VARIETIES OF ENGLISH

Topics

1. Language as a system.

2. The revelatory aspects of speech.

3. Define the following: - core English, potential English; - accent, dialect, idiolect; - historical language, national
language.

4. What are the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle and the Expanding Circle (according to Kachru)?

5.What is hypercorrection?

6.Explain what pidgins and creoles (=creole languages) are. [What is decreolisation? What are acrolect, mesolect and
basilect?]

7. Demarcating the history of English.

8. The spread of English.

9. A (tentative) classification of synchronic varieties of English: diatopic, diastratic and diaphasic varieties; dialect
continuum, code shifing; sociolect; register, sublanguage; styles along the formality scale; accommodation

10. Variation in pronunciation (language change, regional variation, stylistic variation, unconditioned variation; the
relationship between accent and social scale)

11. Grammatical and lexical variation (the same aspects as above)

12. Standard vs. non-standard English.

13. Negation in non-standard dialects.

14. Past-tense forms in non-standard English. Other features of non-standard varieties. Etc.

15. What are the five styles according to Joos? Labels, explanations; examples.

16. Channels of communication. Written vs. spoken English.

17. American English pronunciation.

18. American English spelling.

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19. American English: grammatical features (compare the American standard to the British standard). American
English vocabulary.

20. Black English (politically correct: African-American English) pronunciation.

21. Black English grammar.

22. Caribbean English. A St Lucian poem [to be discussed in Lecture 7]

23. The future of English (?)