The role of noun phrases in misunderstandings in Brunei English in ELF settings

Ishamina Athirah; David Deterding

doi:10.1515/jelf-2015-0021

Article

The role of noun phrases in misunderstandings in Brunei English in ELF settings

Ishamina Athirah
Ishamina Athirah is a PhD research student in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. Her research focuses on the intelligibility of Brunei English. Her previous publications include “Identification of Bruneian ethnic groups from their English pronunciation,” published in South East Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal (11: 37–45).
and David Deterding
David Deterding is a Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. His research focuses on the description of varieties of English in Southeast Asia and also the acoustic description of speech. His most recent books are Brunei English: A New Variety in a Multilingual Society (together with Salbrina Sharbawi), published by Springer, and Misunderstandings in English as a Lingua Franca: An Analysis of ELF Interactions in South-East Asia, published by Mouton de Gruyter.

Published/Copyright: August 14, 2015

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From the journal Journal of English as a Lingua Franca Volume 4 Issue 2

Abstract

Innovative usage of noun phrases is among the most widely reported features of new varieties of English throughout the world and also in discourse in ELF settings, but its effect on intelligibility has not been extensively investigated. In an attempt to remedy this, ten conversations in English between Bruneians and people from elsewhere were recorded, and a total of 153 tokens were identified in which the non-Bruneians did not understand the Bruneian speakers. In twenty of these tokens, the grammar of a noun phrase may be one factor in giving rise to the misunderstanding, involving added or absent articles, innovative use of plurals, and the unexpected gender of a pronoun. Further analysis suggests that non-standard grammar was probably the main factor in just four of these tokens, two involving an added article before a proper noun, one with a spurious -s on the end of other, and one in which she was used to refer to a male. There were many instances of non-standard grammar in noun phrases throughout the conversations, but this rarely caused a problem, which suggests that the innovative structure of noun phrases seldom impacts on the intelligibility of Brunei English in ELF settings.

Abstrak

Penggunaan inovatif frasa kata nama adalah antara ciri-ciri varieti baru Bahasa Inggeris yang paling banyak dilaporkan di seluruh dunia dan juga dalam wacana dalam konteks Bahasa Inggeris sebagai bahasa perantaraan (ELF), namun kesannya terhadap kebolehfahaman belum disiasat secara meluas. Dalam usaha untuk memperbaiki sebahagian perkara ini, 10 perbualan dalam Bahasa Inggeris diantara orang-orang Brunei dan orang asing telah dirakam, dan sebanyak 153 token telah didapati di mana orang-orang bukan rakyat Brunei tidak memahami pembicaraan orang Brunei. Dalam 20 token tersebut, tatabahasa yang digunakan dalam frasa kata nama mungkin menjadi satu faktor yang menimbulkan salah fahaman, yang melibatkan penambahan atau ketiadaan artikel, penggunaan inovatif perkataan jamak, dan pemberian jantina yang tidak dijangka kepada kata ganti. Analisis lebih lanjut menunjukkan bahawa tatabahasa yang tidak standard mungkin menjadi faktor utama dalam empat token sahaja, dua melibatkan penambahan artikel sebelum kata nama khas, satu menggunakan –s palsu pada hujung perkataan other, dan satu menggunakan kata ganti she untuk merujuk kepada seorang lelaki. Terdapat banyak contoh tatabahasa tidak standard yang digunakan dalam frasa-frasa kata nama sepanjang perbualan-perbualan, tetapi ianya jarang menyebabkan masalah. Ini mengusulkan bahawa struktur inovatif frasa kata nama jarang mempunyai kesan terhadap kebolehfahaman Inggeris Brunei dalam konteks ELF.

Keywords: misunderstandings; intelligibility; noun phrases; Brunei English

Kata kunci: salah fahaman; kebolehfahaman; frasa kata nama; Inggeris Brunei

About the authors

Ishamina Athirah

Ishamina Athirah is a PhD research student in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. Her research focuses on the intelligibility of Brunei English. Her previous publications include “Identification of Bruneian ethnic groups from their English pronunciation,” published in South East Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal (11: 37–45).

David Deterding

David Deterding is a Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. His research focuses on the description of varieties of English in Southeast Asia and also the acoustic description of speech. His most recent books are Brunei English: A New Variety in a Multilingual Society (together with Salbrina Sharbawi), published by Springer, and Misunderstandings in English as a Lingua Franca: An Analysis of ELF Interactions in South-East Asia, published by Mouton de Gruyter.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the detailed and helpful comments and suggestions made by the two reviewers.

Appendix: transcription conventions

The transcription conventions are based on those outlined in VOICE (2007), with the addition of underlined/bold font to indicate misunderstood words and italics to highlight non-standard usage that was not misunderstood.

<1>, </1>: overlapping speech
:: lengthened sounds
@: laughter
?: rising intonation
(.): short pause
<tsk>: tutting sound (alveolar click)
<spel>, </spel>: individual letters spelled out
italicised: non-standard usage that does not cause misunderstanding
underlined and bold words or phrases that are misunderstood
Ø: omitted article
…: omitted speech
k-: incomplete word
CAPS: unexpected prominence on a syllable

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Published Online: 2015-8-14

Published in Print: 2015-9-1

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2015-0021

Keywords for this article

misunderstandings; intelligibility; noun phrases; Brunei English