Global English(es): Diverging or converging?
English is the world's leading global language today, and it is undisputed that this expansion has caused it to become a highly pluricentric language. This is not the only trend today, however – ongoing processes strengthening diversification are countered by homogenizing forces. This lecture systematically surveys sociocultural trends which may be viewed as centrifugal and centripetal, respectively, and presents some new research results along these lines.
Two major diverging forces have produced new standard varieties and "centers" of orientation in the course of time. The first one was the separation of American English, originally motivated by sociopolitical attitudes. How different the two major national varieties of English really are is a matter of some dispute, however. Traditional scholarship tended to downplay the amount of differences to a well-known set of pronunciation characteristics and a few lexical choices and expressions. In contrast, some recent research findings are presented which suggest that differences are much less conspicuous and more subtle but ubiquitous. Secondly, in the twentieth century various postcolonial Englishes have started to go their own ways and to move towards endonormative stabilization in the evolutionary "Dynamic Model" (Schneider, Postcolonial English, CUP 2007). Notably, Australian English can now be accepted as a distinct standard form of its own, with some degree of model status for the Asia-Pacific region, a process which can be traced back to political and sociolinguistic developments of the second half of the twentieth century. New Zealand's variety seems to be following suit, and it is suggested that some Asian varieties, such as those of Singapore and India, may be moving along the same path.
Conversely, two converging trends, re-enhancing supraregional unity, are also identified and discussed on the basis of some new evidence. One is the question of whether an "International English" or an "English as a Lingua Franca" form is evolving – and it is suggested that there is little evidence available to back such an assumption, at least outside a highly restricted domain of formal and detached writing. Secondly, it is widely suggested that British-derived World Englishes are currently undergoing a process of "Americanization", associated with closely related processes such as globalization, westernization and "McDonaldization", and some recent evidence is presented to test such claims. The sociocognitive ramifications of these terms and putative processes, including some characteristic attitudes towards a perceived Americanization, are addressed; the findings of a systematic investigation of this process in South African English are reported; and some pertinent evidence relating to other varieties of English is pulled together. There is indeed some evidence backing the assumption of a growing impact of American English on young speakers in many countries, but this should not be overexaggerated.
In sum, the globalization of English has been characterized by conflicting sociocultural forces and linguistic consequences supporting both diversification and homogeneity, but in real-life oral communication the growth of pluricentricity seems unbroken.