World Englishes: An Introduction

: After a brief overview of the main developments in the field of World Englishes (WEs) research, particularly with respect to different typologies and models of WEs, as well as advances in methodology, this introductory chapter provides short chapter summaries. The field generally labeled World Englishes (WEs) is rich and diverse, as research into structural, typological, and sociological aspects of varieties of English around the world has come a long way over the last forty years. The field has moved from the description of individual varieties, general modeling, and an overlap with traditional disciplines such as historical linguistics to highly dynamic topics requiring interdisciplinary approaches: transnationalism, language acquisition, identity formation, indexicality, and the role of new media and cyberspace. The complexity of the WEs paradigm (if indeed it is one single paradigm, a question that will be addressed repeatedly throughout the volume) derives from the fact that there are countless forms of English across the globe. These are difficult to classify: from informal and localized types to formal and supra-regional varieties, from internationally recognized to newly emerging local standards, from language-shift varieties to contact-derived pidgins and creoles, from second-language to learner varieties, and so on. English is now so spoken it truly represents “the language on which the sun never sets.” While this has given rise to processes of linguistic diversification that are unparalleled on a global scale, there are also consequences for language hegemony, the overall balance of world languages and local (applied) issues that affect the daily lives of hundreds of millions of speakers: English is the language of a global economy, substantial parts of public discourse, and, for many of its speakers, it provides access to education, wealth, and so on.