The Field of Linguistics: Europe, ed. by Bernd Kortmann and Johan van der Auwera
English in intranational public discourse
Päivi Pahta
University of Tampere
Irma Taavitsainen
University of Helsinki
Abstract 03.04.2008
The spread of English as a global language has brought about a new phenomenon in various
European countries. The use of English has increased in intranational contexts, targeted at local
audiences, in countries where English was traditionally a foreign language. The topic was
thematized in the late-1980s, and with the rapid spread of the phenomenon itself, research has also
increased, especially in the 2000s. Our main focus in this chapter is on the use of English in the
public domain in local situations involving speakers of the native language(s) of the country,
whereas contexts where English is used as a lingua franca for communication between speakers of
different languages are largely ignored here. We discuss both English-only communicative episodes
among non-English-speaker audiences (e.g. monolingual English advertisements targeted at local
audiences) and linguistically mixed or hybrid texts and speech events, where English alternates with
local languages (e.g. job advertisements or TV interviews containing code-switching into English).
Finland is used as a case study to illustrate the phenomena discussed, but the aim is to shed light on
other parts of Europe as well, including non-EU countries.
After a brief introduction to the object of enquiry and its background, the chapter provides an
account of research looking into the phenomenon and the various methods and approaches used in
studying it. We provide some glimpses into the results gained using these methods in different
contexts of use according to different variables of the communicative situation (e.g. region, domain,
or social variables). The chapter also reports on findings concerning attitudes towards the use of
English, and the implications that the phenomenon has for the local languages that come into
contact with English and for language policies of the European countries. The chapter ends with
some general conclusions and questions for further research, and a bibliography containing
references and suggestions for further reading.
Contents (provisional)
 Introduction: characterization of English in intranational use in the early 21st century; the object
of enquiry and its background (English as a global language; socioeconomic globalization and
transcultural flows)
 Research history
 Approaches and methods
- Linguistic landscaping: public spaces, outdoor media
- Discourse studies: analyzing newspapers, magazines, TV talk shows and public speeches
- Survey methods: surveys of the use of English in Denmark (1999) and Finland (2007)
 Regional view: variation in frequency and use of English across countries/parts of Europe
 Situational view: domains, genres and registers where English occurs
 Sociolinguistic view: English indexing identity and group-membership
 Attitudes towards the use of English
 Linguistic implications
 Implications for language policy
 Conclusions and questions for further research
 Bibliography: references, further reading
c. 10 pages, 5500 words