In our current era of increased globalization, constraints on language variation in postcolonial English varieties are multifaceted. Local and global language ideologies collide and multiple sources of influence converge in present-day patterns of linguistic variation in emerging English varieties. While research into the structure and…

Language shift is the process by which a speech community in a contact situation (i.e. consisting of bilingual speakers) gradually stops using one of its two languages in favor of the other. The causal factors of language shift are generally considered to be social, and researchers have focused on speakers' attitudes (both explicit and unstated)…

This thesis investigates the mechanisms driving changes in social values, or those values emphasizing relationships, intimate bonds, and families, in the new market economies of Russia, China, and Eastern Germany. It is hypothesized that tensions between social values and individualism, materialism, and calculative rationality have arisen as a…