Editorial practice and the progressive in Black South African English

Abstract

Innovative linguistic features occur in Outer and Expanding Circle varieties of English, leading to claims that new Englishes and learner Englishes form overlapping sets rather than discrete categories. However, less attention is given to the processes by which innovations acquire conventionalised status, in particular with regards to the role of editing of published written texts. We propose a model that incorporates both the proficiency of the writer and editorial intervention to account for the role of editing in the process of conventionalisation and legitimisation of innovative features, which is applied in a case study of the progressive aspect in Black South African English.