I am a Professor of English Linguistics and coordinator of the research group Variation in English Worldwide (ViEW). Using qualitative and statistical corpus analysis, we investigate the probabilistic variation detected in English varieties spoken in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. The predictors of this variation are primarily cognitive—generally derived from second language acquisition processes and language contact—as well as sociolinguistic, including factors such as geographic area, gender, and age. External factors such as globalization and trends toward the democratization and colloquialization of language also play a significant role in our studies. Our research is framed within the Extra- and Intra-Territorial Forces (EIF) model proposed by Buschfeld & Kautzsch (2020).
Currently, we are particularly focused on the variety of English spoken in Gibraltar. On one hand, we are compiling corpora that facilitate its study, including the Gibraltar component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-GBR), the Corpus of Spoken Gibraltar English (SGibE), and the Corpus of Gibraltar Press (GibPress). On the other hand, we are delving into the aforementioned predictors of variation in this variety, with special emphasis on the linguistic ecology of the territory, which is rapidly shifting toward English monolingualism, breaking away from its historically multilingual tradition. To explain this shift, we analyze Gibraltar’s linguistic demographics and the reasons why younger generations no longer speak Spanish or Llanito. These reasons are linked to prestige, linguistic discrimination, globalization, prejudice, educational policies, and politics.