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Modeling World Englishes: Assessing the interplay of emancipation and globalization of ESL varieties
Edited by Sandra C. Deshors
[Varieties of English Around the World G61] 2018
► pp. 109–132

Placing ELF among the varieties of English

Observations from typological profiling

| University of Eastern Finland
This study investigates how (dis)similar ELF is structurally from the core native varieties of English, indigenized L2 varieties, and learner English. ELF is understood as second language use of English in settings where the interactants do not necessarily share a first language. The empirical part makes use of the method of typological profiling based on aggregate structural features. This method measures three indices (i.e. grammaticity, analyticity, and syntheticity), and it has been used previously to analyze a range of variety types but has not been applied to the assessment of ELF. The results provide quantitative evidence that places ELF on the map and shows that, on purely structural grounds, ELF is a distinct variety type among English varieties. Moreover, the observations show that ELF is structurally different from second language acquisition, and there is a quantitative basis for drawing a distinction between ELF and traditional learner data.
Keywords: English as a lingua franca, second language use, typological profiling, genres in ELF
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The method of typological profiling and ELF
  • 3.First- and second generation ELF corpora as material
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Grammaticity
    • 4.2ELF on a two-dimensional plane
    • 4.3Genre differences in ELF
  • 5.Discussion and implications
  • Acknowledgement
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 13 September 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g61.05lai
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