mapping unity and diversity world-wide: corpus-based studies of new englishes. edited by...

World Englishes, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 129–142, 2013. 0883-2919

REVIEWS

Advertising & Marketing in Rural India: Language, Culture, and Communication. Secondedition. Tej K. Bhatia. New Delhi: Macmillan India, 2007, xxvii + 327 pp.

Reviewed by ELIZABETH MARTIN∗

This captivating volume takes the reader on a journey through India’s traditional ruralcommunities, with colorful descriptions of their advertising landscapes and communi-cation styles that only an insider could provide. Drawing on cognitive linguistics anddiscourse analysis as well as marketing and advertising research, the study provides newand meaningful perspectives on advertising discourse and the challenges facing globalmarketers. Richly illustrated and insightful, this revised edition has been extensively re-organized and updated to respond to the latest innovative trends in Indian advertising.Supplementary data obtained through approximately 30 interviews with media, market-ing, and advertising executives from major companies in India (e.g. Hindustan Lever andDabur, McCann-Erickson, Vasudeva Advertising, among others) as well as Indian govern-ment officials are featured in the volume, along with more recent television, radio, andprint advertisements, painted wall advertisements, and videotapes of advertising messagesdelivered through live performances in rural villages. This new edition brings not onlysome additional material within its original chapters, but also two new chapters, chs. 11and 12, which outline the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ (BOP) business model (Prahalad 2005)as pertains to rural Indian consumers and provide concluding remarks on the broad rangeof “communicators” (e.g. dancers, folktale narrators, puppeteers and other influencers)involved in marketing communications.

The volume’s introduction (pp. 1–12) outlines the conceptual framework and method-ological approach adopted for identifying different communication patterns in advertisingin rural India, and underscores the importance of appealing to the values and belief systemof local audiences when designing advertising messages for this market. Ch.1 (pp. 13–42)addresses India’s diverse cultures and religions from a historical perspective as well as In-dia’s rapidly expanding economy, noting the growing economic importance of India’s ruralconsumer. The BOP business model, with its focus on corporate social responsibility andproduct innovation in developing countries and emerging markets, is also introduced. Thechapter concludes with an introductory glimpse into the largely negative rural perceptionsof brands and advertising messages, noting that “if the Indian advertising industry is toreach out to rural India [ . . . ], it has to drown itself in local colours, customs, and modesof communication to make itself relevant” (p. 40).

Ch. 2 (pp. 43–61) examines the ways in which India’s multilingualism is managed inconventional mass media, exploring viewership patterns and programming. Traditionalfolk media reflecting the oral traditions of India (such as sound-and-light presentations,dramas, dances, folk recitals, and puppet shows) are particularly effective in reaching rural

∗Department of World Languages and Literatures, California State University, San Bernardino, UH 314, 5500University Parkway, San Bernardino, CA 92407–2393, USA E-mail: [email protected]

C© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

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consumers. An inside look at the industry also reveals that advertising giants such asJ. Walter Thompson, Lintas, Ogilvy and Mather, DDB Needham, BBDO, and Leo Burnetthave seen success in the Indian market through alliances forged with local agencies. Despitethe impact of globalization on Indian media (including English-language programming),local content and languages continue to appeal more to audiences across India. Ch. 3 (pp.62–88) reveals how markets, fairs and festivals in rural India offer unique opportunitiesto disseminate advertising messages. Video vans (or “video raths”) featuring live productdemonstrations that appeal to remote villagers are analyzed in detail. The colorful descrip-tion of a rural village market is a special highlight, offering valuable insights into the stylesof communication and marketing practices encountered in this part of the world. Thisparticular environment, where scooters, rickshaws, animals, and people flow seamlessly,and an umbrella repairman or buffalo shoe fitter might rub elbows with a rat poison selleror traveling dentist, is described in vivid detail. A discussion of interactional strategies(including product endorsements by respected members of the community and direct orindirect elicitation of audience participation) underscores the oral traditions of this ruralpopulation and drives home the largely interactive nature of non-conventional advertising.

Following a brief introduction to models of advertising and marketing communications,ch. 4 (pp. 89–119) illustrates neuro-cognitive aspects of language processing and outlinesvarious linguistic and semiotic approaches to studying advertising discourse. The widerange of creative persuasive linguistic strategies encountered in Indian ads (such as dialectalfeatures and subjunctive structures exclusive to advertising in Hindi) are carefully analyzed.The growing role of deception involving English product names in India, such as slightlyaltering a popular brand name to sell generic products (e.g. presenting ‘Vaseline’ as“Vaselene” with a quasi identical packaging design), is also addressed. Ch. 5 (pp. 120–30)explains how ad agencies in India operate, describing the ad agency-client relationshipand the different steps involved in producing a rural advertisement. The notion of multipleauthorship and the various stages of translation and adaptation of advertising messages(from globally positioning the brand through English, Pan-Indian adaptations through admessages in Indian English or Sanskrit, to area-specific adaptations using rural dialectsand motifs) are identified, noting common mistakes made by international advertisers,including ineffective literal translations and unsuspected negative connotations of slogansand visuals. This chapter also outlines the framework applied to the author’s contentanalysis of rural ads in India and proposes a typology of rural ads based on their targetaudiences.

Ch. 6 (pp. 131–49) explores wall advertising, one of the most widespread, economicaland effective modes of advertising in rural India (painted on mud walls, shops, privatehomes, and every other conceivable standing structure), and one that is accessible toboth literate as well as illiterate consumers. In response to the paradox of globalizationand localization in international advertising, a “glocalization” approach involving themixing of culture-specific languages, scripts and non-verbal cues is proposed as a viablemeans of appealing to rural consumers. Ch. 7 (pp. 150–96) analyses how advertisershandle the diverse and complex rural market through an examination of radio, televisionand print ads. The hybrid nature of rural Indian advertising is demonstrated through ananalysis of different combinations of languages and dialects, multimodal features, literarydevices, and other rhetorically-produced methods of persuasion used to create specificappeals. Thematic references in advertising to popular Hindi songs, poetry and literature,for instance, are shown to have pan-Indian appeal. Products adapted to local tastes (e.g.


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vegetarian toothpastes) and rural consumer behavior (such as applying paint and hairdyes to animals for decorative purposes) are also noted. Ch. 8 (pp. 197–210) stresses theimportance of audience participation and grass-roots marketing efforts in designing socialand development campaigns (e.g. family planning, immunizations, AIDS awareness) forrural India. Classical and folk dances, songs, street plays, and other modalities increasethe credibility and persuasiveness of social messages. Recognizing the rural community’sbelief system, social taboos, and communication patterns are critical to a message beingpositively received and understood.

Ch. 9 (pp. 211–29) unravels the multiple and intriguing portrayals of women in ad-vertising across media, including the mythological goddesses with mixed human-animalcharacteristics and other female representations typically featured in calendar advertis-ing. Female discourse patterns along with indigenous metaphors, songs and symbols usedto index women offer a wide range of denotative and connotative meanings. In ch. 10(pp. 230–40), the role of religion and spirituality in rural advertising is discussed. Religiousfestivals, audiocassette recordings of devotional stories and songs, and wall calendars withreligious themes provide powerful opportunities for advertisers. With their pan-Indian ap-peal and direct influence on consumer attitudes, religious TV serials and Bollywood filmsare also embedded in advertising messages.

Ch. 11 (pp. 241–52) presents two sustainable Internet-based projects, ITC’s e-Choupaland Hindustan Lever’s Project Shakti. Through their local e-Choupal office (equippedwith solar-powered computers for villages that have inadequate power), Indian farmerscan access the latest weather information, scientific farming practices, and market pricesonline in six regional languages, enabling them to increase their productivity and selltheir crops at a favorable price. Hindustan Unilever’s i-Shakti program provides healthand hygiene information to women in remote villages and trains them to become micro-entrepreneurs, selling soaps, shampoos and other personal care products in small remotevillages. The concluding chapter (pp. 253–68), ties together the various strands of the book,summarizing the main findings and offering recommendations for advertisers and futureresearch. To acknowledge the multiple ways in which rural messages are customized, theauthor proposes a revised “code-based” version (CELM) of Petty and Cacioppo’s (1981)elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion, taking into account the variety ofthemes, languages, and styles of communication required to reach this audience.

Very rarely does one encounter a book with this impressive scope of data and in-depthanalysis and discussion. Although the adjustment of global advertising campaigns to meetcultural differences in local markets has been well documented, the notion of “advertisingas a mirror” takes on a whole new meaning in this delightful volume, and deepens ourunderstanding of a region that has received scant attention from researchers in marketingand linguistics. To advertisers targeting the rural Indian market, as well as students andresearchers in linguistics, marketing and advertising, it truly will be worth its weightin gold.

REFERENCES

Petty, Richard E., and Cacioppo, John T. (1981) Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches.Dubuque, IO: William C. Brown Company.

Prahalad, C.K. (2005) The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. New Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School.

(Received 18 August 2012)


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Structural Nativization in Indian English Lexicogrammar. Marco Schilk. Amsterdam: JohnBenjamins, 2011, xii + 182 pp.

Reviewed by RAVINDER GARGESH∗

Marco Schilk’s book can be seen as a re-emphasis of the quantitative approach to the studyof linguistic nativization of English in India. Unlike earlier approaches that identifiedovert linguistic features from a limited text, Schilk looks at the lexis-grammar interfaceby examining a large corpus for features of Indian English (IndE) in comparison to thoseof British English (BrE). His analysis draws on Indian and British components of theInternational Corpus of English (ICE-India and ICE-GB) and a 110 million–word web-derived corpus from The Times of India (ToI), an Indian newspaper in English, and itscounterpart the British National Corpus (BNC). The study provides insights into structuralnativization at the levels of collocations and verb complementation with a special focus onditransitive verbs. The present work is divided into nine chapters.

Ch. 1 (pp. 1–3), “Introduction and overview”, briefly states the aims and notes issuesthat are to be dealt with in subsequent chapters. Ch. 2 (pp. 5–16), “Aspects of structuralnativization”, provides the history of development of IndE leading to a brief discus-sion of Kachru’s (1985) Three Circles Model, Moag’s (1982) Diachronic Process andSchneider’s (2003) Dynamic Model for the study of the nativization in English (p. 8–10).Schilk explains IndE in terms of Schneider’s model, noting that the language is shownto have features of the stages 3 and 4, nativization and endonormative stabilization (pp.9–11). Schilk is aware that for identity construction Indians have become independent ofBritish influence and are presently highly “pan-ethnic and multilingual” (p. 13), a factthat generates substrate influences (p. 16). He notes IndE is unlikely to reach Schneider’sfinal fifth stage of “differentiation due to diverse linguistic influences in the multilingualsituation” (p. 13).

In ch. 3 (pp. 17–39), “Aspects of lexicogrammar: Collocation and verb-complementation”, Schilk views the lexis-grammar interface as a cline, where word for-mation and collocation are ranged from lexicon towards grammar through the stages ofphraseology and verb-complementation (p. 18). He next provides an introduction to thequantitative approaches to collocations based on the use of large-scale computer readablecorpora, accessed by means of specific software used to count co-occurrences of words inpre-defined spans of co-texts (p. 19). This involves going beyond computation of statisticalfigures to exact testing through statistical measures like “log-likelihood” (p. 23).

In ch. 4 (pp. 41–62), “Methodology”, Schilk makes the case for the study of largercorpora, and hence in addition to the 1 million word ICE corpus he compiles a 101 millionword corpus from the online English newspaper ToI. Newspaper data, presumed to beused by proficient users of English, is expected to contain only nativized features andnot learners’ mistakes (p. 47). The corpus is analyzed with WordSmith Tools (WST) V4.x,and is organized into the text-categories of sports (without cricket), politics, India, cities,infotech, cricket, entertainment, health and science, India business, international businessand the world (p. 46). These categories are later used for identifying the distinct IndEcomplementation patterns in contrast to patterns in the news section of the British NationalCorpus. At the end of the chapter, he gives a quantitative overview of the verbs GIVE,

∗Department of Linguistics, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007, India E-mail: [email protected]


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SEND and OFFER as derived from the ICE-India and ICE-GB, which are the focus of hisnext three chapters.

In ch. 5 (pp. 63–93) “GIVE”, Schilk perceives GIVE as the prototypical ditransitiveverb where the indirect object as a noun phrase and the direct object as a noun phrase or aclause are made explicit. This study reveals that GIVE is used more frequently in spokentext types in ICE-India in comparison to ICE-GB and to the written part of ICE-India ingeneral (p. 63). This shows the tendency in IndE to use GIVE in circumstances wherespeakers of BrE might prefer a different verb, e.g., while give trouble is the preferredchoice in IndE, make trouble is the preferred expression in BrE (p. 70). In ICE-India, themost frequent complementation pattern for GIVE is type-III pattern where the indirectobject is not made explicit (p. 71), a fact typical of legal texts in IndE where GIVE isused in the sense of giving evidence before a court (p. 71). In the context of colloca-tional profiles GIVE frequently collocates with more different items in the position ofthe direct object in ICE-India than in ICE-GB (pp. 85–92). Since there are only a limitednumber of shared collocates between the two varieties, this is fertile ground for furtherstudies.

Ch. 6 (pp. 95–128), “SEND”, views the verb SEND as a less prototypical ditransitiveverb because it implies and intends a transfer that may not materialize. Schilk points outthe semantic and structural differences between SEND and GIVE. Since SEND has muchless frequency in the ICE corpus, Schilk creates an additional corpus of 110 million wordsfrom ToI and to make the data manageable he chooses a random subset of 1.75 millionwords in which the verb SEND is used approximately 500 times (p. 96). He discussesthe distribution of complementation patterns in ICE-India and ICE-GB and points outthat while in the latter the frequencies of type-I, type-II and type-III patterns of verbcomplementation are roughly equal, in the case of the former there is a clear preference fortype-III pattern followed by type-II pattern and then by type-I (p. 97). He also comparesthe patterns of SEND in verb complementation patterns of IndE and BrE newspapersand presents their collocational profiles. The analyses of data show that the differencesin verb complementation between BrE and IndE are less prominent when seen from theperspective of a single text type. It is pointed out that though BrE attests more patterns ofSEND Od Ving, the specific expression SEND alarm bells ringing is more productive inIndE (p. 125).

In ch. 7 (pp. 129–146), “OFFER”, the verb OFFER is said to be of “low frequency” inthe two ICE corpora (p. 129). In the case of spoken and written modes, OFFER has greaterfrequency of occurrence in BrE than in IndE (p. 131). The reason provided is that users ofIndE substitute OFFER with GIVE in some circumstances. The basic ditransitive patterntype-I is used more frequently in BrE and it is used more frequently in the spoken than inthe written mode, while in IndE the reverse is true (p. 132).

Ch. 8 (pp. 147–69), “Evaluation and discussion”, is more in the form of evaluatingthe methodology applied in the analysis and relating the results to other approaches tolexicogrammatical description. The limitations of the ICE corpora are acknowledged,hence the need and justification for using additional newspaper data. It is also pointed outthat the comparison of IndE with BrE may not reflect the true state, for BrE may haveundergone changes during the long period of data compilation (p. 148). The WST v4.x,though considered to be useful, has some problems for it is not tailor-made for the corpusand it could not easily filter the commentaries in it. The establishment of collocationalprofiles is also defended on the grounds that quantitative results “confirm that Indian


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English displays structural features that differ markedly from British English” (p. 163),for example, speakers of IndE use GIVE with greater frequency than speakers of BrE.Features like verb complementation, the use of light verbs, and forms of collocationsreveal nativization that can be shown only through the study of a large amount of naturallanguage data.

Ch. 9 (p. 171–4) is in the form of conclusions and suggestions for future research. It con-cludes that the study of large corpora for collocational profiles and verb complementationalprofiles of ditransitive verbs reveals structural nativization in IndE lexicogrammar.

Corpus studies are helpful no doubt, but corpora generally are not all encompassing.They represent the group from where the data is taken, for example, the ICE-India datarepresents a class of English medium students. Hence it cannot reveal many features thatare a part of the speech of large numbers of users of IndE who have never been educatedthrough the English medium. Such a huge data cannot be left out simply due to the fear of“learner mistakes”. The book does however make a good case for quantitative studies.

REFERENCES

Kachru, Braj B. (1985) Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: The English language in the outer circle.In Randolph Quirk and H. G. Widdowson (eds.), English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language andLiteratures (pp. 11–30). Cambridge: Cambridge University.

Moag, Rodney F. (1982) The life-cycle of non-native Englishes: A case study. In Braj B. Kachru (ed.), The Other Tongue(pp. 270–88). Oxford: Pergamon.

Schneider, Edgar W. (2003) The dynamics of new Englishes: From identity construction to dialect birth. Language 79,233–81.


English in Asian Popular Culture. Edited by Jamie Shinhee Lee and Andrew Moody. HongKong: University of Hong Kong Press, 2012, xii + 275 pp.

Reviewed by JAMES STANLAW∗

This exciting new edited volume examines the place of English in six domains of con-temporary popular culture: music, film, television, print media, advertising, and the In-ternet. The countries examined include India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, thePhilippines, and China and Hong Kong. This book is part of the Asian Englishes Todayseries from the University of Hong Kong Press edited by Kingsley Bolton (who wrote thePreface to this volume). For the past decade this series has offered a number of theoreticalworks and monographs on particular venues, examining various aspects of the role ofEnglish in East, Southeast, and South Asia. This is their first venture into the area of massmedia and popular culture, and it is an impressive one.

In the introductory chapter (pp. 1–11) editors Jamie Shinhee Lee and Andrew Moodyprovide a theoretical background for the subsequent essays. They present an in-depthdiscussion of what exactly “popular culture” is, and how it might be articulated linguis-tically. As English has been a major cultural, political, and economic force throughoutthe world for at least a century, its role in popular culture demands investigation. In Asia,

∗Anthropology 4640, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790, USA E-mail: [email protected]


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however, the position of English often gets reduced to discussions about whether somenation’s version of English remains an emergent variety or is now fully autonomous. Thecontributors here generally dismiss such dichotomies, and attempt to show how English isused in dynamic, creative, and, at times, even idiosyncratic Asian ways.

All three chapters in Part 1, “Listening to Popular Culture,” deal with various aspectsof the role of English in music in Hong Kong. Phil Benson and Alice Chik (pp. 15–34)examine the new use of English in songs written and performed by current Hong Kongalternative, underground, and indie musicians. They point out that this sort of revival ofEnglish is significant because for the past twenty years Cantonese popular songs literallydrowned out those in Mandarin or English. It is generally believed that the rise of this Can-topop phenomenon was a direct response to colonial (British) and post-colonial (mainlandChinese) cultural hegemony. Benson and Chik argue such claims are a bit simplistic, show-ing that at least for Hong Kong musicians outside the Top 40 mainstream, English offersadvantages for lyric writing, as well as being a way to connect with the alternative musicscenes in the United States, Britain, and Europe. But Brian Hok-Shing Chan in his chapter(pp. 35–57) shows that English is, in fact, quite a force in Cantopop. This is especially truein the frequent Cantonese-English code-switching found in many song lyrics. For example,English can carry the expressions of emotions and desires of the singer when used in thepunchlines of a chorus. Another typical trope is using English pronouns such as “I” torepresent the singer and “you” to represent the audience to help create a pan-Hong Kongidentity. In a similar vein, Angel Lin (pp. 59–74) makes a strong case that “translocal hiphop has finally come to Hong Kong” (p. 72), and with it hybridized English-Cantoneserap lyrics.

The four chapters in Part II, “Watching Popular Culture,” deal with the roles of En-glish in Asian film, television and internet communication. Roger Thompson (pp. 77–102)reminds us that Filipinos pride themselves on being the third-largest English-speakingcountry in the world, with some 75 per cent of its 80 million inhabitants claiming tospeak and read English. Forty per cent of local television programming is in English.Nonetheless, his examination of three nights of TV on three popular channels reveals thata “simmering cultural battle between English and Tagalog-based Filipino” (p. 83) exists onthe airwaves, with a “cultural revolution against English” (p. 100) being fought guerrillastyle in Tagalog—with a fair degree of success. Andrew Moody and Yuko Matsumoto(pp. 103–126) examine a “pop pidgin” created by Japanese actor and comedian LouO-shiba. In this so-called Lou-go (Lou Language), well-known English words are substi-tuted for native terms while leaving Japanese sentence structure intact. So the JapaneseWatashi-wa anata-o ai-shiteimasu would come out as I-wa YOU-o LOVE-shiteimasu (notethat Japanese is an SOV language) (p. 109). Oshiba believes this is a way to get Japanesepeople to feel more comfortable with English. However, as Moody and Matsumoto pointout, this “does not attempt to address the basic sociolinguistic reality of English inJapanese society: that English is studied universally, but rarely used communicatively”(p. 121).

Likewise, Jamie Shinhee Lee (pp. 127–49) tells us that English is also many things forKoreans: a compulsory foreign language to study, an employee performance evaluationinstrument, an advertising tool, and a source for song lyrics. All these things, and more, areencapsulated in a recent feature-film drama, Please Teach Me English. The English gameis played for very high stakes in South Korea, and a wide range of emotions can be evoked:“fear, desperation and frustration, along with a sense of achievement and empowerment”


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(p. 129). The fact that this “metadiscourse about English was turned into a feature filmtells a compelling story about the salience of English in the South Korean public’s mind”(p. 148). Liwei Gao (pp. 151–69) examines English lexical items in five Chinese internetregisters: online bulletin boards, chatrooms, personal e-mail, public posts on websites,and on-line novels. He claims that English is used by Chinese Internet users to chooseone of five identities: being internationally-oriented, technologically savvy, fashionable,entertaining, or unconventional. A small survey of a dozen people seems to support hishypothesis.

All the chapters in Part III, “Selling Popular Culture,” are concerned with advertising.Beng Soon Lim and Lu-Ann Ong (pp. 173–98) explore how Singapore women are enticedto buy beauty products via the English found in newspapers. While there are three otherofficial languages in the country (Malay, Tamil, and Mandarin), these are entrenchedin their respective ethnic groups. “The language that has the single biggest impact onSingaporeans at present is English” (p. 174), and it has emerged as the nation’s linguafranca. The authors argue that this shared language is used to sell beauty in several ways:by making links to already commonly known cures, by convincing buyers that the productis revolutionary or is particular to some special problem, by building brand loyalty, or bygetting the customer to believe the product only enhances the beauty she already has. ButJia-Ling Hsu (pp. 199–229) suggests that English can be used as a selling device evenin domains and venues where it is not a lingua franca. Nothing is more localized thanreal estate sales, and we might expect that in Taiwan English would not be a successfuladvertising tool. However, in her interviews with copywriters and her observations of theprint media, Hsu shows that there are compelling reasons to make appeals in English.For high-end products, using English evokes Western concepts of modern high-qualityfashionable architecture. For low-end products, English symbolizes easy access to thehome of one’s dreams.

Tej K. Bhatia (pp. 231–54) explains that product naming and advertising are the two keyingredients in branding, and language choice and script are instrumental in this processin India. “The language choice of global marketers and advertisers is clearly Englishwith Roman script. India is not exceptional in this regard, and . . . English reigns withunquestionable supremacy” (p. 242). That said, Hindi is also critical in the brandingprocess: “without the support of Hindi a superbrand cannot achieve its desired brandstatus.” In rural areas, especially where non-conventional advertising techniques are usedby necessity, “Hindi provides yet another collaborative role for English . . . in the area oftranslating, transliterating, and transcreating international brand names” (p. 251). In thefinal chapter, Joseph Sung-Yul Park (pp. 255–69) approaches the use of English in SouthKorea from the point of view of language ideology. He examines the on-line responses toa single popular advertisement for a Neutrogena facial cleanser featuring a highly popularup-and-coming actress. He argues that while “analyses of advertisements with a focuson co-occurrence patterns of semiotic resources have provided us with many insights . . .the way such texts are taken up by viewers may be much more complex .” We need tolook at “how such uses of English are adopted, resisted, and reinterpreted through situatedpractices” (p. 267).

The “Asian Englishes” branch of the world Englishes discipline is now seeing the resultsof the research of the second and third generation of scholars. This excellent collectionis a fine example. In sum, the chapters in here should provide linguists, sociologists,anthropologists, Asian Studies specialists, and those interested in popular culture with


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hours of delight. Those who work in the area of English and language contact will findmany new data and case studies, as well as some thought-provoking theoretical commen-tary. I highly recommend this book.


Mapping Unity and Diversity World-wide: Corpus-based Studies of New Englishes. Editedby Marianne Hundt and Ulrike Gut. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2012, xiv + 294 pp.

Reviewed by GEORGIE COLUMBUS∗

This volume aims to chart similarities and differences in syntactic and lexicogrammatic us-age between several varieties of English. In particular, the chapters focus on new Englishesthrough the International Corpus of English (ICE) and news corpora. Editors Hundt andGut have selected a range of research with varying degrees of quantitative and qualitativeanalysis, covering not just the usual Inner Circle/L1 suspects such as British (BrE) andAmerican (AmE) Englishes, but also New Zealand (NZE), Irish (IrE), Australian (AusE)and Canadian (CanE) Englishes. New/L2 Englishes investigated go beyond the earlyICE releases of Hong Kong (HKE), Singapore (SinE), Philippines (PhilE), India (IndE)and East Africa (EAfE) Englishes to include Bahamian (BahE), Jamaican (JamE), Fijian(FijiE), Trinidad and Tobago (TTE), Maltese (MaltE), Malaysian (MalE), Ghanaian (GhE),Nigerian (NigE), and Sri Lankan (SLE) Englishes, as well as Ugandan English (UgE) usingICELite, a web-sourced mini-corpus in the ICE style.

Theoretically, this volume covers largely syntactic issues. Methodologically, the chapterscontribute much in terms of the possibilities and limitations of corpus-driven and corpus-focused methods today. Some of the more thought-provoking chapters chip away at largerissues such as substrate and superstrate influence, the concept of “conventionalism” in newEnglishes, and regional similarities leading to regional classifications. The book starts withchapters on verbs, focusing largely on modal and quasi-modal usage in Englishes, thenmoves to lexicogrammar and finally a chapter on quotatives.

Ch. 1 (pp. 1–34), by Schneider and Hundt, looks into tense, aspect and mood in BrE,NZE, IndE, FijE and GhE. They separate tagged verb complements from their arguments.The methodological focus of the chapter highlights the importance of hypothesis-drivenresearch with corpus-focused evidence, rather than solely corpus-driven research, in studieson syntax. The results also highlight the importance of including the document as a variablein studies using small corpora. Ch. 2 (pp. 35–53), by Collins and Yao, looks at whethernew Englishes are following the trend for quasi-modal use over traditional modal usethat has been documented for AmE. The authors investigate the modal use with referenceto Schneider’s “evolutionary period” for new Englishes, that is, whether new Englisheshave reached the “nativization” stage of using more Inner Circle-type quasi-modals. Thischapter finds that there may be an argument for the Americanization of modal usage in thenew Englishes, but that there is no way to rule out the changes as being a series of paralleldevelopments.

∗Department of Psychology, McGill University, Stewart Biological Sciences, 1205 Dr Penfield Ave, H3A 1B1, Mon-treal, Quebec, Canada E-mail: [email protected]


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In van der Auwera, Noel and De Wit’s chapter (pp. 55–75) we find a detailed summaryof need versus need (to) use in Asian Englishes as compared to BrE and AmE. Whilethis chapter certainly provides interesting findings to be followed up, there are severalpoints which possibly weaken their results. First, the authors do not define the differentuses of the need (aux) and need (to) lexical verb structures. This seems important for theinterpretation of examples, though they note that they did not undertake meaning analysis.Second, it is curious that there is no comparison to L1 Asia-Pacific Englishes rather thanBrE and AmE. In some countries at least, AusE would be a more likely influence. Third,the use of additional corpora above and beyond the ICE corpora (FLOB/LOB for BrE,BROWN/FROWN for AmE, and HKSCE for HKE) may have affected results throughincomparable text categories and/or larger ratios of certain text-types. Unfortunately, thetotal occurrences for each token were too low for significance testing. Because of the lack ofstatistical analysis, we cannot be certain that there were no confounds here. Deuber, Biewer,Hackert and Hilbert’s study (pp. 77–102) on will and would in FijE, IndE, SinE, TTE, JamEand BahE is meticulously detailed. The authors highlight the need for a combination ofqualitative and quantitative data analysis. They take a careful manual study of a smallsample set to pay “close attention to the context of each token” (p. 84). Additionally, thesociolinguistic metadata for the speakers is taken into account. The authors indicate thatOuter Circle Englishes have less distinction between will and would than does BrE, butacknowledge that the topic of conversation in the texts (all private dialogue) may haveaffected results.

Hilbert and Krug (pp. 103–36) provide another detailed chapter, this time on progressivesin MaltE compared to AmE and BrE. The key question in this study is whether the claimthat Outer Circle Englishes “overuse” progressives can be supported in MaltE. Theirresults show that MaltE progressive use is not significantly different to BrE (which isexpected given its “normative” status) and other L1 varieties’ use, with the exception ofqualitative differences in stative use. Schilk, Bernaisch and Mukherjee’s chapter (pp. 137–65) investigates CONVEY, SUPPLY and SUBMIT complementation in IndE versus SLEand compared to BrE. The chapter offers interesting insights into the differences betweenSLE and IndE. Their results show that the three verbs have different complementationstructure in each of the three varieties, despite BrE having been an exonormative influenceand in spite of the similarities between IndE and SLE.

In ch. 7 (pp. 167–96), Zipp and Bernaisch investigate particle verbs with up in nineEnglishes of the Inner and Outer Circles. The study looks at written texts only, withsearches for up and manual selection and correction. The authors checked for any hapaxlegomena in an advanced Google search to prevent labelling speech errors or nonce-formations as “innovative” particle verbs. In a detailed cluster analysis, the Englishes wereadditionally grouped into Southeast Asian and Pacific Englishes based on up verb counts.Nelson and Hongtao (pp. 197–213) is another chapter focused on particle verbs, this timein UgE using ICELite Uganda in comparisons to neighbouring countries. Like Zipp andBernaisch, the authors note the difficulty in checking items using Google because of lownational domain counts. The authors find a selection of innovative particle verbs in UgEand other African Englishes with semantic and/or structural differences to those in L1varieties.

Gut and Colonel’s chapter (pp. 215–41) focuses on relativization strategies in NigE,JamE, PhilE and SinE. In particular, the authors detail preferences for relative markers.JamE and SinE pattern together with Inner Circle Englishes in both written and spoken


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language, whereas NigE and PhilE have the “clearest exonormative orientation” and loweststylistic variability (p. 278). Most notably, the results show that less than 1 per cent of allthe relativization strategies found in this study were non-standard. In their chapter, Mairand Winkle (pp. 243–62) offer a pseudo-diachronic investigation of to-infinitives and bareinfinitives in JamE, IndE, PhilE, SinE and HKE versus BrE, NZE, IrE, CanE and AusE.This study focuses on evidence of a shift toward unmarked infinitives as found in BrEand AmE. The results suggest that all L1 Englishes are undergoing a similar change to thebare infinitive, while some L2 Englishes with BrE influence have retained a preference forthe to-infinitive. The results seem to fit with those of previous chapters, especially withreference to substrate influences.

In the final chapter, Hohn (pp. 263–90) investigates the use of quotatives be like, go andsay in IrE and JamE, extending past research on NZE, AusE, CanE, AmE, BrE in terms ofuser preferences for the forms. Hohn looks into grammatical person/number preferences(first versus third person), context preferences (thought versus speech content), as well asgender and age differences of the speakers in JamE and IrE. Overall, she finds that JamEspeakers are more likely to choose their form based on thought versus speech being quoted,while IrE speakers are more likely to choose based on grammatical person. The trends sheidentifies may well bear fruit in an analysis with more datapoints and more even speakerspread.

At this point, it would have served the volume well to have had an epilogue of some kindto sum up the findings. To thoroughly “map the unity and diversity” of world Englishes, asynthesis of how the varieties compared would have given a completeness to the discus-sion. Methodologically, the investigations raise some important points regarding corpuscollection and corpus mining. From the need to pay close attention to representativityand audience in genre to the painstaking but rewarding process of manual inspection ofconcordances for usage and function details, there are several aspects of using corporafor varietal studies that have distinct outcomes in the studies in this volume. Althoughsome of the chapters are less statistically-solid, they nonetheless report some interestingtendencies which deserve future investigation. In sum, Hundt and Gut’s volume is a bookmany researchers of English varieties will refer to in years to come as they continue tomap the changes in world Englishes and global English.


Principles and Practices of Teaching English as an International Language. Edited by AyaMatsuda. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2012, x + 250 pp.

Reviewed by VANESSA LEONARDI∗

Principles and Practices of Teaching English as an International Language is a collectedvolume whose contributions are divided into two parts, namely “Principles” aimed atexamining how the different varieties of English can cause problems for English LanguageTeaching (ELT), thus suggesting solutions and “Practices” dealing with more practical

∗Department of Economics, University of Ferrara, Via Voltapaletto 11 44100, Ferrara, Italy E-mail: [email protected]


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issues regarding English as an International Language (EIL) teaching. Part I includesseven chapters whereas Part II has six chapters. There is also a general introduction andan epilogue at the end of the book.

In the Introduction (pp. 1–14) Matsuda reminds us how the global spread of Englishled to the emergence of several varieties of the language which are increasingly nativized,adopted and adapted to individual contexts of use. This multiplicity of varieties and userschallenges ELT in terms of selecting the most suitable instructional model of English forteaching purposes.

The instructional model selection is addressed in ch. 1 (pp. 17–27) by Matsuda andFriedrich, who suggest three possibilities along with advantages and disadvantages foreach. The selection depends on course goals and availability of both teachers and materials.In the end, it does not matter which variety is used as long as learners are informed and/orreminded that there exists a myriad of varieties all over the world.

In ch. 2 (pp. 28–43) Hino explores the possibility of teaching varieties of Englishbelonging to the Expanding Circle. Hino’s model of Japanese English (MJE) is not intendedas a national variety but rather as an alternative to the traditional Anglo-American model,and his argument can be extended to any variety of the Expanding Circle. Its adoption canencourage students to express their culture and values freely in an international context,and its beneficial role in English as a Foreign Language (EFL)/EIL teaching is supportedby positive survey results.

Friedrich focuses in ch. 3 (pp. 44–54) on intercultural communication and the strategiccomponent of communicative competence, calling for a flexible use of English whichrequires teachers to focus not only on linguistic forms, but also on intercultural awarenessbuilding and communicative strategy development. Since too much emphasis is laid uponnative norms and forms rather than teaching learners communication strategies, Friedrichprovides some interesting suggestions about English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) teachingand/or researching along with some practical activity samples to put them into practice.

Five main challenges to linguistic normatism and hegemony are discussed by Kubotain ch. 4 (pp. 55–69), where she calls for a change in ELT that breaks away from “thetraditional monolingual and normative orientation” (p. 67) in favour of a border-crossingcommunication model allowing learners to adapt to both linguistic and extra-linguisticdifferences in order to negotiate meaning in an increasingly multilingual society.

In ch. 5 (pp. 70–83) McKay explores teaching materials for EIL. She acknowledgesthe limits and unsuitability of those materials based upon the main Inner Circle varieties,especially in the Expanding Circle and in cases where non-native speakers will be usingEnglish with other non-natives. Appropriate and successful teaching materials for EILlearners should include issues on the diversity of English varieties worldwide. This chapterincludes several key principles aimed at developing such materials.

Lowenberg investigates proficiency assessment in EIL testing in ch. 6 (pp. 84–102).Since nativized norms are becoming standardized both in the Outer and Expanding Circles,examiners should carefully determine which Standard English norms are more suitable inproficiency assessment, taking into account the increasing diversification of both formsand functions of English in the Circles mentioned above.

A situated meta-praxis model of EIL teacher education is provided in ch. 7 (pp. 103–18)by Dogancay-Aktuna and Hardman, who view such a model as a kind of interaction betweenplace, proficiency, praxis and understanding about issues related to language, culture,identity and teaching. The increasing diversification of English forms, functions and uses


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all over the world makes it difficult to find a common teacher education model in EILcontexts. In order to be successful, this model should be based upon local and internationalforms, uses and users of English, rather than exclusively American or British varieties ofEnglish. A meta-understanding of EIL, culture, proficiency, identity and pedagogy shouldbe addressed in curricula.

D’Angelo describes the programme of the first college of world Englishes (WE) estab-lished at Chukyo University in Japan in ch. 8 (pp. 121–39). The aims of this programmeare to expose students to different varieties of English along with opinions and biases heldtowards them, and to develop a Japanese English variety not through imposition but ratheras a naturally-occurring phenomenon that is an expression of linguistic independence fromnative-speakerism dominance. This chapter also provides some interesting suggestions onhow EIL teachers can successfully integrate into their curricula linguistic hybridity, creativ-ity and nativization, contextualized content development, and acceptance and criticisms oflocal culture, values and perspectives.

Ch. 9 (pp. 140–53) provides a description by Sharifian and Marlina of the EIL/WEprogrammes at Monash University in Australia for both undergraduate and postgraduatelevels. These programmes are aimed at promoting positive attitudes towards diversity tohelp learners, both locally and internationally, gain awareness of the existence of multiplevarieties. The programmes are taught by qualified lecturers coming from different countriesso that they can bring their own linguistic and cultural diversity into the courses. Limitationsand challenges are also covered in this chapter.

In ch. 10 (pp. 154–68) Lee describes an oral communication course programme heldat a Japanese high school in collaboration with Chukyo University. Issues examined hereinclude the selection of teaching staff and the reasons behind the adoption of a specifictextbook for this course. A great deal of emphasis is laid upon Asia and upon teachersand students’ preparation. A sample lesson plan is provided along with the outcomes ofthe course. After discussing the challenges and limitations of such a course, Lee providessome interesting suggestions for teachers who wish to promote WE in high schools.

The implementation of a WE/EIL oral communication programme at a Turkish privateuniversity in Istanbul is discussed by Bayyurt and Altinmakas in ch. 11 (pp. 169–82).After explaining the foreign language education system in Turkey and the motivation forthe implementation of the WE programme, they focus on the institutional context of thecourse itself. The syllabus description is followed by a section on the changes broughtabout by the course in students’ perception and awareness of the multiple varieties ofEnglish in the world. They conclude with an interesting section on the need to changeinstitutional policies to support the implementation of more WE-based courses.

Hino describes in ch. 12 (pp. 183–200) the implementation of the IPTEIL method atOsaka University, which stands for the Integrated Practice of EIL teaching with criticalthinking and media literacy education. This method allows students to learn more aboutlinguistic and cultural identity and diversity, and to be successful in an increasingly glob-alized world. The method has gained a great deal of recognition, support and positiveresponse, although one of its major limitations is its teacher-centred approach.

In ch. 13 (pp. 201–37) Matsuda and Duran provide several practical lesson plans andactivities which can be used in any traditional English class. These lessons can help teachersprovide their students with some basic knowledge on WE/EIL issues without having tochange their course completely. They can also be easily adapted to different contexts tosuit a wide range of goals and needs.


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Finally, in the Epilogue (pp. 239–50) Nelson covers three key issues explored through-out the book, namely EIL, intelligibility and pluricentricity of English. He emphasizesthe need to focus more on the ways to be successful in international communication ex-changes rather than “trying to draw an unbroken line around a [ . . . ] model of English forteaching/learning” (p. 248).

This work is undoubtedly interesting, persuasive and worth reading as it manages tobring together the theory and practice of teaching EIL. There are, however, a few pointsto be noted for a future revised edition. First of all, too much emphasis is laid uponexperiences coming from Japan. It would have been interesting to include more variedperspectives coming from different places, such as the European and/or Eastern Europeancountries, where WE and EIL courses are currently taught. This would have given a muchmore international flavour to the book as well as provided a more exhaustive reflection ata global level. Second, it seems that only ch. 13 provides a detailed description of classactivities in the format of full-length syllabi and lesson plans, which would have beenappreciated in the previous chapters dealing with practical activities. Finally, in my viewthere is already too much theory about EIL/WE teaching, and I therefore hope that theeditor of this volume will soon start working on a revised and enlarged edition where morespace should be devoted to practical issues and where more worldwide experiences can beprovided.



mapping unity and diversity world-wide: corpus-based studies of new englishes. edited by...

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