Matrimonial adverts in Indian English

Abstract

Abstract Our paper readdresses the Kachruvian notion of ‘contextualisation’ from a cultural-linguistic/cognitive-sociolinguistic perspective. We provide an exemplary analysis along these lines, using data from a corpus of Indian-English matrimonial advertisements as our empirical basis. Taking the dimensions of contextualisation distinguished in Kachru’s original framework as a matrix, we show that instances of nativisation detected in the data can be fruitfully spelled out in terms of their underlying cultural conceptualisations and are often interrelated against this background. Furthermore, we suggest that the notion of contextualisation can be profitably applied to entire text types. At a general level, we argue that an analysis that addresses cultural cognition at group level can overcome limitations of descriptive approaches in the study of L2-varieties and provide common ground for a joint endeavour of various research paradigms and disciplines.