Style Range and Attitudinal Change

Abstract

Abstract This final chapter returns to the social side of the evolution of Englishes, with a particular focus on the dramatic difference in style ranges of Indian English (IndE) and Singapore English (SingE), and the attitudes associated with them. IndE is seen as a conservative, slow-changing dialect, with a tendency to discount nonstandard usage as learner errors; SgE, by contrast, includes the divergent colloquial variety Singlish and much greater nativization, generating a more acute moral panic around language change than in India. This forms a final piece of the puzzle of incipient dialect birth in both regions. The different style ranges found in the two regions are assessed in relation to emergent registers, style shifting, and vernacularization in each speech community. The degree of focusing toward new norms, language attitudes, and language dominance in individuals in each speech community are also discussed.