166 EXPLORATION: INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE S.P.A.S. MANIFESTO [. . .] The government (pronounced ‘gah-men’) says that we must stop using Singlish otherwise we cannot compete with ang-mors. And because of this, all our TV shows, and preferably other media as well, must stop using Singlish. But why not ask the ang-mors to learn to speak like us? What makes them so atas? Not only that, now all our shows will have these bleddy chia’h kantang drama club types that we used to hantam in school! Who wants to see? Why can’t we have shows where the actors speak like normal people? Those who argue that our shows will sell better if they are in standard English [. . .] should be reminded who their immediate audience is. What kind of message will this kind of argument send to Singaporean viewers? ‘We’re not really interested in making shows for you; what we really want is to sell overseas.’ [. . .] And what’s wrong with Singlish anyway? It’s how Singaporeans speak in casual company. If Londoners can speak Cockney or Liverpudlians can speak Scouse, why can’t we speak Singlish? [. . .] Surely we Singaporeans are not so stupid that we cannot tell the difference between the kind of language acceptable in casual settings and the kind expected in business or official correspondence. (When was the last time you used ‘lah’, ‘leh’ or ‘wah piang eh’ in a formal letter or report?) After all, the British still write grammatically despite watching programmes like Eastenders, which use colloquialisms. Are Singaporeans less sophisticated than the British? Also, why do we accept programmes from the USA, with their own deviations from standard English? Why are Americanisms acceptable, but not Singlish? [. . .] S.P.A.S. has been set up to promote art that is relevant to Singaporeans, not just propaganda! Singlish is a language that is unique to us and we should celebrate it: SAVE OUR SINGLISH! Say it, LAH! And say it proud! Society for the Preservation of Authentic Singlish (2002) Key: ang mor Hokkein for ‘red-haired monkey’, a reference to Caucasians atas Malay for ‘upstairs’, meaning snobbish or arrogant bleddy bloody chia’h kantang speaking Asian with an Western accent hantam Malay for ‘beat’ or ‘hit’ lah, leh sentence tags wah piang eh Hokkein term – loosely translates as ‘oh penis’, used in the same way as ‘oh my goodness’, ‘wow’ or ‘damn’. The main publicity vehicle for SPAS is a website intriguingly titled TalkingCock.com, founded by Singaporean journalist, screenwriter and cartoonist Colin Goh. Despite the range of sexual connotations of ‘cock’ as a slang term in other varieties of English, ‘cock’ in Singlish is not a slang term for male genitals, but instead means ‘rubbish’, ‘nonsensical’ or ‘not up to standard’. One of the main features of the Talking Cock website is online access to the Coxford Singlish Dictionary, a rather blatant pun and parody of the Oxford English Dictionary, as well as further word play on the idea of ‘Talking Cock’. The Coxford Singlish Dictionary INFLUENCING LANGUAGE 167 is also published as a paperback book. Whilst a primary motivation was for a satirical publication to demonstrate the linguistic creativity and originality of Singlish, it also simultaneously functions as an example of textual preservation and thus codification of Singlish, though not with the prestige of a real ‘Oxford’ dictionary version! Singlish speakers are encouraged to add their own entries to the online dictionary to enhance the lexicon of Singlish, so there is a sense of collective ownership of this ongoing codification process. Like traditional, mainstream dictionaries such as the OED, the Coxford version does attempt to document the etymology of a lexeme’s origins. For instance, the Coxford authors speculate that ‘cock’ and the popular Singlish phrase ‘talking cock’ may have its origins in the terms ‘cock and bull’ and ‘poppycock’ from British English. The Dictionary has the following advertising slogan: Buy the Coxford Singlish Dictionary, before the gahmen bans it! This text is accompanied by a comedic-looking cartoon cockerel brandishing a loud- speaker. As in the manifesto above, we can observe the use of eye dialect here as a technique to represent the Singlish pronunciation of government. Eye dialect is fre- quently used within the dictionary to denote Singlish pronunciations. In the dictionary’s introduction, the editor-in-chief (presumably Colin Goh) refers to himself via the spoof satirical job title of ‘Supreme Cock’ employed at ‘Coxford University’. He provides the following summary of why speakers feel a great sense of identity and language loyalty through Singlish: Singlish is unique to Singapore . . . contrary to popular belief, it is not merely badly spoken English. There is a conscious art in Singlish, a level of ingenious and humorous wordplay . . . Singlish is to be celebrated as a cultural phenomenon, not buried, as some misguided people have been trying to do. (Supreme Cock 2002: x) World Englishes and the mass media Materials from the mass media provide a plethora of sources of English language data for students and researchers to analyse and World Englishes is no exception to this. The majority of World Englishes research on the mass media to date tends to focus either upon news broadcasting (TV, radio and written media) or the language of adver- tising, as reported by Elizabeth Martin (2006). She also draws attention to other fruitful sources that have yet to be examined from a global World Englishes perspective, including the film and music industry, along with text messages, email, chat room discourse and music download technology. In particular reference to the film industry, the dominance of Hollywood and the negative portrayal of characters who speak non-standard English from the inner, outer and expanding circles is worthy of investigation. Focusing on an example from the outer circle, Tej Bhatia (2001) has examined how Indian English speakers and the Hindu religion are frequently negatively portrayed in Hollywood blockbuster films such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Bhatia and Martin both draw attention to the international success of the Bollywood film industry as one answer to this. In the recent Bollywood film Monsoon Activity 10.2 J 168 EXPLORATION: INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE Wedding (2001), Martin (2006: 588) reports that director Mira Nair stated her aim for the film’s dialogue to be the appropriate mixture of Indian English, Hindi and Punjabi ‘to imitate as closely as possible the language mixing that occurs in everyday life’. Singapore Dreaming (2006) is another outer circle film, produced solely by the Singaporean film industry. It was co-written by Colin Goh, founder of Talking Cock.com, and Woo Yen Yen. Like Monsoon Wedding, they aimed for their dialogue to reflect the authentic language used in everyday, real life. This includes a mixture of Singlish, Singaporean English, Hokkien, Malay and Mandarin. This aim for authenticity was far from positively evaluated by the Singaporean authorities, who banned the official trailer for its code-switching and ‘promotion’ of ‘non-standard’ language through the inclusion of Singlish and Hokkien. Script writers’ language variety selections can be very revealing in terms of inves- tigating individual and cultural identities and stereotypes through language usage. The following is an oft-cited quotation from sociolinguist Rosina Lippi-Green: Film uses language variation and accent to draw character quickly, building on estab- lished preconceived notions associated with specific regional loyalties, ethnic, racial or economic alliances. (Lippi-Green 1997: 81) With this quotation in mind, consider the portrayals of film characters based upon the varieties of English they speak. What does this reveal in terms of attitudes towards these varieties of English? Use the following as starting points and also come up with your own examples: q The Star Wars series q The Lord of the Rings films q The Indiana Jones series q Walt Disney films q James Bond films q East is East q Bend it like Beckham q The Color Purple q Monsoon Wedding q Singapore Dreaming World of advertising World Englishes researcher Tej Bhatia draws specific attention to Guy Cook’s work on advertising discourse (an extract of which appears in D5), and places it within Kachru’s circles model as a successful example of advertising analysis within the inner circle. He then observes that, since the 1980s, advertising research has also begun to enter the outer and expanding circles. One area of advertising language which Bhatia focuses on is product names. He draws attention to the dominance of inner circle names, particularly from the United States and UK, such as Coke and Pepsi, over varieties in other circles. Even in non- English-speaking locations, product names are very frequently given in English. Bhatia cites the examples of soap names in rural India, where knowledge of English Activity 10.3 J INFLUENCING LANGUAGE 169 is minimal – products including Palmolive and Ponds go only by their English names. Similar trends with a range of products can also be observed in Pakistan, Russia and in parts of Europe. Within rural markets in developing countries, Coke and Pepsi have both been adopted in local, non-Western forms of advertising by painting on walls and other objects. Bhatia reports that when rocks in the Himalayas were recently painted with Pepsi and Coke ads, environmental groups filed law suits against both companies for conservation violation. Bhatia (2006: 614) also points to occasions when slogans and names have not been translated properly, or when connotations have been missed: q Scandinavian company Electrolux’s slogan launched in the United States ‘Nothing sucks like an Electrolux’, where the advertising producers were clearly unaware of the pejorative connotations of ‘sucks’ in American English. q Japanese drink products ‘Calpis Water’ and ‘Pocari Sweat’. q A ‘Sex Shop’ in China is a perfectly legal, legitimate shop selling herbal teas and other health food products. A one-size-fits-all model clearly is not applicable for World Englishes advertising, and there are delicate cultural sensitivities that need to be taken into account by translators to guard against these problems. The photographs below were all taken in Hong Kong in 2008. In Figure C10.1, on the right hand side the global English acronym KFC for the United States fast-food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken can be seen, along with multiple images of the global iconic cartoon image of its founder Colonel Sanders. Directly below the larger KFC signs is the global English 7 Eleven convenience store logo. 7 Eleven is currently the world’s largest convenience chain, again originating in the Figure C10.1 Hong Kong street scene 170 EXPLORATION: INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE United States. The other advertising signs that sit right alongside these are in Chinese. The shop to the left of the bilingually marked ‘Police’ van is Maxim’s ‘Western style’ cakes. The two rectangular signs hanging high in the background are adverts for an estate agent, on the left, and on the right for a well-known Hong Kong food chain, translating as the ‘Little Fat Calf ’ Hot-Pot Restaurant. Figure C10.2 illustrates bilingualism on an individual advertising sign (as well as how this bilingualism operates officially on all street names and road signs). The adver- tising sign in Figure C10.3 is for the Bank of East Asia and represents mixing within the same sign, with English utilised for the bank’s acronym, followed by Chinese script directly below. These three photographs represent typical street views for product advertising and reflect the various bilingual natures of street advertising in Hong Kong, 11 years after the ‘handover’ to China. q Collect examples of advertising language in the local region where you live. q Try and find as many examples as you can that are specific to that region. q Compare these with global examples (global English product names can be checked online). Also look for examples where English is mixed with other varieties. For example, consider the use of Italian drink sizes in Starbucks: you might compare the terms used by different coffee chains. q Assess why you think advertisers and retailers have chosen to adopt these strategies and consider how effective they are in promoting their products/ services. Figure C10.2 Hong Kong hoarding EXPLORING LITERATURE 171 EXPLORING LITERATURE The first five threads in this book provide a grounding in phonology (strand 1: A1, B1, C1, D1), lexicology (strand 2), semantics and pragmatics (3), syntax (4) and dis- course analysis (5). This coverage of the linguistic rank-structure provides you with the basic tools to do stylistics: all you need to do is explore a literary text along one of these dimensions to reveal how the mechanics of the text works. Rather than offering further examples of full stylistic analyses in this unit, we suggest several literary texts below that you might investigate using the tools you have collected from elsewhere in this book. Remember though, in each case, that identifying, labelling and describing the language of the literary text is only the first step; in order to produce a proper stylistic account, you also need to connect your observations and evidence with a literary critical argument and interpretation. Also, though we have provided each text under a heading of a linguistic level, this is only because we think that this points to the dominant and foregrounded feature Figure C10.3 Bank of East Asia street sign C11 . 2002: x) World Englishes and the mass media Materials from the mass media provide a plethora of sources of English language data for students and researchers to analyse and World Englishes is no. INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE Wedding (2001), Martin (2006: 588) reports that director Mira Nair stated her aim for the film’s dialogue to be the appropriate mixture of Indian English, Hindi. circles. Even in non- English- speaking locations, product names are very frequently given in English. Bhatia cites the examples of soap names in rural India, where knowledge of English Activity 10.3 J INFLUENCING