ABSTRACT

This book presents an alternative paradigm in understanding and appreciating World Englishes (WEs) in the wake of globalization and its accompanying shifting priorities in many dimensions of modern life, including the emergence of the English language as the dominant lingua franca (ELF). Chew argues that history is a theatre for the realization of lingua francas, offering a model that shows the present as derived from the past and as a bearer of future possibility, the understanding of which is rooted in the understanding of World Englishes and ELF. The book will engage with some of the current theoretical debates in WEs and includes, as a means of fleshing out the model, sociolinguistic case studies of Arabia, China Fujian, and Singapore.

chapter 1|27 pages

Emergent Lingua Francas and World Orders

chapter 3|20 pages

Liminality

chapter 4|23 pages

The Last Liminal Period

Emergent Arabic in the Middle Ages

chapter 5|23 pages

Three Phases of Liminality

chapter 6|24 pages

Embracing Liminality

A Case Study of Singapore

chapter 8|32 pages

A Case Study of Southern Min Language 1

chapter 9|24 pages

The Place of English in the World Today