English Language Variants Used by Non-Native Users and their Distinctive Features

Abstract

The study addresses the notion of a variant language as a non-native one. In terms of English as a language of global spread, such a variant appears as an exonormative idiom of the Expanding Circle, according to B. Kachru's theory of three concentric circles. The variant is based on its linguocultural justification and traces of native language transference, the manifestation degree of that depends on the type of the lectal level of the bilingual continuum (basilect, mesolect and acrolect). Typicality and systematicity of the linguistic deviations revealed in mesolect and acrolect speech of a society are the signs of a variant, distinguishing it from the interlanguage of an individual.