Sri Lankan English Syntax Flashcards
Features of Sri Lankan English Syntax
Gunesekara (2010)
- follows basic rules of English with particular variations mainly in speech.
- there s a notable distinction between syntax of SLE speech and syntax of written SLE.
Speech is heavy with borrowings, collocations, transfers from Sin and Tamil
Written form is diglossic and conservative
Gunesekara (2010)
Spoken variety
1Use of collocations
2Use of borrowings
3Use of tags
Mr colontota. Come sir men sit you git my letter no
4Use of expression transferred from Sin/Tam
He was worth a thousand gold in life and thousand gold in death
‘Irundalum ariya pon irundalum ariyam pon’
5Casual
6Verb deletion in questions
So how how?
7Pronouns deletion
Papa will say hello and give chair to sit.
8Number given to count nouns
9Overuse of prepositions
Cope us., sit for the exam
10Topicalization
11Use of double comparatives
12 Avoidance of big latinate words.
Written form
1Avoid contractions
2Avoid using tags
3Only limited borrowings are used
Ex milkrice
4Only selected expressions are used
5Tendency to be highly formal
6Use of big latinate words
7Avoid pronoun deletion and verb deletion
8Overuse of prepositions
9Use of double comparisons
10Number given to uncount nouns
11Avoidance of topicalization
Mendid and Rambukwella (2010)
What are the other syntactic
features?
States there is a difference between the syntax used in speech and writing
Meyler (2007) its dated and formal
(Rajapaksha, 2008) (Kandiah,1981b)
Ellipsis
Rajapaksha,2008 : where dressing is concerned (there is ) no place at all now.
Topicalization
Rajapaksha, 2008 : before 5 o clock nimal woke up
Focalization
Kandiah,1981b: today’s burgers i dont think that fun loving.
Other features
Overuse of present continuous tense.
Word order change.
Why teach SLE syntax
Teach the distinction of syntax between the spoken and the written variety.
Make awareness about SLE syntax giving
prominence to syntax.
For students to embrace the variety and further use it .
Teaching syntax is quite problematic.
What is the testing criteria
Which model
The distinction causes problems in language acquisition can be overwhelming
What if the features used interchangeably?
