Chapter 6
The pluricentricity vs. pluriareality debate
What postcolonial diffusion and transnational language contact can tell us
The notions “pluricentricity” and “pluriareality” are hotly debated conceptions, in particular among linguists aiming to conceptualize the spread and standards of the German language (e.g. Dollinger 2019a, 2019b; Elspaß et al. 2017; Muhr 2013, 2020; Scheuringer 1996). The present chapter aims to shed light on this controversy from an Anglophone perspective. Drawing on examples of general linguistic distribution patterns and language use in Southeast Asia and Southern Africa, I discuss what the two notions can contribute to our understanding and conceptualization of the English language. The conclusion, however, will be far from satisfactory for the strict proponents of the two approaches: I argue that both are valid approaches and not necessarily mutually exclusive. Only a joint perspective can shed conclusive light on the spread, conceptualizations, and standards of supra-national languages such as English (and probably also German). Further, I will argue that in times of ongoing globalization, these conceptions become increasingly obsolete, requiring more flexible approaches to linguistic variation — at least if we take on the global perspective.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Pluricentricity vs. pluriareality: Two competing approaches?
- 3.English from postcolonial diffusion to globalization
- 3.1Singapore English: Emerging epicenter standard or southeast Asian Englishes continuum?
- 3.2Namibian English: A product of South African epicentral influence?
- 4.Discussion
- 4.1What South Africa and Southeast Asia tell us about the pluricentricity/pluriareality debate
- 4.2The diffusion of English from a global perspective
- 5.Conclusion
-
Notes
-
References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References (78)
References
Ammon, Ulrich. 1995. Die deutsche Sprache in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. Das Problem der nationalen Varietäten. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Auer, Peter. 2014. Enregistering pluricentric German. In Augusto S. d. Silva (ed.), Pluricentricity: Language variation and sociocognitive dimensions. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Barber, Charles. 1997. Early Modern English. Edinburgh: Edinburg University Press.
Bernaisch, Tobias & Pam Peters (eds.) 2022. Linguistic epicentres in World Englishes. Special Issue of World Englishes, 41(3).
Böhm, Michael Anton. 2003. Deutsch in Afrika. Die Stellung der deutschen Sprache in Afrika vor dem Hintergrund der bildungs — und sprachpolitischen Gegebenheiten sowie der deutschen auswärtigen Kulturpolitik. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang.
Bowerman, Sean. 2004. White South African English: Phonology. In Bernd Kortmann & Edgar Schneider (eds.), A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool. Volume 1: Phonology. Volume 2: Morphology and Syntax, 931–942.
Burridge, Kate & Pam Peters. 2020. English in Australia — Extra-territorial influences. In Sarah Buschfeld & Alexander Kautzsch (eds.), Modelling world Englishes. A joint approach to postcolonial and non-postcolonial varieties, 202–227. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Buschfeld, Sarah. 2017a. From second to first language status: An apparent-time investigation of language change in Singapore English. Paper presented at the 10th conference of Studies in the History of the English Language (SHEL), Kansas, USA.
Buschfeld, Sarah. 2017b. The omission of past tense marking in Singapore English: An apparent time investigation of language change. Paper presented at the 23rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL) at the workshop “The Loss of Inflection,” San Antonio, Texas, USA.
Buschfeld, Sarah. 2020. Children’s English in Singapore: Acquisition, properties, and use. London: Routledge.
Cambridge Dictionary. 2014. [URL]. (9 Jan., 2021.)
Central Intelligence Agency. 2021a. The World Factbook. Namibia. [URL] (2 Sept, 2021.)
Central Intelligence Agency. 2021b. The World Factbook. South Africa. [URL] (2 Sept., 2021.)
Clyne, Michael. 1984. Language and society in the German-speaking countries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Clyne, Michael (ed.). 1992. Pluricentric languages. Differing norms in different nations. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Clyne, Michael. 1995. The German language in a changing europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Deterding, David. & Low Ee Ling. 2001. The NIE Corpus of Spoken Singapore English. SAAL Quarterly, no, 56, Nov. 2001, 2–5.
Deumert, Ana. 2009. Namibian Kiche Duits: The making (and decline) of a neo-African language. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 21(4). 349–417.
Dollinger, Stefan. 2019a. The pluricentricity debate: On Austrian German and other Germanic standard varieties. New York and London: Routledge.
Dollinger, Stefan. 2019b. Debunking “pluri-areality”: On the pluricentric perspective of national varieties. Journal of Linguistic Geography 7(2). 98–112.
Elspaß, Stephan, Christa Dürscheid & Arne Ziegler. 2017. Zur grammatischen Pluriarealität der deutschen Gebrauchsstandards — oder: Über die Grenzen des Plurizentrizitätsbegriffs. Zeitschrift für Deutsche Philologie 136. 69–91.
Frydman, Jenna. 2011. A critical analysis of Namibia’s English-only language policy. In Eyamba G. Bokamba, Ryan K. Shosted & Bezza Tesfaw Ayalew (eds.), Selected proceedings of the 40th annual conference on African linguistics: African languages and linguistics today, 178–189. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. [URL]. (10 Nov., 2014.)
Gupta, Anthea Fraser. 1989. Singapore Colloquial English and Standard English. Singapore Journal of Education 10(2). 33–39.
Gupta, Anthea Fraser. 1994. The step-tongue. Children’s English in Singapore. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Heller, Benedikt, Tobias Bernaisch, Stefan Th. Gries. 2017. Empirical perspectives on two potential epicenters: The genitive alternation in Asian Englishes. ICAME Journal, vol. 41. 111–144.
Hundt, Marianne. 2013. The diversification of English: Old, new and emerging epicentres. In Daniel Schreier & Marianne Hundt (eds.), English as a contact language, 182–203. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kautzsch, Alexander & Anne Schröder. 2016. English in multilingual and multiethnic Namibia: Some evidence on language attitudes and the pronunciation of vowels. In Christoph Ehland, Ilka Mindt & Merle Tönnies (eds.), Anglistentag 2015 Paderborn: Proceedings, 277–288. Trier: WVT.
Kloss, Heinz. 1967. Abstand languages and Ausbau languages. Anthropological Linguistics 9(7). 29–41.
Kloss, Heinz. 1978. Die Entwicklung neuer germanischer Kultursprachen seit 1800. Düsseldorf: Schwann.
Kohnen, Thomas. 2014. Introduction to the History of English. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang.
Kortmann, Bernd & Edgar W. Schneider (eds.). 2004. A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool. Volume 1: Phonology. Volume 2: Morphology and Syntax. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Kortmann, Bernd, Kerstin Lunkenheimer & Katharina Ehret (eds.). 2020. The electronic world atlas of varieties of English. Zenodo. [URL]. (30 Aug., 2020.)
Leimgruber, Jakob R. E. 2013. Singapore English. Structure, variation, and usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leitner, Gerhard. 1992. English as a pluricentric language. In Michael Clyne (ed.), Pluricentric languages: Differing norms in different nations, 179–237. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Leitner, Gerhard. 2010. Developmental stages in the formation of epicentres of English. In Oriana Palusci (ed.) English, but not quite: Locating linguistic diversity, 17–36. Trento: Tangram Edizioni Scientifiche.
Lim, Lisa. 2010. Migrants and ‘mother tongues’: extralinguistic forces in the ecology of English in Singapore. In Lisa Lim, Anne Pakir & Lionel Wee (eds.), English in Singapore: Modernity and management, 19–54. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Maho, Jouni Filip. 1998. Few people, many tongues. The languages of Namibia. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan.
Mesthrie, Rajend. 2004. Black South African English: Morphology and syntax. In Edgar Schneider & Bernd Kortmann (eds.), A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool. Volume 1: Phonology. Volume 2: Morphology and Syntax, 962–973.
Muhr, Rudolf. 2013. The pluricentricity of German today — struggling with asymmetry. In Rudolf Muhr, Carla Amorós Negre. Carmen Fernández Juncal, Klaus Zimmermann, Emilio Prieto & Natividad Hernández (eds.). Exploring linguistic standards in non-dominant varieties of pluricentric lLanguages — Explorando estándares lingüísticos en variedades no dominantes de lenguas pluricéntricas, 55–66. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang.
Muhr, Rudolf (ed.). 2016a. Pluricentric languages and non-dominant varieties worldwide. Part I: Pluricentric languages across continents. Features and usage. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Muhr, Rudolf (ed.). 2016b. Pluricentric languages and non-dominant varieties worldwide. Part II: The pluricentricity of Portuguese and Spanish. New concepts and descriptions. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Muhr, Rudolf. 2018. Misconceptions about pluricentric languages and pluricentric theory — an overview of 40 years. In Rudolf Muhr & Benjamin Meisnitzer (eds.), Pluricentric languages and non-dominant varieties worldwide: New pluricentric languages — old problems, 17–56. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Muhr, Rudolf. 2020. Pluriareality in sociolinguistics: A comprehensive overview of key ideas and a critique of linguistic data used. In Rudolf Muhr & Juan Thomas (eds.), Pluricentricity theory beyond dominance and non-dominance, 9–78. Graz, Berlin: PLC Press.
NIDS — Namibia Inter-censal Demographic Survey 2006. [URL]. Last accessed: 17 July, 2012.
Niehaus, Konstantin. 2015. Areale Variation in der Syntax des Standarddeutschen: Ergebnisse zum Sprachgebrauch und zur Frage Plurizentrik vs. Pluriarealität. Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik 82(2). 133–168.
Ooi, Vincent B. Y. (ed.). 2001. Evolving identities: The English language in Singapore and Malaysia. Singapore: Times Academic Press.
Platt, John & Heidi Weber. 1980. English in Singapore and Malaysia: Status, features, functions. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.
Ronan, Patricia & Sarah Buschfeld. 2024. From second to first language: language shift in Singapore and Ireland. In Mirjam Schmalz, Manuela Vida-Mannl, Sarah Buschfeld, & Thorsten Brato (eds.), Acquisition and Variation in World Englishes: Bridging Paradigms and Rethinking Approaches, 177–202. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Scheuringer, Hermann. 1996. Das Deutsche als pluriareale Sprache: Ein Beitrag gegen staatlich begrenzte Horizonte in der Diskussion um die deutsche Sprache in Österreich. Die Unterrichtspraxis / Teaching German 29(2). 147–153.
Schneider, Edgar W. 2003. The dynamics of New Englishes: From identity construction to dialect birth. Language 79(2). 233–281.
Schneider, Edgar W. 2007. Postcolonial English. Varieties around the world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schneider, Edgar W. 2013. The pluricentricity of English today — and how about non-dominant varieties? In Rudolf Muhr, Carla Amorós Negre, Carmen Fernández Juncal, Klaus Zimmermann Emilio Prieto, & Natividad Hernández (eds.), Exploring linguistic standards in non-dominant varieties of pluricentric languages / Explorando estándares lingüísticos en variedades no dominantes de lenguas pluricéntricas, 45–54. Frankfurt, Wien: Peter Lang.
Schneider, Edgar W. 2014. Global diffusion, regional attraction, local roots? Sociocognitive perspectives on the pluricentricity of English. In Augusto Soares da Silva (ed.), Pluricentricity. language variation and sociocognitive dimensions, 191–226. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter Mouton.
Schneider, Edgar W. 2016. Hybrid Englishes: An exploratory survey. World Englishes 35(3). 339–354.
Schröder, Anne & Frederic Zähres. 2020. English in Namibia: Multilingualism and ethnic variation in the Extra — and Intra-territorial Forces Model. In Sarah Buschfeld & Alexander Kautzsch (eds.), Modelling World Englishes. A joint approach to postcolonial and non-postcolonial varieties, 38–62. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Sharifian, Farzad. 2013. Globalisation and developing metacultural competence in learning English as an International Language. Multilingual Education 3(1).
Singapore Department of Statistics. 2001. Census of Population 2000. Statistical Release 2: Education, Language and Religion. [URL]. (29 Jan., 2014.)
Singapore Department of Statistics. 2010. Census of Population 2010. Demographic Characteristics, Education, Language and Religion. [URL]. (6 Nov., 2012.)
Singapore Department of Statistics. 2011. Census of Population 2010. Statistical Release 1: Demographic Characteristics, Education, Language and Religion. [URL]. (29 Jan., 2014.)
Singapore Department of Statistics. 2021. Census of Population 2020. Statistical Release 1: Demographic Characteristics, Education, Language and Religion. [URL]. (19 April, 2024.)
Steigertahl, Helene. 2019. English(es) in post-independence Namibia. An investigation of variety status and its implications for English language teaching. Berlin: Peter Lang.
Stell, Gerald. 2014. Uses and functions of English in Namibia’s multiethnic settings. World Englishes 33(2). 223–241.
Trudgill, Peter, & Jean Hannah. 2002. International English: A guide to the varieties of Standard English. Oxon and New York: Routledge.
Trüb, R. 2008. American English impact on South African English: An empirical analysis of its manifestations and attitudes towards it. Regensburg, DE: University of Regensburg PhD dissertation.
Van Rooy, Bertus. 2004. Black South African English: Phonology. In Edgar Schneider & Bernd Kortmann (eds.), A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool. Volume 1: Phonology. Volume 2: Morphology and Syntax, 943–952.
Wallace, Marion (with John Kinahan). 2011. A history of Namibia. London: C. Hurst & Co.
Wee, Lionel. 2004. Singapore English: Phonology. In Edgar W. Schneider, Kate Burridge, Bernd Kortmann, Rajend Mesthrie & Clive Upton (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English. Volume 1: Phonology, 1017–1033. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Wee, Lionel. 2020. English in Singapore: Two issues for the EIF Model. In Sarah Buschfeld & Alexander Kautzsch (eds.), Modelling World Englishes. A joint approach to postcolonial and non-postcolonial varieties, 112–132. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Wells, John C. 1982. Accents of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.