OF ENGLISH (ICE) WORKSHOP

INTERNATIONAL

_CORPUS

OF ENGLISH (ICE) WORKSHOP

Chinese

Universify

of

Hong Kong

6 December 2008

cultural

connotations

and linguistic creativity in Malaysian English

Hajar

Abdul

Rahim

&

Su'ad

Awab

Introduction

In this paper we

will

discuss the

two

faces

of

Malaysian English

(ME) which is

used

in

^,glocal,

and 'global'

discourses.

Often times,

these

two

interweave

to form a common

community identity. We do not use the

term 'cultural identity'

as is used

by Ho

(2006) as

ME

users are not wrestling

to find

an gthnic

identity

but rather creating a sub

variety of

a language as a common denominator

in

actively_

participating in- a group. ttt"y dynamically utlrui the

linguistic resources at

their

disposal

to

shape and reshape thoughts, concepts, views _and opinions bJt-,ween ethnic groups.

Unlike its

nearest

neighbor

Singapore,

Malaysia

has

the

same language,

Malay,

as

both

its national language and

the official language.

Singapore,

with similar ethnic

group makeup as

Malaysia i.e. a

multiracial

population

of

Malay, Chinese and Indian, has chosen Malay

to

be its

national

language

while the

others,

Mandarin, Tamil, Malay and English are

designated as

official

languages.

Malay is

the language

of

instruction

in

Malaysian

public

schools hence as a national language,

it

is the lingua franca for all Malaysians.

The situation

in

Singapore leads

Ho

(2006) to

look

at the quandary

of

Singaporeans who use the basilect

variety Singlish that is a "... variety, with its

^-oAa

mix of rnlfisn

and

local

ethnic languages,

mirrors a people who find

themselves

struggling with a ttiytiua conflicting

and contrasting cultures, a people

in

cultural and

linguistic flux,

who are

still

searching

-

despeiately

- for

^{an identity,} and a language they can call their

own." (pp.

_17). Ho postulates

ihat

Singlish is a medium

which

acts as a thread that binds

multiethnic

Singapore

who

do

not

want

to identifr with

the west and cannot associate

with their

native languagiJt. English used

in

Malaysia does

not undergo the same problem of identity forming as there is already an

identified constitutionally endorsed language, i.e. Malay, that is meant

to bind

the ethnic groups. The dire tug-of-war feeling stated by Ho,

which

is present

in

Singapore does not exist in the s4me manner in Malaysia. So what

kind of

situation does one see in the use of English

in

Malaysia?

Past studies

on

Malaysian

English (ME)

have looked

at the

use

of

borrowed

native

language

lexis in ME

(e.g.

Hajar & Harshita

2003,

Tan

1998, Pennycook

lgg4) while

Baskaran (2005) provides

a good analytical

description

of the

syntactic features

of ME. The most

common complaint regarding English used

in

Malaysia is

its 'degrading'

standard

from its

standard

form

t Begun in l979,the Speak Mandarin campaign was aimed at using Mandarin as the standard language for all Chinese in Singapore. While it is deemed as successful, it marks the slow death of the many Chinese dialects.

and

the fact that it is

used

liberally in Malay

language,

much to the dismay of the

Malay language purists and linguists. English is easily code-switched and code-mixed

in

Malay as

well

as among speakers

of

Chinese dialects and Tamil.

Words occur

in lexical or

syntactic combinations. English words

or

phrases

in ME

'co-habits'

with their

neighbors

to form

interesting and indigenized connotation. Take the

word 'bltr'. As

part of

speech,

it is

categorized as

a verb or a

noun.

In ME, it

has taken

a

newer

life

as an adjective. There is even an entry in the 2007 Encarla

World

English

Dictionary lNorth

^American

Editionl

for the new identity of

blur:

While there remains an ongoing

linguistic

creativity that is clearly

identifiable

as native-like, the convergence towards current mainstream language

with global political

and

cultural

events is becoming more apparent.

Since the era

of

global connectivity via the ubiquitous Internet, a

wider

net is cast

with

regard to creation

of

structure and lexis

in ME.

Media and pop culture

infiltration

are no longer Western

but coming from counfiies closer to home

such

as

South

Korea and

Japan

as well

as the Philippines. Blogs appear

in

abundance around topics related to these cultures such as K-popped, J-popped and Canto-popped.

With this tlpe of

non-western themes, the

kind of

discourse using English resulted

in

speakers creatively discussing global topics

in

local discourse.

In

engaging

in this

discourse,

English is

used among the participants

who

are multi-ethnic, evident in the

following

excerpt:

ssangyong- said...

erm

i'm sorry if i'm

a

bit intemrpting

here...well

liz,orhid,n

rooster..to

let u know,i'm

a malay...

i

would

like

to

try

the korean foods too as sometimes watching them eating on the screen

mcmlazat

(note:

delicious)

gile2 (very)je...huhu...but,as

i'm

a malay,u

know

lah

kn

non halal

food is

a

strictly

no-no

to

us

(i'm

so sori here)...since

u

guys

knew

a

lot of

things related

to

korean,

could u

guys suggest

me

any korean restaurant

that

offered us halal food??if

31 Oct 2008

PM

A7:02

there's any...tq...;)

(https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?bloglD:9032501670292723848&postlD:842707855409

3 49 | | 5 8

&isPopup:true)

This is

taken

from a

community

blog

called K-popped.

Its tagline is:

passionate about Korean pop culture.

This

comment above

is

one

of the few in which the identity of the

commenter's ethnic group is known. In this thread

of

discussion concerning Korean eateries

in

Kuala Lumpur,

it is

^clear

that most of the

commentators are

non-Muslims i.e.

Chinese

or

Indians.

What

is interesting

is English is now

used

to talk

about non-westem

topics. As many of

these blog participants

do not

speak

Korean,

Cantonese, Mandarin

or

Japanese,

they

choose

a

language which is already accessible to people in their'communityo.

Cultural identity & cultural connotation

Words occur

in lexical or

syntactic combinations. English

words or

phrases

in ME

'co-habit'

with

their neighbours

to form

interesting and indigenized connotation. Take the

word 'blur'.

As

part of

speech,

it is

categorized as

a verb or a

noun.

In ME, it

has taken

a

newer

life

as an adjective. There is even an entry in the 2007 Encarta

World

English

Dictionary

fNorth American

Editionl

for the new identity

of blur:

It is

interesting

to

note

that

even speakers

who

are

proficient in

standard

English in

Malaysia

would be able to decipher this new meaning of blur, so widely

acceptable

the

cultural connotation this word has taken.

Cultural

connotation

of words

change

frequently; it is in a

constant state

of flux. As new

or rediscovered topics and themes appear, speakers

will find

ways

to

create

or

adapt the repertoire of language at their disposal to successfully participate in the discourse.

When we look at the many

studies

on the relationship

between

lexis and culture, we

can generally agree

that cultural views

are encoded

into lexis but

are

not

encoded

by lexis.

The

Sapir-Whorf

hypothesis

of

language

determinism

does

not apply in varieties of

Englishes.

Speakers are much freer

to

create new forms

of lexical

words and expressions as and when the need

arises.

For example, therc

isfanglrl,

whose meaning can be deciphered easily.

If

we have boy band as a useable

expression,thenfangirl

does not seem that strange after all.

This position is what Hadley (1997) refers to as

'cultural prototype'

i.e. words and lexical items

which

are influenced

by

the dominant culture rather than the other

way

around.

As

prototypes, these words make sense

in

that particular culture, taking

in

new identities, wearing new outfits.

This is

especially

true in

routines,

idioms

and metaphors.

In Sorry, I'm late.

Because

why...I

went to do my

hair

and

I don't

want to go. Last time,

I

went, she scolded rne,the

two

expressions because why and last time are influenced by its Malay equivalents . Gone case (agoner), /os t case (beyond

redemption)

larnp

post (a third party in a

threesome)

furttrer illustrates the

strong influence cultural has on lexis.

Lexis

1. semantic shift -

^due

to

^use/ meanings of

equivalent

local

word

Terror (great)

B/zr

(confused)

sometnore (on top of that)

I

already put

in

on

I

haven't test drive (tried) (the

lipstick)

yet so

I

have no comments

Ifeel

great (am happy)

for

somebody

Slowtalk-

(persuade)

2.

Use of local

words

kan cheong (suspense) syok

Strucfure

1. Linguistic structures

After I wait-wait

(waited

for

some time) could u guys suggest me

(giveme

some ideas)

chiclcen-and-duck talk (translation of a local idiomatic phrase) i'm sorry

if

i'm a

bit intenuptinghere

finally

^s ettl e your s e

lf in Kelarian

(settle down)

I

tell you (let me

tell

you)

See la how

(we'll

see how things go)

New

forms

Example

I

control macho (putting up a

front)

Example2

so the handsome one, she's so the

clever;Henny

isthe hottness (handsome) Example 3

You want to go for mamal{?, Lets go mamaking (similar to structures

like .clubbing')

Example 4

c hi c lren-and-duc k t al

k

Example 5

O ya,that's kewl

The new forms exhibit a much more robust form

of

creativitv.

Example ¹

The compound 'control macho' is a combination of ^a verb and an adjective.

It

is often used in a tongue-in-cheek fashion to refer to someone (usually a male) who tries to

look

good and

in contol.

Example 2

The

structure

so the + adjective is used to emphasi ze the meaning of the adjective.

Example 3

The

word'mamak'

originates from the Tamil word ^omama' which means

"uncle".

The

form

mamak is used by Malaysian speakers

in

general to refer to Indian

Muslims

(male) who are known in Malaysia especially for their

food.

So the mamak stalls, restaurants and eating places are very popular among

Malaysians.

The way in which the word mamak(go for mamah mamaking) is used shows a new level

of

sophistication in the lexical innovation of Malavsian English.

Example 4

The speaker who used the phrase chicken-and-duck

talkliterally

translated a Malay idiom which means talk between two people that does not make sense. This example is an indication

of

speakers' willingness to break the cultural boundaries of non-literal expressions.

Conclusion

Global cultural influences are strongly

felt in

Malaysia,

in

many spheres

of

the society. This is especially true among the younger groups

who

connect

readily

and

rapidly with

the help

of

the Internet.

While

some examples

in our

data illustrate the already-present

creativity in ME

lexis, there is an abundance

of newly

formed nativized English lexis. English

is

appropriated

for

local meanings and uses. Put

in

another

word,

the

local

has gone

global

and U-turned

to

glocal. The glocalization

of global

ideas and best practices _leads

to a culture

open

to taking the

best and leaving the rest behind. Perhaps

this is

the answer

to

the

complaint of

language prescriptivists about the degrading state of English

in

Malaysia.

References

Baskaran,

L. M.

2005 A Malaysian English Premier. Kuala Lumpur:

University

Malaya Press.

Gregory Hadley,

G.

1997. Lexis and Culture: Bound and Determined?

Journal of

P sycholinguistic Research, Y ol. 26. No.

4,

1997

.

483 -496.

Hajar

Abdul

Rahim

&

Harshita

Aini

Haroon2003 The use of native

lexical

items in English texts as a codeswitching strategy.

In

S. Granger and S. Petch-Tyson (eds.) Extending the scope of corpus-basedresearch: New applications, new challenges.159-175. Amsterdam. Rodopi.

Ho, D. G. E. 2006.

'I'm

not west.

I'm

not east. So

howleh?'English

Today 87,

Vol.

22, No. 3 July 2006. 17-24.

Pennycook _,

A.

1994. 'The Worldliness of English in Malaysia

.' ln

The

Cultural

Politics

of

English as an International Language. New

York:

Longman.

Preshous,

A.

2001. 'Where you going ah?' In English Todqy 65,

Vol.

17,

No. I

January 2001.

46-53.

Tan, P. 1998.

'Malay

loanwords across different dialects of

English.'

In English Today

No.

56.

Vol.

14 October

1998.44-50.

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