schneider’s innovative theoretical framework, the Dynamic Model, which claims that a uniform process involving a sequence of five phases underlies the emergence of postcolonial Englishes. The study was based on the principle that such phases should emerge from the analysis of a uniform set of diachronic data, which in this case consists of a ninety-one-million-word corpus of Legislative Council proceedings (1858-2012). By tracking the use of HKE words in the corpus, the study is able to identify distinct phases in the evolution of the lexicon and thereby provide evidence of the developmental cycle of HKE as a variety.