The functions of language mixing in the social networks of Singapore students
-
Werner Botha
Abstract
In the context of multilingualism, there is still a dearth of research on the language practices of individuals and the social factors that explain their linguistic behaviour, particularly in the Singapore context. This article discusses the dynamics underlying a particular feature of vernacular Singapore speech – language mixing – and how such mixing practices form part of the social identity of the interactions between speakers in their respective social networks. The approach to this current study was adapted from Milroy’s research on social networks (Milroy, Lesley. 1989 [1980]. Language and social networks, 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell.) in order to provide access to subjects’ most natural use of languages – that is, their “vernacular” in the Labovian sense. This study investigates various aspects of the multilingual language practices of students in Singapore and reports on the social motivations and the social contexts of language mixing in the personal lives of these speakers in the context of other languages and language varieties.
Acknowledgement
The project was facilitated by the Ministry of Education Tier 1 (AcRf) grant 2017-T1-002-128-03, for the project ‘Investigating the multilingual worlds of university students in Singapore and South Africa: A comparative study’.
Transcription key
| : | Speaker turn |
| [ ] | Speech overlap |
| . | Final |
| ? | Appeal |
| = | Lengthening |
| …(N) | Long pause |
| … | Medium pause |
| .. | Short pause |
| (H) | Audible inhalation |
| @ | Laughter |
| <Q Q> | Quotation quality |
| <X X> | Uncertain hearing |
(Adapted from Du Bois 1991)
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introducing a Varia section
- Introduction: the changing faces of transnational communities in Britain
- Living with diversity and change: intergenerational differences in language and identity in the Somali community in Britain
- “Pride” and “profit”: a sociolinguistic profile of the Chinese communities in Britain
- “Dobra polska mowa”: monoglot ideology, multilingual reality and Polish organisations in the UK
- The UK’s shifting diasporic landscape: negotiating ethnolinguistic heterogeneity in Greek complementary schools post-2010
- “Talk in Tamil!” – Does Sri Lankan Tamil onward migration from Europe influence Tamil language maintenance in the UK?
- A disavowed community: the case of new Italian migrants in London
- Language attitudes and language practices of the Lebanese community in the UK
- Varia
- The functions of language mixing in the social networks of Singapore students
- Indigenization in a downgraded continuum: Ideologies behind phonetic variation in Namibian Afrikaans
- Book Review
- Andrea C. Schalley and Susana A. Eisenchlas (eds.): Handbook of Home Language Maintenance and Development: Social and Affective Factors
