The variety of English spoken by about half a million people in the Canadian province of Quebec is a minority language in intensive contact with French, the local majority language. This unusual contact situation has produced a unique variety of English which displays many instances of French influence that distinguish it from other types of…

Newfoundland English has long been considered autonomous within the North American context. Sociolinguistic studies conducted over the past three decades, however, typically suggest cross-generational change in phonetic feature use, motivated by greater alignment with mainland Canadian English norms. The present study uses data spanning the past…

Examines ways in which modern varieties of English around the world differ in eight specific aspects of relative clause formation, focusing on the theoretical implications of some of the phenomena, their likely origins, and possible explanations for cases in which features are shared by apparently unassociated varieties. (Author/MSE)

Examines a specific type of code switching that occurs when bilingual peers make relevant their dual and simultaneous membership in the two groups symbolized by the two linguistic varieties involved in the switching pattern. Structural constraints and switching are discussed across code-switching types. (31 references) (Author/OD)

Explores an Optimality-Theoretic approach to account for observed cross-linguistic patterns of code switching that assumes that code switching strives for well-formedness. Optimization of well-formedness in code switching is shown to follow from (violable) ranked constraints. An argument is advanced that code-switching patterns emerge from…

Suggests that the variety of English spoken in Brunei (BNE), sometimes called nonstandard, is still at an early stage of development and there is little awareness among its speakers of some differences from standard English (STE). Results of a grammaticality judgment test administered to 106 university students, designed to find nonstandard verb…

A study investigated the syntax and semantics of the word "until" in Standard British English and Singapore English. While the word is used similarly in the two languages, it has uses in Singapore English not available in Standard Spoken English, paralleling the word "dao" in Chinese and suggesting a substrate influence that is…

Considers the frequently indefinable distinctions between descriptive and prescriptive English grammars, using examples of standard English and dialects to illustrate the uses of each. (Author/CB)

Argues that conceptualization of English as an international language must take into account the changes the language has undergone in becoming an international medium of communication and that the diverse cultural identities of teachers of World English serve to enrich the language and reflect changes in it. (MSE)

Examines the simultaneous development of two linguistic competences in the bilingual child. Special attention is devoted to the role of functional categories in the development patterns attested, and a position is taken that is intermediate between two hypotheses: the strong hypothesis and the weak hypothesis. Childhood bilingualism is viewed as a…

Investigates stress placement in the English of Spanish Speakers and in speakers of Nigerian English and Singapore English. Reveals that these three varieties have in common several patterns of stress placement that are distinct from British or American English. Shows that these patterns cannot be accounted for by transfer. (Author/VWL)

Code-switching (CS) patterns of bilingual English-Mandarin speakers underwent structural and functional analysis to reveal the interrelationship between form and function in bilingual CS discourse. Results indicate that certain syntactic forms are utilized to express certain functions in CS discourse and that interlocutor participation helps…

Examines the distribution of word-final "/z/" in New Zealand English. The article identifies three main variants of word-final "/z/": a voiced variant, a partially devoiced variant, and a voiceless variant. Findings indicate that the voiceless variant is used more often by Maori than by Pakeha New Zealanders, and that young…

Discusses issues in the role of non-native English variants as an endonormative standard in non-English-speaking countries, including the status of innovations in the nativization process, continued use of normative standards as a point of reference, ambivalence between recognition and acceptance of non-native norms, adequacy of pedagogical…

Examines code mixing and borrowing across two generations of New York Puerto Ricans, and explores the possibility of existence of a lifecycle of language use in the community. (26 references) (Author/OD)