Colloquial linguistics & contact linguistics

1. Colloquial linguistics & contact linguistics Group 9

2. 1. Contact linguistics and singaporeenglish PART 1

3. Pidgin • a simplified language that develops between two or more groups that do not have a language in common • not all simplified or "broken" forms of a language are pidgins  each pidgin has its own norms of usage

4. Pidgin • may be built from words, sounds, or body language from multiple other languages and cultures • not the native language of any speech community, but is instead learned as a second language.

5. Examples of Pidgin

6. Hawaiian Pidgin Creole language based in part on English used by many residents of Hawaii Example: "Inside dirt and cover and blanket, finish" "They put the body in the ground and covered it with a blanket and that's all."

7. Creole • Stable natural language developed from a pidgin • Navitisedby children as their primary language • Vocabulary is largely supplied by the parent languages (lexifier) though there are often clear phonetic and semantic shifts • Has own unique grammatical rules that may differ from those of the parent language

8. Pidgin to Creole – Hawaiian Pidgin • 19th century, Hawaiian school children learned Hawaiian pidgin from some of their classmates • Form of communication between natives and immigrants/plantation workers CREOLE PIDGIN • Acquired words from other languages such as Portugese, Hawaiian and Cantonese • Became first language of Hawaii

9. Hawaiian Creole • Does not just include words from English (parent language)

10. Differences

11. 1. Contact linguistics and singaporeenglish PART 2

12. SE a Creoloid? • Shares many similarities with creoles but is not one • New concept established to accommodate its peculiarities Peculiarities • Did not develop from a pidgin • Existence traced to transference of certain features from languages of local ethnic groups to English acquired in schools

13. SE a Creoloid? Peculiarities • One of the several ‘native’ languages • Used as lingua franca in inter-ethnic group communication

14. SE a Creoloid? Peculiarities • Resembles post-creole • Converges towards English- the language it is derived from

15. Linguistic Ecology Social factors in the linguistic environment of speakers

16. Linguistic Ecology Example: Haitian Creole • Pidgin first developed for communication between African slaves and their French colonial masters • Acquired vocabulary from French & grammar from various African languages • From pidgin to creole: offsprings of the Africans expanded on the pidgin and became native speakers

17. 2. NP Ellipsis and substratist explanation

18. Subtratist Explanation • Differences between Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) and Standard English in terms at all levels of grammar and usage • Differences due to linguistic influences from the indigenous languages spoken in Singapore, such as Chinese and Malay

19. Noun Phrase Ellipsis • The deletion of Noun Phrases in sentences • CSE makes extensive use of noun phrase ellipsis in all syntactic positions, such as subjects, objects and possessors

20. Noun Phrase Ellipsis If the context is unambiguous, there is no need to mention the subject at all. Subject Omission • After Ø get some sickness, Ø can’t help it ‘After one gets sick, one cannot help it.’

21. Noun Phrase Ellipsis If the context is unambiguous, there is no need to mention the object at all. Object Omission (b) I never try Ø before lah. ‘I have never tried it before.’

22. Noun Phrase Ellipsis If the context is unambiguous, there is no need to mention the possessorat all. Possessor Omission (c) Ø Head very pain. ‘My head is painful.’

23. Noun Phrase Ellipsis Once the subject is established, e.g. through the use of a personal pronoun, it is unnecessary to repeat it later in discourse Example: I like to draw, but Ø cannot do welllah. I like to draw, but I cannot do it well.

24. Noun Phrase Ellipsis Does it come from Chinese Varieties: Hokkien, Cantonese, Mandarin? Does it come from Malay Varieties: Baba Malay and Bazaar Malay? Or does it come from both Chinese and Malay?

25. Chinese Varieties Common in Chinese Varieties If the context is unambiguous, there is no need to mention the subject at all. Subject Omission (a) (wo) sheng bing le, (wo)jiumei you ban fa After (I) get sick, (I) can’t help it

26. Chinese Varieties Common in Chinese Varieties If the context is unambiguous, there is no need to mention the object at all. Object Omission (b) Womei you shiguo (zhege) lah ‘I have never tried (it) before.’

27. Chinese Varieties Common in Chinese Varieties If the context is unambiguous, there is no need to mention the possessor at all. Possessor Omission (c) (wo de) Tou hen tong. ‘(My) head is painful.’

28. Chinese Varieties Once the subject is established, e.g. through the use of a personal pronoun, it is unnecessary to repeat it later in discourse Chinese Ni xi huanzuoshen me? You like do what? What do you like to do? Xi huankandianying. Like watch movie. (I) like to watch movie.

29. Chinese Varieties Once the subject is established, e.g. through the use of a personal pronoun, it is unnecessary to repeat it later in discourse Hokkien Dai bakcia tau an zuaki? Tai pei train station how go? How do I get to Taipei train station? Zegong cia e sai. Sit public bus can (You) can take the public bus.

30. Chinese Varieties Topic Prominence Sentence structure is determined by the topic, may be independent of the syntactic ordering of subject, verb and object. Xiayu le (It is) Raining already. Hen chao ah! (It is) Very noisy!

31. Malay Varieties Common in Malay Varieties If the context is unambiguous, there is no need to mention the subject at all. Ingat-ingat, waktumasihkecil, seringpergimemancing Remember when still small, often go fishing I remember when I was still small, I often went fishing.

32. Evaluation • By-product of both Chinese and Malay varieties • Substrates of Singapore English: share the same grammatical features • Topic Prominence • Optional Syntactic Agreement • Copula Deletion • Noun-phrase Ellipsis All related and play a part in contributing to the feasibility of noun-phrase ellipsis in Singapore English.

33. 3. Pragmatics of sentence-final particles

34. Discourse Particles • No direct semantic meaning but serves a pragmatic function • Changes tone of the sentence but not its grammatical & propositional meaning • Indicate speaker’s attitude • Feature of spoken language • Informal if included in written language

35. Some Examples of Discourse Particles So. Well. You know. Like. Now. You see. Oh. I mean. Ok. Actually.

36. Some Discourse Particles in Singlish

37. 2a. Lah“There’s something here for everyone, lah.”

38. 2a. Lah Different mood & attitude conveyed with different ways of saying “Lah”:

39. 2b. What“No one parks here, what.”

40. 2b. WhatOther Pragmatic Functions:

41. 2c. Hor“This shopping centre very nice hor.”

42. 2c. Hor Other Pragmatic Functions:

43. 2d. Meh“You don’t like that one, meh?”

44. 4. OWNSELF IN CE = 自己’ziji’ in chinese?

45. Data Given (1) a. Ownself open the door! b. You ownself open the door! (CSE: Wee 2007: 366) (2) (Ni) ziji chi fan! 2singular self eat rice ‘(You) eat rice by yourself!’ (Mandarin: Wee 2007: 371) (3) a. * He cut ownself. b. * He give ownself a lot of problems. (CSE: Wee 2007: 365) (4) Lisizaizebei (ta) ziji. Lisi duration blame 3singular self ‘Lisi is blaming himself.’ (Mandarin: Wee 2007: 371)

46. Analysis of Data (1)

47. Analysis of Data (2) • Observations: • ‘Ownself’ is used as an adverb • When ‘ziji’ is used as an adverb, we can replace it with ‘ownself’

48. Comparing Data (3) and (4) • Observations: • ‘Ownself’ is used as an object • When ‘ziji’ is used as an object, we cannot replace it with ‘ownself’

49. Did ‘Ownself’ develop from ‘Ziji’ in Chinese? X 

50. THANK YOU!