30.4682, FYI: Announcing Cambridge Elements: World Englishes

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-4682. Wed Dec 11 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.4682, FYI:  Announcing Cambridge Elements: World Englishes

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Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2019 15:19:30
From: Edgar Schneider [edgar.schneider at ur.de]
Subject: Announcing Cambridge Elements: World Englishes

 
I am happy to announce a new series and most attractive publishing concept
that Cambridge University Press is launching: Cambridge Elements: World
Englishes. Let me say a few words first on the topic and then on the
publication scheme and context.

As is well known, the English language has spread all around the globe and has
been re-rooted in many countries and contexts, thus acquiring new properties
and functions. Originally, this process was caused by colonialism and the
growth of the British Empire (plus, rarely, American colonial activities),
thus having produced ''Postcolonial Englishes'', such as Indian English,
Singaporean English, Philippine English, Ghanaian English, Australian English,
etc. Interestingly enough, however, after de-colonization in the middle of the
twentieth century this process has become even much more vibrant, with English
being pushed and disseminated further as the main tool of globalization, as an
ethnically neutral linguistic choice for avoiding conflicts in multilingual
nations (e.g. India, Nigeria), or as an instrument promising significantly
improved job opportunities and thus life perspectives to individuals in many
countries. In recent years this perspective has widened substantially,
recognizing that English is also gaining ground and being transformed in
non-postcolonial countries where it is not a second but a foreign language
(such as China or South Korea), as a global lingua franca, and in novel
contexts such as media or, particularly, in cyberspace. 
The linguistic sub-discipline of ''World Englishes'' has grown substantially
since the 1980s, investigating these phenomena and processes, developing
appropriate theoretical frameworks and considering applied issues, especially
in language policy and pedagogy. It has produced many investigations and
descriptions of structural properties and issues in individual countries but
also substantial theoretical frameworks (such as Kachru's ''Three Circles of
English'' model or Schneider's ''Dynamic Model of the evolution of
Postcolonial Englishes''), and much work on cultural and applied perspectives.
Methodologically, historical surveys and sociolinguistic descriptions have
been supplemented by the compilation of huge electronic text corpora for
comparative investigation, often submitted to sophisticated statistical
analyses. ''World Englishes'' is thus a most vibrant field of research these
days – there are lots of research projects as well as conference and
publication activities, and many universities all around the globe offer
pertinent courses. And this vibrancy directly reflects ongoing linguistic
processes in societies and cultures, with English as a global language but in
localized forms and contexts continuously claiming new territory, developing
new properties, and spreading to new environments. 

Over the last few years Cambridge University Press have developed a new
publishing concept, called ''Elements'', which occupies an important and fresh
niche between journal articles and monographs in terms of size, and it
combines the best of two worlds, ''traditional'' quality-controlled hardcopy
publishing and modern digital / online (and in parts also Open Access)
publishing with multimedia linking options. ''Elements'' have been available
in some fields in the sciences, humanities, social sciences, and technology
(see https://www.cambridge.org/core/what-we-publish/elements ). ''Elements''
are authoritative scholarly texts, rigorously peer-reviewed, written by
leading scholars and providing readers with a comprehensive, yet concise,
examination of each subject. At 20,000-30,000 words (40-75 pages), individual
contributions are longer than typical journal articles but shorter than a
monograph or book. This hybrid format fills a gap in a most welcome and timely
fashion, since for authors journal article requirements often do not allow
enough space to adequately contextualize and present research but a
full-length monograph demands a much more substantial time commitment.
Elements adopt a digital-first format which allows the series to respond
quickly to new research trends and keep texts updatable; they are made
available in online, onscreen, and print versions, and allow rich multimedia
support (e.g. links to audio or video samples, raw data or technical
documentation). A rapid publication and dissemination turnover is offered to
authors, supported by a globally leading academic publisher and their
marketing experiences and outlets. 

As the responsible editor contracted by CUP after the usual reviewing process,
I am now launching ''Elements: World Englishes'' (see
https://www.cambridge.org/core/what-we-publish/elements/world-englishes ) as
the next series in this framework, and as a new and exciting option in World
Englishes publishing. Please check the website for a project description of
this series, outlining its characteristics and detailing a few ideas for
possible contributions, a list which is suggestive but not exhaustive, of
course. Scholars around the globe working on World Englishes are invited to
contemplate whether any of the topics suggested might be something they could
write on, and consider their own research work as to its suitability for this
series – from now on I am inviting submissions to Elements: World Englishes on
a rolling basis. 

If you are considering writing an Element for the series please get in touch
with me informally at any time, and we can discuss options and I'll be ready
to answer further questions. To initiate the contribution process formally, a
short Outline / Prospectus of your manuscript (of 2-3 pages length) will have
to be submitted. Full manuscript submissions will have to pass through the
ScholarOne gateway after an initial agreement, and will undergo peer review
within (normally) six weeks. After acceptance of a final version of the
manuscript the turnover until publication (online and POD) will be only twelve
weeks. Authors retain copyright of their work.

If there are any questions or if you wish to propose a project for the series
please get in touch with me - I look forward to hearing from prospective
contributors. 

With my very best regards,
Edgar Schneider
University of Regensburg, Germany
edgar.schneider at ur.de
 



Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics

Subject Language(s): English (eng)





 



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