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The English discourse marker so can mark result, inference, connection, topic development, action prompting, and emergence of incipiency. In English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) contexts, it also marks hesitation, self‐correction, and floor‐holding. Our paper uses quantitative and qualitative discourse analytical methodology to examine so in a corpus of video‐mediated informal conversations between ELF speakers, where it is the most frequent discourse marker. The analysis demonstrates that all functions documented in first‐language English use also occur in ELF. We also document extended uses of so to prompt inference and to illustrate pragmatic competence, particularly in combination with other discourse markers such as okay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates whether beauty in nature can provide a global language to inform environmental governance, such as by providing shared values and collaborative approaches across and within different cultures. Because art mediates how many people experience environmental aesthetics, such as through photography and music, this enquiry extends to the arts. As is the case for other aesthetic values, beauty is ultimately about relationships and ways of knowing our environment, and the law can best engage with such values through interpretive guidance and processes for participatory decision making. Prescriptive codification of beauty 'standards' is generally not a realistic goal for lawmakers. The article enriches our understanding of how aesthetics can contribute to human beings' emotional empathy and ethical commitment to environmental stewardship, and identifies some conceptual and methodological difficulties that militate against beauty being a lingua franca for environmental law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called Mediterranean Lingua Franca is a Romance-based, onlyspoken linguistic variety that in slavery and travel accounts of the 17th-18th centuries is said to have been used by Moors and Turks, mainly in North Africa and above all in Algiers, as a basic means of communication with Christian slaves. Its only lexicographic source is an anonymous dictionary printed in Marseille in 1830, which is devoted to the Lingua Franca as it was spoken in Algiers. This source is by far the richest one available, but also the most problematic, because of its many inconsistencies and contradictions. As a result, the lexical components of the Algerian Lingua Franca (mainly Italian and Spanish, but also French, Provençal, Arabic, Turkish, etc.) as well as the quantity and quality of their contributions can only be reconstructed by critically comparing the entries of the Dictionnaire of 1830 with all preceding records by former prisoners and travellers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language distribution in scientific communication reflects the influence of different languages on science in global perspective. The study, based on over 450 thousand scientific tweets of all publications indexed by Scopus in June 2015, reveals the language distribution in informal scientific communication. Moreover, this result is compared with the language distribution in formal scientific communication reflected in scientific publications. Results show: (1) The language of scientific tweets is concentrated in English (91%), Japanese (2.4%) and Spanish (1.7%), while the language of scientific publications is concentrated in English (90.6%), Chinese (5%) and German (1.1%). (2) Both scientific tweets and scientific publications present disciplinary differences in language distribution, reflecting the different amount of attention that authors of different languages have on certain disciplines. (3) Except Saudi Arabia, investigated countries all over the world, regardless of whether their native language is English or not, all have English scientific tweets in the dominant position. For the vast majority of these countries, the native language scientific tweets only rank the second position. (4) Overall, 26% of tweeters use more than one language to tweet scientific products, while 49% of scientific tweeters tweet everything in English only. The results indicate that English has undoubtedly become the lingua franca in informal scientific communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the Mediterranean contact language Lingua Franca (LF) is generally classified as a pidgin, a closer examination of the specialist literature reveals some doubts regarding this categorization. This paper approaches the classification of LF from the viewpoint of its vocabulary structure and word formation processes. The basis for the study is the lexicon of some 2000 words recorded in the anonymous didactic dictionary of 1830 that constitutes the most detailed source of information about LF. The study finds that the LF word formation processes are a detailed continuation of those of its Romance lexifiers. This finding calls for a refinement of our understanding of LF, and with it of our “typology of contact outcomes” (Winford 1997: 3). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English language education has always been accorded paramount importance in China since the mid-1980s. In order to improve English teaching quality, China has initiated several rounds of English curriculum reform at various levels against the backdrop of the unprecedented spread of English as a lingua franca. Drawing upon the texts of the national curriculum documents and the relevant research literature, this paper examines the evolution of the College English curriculum for non-English majors in Chinese higher institutions over the past three decades. It reviews a number of what we see as the most important trends relating to the College English curriculum development, together with some discussion of particularly controversial issues arising from this process. We base the paper's findings on a three-part theoretical framework consisting of social development, students' needs and knowledge development to identify the factors which provide the impetus for change in the College English curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This interview study of seven highly proficient Korean users of English examines the role of the 'ideal second language self' as a motivator in the learning of English as a global language. It explores their perspectives on the cultural associations that English holds, the degree to which a 'global identity' is a part of their own self-understandings, and whether or not they visualize elements of an 'ideal self' in order to sustain their own language learning motivation. The findings reveal a clear sense among participants of their individual language learning goals and aspirations, but little evidence in most cases of a strongly visualized second language self. While some participants identified readily with the notion of global citizenship, others categorically rejected the global citizen label, suggesting that researchers and language teachers need to take care to avoid 'ascribing' particular identities to Englishlanguage learners without regard for their individual perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A criticism of the book "Lingua franca: histoire d'une langue métisse en Méditerranée," by Jocelyne Dakhlia, is presented. It discusses the arguments that Dakhlia emphasizes in the book to show the expansion of the Frankish language in the Mediterranean area, from the 16th to the 19th century, and the issues that it brings up. Further topics include the linguistic aspect of Dakhlia's research, and the literary style of the book.

English has spread so widely around the world that its native speakers are now outnumbered by its non-native speakers. Recent publications have shown that the dominance of English has led to severe disadvantages for non-Anglophones. Several options of language policy have been presented to find fair and democratic approaches to international communication. Their scope includes different variants of multilingualism, the limitation of the number of languages used in international communication, restriction to receptive skills, the introduction of a system of compensation, initiatives to revive an ancient language (e.g. Latin), and the use of an artificial language. The model English as a Lingua Franca, the idea that the English spoken by non-native speakers is a variety in its own right whose norms are established by its users instead of native speakers, is among these proposals. The paper discusses the extent to which this approach seems to be feasible. Despite its appeal among learners and speakers of English as a foreign language, a number of factors seem to hamper its chances of realization. These factors involve a complexity of issues, such as traditions in foreign language learning and teaching, the heterogeneity of lingua franca communication and psychological reservations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English has been established in India for well over two centuries, and is now both its major lingua franca and ‘window on the world’. Some Indianisms are however little known beyond South Asia and are liable to be regarded by native speakers of English as ‘deviant’ in various ways. Here, a project is described in which a set of distinctive and representative Indian English expressions was shown to a group of native English speakers who were asked to comment on them. The list includes both distinctive words (such as face-cut, freeship, and weightage) and distinctive senses of universally used words (such as chaste, see, and tempo). The responses are discussed and a summarizing conclusion presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including corpuscularian theory, inorganic chemistry, and chemistry a lingua franca.