English is a global language which has spread historically through imperialism and more recently through communication networks throughout the world. This research monograph examines English as it is spoken by the Xhosa people in South Africa, and is based primarily on an extensive spoken corpus of Xhosa English.
English is a global language which has spread historically through imperialism and more recently through communication networks throughout the world. In each location in which English is spoken it absorbs some of the idiosyncracies of the language native to that region, and one of the most fascinating areas of research for World Englishes is the African context. This research monograph examines English as it is spoken in South Africa, and is based primarily on an extensive spoken corpus of Xhosa English. Vivian de Klerk presents a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the historical development of this language, and of English in South Africa more generally. The book outlines how the corpus of spoken language was designed and built, and discusses the criteria relating to informants, spoken categories, codes and transcription conventions. The syntactic, phonological and pragmatic features of Xhosa English as demonstrated by the corpus are described in detail, and two chapters focus on discourse markers such as 'actually' and 'well'. The second section of this book examines the sociolinguistic implications of the corpus findings. Vivian de Klerk looks at language in educational, legal, social, cultural and everyday contexts. The final chapter of the book speculates as to the future of this fascinating variety of English in a globalised world. This cutting-edge study will be of interest to researchers in world Englishes, language variation and corpus linguistics.
"This book should be of great interest to students and researchers... [it] offers inspiring discussions on issues of linguistic identity and language attitude in the speech community...this book is beautifully written, well-structured, and extremely accessible. It is an exemplary work for students interested in pursuing corpus-based language studies and a valuable resource for researchers interested in studying BSAE and XE as world Englishes." Xiaofei Lu, The Linguist List, 2007
