New reflections on the evolutionary dynamics of world Englishes

Abstract

ABSTRACT The ongoing expansion and diversification of English, especially in the Expanding Circle, calls for a comparative analysis of these processes and a deepened theoretical understanding of this dynamism. A key question asked in this paper is whether or to what extent the ‘Dynamic Model’ of the evolution of Postcolonial Englishes is able to explain these processes and can be applied to Extending Circle countries as well. A decade after its first influential publication, reactions to the model are surveyed systematically, including some new applications, modifications, approaches at testing it, and some criticism. Applying the comparative‐descriptive framework of this model and some of its constituent components, the progress of English is outlined in China, Korea, and (less broadly) Japan, the ASEAN, Thailand, Namibia, and Rwanda. Furthermore, it is argued that a similar dynamism is driving the widespread emergence of hybrid mixes between local languages and English and phenomena of ‘poststructuralist diffusion,’ English being adopted by whatever means, in fragments and unconstrained of norm concerns, driven by strongly utilitarian considerations. A tabular summary assessment compares these processes with constituents of the Dynamic Model and finds that despite some similarities it is not well suited to grasp the vibrant developments of the Expanding Circle. Instead, the notion of ‘transnational attraction’ is defined and proposed as an appropriate conceptual framework.

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