College for Social Sciences and Humanities, University Alliance Ruhr
Essen, Germany
Mode: Hybrid
Postcolonial English contexts, mostly found in African, Asian, and Caribbean communities, involve multilingual and multicultural contexts, which are marked by the influence of ethnic languages and cultures on the variety of English spoken in these parts, due to previous colonial contact (Anchimbe, 2018). Such influence may be reflected in the borrowing of discourse-pragmatic elements, including address terms, interjections, and politeness markers from local languages into English, refunctionalisation of English speech acts, pragmatic markers and contextualisation cues, and discursive constructions of social roles, identities, and ethnic orientations (Anchimbe & Janney, 2011; Meierkord & Isingoma, 2021; Gut & Unuabonah, in press). Although different theoretical approaches have been instrumental in elucidating processes involved in discourse-pragmatic variation within these communicative interactions, there is still a limited focus on discourse-pragmatic variation in these contexts. This workshop aims to bring together scholars who are interested in discussing theoretical approaches, methodologies, and discourse-pragmatic items implicated in discourse-pragmatic variation in a wide variety of communicative interactions within postcolonial English contexts.
Scholars are invited to submit abstracts of about 500 words (excluding references) for 20-minute talks on any aspect of discourse-pragmatic variation in different postcolonial English contexts, not later than 15 October 2024 to application@college-uaruhr.de. Please indicate whether you would like to give an online presentation or join the workshop in person.
Anchimbe, E. (2018). Offers and offer refusals: A postcolonial pragmatics perspective on world Englishes. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Anchimbe, E., & Janney, R. (2011). Postcolonial pragmatics: An introduction. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(6), 1451–1459.
Gut, U., & Unuabonah, F. O. (in press). Expressing gratitude in Nigerian English. English World-Wide.
Meierkord, C., & Isingoma, B. (2021). Lexico-pragmatics between cultural heritage and second language acquisition: Address terms, greetings and discourse markers in Ugandan English. In P. Peters, & K. Burridge (eds.), Exploring the ecology of world Englishes in the twenty-first century: Language, culture and society (pp. 108–128). Edinburgh University Press.
Ulrike Gut, University of Münster, Germany
Bebwa Isingoma, Gulu University, Uganda
Foluke O. Unuabonah, Redeemer’s University, Ede, Nigeria | unuabonahf@run.edu.ng
Christiane Meierkord, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany | christiane.meierkord@rub.de