This chapter provides an introduction to the object of analysis – structural variation across a range of communicative situations in English worldwide. It presents the global spread of English in the early twenty-first century and discusses the available frameworks for understanding relations within the English language complex. The case is made that there is a disconnect between the rich level of theorizing and a lack of comprehensive empirical-linguistic accounts of differentiation in World Englishes research. The chapter then addresses the range of register variation documented in the English language. A brief discussion and definition of terms is followed by a sketch of the development in this area of research from a broad binary distinction between spoken and written language to the situationally, functionally, and structurally nuanced understanding available today. The chapter then describes how register and geography interact in structuring linguistic variation worldwide and how one may act as a confounding factor in the analysis of the other.

This chapter returns to the empirical, theoretical, and methodological questions raised in Chapters 2 and 3. It summarizes the descriptive picture that emerges from the ten dimensions developed in the analysis and puts the space of variation in the present study into systematic theoretical relation to the extant literature. The influence of variety and register in accounting for linguistic variation is addressed, followed by an assessment of the descriptive utility provided by different World Englishes models. A critical perspective on the relative predictive weakness of variety compared to register when accounting for the total amount of variation in the data rounds off the chapter.