…Will we all talk like Americans?

Philip ShawEnglish Department

Stockholm University

Contents1 Americanization

– Dimensions– Examples

• Expanding circle Sweden• Inner circle NZ and Britain

2 Glocalization – Bebo3 Inner Circle divergence issues

– Vowels in New Zealand,vowels in Detroit4 Lingua franca issues

– The basic idea (Seidlhofer, Jenkins, Mauranen)– Examples (Beyza)– Status of the notion– Euro-English (Mollin)

Americanization

Levels to be considered: find examples of UK/US differences at each• Lexis

– Physical objects– Slang– Unclassifiable

SyntaxMorphologyPronunciation

– Phoneme system– Word-level– Realization

Levels to be considered• Lexis

– Physical/natural objects: cellphone/mobile phone; kerosene/paraffin; elk/red deer; hood/bonnet

– Slang: guy/bloke; it sucks; phat; bling– Unclassifiable: maybe/perhaps;

Syntax: she’s like What? / she goes What?; demand that he go/…should go;

Morphology: dove/dived; snuck/sneaked; ?toward/towardsPronunciation

– Phoneme system: caught/court/cot/soft/– Word-level: bath/chance; schedule; cCHECK WELLS!– Realization: examples of TRAP

Examples of /æ/

• Nigerian planets• Scottish pam • RP back (17) • Older RP back (87)• GA bad• Northern US cities back• NZ rat

Levels: where do you expect most difference among varieties?

where do you expect most Americanization?

formal informal

written Newspaper (+) textbook, school work

On-line chat, homepage

spoken Lecture, presentation,

Face-to-face chat, ’small talk’, daily interaction

Kachru’s Circles: where do you expect Americanization?

Expanding Circle– Dubbing countries– Subtitling countries

Outer Circle– Traditional L1 literacy– Limited traditional L1 literacy

Inner Circle– Non-codified varieties – Reference varieties

Americanization in Sweden: Söderlund & Modiano 2002 and Thörnstrand 2008

Americanization in the Inner Circle: Sources of innovation in NZE

Mayerhoff and Niedzelski 2003

Limits to Americanization in NZ

Mayerhoff and Niedzelski write: Even if New Zealanders are trying to sound

more American and/or more British, this somehow has to be reconciled with the fact that this gesture is embedded in an entire vowel system that is increasingly distinctive from any other variety of English (including other Southern Hemisphere varieties).

Cameron’s replication in LondonWe found that the proportion of British speakers reporting active use of American forms like truck, cookie, and can (either instead of or as well as the British equivalents) was indeed far lower than the proportion reported by either Meyerhoff or Bayard. Actually, in our sample the incidence of these foprms was negligible: most showed no sign of spreading at all. Our informants were also unlike many of the New Zealanders in Meyerhoff’s study in that they clearly identified the forms in question as American and therefore ’foreign ’.

The new quotatives

Swedish quotatives

Quotatives in the UK and Canada 1995-6

Quotatives in Scotland1997

Be like: same but differentBuchstaller 2006

• Overall, the stereotypes towards be like in the U.K. are relatively similar but not equivalent to the ones reported from the U.S. In both localities, be like is clearly associated with younger speakers. But while be like is rather associated with WC women in the British Isles, be like is perceived more as feature of MC (middle-class) women in the U.S. Similarly, U.S. and U.K. respondents agree on the socio‐economic class but not on the gender and age of go‐users. Taken together, these findings suggest that the perceptual load of global variables is not necessarily equivalent in different varieties. ……….. During the adoption process, speakers in the U.K. are attaching new and potentially different local social meaning to them.

British people’s beliefs about the origins of quotatives (Buchstaller)

go Be like

% N % N

U.S. 12 11 37 36

British 4 4 3 3

Other 9 8 4 4

No idea 74 67 56 55

Why is the UK not like NZ?

(Discuss)

Reverse influence

• Wee• Wanker

Glocalization

Glocalization

Mayerhoff and Niedzelski write:

We may want our descriptions of variation to distinguish clearly between cases where the details of the social and linguistic meaning of a variable are manifested in the nature and ranking of the constraints operating on the variable , and cases where diffeernt linguistic codes share only a superficial similarity in the form of a variable, but the constraints on the variable have been (re) created in, say, different comunities of practice.

”the penetration of American slang into British youthspeak via music and TV”

A lot of the slang recorded…..in East London would bewilder any high-school kid transplanted from the US, since it owes more to Bangladesh than Brooklyn: the hiphop nation’s phat and bling coexist with more localised terms like creps ’trainers’ and nang ’good’.Their language reflects their contact with global media , but is also strikingly rooted in the local….

• Cameron says

Da Ali G showAli: Selecta! I is ere wiv none uver dan da Queenie Mum of pop muzic,Madonna. Check it! Ali: So Madge, is you really preggers or as you just got a spare tyre up your

jumper? Madonna: No, I am five months pregnant, Ali. Ali: Wicked. So you ain't bin frough da menaplaws yet den? M: No, I thought I'd better have another baby before my time ran out,so to

speak. Ali: Aiiih, fer real. An who is da dad? Does you even know who da dad is? M: Of course I know who the father is. It's my boyfriend, Guy. Ali: An is e related to dat geezer who make all da fireworks for bonfire night?

What is Ali G doing with the language?

Bebo/myspace personal homepages

• The homepage seems to be a medium that includes a number of multimedia features (background music, background graphics, icons for different participants), and several textual genres.– Personal details

• Age, gender, location + some short comments on 'what I like' 'what I hate', etc. Written by owner = a persona/avatar assumed to be representative of the location.

– Comments• Short, (1-2 sentences) greetings, post-card like comments,. Many

different contributors, mostly acquaintances of the owner– Blog

• The Bebo format makes it possible to publish a blog on this page, but most are fairly short.

Three text genres on homepages

• Personal details– Age, gender, location + some short comments on 'what

I like' 'what I hate', etc. Written by owner: represents a persona/avatar which is assumed for these qualitative purposes to be representative of the location.

• Comments– Short, (1-2 sentences) greetings, post-card like

comments, arrangements to meet, comments on quality of page. Many different contributors, mostly acquaintances of the owner

• Blog– The Bebo format makes it possible to publish a blog on

this page, but most are fairly short.

Homepage spellings: Discussion

• What spelling do you expect for • you• going to• going, having, being, doing• the, that, with• think, thing, • together, later, better • what, because, thought, laugh • Any differences between US, England, Ireland?

Representations of YOU

0,010,0

20,030,040,050,0

60,070,080,0

90,0100,0

you ya ye u yu

UK 30US 30Ireland 30

Representations of GOING TO

0,010,0

20,030,040,050,0

60,070,080,0

90,0100,0

UK 15 US 18 Ireland 17

gonnaGoin to/2Going to/2

Results: -ing

0102030405060708090

100

England US Ireland

Summary: colloquial style

• A number of features representing colloquial style have similar distributions in all three national groups

Representations of THE /ð/

0,010,0

20,030,040,050,0

60,070,080,0

90,0100,0

the da de th

England 30US 30Ireland 30

Representations of THIS/THAT /ð/

0,010,0

20,030,040,050,0

60,070,080,0

90,0100,0

that dat this dis

England US Ireland

Representations of WITH /ð/ or /θ/

0,010,0

20,030,040,050,0

60,070,080,0

90,0100,0

with wid wit wiv wif

England 30US 26Ireland 29

Representations of THINK /θ/

0.010.0

20.030.0

40.050.0

60.070.0

80.090.0

100.0

Think* Fink* Tink*

England 21US 23Ireland 25

Representations of THING /θ/

010

20304050

607080

90100

thing fing ting

England 23US 25Ireland 25

Summary: dental fricatives• /ð/ is represented by <d> in all three groups, but more in

Ireland than the others. • The spelling <da> suggests that this is ‘cool’

AAVE/hiphop/London Jamaican.• <v> occurs only (?) in wiv in England• The spelling <de> suggests that in Ireland <d>also

represents Irish pronunciation• /θ/ is represented by /t/ in all three groups, but more in

Ireland than the others, perhaps representing Irish as well as ’cool’ pronunciation

• /θ/ is represented by /f/ outside the US, especially in England, presumably representing ’Estuary English’

Regularizations of WHAT

0,0

10,0

20,0

30,0

40,0

50,0

60,0

70,0

80,0

90,0

100,0

what wat wot wt wut

UK26US26Ireland 23

Regularizations of BECAUSE

0.0

10.020.0

30.040.0

50.0

60.070.0

80.090.0

100.0

Because cause (b)Coz/cos Cuz/cus

UK 19US 22Ireland 25

Regularizations of the vowel in THOUGHT

0,010,0

20,030,040,050,0

60,070,080,0

90,0100,0

thought <au> <augh> <ou> <or> <o>

England 14US 20Ireland 16

Regularizations of LAUGH

0,010,0

20,030,040,050,0

60,070,080,0

90,0100,0

laugh laff laf larf

England 12US 12Ireland 10

Summary of regularizationRegularization can reveal the (genuine, not

enacted) phonology of the writer’s system:• Representation of /ɑ: ↄ: / by spellings with <r>

only in non-rhotic group• Representation of the vowel in what, ’cause as

<u> in US, <o> i England• Representation of the vowel in thought as <o>

only in N. IrelandBut local fashion plays a part too: why ryt in

Europe not US?

Examples of localization• S. England I faught nah e neva wud• S. England giv us bell or somink init m8 l8ron• N. Ireland So ne othercrc wit ya?• Wales: this skwl iz cwl• US Well, Im gonna go watch Andy play

video gamesBUT• Ireland (north): just fot Id leave ya a wee

message to say ave fun dis weekend

Meanwhile, in the Outer Circle…..• hahs cam bak home after dat• den 7 + liaos yasmiin LAOPO sae wan go lot 1 again DIAOS . • cuuz der got nite market llors . • okayys n iie went again . DIAOS . • 1 dae go der 2 time alrights !• iie noe ii was mad but jus wanna buy handbag llors • =x walk around n ii dint find ani nice one llarr ! • pek cek liaos ‘• den go in lot1 AHA ! found 1 quiite niice de • buy yasmiin llaopo sae the cloth nortt niice de . N SO ii diidnt buy

llor DIIAOS .• so next to it ii found another one llarrh . • verii nice tis time yasmin laopo oso agree to it $18.40 lors kays llarrh

so BOUGHT it !

So will we all end upspeaking American English with

different accents?• No, probably not in the inner and outer

circles, but glocalized variety is not so great as local, and in the expanding circle there is no identity-base for localization, only global identities (local would be L2)

Differentiation

The universal vowel quadrilateral

i

e

a ɑ

u

o

ↄ

High/closeFront

Low/open

Back

Rounded/

Unrounded

ə

Central

Mid

u

oe

i300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

80010001200140016001800200022002400260028003000

ɒ

What does New Zealand English sound like?

In particular: kit, dress, trap

/ɪ/ centring in NZ (Trudgill, Gordon, and Lewis 1998)

The NZ vowel shifts (Watson et al 2000)

Arthur the rat• One fine day his aunt Josephine said to him, "Now look here! No

one will ever care for you if you carry on like this. You have no more mind of your own than a greasy old blade of grass!" The young rat coughed and looked wise, as usual, but said nothing.

• "Don't you think so?" said his aunt stamping with her foot, for she couldn't bear to see the young rat so coldblooded. "I don't know," was all he ever answered, and then he'd walk off to think for an hour or more, whether he would stay in his hole in the ground or go out into the loft.

• One night the rats heard a loud noise in the loft. It was a very dreary old place. The roof let the rain come washing in, the beams and rafters had all rotted through, so that the whole thing was quite unsafe. At last one of the joists gave way, and the beams fell with one edge on the floor. The walls shook, and the cupola fell off, and all the rats' hair stood on end with fear and horror.

What does English sound like in Detroit?

In particular, kit, dress, trap, lot, strut

Labov, Ash and Boberg 2005

Core areas of the NCCS

The St. Louis Corridor

u

oe

i300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

80010001200140016001800200022002400260028003000

ɑ

ɔ

Hi. My name is Monica, and I’ve grown up in Lansing my entire life. My parents are from Lansing, and my grandparents are from Lansing too. I went to Waverly High School, which is about ten minutes away, and I went to St. Gerard for my primary education. (Thanks to Denis Preston)

Monica: /ɑ/ is frontup: /ʌ/ is backLansing & grandparents: /æ/ is high & frontten & education: /ɛ/ is low & back

Lingua franca, global English, Euro-English

If not American, maybe a lingua franca norm?

Could there be a written norm different from the current US-British-Australian one?

Could standardisation be weaker?Could there be an

international/global/lingua-franca/Euro variety?

Lingua franca English situations

• Comunication is going on in English but no one or almost no one is a native

• Railway stations, airports, border crossings, youth hostels, hotels, lectures, group work, pop festivals, meetings, negotiations, ASEAN, ……

• Experience?

Lingua franca at the sharp endItalian immigration officials meet West African

boat survivors: A: Who helped you to escape from Nigeria?B: Di car kom pick os and I bin drive for Niger hhh di awa

yansh dem bin break hhh for di uranium mine dem hhh for won year

A: Did they did they make you to work in the mines whoB: Yeah hh di mine dem bin give di money for go awa away

for Agadez.. Hie won truck kom drive for di desert... After two days di sand bin make os >wakawaka< for di sun, mek Libya border no see os

A: The border, eh? Hhh You had no documents, eh?

Basilect in a lingua-franca situation

Allan James gives this example of ‘Austrian/Italian/Slovenian conversation’:

• A: I don wanna drink alcohol• B: Me too• C: I also not

Syrian (A) - Danish (B) lingua frnca negotiation

Alan Firth’s example  • A: So I told him not to send the cheese after the blowing in the

customs. We don’t want the order after the cheese is blowing• B I see, yes.• A So I don’t know what we can do with this order now. What

do you think we should do with this all blowing, Mr Hansen?• B I’m not uh (pause). Blowing? What is this, too big or what?• A: No the cheese is bad Mr Hansen. It is like fermenting in the

customs’ cool rooms.• B: Ah, it’s gone off.• A: Yes, it’s gone off.

Beyza Björkman’s academic lingua franca features

interaction lecturesIncorrect word forms/word formation 7 6Incorrect analytic comparative 15 18Incorrect plural forms/countability 19 30____Not marking the plural on the noun 37 154Article usage 30 159Double comparatives/ 16 8Subject-verb agreement 53 126 Tense and aspect 33 130Double comparatives/ superlatives 16 8Question formulation 56 18Pre-/ Post- dislocation 19 88Word order 23 31Negation 16 12

Lingua franca discourse features

• Successful communication adapted to needs of the situation (topic abandonment common in common-room chat, rare in dairy industry negotiations)

• Tolerance of variety• Phonological problems from certain

features • Need for lexical etc strategies

Lingua franca code features

• Almost confined to oral and informal-written (formal writing highly standardized to NS-like norm, but tolerance increasing?)

• Varied accent, often similar deviations from NS use, apparently to avoid redundancy, maximize explicitness.

The (Spoken) Lingua Franca Core

• By experiment and observation we can find out which features of spoken English are necessary for communication in instrumental lingua-franca situations.

• While there is no reason why these should be the only ones we focus on, they should be prioritised.

• Jenkins’ phonological core, Seidlhofer’s lexicogrammatical and pragmatic core.

Euro-English?• Adverb position and focussing My last point in relation to the

environmental benefits is that the enlargement is important for the environment also in the existing Member States .

• Verb complementation patterns may be different I am particularly pleased to be able to address you today …. I appreciate that we can exchange views and increase our mutual understanding on our common goal.

• Prepositions may be different prices on raw materials, I do not agree to the charges on the EU that it....= ‘agree with the charges against’

• minor morphological irregularities may be regularised: trees have no leafs

Lingua franca among exchange students

• ”..........though here in Sweden he practices English every day, he practices it mainly with Erasmus students. People who are in his same linguistic situation. These students could speak better or worse, but they are not the better sample to follow. But since they speak different languages from him, they are not making gross Spanish mistakes. He will develop a kind of Euro-English”

• But will he? Will his Euro-English be like others’ Euro-English?

Is there already a Euro-English norm?

• Sandra Mollin: no evidence of a new norm in informal EU-oriented texts,

• or in European academics’ attitudes And probably a norm will not emerge because

there is no Euro-English community or identity to support it; lingua-franca English is English in certain types of situation, not a variety.

Marko Modiano thinks the EU should formulate a Euro-English norm.

Websites • http://www.english.su.se/staff/shaw• http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-englishne

xt.htm• NJES website

https://gupea.ub.gu.se/dspace/handle/2077/204• IDEA website http://web.ku.edu/idea/• Vetenskapsengelska: med svensk kvalitet? Jansson,

Erland http://www.diva-portal.org/sh/abstract.xsql?dbid=1601