<P> Because of the use of English as a lingua franca, there is an unprecedented linguistic situation in which native speakers are outnumbered by non-native speakers of English . A consequence of this is a sense of ownership of the language by different communities, which is reflected in the way English has become' multiplex' . </P> <P> The way English is used as a lingua franca is heavily dependent on the specific situation of use . Generally speaking, ELF interactions concentrate on function rather than form . In other words, communicative efficiency (i.e. getting the message across) is more important than correctness . As a consequence, ELF interactions are very often hybrid . Speakers accommodate to each other's cultural backgrounds and may also use code - switching into other languages that they know . Based on the Vienna - Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE) and additional research, the following features of ELF lexicogrammar have been identified: </P> <Ul> <Li> shift in the use of articles (including some preference for zero articles) as in our countries have signed agreements about this </Li> <Li> invariant question tags as in you're very busy today, aren't you? (and use of other similar universal forms) </Li> <Li> treating' who' and' which' as interchangeable relative pronouns, as in the picture who or a person which </Li> <Li> shift of patterns of preposition use, for example we have to study about </Li> <Li> preference for bare and / or full infinitive over the use of gerunds, as in I'm looking forward to see you tomorrow </Li> <Li> extension to the collocational field of words with high semantic generality, for example perform an operation </Li> <Li> increased explicitness, for example how much time instead of how long </Li> <Li> exploited redundancy, such as ellipsis of objects / complements of transitive verbs as in "I wanted to go with ..." or "You can borrow ..."' </Li> </Ul> <Li> shift in the use of articles (including some preference for zero articles) as in our countries have signed agreements about this </Li>

English is the world's 'lingua franca'