ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the concept of ‘border crossing’ as it relates to forms and uses of English. Border crossing is the term used by several linguists and sociologists (for example the British discourse analyst Norman Fairclough) to describe what they identify as a phenomenon of postindustrialized societies: that a complex range of new social relationships is developing, and that behaviour (including linguistic behaviour) is changing as a result (Fairclough, 1996). Forms of English associated with one situation are crossing the borders into new ones: informal English, for example, is said to be crossing into professional relation-ships, and ‘advertising English’ migrating into public information campaigns.
