As global political preeminence gradually shifted from the United Kingdom to the United States, so did the capacity to culturally influence the rest of the world. In this work, we analyze how the world-wide varieties of written English are evolving. We study both the spatial and temporal variations of vocabulary and spelling of English using a large corpus of geolocated tweets and the Google Books datasets corresponding to books published in the US and the UK. The advantage of our approach is that we can address both standard written language (Google Books) and the more colloquial forms of microblogging messages (Twitter). We find that American English is the dominant form of English outside the UK and that its influence is felt even within the UK borders. Finally, we analyze how this trend has evolved over time and the impact that some cultural events have had in shaping it.

This article uses computer simulations as a means of assessing two different models for the competition between two languages from the interdisciplinary perspective of complex systems. These models allow for the analysis of the role of bilingual speakers and they consider two of the basic factors determining the use of each language: their relative prestige and the language loyalty of their speakers. Here we assess the effect of these parameters in different social networks, with the aim of contributing to the understanding of the role of bilingualism and social networks in processes of language contact. We first present a qualitative analysis based on a simulation tool that we have designed, in order to visualize the dynamics of the models. Secondly, we consider a qualitative analysis of the role of complex networks, identifying mechanisms for the rapid extinction of a language and for situations of language segregation. Finally, we present a quantitative analysis which shows, counter-intuitively, a transition from a final scenario of language maintenance to one of language shift as language loyalty increases. Other findings are: (i) that the scenario of language coexistence is reduced in the presence of bilingual agents; and (ii) that networks which allow for local effects reduce further the situations for which language maintenance is possible.

ICE and GloWbE are the two main corpora available for the study of world Englishes, and as such they share several features. However, they also differ in a number of respects owing to the different techniques adopted during compilation: while ICE is a traditional corpus with 32 text types represented, GloWbE only contains material from the Internet. This article compares the two corpora from a number of perspectives: (i) frequency and collocation of modal verbs of necessity, (ii) degree of orality and informality of the blogs included in GloWbE versus the spoken component of ICE; and (iii) the vernacular and globalised nature of both corpora. Findings show that big data cannot be considered as an alternative source to corpus compilation. Rather, the new text type(s) found in Internet material should be included in traditional corpora.

In the general context of dynamics of social consensus, we study an agent based model for the competition between two socially equivalent languages, addressing the role of bilingualism and social structure. In a regular network, we study the formation of linguistic domains and their interaction across the boundaries. We also analyse the dynamics on a small world network and on a network with community structure. In all cases, a final scenario of dominance of one language and extinction of the other is obtained (dominance-extinction state). In comparison with the regular network, smaller times for extinction are found in the small world network. In the network with communities instead, the average time for extinction does not give a characteristic time for the dynamics, and metastable states are observed at all time scales.

In the general context of dynamics of social consensus, we study an agent based model for the competition between two socially equivalent languages, addressing the role of bilingualism and social structure. In a regular network, we study the formation of linguistic domains and their interaction across the boundaries. We analyse also a small world social structure, in order to capture the effect of long range social interactions. In both cases, a final scenario of dominance of one language and extinction of the other is obtained, but with smaller times for extinction in the latter case. In addition, we compare our results to our previous work on the agent based version of Abrams-Strogatz model.