The Netherlands is home to an increasing number of English-language churches. These churches are often established with an international audience in mind: however, interestingly, they also attract... Show moreThe Netherlands is home to an increasing number of English-language churches. These churches are often established with an international audience in mind: however, interestingly, they also attract a large number of Dutch as a first-language (L1) speakers. This article investigates the language attitudes and language choices of Dutch L1 speakers attending these churches. It examines the religious considerations behind their language choices, and the influence a second language (L2) might have on their faith experience. The study shows that, while English is indeed permeating the religious domain of the Netherlands, Dutch is still used in many contexts. For example, a majority of the participants, while favouring English as the main language of the church service, preferred to pray in Dutch. We also found that ideologies surrounding the English language guided many of the participants’ language choices. Lastly, the English language brought participants a sense of distance that aided discussions about their faith and prevented negative feelings associated with the Dutch language from interfering. This study adds to the discussion of the global spread of English and sheds new light on linguistic attitudes and choices in religious contexts. Show less
Language contact has presumably had an impact on all of the world’s languages. This Ph.D. dissertation provides a thorough description of the lexical outcomes of the contact between the arguably... Show moreLanguage contact has presumably had an impact on all of the world’s languages. This Ph.D. dissertation provides a thorough description of the lexical outcomes of the contact between the arguably young American Spanish and the youngest variety of Southern Hemisphere Englishes, thus closing a gap in the literature on Spanish and English as contact languages.Situated at the crossroads of toponomastics, lexical semantics, and language attitudes, and embedded within a theoretical framework of contact linguistics, this thesis addresses the contact history of Falkland Islands English with Spanish and examines to what extent such contact played a part in the shaping of the archipelago’s official language. To do so, an innovative mixed-methods approach is used to broaden the analytical depth of the results. Furthermore, a range of sources are used, i.e., archival research, literature reviews, and ethnographic fieldwork.The findings show that (i) Spanish-English contact in the Falklands has left two main linguistic products: loanwords and place names; (ii) even though the Falklands currently host an English-speaking community, the Islands have a long history of Spanish-speaking settlers; (iii) Spanish loanwords are mainly related to horse tack and horse types, and most words are tightly connected to gaucho vernacular but not exclusively with their equestrian duties, and (iv) Falkland Islands English hosts a handful of loanwords that are originally from autochthonous South American languages.This dissertation will be of interest to scholars working on language contact, toponomastics, world Englishes, and ethnolinguistic approaches to data collection. Show less
Focusing on the general public, an often-forgotten key player in the debate on correct and proper English usage, this dissertation provides a current perspective on attitudes towards fourteen usage... Show moreFocusing on the general public, an often-forgotten key player in the debate on correct and proper English usage, this dissertation provides a current perspective on attitudes towards fourteen usage problems, including literally as an intensifier and the notorious split infinitive, in British English. Proper English Usage investigates the impact of the social variables age, gender, language nativeness and level of education on attitudes towards the usage problems investigated. The results of various attitude elicitation tests, including an online questionnaire completed by 112 respondents, have shown that social variables such as age play a crucial role in the social stratification of usage attitudes. Using a mixture of different attitude elicitation techniques has shown that both subconsciously and consciously offered attitudes need to be taken into account in order to circumvent the issue of obtaining socially desirable answers. Besides applying a mixed-methods approach, qualitative and quantitative attitudinal data contribute further to a fuller picture of current usage attitudes. A historical dimension is added to the study by exploring the Hyper Usage Guide of English (HUGE) database, which allowed for a systematic assessment of percept data found in advice manuals spanning 240 years. Show less
