How does one communicate in a multilingual society with staggering linguistic diversity? To best characterize the multifaceted dimensions of multilingual communication in India, this chapter will focus on the contemporary and historical study of Hindi–Urdu and Indian English, and their spread in intranational diasporic contexts (e.g., from North to South India) and international diasporic contexts (particularly in South-East Asia). The chapter argues that multilingualism in India is shaped primarily by natural forces of networking and communication (e.g., media, literature, trade, multiple identities, etc.) rather than being the result of exclusive and externally imposed models based on government planning. Shaped by such natural forces, linguistic accommodation with multiple dimensions plays a key role in the formation of the linguistic and transactional characteristics of Hindi–Urdu in intranational and international contexts (as well as English).

This chapter traces the history of the privileged role of English in the domains of power in Pakistan. English entered these domains and became a marker of the elite culture in South Asia. Its presence in the education sector, which is the supplier of people skilled in English to all other domains, is given special attention. As English became a second language, it became a non-native variety in its own right as it did in African and other Asian countries. This variety is called Pakistani English (PakE) and some aspects of it are described synoptically. Moreover, the way English is used informally, and sometimes even in formal written discourses, involves the use of expressions from indigenous languages. Code-switching is regarded as a form of linguistic corruption or incompetence by some, but, among other things, is a device for signalling power-relations or class. It may serve the function of crossing into the desiderated class of fluent English speakers. In order to illustrate that code-switching is not English-induced, samples of it in Persian and Urdu from the Medieval Period will be provided; they show that code-switching is not a corruption of English but is both local and recognized in high literature. By presenting historical and sociolinguistic background, this chapter will provide a more holistic understanding of the interaction of English with the history of South Asia in general and that of Pakistan in particular.

This chapter argues that ‘communicating with Asia’ requires intercultural competence. Such competence will not only imply awareness but also understanding of cultural differences. Traditional descriptivist approaches in sociolinguistics, arguably, do not or only insufficiently capture this cultural dimension. Using Hong Kong English as an example, the chapter will attempt to show how the newly emerging paradigms of Cognitive Sociolinguistics and Cultural Linguistics can contribute to a more comprehensive linguistic description and hence to intercultural understanding. The chapter will be divided into three parts: The first part will stress the hermeneutic nature of intercultural communication in English. The second part will demonstrate how cultural patterns expressed in Hong Kong English − specifically conceptualizations pertaining to ghosts1 and related concepts – can be systematically elicited and analyzed. The third part will introduce a concrete lexicographic application of the insights discussed in the preceding parts, as realized in A Dictionary of Hong Kong English (Cummings and Wolf 2011).

This chapter argues that ‘communicating with Asia’ requires intercultural competence. Such competence will not only imply awareness but also understanding of cultural differences. Traditional descriptivist approaches in sociolinguistics, arguably, do not or only insufficiently capture this cultural dimension. Using Hong Kong English as an example, the chapter will attempt to show how the newly emerging paradigms of Cognitive Sociolinguistics and Cultural Linguistics can contribute to a more comprehensive linguistic description and hence to intercultural understanding. The chapter will be divided into three parts: The first part will stress the hermeneutic nature of intercultural communication in English. The second part will demonstrate how cultural patterns expressed in Hong Kong English − specifically conceptualizations pertaining to ghosts1 and related concepts – can be systematically elicited and analyzed. The third part will introduce a concrete lexicographic application of the insights discussed in the preceding parts, as realized in A Dictionary of Hong Kong English (Cummings and Wolf 2011).