Cover not available
Part of
The Evolution of Englishes: The Dynamic Model and beyond
Edited by Sarah Buschfeld, Thomas Hoffmann, Magnus Huber and Alexander Kautzsch
[Varieties of English Around the World G49] 2014
► pp. 249–266

Does money talk, and do languages have price tags? Economic perspectives on English as a global language

The rise of English to its present position of the world’s undisputed lingua franca and the role of Global English in a multilingual world are core topics of World Englishes research. However, this does not mean that they have not been of interest to researchers in other disciplines, as well – for example in history, sociology and economics. The present contribution reviews a sample of recent analyses of English in multilingual settings written by economists, arguing that in spite of their methodological blindness to some phenomena important to (socio)linguists they have important things to say to the World Englishes research community. Conversely, taking account of the results of linguistic research on World Englishes would greatly help in refining the econometric models.
Keywords: communicative value, English as a Lingua Franca, language spread, multilingualism, World Englishes
Published online: 12 September 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g49.14mai
References (41)
Bailey, R. & Görlach, M. (eds). 1982. English as a World Language. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Blommaert, J. 2010. The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1980. Le marché linguistique. In Questions de sociologie, P. Bourdieu, 121–137. Paris: Ed. de Minuit.Google Scholar
Bussière, M., Fidrmuc, J. & Schnatz, B. 2008. EU enlargement and trade integration: Lessons from a gravity model. Review of Development Economics 12(3): 562–576. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Calvet, L.-J. 1999.Pour une écologie des langues du monde. Paris: Plon. (English translation: Towards an Ecology of World Languages. Cambridge: Polity, 2006).Google Scholar
Cameron, D. 2012. The commodification of language: English as a global commodity. In The Oxford Handbook of the History of English, T. Nevalainen & E. Traugott (eds), 352–364. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cheng, I.-H. & Wall, H. 2005. Controlling for heterogeneity in gravity models of trade and integration. Federal Reserve Bank of St . Louis Review 87(1): 49–63.Google Scholar
Christian, N. No date. A little more Pitkern language for you. [URL] (14 February 2014).
Coupland, N. (ed.). 2010. The Handbook of Language and Globalization. Malden MA: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Swaan, A. 2001. Words of the World: The Global Language System. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
. 2007. The language predicament of the EU since the enlargements. In Sociolinguistica: International Yearbook of Sociolinguistics. Vol. 21: Linguistic Consequences of the EU-Enlargement, U. Ammon, K.J. Mattheier & P.H. Nelde (eds), 1–21. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
. 2010. Language systems. In N. Coupland (ed.), 56–76.
Dor, D. 2004. From Englishization to imposed multilingualism: Globalization, the Internet, and the political economy of the linguistic code. Public Culture 16(1): 97–118. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fidrmuc, J. & Fidrmuc, J. 2003. Disintegration and trade. Review of International Economics 11(5): 811–829. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2009. Letter to the editor. Economist, 07 March: 19. Electronic version at [URL] (12 February 2014).Google Scholar
Fidrmuc, J. & Ginsburgh, V. 2007. Languages in the European Union: The quest for equality and cost. European Economic Review 51(6): 1351–1369. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ginsburgh, V., Ortuño-Ortín, I. & Weber, S. 2007. Learning foreign languages: Theoretical and empirical implications of the Selten and Pool model. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 64(3–4): 337–347. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grin, F. 2001. English as economic value: Facts and fallacies. World Englishes 20(1): 65–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2005. L’enseignement des langues étrangères comme politique publique. Paris: Haut Conseil de l’Evaluation de l’Ecole; electronic version at [URL] (13 December 2013).Google Scholar
Heller, M. 2003. Globalization, the new economy, and the commodification of language and identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(4): 473–492. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hofmann, S. (ed.). 2008. Más allá de la nación: Medios, espacios comunicativos y nuevas comunidades imagninadas. Berlin: Walter Frey.Google Scholar
Hull, G.A. & Hernandez, G. 2010. Literacy. In Handbook of Educational Linguistics, B. Spolsky & F.M. Hult (eds), 328–340. Malden MA: Blackwell’s.Google Scholar
Kachru, B. (ed.). 1982. The Other Tongue – English across Cultures. Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Kortmann, B. & Schneider, E., with K. Burridge, R. Mesthrie, C. Upton (eds). 2004. A Handbook of Varieties of English, 2 vols. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McArthur, T. 2003. World English, Euro-English, Nordic English. English Today 19(1): 54–58. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meierkord, C. 2012. Interactions across Englishes: Linguistic Choices in Local and International Contact Situations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mesthrie, R. & Bhatt, R.M. 2008. World Englishes: The Study of New Varieties. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Michel, J.-B., Shen, Y.K., Aiden, A.P., Veres, A., Gray, M.K., The Google Books Team, Pickett, J.P., Hoiberg, D., Clancy, D., Norvig, P., Orwant, J., Pinker, St., Nowak, M.A. & Lieberman Aiden, E. 2010. Quantitative analysis of culture using millions of digitized books. Science 331(6014): 176–182. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milroy, L. 2007. Off the shelf or under the counter? On the social dynamics of sound changes. In Managing Chaos: Strategies for Identifying Change in English, C.M. Cain & G. Russom (eds), 149–172. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Northrup, D. 2013. How English Became the Global Language. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pagel, M., Atkinson, Qu. D. & Meade, A. 2007. Frequency of word-use predicts rates of lexical evolution throughout Indo-European history. Nature 449: 717–720. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Phillipson, R. 2003a. Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. 2003b. English-Only Europe? London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pool, J. 2010. Panlingual globalization. In N. Coupland (ed.), 142–161.
Ross, A.S.C. & Moverley, A.W. 1964. The Pitcairnese Language. London: Deutsch.Google Scholar
Schneider, E.W. 2007. Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Selten, R. & Pool, J. 1991. The distribution of foreign language skills as a game equilibrium. In Game Equilibrium Models, Vol. 4, R. Selten (ed.), 64–84. Berlin: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Strevens, P. 1980. Teaching English as an International Language: From Practice to Principle. Oxford: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. & Hannah, J. 1982. International English: A Guide to Varieties of Standard English, 5th edn. 2008. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Zhang, W. & Grenier, G. 2013. How can language be linked to economics? A survey of two strands of research. Language Problems and Language Planning 37(3): 203–226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Farquharson, Joseph T.
2015. The Black Man’s Burden? – Language and Political Economy in a Diglossic State and Beyond. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 63:2 ► pp. 157 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.