Analysis in Detail a Particular Variety of Singapore English - Term Paper Example

Singaporean English Introduction There have been different observations among linguistic scholars over what Singapore English specifically entails and what it purposely excludes (Gupta 2010). What is unanimous is that Singapore English refers to a variety of English, a localized and nativized form of English as a global language which is congruent with local (in this case Singaporean) indigenous culture and language (Yano 2001). Khachru and Nelson (1996) refer to Singapore English as a variety of English found in the “outer circle” where English has been historically institutionalized and plays important roles in governance, popular education, culture or literary creativity. However, unlike most other forms of world Englishes shared by culturally homogenous groups such as China English, Singapore is ethnically diverse and multicultural in nature raising questions about the very existence of what might be labelled a Singaporean culture itself (Wierzbicka 2003). This is due to the fact that despite English being the dominant language in Singapore, Singapore is a multicultural, multiracial and multilingual society. This essay will analyse Singapore English in its social and political context. The essay will first identify the various sub varieties of Singapore English as a World English and their social and political context of Singapore English, indicating how each sub variety is acquired and how it is used. The essay will then discuss some of the features of these three sub varieties of Singapore English and identify the various political, social and cultural roles played by Singapore English. Singapore English Singapore officially obtained full independence in 1965. Singapore’s population consists mainly of Chinese at 77 percent with minority Malays and Indians at 14 percent and 8 percent respectively. Owing to its cultural and political roots, English is just one of four official languages in the multicultural society that is Singapore alongside Malay, Tamil (Indian) and Mandarin (Chinese) (Wierzbicka 2003). These different languages are linguistic markers for three different cultures which are reflected in the way these languages are spoken in Singapore. English is the dominant language by virtue of being the language of the former colonial power Britain The interactions of these cultures has produced Singapore English- spanning a wide variety of languages from Singapore Standard English (SSE), colloquial Singapore English (SCE) to ‘Singlish’ (Wierzbicka 2003). Platt (1980) demonstrates some of the social, cultural and political roles played by Singapore English through the classification of the varieties of Singapore English into three sociolects or linguistic dialects which serve as markers for socio –economic status. The sociolects can be thought of as a speech continuum, with acrolects representing the highest level of formality at one end and basilects the lowest level of informality or highest level of informality at the other end. The acrolect is the most prestigious sub variety of the speech continuum, spoken or used by the most educated speakers of English as a Second Language and in the case of Singapore English, the closest representation of the official standard of language (SBE). It is also the high form or H variety of English. The mesolect comes between the acrolect and the basilect within the continuum, as an intermediate sub variety of the speech continuum spoken or used between and among users with the same level of education or even by educated speakers for informal purposes. The basilect, which is the lowest sub variety of the speech continuum in Singapore English (L form), is mainly used by native speakers with little or no formal education or mastery of SBE although educated people might still use it for colloquial speech (Platt 1975: 1980). Within Singapore English, SSE can be considered as the acrolect, colloquial Singapore English (CSE) the mesolect and Singlish as the representation of the basilect. Singapore Standard English (SSE) Standard English is the main variety of English used globally and it refers to a single dialect of English with small or minor regional differences (Gupta 2010). SSE has very little variance with British English and other forms of Standard English used in other countries. There are no significant or consistent grammatical differences between SSE and SBE. The minor differences or deviations in Standard English from one region or locality to another stem from a need to better adapt English to local uses such as giving English words to local things which breeds new vocabularies. While certain variations in grammatical aspects or features of Standard English forms such as vocabulary, pronunciation and accent may be tolerated, certain features such as spelling and verb group structures remain rigidly adhered to (Gupta 2010). SSE as a sub variety is at the acrolectal end of the continuum (Leimgruber 2010) or the high (H) form or H variety of diglossic English, spoken in formal contexts or used by Singaporeans with comparatively high levels of formal education and is frequently used in formal writing and in pedagogic situations (teaching) (Platt 1975, Gupta 1992). SSE is the language used by proficient English speakers and much like its context of use, is acquired formally in the classroom. As indicated, there are no significant grammatical differences between SSE and Standard British English (SBE). As indicated by Gupta (2010), this includes accent and pronunciation which are variations that can be tolerated in Standard English. In SSE, several pairs of words with vowels which would be pronounced differently in SBE are pronounced the same in SSE. These include words such as sit/ seat, green/ grin, caught/cot or bed/bad. In SSE, the pronunciation of such monopthongs is due to the neutralization of the long and short vowel sounds. Other variations include lexical stress patterns (Deterding & Hvitfeldt 1994). For example, in SBE, the stress on words such as character and economic, or parliament is placed on the words in upper case which is different as compared to the stress patterns in SSE: (SBE) CHARacter PARLiament ecoNOMic (SSE) chaRACter parLIAment eCONoMic Another feature, as indicated by Gupta (1989: 2010), is vocabulary. An example is the word kiasu which refers to aggressiveness due to the fear of losing or failing (Gupta 2010). The word was borrowed and standardized from its frequent colloquial use in Singapore English. It is the most salient cultural keyword in Singapore and its frequent and extensive use in literature has seen it eventually included in the Oxford English Dictionary (Wierzbicka 2003). There are also a few special words used in SSE such as wet market or jaga. Variations that may not be consistent with other forms of Standard English include the use of the tag is it in the place of question tags only in speech, not formal writing. For example: (Teacher to child) “You have all finished homework, is it? Other features of SSE speech that may deviate from SBE include plural and possessive endings on nouns such as “Two years old is babies” or “The children have got no money with them” and the use of certain complex verb groups such as “We had children sleeping, so we didn’t play the music” or I going to use one bag of flour to bake a cake. Singapore Colloquial English (SCE) As discussed by Gupta (1992), SCE is the intermediate L form of diglossic English or according to Platt (1980), the mesolect. While Leimgruber (2011) and Gupta (1989) discuss SCE as synonymous with Singlish, one can identify an intermediate variety of English that is much closer to SSE than it is to local dialects. While SSE is mainly used in formal situations, writing and in pedagogy, SCE is mainly used as a language for informal interactions. As implied by the designation mesolect, SCE is not necessarily a variety of English used by non proficient English speakers but is more of an informal language. The context of the use of SCE is among close friends, within the family at home or generally between persons of equal socio economic standing such as co-workers. Equally, SCE is learnt or acquired informally in contexts such as the home, the workplace or the playground. There are several phonological and grammatical features of SCE which distinguish it from SSE. These grammatical features include deletion of the indefinite article in speech (Leimgruber 2011). For example, in SSE, one would enquire: “Could you please pass me a magazine?” or say “This movie has an interesting ending” or from a mother to a child in the kitchen, “Could you please pass me an egg from the fridge?” However, in SCE, the indefinite article (‘a’ or ‘an’) is normally deleted altogether and the enquiry becomes: “Could you please pass me magazine?” the statement becomes “This movie has interesting ending” or the mother asks “Could you please pass me egg from fridge?” Another common grammatical feature of SCE is reversing the word order in indirect questions (Gupta 1989). For example, instead of “Would you tell me where the bus station is?” or “May I ask where the taxi is going?” in SSE, in SCE the questions would become “Would you tell me where is the bus station?” or “May I ask where is the taxi going?” Deletion of the copular verb BE is also common in SCE (Leimgruber 2011). For example, “This car is parked in my space” in SBE becomes “This car parked in my space” or “The rugby tournament at the Padang” instead of “The rugby tournament is held at the Padang. Singlish The most controversial variety of Singapore English is the non-standard variety Singlish. Singlish is the non-standardized, colloquial and home grown variety of Singapore English (Bokhorst-Heng 2005). It is the non standard dialect of English used in specific contexts such as informal speech, literature and humour (Gupta 2010). In Platt’s (1980) categorization of sociolects, Singlish is at the basilectal end of the continuum (Leimgruber 2011), the L form of Singapore English and the lowest and least prestigious sub variety in the speech continuum (Platt 1980, Gupta 1992). As the basilect, Singlish is used by native speakers with the lowest levels of formal education or the least proficient in SBE and SSE. It can be considered as the oral and colloquial adaptation of SSE incorporating lexical terms from Malay and various Chinese dialects. Singlish also borrows its grammatical structures from both these dialects and from SSE and has its own unique phonology and patterns of intonation (Bokhorst-Heng 2005, Deterding & Hvitfeldt 1994). It rarely appears in written form. These characteristics can make Singlish entirely incomprehensible to foreigners and even to some segments of formally educated Singaporeans (Gupta 2010). There are significant differences between the features of SSE and Singlish. Singlish is often viewed as a corrupted variety of English since it differs fundamentally with SSE in terms of phonology, grammar, vocabulary and intonation. For example, one of the distinctive grammatical features of Singlish (discussed by some linguistic scholars as a form of colloquial English) is the use of particles. Particles originate from contact with the local dialects and essentially provide Singlish with its local ‘flavour’ (Wierzbicka 2003). Some particles such as lah have become a stereotype of Singlish as a variety of English. Particles are loaned from varieties of Chinese (Mandarin) dialects and are usually placed at the end of a sentence to indicate the attitude of the speaker or to indicate stress (Leimgruber 2011, Gupta 1989). For example, ha indicates doubt: (Mother to child) “You are going to school, ha?” (or at a car wash) “This one to wash, ha?” The particles la (lah) or na indicate assertion or command or serve as a modd marker, appealing for accommodation: a child who is getting late for school would be told “Hurry up, la, “You are very late, na!” The particle what is also used in the case of pointing out obviousness or for contradiction (and placing stress or emphasis on a negation or denial). For example, a defendant may tell a lawyer, “I never touch that money what” or a child who has been accused of taking another child’s toy may refute and say “I never go into your space what” (Gupta 1989). Besides the use of particles, another distinctive feature of Singlish is that it heavily borrows its vocabulary from local dialects. There are numerous loanwords in Singlish borrowed mainly from Chinese dialects and Malay which would make it difficult for foreigners proficient in the use of English but unfamiliar with Singlish to understand these words of non English origin embedded in Singlish (Leimgruber 2011). An example of vocabulary borrowed from Malay is makan which means “food to eat (Dolven 1999).” An example of its usage in speech is “You makan already or not?” which means “Have you eaten yet?” Another loanword borrowed from Hokkien is chin chai which means “unconcerned about the details”. An example of its usage in speech is “Chin chai lah.......anything can also lah” which translates to “I’m not fussy, anything is fine by me.” Some of the words in Singlish vocabulary are even borrowed from English itself and localized. For example, “Don’t pray pray lah” means “Stop fooling around” with pray corrupted or localized from the English word play (Dolven 1999). Slang abbreviations are also used in Singlish such as frus from frustrated and colloquial expressions such as shake legs which is adapted from Malay expression goyang khaki which means to be at leisure. Other phrases are borrowed from popular culture, demonstrating creativity and the emergence of new forms of English such as “Why you blur like sotong?” which means “Why are you so confused?” with blur and sotong references to the Malay words for squid. Blur can also mean “blank” in Malay (Song Mei 2009). Other grammatical features of Singlish include the use of verb groups without subjects, a variation which would not be tolerated in Standard English. For example, “What are you doing?” in SSE becomes “Do what?” or “Do you want more milk?” (Mother to child) becomes “Want milk?” Another feature is the use of conditional clauses without the subordinating conjunction. In this case, the conjunction “if” may be left out altogether in sentences such as “You leave book here, how to find it later?” Singlish also features the use of the subject + -ing and subject + complement where part of the verb TO BE would be used in SSE (Gupta 1989). For example, instead of “Today I am going to play soccer”, the sentence becomes “Today I playing soccer” or “He scared” instead of “He is scared”. In essence, Singlish combines these grammatical features with borrowed loanwords from both local dialects and English itself to form a distinctive variety of basilectal Singapore English. For example, features such as copula deletion combine with Singlish vocabulary such as paiseh to form sentences such as “Why you so paiseh? Never mind lah” which simply means “Don’t be shy”. Social, Cultural and Political Roles of Singapore English Political Wierzbicka (2003) notes some of the political roles played by Singapore English. In a multicultural society such as Singapore, British colonial authorities used SSE, a variety of Singapore English, for political purposes such as governance and as the standardized medium of communication and instruction in the education system. SSE is still used for these purposes in a multicultural Singapore to try and forge a common national identity in a multicultural context. The need to forge a common identity out of an ethnically diverse country facilitated the formulation and implementation of a bilingual language policy in Singapore in 1972 where English was taught in schools. The Speak Good English Movement (SGEM) launched by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in April 2009 that criticized the proliferation of Singlish in Singapore as a threat to its economic prosperity and national identity formation also demonstrates the political role played by Singapore English. Advocates of initiatives such as SGEM argue that Singlish threatens Singaporean economy, making Singaporeans seem less intelligent and acting as an economic disincentive. For example, the Prime Minister argued that if investors cannot comprehend what workers are saying, they would be hesitant to come over and in addition, Singaporean TV programmes and films would become less marketable since global audiences could not understand Singlish. Therefore, from the government’s perspective SSE plays a political role of making Singapore more attractive for investors, integrating Singapore into the globalised world economy and forging a Singaporean identity from an ethnically diverse society. On the other hand, Singlish as a variety serves the political purpose of maintaining linguistic human rights as a form of human rights – the freedom to speak Singlish being considered as an expression of individual’s civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights which are universal and inalienable. Advocates of Singlish also claim that its political purpose is to signify a break from its colonial past and entrench its autonomy- by obliterating or getting rid of Standard English. Such advocates view adherence to standardized English as a sign of submission (Ho 2006). Social As indicated by Platt (1980), the sociolects of Singapore English serve as markers for socio-economic status or class. The three sub varieties of Singapore English reflect the social structure of Singapore and by extension of any modern society- the formally educated high income earners, the middle class and the common man. The method of acquisition of each sub variety of Singapore English is also an indicator of the social role played by Singapore English as a means of communication within social structures. SSE is acquired through formal education while SCE and Singlish are formulated, acquired and used in informal settings such as the workplace, in the playground, in the family and through popular culture (TV, radio, internet) and social networks. Therefore, a mother communicating to her child, a worker on lunchbreak with a co-worker or students in a university having a conversation may use Singlish or SCE but in the classroom context, when writing or when one is addressing seniors, SSE is the preferred medium of communication. Wong (2006) also notes that some word and phrases used in Singaporean English such as aunty and uncle are social honorifics used to refer to people in certain social categories. Aunty may refer to persons of certain demographics, such as aged women, denoting seniority and commanding respect in social hierarchy. The development and increasing popularity of Singlish among the youth from a diverse ethnic and linguistic history also reverberates with Singaporean popular culture as young people forge their social identity from media (TV shows) and social networks (Dolven 1999). Cultural The cultural role played by Singapore English is best symbolized by the specific role played by Singlish in Singapore. Basilectal Singlish (and SCE) is a unifying force in a multicultural and multiethnic Singaporean society, bridging socio-economic groups (both educated and less educated) and cutting across ethnic boundaries. The formation and use of Singlish signals the cultural identity of its users. By borrowing from the various ethnic dialects in Singaporean society, Singlish aids in the maintenance of the cultural identity of the various ethnicities that form Singaporean society while the shared meanings contribute to the creation of a new Singaporean cultural identity (Song Mei 2001). For advocates of Singlish, it represents cultural independence; a clean break and a rejection of the domination of Western culture (Ho 2006). Conclusion Singapore is a multicultural, multiracial and multilingual society. Therefore, there is no one Singapore English a variety of “Englishes” from acrolectal SSE, the mesolectal SCE to the basilectal Singlish. Each of these varieties is found in continuum and is used in different contexts, from the highly formal SSE in writing and pedagogy to the informal Singlish in humour and in the family. The dichotomy in these sub varieties also reflects the social. 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