The Functions Of Discourse Particles English Language Essay

The intentions Of intercourse Particles slope Language EssayAccording to Loraine K. Obler and Kris Gjerlow (Language and the Brain,1999, pp. 131-132), many bilinguals, in addition to speaking two or more actors lines fluently, gift might to employ elements of both languages when speaking with a nonher bilingual and this is don as enactment- substitution and it is g everyplacened by internalized rules. Code-switching is a very normal phenomenon in many split of the world and mavin has always to take into account the distinction between, on the ace hand, community (or national) and the early(a) individual bilingualism and multilingualism and they be non requisite closely related. (Pride, The Social Meaning of Language, 1971, p. 26) in that respect argon many types of code-switching such as tag switching, intrasentential switching and intersentential switching.Kamisah Ariffin and Shameem Rafik Galea (Code Switching as a Communication Device in Conversation) found that t heir subjects employ code switching as a officel communication strategy. The strategies they employed be signalling social relationships and language preferences, obviating difficulties, framing discourse, contrasting soulalisation and objectification, conveying cultural-expressive message, dramatising key words, glum language barriers, importanttaining appropriateness of context, specifying membership and affiliation with others and reinterring messages.What is Malaysian English?Malaysian English or more leafy vegetablely jazzn as Manglish, is the colloquial version of English spoken in Malaysia and it is convertible to Singlish, which is capital of capital of Singapore English. While Bahasa Malaysia is the national language, English is still widely utilise and is the stand by language in Malaysia. Many Malay words be creation introduced into Manglish. The most commonalty example is suffixing a blame with the - atomic number 57 particle which does non have any speci fic meaning on the sentence. Besides the bow of Bahasa Malaysia, there ar also influence from other languages and dialects like Mandarin, Hokkien, Cant matchlessse and Tamil in Malaysian English.Language as Social SemioticHalliday (1973, 1985) proposed a systemic, kneadal view of language which sees it in the social lick it serves. He believes that language is a systematic resource for expressing meaning in context, not the set of all possible grammatical sentences. (Jordan, Theory Construction in Second Language Acquisition, 2004, p.6) He believes that there atomic number 18 two main functions of language which are ideational function and the interpersonal function. Ideational function allows people to deal with their ideas, perspectives and tinctureings on a particular subject whereas interpersonal function allows people to deal with each other. He believes that the social function of the languages is more important than the grammatical aspects of the languages. For example, a person may not be able to construct a grammatically correct sentence barely he/she is able to convey their idea efficaciously and is graspable by others.Communication Accommodation TheoryAccording to Howard Giles and Peter F. Powesland, accommodation through speech can be regarded as an attempt on the part of a speaker to modify or disguise his persona in order to make it more acceptable to the person addressed. (Speech musical mode and Social Evaluation, 1975, p. 158) When we speak to people from different age, status, culture, etc, we angle to switch to a mode which the person we are speaking to is comfortable in. For example, when speaking to babies, we consort to physical exertion simpler words and shorter sentences and this is called baby talk. On the other hand, when speaking to a professor, we go to switch to a formal language and use jargons in the field that we specialise in.Maya Khemlani David (Tolerance and Communication in Multi-ethnic Malaysia) found that th e particles lah and meh are use in unceremonious settings to signify emphasis on something or to soften a speech act like requests. The data collected from her interrogation found that even though the Chinese students in that particular school are proficient in English, they tend to code switch for many causas such as to emphasis, to quote someone else, for distancing or making a formal complaint and to signify solidarity with members of their group. Hence, she concluded that her findings show that people from other ethnic groups beseem and switch to a language they are comfortable in when communicating with each other.It is very common for us to use the particles lah, ah, mah, etc in our daily life because we are so apply to them and we often use them in our daily conversation. These particles only last in Malaysian English and Singapore English. However, what are the functions of these particles? Hence, this paper is acquittance to examine the functions of these particles in a conversation.MethodA 15 second gear of arc conversation was showed and transcribed. The conversation was among four ladies aged 24 and they are all university graduates. They are proficient in English and Bahasa Malaysia. Besides that, they are also proficient in their become tongue. The reason this conversation is utilise is because it was a casual conversation among them. Casual conversation is chosen over formal interviews because we tend to switch to a formal language when we are in a formal setting. Hence, the leave alone of the study will not be accurate because in standard English, we do not use the particles. These particles only exist in casual conversations because there is a require for the speakers to accommodate with each other.The transcription was analysed for the discourse particles used through knocked out(p) the 15 minute conversation.Results and DiscussionParticleNumber of timesExamplesAh18You bear where ah?Your father drive ah?Three or four ah.Aiyah1 AiyahHaiya1Haiya, meet now we talked more or less Patricias video, we should record mah.Haiyo2Yea lah, haiyo.Haiyo, that one another big story lah.Hor3Just now he came horThen hor, he eat a lot you distinguish lah37Just say lah.I think is last minute work lah.Its always like that one lah.Leh2I dont know leh.The clutch is like, dont know lehLor4Two lor got subtitle.The second day one ok lor, senyap lor.Mah6Lagi syok mah.Orang Teluk Intan mah ok lah.They should remark mah they give one weekWei1What are you doing wei?Wor4Eh, so nice wor Pangkor.Cantik wor tempat tu.I forgotten already wor.From the transcription, 12 particles were identified, namely ah, aiyah, haiya, haiyo, hor, lah, leh, lor, mah, wei, and wor. Based on the result we can see that the particle lah is the most frequently used particle followed by ah, mah, wor, loh, hor, leh, haiyo, aiyah, wei and haiya. Most of the particles derived from Chinese expressions like mah, wor, lor, hor, leh, haiyo, aiyah, wei and haiya. On the other hand, particle lah derived from Malay expression.The results show that the particles can be dissever into five categories according to their functions which are asking a question, affirming a statement, expressing disappointment, explaining something and expressing uncertainty.FunctionParticlesAsking a questionAh, weiAffirming a statementAh, lah, mahExpressing disappointmentAiyah, haiya, haiyoExplaining somethingHor, wor form the obviousLorExpressing uncertaintyLehParticle ah which is a common expression in Chinese, functions as filler or breaking points and it is used to bring out a question force like No point component part friends who are not interested, do you agree with that, ah? (Mohan K. Muniandy et al, 2010) The data collected shows that the subjects tend to attach the particle ah and wei in their questions like Your father drive ah? and What are you doing wei? Besides that, the data also shows that particle ah is used when the speaker affirms a statement li ke Three or four ah.Particle lah derived from colloquial Malay and they have various functions. For example, they are used in declarative sentences whose functions may be termed informational, which is to say the speakers purpose is to let the addressee know something like Aku ada appointment lah. (Goddard, 1994) This particle lah is now common feature of colloquial Malaysian or Singapore English and they are used widely in conversations. From the data collected, we can see that the speakers used the particle lah when they are affirming a statement like I think is last minute work lah. The speaker was arduous to assort her addressee that she feels that the problem caused was due to last minute work.Particle mah derived from Chinese and it has similar function with lah that is to affirm a statement like They should mention mah they give one week which means that if the person addressed in the conversation is given one week to settle something, she should be advised earlier by the relevant authorities.Particles aiyah, haiya and haiyo have the same function, which is to express disappointment. For example, Haiya, just now we talked about Patricias video, we should record mah shows that the speaker is expressing disappointment because she did not record their conversation on her friends video clip. A browse into Urban vocabulary shows that the expression aiyah originates from the Cantonese expression of disappointment or displeasure when something bad or wrong happens.Wee (2002) noted that Cantonese has a particle lo which shows some similarities with Singapore English lor. Hence, particle lor might originate from Cantonese. There are legion(predicate) functions of particle lor but according to the examples from the transcription, particle lor was uttered when the speaker was essay to explaining something that is obvious to the other speakers. For example, Two lor got subtitle. Hence, lor in this example is to stress the obvious. (Wee, 2002)When explaining s omething, the subjects tend to use particles hor and wor like I forgotten already wor. The speaker is trying to explain that she has forgotten the important information when she was asked about something.Particle leh was used when the subjects was explaining uncertainty. It is also originate from Cantonese. For example, one of the subjects uttered I dont know leh when she was asked about something because she was uncertain on what is happening or how to answer the question asked. closureWe can observe that most of the sentences uttered by the subjects were not grammatically correct. However, according to Halliday, the meanings conveyed in the utterances were more important than the grammatical aspect of it.There are numerous reasons why the subjects code switch to the particles when conversing in an informal situation. The main reason lies in the Communication Accommodation Theory whereby the subjects accommodate with each other by using the particles in the sentences they utter and this is cognize as convergence accommodation. This is because, they are from different ethnicity and have different mother tongue, so they need a common language to communicate effectively and Malaysian English is chosen over Standard English because they are comfortable communicating in Malaysian English.From the data collected, we can observe that most of the particles derived from Chinese, specifically the Cantonese dialect and also from Bahasa Malaysia. Two of the subjects are Indians but they do not use any particles that originated from Tamil. One possible reason is that these particles are widely used in their community hence they picked up these particles and use them in their conversation to add a better feel towards the subject they are talking about.There are limited research studies regarding to the use of the particles in Malaysian English. Not much research has been through with(p) to identify the functions of the particles in our Malaysian context. There is a need to have research studies that can identify origins and functions of the particles correctly. There are also questions odd unanswered in this topic like how does a person know what particle to use when conversing? As mentioned above, most of the particles originate from the Cantonese dialect, so, how does a person from a different ethnicity understand and know what particle to use when he/she communicates with other people?