The way in which habitual speakers of Sri Lankan English use substitute one is
compared to the ways in which it is used in Standard British and American English as
desrcibed by Biber et al. (1999). The differences result from speakers of Sri Lankan
English (SLE) having broadened the rules of Standard English to accommodate their
needs. The rules are in essence the same, but whereas in Standard English one always
implies an antecedent, this is not always the case in SLE, where the antecedent is
generally missing and has to be interpreted using one’s own knowledge.