Who Owns Global English?
...Now that English is a global language, it's taking on a life of its own in non-English speaking countries, and the question of correctness is taking on a new spin. There are plenty of websites chronicling the depredations of 'Engrish,' Asian signs and product labels translated into inadvertently funny English....
American scholar and author. A lifelong teacher since completing his Ph.D. in English at the University of Michigan in 1971, Baron is presently a professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a much-sought-after expert on the English language, he has appeared on radio and television and has published numerous essays and articles, both in academic journals and in newspapers such as the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. Among his seven books are Grammar and Good Taste: Reforming the American Language (1982), Grammar and Gender (1986), and Guide to Home Language Repair (1994). His most recent, A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution (2009), explores how the practices of reading and writing shape communication technology and are shaped by it in turn. See also english.illinois.edu. 