Within a metaphorical journey in the English lexicon, this essay posits that, although a language is normally related to a culture, this is not entirely true in ELF contexts, since there is no one single culture to refer to. Starting from this assumption, the author advocates a reflection on the concept of ‘speech community’, in order to show how content-focused ELF speakers may turn into lexical creative agents, as her corpus of job interviews testifies to; she further shows that, in job interviews conducted in English by non-native speakers of English, appropriateness is assessed against company and not linguistic needs. Job interviews can be considered examples of ELF speakers’ pragmatic attitude towards language innovation and variation.
In un viaggio metaforico all'interno del lessino inglese, in questo contributo si sostiene che nonostante lingua e cultura si considerino due elementi inseparabili, qusto non è cintermente vero in ambito di Inlgese ocme LIngua Franca, poichè non vi mai un'unica cultura a cui fare riferimento. Ne deriva una rifelssione sul concetto di 'speech community' per mostrare come chi parla inglese come lingua franca sia maggiormente attento al contenuto che alla forma e si riveli lessicalmetne creativo.
Unexpected lexical creativity: the rise of context-dependent cultures?
VIGO, Francesca Maria
2012-01-01
Abstract
Within a metaphorical journey in the English lexicon, this essay posits that, although a language is normally related to a culture, this is not entirely true in ELF contexts, since there is no one single culture to refer to. Starting from this assumption, the author advocates a reflection on the concept of ‘speech community’, in order to show how content-focused ELF speakers may turn into lexical creative agents, as her corpus of job interviews testifies to; she further shows that, in job interviews conducted in English by non-native speakers of English, appropriateness is assessed against company and not linguistic needs. Job interviews can be considered examples of ELF speakers’ pragmatic attitude towards language innovation and variation.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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A Cultural Journey through the English Lexicon - Vigo.pdf
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