How English as a Rhizome Challenges the Norms of Standard Written English?

Abstract

In this paper, it will be shown how Deleuze and Guattari’s metaphor of a rhizome can be applied to depict a new status of English. Due to the presence of Englishes, the reality is pluralistic. The rhizomes likewise resist structures of domination, such as the notion of “the mother tongue” in linguistics—it does admit to ongoing cycles of what Deleuze and Guattari refer to as “deterritorializing” and “reterritorializing” moments (1987). Whether we call language varieties New Englishes or just Englishes, the reality is heterogeneous. Nowadays, English students speak many variations of English, every one of them subject to change as they mix with other varieties of English and other languages. There is a diversity of contexts in which English co-exists with other languages around the world. Moreover, globalization is deterritorialized because cultural and political dynamics involving English are varied, and yet interconnected in the multiple locations where English is spoken. Therefore, the paper will demonstrate that Englishes quantify the English classroom because each new instance of language brings the need to develop new ways of using the language.