What affects and influences the way we speak?

Apologies for not being able to post for two weeks. The Chinese New Year holidays are here and it is hard to find time in the midst of saying Chinese New Year wishes to my family members while doing homework, let alone to find time to blog.

However I did do a homework assignment over the holidays which help put my thoughts into order about certain things, in this case language and the way it is perceived. Having handed up this piece of work, I want you, my fellow readers, to read through my essay and tell me what you think.

Will post soon!

Cheers,
Matthew Tan

Homework task:

• What affects and influences the way we speak?
• Comment on:
• Standard English and non-standard features
• Dialect/Sociolect/Accent/idiolect
• Slang
• Accommodation theory
• Stereotypes and Judgements
• Is there such a thing as ‘pure english’?

Essay: What affects and influences the way we speak?

In the 18^th and 19^th century, the British set sails towards foreign lands looking to find areas of trade and places to colonize. People say that if you were to mark out places once owned by the English, it would encompass about half of the world’s countries. The English influence still reigns over the world, with many countries having English as one of their nationally spoken languages. Despite this, going to different cities in the UK remains a hard task due to communication issues; although most of the UK speaks English, the difference in accents and dialects that make it hard for two people speaking the same language to communicate. To try and accommodate for this, “Standard English” was created and, as the name suggests, it was created in an attempt to standardize the English language. This separated the language from what is now called slang, which will be further discussed later on. Standard English was to be spoken in a Received Pronunciation accent, accent referring to an individual’s way of speaking. Received Pronunciation is the accent which is the accent now spoken by the British Broadcasting Corporation all over the world.

However despite this, many fail to speak Standard English with a Received Pronunciation accent. From Jordie to Singlish or Chinglish, there are many different ways of speaking English, and different ways of pronouncing English words. Such Non-standard English features include multiple negations, where double negatives used for emphasis which, by the interpretations of Standard English, creates a positive connotation instead. For example, “I am not going to no dinner”. Another example includes the exclusion of a preposition, such as “give it me”, excluding the “to” in the process.

But what is it that determines what we say and how we say it? When speaking to a person in English from the UK, you will notice that the vocabulary and accent used is different from one used by a Singaporean. This led people to believe that it was the regional differences that caused people to have a difference in idiolect, which is the difference in the way people speak in terms of things such as voice, tone and pitch. However there was a significant difference in terms of idiolect when speaking to a person from the UK in Singapore compared to speaking to a local from the UK living in his own hometown. This seemed contradictory to what was previously stated. It wasn’t long before Howard Giles noticed this and formed something he called “Communication Accommodation Theory” which stated that people tend to adjust their idiolect so as to accommodate with others. This can include changing your idiolect so as to stand out from the crowd or change it so as to blend in with the crowd. However often with foreigners, who prefer to be treated the same way as any other Singaporean, tend to perform the latter.

This is peculiar to many of my friends who see me change to an American accent and utilize a different range of vocabulary, such as saying words such as “dude”, when talking to my international school friends from Jakarta but to me it is completely logical. This is based on the presumption that people do notice the way you talk and form certain stereotypes of judgments based on the way you talk. As a Singaporean, speaking with my Singaporean accent in Jakarta would always end up with me trying to prove my stereotypes to my friends such as speaking Singlish and saying “lah” at the end of each sentence, a common characteristic found in Singlish. With many of my friends speaking with an American accent, the only solution to avoid these stereotypes was to change my accent as well. I was living evidence to the accommodation theory. Having being subjected to the accommodation theory, I found that it was easy to maintain an accent I didn’t truly have, yet found it hard to change with my international school friends around me. The only way to make me switch to a Singaporean accent was to speak with members of my own family, which only few had the opportunity to hear. I thus realized that it is the social group you hang out with that determines your idiolect, as well as your choice of words. This phenomenon is called “sociolect”.

In a certain social group, in my case it would be my Singaporean friends, I would speak in an English slang called Singlish, a short-form of the word “Singaporean-English”. Having grown up speaking Singlish, it often seems to come out of my mouth more fluidly than English itself. It is also seems more casual and, because of its fluidity, it is much more humourous to crack jokes in Singlish rather than in English. This is not only exclusive to me. Many Singaporean directors, such as Jack Neo, often create comedies of which the dialogue is entirely made up of Singlish.

In a way, I often think of Singlish as a very important feature of Singapore’s culture. Singapore is well known for its use of Singlish, and it would be a shame if it were to be removed. Secondly, Singlish paints for me a very good picture of Singapore’s history. Aside from English, Singlish utilizes vocabulary and grammar found in Malaysian, Chinese and Cantonese languages. Such examples include the use of using the same words twice for emphasis, found in Malaysian grammar. For example, “This building is very big-big”. The combination of these languages gives me an insight of how much different people from different cultures all managed to influence Singapore to create the slang that we all speak today. Of all things that represent Singapore as a united country despite being a multiracial one, I think Singlish should be one of the top things on every Singaporean’s mind. 

With all these slangs of English, is there truly such a thing as pure English? Well there is the concept of Standard English but who is to say that that is regarded as pure English? There is no single language of English that everyone around the world speaks. Even for any language, not one individual speaking that language will exactly speak of it the same way as another, with the same accent. Therefore in conclusion, there is truly no such thing as pure English.