Schneider Edgar W. Schneider – författare

Basic notions in the field of creole studies, including the category of “creole languages” itself, have been questioned in recent years: Can creoles be defined on structural or on purely sociohistorical grounds? Can creolization be understood as a graded process, possibly resulting in different degrees of “radicalness” and intermediate language types (“semi-creoles”)? If so, by which linguistic structures are these characterized, and by which extralinguistic conditions have they been brought about? Which are the linguistic mechanisms underlying processes of restructuring, and how did grammaticalization and reanalysis shape the reorganization of linguistic, specifically morphosyntactic structures commonly called “creolization”? What is the role of language contact, language mixing, substrates and superstrates, or demographic factors in these processes? This volume provides select and revised papers from a 1998 colloquium at the University of Regensburg in which these questions were addressed. 19 contributions by renowned scholars discuss structural, sociohistorical and theoretical aspects, building upon case studies of both Romance-based and English-oriented creoles. This book marks a major step forward in our understanding of the nature of creolization.

The two volumes of Englishes around the World present high-quality original research papers written in honour of Manfred Görlach, founder and editor of the journal English World-Wide and the book series Varieties of English Around the World. The papers thematically focus on the field that Manfred Görlach has helped to build and shape. Volume 2 of Englishes Around the World presents studies of so-called “New Englishes”, post-colonial varieties as spoken predominantly in countries of the former British Empire. There are five contributions on the Caribbean (covering Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad), five articles on Africa (South Africa, East Africa, and Nigeria), six studies of English in Asian countries (Japan, the Philippines, India, Singapore, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea), and six papers on Australia and New Zealand. Topics covered range from sociohistorical causes and processes, the nativization of English in different countries, or the expression of individual identities by means of the English language through structural descriptions to sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic, lexicographic, pragmatic, stylistic, and other matters. The articles in the respective sections are written by D.R. Craig, L.M. Haynes, P.L. Patrick, K. Shields-Brodber, and L. Winer; A Banjo, V. de Klerk, R. Mesthrie, J. Schmied, and P. Silva; R.W. Bailey, R. Begum and T. Kandiah, A. Gonzalez, R.R. Mehrotra, P. Mühlhäusler, and M. Newbrook; L. Bauer, S. Butler, M. Clyne, P. Peters and A. Delbridge, G. Tulloch, and G.W. Turner.

The two volumes of Englishes around the World present high-quality original research papers written in honour of Manfred Gorlach, founder and editor of the journal English World-Wide and the book series Varieties of English Around the World. The papers thematically focus on the field that Manfred Gorlach has helped to build and shape. Volume 1 contains articles on general topics and studies of what might be termed "e;Old"e; Englishes, varieties of English that have been rooted in their respective regions for a long time and have been traditional focal points of scholarly study. The first section contains eight general and comparative papers (dealing with terminological matters or definitions of core concepts, historical issues, structural comparisons across a wide range of varieties); the second one has nine papers on dialects of English as used in the British Isles (covering England, Scotland, Ulster and Ireland); and finally, there are four contributions on North American varieties of English (including Southern English, African American Vernacular English, Newfoundland Vernacular English, and American English in a historical perspective). The thematic scope comprises the levels of lexis, phonology, morphology, syntax, pragmatics, and orthography, as well as sociohistorical issues, the question of the evolution and transmission of dialects, various sources of evidence including literary dialect.

This volume presents fifteen original research papers by renowned specialists in their respective fields. A variety of research traditions are included, such as dialect geography and sociolinguistics, but also smaller sub-fields such as the study of slang and perceptual dialectology. Varieties studied include the South, the Eastern Seaboard, the Middle West, African American English, Cuban English, and others. A growing sense of unity in the discipline is reflected by recurring topics and methods across earlier boundaries between sub-disciplines. For instance, computerized data and statistical analyses are standard tools nowadays, and a few papers explicitly address the possibilities and limitations of these methods. The study of variation and change of linguistic varieties has largely replaced earlier, monolithic notions of dialect, and the question of change in dialects, the erosion of traditional speech forms under the impact of modern communication patterns and socio-economic developments, is investigated in several contributions. In general, a recent orientation towards the history and development of nonstandard varieties is reflected in the book - several papers study diffusion patterns of linguistic forms, or discuss the emergence of individual dialects or dialectal forms in a language contact framework. Altogether, the papers provide a lively illustration of and a fairly representative selection from ongoing high-quality linguistic research into American English.