Category: English Language

The goal of this essay is to showcase the lexical varieties of the English language used in different cultures, with an analysis of the differences between the Asian and Western use of the English language.

The novel “Fire on the Mountain” was written by Anita Desai in 1977 which belongs to the late modern English era. She is one of the famous novelists of contemporary India. The main themes the novel deals with are existentialism, sexuality and the Indian patriarchal society. This novel is divided into three sections which is I. Nanda Kaul at Carignano, II. Raka comes to Carignano and III. Ila Das leaves Carignano. This book sensationalizes the eccentricities of life and living styles of three ladies who set out to guide their lives to the one generally driven by Indian ladies. They are guided or persuaded by their strict energy; they take the uncommon course that no Indian lady in a conventional Hindu society seeks. Also, an important aspect of this novel is the argument between the need of an individual to isolate in order to cope with the pressures of life and the need to stay involved in life. At last we faced with a conclusion that is either very satisfying or too gloomy. As it handles the existential stress faced by the character Nanda Kaul, an old woman disengaged from society, Raka, a little young lady with curiosity by the feeling of uselessness and thirdly Ila Das, who struggles with issues that are too powerful to even think about, which brings her to the awful ending of her life.

The reason that I chose this book is because it is relevant to the objective of this essay, which showcases the Indian culture and how the author used her own English variety. The main features contributing to South Asian English is distinctively featured. The scholar B. Kachru points out that English is a supplementary language in South Asia. It might be the first, second, or–nth language in a South Asian’s linguistic repertoire. Second, English is acquired in South Asia’s traditional sociolinguistic, academic, and pragmatic contexts. It depends on the teaching of English and the specific areas that use English. Thirdly, English has always been taught as a classical language in South Asia, as a written language (Kachru 2005:43). In addition, English spoken in India has been under the very powerful impact of the subcontinent’s vernacular languages, stated in its lexicon. In the local English language that is spoken worldwide, several words from the native Indian dialect have been developed, some of the famous examples would be jungle, bungalow, punch, shawl, and veranda.

When reading the novel carefully, we can identify how the author has used linguistic variety including phonemes, morphemes, syntactic structures, and meanings. ‘Fire from the mountain’ is a book where we can see numerous examples of language differences and lexical differences, for instance, we can see that the author has borrowed words from their local language and where she has used Asian cultural terms to emphasize the situation. When we consider those borrowed words, they are taken from another language (the source language) by speakers of one language. For example, the author has used many borrowed words. The word “coolie” gives the definition of an unskilled native laborer in India. And also, the words like “sahibs” and “memsahibs” it’s a way how you address an upper-class man and a woman in India. Moreover, in terms of grammar, some features are shared by all English users in South Asia. For example, Repetition is a common feature in many South Asian languages and its used in both spoken and written varieties it involves different language groups. In the novel the author uses such repetitive words such as quickly quickly, stir stir, very very slightly, come come all of you, I am yours, yours again. little, little things, down, down and water, water everywhere. These repetitive words indicate that the Indian English’s reduction of adjectives can imply different qualities: emphasis, distributive sense, or indefinity. However, when it comes to Asian generation of questions there is a strong desire to ask questions about information without modifying the subject’s position and the auxiliary items. If we take an example from the novel like “what she would like to eat?” When we convert to the stranded English the correct format would be “what would she like to eat?” and also, “Child how ill you have been?” Where it should be “Child how ill have you been?”. Furthermore, considering the Asian language there is no field of practice where native languages words have not been used in the English language of South Asia. Local language words reflect native sensitivities and are seen as improving the English language’s expressive capabilities. Likewise, English lexical objects are ideal for utilize in a variety of states and implant in other languages of South Asia. Even all South Asians prefer and use English words in politics, law, government, and order, legal and court systems, education, entertainment, raw goods, mass media and materials. According to grammatical features in Asia, it appears that in a number of Asian language varieties include the lack of plural marking; omission of third-person singular –s; use of invariant question tags (isn’t it); the weakening of the count/mass distinction with nouns (as in equipment’s, furniture’s, etc.); and inverted word order in indirect questions. However, current research into the linguistic differentiation of individual varieties points less to the characterization of such Englishers as uniquely-constituted entities and more to an appreciation of the ways in which the structural features of such varieties develop as a result of the complex interaction of substrate influences with developmental processes as simplification and overgeneralization (Schneider, 2007). From the novel “Fire from the mountain” Anita Desai has used those question tags as well, for example ‘I didn’t wake you, did I? Nanda?’, Asha’s child, isn’t she? She’s like a queen, isn’t she? These kind of Similar question tags can be seen throughout the novel. Moreover, the verb aspects can be seen as well, the use of present progressive with stative verbs are usual If we consider some examples from the novel, I hate him! I am loving it, and I am growing old! These kind of verb aspects can be found. According to Asian English, it provides various distinctive dialect scenarios and hence our knowledge about the kinds of remotely spurred dialect alter that can be extended.

English involve in a very significant place in South Asia, and it’s evident from the above discussion. English is one of the languages spoken by South Asians, it has often been said that English has been so nativized as it is used in South Asia quite frequently and it is not considered a foreign language. According to the novel ‘Fire from the mountain’ by Anita Desai, we can discover how the author has brought Asian English and met the cultural demands of the Indian language. From this novel we can clarify that even though the Indian language has some lexical differences with native English, the Asian uses English as to the British English standards. According to a famous philosopher it has been said that A ‘mistake’ may be defined as any ‘deviation’ which is rejected by a native speaker of English as out of the linguistic ‘code’ of the English language, and which may not be justified in Indian English on formal and/or contextual grounds. A ‘deviation,’ on the other hand, may involve differences from a norm, but such deviations may be explained in terms of the cultural and/or linguistic context in which a language function. Kanthapura (London, 1938) Anita Desai has brought a new volume by writing a book of Indian fiction like ‘Fire on the Mountain’ in English, exploring deeper into an invisible pit of the human psyche, bringing the unseen outline into a sharper focus. She has acquired a vital place for herself in the fiction writings of Indo-English via transferring the abstain of her fiction from the outer truth of internal reality and by bearing the drift of the intellectual adventure of its characters. The author has demonstrated the potential of the post individualistic authors in English. It is true that Desai has her restrictions, yet she repays the strength of her material, which she requires in the form. She integrates her local language seamlessly with English enabling the reader to get a better understanding of the story the way she meant for it to be told. She keeps the uniqueness of the story with the borrowed words and tells the story in its pure form. Desai’s indisputable existential and psychological concerns have eminent her from other novelists of her time.

Reference

1. Deterding, D., 2007. Asian Englishes beyond the Canon , by Braj B. Kachru. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11(3), pp.437–440.
2. Čenejac, J. (2019). Characteristics of Indian English | LATG. [online] Languages Around the Globe. Available at: https://www.latg.org/2018/06/24/indian-english
3. Google Books. (2019). English as an International Language in Asia: Implications for Language Education. [online] Available at: https://books.google.lk/books
4. Tandfonline.com. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00437956.1965.11435436
5. Anon, (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.academia.edu/6270301/South_Asian_English?auto=download

For moreover than 3.5 billion population of the world uses social media for various purposes which 46-50 percent is an active user of social media. Social media is a platform for sharing links, posts/videos, and public updates such as status or location. The invention of social media developed the English language that could lead to positive and negative things. By reading this, we would know what benefits and disadvantages of using social media so that we could get the positive influences and apply them to our studies.

Firstly, users of social media type diverse information on their daily lives. Teenagers users tend to use an abbreviation to shorten the amount of time and word or phrase to type. However, they occasionally add a significant meaning or emotion to a message/text, for example: ‘OMG this is so funny hhh’ is a sentence that uses two abbreviations ‘OMG’ for ‘oh my god’ and ‘hhh’ indicates a laugh. ‘Love you with all my heart’ could also be texted as ‘luwamh’ (BBC Focus on Africa 2006:25). They also created new words for example ‘periodt’ to add emphasis at the end of the word that is considered as the extreme version of the period and ‘lewk’ which means a signature physical trait.

Furthermore, social media cause an impact on the verbal language of people. It is shown by the research group of teachers with a majority 73% stated that social media determined the speech style of students. Occasionally, the teachers need to correct informal words such as ‘hi’ and ‘oops’ after finishing the presentation. 34% of teachers said to stop the non-standard English they were using and the students correct the mistakes by themselves.

Lastly, frequent users like teenagers usually post status/comment on other people’s posts by using the English language though sometimes they commit misspelled words or wrong grammar. Research stated that 79% of the students responded that their friends usually do not correct their mistakes because they do not want other people to downcast their friends. However, 19% of students said sometimes they do correct their flaws. Also, making status in posts make users of social media aware of their grammar as well as improving their writing. Research in Bangladesh stated that 95% of the students think that writing standard English improve their English essays, besides they would make appealing posts which encourage others to give more likes and comment.

The impact of social media writing was also observed in the students’ academic writing by Jabeen (2015:58–59). Various factors were responsible for affecting a learner’s language. Another main point to be examined was the use of short wording in the writing that is not allowed in formal writing. Examples of these words were: ‘w8’ for wait, ‘plz’ for please, and ‘thank u’ for thank you. These mistakes were detected in the analysis and conclude that this made a negative impact on students.

However, social media encourages learners to reduce anxiety and feel free to participate and help them to improve their language production. Gremu&Halse, 2012 stated students are keen to use social media for academic purposes. Moreover, students see this as an opportunity to engage them to learn informally by seeking, exploring, and testing ideas with other students within their social network. It also helps the students as a functional medium in various aspects of their day-to-day activities such as assigning homework, studying at home, delivering results of tests, and many more.

English has changed a lot on the course of history due to its heavy-borrower nature and if one could go back and travel in time to see the changes that the language has undergone, he would be surprised and maybe not even find similarity between those English’s. Change has happened due to different factors like time itself, literature, history, tradition and location of a specific country. A major influence and famous change have of course happened by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare did not just write plays for English Literature, but also contributed in a lot of other fields in English Literature that helped to complete the English Literature picture the way it is.

Shakespeare lived during Renaissance (1300-1600) period which was part of the Middle Ages. Renaissance, means rebirth, a word originated from the French. It is a time in European history that led to the beginning of classical learning and knowledge. This period was a changeover from the Middle Ages into the modern world. The interesting part of this movement is that it united academic, cultural, social, and political characteristics into one.

This movement began when the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire failed in providing the people with a stable spiritual and material life and as a result of this, major changes took place which included the rise of national monarchies and their own languages. In general, the idea behind humanism is that humans are reborn with a new spirit, knowledge and ability to explore their potential thinking. This can only be achieved through breaking mental boundaries caused by religion. This indication spread very fast with the help of the printing press which had gotten invented around that time.

Shakespeare’s influence was unique when it came to drama due to his broad range of vocabulary and how he applied them excellently. He brought the English language to a very prestigious phase after being seen for years as a disdainful language. His sonnets specifically display a brilliant verbal performance with images layered one on top of another in a sensory kind of collection.

In the early 16th century, The English language was not highly valued. It was rather seen as a language spoken day-to-day by the lower-caste society due to it sounding and lacking the sophistication that foreign languages required. Therefore, it was not used at schools. Children were taught Latin and Greek in schools because they were the default languages for scholarly and religious communication. English was not perfect for literature. It was simply a language of the streets.

In the mid-16th century, everything was slowly changing. English started developing as a respectable means of communication with the help of many factors. For example, the learning rates were increasing which meant that many people were excited to learn how to read and write.

Writing in English became a symbol of growing patriotism. Moreover, every man that was William Shakespeare is notorious for having enriched and expanded the vocabulary of the English language.i He could achieve this because he was good at inventing new words. Shakespeare was mostly very skillful at borrowing words from Latin and changing them. He did this by maintaining the stem that belongs to one language and the prefix or suffix to the other. Examples of these words are accommodation, fixture, pious, generous and so on. Through his borrowings, it is said that he introduced roughly 600 words into English language.ii The thing about expanding a language is that some old words will gain new meanings and others not. Moreover, some of the new words will stick around while others will fade away. This is something that is predisposed to happen and quite a few of Shakespeare’s words, for example, crimeless, insisture, primy, unsisting, etc. happened to disappear as the English language continued to develop. This was the process which led the English language slowly going towards standardization.

A lot has been stated so far regarding William Shakespeare’s impact on the English language, but how would the world have been without his impact? English most likely would have expanded and been standardized at a much later point. So, eventually, the words that Shakespeare had invented, would have been invented by someone else. However, it is unquestionable that without Shakespeare, the language would not be the same today. Shakespeare is known for having been experimental and as a result of that, he invented many everyday words and phrases. Without him, we would have to find alternatives for terminologies and expressions such as “bump”, “bedroom”, “alligator”, “castigate”, “fair play”, “a laughing stock”, “knock, knock, who’s there?”, etc.iii

Another important aspect would be that our impression of how a writer should be, would be different. Usually, when it comes to writing, there is only Shakespeare, because there is no one in comparison to him unlike. Shakespeare’s soliloquies are known for being when a figure explores his/her personality, motivations, and ambitions. If you take him away, a lot of parts of the English language would be disappeared. Maybe someone else would have invented all these things, but it is undisputable that it would have taken longer.

To sum it up, after the Renaissance, the English literature was reborn and slowly started rising to one of the world’s best languages because it finally gained the superiority it had been lacking for a long time. The fact that people became more educated was a great assistance as more writing was done, there was a need to standardize the language. William Shakespeare is one of the authors that helped to accelerate and ease this process. I think it is very important for people to generally know that he did not just write plays that English speaking natives do not even understand but is responsible for having invented a good percentage of their everyday English words. As a result he invented lots of vocabularies that helped to broaden the English language. His newly invented words and phrases were also a factor that helped in quickening the process of standardizing the English language.

In spite of the fact that William Shakespeare has been dead for more than two centuries, he conveyed the English language to its existing standard and is still influencing a lot of up- coming film producers and writers based on how phenomenal his writing style and character development was. He may be dead, but his works and legacy still exists carrying his soul inside. His plays will always come across to the latest generation but without them, English would not have advanced as it did. Some other person would have probably tripped upon the words that he invented. Though, it is undoubtable that it would have been prolonged, and that English might not have moved forward up to this level.

References

1. Frye Mushat Roland (2005) ‘Shakespeare’, Routledge, p.118
2. Hussey S.S. (1992) ‘The Literary Language of Shakespeare’, 2nd edition, London (Longman Group UK Limited), p. 12-13
3. Dickson, A. (2009). ‘The Rough Guide to Shakespeare’ (J. Staines, Ed.) Rough Guides Limited.

Early Modern English l was about a hundred years old when Shakespeare was writing. There existed not dictionaries and Latin was still the language in which most documents were written. He contributed over 3000 words to the English language, because he was the first who wrote them . There are nearly 1700 of those words that were used by him for the very first time, including antipathy, assassination, hereditary, snow-broth, mouth honour, under-honest or zany.

W. Shakespeare is well known for borrowing words from other languages. He created them by ‘changing nouns into verbs (to friend, to cake), changing verbs into adjectives (amazement, generous), connecting words never before used together (eyeball, birthplace), adding prefixes (unreal) or suffixes (laughable), and devising words wholly original.’ He left a great mark in English vocabulary, as he didn’t add to the English language just words, but also expressions that we use in our daily lives: heart of gold, wild-goose chase, fainthearted, the milk of human kindness, down the primrose path and many more.

Some words that this famous writer used, have changed its meaning over the years, some examples are affect (show foundess for. “There’s a lady in Verona here whom I affect, but she is really nice and coy”), appeal (accuse. “Make look the boisterous late appeal”), bottled (swollen. “That bottled spider, that foul bunch-back’d toad”), and catch (song. “Rouse the night-owl in a catch that will draw three souls out”). He also adopted new borrowings from the New World, such as alligator (used in Romeo and Juliet), cannibal (used in Othello as well as several other plays), and hurricane (used in King Lear).

We can find some differences in grammar. As it was Early Modern English, there are peculiarities that nowadays aren’t used In first place we can see the possessive adjectives mine and thine that were utilised before the words beginning with /h/ or vowel. (“Thine home, mine eyes”, vs, thy domain, my nose); secondly, the alternation between the third person singular present that could end both in -(eth) and -(e)s. In some cases ,they appear in the same phrase (“With her, that hateth thee and hates versus all”) ; thirdly, the use of thou and you and, finally, something called multiple negation (“And that no woman has; nor never none shall be mistress of it”. Twelfth Night, 1602).

He knew how to create a vivid and descriptive language through “figures of speech”. He used metaphors, similes etc. Puns were also a common feature in Shakespearean English. He used them as a method of making meaning, as we can see in this example (after Hamlet killed Polonius and stowed his body away he is asked where Polonius is. He answers: “he is at supper, not where he eats, but where he is eaten” which meant that Polonius was the worm’s supper). It is said that some of his tragedies are an “extended pun” as Shakespeare liked to develop images in an extended way.

Another Shakespeare’s wordplay is malapropisms, which consist on the “ludicrous misuse of words” OED. We can appreciate it in Much Ado About Nothing: “Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two auspicious persons.”(comprehended should be apprehended and auspicious should be suspicious).

In some of his plays Shakespeare uses what is called “nonstandard English”. He mixes English with other languages (Irish, Scottish, French or Welsh). E.g. “Vat is you sing?I do not like des toys” or “ay’ll de gud service,or ay’ll lig i th grund for it, ay,or go to death!” Shakespeare innovations have made a great impact in the English language as we can see from his legacy.

Bibliography

1. Shakespeare’s language (Keith Johnson).https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/HE_ShakespeareLanguage.htm

Abstract

In understanding each communication either cross-cultural or interpersonal are convey the utterance as well as comprehend the meaning. When both of them are not accomplished, misunderstanding gonna happends. In case of this, the role of Politeness and impoliteness pragmatics in EFLTW are needed to be applied. Those two things are needed to be applied in order to implement The role of EFL student on Politeness & Impoliteness expression in classroom context toward the usage of speaking English appropriately

Introduction

Politeness has been defined by many different scholars. According to Greetz (1960), Indonesia referred politeness as a kind of “etiquette” for Javanese being polite they need to follow the sets of etiquette. In the short meaning, politeness is usually can be called as someone’s good behavior. According to Fauziati (2009), being good berhavior person should have some categories or indicators which show that those person are polite. A person will be called as a polite if they are talking by using inderect speech, and use respectful forms of address system such as like, sir, madam, or use formulic utterances, like ; please, excuse me, sorry, thank you, etc. In contrast of it, impoliteness is contrary to politeness. It can called as an opposite of politeness. They are opposite in terms of orientation to face. If politeness refer to the way to support or redress face want. But, impoliteness refer to attack face want. Impoliteness prefers to make the communication Impoliteness tends to compose the communication of threatening actions which are intentionally needless and contradictory.

So far we have been considering that English is a foreign language especially in Indonesia. It shown on the way how English is implemented on this country. Mostly students are learn English language in their school. But, it does not implemented an essential role neither in national nor social life. It’s in line with Geoffrey (2003), the average citizen does not need English or any other foreign language to live his daily life or even for social or professional advancement. Even though Indonesia is one of country which implement English for foreign languages does not means that English is not used or important. The role of English within a nation’s daily life could influrncing geographical, historical, cultural and political factors and not all of those are immuteable.

On this paper, the reasearcher will show the role of EFL in classroom context especialy in the usage of speaking English appropriately and dercribe the role of politeness and impoliteness expression that using by EFL students in their English speaking skill.

Formulation of the problems

1. What is the role EFL in classroom context especialy in the usage of speaking English appropriately?
2. To what extent the role of politeness and impoliteness expression that using by EFL student in their English speaking skill ?

Objectives of the research

1. To describe the role EFL in classroom context especialy in the usage of speaking English appropriately.
2. To describe the extent the role of politeness and impoliteness expression that using by EFL student in their English speaking skill.

Politeness

Politeness is one of the most intractable questions in the field, to which multitude of answers and have been proposed. According to Bargiela-Chiappini (2003:1464) ‘Despite the variety of studies which focus on linguistic politeness […]

The field still lacks an agreed definition of what ‘politeness’ is.’ Although this state of affairs is not conducive to the development of certain aspects of the field, work undertaken to develop definitions and approaches to politeness can at least help deepen one’s appreciation of the issues. Based on Leech (1983a:82), the role of politeness principels was to maintain the social equilibrium and the friendly relations which enable us to assume that our interlocutors were baing cooperative in the first place.

Impoliteness

Impoliteness can be associated with a negative evaluation as opposed to a positive evaluation, which can be aligned with politeness. Impoliteness has its own set of conventionalised impolite formula. In another definision Impolite according to (Culpeper: 1996), If the politeness strategies refer to the way to support or redress face want, impoliteness super-strategies refer to attack face want.

English for Foreign Language

Learners of English as a foreign language have a choice of language variety to a larger extent than second language learners. It may be seen, then, that the role of English within a nation’s daily life is influenced by geographical, historical, cultural and political factors, not all of which are immutable. But the role of English at a given point in time must affect both the way it is taught and the resultant impact on the daily life and growth of the individual.

The aim of speaking

Learners should know “language features” and the ability to process them in communication. If the speaker dominates these language features, will help learners to acquire successful communication goal. Harmer (2001).

Speaking is not only just knowing the linguistic feature of the massege expanding oral communication requires more than memorized vocabulary and grammatical comprehension. One of the obstacles of learning speaking is contradiction between class materials and courses, so that most of the teachers do not facilitate situations for real practice in speaking;basically students interest and student needs. According to (Gower, Philips, & Walter, 1995), Speaking is the production skill that is included in two main categories: accuracy and fluency. Accuracy consists of using vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation through some activities, fluency take into account “the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously”.

Analysis result & discussion

The role of EFL class in classroom context especially in the usage of speaking English appropriately is helpfull. As we now that English language for Indonesians is a foreign language, means that English is now always used in everysingle time. By the EFL class, the quantity of students will further increase in using English. They can praactice all the time and the learning process will run well. Beside that, in order to build an appropriately expression. Students must implement the polite aspect in every single time. The thing that they need to consider is polite, when politeness is implemented so the communication will develop wisely. This part willbe increasing the student extent on speaking english.

Conclusion & implications

The conclusion is the role of EFL class and politeness also impolitness are have correlation and relationship. Which is one of those things if full filled so the aim will be reach. In other hand, if one of the rule is not implemented, then the aim will not be reached.

References

1. Derakhshan Ali, (2016) Developing EFL Learner’s Speaking Ability, Accuracy and Fluency
2. Maharani Perdana Hestuningtyas, (2017) The Students’ Comprehension On Politeness/ Impoliteness In Interlanguage Pragmatics Of Complaintsby Efl Learners
3. Culpeper Jonathan (2011) Politeness and Impoliteness
4. Broughton Geoffrey (1980) Teaching English as Foreign Language

In today’s world, language plays a fundamental role in portraying the ideas of specific cultures over time. Some of the earliest forms have been around since the Common Era, Old English being one of the most developed languages. In the essay ‘Mother Tongue’ by Amy Tan, readers are engaged in her unique writing style as Tan expresses her childhood growing up with the different forms of the English language. Being an Asian-American woman raised in an immigrant family, Tan acknowledged that there are variations of English and believed that there is no right way of speaking this language. To express her thoughts on the main purpose of this essay, Tan uses different appeals such as pathos and logos with the tone being a prominent feature, as well as the variety to help her readers to get a better insight into her argument.

With the use of storytelling of personal childhood experiences, Tan defends all the times her mother’s ‘fractured’ English has played major roles in shaping her unfair experiences in society. Grabbing the reader’s attention with the sympathetic tone she felt for her mother, Tan uses the appeal of pathos to emphasize her guilt because of the shame she felt growing up with English as a second language. From translating daily conversations for her mother to interacting with society, Amy’s mother encountered several instances of mistreatment as “…people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her” (Tan, 341). Using these instances to support her argument, readers can feel the sense of guilt Amy felt for her mother’s ‘fractured’ English as she got older. The informal tone in Tan’s writing proves her argument that the type of English one speaks does not mirror the quality of a person’s words.

In addition to the appeal of pathos and informal tone throughout Tan’s writing, readers perceived Mrs. Tan as an educated individual. Her ideas could be viewed as equal to those with higher educational standing in English, resulting in logos evidence. Mrs. Tan’s ‘fractured’ English doesn’t come in the way of her daily activities as she “reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine’s books…” (Tan, 341). Effectively making use of logos, Tan shows that all four of these activities require some sort of knowledge and intelligence, and individuals that use ‘fractured’ English are still able to do the same compared to those who don’t. Throughout the essay, Tan presents personal anecdotes to engage the audience while supporting her argument. Using her personal stories in this informal tone, readers can compare and contrast Amy and Mrs. Tan’s story to their own.

Overall, this piece of literature can leave an emotional impact on readers. With the use of tone and rhetorical styles, Tan expresses her emotions about prejudice and cultural racism being an ongoing issue in society. Moreover, Tan engages readers in her story by successfully attracting readers with her conversational language and informal tone, proving her main argument. She uses methods of sharing past events from her childhood, as well as different emotions, such as frustration towards society perceiving her family a certain way. This essay appeals to individuals that can relate to having or growing up with ‘broken’ English, as she emphasizes that there is no right way of speaking English, in fact, there are variations for different kinds of relationships.

In the essay ‘Mother Tongue’, the author, Amy Tan, offers a different, extra upbeat standpoint on the exclusive types of English that immigrants talk about adapting to American culture. Using easy language to increase her argument, she communicates casually to the target market rather than informs it in a way that helps the audience apprehend what is being presented more easily. Her mother plays a necessary position in her strategy for language, as she helps her to realize that language not only allows one to be a part of the way of life but however to make an identity in society. Amy Tan shares her real-life memories about cultural racism and the combat to live to tell the tale as an immigrant in America without displaying any emotion, which is a remarkable episode for viewers to realize that a non-immigrant as a native English speaker handles everyday situations.

Amy Tan builds her credibility by taking a humble approach. At the start of the essay, she claims that she is “not a pupil of English … [and] can provide nothing extra than a non-public opinion on the English language and its variants in this country … [she is just a writer]”. By stating this at the opening of the essay, she adjusts the audience’s opinion of the target audience about analyzing the essay. Explaining this in the beginning, the reader wonders why he is so involved by way of the language of everyday life. One would now not suppose that this would be boring scholastic textual content and would proceed to read throughout their work to locate the answer to that question. Being an immigrant also offers credibility due to the fact sharing your previous ride, helps to implement your main thought in a new way. As the essay progresses, Amy points to her achievements in her mother’s memories, as well as the Tan ethos.

The target market Amy Tan is attempting to attain with her message in the essay includes a wide variety of people. One crew that this essay addresses are those who, like their mother, communicate ‘broken’ English. They are people who are seen as intellectually inferior in the community. Another team of humans being addressed consists of those who do now not sympathize with or misunderstand non-native English speakers. As nicely as those like Amy Tan who help ‘broken’ English audio systems clear up any language problems and get respect. Amy Tan has a skilled struggle, so she tries to unfold her message in hopes of altering the preconceived notion about bad English immigrants.

Amy Tan tries to bring to the target audience that language shapes the way one sees another. Amy Tan tries to unfold a non-discriminatory message through her words, asking human beings not to judge based on the way they talk the language. Amy Tan also tries to impose her thought of ‘language to convey humans closer’. The ‘broken’ English she invented, like many immigrants, introduced her nearer to her mother, even though she was regarded down upon in her community due to the fact of her ability to communicate fluently. This was once noticed when she had to communicate with a physician after her mother was recognized with an intelligence tumor and the doctor instructed her that she had missed a CAT scan. Due to not being able to talk English properly, the medical doctor was not cooperating with her mother at this time. When Amy eventually spoke to the medical doctor, they had been able to find the end result and had to apologize. This essay shows, alongside many different examples, how Amy had to help her mother to get her message across. Using pathos in her stories, Amy Tan is able to join deeply with those who have encountered humans who speak ‘broken’ English or have judged others in the past. It additionally makes the target market sympathetic closer to her.

In my opinion, Amy Tan has written a superb essay through which she is in a position to give an explanation for the struggles of her family as she transitions to the subsequent chapter of her life. Her personal experiences in the essay, from arguing with her mother to being criticized by her instructors for English, make it clear for the target market to grasp the concept. The easy language of the essay as properly as the stories kept the target audience engaged in having a wide idea and respecting the new ideas. This essay clears up many misconceptions about immigrants who do not speak English and gives an upbeat viewpoint on what it potential to be bilingual in America.

Abstract

Language has been proven to be inseparable from socio-cultural interaction. Recent empirical studies on conversation in a discourse of a multi sociocultural group observe the need of politeness strategies to ensure smooth conversation among the interlocutors. Even though Nigeria has made English Language as a language of unity, the controversies, division and distrust among the various ethnic group that make up Nigeria exacerbate. However, the problem could be traced to inability of the ethnic groups to understand and accommodate the sociocultural background into the interaction. Hence this research intends to investigate politeness strategies of Nigeria speakers of English as a second language with more focus on the politeness strategies of the Igbo speakers of English as a second language.

The data empirically would constitute polite expressions in Spoken English made by people from Igbo extraction. The analysis would reveal the sociocultural elements inherent in this discourse by considering such features as social distance, sex, age, social background etc., which serve as determiners of polite utterances, whether positively or negatively. The research hence would observe some implications and then make recommendations based on the findings.

Our conclusion based on the findings is that Nigerians interactants in a discourse even though use English as a language of unity, integrally adopt the socio-cultural rules of their mother tongue in speech situations and the principles governing them have also been maintained.

Introduction

Edlund and Helder in a manuscript states that conversation is the primary means of human communication, which involves exchange of positional context. During this exchange, the interlocutors must regulate the flow of information to make it proceed smoothly and efficiently. This is achieved through a when the interlocutors become aware as well as cooperate in adapting to various aspects of each other’s behaviour. According to Sapir (1963) “language does not exist independent of culture and as essential part of culture; therefore, it is more than just a means of communication. It also projects the culture of the people using it as well.”

Nigeria is a multilingual and multicultural nation of about 200 to 400 indigenous languages. Thus, the nation is unified by one official language English. Like in most countries where English is the second language, English spoken in Nigeria is influenced by the various ethnic groups both linguistically and culturally. In fact Ikonne (1986:30) describes the English spoken in Nigeria as “a multiplicity of idiolects spoken by native born Nigerians and understood by Nigerians who are literate in English.” The most important fact to note here is that the English Language has been cultivated, indigenized, domesticated and nativized to suit the cultures and traditions of various indigenous groups. (Simo-Bobda 1995, Igboanusi, 2002 a &b, Bamgbose, 2004, Dadzie 2004, Alo 2004).This supports one of the characteristics of language behaviour which states that all languages are subject to variations the moment they leave their natural environment and spread to other areas.

Conversely, the English spoken in Nigeria have not fully achieved its objective as language of unity. In a typical multicultural speech situation shows interactants expressing themselves in English that is integrated to their mother tongue. Consequently, individual speech behaviour which may not be understood or accommodated in the other ethnic group. In fact, findings from Enang, E.T., Eshiet C.S and S.T. Udoka (12) reveal that polite expressions in spoken Nigerian English are inseparable from the socio-cultural conventions of the various ethnic groups. Therefore, to ensure smooth interaction, there is need for the interlocutors to accommodate their fellow interactant’s language behaviour. Understanding the politeness strategies of the various ethnic groups will also minimise misconception and miscommunication.

This study therefore will investigate politeness strategies of Igbo speakers of English with the aim of revealing the polite expression and examining the implication.

Statement of the problem

Following Kramsch (1998: 6) line of argument that common attitudes, beliefs, and values are reflected in the way language is used, some Nigerian Linguists such as Ogu, 1992; Banjo, 1996; Igboanusi, 2002 a & b; Alo, 2004; Bamgbose, 2004; Mbisike 2007 identify some culturally specific elements that govern the interactional discourse in Nigeria. Therefore, for a smooth conversation, the knowledge of the conversational rules guiding the target language is required. Though there have been previous researches on politeness strategies in some Nigerian languages none of the studies has linked it to how these strategies could be integrated in a multi sociocultural speech situation.

Aims and Objectives

This research aims to study the politeness strategies of Native Igbo Speakers of English Language

The following objectives have been devised to achieve the aim;

1. To identify the polite expressions used by Igbo speakers.
2. To identify how it is integrated in the spoken English of the Igbo speakers
3. To investigate how that affects the speakers of English language from other ethnic group
4. To assess the socio-cultural implications of this effect.

Scope of the study

The research limits its scope of study to the politeness strategies used by Igbo Speakers of English language. In addition, the investigation involves both two party and multiparty interaction.

Significance of the study

The study of the suprasegmentals as turn-taking devices could project a successful negotiation in a multicultural interaction. Therefore, this research would serve as a reference material for researches in pragmatics, semantics and critical discourse analysis (especially, in political discourse) as well as other related disciplines. In other words, the study of the unique features of Nigerian English (NE) is extended to pragmatics. This would assist one to have an understanding of NE (especially the Igbo speakers of English) as a distinct expressive system. It will also, create the ability to recognize the complications that may occur in an inter-group conversation where Igbo speakers of English are involved. Consequently, threats of misinterpretations and miscommunication will be minimised to greater extent.

Methodology

Data description and collection procedure

The data used for this research was collected from various interactions and gatherings that constitute Igbo speakers of English. Hence, language of the data is the variation of English spoken by native Igbo speakers.

The data was recorded on a CD-ROM. This was accompanied by a tentative and verbatim transcription of the data. The transcription was based on transcript convention for conversational analysis adopted from Langford’s (1994) Analysing Talk: Investigating Verbal Interaction in English. Generally, instrumentation used in data collection involved reproducitivity, recording, transcription, laboratory and observation.

Analytical procedure and research sample

The data was analysed based on the theories of Politeness. These theories were selected because of their significance in social interaction. According to Karaforti (2007:120), research on politeness matters reveal the systematisation of interaction through the formulation of rules. Notable scholarship on these theories include Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) and Lakoff (1973, 1990). These theories would therefore set basic parameter to identify the politeness strategies used by the Igbo speakers of English and their socio-linguistic implications in a social context. Moreover, both the qualitative and quantitative methods were used in the analysis. The samples were randomly selected from the data.

Working bibliography

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According to Brown and Levinson’s theory, in order to avoid acts that can potentially threaten one’s face or their interlocutor’s face, people employ either positive politeness strategies, which emphasize familiarity and similarity in order to minimize social distance or negative politeness strategies, which exhibit respect and non-imposition, so as to maximize the social distance between interactants.

The use of diminutivized forms is a way to manifest politeness in both Greek and English. However, it is a process that occurs much more frequently in Greek rather than English, where there is also greater flexibility in the formation of diminutives. In English on the other hand, there is considerably less flexibility in expressing emotions through the use of diminutives and those that exist are being used with much lower frequency (Sifianou 157). Such linguistic observations reveal commonalities and differences on why the two societies use diminutives, how they express politeness and, consequently, in which ways they differ socio-culturally in that respect.

The prototypical function of diminutives in both languages is to indicate smallness. Concerning the pragmatic functions of diminutives, they are most extensively used to express informality, familiarity, as well as endearment and affection towards the interlocutor. In Greek, diminutives are commonly used in interaction with children, but are also employed among adults as well. Among some instances of diminutive forms that Sifianou provides are those of nouns referring to human artifacts or indicating activities, as well as adjectives having negative connotations, which, through diminutivization, soften their negative force. According to Sifianou, “[t]he primary functions of Greek diminutives seem to have expanded to serve a wide variety of politeness needs” (159). That is, Greeks are claimed to have a tendency to express a rather friendly and informal politeness, either “by claiming common ground and showing solidarity towards the addressee, or by showing affectionate concern for imposing on his/her freedom of action” (159). Thus, the interaction would be marked as positively polite. Notably, Sifianou argues that the highly developed Greek diminutive system provides evidence for the positive politeness orientation of the Greek society.

Diminutives are used extensively in requests, offers, compliments and a variety of other Greek everyday exchanges, which provides further evidence for the fact that in Greek, a positive politeness strategy is generally preferred, in order to communicate similarity and informality between interlocutors. Starting with requests, Sifianou notes that “[r]equests are among the best examples of Greek diminutives exhibiting pragmatic force in polite interaction” (160). For Brown and Levinson, requests always involve some imposition, which needs to be mitigated. According to them, diminutives and constructions with ‘a little’ minimize impositions, functioning as negative politeness markers. Sifianou, however, refutes that claim, by illustrating plenty of situations in Greek culture, where requests are not interpreted as impositions at all. In such contexts, she claims, “softening devices are hardly necessary to mitigate impositions”, as requests are not perceived as such, but they might even be welcomed as chances to be of service (160-161). In such cases, the everyday function of diminutives is not mainly to soften impositions, but to express solidarity and claim common ground with the addressee. In this way “[t]he speaker indicates that s/he perceives equality of status, lack of social distance, and no imposition; in short, that the overall interaction is positively polite” (161). Even in cases when there is a relative social distance and familiarity has not yet been established, there is still a preference for trying to establish friendly contexts for the interaction. Therefore, it has become evident that the notion of imposition is viewed differently in the two societies.

Offers constitute another example of everyday exchanges, where positive politeness strategies are generally preferred in Greek society. By using offers, speakers indicate that they are concerned with the addressee’s desires and needs, which they offer to satisfy. There is a “[s]hared knowledge of the reciprocity of giving and receiving, [which] is mitigated explicitly by the use of a diminutive” (Sifianou 164). In contrast to English interaction, Greeks generally view potential threats to negative face as less significant than paying attention to positive face wants. In the case of compliments, Greek diminutives intensify the compliment and satisfy the addressee’s positive face needs. Greek diminutive forms are found in most everyday exchanges and they are used as softening devices to indicate intimacy, closeness and informality. However, diminutives are not normally used in formal situations, with obvious status differences, as they are deemed inappropriate.

Apart from suffixation, Sifianou mentions another way of expressing diminution, in both Greek and English. That is, by means of syntactic modification, such as by using the word ‘little’ to modify a noun. Such forms, however, are restricted in English, as opposed to Greek. The Greek ‘liyo’ appears to be more flexible than its English equivalent and, similarly to diminutives, it serves as a politeness strategy. In the same way that English speakers use the word ‘please’, so as to be polite, functioning as a negative politeness strategy, Greek speakers use ‘liyo’ in order to be informally polite.

Comparing the function of diminutives and of constructions with ‘a little’ in Greek and English, we have seen that when employed, they generally function as in-group identity markers to claim a solidary framework for the interaction in both societies. In the Greek society, however, they constitute positive politeness strategies, as they are mostly restricted to informal everyday speech, whereas in the case of English, there is a preference towards a more formal marking of politeness. So, the common perception that English people are typically more polite than Greek people might be due to the fact that positive politeness strategies are less readily recognized as politeness markers at all, because as Brown and Levinson point out, “manifestations of positive politeness are frequently representations of linguistic behavior between intimates, while politeness in Western cultures immediately brings negative politeness to mind” (qtd. in Brown and Levinson 1987: 101, 130). The broad implication of the present research is that it successfully tackles the difficult issue of cross-cultural interpretation of politeness. In their review, Preisler and Haberland remark that it actually illuminates potential sources of miscommunication between cultures and deconstructs cross-cultural stereotypes (231). Furthermore, in Blum-Kulka’s review of Sifianou’s work, it is generally argued that Sifianou’s findings support a broader view of politeness as a joint effort toward harmonious interaction at all levels and therefore a phenomenon to which all dimensions of culture are relevant.

In essence, this paper questions the extent to which the concept of politeness is common to different cultures. Wierzbicka agrees that “[f]eatures of English which have been claimed to be due to universal principles of politeness are shown to be language-specific and culture-specific” (145). The conclusion drawn by Sifianou, and where the importance of her research lies for the field of sociolinguistics, is that the linguistic differences observed between the two societies reflect some of their cultural differences as well. On the one hand, as has been noted, in Greek society, there is a tendency for closeness and informality, as well as an unrestrained expression of emotions. The English society, on the other hand, seems to maintain a preference for distance and formality, with a more restrained display of feelings (Wierzbicka 168). Diminutives in English serve to soften or minimize minor impositions, while, in Greek, they serve to express emotional involvement and solidarity.

All things considered, Sifianou’s paper contributes greatly to the study of language and society. Based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that language reflects culture and vice versa, it can be claimed that through observing patterns of linguistic politeness among different cultures, we get to identify cultural differences in the respective societies. Through her research, Sifianou has come to establish a connection between language and society, by proving that the richer and more complexly developed diminutive system of Greek seems to facilitate the expression of feelings and is indicative of cultures rather intolerant to formality, in which affection and emotions of any kind are expected to be shown overtly. By contrast, English culture does not encourage excessive display of emotion; hence the system of diminution is more limited. Lastly, by discussing aspects of politeness in England and Greece, Sifianou’s findings hold great importance in terms of cross-cultural communication.

My name is Hadrien and I have been studying English for three years now at Rennes 2. In order to perfect my studies I am applying for this program. I heard about this program last year thanks to one of my professors and I immediately thought that the Fulbright FTLA program would be a perfect opportunity for me and my goals..

For many years I was never really sure about what I wanted to do with my life. I first entered into a medical school after high school and failed to advance after a first year of study but I did not want to try a first year of study a second time, as I would have to give up my social life and my family life one more year for something about which I was increasingly doubtful from a professional point of view. I was also beginning to become overly stressed and my health was affected. But during this year of medical studies I was able to think about what I wanted to do with my life and how I could still help, or at least, share something with people just like a doctor does and started to become a professional goal for me. I might have chosen to teach biology or chemistry, instead I decided to teach English which would allow me to share something with my future pupils. Why English? First, coming from a science background, English was and still is the language of science, and what would science be if we could not share it worldwide and discuss it? One year later when I entered the English Bachelor’s degree I realized that I had found my place.

During these past three years I have met incredible people with whom I have been able to be myself from the very beginning and who freed me from what was certainly a shell. It was through these contacts that I knew I wanted to become an English teacher and that I had to go abroad to improve my English. I can say with certitude that my greatest failure has been the key to my greatest success.

Moreover English is also something dear to me. I am the second son of a family of four and my mother who is Portuguese never taught us her language. That is why, when we went to Portugal we had to speak English with our family and, fortunately for us, most people in our family are able to speak English. If we could not have communicated we might have never shared this bond between us. English has finally been something that is part of the family and something that I’ve “come home” to with my choice of study. I was very fortunate to have an excellent English teacher when I was young who gave me the basis to understand a new culture, a new world, the way to talk with my foreign family and by the same occasion the love for languages.

Last year I signed a contract of apprenticeship (an EAP contract) which has allowed me to work for two years as a trainee English teacher in an Educational Priority Area middle school under the guidance of several English teachers. I must admit, at first, that I was rather afraid as just like most of the student wanting to become teachers I heard some terrible thing about those kind of schools, about how it was just a “terrible moment to endure” when you were assigned there as a novice teacher. I was totally surprised when the first month all my apprehensions disappeared, and how fun it could be to work with those kids who may be rude sometimes but who are really interesting when you speak with them. I have been able to work with several English teachers who have their own way of teaching, I have seen and done so many things from helping one teacher by taking with me half of the class in order to make them practice their English, to staying with children who had a lot of difficulties be it in French or English, and even handling the first half of a one hour lesson by myself to introduce a new notion or a new subject to the class. One of my mentors has asked me to take care of a whole lesson at the end of this year and I will have to build it from scratch and present it on my own. I have learned so much and I am still learning right now thanks to both my mentors and my pupils, not only about teaching but also about how important communication is in those kinds of schools and how it is important to be strict but fair with pupils who crave fairness when life itself has not been fair to them until now.

I was really delighted when one of my colleagues told me that I had what it takes to be a teacher and that my dynamism and my cheerfulness were liked by the pupils I worked with. I have learned one more thing thanks to this job: even though the experience is very rewarding, I don’t want to teach in a middle school all my life. I hope that, when I have enough experience, to able to help teach and mentor future teachers. This current apprenticeship experience has changed me and now I wish to work in Educational Priority Area schools before going teaching to the next generation of teachers and break their false image of those schools.

Obviously, in order to succeed in this professional goal I must go abroad to improve my English. I am not applying to this program simply to improve my English but also to widen and expand my teaching experience. I think the skills I’ve acquired as an apprentice teacher are solid and can be tested with American students, while teaching French. One thing I experienced as a young boy was sharing my personal history and background with my cousins in a foreign language and I think this program is almost a natural continuation of that experience: I would be able to use my teaching skills to share so many things about France, about the French language, about Brittany and to give students the same desire I have: to visit the country of their language study.

This chance will only appear once in my life so I wish to go the USA to perfect my studies, the USA has always been this fascinating country on the over side of the ocean, the country which through its movies, series and books gave me access to its culture and helped me to improve my English on my own, now and when I was younger. This once in a life chance to live a one-year American dream is the reason I am applying for this program in the USA and not somewhere else, because it really is the completion of a long “story” of love for English and my decision to become an English teacher.

I have always been curious and as I’ve said science has always been one of my favorite subjects so I enjoy going to Les Champs Libres in Rennes which offers a variety of exhibitions which revolve mostly around science. I’ve tried to clear that meeting people has been for me the best way to satisfy my curiosity. I have met so many people thanks to my origins, the different trips I have made and when I started studying English I met even more people who were able to give me so much and who were able to open my horizons, that’s why I think that foreign languages are so important because they have allowed me to meet so many people. I hope to be able to share this experience with American students and offer them the same opportunities I have been given.