English Language across Contexts, Media and Modes

The volume investigates English from two interrelated standpoints. On the one hand, English is not simply an identifiable collection of linguistic features; on the other, it can only be measured on the basis of its communicative and social realizations. Hence, the need to systematize and define English as a complex phenomenon, one that is essentially biased by contextual factors. Although from a prescriptive perspective ‘English’ is taken to reflect good usage (i.e., an arbitrary appreciation based on correct, ‘elegant’ and proper use), any contextually effective realization may indeed be considered as an instantiation of the language. And yet, such a descriptive approach may raise some problems concerning the ‘identity’ of English, especially given the fact that, today, non-native speakers largely outnumber natives. Could anything that is worded out in English – using English vocabulary – be considered as an instantiation of the language? Conversely, could texts produced by native speakers, with specific competences in a given domain, be viewed as typical instantiations of English? This paradox suggests a variety of issues that need to be dealt with, in order to have guidelines by which to assess what English is, and to understand how it is used. This is precisely the focus of this volume, which tries to define and explain English by investigating it as, firstly, a linguistic tool (functioning according to preferred patterns and regularities); secondly, as an instrument to perform specific functions (therefore influenced by people’s needs and expectations); and finally, as a contextually situated communicative act (thus biased by situational, disciplinary, ideological and cultural constraints).