Premium
Deculturizing Englishes: the Botswana Context
Author(s) -
Merkestein Aria
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/1467-971x.00090
Subject(s) - variety (cybernetics) , perspective (graphical) , context (archaeology) , linguistics , sociology , epistemology , order (exchange) , computer science , history , artificial intelligence , philosophy , economics , archaeology , finance
In this paper I argue that those instruments normally applied to the analysis of discourse, and which originate in the Western tradition of analysing language, must be used with extreme caution when one analyses and describes New Varieties (of English). To substantiate this claim I will take as an example recent work on the emergence of Batswana English. In this research a traditional methodology was employed in order to give a part‐description of language change. In the paper the choice of data, analytical tools and method of description are examined. Furthermore the research findings are discussed in the light of a deculturisation of Western‐based analysis, since at the conclusion of the research the tools were assessed as not being wholly appropriate if the analysis was to be interpreted in a functional manner, that is, from the perspective of the owners of the new variety.