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最終更新時間: 2024-04-26 08:56

2023-11-11 Sat

#5311. 用語辞典でみる diglossia (2) [terminology][diglossia][bilingualism][sociolinguistics][hel_education][singapore_english][world_englishes]

 「#5306. 用語辞典でみる diglossia (1)」 ([2023-11-06-1]) に引き続き,diglossia (二言語変種使い分け)を理解するために別の用語辞典に当たってみよう.今回は McArthur の用語辞典より当該項目 (312--13) を読む.

DIGLOSSIA [1958: a Latinization of French diglossie, from Greek díglōssos with two tongues: first used in English by Charles Ferguson]. A term in sociolinguistics for the use of two or more varieties of language for different purposes in the same community. The varieties are called H and L, the first being generally a standard variety used for 'high' purposes and the second often a 'low' spoken vernacular. In Egypt, classical Arabic is H and local colloquial Arabic is L. The most important hallmark of diglossia is specialization, H being appropriate in one set of situations, L in another: reading a newspaper aloud in H, but discussing its contents in L. Functions generally reserved for H include sermons, political speeches, university lectures, and news broadcasts, while those reserved for L include everyday conversations, instructions to servants, and folk literature.
   The varieties differ not only in grammar, phonology, and vocabulary, but also with respect to function, prestige, literary heritage, acquisition, standardization, and stability. L is typically acquired at home as a mother tongue and continues to be so used throughout life. Its main uses are familial and familiar. H, on the other hand, is learned through schooling and never at home. The separate domains in which H and L are acquired provide them with separate systems of support. Diglossic societies are marked not only by this compartmentalization of varieties, but also by restriction of access, especially to H. Entry to formal institutions such as school and government requires knowledge of H. In England, from medieval times until the 18c, Latin played an H role while English was L; in Scotland, 17--20c, the H role has usually been played by local standard English, the L role by varieties of Scots. In some English-speaking Caribbean and West African countries, the H role is played by local standard English, the L role by English-based creoles in the Caribbean and vernacular languages and English-based creoles in West Africa.
   The extent to which these functions are compartmentalized can be illustrated by the importance attached by community members to using the right variety in the appropriate context. An outsider who learns to speak L and then uses it in a formal speech risks being ridiculed. Members of a community generally regard H as superior to L in a number of respects; in some cases, H is regarded as the only 'real' version of a particular language, to the extent that people claim they do not speak L at all. Sometimes, the alleged superiority is avowed for religious and/or literary reasons: the fact that classical Arabic is the language of the Qur'ān endows it with special significance, as the language of the King James Bible, created in England, recommended itself to Scots as high religious style. In other cases, a long literary and scriptural tradition backs the H variety, as with Sanskrit in India. There is also a strong tradition of formal grammatical study and standardization associated with H varieties: for example, Latin and 'school' English.
   Since the term's first use in English, it has been extended to cases where the varieties in question do not belong to the same language (such as Spanish and Guaraní in Paraguay), as well as cases where more than two varieties or languages participate in such a relationship (French, classical Arabic, and colloquial Arabic in triglossic distribution in Tunisia, with French and classical Arabic sharing H functions). The term polyglossia (a state of many tongues) has been used to refer to cases such as Singapore, where Cantonese, English, Malay, and Tamil coexist in a functional relationship.


 詳しく突っ込んだ解説になっていると思う.まず,diglossia について,同一言語の異なる2変種の関係という狭い理解ではなく,異なる2言語の関係という広い理解のほうを前提としている点が注目される.つまり,最初から Fishman 寄りの解釈で diglossia を捉えている.
 また,McArthur は英語学の事典ということもあり,英語史や世界英語からの diglossia の事例をよく紹介している.
 さらに,シンガポール英語 (singapore_english) における polyglossia へも言及しており,diglossia の話題を拡げる方向の議論となっている.

 ・ McArthur, Tom, ed. The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford: OUP, 1992.

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2021-11-20 Sat

#4590. World Englishes のサンプル [world_englishes][variety][scots_english][tok_pisin][pidgin][creole][aave][south_africa][nigeria][singapore_english]

 本日11月20日(土)の 13:00?14:30 に,立命館大学国際言語文化研究所の主催する「国際英語文化の多様性に関する学際研究」プロジェクトの一環として「世界の "English" から "Englishes" の世界へ」のタイトルでお話しさせていただきます(立命館大学の岡本広毅先生,これまでのご準備等,ありがとうございます).Zoom による参加も可能ですので,ご関心のある方はこちらの案内をご覧ください.
 また,今朝すでにアップした私の音声ブログ Voicy の番組 「英語の語源が身につくラジオ (heldio)」 では,「立命館大学,岡本広毅先生との対談:国際英語とは何か?」と題する対談を行なっていますので,そちらもぜひ聴いてみてください.
 さて,"World Englishes" に関する講演ということで,本日のブログ記事としても世界の様々な英語のサンプルを示したいと思います.ただし "Englishes" の多様性を示すために部分を切り抜いたランダムなサンプルを挙げるにすぎませんので,その点はご了承を.本日の講演では,以下の例を用いて話し始めたいと思っています.よろしくどうぞ.

・ Northern English (Yorkshire): B. Hines, Kes (1968) [qtd. in Gramley 198]

Hey up, where's tha been? They've been looking all over for thee.


・ Scots Leid: Aboot William Loughton Lorimer (2009) [qtd. in Gramley 201]

Lorimer haed aye been interestit in the Scots leid (syne he wis a bairn o nine year auld he haed written doun Scots wirds an eedioms) an his kennin o the strauchles o minority leids that he got frae his readins o the nautral press durin the Weir led him tae feel that something needit daein tae rescue the Scots laid.


・ Tok Pisin: from Mühlhäusler (1986) [qtd. in Gramley 223]

em i tok se papa i gat sik ["he said that the father was sick"]


・ Hawaiian Creole English: from Bickerton (1981) [qtd. in Gramley 226]

Jan bin go wok a hospital ["John would have worked at the hospital"]


・ Jamaican Creole: "William Saves His Sweetheart" [qtd. in Gramley 238]

nóu wants dér wáz, a úol wíč liedi lív, had wán són, níem av wiljəm. ["Once upon a time there was an old witch, who had a son whose name was William."]


・ AAVE (= African American Vernacular English): A. Walker, The Color Purple (1982) [qtd. in Gramley 269]

I seen my baby girl. I knowed it was her. She look just like me and my daddy.


・ Cape Flats SAfE: Malan (1996) [qtd. in Gramley 300]

Now me and E. speaks English. And when we went one day to a workshop --- and uh, most of the teachers there were Africaans --- and we were there; they were looking at us like that you know. And I asked E., "Why's this people staring at us?" She said, "No, I don't know."


・ Nigerian English: "Igbo Girls Like Money a Lot" (2006) (qted. in Gramley 319)

Igbo girls are hardworking, smart, successful and independent so ain't nuffin wrong in them lookin for a hardoworkin, successful man. if u ain't gats the money, they aint gon want u cos u below their level of achievement.


・ Hong Kong English: Joseph (2004) [qtd. in Gramley 321]

However, as Hong Kong is going through an economic down turn recently, we shall have to see. . . Last year we have raised more than two million Hong Kong Dollars.


・ Singapore English [qtd. in Gramley 328]

The tans [= military unit] use to stay in Sarangoon.


 ・ Gramley, Stephan. The History of English: An Introduction. Abingdon: Routledge, 2012.

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2018-03-11 Sun

#3240. Singapore English における used to (過去)ならぬ use to (現在) [singapore_english][auxiliary_verb][corpus][ice]

 「#735. なぜ助動詞 used to に現在形がないか」 ([2011-05-02-1]) の記事で,「?したものだった」を意味する used to という過去の助動詞がありながら,なぜ「(現在)?する習慣がある」ほどを意味する現在の助動詞 use to がないのかについて考えた.そこでは,use to は実際のところ歴史的には文証されるのだが,現在までに廃用となったと述べた.
 しかし,Milroy and Milroy (89) に次のような言及を見つけ,へぇーと感じた.

One syntactic feature which is very characteristic of Singaporean English and appears to be gaining currency, even in written varieties, is the expression use to as a mark of habitual aspect. Thus, all Europeans use to go there is glossed as 'Europeans commonly go there'.


 ということで,「#518. Singapore English のキーワードを抽出」 ([2010-09-27-1]) で利用した Singapore English のコーパス (ICE-SIN) で調べてみたら,2例のみではあるが,関係する例文が見つかった.1つめの例は,Singlish の使用について複数の話者が討論している文脈からの例である.どのような場面で Singlish を用いるかという話題のなかで,話者 B が「(Singlish を)話すのが普通という時と場所があると思う」と述べている.

C: There are many informal situations in the home where Singlish is used. You see I feel very much that this discussion is kind of passe really is uh we're we're being a bit old-fashioned here in discussing discussing Singlish in the first place
B: No I think there's a time and place where I use to speak
D: There is a time and place precisely


 もう1つの例文は,"Fortunately for me, nice and satisfied clients use to write me complimentary letters." である.前後の文脈が現在・習慣を表わすものであることは確認済みであり,過去の used to の発音・綴字上の代用としての use to ではない.
 なお,同コーパスでは,当然のことながら過去の used to の例も数多くヒットする.

 ・ Milroy, Lesley and James Milroy. Authority in Language: Investigating Language Prescription and Standardisation. 4th ed. London and New York: Routledge, 2012.

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2010-09-27 Mon

#518. Singapore English のキーワードを抽出 [text_tool][corpus][flob][ice][singapore_english][keyword]

 昨日の記事[2010-09-26-1]ICE ( International Corpus of English ) からいくつかの英語地域変種コーパスが手に入る旨を紹介したが,そのなかから Singapore English のコーパス ( ICE-SIN ) を少しいじってみた.
 [2010-03-10-1]の記事で WordSmith の KeyWords 抽出機能を拙著の英文で試したが,今回は ICE-SIN で同様に試してみるとどうなるだろうかと思った.そこで今回も,1990年代初頭のイギリス英語を対象に編纂された比較可能な FLOB corpus ( see [2010-06-29-1] ) を参照コーパスとし,British English に照らして Singapore English に特徴的な語(=キーワード)を抽出してみた.キーワード性の高い上位20語について,WordSmith に出力された表を掲げよう(上位100語までのリストはこのページのHTMLソースを参照).

nwordice-sin.freq.ice-sin.lst %flob.freq.flob.lst %keyness
1uh8,2300.748 19,246.0
2you18,1751.647,2580.2917,768.5
3uhm3,8380.350 9,021.1
4ya3,5800.3210 8,283.9
5i15,1661.3712,2300.497,051.3
6singapore3,0410.2764 6,570.0
7word3,4900.324820.025,621.8
8know4,7680.431,5340.065,345.5
9okay2,2960.2128 5,112.0
10so6,7590.614,4520.184,113.8
11lah1,7470.162 4,074.4
12it's3,5850.321,1860.053,949.9
13your3,4850.311,6420.072,972.2
14oh1,9520.183440.012,900.2
15think2,7610.251,2080.052,501.5
16ah1,2880.12142 2,204.9
17we5,8840.535,4060.222,190.7
18is15,0221.3620,5880.832,027.9
19don't2,3720.211,1960.051,904.9
20what4,6350.424,0720.161,865.8


 上位リストを眺めていたら2つの特徴が浮かんできた.

(1) 当然ながら Singapore English としばしば結びつけられる表現が上位に食い込んでいる.例えば,11位の lah は日本語でいう終助詞「ね」「よ」や間投詞のような働きをする pragmatic marker で,Singapore (and Malaysian) English らしい表現として知られている.しかし,やはり局地的な表現だからか手元の英語辞書にはほとんど掲載されておらず,唯一 Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, 2nd ed. で次のような説明があった.

adverb INFORMAL
used by people in Malaysia and Singapore for making something they are saying sound more friendly and informal


 例文を挙げるには,ICE-SIN から直接拾ってくると早い.会話文ではもちろんのこと,次のような親しい手紙文でも使われている.

Anyway, life is getting colder here. Hottest degree - 16 degrees celcius, coldest so far is 8oc. Brr..rr!! I'm wearing 3 to 4 layers now, like I did in England. So heavy one lah! Get back ache, you know!


 ほかには,Singapore が6位に入っていたり,dollar(s), Chinese, Singaporeans, Malay などが上位100語以内に入っている.

(2) lah の頻度の高さとも関係するが,口語性の高い語,会話で頻出すると考えられる語が目立つ.直示性を表わす人称代名詞や副詞,また語調を和らげる語 ( hedge ) が特に多い.広く語用論的な機能をもつ語群としてまとめてよいかもしれない.もっとも話し言葉と結びつけられるキーワードが多いことは予想されたことではある.書き言葉は標準に準拠しやすく,地域変種間の差が少ないのが普通だからである.とりわけ話し言葉に地域変種の差が出やすいということが,今回のキーワード抽出で確かめられたということだろう.

 今回のようなキーワード抽出は,もちろん他の地域変種にも応用できる.参照コーパスをイギリス英語以外に動かして相対的に各変種の特徴をみるというのもおもしろそうだ.

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