EL1102: Tutorial No. 3

EL1102 Studying English in Context

Semester 2, 00/01

Tutorial No. 3

1. Say whether you agree or disagree with the following statements. (You can also agree partially or disagree partially, or say that the statement is problematic because of what it assumes.)

If a language keeps changing, we won’t be sure what each other means.
Language change is a natural process.
Language change is always a good thing: we need to clear the cobwebs every now and again.
Language change causes regional and social varieties of language.
English is considered a rather ‘liberal’ language in relation to its willingness to borrow words from other languages.
People always try to imitate the variety of language that is the best.
The centripetal and centrifugal forces can work simultaneously in language.

2. When languages come into contact with each other, they may borrow each other’s lexis, grammar or sounds.

Where has English ‘borrowed’ these words from: stanza, stigma, shampoo, sausage, sublime, compound (as in prison or school compound), ketchup? (Please look up a dictionary. For electronic dictionaries, go to the OED online, or try the site: A Web of On-line Dictionaries.) What about these words from Singaporean English; where do they come from: goondu, kachau, kiasu, laku, jialat, pantang, ponteng, samseng?
Did English ‘borrow’ the hypotactic structure from another language?
Where do you think the one construction in Colloquial Singaporean English comes from? (Don’t spend too long on this. This is controversial for linguists even!) Examples include: That boy pinch my mother one very naughty; she buy one got more features than yours.

3. Explain these terms: centripetal force, centrifugal force, accommodation, convergence, divergence.

According to Trudgill, which of the following accents are prestigious in Norwich? (a) The accent with or without the glottal stops? (b) The accent which pronounces the second syllable of coming like in sing or sin? Who used which accent and why?
According to Labov, was the rhotic or non-rhotic accent the prestigious one in New York? Do you think the prestige accent in other parts of the world (UK, Australia, South Africa, etc.) is also a rhotic one?
Here is a definition of slang from Graddol et al. (1996): In Singapore some individuals may adopt salient features of American English to transmit a westernised identity. The features most commonly adopted are non-prevocalic /r/, and the replacement of intervocalic /t/ with /d/ . . . This adoption of an Americanised accent, as opposed to a Singaporean accent, is called ‘slanging’ in Singapore. Adam Brown (1999) says this: ‘SgE speakers sometimes use slang to mean “talk posh, put on an accent”’. Which of the definitions of slanging do you agree with more? Why should some Singaporeans want to ‘slang’?
If you are in the company of a group of people who ‘slang’, do you try to ‘slang’ back? How much do you accommodate in such a situation? Are you more likely to accommodate in other situations?

Please note that I put ‘slang’ in inverted commas because this is a non-standard Malaysian / Singaporean usage of the word. ‘Slang’, in Standard English, is usually a noun, defined as ‘informal vocabulary items’; it is also used in the phrase a slanging match to mean a rude, angry verbal attack. If you need to use the Malaysian/Singaporean colloquial item ‘slang’ in something more formal, you should use: ‘put on an accent’ or ‘put on a twang’ instead.

4. Do some research on these lexical items in English and Malay:

There are four words for ‘rice’ in Malay (Bahasa Melayu/Malaysia/Indonesia): padi, beras, pulut and nasi. If you are not a Malay speaker, try to get an informant to distinguish between these words or look up a Malay dictionary. If you speak other languages, ask yourself also how many distinct words there are there. In English, rice is common; and occasionally paddy (or, in Singaporean and Malaysian English, padi) is used. Why should this be the case?
In (Standard) Singaporean English, we have words and phrases that are distinct from those in other Englishes including: Nominated Member of Parliament, Group Representative Constituency, five-foot-way, (bamboo) chicks, filial responsibility, mama shop, bumboat. Can these be found in any dictionary? Why do you think it is necessary for Singaporeans to use these words and phrases?

5. What do you understand by linguistic determinism or Whorfism? What is the relationship between the language we use and how we see the world? Katie Wales (below) uses a metaphor when she talks about how language ‘“blinkers” our perception of the world’. A blinker is a device in the form of a flap attached near a horse’s eyes to prevent it from seeing sideways or backwards. Why should a horse need blinkers? In what way is language a ‘blinker’?

That differences in world-views between societies are to be attributed to differences in linguistic systems is difficult to prove or to disprove; but that language influences forms of thought in some way, or ‘blinkers’ our perception of the world, is certainly plausible, and various kinds of degrees of determinism are continually advocated. [Katie Wales, A Dictionary of Stylistics, p. 116]

Can this help us argue the case for many different varieties or dialects of English – in that each variety or dialect presents a different perspective of the world?

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