Englishization and contact linguistics

ABSTRACT: This issue‐oriented paper presents several dimensions of the hegemony of the English language across some of the world's major languages, and their implications for various approaches to contact linguistics. The importance of the issues raised here is related to the multidimensional character of the spread of English; the unique sociolinguistic contexts of English across cultures; the ‘love‐hate’ attitudes toward the language; and the development of CONTACT LITERATURES in world Englishes (e.g., in South and West Asia, South, West and East Africa). It is argued that, to explore the all‐pervasive impact of English, interdisciplinary research is needed on various literatures of the world; processes of literary creativity; introduction of new or modified literary genres; expansion of the thematic range; patterning of the discoursal and stylistic strategies, and issues of ideology and power. The discussion is divided into the following major sections: The spheres of Englishization; Deficit vs. dominance hypothesis; Exponents of Englishization; Englishization beyond the sentence; ‘Great tradition’ vs. ‘Little tradition’; Thematic range and literary experimentation; Englishization and code development; Englishization and linguistic schizophrenia; Contact linguistics and language policies. Finally, as an aside, the paper draws attention to Englishization and APPLIED contact linguistics.