Empirical perspectives on English as a lingua franca (ELF) grammar

Bibliographic Data

ID3018560
AuthorsMikko Laitinen (0000-0003-3123-6932, University of Eastern Finland Finland, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume39
Issue3
Pages427-442
Publication date2020-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Englishes (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0883-2919 • E-ISSN: 1467-971X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/weng.12482
OpenAlexW3016390154
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited31

This article focuses on grammatical variation in English as a lingua franca (ELF). Calling for more systematic corpus studies, it presents three empirical perspectives that broaden and deepen the study of grammatical variability in ELF. These approaches focus on tracing how ongoing grammatical change in core and emergent modal auxiliaries is adopted in ELF. The empirical evidence is drawn from various ELF corpora that cover multiple genres. Utilizing the quantitative paradigm and building on corpus-based variationist methods, the three perspectives highlight and call for more studies (1) in which the object of study consists of broad grammatical categories and which compare quantitative patterns between ELF and other types of Englishes, (2) that combine quantitative methods with close-up qualitative analyses, and (3) that investigate probabilistic constraints in ELF grammar. The results show that ELF is shaped by the same natural evolutionary processes that affect the established varieties

Empirical research · English as a lingua franca · Epistemology · Grammar · Lingua franca · Linguistics · Sociology · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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