Torn Between Prestige Models or Moving Towards a Standard of Its Own? Indo-Fijian English and Norm Development in a Multilingual ESL Society

Lena Zipp

University of Heidelberg, Germany

Poster

It has been suggested that New Englishes in general follow a cycle of evolution, resulting in younger codified first and second language varieties being accorded norm-providing status (in a pluricentric model of English) and ESL varieties progressing towards endonormative stabilization. The study will examine whether Indo-Fijian English displays differences in lexico-grammatical features and prepositional usage when compared to its ethnic counterpart, Fijian English, or whether it is justified to speak of common structural nativization processes of a single national variety of English in Fiji. An extension of the analysis will position Indo-Fijian English in relation to its possible exonormative prestige models: the varieties of three countries with political, economic or cultural influence on Fiji – Great Britain, New Zealand and India.

Session: POSTERS: Focus on variation, migration, minority languages
Thursday, April 3, 2008, 12:45-15:45
room: foyer