World Englishes as components of a complex dynamic system / Edgar W. Schneider.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schneider, Edgar W., author.

Series:

Cambridge elements. Elements in world Englishes, 2633-3309.

Cambridge elements. Elements in world Englishes, 2633-3309

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Foreign countries.

English language.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (85 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

This Element proposes to view World Englishes as components of an overarching Complex Dynamic System of Englishes, against the conventional view of regarding them as discrete, rule-governed, categorial systems. After outlining this basic idea and setting it off from mainstream linguistic theories, it introduces the theory of Complex Dynamic Systems and the main properties of such systems (systemness, complexity, perpetual dynamics, network relationships, the interplay of order and chaos, emergentism and self-organization, nonlinearity and fractals, and attractors), and surveys earlier applications to language. Usage-based linguistics and construction grammar are outlined as suitable frameworks to explain how the Complex Systems principles manifest themselves in linguistic reality. Many structural properties and examples from several World Englishes are presented to illustrate the manifestations of Complex Systems principles in specific features of World Englishes. Finally, the option of employing the NetLogo programming environment to simulate variety emergence via agent-based modeling is suggested.

Contents:

Cover

Title page

Imprints page

World Englishes as Components of a Complex Dynamic System

Contents

1 Introduction: Emergence and World Englishes

2 The Theory of Complex Dynamic Systems

2.1 Origins, Definitions, and Applications

2.2 Properties of Complex Dynamic Systems - and Effects in Language

2.3 Earlier Thinking on Language as a Complex Dynamic System

3 Turning Complex Dynamic Systems Theory into Linguistic Reality: The Central Role of Usage and Constructions

4 Complex Dynamic Systems Theory as Applied to World Englishes

4.1 On the Nature of World Englishes: Essentialist and Non-essentialist Reflections

4.2 The Emergence of World Englishes through the Lens of the Evolution of Complex Dynamic Systems

4.3 Structural Properties of World Englishes as Manifestations of Complex Dynamic Systems Principles

5 Toward Agent-Based Modeling of Varieties Emergence Using NetLogo

6 Conclusion: World Englishes Keep Rolling

References

Acknowledgments.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 19 Aug 2025).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-009-28947-0

1-009-28949-7

1-009-28950-0

OCLC:

1521332977