Schneider's dynamic model
Edgar W. Schneider's dynamic model of postcolonial Englishes adopts an evolutionary perspective {{cite journal |last1=Weston |first1=Daniel |title=Gibraltar’s position in the Dynamic Model of Postcolonial English |journal=English World-Wide. A Journal of Varieties of English |date=26 October 2011 |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=338–367 |doi=10.1075/eww.32.3.04wes}} emphasizing language ecologies. It shows how language evolves as a process of 'competition-and-selection', and how certain linguistic features emerge.{{cite book |last1=Hansen |first1=Beke |title=Corpus linguistics and sociolinguistics: a study of variation and change in the modal systems of world Englishes |date=2018 |publisher=Brill Rodopi |location=Leiden; Boston |isbn=9789004381520}} The Dynamic Model illustrates how the histories and ecologies will determine language structures in the different varieties of English, and how linguistic and social identities are maintained.Kirkpatrick, Andy (2007). World Englishes: implications for international communication and English language teaching. Cambridge UP. Chapter 3.
Underlying principles
Five underlying principles underscore the Dynamic Model:Schneider, Edgar (2007). Postcolonial English: Varieties around the world. Cambridge UP. Chapter 3.
- The closer the contact, or higher the degree of bilingualism or multilingualism in a community, the stronger the effects of contact.
- The structural effects of language contact depend on social conditions. Therefore, history will play an important part.
- Contact-induced changes can be achieved by a variety of mechanisms, from code-switching to code alternation to acquisition strategies.
- Language evolution, and the emergence of contact-induced varieties, can be regarded as speakers making selections from a pool of linguistic variants made available to them.
- Which features will be ultimately adopted depends on the complete “ecology” of the contact situation, including factors such as demography, social relationships, and surface similarities between languages etc.
The Dynamic Model outlines five major stages of the evolution of world Englishes. These stages will take into account the perspectives of the two major parties of agents – settlers (STL) and indigenous residents (IDG). Each phase is defined by four parameters:
- Extralinguistic factors (e.g. historical events)
- Characteristic identity constructions for both parties
- Sociolinguistic determinants of contact setting
- Structural effects that emerge
| class="wikitable" | |||||
| Phase 1: Foundation | Phase 2: Exonormative stabilization | Phase 3: Nativization | Phase 4: Endonormative stabilization | Phase 5: Differentiation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sociopolitical background | * English brought in by STL
| * STL communities stabilize
| * STL's ties with 'land of origin' weaken
| * Stage of cultural self-reliance | * Established nation
|
| Identity constructions | * Both STL and IDG see themselves as distinct from each other
| * Identity of STL and IDG undergo slight shift
| * Gap between STL and IDG reduced
| * Members of STL community see themselves as part of the new nation
| * Citizens no longer feel the need to define themselves as a single entity
|
| Sociolinguistic conditions | * Contact between STL and IDG serve utilitarian purposes
| * IDG develop bilingualism
| * Pressure on IDG to acquire STL's English
| * Existence of new language form recognized
| * Group-internal linguistic markers |
| Linguistic effects | * Koineization
| * STL's English moves towards local variety (bits of indigenous vocabulary is adopted)
| * Heavy lexical borrowing
| * Linguistic homogeneity
| * Regional speech variation
|