English As A Global Language - Cultural Diplomacy

English as a global languageSecond editionDavid Crystal, world authority on the English language, presents a livelyand factual account of the rise of English as a global language and explores the whys and wherefores of the history, current status and futurepotential of English as the international language of communication. English has been lauded as the most ‘successful’ language ever, with 1,500million speakers worldwide; but Crystal avoids taking sides and tells thestory in a measured but engaging way, backed by facts and figures. Thisnew edition of his classic book contains extra sections (on subjects including the linguistic features of New Englishes, the future of English asa world language, and the possibility of an English ‘family’ of languages),footnotes and a full bibliography. There are updates throughout. This isa book for anyone of any nationality concerned with English: teachers,students, language professionals, politicians, general readers and anyonewith a love of the language.D AVI D C R YS TA L is one of the world’s foremost authorities on language.He is author of the hugely successful Cambridge encyclopedia of language(1987; second edition 1997), Cambridge encyclopedia of the Englishlanguage (1995), Language death (2000), Language and the Internet(2001) and Shakespeare’s words (2002, with Ben Crystal). An internationally renowned writer, journal editor, lecturer and broadcaster, hereceived an OBE in 1995 for his services to the study and teaching ofthe English language. His edited books include several editions of TheCambridge encyclopedia (1990–2000) and related publications, Wordson words (2000, with Hilary Crystal) and The new Penguin encyclopedia(2002).

English as a global languageSecond editionDAVID CRYSTAL

Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São PauloCambridge University PressThe Edinburgh Building, Cambridge , United KingdomPublished in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New Yorkwww.cambridge.orgInformation on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521823470 David Crystal 1997, 2003This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision ofrelevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take placewithout the written permission of Cambridge University Press.First published in print format 2003 - - - - - - eBook (NetLibrary) - - - eBook (NetLibrary) - - - - - - hardback - - - hardback - - - - - - paperback - - - paperbackCambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of s for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does notguarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

ContentsList of tablesPreface to the second editionPreface to the first editionpage viiixxii1Why a global language?What is a global language?What makes a global language?Why do we need a global language?What are the dangers of a global language?Could anything stop a global language?A critical era137111425272Why English? The historical contextOriginsAmericaCanadaThe CaribbeanAustralia and New ZealandSouth AfricaSouth AsiaFormer colonial AfricaSouth-east Asia and the South PacificA world view2930313639404346495459v

Contents3Why English? The cultural foundationPolitical developmentsAccess to knowledgeTaken for granted727880834Why English? The cultural legacyInternational relationsThe mediaThe pressAdvertisingBroadcastingCinemaPopular musicInternational travelInternational safetyEducationCommunicationsThe right place at the right time868690919395981001041061101141205The future of global EnglishThe rejection of EnglishContrasting attitudes: the US situationNew EnglishesThe linguistic character of new EnglishesGrammarVocabularyCode-switchingOther domainsThe future of English as a world languageAn English family of languages?A unique esIndex192202vi

List of tables1Speakers of English in territories where thelanguage has had special relevance2Annual growth rate in population in selectedcountries, 1996–20013(a) Some differences in British and Americanadverbial usage(b) Specific adverb adjective pairs showingdifferences in conversational usage4Some potentially distinctive grammaticalfeatures of New Englishes5Some distinctive collocations and idiomsnoted in Pakistan, Nigeria and Ghanaviipage 6271150150153163

Preface to the second editionAlthough English as a global language did not appear until 1997,it was actually written in 1995, which in 2002 seems a very longtime ago, as far as global linguistic developments are concerned.The 1990s were a revolutionary decade, in that respect, with aproliferation of new linguistic varieties arising out of the worldwide implementation of the Internet, an emerging awareness ofthe crisis affecting the world’s endangered languages, and an increasingly public recognition of the global position of English.Academic publications relating to this last topic seriously increasedin number and weight. The largely article-driven literature of previous decades had typically been exploratory and programmatic,restricted to individual situations, anecdotal in illustration, lackinga sociolinguistic frame of reference, and focusing on the written(and usually literary) language. By contrast, the 1990s saw theemergence of a more comprehensive perspective in which spokenvarieties became prominent, there was a real increase in theamount of descriptive data, and attempts were made to arrive atexplanations and to make predictions of an appropriately generaland sociolinguistically informed character.In particular, several book-length treatments of English appeared, each providing a personal synthesis of previous observations and speculations, and focusing on the phenomenon of globalEnglish as an end in itself. By the end of the decade, the different attitudes had highlit a number of important theoretical issues,ix

Preface to the second editionand made it possible to see the various kinds of focus adopted byindividual authors. I came to see the first edition of the presentbook, as a consequence, more clearly as predominantly a retrospective account, examining the range of historical factors whichhave led to the current position of English in the world. Althoughavoiding firm predictions about the future, I thought it likely thatEnglish ‘has already grown to be independent of any form ofsocial control’ (1st edition, p. 139). In my view the momentumof growth has become so great that there is nothing likely to stopits continued spread as a global lingua franca, at least in the foreseeable future. Other books took different perspectives. For example, David Graddol’s The future of English, published in 1998,looked towards the future, beginning with the present-day situation, and examining the contemporary trends likely to affect thelanguage’s eventual role. For him, English is certainly stoppable.Emphasizing the unpredictability inherent in language use, hesuggested that ‘the current global wave of English may lose momentum’ (p. 60) and saw the real possibility of new language hierarchies emerging in the next century, with English holding a lessglobal position. Then Tom McArthur, in The English languages,also published in 1998, adopted a more synchronic perspective,moving away from a monolithic concept of English. His primaryfocus was on the kinds of variation encountered in the language asa consequence of its global spread. He suggested that English wasundergoing a process of radical change which would eventuallylead to fragmentation into a ‘family of languages’.The role of these books has been to underline some of the parameters of inquiry which must influence the next wave of empirical studies. From a stage when there were few general hypothesesto motivate research, we now have a multiplicity of them. Someare issues relating to language use: several political, economic,demographic and social factors have been identified as potentialinfluences on world language presence, all of which have been recognized as operating at local regional levels, such as in relation tominority languages or endangered languages; however, the role ofsuch factors at a global level remains virtually unexplored. Othersare issues affecting language structure: the way in which regionaland social factors influence the growth of language varieties andx

Preface to the second editionfoster linguistic change has formed much of the subject-matter ofsociolinguistics and dialectology; but here, too, there is as yet littleunderstanding of what happens when these processes begin to operate at a macro level. To take just one example: the radical diversification envisioned by McArthur could have several outcomes,certainly including the development of an English family of languages, but also resulting in various forms of multiglossia (goingwell beyond current conceptions of diglossia), the emergence ofmore complex notions of ‘standard’, and different kinds of multidialectism. We have as yet no adequate typology of the remarkablerange of language contact situations which have emerged as a consequence of globalization, either physically (e.g. through population movement and economic development) or virtually (e.g.through Internet communication and satellite broadcasting).I originally wrote English as a global language as (what I hopedwould be) a straightforward read, and chose not to impede theflow for a general reader by providing an array of academic footnotes and a full bibliographical apparatus. When I wanted to makea specific reference, I incorporated it into the text. I think now,several years on, things have changed, with very much more literature available to refer to, and more points of view to take into account, so for this new edition I have adopted a more conventionalacademic style of presentation. As far as content is concerned, themain change has been an expanded chapter 5, which now includesa long section illustrating and discussing the structural featuresof ‘New Englishes’. This too has been the consequence of themuch greater availability of descriptive studies of individual varieties than was the case a decade ago. Finally, all population figuresand estimates of usage have been updated to the year 2001.David CrystalHolyheadPublisher’s note:The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press.However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.xi