The Sociolinguistics of Language Contact

I have for several years worked on the effects of language contact between English and the languages spoken in multilingual communities of India . All that research is now finally being worked into a co-authored book, under contract with Cambridge University Press. The contents of the book build on the work I have done on the structure, use and acquisition of English in non-native contexts. My initial research on English language contact (1995, 1996, 2000) focused on systematizing the available literature and presenting generalizations about Indian English as creative uses of a bilingual's linguistic repertoire. A related aspect of this research motivated an economic-theoretic framework of English language use to understand the dialectics of unity (standardization) and diversity (variation) in the historical, sociolinguistic, and ideological contexts of the global spread and use of English. Although it has been claimed that the global spread of English corrodes—and, in extreme cases, displaces—inherited and constructed socio-cultural and linguistic identities, I have instead argued that it also encourages the creation and revitalization of particular identities as a way disenfranchised groups gain control over systemic power (2001b). In related papers (2002, 2004), I analyzed the ideological strategies and rhetorical methods used by “experts” in the production and reproduction of Standard English ideology in non-native contexts. I argued that expert discourse establishes a habit of thought which makes the standard variety of English (British/American) essential, and all other varieties instances of deficit and deviation. A comprehensive treatment of the spread, functions and use of English appears in my (2001) paper, invited by the editors of Annual Review of Anthropology .