Ling 122: English as a World Language

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Ling 122 English as a World Language 12

• VARIETIES OF ENGLISH
• Phrases Sentences
• Readings
• Y. Kachru L. Smith, Ch 6
• Zuengler on Kenyan English

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But first, the power of language

• Who is Rush Limbaugh?
• Why was he in the news last year at this time?
• Whats your opinion of his actions in this
  particular case? Why do you feel that way?
• Who are Terry Gross and Geoff Nunberg?
• A four-letter word
• Why did people find it offensive?
• Whats the difference, if any, between slut and
  player?
• Whats the difference, if any, between slut and
  queer?
• Whats the original meaning of slut?
• Whats the difference between a naughty word
  and a sexist slur
• From NPRs Fresh Air with Terry Gross

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What we learned in the last lecture

• Understanding can be thought of in terms of
• Intelligibility (test repetition, dictation)
• Comprehensibility (test paraphrase)
• Interpretability (test understand
  speaker/writers intent)
• Differences in pronunciation among varieties of
  English can lead to lack of intelligibility,
  comprehensibility and interpretability.

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What we learned in the last lecture

• Misunderstanding can result from differences in
  pronunciation
• Stress patterns
• REcognize recogNIZE, sucCESS SUCcess
• Spelling pronunciations
• Comb, climb
• Distribution of given new information
• JOHN did it It was John who did it.
• Simplification of initial final consonant
  clusters
• desk gt /d?s/, school gt /?skul/
• Loss of other phonological distinctions
• then gt /den/, thin gt /sin/

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What we learned in the last lecture

• These differences in pronunciation are often the
  result of transfer of ways of pronouncing words
  from the speakers first language into English in
  Outer and Extended Circle contexts.
• This is called language transfer.
• When we speak with others whose dialect we dont
  share, our own speech becomes more like theirs.
• Often, attitudes toward particular accents may
  become a greater barrier than pronunciation.

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Accommodation Theory

• As interlocutors get familiar with each others
  system of phonological organization, they
  accommodate their habitual patterns to those of
  the other speaker(s).

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Today we will see

• Differences in varieties of English extend beyond
  pronunciation to phrases and sentences as well.
• These differences involve the use of articles,
  count vs. mass nouns, verb tenses, prepositions,
  modals and the organization of given and new
  information, among other things.

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But before we begin

• Some basic concepts in historical linguistics
• Languages differ in innumerable ways.
• Languages can be said to be related to each
  other based on as assumed common ancestry.
• This is determined through a process called
  historical reconstruction, a method of
  comparing similarities and differences among
  languages.
• English belongs to a large language family called
  Indo-European.
• There are other large language families around
  the world.

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Indo-European outline of family tree
Indo-European
Indo- Iranian
Italic
Germanic
Celtic
Balto- Slavic
........
Possibly a third co-ordinate branch within
Indo-Iranian Nuristani in N.E. Afghanistan
(e.g. Ashkun, Prasun)
Indic Iranian
Western Eastern
N.Western S. Western Central Eastern
FarsiPersian, Kurdish, Baluchi, ......
Pashto, Ormuri, Ossetian, Yagnob, ......
Panjabi, Sindhi,
Kashmiri, Romani, .....
Gujarati, Marathi, Konkani,
Sinhala, .....
Hindi-Urdu, Marwari, Maithili,
Nepali, .....
Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, .....
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Many difficulties in deciding Indic grouping
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Differences Nouns

• Articles and determiners (function words)
• Articles
• a / an, the, Ø
• Determiners
• this, that, these, those, any, each, etc.
• Count / Mass Singular / Plural
• Count / Mass
• Cars, shoes, balls, etc. / gas, water, rice, etc.
• Singular / Plural
• Car / cars, shoe / shoes, ball / balls

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Articles What do they do?

• Indefinite article a, an
• Signals a singular entity of a count noun?
• I bought a computer and a modem, but the modem
  was the wrong model.
• BUT
• Dont ask, dont tell created an oppressive
  atmosphere for gays in the military.
• Signals the first mention of a count noun in a
  connected text (as in the example above)?
• BUT
• Cells are the building blocks of life. A cell is
  composed of a nucleus and cytoplasm.

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Articles What do they do?

• Many languages of the world have no articles.
• The article in English has three sets of
  functions
• Grammatical
• Semantic
• Pragmatic

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Grammatical Functions

• A count noun in the singular must be preceded by
  an article or by some other determiner.
• A dog is a mans best friend.
• A predicate nominal in the singular must be
  preceded by the article a or an.
• My friend is a student.
• Certain proper nouns must be preceded by the
  article the.
• The Rockies, the Nile, the United Nations

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Semantic Functions

• Related to reference
• Definite / Indefinite
• I bought a computer and a
• modem, but the modem
• was the wrong model.
• Specific / Non-specific
• I bought a new motor scooter its a Vespa.
• I need a new motor scooter. Any suggestions?
• Generic / Non-generic
• Ø Bats are Ø mammals. The bat is a mammal. A
  bat is a mammal.
• A bat flew out of the cave.

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Pragmatic Functions

• Related to the conventions of use
• Summary
• A(n) indefinite non-specific, or indefinite
  specific, or generic (with count nouns in the
  singular)
• The definite specific (with count and mass
  nouns), or non-specific generic (with count nouns
  only)
• Some indefinite non-specific, or indefinite
  specific (with count nouns in the plural with
  mass nouns)
• Ø generic (with count nouns in the plural, with
  mass nouns).

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Articles Varieties of English

• Other varieties (Outer Circle and Expanding
  Circle varieties) of English do not use articles
  in the same way as Inner Circle varieties
  because
• Their use in Inner Circle varieties is neither
  transparent nor internally consistent.
• The first languages in many Outer or Expanding
  Circle societies do not use articles at all, or
  use them in different ways (language transfer).

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Count / Mass What makes a Noun Count or
Mass?

• Its not a matter of
• meaning
• It has to do with a nouns ability to combine
  with various determiners!

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Count / Mass What makes a Noun Count or
Mass?

• Huddleston Six classes of nouns
• Equipment (fully mass)
• Knowledge (almost mass, i.e., a good knowledge
  of Latin)
• Clothes (fuzzy quantifiers i.e., many, few,
  etc.)
• Cattle (fuzzy quantifiers large round numbers)
• People (collective noun occurs with plurals but
  not fully countable)
• Dog (fully countable)

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Count / Mass in Other Varieties of English

• In African, Caribbean, East, South, and Southeast
  Asian varieties of English, the complex system of
  marking count / mass distinction in English is
  simplified.

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Differences Verbs

• Stative / Dynamic
• I know him. He has two cars.
• BUT
• Im meeting him. He is buying a new car.
• Factive / Non-factive
• Bill doesnt regret that he was rude.
• BUT
• Bill doesnt believe that he was rude.
• Volitional / Non-volitional
• He (deliberately) lost the key
• AND
• He (accidentally) lost the key.

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Implications

• In the first languages of Outer and Expanding
  Circle societies, these distinctions are marked
  differently from English
• So, those varieties of English often include
  characteristics that are present in the first
  languages of those societies (language
  transfer).

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Examples

• Verbalization strategies
• Your behavior tantamounts to disrespect.
• It doesnt worth the price.
• Tense / Aspect
• I was knowing him then.
• He was having two cars.
• Modals
• Rain is expected in the morning but would give
  way to sun by noon.

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Differences Syntactic Patterns

• Yes / No Questions
• Q Hasnt the President left yet?
• A Yes, he hasnt.
• Q Didnt you see anyone there?
• A Yes, I didnt see anyone there.
• Tag Questions
• You want it by six, isnt it?
• He didnt go home, isnt it?
• Complementation
• They were interested to grab power.
• She is prepared for filing a law suit.

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Differences Linkers

• Prepositions
• We can give some thought on the matter.
• The police are investigating into the case.
• The committee was discussing about politics.
• She has gone to abroad.

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Differences Thematic Information

• Focus and Theme
• Q Where did Sue go yesterday?
• A She went to the beach.
• Theme Focus
• Certain medicine we dont stock.
• And weekend (emphasis) you can spend with your
  brother.
• My daughter she is attending college.
• Tswana, I learnt it in Pretoria.

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E.g., Kenyan English (from Zuengler 1982)
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Roles of Kenyan English

• As an access to education during and after
  British rule (1895-1964)
• As a catalyst for Kenyan nationalism through
  Kenyan intellectuals access to habits of
  thought of English-speaking people
• There are still no institutionalized varieties of
  English in Kenya.
• But it has become nativized, i.e., influenced
  by Kenyan (Kiswahili) cultural and linguistic
  patterns.

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Formal Aspects of Kenyan English

• Direct lexical transfer use of Kiswahili words
  in Kenyan English, e.g. baraza an official
  meeting
• Semantic shifts English words taking on new
  meanings, e.g., brat illegitimate child
• Syntactic shifts Items taking on new grammatical
  forms, e.g.,
• Nouns as verbs, e.g., school, tone
• Mass gt Count nuns, e.g., ammunitions, hardwares

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Formal Aspects of Kenyan English

• Nativization of speech functions
• Greetings, e.g., Is it well with you?
• Forms of address, e.g., mwalimu teacher, bwana
• Abuses/threats, e.g., go away and eat ashes
• Riddles/proverbs, e.g., the oilskin of the house
  is not for rubbing into the skin of strangers (?)
• Kenyan English Register
• I have to alight now.
• This system should be stopped forthwith.
• Stylistic devices metaphors and similes

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Kenyan attitudes toward Kenyan English

• Kenyan English is not taught in schools.
• Kenyans shift between the RP taught in schools,
  Kenyan English and Kiswahili, depending on the
  context, i.e., participants, topic, setting, etc.
  
• Kenyan English is not yet popularly accepted as a
  variety on its own, like Indian, South African,
  Singaporean, etc. English.
• Question Will it some day become one? What would
  need to happen for that to occur?

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Conclusion

• What often appears to be incorrect English by
  the norms of Inner Circle standard varieties is
  often consistent with the norms of Outer and
  Expanding Circle varieties of English.
• These characteristics are often the result of
  language transfer from the indigenous or first
  languages of the areas in which those varieties
  of English are spoken.