The debate - standard English V.S Singlish

Question 1

what is the ongoing debate in Singapore?

Answer 1

Many people believe that Singlish poses a threat to the use of Standard English, believing that it is merely a corrupted or ‘illegitimate’ form of Standard English.

Question 2

arguments for singlish?

Answer 2

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 3

arguments against singlish

Answer 3

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? Substratum theory…

Question 4

mutual intellegibillity definition?

Answer 4

when speakers (possibly of different languages) can undertsand eachother

Question 5

diglossia definition?

Answer 5

a situations in which to languages or two varieties of the same language are used under different conditions in a community often by the same speakers

Question 6

substratum theory

Answer 6

suggests that when speakers learn a new language they will learn it imperfectly and then pass these imperfections on to new generations