The fact that non-native speakers of English remarkably outnumber native speakers of English has generated widespread consideration regarding the link between English and other languages. Adopting both diachronic and synchronic perspectives, this book offers unique insights into the influence of other languages on English—including native English, nativized English, and English as a lingua franca (ELF)—and vice versa through language contact, with convincing predictions for the future of English.
Following the introductory chapter describing the status quo of English in the world, chs. 2 and 3 deal with the deviations from original native English. Drawing on theories of second language acquisition, Mackenzie illustrates the consequence of ‘imperfect learning’, which leads to distinct discursive expressions used by non-native speakers. By contrast, it is stated that non-native uses are characterized as ‘different’ rather than ‘deficient’ as compared with native uses. While some linguists consider language change as a ‘random process’, Mackenzie contends that language change is the aggregate result of consciousness and deliberation for the purpose of enhanced expressivity, better understanding, and more optimally intelligible grammar, which is more evident among speakers of ELF than native ones.
Chs. 4 and 5 are mainly concerned with English as a lingua franca (ELF). A historical perspective is adopted to present the lapsed language change caused by contact between English and various languages such as Norman and Celtic. The current situation is then shown by contrast—ELF speakers rarely live in the area of native ones. In addition, the compulsory conditions of language change that involve density, media, expressivity, prestige, and the role of children are inadequate. Therefore, it could be inferred that ELF has or will have little impact on native English. Furthermore, the alternatives to ELF are also discussed, including multilingualism, receptive multilingualism, code-switching, and Mandarin Chinese. The dominance of English, however, will not disappear in the long run.
What consequences the omnipresence of English has brought about are investigated in chs. 6 and 7. In academic writing, the use of English with argumentative style is almost obligatory, which actually contradicts relevance theory and is a form of ‘epistemicide’ (i.e. killing knowledge in other languages and forms). Yet the necessity of a lingua franca will remain in the foreseeable future despite the development of machine translation. Additionally, judging from bilingualism, crosslinguistic interactions, and translation, it can be asserted that English increasingly impacts many other languages at the level of lexicogrammar. Moreover, some writers tend to anglicize works written in their mother tongues, facilitating translation into English so as to enter the global market. Ch. 8 concludes the book by demonstrating that non-native usages of English are unlikely to be diffused among native speakers, and that differences of language use between L1 and L2 speakers will continue.
In sum, by investigating the past and present state of English in detail within a global context, this book argues that English has influenced other languages much more strongly than non-native usages of English have done to native varieties of English, and that this circumstance will persist. With its in-depth studies and insightful opinions, this book will no doubt be an asset to researchers studying language contact, multilingualism, English teaching, and beyond.
