Language variation (world varieties)

3 types of linguistic variation in the English language: regional /social/stylistic Language contact: a result of the spread of English (Clayton et al, 2018) A process of language change whereby multiple languages come into social contact and have linguistic influence over one another in the form of borrowings, grammatical and phonological change, formation of pidgins and creoles, and higher rates of bilingualism. Standard English: (Trudgil, 1995) The variety of English usually used in print and which is normally taught in schools to non-native speakers learning the language. It is also the variety spoken by educated people and used in news broadcasts and other similar situations. (Crystal, 1990) A variety that is seen as largely neutral with respect to regional identity, carries the most overt prestige, is a desirable educational target and is widely understood; it is not a matter of pronunciation, rather of grammar, vocabulary and orthography - Regulated by an authority / institution: the French Academy and Academy of the Hebrew Language (some degree of linguistic ownership) (Pakir, 1994) codification is ‘the act, process or result of arranging in a systematic form of code the system of linguistic rules shared by people in their acts of communication’ A 2022 report by the French Academy, the academy that regulates and upholds standards for the French language, has warned that the growing use of English by private and public bodies in France risks poor communication and could even undermine social cohesion; in their words “today’s communication is characterised by a degradation that must not be seen as inevitable”. Over 30 pages, the report picks through dozens of texts from public institutions, organisations and private firms. Using many examples of bilingual wordplay, the academy claims that there is an overuse of English that risks an “ impoverishment of French vocabulary ”, “ growing discrimination among sections of the public ” and even “ defiance that has visibly developed in recent years against all kinds of authorities ”. One example of a term in the report is “le weekend” that the academy claims should be rejected by loyal French speakers in favour of “le fin de semaine”, in the bid to protect the French language. However, in practice, most French speakers pay little attention to the academy’s rulings and use the language however they like. In fact, French speakers are so inclined to using English that they created their own non-standard English terms such as “le brushing” to mean blow-dry and “le footing” to mean jogging. - Responsible for the upholding of standards

- (Widdowson, 1993) Linguistic ownership: A controversial step further from ‘linguistic rights’ to control who may speak a language, where it is spoken, and whether or not it is written; May also be referred to as language exclusivity - Defence for the enforcement of standard language usually has to do with protecting the purity of language, promoting clarity and mutual comprehension New Englishes: indigenised/nativised/localised varieties Platt et al (1984): 4 criteria a) Developed mainly through education system, is used as a medium of instruction in the classroom b) Developed in country with few native speakers of English c) English serves a range of functions in the country d) English has become nativised, adopted its own linguistic features (argued that this is also true for ‘Old Englishes’ the inner circle varieties) Singapore English: ● Singapore Standard English (SSE): Similar in grammar and vocabulary to Standard English but it is spoken with a Singaporean accent - Variety of English used by educated Singaporeans for formal purposes ● Singapore Colloquial English (SCE) or ‘Singlish’ (Chng, 2003) ‘Singapore’s local brand of colloquial English (that) is recognised as the quintessential mark of Singaporean-ness’ - Superstrate: Standard English (as spoken by the British, Americans, Eurasians, Indians and Ceylonese), Main substrate: Baba Malay, Second substrate: Southern varieties of Chinese (especially Teochew, Hokkien and Cantonese) - In 1956, English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil were declared the four co-official languages if Singapore; Where English was used as a tool for inter-ethnic communication as it was ethnically neutral - In 1987. English was made to be the main medium of instruction for all schools due to an increase in English being used as the predominant language spoken at home Linguistic Features Definition Examples Pragmatic particles Has grammatical and pragmatic functions Emotive particle: express ‘Leh’, ‘lor’, ‘meh’ and ‘what’ ‘Lah’ - Stressed version:

the attitude of the speaker and thus plays a pragmatic role - Usually at the end of an utterance and are equivalent to a hedge or tag question associated with a persuasive, conciliatory or explanatory attitude - Unstressed version: often used to convey impatience or annoyance Subject dropping Null subject ‘Still got fever?’ (null subject ‘you’) Auxiliary-subject inversion in interrogatives Auxiliary subject is fronted instead of the primary subject ‘ You want what ?’ instead of ‘ What do you want?’ (where the primary subject ‘what’ is changed with the auxiliary subject ‘you’) Tense-marking Lack of marking in verb forms (Tay, 1993) Also seen in SSE ‘I work here 25 years ago.’ ‘He always go there every Sunday.’ Fronting (Syntax) Bringing object or complement to the front ‘ This type also you interested.’ Deletion of indefinite articles (a/an) and verb (are) (Extra info: Indefinite particles (a/an) Definite particle (the) (Tay, 1993) Also seen in SSE ‘You very good dancer hor?’ ‘They dress very nice leh.’ Tag question ‘...okay?’ ‘...right or not?’ ‘...correct?’ ‘...is it?’ Copula deletion Omission of a form of the verb ‘be’ (‘be’, ‘am’, ‘is’, ‘are’, ‘was’, ‘were’, ‘being’, ‘been’) ‘My handwriting not clear.’ where the verb ‘ is’ is the null copula Borrowings (vocabulary) Loanwords, usually from Malay and Chinese dialects ‘Makan’ meaning ‘eat’ in Malay ‘Chin cai’ meaning

unconcerned about details in Hokkien Semantic shift Differences in semantics from standard forms in the inner circle ‘Kindly’ is often used instead of ‘please’ ‘Porridge’ means rice or ‘congee’ in SgE as compared to an oat-based preparation Lexis Including acronyms, initialisms, conversions, derivations, coinage, reduplication, blending and clipping. Conversions: changing grammatical category without changing the word form Derivation: use of derivational affixes More recently (For C-19): - ‘WFH’ for work from home;