Chapter 5
Pluricentricity versus pluriareality?
Areal patterns in the English-speaking world
This paper investigates the issue of what data from the English-speaking world can contribute to the ongoing debate on the notions of “pluricentricity” versus “pluriareality” — and to the interpretation of English(es) as pluricentric or pluriareal, respectively. After brief definitions and discussions of the core notions, areal distributions in the English-speaking world — which can be viewed as evidence for either perspective — are systematically screened and exemplified. This includes differences between national varieties of English and evidence for “epicentric” linguistic influences on the one hand, and areal distributions on local, regional, supra-national, and global scales on the other. I conclude that both notions do not exclude each other; rather, each captures and highlights different aspects of reality. “Pluriareality” describes language production, while “pluricentricity” focuses on perception.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Pluricentricity versus pluriareality: Competing notions
- 2.1“Pluricentricity” — an ambiguous notion
- 2.2“Pluriareality” — A controversial notion
- 2.3Testing and assessment strategies
- 3.Evidence for pluricentricity
- 3.1National varieties
- 3.1.1British English versus American English
- 3.1.2National varieties on a global scale
- 3.2Epicentric influences
- 3.3Intermediate summary — Pluricentricity: National varieties and putative epicenters
- 4.Evidence for pluriareality: Non-national patterns
- 4.1Areality: The local scale
- 4.2Areality: The regional scale
- 4.3Areality: The transnational scale
- 4.4Areality: The transnational and global scale
- 4.5Areality in perception: Perceptual Dialectology
- 4.6Intermediate summary — pluriareality
- 5.Pluricentricity or pluriareality? Weighing the arguments and evidence
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Notes
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References
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