English as a lingua franca and translation

Juliane House
University of Hamburg
Table of contents

One of the most influential developments in the worldwide use of languages today is the spread of English in many contexts and genres worldwide. This situation also has consequences for translation. A recent breakdown by source languages presented by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation (DGT) (2009) shows that as many as 72.5% of source texts translated by the DGT (including those originating outside the Commission) were drafted in English, not by native speakers of English, but by speakers of English as a lingua franca (ELF). What this surge in ELF texts means for translation and for translators is a field of inquiry that is as yet rarely taken up (for an exception see Taviano 2010). But let us first look at what ELF actually is.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price.

References

Baumgarten, Nicole & House, Juliane
2010 “I think and I don’t know in English as lingua franca and native English discourse.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (5): 1184–1200. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Cogo, Alessia & Dewey, Martin
2012 Analysing English as a Lingua Franca: A Corpus-driven Investigation. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Crystal, David
2003 English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press  BoP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
European Commission
2009 Translating for a Multilingual Community. Luxembourg: Office of ­Official Publications of the European Community.Google Scholar
Firth, Alan
2009 “The lingua franca factor.” Intercultural Pragmatics 6 (2): 147–170. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
House, Juliane
2003 “English as a lingua franca: A threat to multilingualism?” Journal of Sociolinguistics 7 (4): 556–578. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
2009a “Subjectivity in English as lingua franca discourse: The case of you know.” In English Lingua Franca, Juliane House (ed.), 171–193. Special issue of Intercultural Pragmatics 6 (2).  BoPGoogle Scholar
2009b Translation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
2010 “The pragmatics of English as a lingua franca.” In Pragmatics across Languages and Cultures. Handbook of Pragmatics, vol. 7, A. Trosborg (ed.), 363–390. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
2011 “Global and intercultural communication.” In Pragmatics of Society. Handbook of Pragmatics, vol 5, G. Andersen & K. Aijmer (eds), 607–626. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
2013 (in press). “Developing pragmatic competence in English as a lingua franca.” Journal of Pragmatics. (already available online) DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mauranen, Anna
2009 “Chunking in ELF: Expressions for managing interaction.” Intercultural Pragmatics 6 (2): 217–233. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
2012 Exploring ELF. Academic English Shaped by Non-native Speakers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Seidlhofer, Barbara
2011 Understanding English as a Lingua Franca. Oxford. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Taviano, Stefania
2010 Translating English as a Lingua Franca. Milano: Mondadori.Google Scholar