Content

Question 1

Pidgin

Answer 1

Etymology - Chinese corruption of business

76 recorded , 26 English based

Dramatically simplified language arises due to contact who do not speak the same language

Colonisation and slave trade
Dominant lang simplified
Exclusively oral, limited vocab
No native speakers

Question 2

Creoles

Answer 2

New generation of pidgin speakers as their first language

Creolisation - more sophisticated and complex
Means grammar is inate

Question 3

Nigerian Pidgin

Answer 3

3-5 million users daily
75 million in Nigerians use it as second language - mainly young people

Question 4

Black British English

Answer 4

Based on Jamaican creole speakers mainly in London, Manchester and Birmingham

It is tile governed and frantically structured

Question 5

Black British features

Answer 5

Consonant clusters in ‘t , d, s, z’ are simplified at ends of words eg ‘axe’ for ‘asked’ and ‘tink’ for ‘think’

Removal of verb - to be - ‘he good’
Auxiliary verb ‘do’ is used with past principle eg ‘he done’

Question 6

Code switching

Answer 6

Common universal language - contact phenomenon where speakers switch from one language variety to another

• bilingual speakers
• speakers switching varieties and adoptions different registers

Can happen inter-sentenial (between sentences)

Question 7

Effect of code switching

Answer 7

Expectation of code switching threatens true diversity

Learning how to be culturally comparable
Sometimes subconscious

Question 8

Sharla and Sankaran (2011)
What did they do??

Answer 8

Punjabi speaking Indians in West London

Oldest group - first generation immigrants
2nd and 3rd group - children of immigrants

Made recordings of themselves speaking to range of different people

Question 9

Sharma & Sankaran (2011)
What did they find?

Answer 9

Older generation seemed to vary forms - 100% Indian when talking to maid and 100% British when speaking to cockney mechanic

Less variation amount younger generation

This is because older generation faces anti immigration community and under pressure to integrate linguistically

Younger generation in more lives neighbourhoods. Less need to switch between speech styles

Question 10

Multicultural London English (MLE)

Answer 10

Multi-ethnic youth dialect = mixture of ethnic dialects

Lexis - bare m
Grammar - dem
Discourse - innit as tag questions
Pronunciation - straight becomes stret - diphthongs becoming monothongs

Question 11

Attitudes towards ethnic varieties

Answer 11

Negative - sounds silly, associations with criminals but has nothing to do with the language just people who use it
Positive - creativity and variety and breaks down radical divides

Relevant theories!!!
- Accommodation theory - code switching
- Sharma and Samkaran - depends on age
- covert and overt prestige - motivated to use different forms in different contexts
- prescriptivists

Question 12

Zimmerman trial
Rickford & King (2016)

Answer 12

Zimmerman prosecuted for shooting Martin in 2012

19 year old black female dismissed by jurors as incomprehensible and unreliable despite speaking vernacular and systemised

Analysed the transcripts
They assort that she was misunderstood and directed for not using mainstream white English

Question 13

English become a global language?

Answer 13

-Technology predominantly English
-English need in academic study
-travel
-spread through popular culture eg music books film sport
-

Question 14

Braj Kachru (1992)
Three circles

Answer 14

Inner circle - English as first language eg USA CANADA NZ AUS

outer circle - English as second language eg INDIA

Expanding circle - English to communicate waugh speakers of other languages in business, politics and education eg lingua Franca eg SWEDEN

Question 15

Lingua Franca

Answer 15

English acts as a bridging language or common language amounts speakers whom English is not their first language

Question 16

Schneider’s dynamic model of post-colonial Englishes (2007)

Answer 16

What happens as a result of influencers of colonisation over time

At first the two varieties will be distinct and there may be some separation of the two groups of speakers but over time these distinctions weaken until co-existence is achieved. It is at this point new varieties of language tend to be born.

Phase 1 - FOUNDATION- English brough to territory by colonising power

Phase 2 - EXONORMATIVE STABILISATION - colonising power looked for model of use and the elite in society determine language behaviour and standards used in education etc

Phase 3 - NATIVISATION - new variety emerges and nativised. Sense of identity for speakers

Phase 4 - ENDONORMATIVE STABILISATION - new variety develops becomes accepted

Phase 5 - DIFFERENTIATION - internal diversity emerges

Question 17

Exonormative

Answer 17

Users of language are outwardly looking - modelling language use on a form outside of their immediate community ie someone from the colonising power such as UK or US

Question 18

Endonormative

Answer 18

Users of language has developed its own standards and it’s not reliant on the original variety of the colonisers

Question 19

McArthur represents known varieties of English in the Circle of English model (1987)

Answer 19

New varieties have begun to develop eg Singlish

This model suggests that there is one single world standard English

Inner circle ‘standard English’ has been codified (in books and dictionaries and educational system) high status but is spoken by minority

Outer circle englishes and pidgins and creoles tend to be regarded as non standard and inferior

Question 20

Singlish

Answer 20

Highly complicated English creole spoken in Singapore – amalgamation of many different Southeast Asian dialects/pidgins rolled together with English

Question 21

Singlish vs standard english

Against singlish

Answer 21

Standard English is needed for success in life – opportunities come with speaking good english

Communication is needed for international communication – ‘Singlish’ of little use

People may not be able distinguish between standard English and singlish – learn singlish from birth?

Question 22

Singlish vs standard English

For singlish

Answer 22

Covert prestige – people use language varieties for pride/identity, not correctness

‘Imposing’ Standard English is patronising – continued colonization

No varieties are “broken” – they just follow different rules and are logical in different ways (descriptivist view)

People just code-switch – learn to use Standard English/Singlish for the appropriate context – what’s the issue?

Any attempts to ‘regulate’ language use are futile – language changes as its users wish

Question 23

Substratum theory

Answer 23

When speakers learn a new language they will learn it imperfectly then pass these imperfections onto new generations