Global English article in FT
am 10.11.2007 von Transblawg
The Financial Times has a long article on Global English, Whose English?, by Michael Skapinker, with particular reference to David Graddol (see earlier entry and comments).
One concern of the article is how and when English will change. David Crystal is quoted:
Mr Crystal has written: On several occasions, I have encountered English-as-a-first-language politicians, diplomats and civil servants working in Brussels commenting on how they have felt their own English being pulled in the direction of these foreignlanguage patterns . . . These people are not talking down to their colleagues or consciously adopting simpler expressions, for the English of their interlocutors may be as fluent as their own. It is a natural process of accommodation, which in due course could lead to new standardised forms.
Its claimed that written academic English has to stay closer to the grammatical rules followed by the native English-speaking elites. I see quite a few books and articles on German law in non-native English that has not been seen by an editor, or by an editor who realized what was wrong with it. But true, that doesnt mean there is a proliferation of such articles or a development of a legal Denglish.
Barbara Seidlhofer, professor of English and applied linguistics at the University of Vienna, says relief at the absence of native speakers is common. “When we talk to people (often professionals) about international communication, this observation is made very often indeed. We haven’t conducted a systematic study of this yet, so …
Native speakers a hindrance
Transblawg / A survey by David Graddiol, commissioned by the British Council, on Global English: Global English is often compared to Latin, a rare historical parallel to English in the way that it fl ourished as an international language after the decline of the…
Use of English in German enterprises
Transblawg / The Financial Times (English edition) of 12 April 2005 has two articles on the use of English in German businesses: English is not always music to the ears, and The new lingua germanica. They will be free online for a...…
Unclogged English/Englisch enthollandisieren
Transblawg / I see that today the Dutch Queen's Day is being celebrated on the South Bank, so time to mention the presentation at the ITI conference on unclogged English last weekend. Dr. Joy Burrough-Boenisch has spent many years editing scientific English…
Translator still wondering
Transblawg / In the last entry, I mentioned – inter alia - non-native speakers of English correcting my grammar. This has been met by a couple of rants about Germans writing English. I do feel like ranting against Germans correcting English myself...…
German-English technical translators weblog
Transblawg / Translationfound is the occasional weblog of Gisela Strauss, a technical translator in Munich. I t describes itself as follows: Translation Found is a loosely typed bilingual - English-German language blog, discussing language, translation and locali…
German law journals/Studentische Fachzeitschriften
Transblawg / stud.iur. Martin Malkus links to three German students' law journals - written by students in the American law review style - available online, one from Hamburg, one from Bremen and one from Freiburg. Some of the articles are in English. (Unfortu…
English as lingua franca in Switzerland / Englisch in der Schweiz
Transblawg / swissinfo says: L’anglais a de bonnes chances de devenir LA langue de compréhension dans ce pays multilingue qu’est la Suisse, selon Urs Dürmüller, linguiste du séminaire d’anglais de l’Universit&eacut…
Diploma / M.A. in legal translation, City University London
Transblawg / City University has recently announced, apparently, that its diploma / M.A. course on legal translation is not starting till autumn 2008. Meanwhile, there are a number of modules that can be taken separately as CPD (The ITI has recently been encourag…
» Fry & Bonthrone Partnerschaft - Language Consultancy and Services
» FT.com / Home UK / UK - Whose language?
» Native speakers a hindrance - Transblawg
© 2004-2008 JuraBlogs | Impressum
