Seminars 1 and 2 (Graduation theses, short
theses and research papers)
Table of contents
FOREWORD
Seminar 2 GRADUATION THESES
* A Connection between World Wide English and the Internet World (Shinya Iseri)
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (Erika Horigami)
Australian English Through Online Newspapers (Megumi Nambu)
The Full Monty: social features and English features (Miwa Tamba)
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation (Ayami
Murakami)
Seminar 2 Short Paper
Chinook Jargon (Yumi Kitano)
Seminar 1 Short Papers
Animal Proverbs in Japanese and English (Yuki Kataino)
Animal Symbolism (Junko Morikawa)
Early English Education (Michiko Hayashida)
Italian and English (Asako Uenishi)
Superstitions around the World (Sayuri Araki)
Honorific Expressions in English (Yumi Hashimoto)
Japanese English Pronunciation (Sawako Kamizato)
Japanese and English Rhythm (Fumiko Takiguchi)
How did English turn into an International Language? (Rena Kawamura)
Baseball Vocabulary in English and Japanese (Koji Yasui)
English in Trainspotting (Noriko Inakazu)
Research Student Special Paper
Hong Kong English Education (Zhao Qi Yun)
FOREWORD
GRADUATION THESES
* A Connection between World Wide English and the Internet World (Shinya Iseri)
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (Erika Horigami)
Australian English Through Online Newspapers (Megumi Nambu)
The Full Monty: social features and English features (Miwa Tamba)
Seminar 2 Short Paper
Chinook Jargon (Yumi Kitano)
A Connection between World Wide English and the Internet World
BY
Shinya Iseri
A GRADUATION THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF FOREIGN STUDIES
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
BACHELOR OF ARTS
IN ENGLISH STUDIES
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
Dec. 17, 2002
This dissertation consists of approx. 3600 words
Contents
I.
Introduction
II.
World Wide English
English and other languages
The beginning of English diffusion
From world war 2 to now
Future of English
Three types of English speakers
English of the Native speakers
English of the Non-Native speakers
The number of English speaker and the countries
III.
Digital Divide
The beginning and present situation of Internet world
Available or Unavailable countries
The Least Developed Countries
LDCs and development countries in Africa
IV.
A connection between English and Internet
Language in Internet
English Advantage in African Internet
V.
Conclusion
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
Abstract
今や世界中で共通語として使われている英語は、おそらくその地位を揺るが
すことなく拡大を続けていくだろう。このことは、現在の英語教育を見ると分かることである。
また同じように、デジタル化（パーソナルコンピュータの普及）も世界規模で広がっていく
ことは周知の事実である。
一見、英語の拡大とデジタル化の間には何も共通点はないように見えるが、パーソナ
ルコンピュータのほとんどは WWW(World Wide Web)、Word、Windows などにみられ
るように、英語を使って表現するものがほとんどであり、ホームページなどは世界中で作ら
れている８割が英語で書かれているものである。
このようにしてみると、デジタル化の発展は英語の拡大とかかわりを持つと考えることが
できるであろう。
しかし、今や全世界で数億人もの人々が利用しているインターネットであるが、それは
経済が豊かで文化の発達した国々の人々にのみいえることである。最貧国にあげられる
４９の国々や経済的に苦しい発展途上国に関しては、パソコンの使用頻度が０に近い
国々もある。このことが世界を２極化し、Digital Divide というパソコンが使えるか否かで世
界を２つに分けられる現象が起き、それが情報格差を起こして、貧富の差を拡大してきて
いる。
それでは、はたしてこのことがこれからの英語の拡大に何をもたらすのであろうか。
英語が世界的に普及し始めた時代をさかのぼって、現在に至るまでの２つの
係わり合いを調べたいと思う。
I．Introduction
English is a World Wide language now, and it will expand more and more in
the future. The Digital World will expand rapidly too. It seems that those expansions
have similarities and connections somewhere.
English expansion is leading to the unification of people all over the worl. It
7/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
will make countries’ relationships closer. English began to be viewed as an
international language in the last quarter a century.
Similarly the Digital World expansion is said to unify people all over the world
like the English language.
We can get a lot of information on the internet now and we can know
everything we want to know. However people who live in countries with slow
economies can not use it easily, because of lack of a personal computer or other
digital device.
These economic differences bring about “Digital Divide”. It means the division
between being able to use the internet or not, and is the difference between
advanced countries and developing countries.
This paper talk about present conditions, and influence in the future of
English language in the Digital Divide.
I.
World Wide English
What do we speak English for? Why should we learn English in school? I
sometimes think about these questions. Because we can live without speaking
English in routine life in Japan and we merely use English instead of Japanese
language. Perhaps this is the true for most Japanese.
Is it necessary for everyone to learn English? It seems that it depends on
their life style. If someone wants to communicate with English speakers or travel to
8/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
places which use English, they should study English. But some people, who don’t
want to do such a thing, don’t need to study English.
English is taught as an international language or second public language in a
lot of countries schools now. We have to study English whatever we want to or not.
How did English become an international language, and how necessary is it
to study English for most people.
English and other languages
There are about 3~5 thousand languages in the world. Chinese is the most
spoken. It is spoken by more than a billion people in China alone. However, the
most important language of the world is English. That’s because English is used as
an international language in a lot of countries. Spanish, Russian, Portuguese,
German, and French have also more than fifty million speakers each as a non –
native language, but English is used most in the world.
There are two reasons to expand the understanding of some languages like
English. First, it depends on political development, military development, science
and technology, as way as economic power, which language is spoken in each
country. This is probably most important reason. Another reason is the language’s
features. It is based on a simple words or grammar instead of being complicated.
The English language has both aspects.
9/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
The beginning of English diffusion
The beginning of English diffusion can be divided into two big events in the
world. It occurred in U.K. in the latter half of the 19th century. It didn’t depend on the
characteristics of the language, but on the British imperialistic strategy at the time.
British colonization expanded greatly then. It showed the British culture and
language to a lot of countries. They are the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
Union of South Africa, East Africa and South Asia. And next, it occurred after World
War 2. The American military, political, economic and scientific power made
English an important international language in all over the world.
From World War 2 to the present
As globalization spreads, the world uses English more and more. English
has become an international language as a lingua franca since the last quarter of
the 20th century by the U.S.’s superpower status. English has became the
language of world politics, international trade and finance, global communication,
sports and leisure, the Internet, and the international scientific community. English
is used in more than half of the world’s science journals.
In those fields, one of the most important developments lately was the
Internet. You can communicate with anybody through the Internet. You can study
anything on the World Wide Web without a lot of books and a dictionary.
10/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
Future of English
It is predicted that half of the world’s population will speak English by 2050.
This prediction is not just an expectation. Most publications have stood by this
prediction about the future of English. They said that “English might in time become
the one generally accepted international language ------- yield primacy to English
are formidable barriers.” (The Encyclopedia, Americana, International Edition, 1989,
p.426), and “it is predicted that by 2050 half of the world’s population will be
competent in English. It is this phenomenal rise of English that now influences
everything in the field of languages.” (English today 71, Columbia University Press,
July 2002, Volume 18). Almost all publications say that English language will grow
in the future. It is impossible to predict exactly what will happen, but this is already
happening.
At first, American economic power will not be easy to break, so American
culture and language will continue to expand all over the world. The power of the
European Union is important too. The EURO was issued in 1999, and it’s use has
been promoted rapidly. English is spoken by many members as an international
language there. English will become the lingua franca in the next few years.
Already 75% of EU school children are learning English.
In
this way, English
will become
the
language for international
communication in all European Countries in the next few years. And then, English
11/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
will be used between them and non-EU countries for international communication,
transportation commerce, industry, long distance transportation, science, high –
technology and entertainment.
Three types of English speaker
As English is a world wide language, it is divided into three types by country.
These are ENL, ESL and EFL. Those differences are how the English language is
used in those countries.
These are the definition of three types.
Table1: the definition of three types
Type of English speaker
Definition
ENL
English speakers are those for whom English is a
(English as a Native
first – and often only – language
Language)
ESL
English as taught to people whose main language
(English as a Second
is not English and who live in a country in which
Language)
EFL
(English as a Foreign
English is an official or important language
the teaching of English to people whose first
language is not English
12/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
Language)
(From: CAMBRIDGE International Dictionary of English)
English of the Native speakers
Any native speaker does not define as a spoken, language which was place
they were born, but it is the languages which were used by people they were born.
And English as a Native Language (ENL) define as all people, who live in the
country and spoken by their family, generally accept and speak as normal and
correct by English. Most of all country of this type had been colonized by British.
There are 26 independence countries from the U.K. and the U.S. in 42 ESL
countries. I show all the country in ENL by Table 2.
ENL countries will not easy to expand in the future, because each native
language will not change easily to other language. So they will not increase the
number of English speaker in themselves.
But they will influence this language to a lot of countries by their economic
power, culture, and entertainment (music, sports, etc). One of the most attractive
countries is U.S. now. They will have been influenced a lot of countries by their
power.
English of the Non – Native speakers
Whether English language will continue to expand or not in the future, it
depends on the Non - Native speakers, because they will make globalize world by
13/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
English in the Native speakers.
The Non – Native speakers consist of the two types of English speakers.
First is ESL (English as a Second Language). It defines as a language of usable in
routine communication and studying as an important language besides their own
language. They are taught English language since early age. This type of speaker
will expand more and more in the foreseeable future. Many country plans to take
ESL because of a globalization in all over the world. Japan is one of the planning
countries.
There are a lot of colonized countries in these types by UK and US like ENL.
According to Table 3, there are 46 independence countries from UK and US in 63
countries. This statistics show widely to expand English by the colony between
ENL and ESL.
Second is EFL (English as a Foreign Language). It defines as a language of
studying English for a communication with English speaker, and commonly used in
business or the marketplace. The difference of ESL is whether English is used or
not to be communication in public or family. This type of speaker will expand more
and more too.
It will be possible to language shift in the future. EFL countries will change
ESL countries, and ESL countries will change ENL countries. This happening is
made by globalization in all over the world.
14/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
Table 2: The number of ENL
English as a Native Language (ENL)
Thous Independ
Thousa Independ
and
nd
ence
ence
South America
Africa
Liberia
60 1847,US
Guyana
7001966,UK
Namibia
13 1990,SA
Suriname
2581975,NL
South Africa
3,600 1910,UK
Zambia
958
50 1964,UK
Zimbabwe
250 1980,UK
3,973
Asia
Brunei
10 1984,UK
North America
Antigua and Barbuda
611981,UK
Bahamas
2501973,UK
Barbados
2651966,UK
Belize
1351981,UK
Hong Kong
125 1997,UK
Bermuda
60None
India
320 1947,UK
Canada
19,7001867,UK
Malaysia
375 1957,UK
Cayman Islands
29None
Philippines
15 1946,US
Grenada
1011974,UK
Singapore
300 1965,ML
Jamaica
2,4001962,UK
Sri Lanka
10 1948,UK
1,155
Europe
Irish Republic
3,334 None
Montserrat
11None
Puerto Rico
110None
St Kitts and Nevis
391983,UK
St Lucia
291979,UK
St
Gibraltar
UK
UK Islands
25 None
56,990 1927
217
57,232
Oceania
Guam
Vincent
and
Grenadines
Trinidad and Tobago
US
1111979,UK
1,2001962,UK
226,7101776,UK
Virgin Islands (British)
17None
Virgin Islands (US)
79None
56None
Total 42
15/179
16.3.8
251,307
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
New Zealand
3,3901907,UK
Australia
Papua
15,3161901,UK
New
Guinea
1201975,AU
World population
6,310,549
Sierra Leone
4501961,UK
Total population
333,957
A ratio
5%
19,332
Table 3: The number of ESL
English as a Second Language (ESL)
Thousan Independ
d
Independe
ence
Thousand nce
Asia
Africa
Nepal
Philippines
5,9271923,UK
Botswana
5201966,UK
36,4001946,US
Cameroon
6,6001960,FR
Brunei
1041984,UK
Pakistan
16,0001947,UK
Hong Kong
1,860None
India
37,0001947,UK
Nigeria
Lesotho
43,0001960,UK
4881966,UK
Liberia
2,0001847,US
Malawi
5171964,UK
Singapore
1,0461965,ML
Tanzania
3,0001964,UK
Malaysia
5,9841957,UK
Uganda
2,0001962,UK
Bangladesh
3,1001971,WP
Zambia
1,0001964,UK
Zimbabwe
3,3001980,UK
Bhutan
601949,IN
Sri Lanka
1,8501948,UK
109,331
Ghana
Oceania
Australia
New Zealand
Papua New Guinea
Gambia
Namibia
2,0841901,UK
1501907,UK
28,0001975,AU
Kenya
331965,UK
1,1531957,UK
3001990,SA
2,5761963,UK
South Africa
10,0001910,UK
Sierra Leone
3,8301961,UK
16/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
Palau
16,3001994,US
Swaziland
401968,UK
Kiribati
201979,UK
Mauritius
1671968,UK
Tonga
301970,UK
Rwanda
241962,BL
Tuvalu
6001978,UK
Seychelles
111976,UK
Vanuatu
1601980,UK
80,559
Samoa (American)
561962,NZ
Samoa (Western)
86
Bahamas
Micronesia
151986,US
US
Nauru
9,4001968,UK
Guam
92None
Solomon Islands
1351978,UK
Cook Islands
Fiji
2None
1601970,UK
Marshall Islands
281986,US
Northern Marianas
50None
North America
251973,UK
30,0001776,UK
US Virgin Islands
10None
St Lucia
221979,UK
Canada
6,0001867,UK
Belize
301981,UK
Dominica
121978,UK
Puerto Rico
1,746None
37,845
309,368
Europe
South America
Irish Republic
Guyana
301966,UK
UK
Jamaica
501962,UK
Malta
Surinam
1501975,NL
190
1,100
861964,UK
Total 63
1,186
230
World population
6,310,549
Total population
286,519
A ratio
5%
(date from: The future of English?, Graddol, 1997)
The number of English speaker and the countries
According to table 2 and table 3, the total English speaking countries are 80
and the total English speaker are about 876 million people as ENL and ESL in the
17/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
world. EFL countries are not able to say the approximately number like ENL and
ESL, but it is seems that it is the same number as ENL or more.
a. Digital Divide
One of the most important events connected with English diffusion in this
century is the development of the Internet. This chapter will present the present of
the Internet.
As computer diffusion expands all over the world, Internet users expand too.
Now a days, 429 million people use internet for e-mail, seeking some information
and studying, etc. It is said that Internet changed the world, because it became
possible to communicate a lot of people who live other countries at their home.
But this is not true for all people. It is just the people who can use a computer
at their home, office and school. Less economically developed countries cannot
even use a computer, because of the lack of knowledge, no interest, lack of need,
impossible education and non - economic power. Also Internet service is speedy
and low cost to get some information for good economic countries, but it is
expensive service for poor economic countries. These facts have made a “Digital
Divide”. It means that people or countries are divided to be able to use an Internet
or not between rich and poor.
The most serious problem by this happening is Informational gap. Only rich
countries get some information, education and digital work (computer engineering,
18/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
etc) by it. The result is that poor countries are isolated and gives poor and poverty.
I would like to search about the beginning of Internet and its diffusion at first.
The beginning and present of Internet world
There are two main roots of the beginning of Internet. The first was grass
roots. This means that computers were not used as only curriculum and processing
machines, but used as a media for communication. This communication was
brought about by recent connected computer networks. This root was from after
1960.
The other roots was the computer network of the Department of Defense in
the U.S., which was linked to some universities which investigated about it to
research. Then it connected a lot of computer centers over states and countries.
Since the beginning of the Internet world, many things have been
developed it. It is not just for political communication or information, but it is now
used for education, playing games, chatting and e-mail.
Now days, it is developing more and more. You can do meetings with the
video (Videoconference), shopping and reserve any goods, watch movies, listen to
music, and so on. It will be possible to do anything by it in the near future.
Available or Unavailable countries
Fundamentally, whether it is possible or impossible to use the internet
depends on economic situation. Rich economic countries are able to use it, and
19/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
poor economic countries are not able to use it. Rich economic countries are
economic giants like the U.S., France and Japan. In contrast, poor economic
countries are the countries which don’t have enough food, and enough education.
There are a lot of countries which don’t use some electric things in those countries.
The least developed countries
There are 49 countries as the least developed countries (The LDCs). These
counties are 10.7% of the world population and 0.5% of the world GNP.
Table 3: The least developed countries
16. Lesotho
Tanzania
1. Angola
17. Liberia
33. Zambia
2. Benin
18. Madagascar
3. Burkina Faso
19. Malawi
35. Afghanistan
4. Burundi
20. Mali
36. Bangladesh
5. Cape Verde
21. Mauritania
37. Bhutan
6. Central African
22. Mozambique
38. Cambodia
Republic
23. Niger
39. Lao People’s
7. Chad
24. Rwanda
democratic Republic
8. Comoros
25.
9. Democratic Republic
Principe
41. Myanmar
of the Congo
26. Senegal
42. Nepal
10. Djibouti
27. Sierra Leone
43. Yemen
11. Equatorial Guinea
28. Somalia
12. Eritrea
29. Sudan
13. Gambia
30. Togo
14. Guinea
31. Uganda
45. Kiribati
15. Guinea - Bissau
32. United Republic of
46. Samoa
Africa (34):
Sao
Tome
Asia (9):
and
40. Maldives
Caribbean (1):
44. Haiti
Pacific (5):
20/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
47. Solomon Islands
48. Tuvalu
49. Vanuatu
These 49 LDCs are not only able to use the computer enough, but also not
able to eat or drink something enough.
LDCs and Development country in Africa
What is the difference in technology between LDCs and developed
countries? This data answers some questions.
Table 4 shows the number of Telephones in African countries, and the
numbers show whether Internet is available or not.
This graph is divided into lower level and upper level. Lower level countries
have not enough telephones, and upper level countries have enough telephones.
Table 4: The number of Telephones in Africa
Lower level
200
180
160
120
100
80
60
40
21/179
16.3.8
Gabon
*Malawi
*Benin
*Guinea
*Gambia
*Eritrea
Swaziland
*Mauritania
Congo
*Lesotho
*Burundi
*Congo (DRC)
*Niger
*Sierra Leone
*Togo
Seychelles
*Guinea-Bissau
*Chad
*Djibouti
*Somalia
*Central African Republic
*Comoros
*Liberia
*Rwanda
Western Sahara
0
*Equatorial Guinea
20
*Sao Tome & Principe
Thousand
140
*Mali
22/179
16.3.8
South Africa
Egypt
Algeria
Tunisia
Nigeria
Libya
Kenya
Zimbabwe
Morocco
Cote d'Ivoire
Mauritius
Ghana
*Tanzania
Ethiopia
Cameroon
Namibia
Botswana
*Senegal
*Zambia
*Angola
*Sudan
*Cape Verde
*Mozambique
*Madagascar
*Uganda
*Burkina Faso
Thousand
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
Upper level
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
(data From: http://www.worldlanguage.com/)
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
According to these graphs, there are 22 LDCs in Lower Level countries and 11 LDCs
in Upper Level countries. It means that most LDCs are not able to use Internet easier than
Non-LDCs.
Which is connected directly to the Digital Divide, is a present situation in Africa.
The graph is a comparison with Internet access between LDCs and Non-LDCs.
Table 5: Internet Access in Africa
300,000
270,000
240,000
210,000
180,000
150,000
120,000
90,000
60,000
30,000
0
259,500
117,605
65,072
38,024
7,903
810
1998
1999
LDCs
2001
Non-LDCs
(data from: http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/africa.html)
Table 5 shows an average of Internet access between LDCs and Non-LDCs in 1998,
1999 and 2001. In 1998 LDCs are had an average of only 810 access times, so LDCs
clearly didn’t have enough infrastructure to use Internet.
b. Connection between English and Internet
There are two reasons that English has an advantageous position in Internet. First, it
was made by the English language, and second, it has maintained a top position in the U.S..
Language in Internet
The English language occupies about 70% of all web contents in Internet. Japanese,
German, Chinese, French languages are only over 3% each.
Internet users also show a high rate of English speakers. English speakers are
23/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
40.2%, Chinese speakers are 9.8%, Japanese speakers are 9.2% and Spanish speakers
are 6.8%.
Table 6: the graph of Internet User and language
Internet user
50.0%
80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
Internet user
Others
Italian
French
Korean
German
Spanish
Japanese
Chinese
English
0.0%
Web content
Internet user and language
Web content
(date from: http://www.glreach.com/globstats/)
This graph shows the recent situation, but it didn’t show same shape graph several
years ago. At least, Chinese, Japanese and Korean web contents were not high rate then,
because those languages couldn’t be written in the Roman alphabet.
As Internet expands all over the world, it has come to use some world languages in it.
Anyone can use Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages in Internet, if you have a
browser. It is seems that English occupation will decrease in Internet World.
English Advantage in African Internet
There are many languages in African countries. They are English, French,
Portuguese, Spanish and also African languages. In those languages, English is the most
advantageous language in Internet world according to table 5.
The 2 graphs show this advantage in detail.
Table 7 is a comparison graph of the data of telephone numbers from Table 4.
24/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
Table 7: Comparison between English and Non-English countries
(date From: http://www.worldlanguage.com/)
Non - English
countries
42%
English
countries
58%
The majority of Telephones of English speaking countries are in by South Africa,
Nigeria and Zimbabwe, and those of Non-English countries are occupied by Egypt, Algeria
and Tunisia.
It doesn’t show a big gap in this graph, but there are many more Non-English
countries than English countries: English countries are 20 and Non-English countries are 33.
It seems that in English countries, telephones are much more available in spite of small
countries number.
The graph is the comparison of English and Non-English countries by Internet
access in Africa.
25/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
Table 8: Internet access in Africa
300,000
262,500
270,000
240,000
210,000
180,000
150,000
100,195
120,000
72,233
90,000
60,000
73,455
23,331
30,000
0
3,433
1998
1999
Non-English country
2001
Englis country
(data from: http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/africa.html)
It shows a bigger gap in this graph than Table 5. In spite of the low number of
countries, English speaking countries are much advantageous. The Internet access of
English countries in 1998 is almost the same number as Non-English countries in 2001.
c. Conclusion
This paper searched about a historical English diffusion, Digital Divide situation in
Internet world and the connection between English and Internet world.
It seems that there are some similarities between English diffusion and Internet world.
They are both involved and have developed along with U.S. power. It is not too much to say
that both of these phenomena depend on the U.S.. However, these advantages in one
nation brought about the Digital Divide and some gaps among other countries.
It is sure that the next few years will make countries more global all over the world.
Though we live only in our culture to maintain our identity, we have to communicate in an
international place to survive in such a world. English will become the world language in
international communication in a foreseeable future.
26/179
16.3.8
A Connection between World Wide English and Internet World
(Shinya Iseri)
If all of the people in the world are able to speak and write English language
frequently and communicate with all the people by English, a lot of country’s gap will
disappear and we will live in the peace world with sharing each other.
Bibliography
David Graddol (1997) The future of English: The British Council 1997
Reinier Salverda (2002) English Today 71, volume 18, number 3: Cambridge University
Press
Albert C. Baugh & Thomas Cable (1993) A History of the English Language: Routledge
(1989) The Encyclopedia Americana International Edition, Grolier Incorporate
D.Crystal (1999) English as a global language:Misuzu-shobo
Eri Arai (2002) Gijutsuno Eigobunkano Eigo: Chuokouron-sha
Izumi Ezu (2001) Ajiakarano Nettokakumei: Iwanami-shoten
Statistical profiles of LDC’s 2001 by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
http://www.unctad.org/en/pub/ldcprofiles2001.en.htm
Information of all countries telephone number by World Language, Inc.
http://www.worldlanguage.com/
Information of global English
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/11/wallraff.htm
A date of African Internet access by ComputerScope Ltd.
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/africa.html
A date of Internet language by Global Research
http://www.glreach.com/
27/179
16.3.8
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison
BY
ERIKA HORIGAMI
A GRADUATION THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF FOREIGN STUDIES
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
BACHELOR OF ARTS
IN ENGLISH STUDIES
SUPERVISOR:
Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
Dec. 17, 2002
This thesis consists of 3266 words
28/179
16.3.8
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
CONTENTS
1
2
2.1
Introduction
The phonemic structure of the Swahili and English languages
Vowels
2.1.1
Vowels in isolation
2.1.2
Vowels in Words and Sentences
2.2
Consonants
2.2.1
Phonemics of Swahili and English
2.2.2
Comparison of Phonemic Inventories
3
The borrowed words from English and other languages
4
The language of instruction debate in Tanzania; English or Swahili?
5
Conclusion
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABSTRACT
みなさんは「スワヒリ語」という言語を聞いたことがありますか？多くの人が「No」と
返答するだろう。私もかつてその中の一人であった。なぜこのようなテーマを選んだのか
と言うと、
「アフリカ」では英語を使用しているはずがないと思い込んでいたからだ。しか
し、わたしの考えは覆された。さまざまな文献を調べていく内にスワヒリ語と英語の関連
性が見えてきたのだ。
かつてスワヒリ語はアラビア文字で表記されていたが 19 世紀の半ばからローマ字へと変
わった。主な地域で話されている国は、ケニア、ウガンダ、タンザニアでありいずれも東
アジアである。特にケニア、ウガンダでは英語は第二言語として定着しており、必要不可
欠な言語となっている。私は英語とスワヒリ語の相違性を特に母音、子音の音素構造から
比較してみた。そして他国からの借用語、最後にタンザニアの言語教育の現状を述べた。
現在、タンザニアを含め、アフリカの言語教育はこれから抱えていかなければならない重
要課題の一つだと思う。
29/179
16.3.8
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
I. Introduction
Have you ever heard language of “Swahili”? The answer would probably be “No”.
Why I chose Swahili for this study is that I didn’t think that African people use English. But I
looked look over the relation between Swahili and English, a surprise awaited me. Swahili
language is spoken in most east Africa, in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania and used as a
lingua franca. About 50 million people speak the Swahili language, which is included the
second language speakers. Its language comes from Pidgin language between a group of
Arabic merchants and a group of Bantu language speakers in coast of East Africa for trade
negotiation. In this paper, I investigate how Swahili and English are different.
Specifically, I concentrate on the phonetic structure of the two languages in section 2,
comparing vowels and consonants. I compared English pronunciation with Swahili, heard
on tape, Swahili speaker in Kenya, and Internet. In Section 3, I discuss words that were
borrowed from English and other languages into Swahili and their historical background.
Finally, in Section 4, I discuss the specific situation in Tanzania with respect to the current
debate regarding the language of instruction in schools and office—whether it should be
Swahili or English or a combination of the two.
2. Swahili and English phonology compared
2.1 Vowel
There are 5 vowels in Swahili, and 12 vowels in English. We can find the vowels of
Swahili among the vowels of English as follows:
English…[ ] (see), [ ] (miss), [e] (better), [ ] (cat), [ ] (father), [ ] (mop), [ ] (law), [ ]
(mop), [u ] (cool), [u] (cook), [ ] (cut), [ ] (bird), [ ] (sofa)
Swahili…/a/ (father), /e/ (better), /i/ (see), /o/ (law), /u/ (pool)
30/179
16.3.8
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
There are five vowels in Swahili /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/. I notice that difference pronunciation
between vowels one by one and vocabulary, sentence. I’d explanation these cases that it
pronounce vowels one by one (a-1) and it pronounce vocabulary, sentence. (a-2). But, I’d
leave the sentence case out because of necessary listen in practice. I decided to listen
carefully some Swahili sentence and English sentence on my own investigation.
2.1.1―vowels in isolation
There are some instances of English vowels, so you’d like to think of the same pattern
of Swahili vowels one by one.
/a/ in Swahili is similar to [ ] low open back vowel in English.
/e/ in Swahili is similar to [ei] vowel in English. This [ei] is, as it were, diphthong. The
[ei] of diphthong vowel and [e] is almost similar to vowel. So, [I] of [ei] can’t almost hear.
It is lengthened and long sound.
/i/ in Swahili is similar to [i‫ ]׃‬high close front vowel in English.
/o/ in Swahili is similar to [
] low open back vowel in English.
/u/ in Swahili is similar to [ υ‫ ]׃‬high close back vowel in English
Swahili vowels
English vocabulary and phonetic sign
/a/
half /h lf/, father /f
/e/
late /leit/, better /bet (r)/
/i/
meat /mi t/, see /si /
/o/
law /l /, tall /t l/
/u/
pool /pu l/, rule /ru l/
(r)/,
Table1: Comparison between Swahili and English vowels in
isolation
2.1.2―vowels in words and sentences
In the case of pronunciation of words and sentences,
/a/ in Swahili is similar to [Λ] low close central vowel in English. [Λ] in British English,
it is rather close Japanese [ア]. On the other hand, [Λ] in American English, place of
31/179
16.3.8
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
tongue is high and open mouth is narrow as compare with Japanese. In my opinion, /a/ in
Swahili (a-2) belongs to [Λ] class as I hear /a/ in Swahili of vocabulary and sentence.
/e/ in Swahili is similar to [e] mid close front vowel in English
I think that place of tongue is low and open mouth is rather wide /e/ in Swahili.
There are some instances of [e] in English vocabulary.
.
/i/ in Swahili is similar to [I] high open front in English. This [I] is that it isn’t same as
Japanese the middle sound of [イ] and [エ] in Japanese. It is proper to the point of like [イ]
in Japanese.
/o/ in Swahili is similar to [ ] low close back vowel in English. Compare with [オ] in
Japanese. In my opinion, /o/ in Swahili is that lip is rounded and open mouth is wide.
/u/ in Swahili is similar to [u] high open back vowel in English.
This [u] is that lip is pushed out forward, same as [u‫]׃‬. Of course, length of sound is short.
Open of mouth is wider than [u].
Swahili vowels
English vocabulary and phonetic sign
/a/; baba (father)
luck /l k/, cut /k t/
/e/; wewe (you)
get /get/, set /set/
/i/; kiti (chair)
miss /mis/, pick /pik/
/o/; moto (fire)
lobby /l bi/, topic /t pik/
/u/; nusu (half)
foot /fut/, cook /kuk/
Table2: Comparison between Swahili and English vowels in words and sentences
2.2 Consonants
Consonants are usually defined linguistically in three ways: voiced/ voiceless, place of
articulation and manner of articulation. From here, we will look at consonants with respect
to Swahili and English.
First of all, we can classify consonants into (1) voiced consonants and (2) voiceless
32/179
16.3.8
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
consonants, and compare the number of voiced and voiceless consonants English and
Swahili as follows:
In English… (1) [b], [d], [g], [m], [n], [l], [v], [z], [w], [r], [j]
(2) [p], [t], [k], [f], [s], [h]
(15 in all)
(9 in all)
In Swahili… (1) /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /z/, /ny/, /ng’/( ), /j/( ), /w/, /y/(j), /r/, /l/, /dh/, /gh/, /mw/, /bw/
(16 in all)
(2) /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /s/, /m/, /n/, /ch/( ), /h/, /th/( ), /sh/( )
(11 in all)
I classified /ny/, /ng’/( ), /j/( ), /mw/, /bw/, /m/, /n/, /ch/( ) as voiced consonant under the
influence of listening carefully.
Secondly, where is used the respiratory organs as pronounce, for instance, place of
articulation and compare with Swahili and English in a diagram. Articulation is that it is made
speech sound as various sound organs.
As to the variety of place of articulation is eight.
1, bilabial
[p], [b], [m], [w]
2, labio-dental
3, dental
[f], [v]
[ ], [ ]
4, alveolar
[t], [d], [s], [z], [l], [n]
5, alveo-palatal
6, palatal
7, velar
[ ], [ ], [ ], [ ], [r]
[j]
[k], [g], [ ]
8, glottal
[h]
Next, we will compare the phonetic character of Swahili consonants with English
consonants.
bilabial labiodental dental alveolar postalveolar palatal velar
explosive
ｐ
ｔ
implosive
ｂ
ｄ
ｆ、ｖ
fricative
nasal
th,dh
ｍ
ｓ、ｚ
ｎ
33/179
16.3.8
glottal
ｋ
ch
ｊ
ｇ
kh,gh ｈ
sh
ny
ng'
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
liquid
ｒ,l
w
Nasal-compound mb
mv
ｙ
nd,nz
nj
ng
Table 3: Swahili Consonants
bilabial labiodental dental alveolar Alveo-palatal velar
explosive
1,p
1,t 2,d
glottal palatal
1,k2,g
2,b
fricative
1,f 2,v
1,
Ѳ 1,s 2,z
1,
2,
1,
2,
1,h
2,
affricate
lateral
2,l
nasal
2,
2,m
2,n
Semi-vowel
2,r
2,(w)
2,j
2,w
Table 4: English Consonants
1=voiceless sound
2=voiced sound
Next, we will compare the phonetic character of Swahili consonants with English
consonants.
/p/ in Swahili is almost similar to English [p]. This consonant is voiceless stop and the
sound, bursts open through the mouth. Voiced stop, which is the opposite, is [b]. /p/ in
Swahili has two phonemes. One is [p] and another is [ph]. This [ph] is that occurs at the
beginning of a word. For instance, when you put paper front of the mouth, this paper would
spring out. It makes this sound [ph] like these situations. However the two sounds /p/ in
Swahili are phonemic. By these differences of pronunciation, the speech language of
meaning is completely difficult. [ph] is aspirated in class 9/10 nominal and [p] is
pronounced in class 5/6 nominal.1 Class 9/10 nominal classifies as animals, kinship terms,
There are 8 classes’ nouns in Swahili. See the index of bibliography SWAHILI /
ENGLISH
1
34/179
16.3.8
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
and borrowed words. This borrowed words are from Arabic, English, Portuguese, Indian
languages, and others. Class 5/6 nominal classifies as fruits, parts of plants, and others.
―For instance, phaa (9/10) is “gazelle”, versus paa (5/6) is “roof”.
/t/ in Swahili is similar to [t] voiceless alveolar stops in English. When it is the
beginning of a word, it is pronounced a strong expiration. In English [t], it is the alveolar
that tip of tongue is touched with alveolar-ridge. In Swahili, the two phonemes are used
differentiate different nominal classes from nominal. For instance, thai 9/10 is “tie”, versus
taifa 5/6 is “nation”.
/k/ in Swahili is similar to [k] voiceless velar stops in English. This sound is the same
as /p/ and /t/ situation. The two /k/ phoneme differences from nominal. For instance,
khaa (9/10) is “crab”, versus kaa 5/6 is “piece of charcoal”.
―Aspirated sounds make a slight puff of air following the voiceless sounds. In English, the
[p] after another consonant (speak, sharp, speech) and the end of syllable isn’t aspirated.
/b/ in Swahili is similar to [b] voiced bilabial stop in English. The voiced sound [b]
corresponds to [p] voiceless is low expiration as against [p], and it isn’t carry aspirate.
Generally, voiced sound is low expiration as against voiceless sound.
/d/ in Swahili is similar to [d] voiced alveolar stop in English. It is the same pattern
expiration and aspirate like [p].
/g/ in Swahili is similar to [g] voiced velar stop in English. This sound is noticed point
isn’t mistake for nasal [ ]. This [g] is always “strong” as in English goat [gout], isn’t
pronounced “soft” as in English gin [d in].
―These /b/, /d/, and /g/ are voiced sound as English. But they are implosive sound in
Swahili. This implosive sound is that the air is breathed into the mouth as they are
35/179
16.3.8
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
released. ―For instance, it is baba (father), gumu (hard), dada (sister).
/f/ in Swahili is similar to [f] voiceless labio-dental fricatives in English.
/v/ in Swahili is similar to [v] voiced labio-dental fricatives in English.
/s/ in Swahili is similar to [s] voiceless alveolar fricatives in English. In English /s/,
sometimes plural is changed –s to –z. The case of [z], there are vowels or voiced stop
except [z, ,
]. For instance, heroes [
], beds [
]. In Swahili /s/, it is never
pronounced as /z/.
/z/ in Swahili is similar to [z] voiced alveolar fricatives in English. The notice point of
[z], it isn’t pronounced [dz] as in English.
―For instance, it is fatuma (a girl’s name), vizuri (well), fupi (short), sasa (now), kavu (dry).
/m/ in Swahili is similar to [m] bilabial nasals in English.
/n/ in Swahili is similar to [n] alveolar nasals in English.
―These sounds /m/, /n/ are different sounds when it follows consonant next to m- and n-.
This pattern has many in Swahili consonant. Beginning of a word /m/ before consonant is
pronounced nasal which is gone out the breath from nose. For instance, it is mtu[m(i) tu]
(person), mboga (vegitable), nta[n(ui)ta] (wax), ndege (bird, airplane), ngoma (dance). /m/
and /n/ of mboga and ndege wouldn’t almost hear.
/ny/ in Swahili isn’t being in English consonant. Although, it is similar to the segment
[ni] in the English word, [onion]. I think imitation word that vowel /a/ next to /ny/, it is similar
to Japanese mimetic word of cat, [ニャ]. ―For instance, it is nyanya (grandmother,
tomato), ninyi (you in plural).
36/179
16.3.8
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
/ng’/ in Swahili is similar to the final [ng] sounds in the English word, young[
strong[
], long[
],
]. /n/ of /ng’/ is similar to nasal. But, when it is word next to /ng/, it
is difficult finger, singer. ―For instance, it is ng’ombe (cow, cattle), ng’oa (pull out).
/ch/ in Swahili is similar to [ ] voiceless palatp-alveolar affricates in English. As in
English, it is similar to chance[
], cheek[
], but not as in English chemist[
].
―For instance, it is chakula (food), chache (few).
/j/ in Swahili is similar to [ ] voiced palato-alveolar affricates in English. But it
seems to be hear /dy/ to /j/. ―For instance, hujambo[fudyambo] (hello), jana[dyana]
(yesterday).
/w/ in Swahili is similar to [w] velar or bilabial semi-vowel (glide) in English. When it
comes to a vowel next to [w], it changes over quickly to the vowel. This is the same case
/w/ in Swahili.
/y/ in Swahili is similar to [y] palatal semi-vowel in English. The /y/ case in Swahili,
the vowel [i] is almost similar to tongue and form of lip.
/h/ in Swahili is similar to [h] glottal fricative in English. This sound [h] is same shape
as following vowel and semi-vowel to the shape of lip and tongue. The /h/ in Swahili
consonant is mostly borrowed from Arabic with kh. For instance, muhtasari is come from
mukhtasari (summary), heri is come from kheri (happiness, blessedness, good fortune, etc),
habari is come from khabari (news).
―For instance, it is watu (person), huyu[fuyu] (this one=person), yeye[ieie] (she or he),
hawa (these ones=people).
/r/ in Swahili is quite difficult from the English one. The /r/ in Swahili, I think that tip of
37/179
16.3.8
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
tongue is flopped lightly near back of alveolar-ridge. ―For instance, it is habari[habar(u)i]
(new), heri[her(u)i] (happiness, blessedness, good fortune, etc), robo[r(u)obo] (spirit, soul).
/l/ in Swahili is similar to [l] alveolar lateral in English. Second language speakers of
Swahili often don’t distinguish [l] and [r] in pronunciation. ―For instance, it is lala (sleep),
leo (today).
/th/ in Swahili is similar to [ ] voiceless dental fricatives in English. Tip of tongue is
stuck out forward a little between upper teeth and lower teeth, or tip of tongue is touched
lightly the reverse of upper teeth. As the sound in English, “thick”, “thin” and “mouth”.
South East Africans are pronounced this sound as “s”. For instance, it is thelathini (thirty),
theluji (snow), themanini (eighty).
/dh/ in Swahili is similar to [ ] voiced dental fricatives in English. This is the same
pattern of /th/, it is changed voiced sound.
As the sound in English is “that”, “mother”
and “without”. But there is exception of /dh/, /h/ of /dhani/ isn’t pronounced. ―For
instance, dhani [thambi] (sin), dhani [dani] (think).
/gh/ in Swahili isn’t in English. The /n/ of /gh/ in Swahili, isn’t pronounced and /g/ as a
fricative. ―For instance compared, it is ghala[g(u)ala] (storehouse), ghali[g(u)ali]
(expensive) in Swahili versus sing.
/sh/ in Swahili is similar to [ ] voiceless palato-alveolar fricatives in English. This
sound /sh/ is followed for the most part into Swahili from Arabic. For instance compared, it
is ishirini (twenty), mshahara[m(u)shahara] (salary) in Swahili versus push, dish, and
selfish in English.
/mw/ in Swahili isn’t in English. This is a combination word /m/ followed /w/. It is
pronounced that lip is rounded before /m/ and then gliding into /w/. For instance, it is
38/179
16.3.8
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
mwalimu[m(u)walimu] (teacher), mwanafunzi[m(u)wanafunzi] (student).
/bw/ in Swahili isn’t in English. This is a combination word /m/ followed /w/. It is
similar to /mw/. The lip are rounded before pronounce /b/ and then it glided into /w/. For
instance, it is bwana [b(u)wana] (sir, Mr), mbwa [mb(u)wa] (dog).
3. Words borrowed into Swahili from English and other languages.
Borrowed words from Arabic
Swahili has borrowed a great deal of vocabulary from Arabic, and from other languages
as well. It has been estimated that the borrowing from Arabic, Persian, Hindi, and other
Indian Ocean languages, amount to 20% of the spoken vocabulary in Swahili. From Arabic,
the assimilated words are connected with religion, trade, commerce, sailing, and urban
living. For instance as follows; tarehe (date), nabii (prophet), kitabu (book), kalamu (pen,
pencil), fariji (comfort), dau (type of sailing vessel).
Borrowed words from Portuguese
Second, as an influence of trading Portuguese added much vocabulary used in card
playing, and other vocabulary representative of their culture. For instance as follows;
geneza (jail), foronya (pillowcase), bomba (pump), mvinyo (wine).
Borrowed words from British
Finally, in the middle of nineteenth century, the British explored and eventually
colonized East Africa. Under the influence of the British, Swahili has taken many words
from English. Most of these are for nations, clothing, technology, and artifacts. For
example, Swahili borrowed words the following words from British. motokaa (car), baisikeli
(bicycle), mashini (machine), bosi (boss), soksi (socks), tai (tie), demokrasia (democracy),
benki (bank), daktari (doctor), roketi (rocket), eropleni (airplane), jela (jail), gavana
39/179
16.3.8
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
(governor), kampuni (company), dereva (driver), faini (fine), penesileni (penicillin), meya
(mayor), teksi (taxi), silabi (syllable), hospitali (hospital), digri (degree), historia (history)
It can be seen that most of these words end in –I or –a. According to Hinnebusch
(1992), nouns are classified morphologically, with assigned to Noun class 9/10 or 5/10.
Thus we see that the borrowed vocabulary has been systematically indigenized
grammatically.
4
The language of instruction debate in Tanzania; English or Swahili?
English is widely a very necessary language for reading in Tanzania, East Africa. But
in secondary schools 95% of the students can’t understand in English. Teachers don’t
almost understand special knowledge about English, either. The public secondary school
in Tanzania, almost all students and teachers don’t understand English. For instance, in a
certain secondary school, only 3 of the 45 teachers can use English fluency. This is a very
serious problem, and it is recommended that secondary school teachers need to retrain in
English.
In work situations, employers expect a high level of English education of youth. In
Tanzania, a high percentage of workers have to use English. When foreign investors visit
on business they speak in English, workers in Tanzania have to attend to them in English.
On the other hand, some people hold the opposite opinion. The following sentence
caught my eye in a homepage. According to http://www.ippmedia.com/KISWAHILI, “If you
want our gold, you must speak our language!”
Both of these viewpoints show that
Tanzanian people have strong belief that both English and Swahili are very important
languages for their country.
40/179
16.3.8
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
5
Conclusion
In this paper, I divided into each Swahili vowels and consonants from English phonetic
sign. In Swahili vowels, I found that it is pronounced vowels one by one are long but they
are relatively short in compare with English phonemes.
On the other hand, Japanese, which is my mother tongue, and Swahili vowels, are very
similar. Swahili vowels are easily transformed into Japanese, ア/a/、イ/i/、ウ/u/、エ/e/、
オ/o/. When I put a question to Kenyan women whether Swahili and Japanese sounds are
similar, her answer was“ I think so”, too.
Secondly, the Swahili consonants, /ny/, /ng’/, /dh/, /gh/, /mw/, /bw/ aren’t represented in
English. It is difference of representations, but other English consonants could use these
Swahili consonants segmentally in English vocabulary.
Finally, I was surprised the languages of debate in Tanzanian education at secondly
school. It was seen that not only the lack of English achievement of students was a
problem, but also the lack of qualified teachers. This will be a very serious problem from
now on.
In addition, this debate under sources another problem for Swahili and many other
world languages, the fact that English is considered as important as Swahili in Tanzania. I
think that this could be similar situation in other countries as well. In the future, it many
become necessary to actively protect Swahili language as a mother tongue.
Bibliography:
Ashton, E.O. (1994) Swahili Grammar
Longman.
Hinnebusch, Thomas J. & Sara M. Mirza (1998): KISWAHILI / SWAHILI:
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF AMERICA
41/179
16.3.8
Linguistic and Sociolinguistic
Aspects of Swahili and English: A comparison (HORIGAMI)
Hinnebusch, Thomas J. (1992) “Swahili” in International Encyclopedia of
Linguistics, Vol. 4, p. 99-206.
Inaki A. & T. Hotta & T. Okita (1995): Eigo･ Eigo・Eigogaku: Shouhakusya
Nema, H (1986): EIGO no HATSUON ENSHU: Tanishukan
“Swahili Pronunciation”, (2001) The Kamusi Project, Internet Living Swahili Dictionary,
available at http://www.yale.edu/swahili/ Dec. 17, 2002.
“Swahili Medium Debate: Languge of Instruction”, IPP Media,
http://www.ippmedia.com/KISWAHILI%20MEDIUM%20DEBATE:Language%20of%20ins
t, November 2002.
42/179
16.3.8
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
Australian English through Online Newspapers
BY
Megumi Nambu
A GRADUATION THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF FOREIGN STUDIES
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
BACHELOR OF ARTS
IN ENGLISH STUDIES
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
Dec. 17, 2002
This dissertation consists of
approx. 3700 words
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
Table of Contents
0. Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Corpus
New South Wales (NSW) - Canberra Times, Sydney Morning Herald
Queesland (Qld) - The Gold Coast Bulletin, The Sunshine Coast Daily
Northern Territory (NT) - Northern Territory News, Alice Springs News
Western Australia (WA) - The West Australia, Midwest Times
South Australia (SA) - Whyalla News, The Transcontinental
Victoria (Vic) - The Chronicle, The Journal
Tasmania (Tas) - The Advocate, Launceston Examiner
3. Linguistic Similarities and Differences
3.1 Most Common words
3.2 Use of Australian Vocabulary
3.3 Use of Gender Related Language
3.4 Use of British English or American English
4. Language and Locality
4.1 Local Animals
4.2 Local Geography
4.3 Local Sports
4.4 Local City and State Names
5. Conclusion
Notes and Bibliography
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
0. Abstract
今回卒論として、オーストラリアのオンライン新聞から分かるオーストラリア英語に
ついて研究した。まずオーストラリアの６つの州と１つの特区から２つずつオンライン
新聞をメモ帳に保存し、それをコンコーダンスにかけて言語処理してみた。ここからオ
ーストラリアの様々なことを読み取ることができた。最初に 3.1 ではどの単語が英語の
なかで多く使われているのかを調べ、そのほかに動詞の頻度についても調べた。次に
3.2 でオーストラリア英語といえば特殊なスラング、省略後、造語の多い言語である。
そこでフォーマルな形式をとっている新聞英語のなかでどれだけ特殊な単語を使って
いるのか調べた。また 3.3 では”-person”、”-man”、”-woman”がつく単語に注目して、
オーストラリアの男女社会がどこまで進んでいるのか、またはどういった職業が男女平
等の地位にいるのかをこれらの単語から説いてみた。3.4 ではオーストラリア英語はイ
ギリス英語なのか、それともアメリカ英語なのかを調べてみた。歴史的な背景から多く
の人がオーストラリア英語はイギリス英語という人も多いが、近年アメリカ映画、音楽、
テレビ、雑誌など、オーストラリア社会にとってアメリカの影響は大きい。その中でア
メリカ英語を好む若者が増加してきているという。そこでイギリス的単語、アメリカ的
単語から実際オーストラリアではどちらの単語を使用しているのか調べてみた。4.1 で
はオーストラリアの代表的な動物の名前を新聞の中から検索して、どの地域でどの動物
名が多く使用されているのかを調べ、そこから生息地域と合致するのかを調べてみた。
4.2 では多くの美しい自然を誇るオーストラリアで、どの単語がどの地域で頻繁に使用
されているかを調べることにより、新聞の言語処理からオーストラリアの地理について
も調べることができた。4.3 ではスポーツ好きのオーストラリア人が何のスポーツ記事
を好んで読んでいるのか？または各地域でスポーツ愛好の差はあるのかを調べた。最後
に 4.4 では州と都市の名前が各新聞の中でどれくらい表記されていることを調べ、その
ことによって、都市（新聞のある都市）と州、またその都市とある都市との関係を知る
ことができた。この研究はコンコーダンスを使って、そこから出で来る数字を読み取っ
て、探っていくという形をとっているので、考え方などか偏っているかもしれない。し
かし、どの数字に興味を持ち、そこからどう考えたかがこのコンコーダンスの面白いと
ころではないかと思う。コンコーダンスは調べれば調べるほど奥が深く、いろんな発見
がある。コンコーダンスを使った研究はとても大変だったがやりがいのある内容だった
と信じている。
1. Introduction
Australia is a huge country surrounded by seas. It is famous for its rich natural
beauty, sightseeing, and beaches. There are many animals, plants and insects; some that
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
Australian English is the English which Australian people use in Australia. However, what
is Australian English? Most people think that Australian English is close to British English
because Australia was a colony of Britain, so British English influenced Australian speaking
and writing English. However, the web page titled Unchiku of Australian English said that
nowadays a lot of American movies and TV are broadcast in Australia and young Australian
people are likely to use American English expressions and pronunciation because they think
they are cool. Then I am very curious how Australian English is changing now and which
way Australian English is going to go. One more thing I am interested in is that every
national language has various dialects so Australian English should have them; for example,
spellings, special words and meanings, etc. These two points will be specifically researched
through online Australian newspapers.
2. Corpus
According to Longman Dictionary, a corpus is a collection of information or material to be
studied. To use corpus in this research is a good way to find out information on the two
points mentioned in the introduction. In this research I looked at the web pages
http://www.nla.gov.au/npapers/
and
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com
/australi.htm,
picked two online newspapers from seven states, concorded them using Concordance
(http://www.rjcw.freeserve.co.uk/.)i, and compared the results.
Here are the seven states of Australia, what online newspapers I picked, and the
introductions of the city where the online newspapers companies are located.
New South Wales (NSW)
1. Canberra Times (63394 tokens), http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/home.asp
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
Canberra - It is the nation’s capital, which has any of Australia’s most important public
buildings, art works and institutions.
2. Sydney Morning Herald (60501 tokens), http://www.smh.com.au/index.html
Sydney - Australia's premier city is the oldest settlement in Australia, the economic
powerhouse of the nation and the country's capital in everything but name.
Queensland (Qld)
3. The Gold Coast Bulletin (28181 tokens), http://www.gcbulletin.com.au/
Southport - Southport is located 70 km south of Brisbane. Visitors get together for
shopping, eating, having fun with wonderful beaches.
4. The Sunshine Coast Daily (54429 tokens), http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/
Maroochydore - Maroochydore is located 98 km north of Brisbane. This area including
Maroochy, Noosa, Coolum, and Maroochydore is called Sunshine Coast. Visitors have
the luxury of stepping out of bed onto either the sands of the broad surf beach or the
shores of the beautiful Maroochy River.
Northern Territory (NT)
5. Northern Territory News (13166 tokens), http://www.news.com.au/nt/
Darwin - The “capital” of northern Australia is closer to Jakarta than it is to Sydney, and
closer to Singapore than it is to Melbourne, so it's no surprise that it looks outward to
Asia as much as it looks inland to the rest of Australia.
6. Alice Springs News (114217 tokens), http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/
Alice Springs - Alice Springs is the unofficial capital of Outback Australia. It is very
famous for “Uluru” which is the sacred place for the Aborigines. Alice is a city of 27,000
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
people, with supermarkets, banks, and the odd nightclub. It's a friendly, rambling,
unsophisticated kind of place.
Western Australia (WA)
7. The West Australia, (62530 tokens), http://www.thewest.com.au/
Perth - Perth a vibrant and modern city. It is like a capital of west Australia. Perth is
closer to Singapore than to Sydney so it claims to be the sunniest state capital in
Australia.
8. Midwest Times (9482 tokens), http://geraldton.yourguide.com.au/home.asp
Geraldton - Geraldton is located 400 km north of Perth. It is the hub of the hinterland
activity. As a port city it is the center of the fishing, manufacturing, construction,
agriculture and tourism industries of the Mid West Region.
South Australia (SA)
9. Whyalla News (22655 tokens), http://whyalla.yourguide.com.au/home.asp
Whyalla - Whyalla is located at the top of the Eyre Peninsula, 380 km. north of Adelaide.
Whyalla is South Australia's largest provincial city, and the gateway to the Eyre
Peninsula. An industrial town with steel making and shipbuilding as its main productions,
it also enjoys popularity as a tourist destination due to its Mediterranean climate and
location on the gulf.
10. The Transcontinental(13877 tokens), http://portaugusta.yourguide.com.au/home.asp
Port Augusta - Port Augusta is located 322 km north of Adelaide; on the Spencer
Gulf close to the Flinders Ranges this industrial city is responsible for an important supply
center for outback areas and its known as the Crossroads of the North.
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
Victoria (Vic)
11. The Chronicle (18947 tokens), http://wangaratta.yourguide.com.au/home.asp
Wangaratta - Wangaratta is a regional capital of some 17,500 people located 233 km
northeast of Melbourne.
12. The Journal (30448 tokens), http://www.thejournal.com.au/
Dandenong - Dandenong is located 30 km southeast Melbourne. Melbourne people
traditionally do a "day in the Dandenongs" from time to time, topping off their getaway
with Devonshire tea with scones and jam at one of the many cafes en route.
Tasmania (Tas)
13. The Advocate (40290 tokens), http://www.theadvocate.com.au/
Burnie - Burnie is located 282 km south of Hobart, which is the state capital of Tasmania.
It is the fourth largest city in Tasmania and a major industrial centre. One of the state's
largest enterprises, a pulp and paper factory, is located in Burnie.
14. Launceston Examiner (21724 tokens), http://www.examiner.com.au/index.asp
Launceston - Launceston, which is Tasmania's second largest city, is Australia's third
oldest after Sydney and Hobart. It is a pleasant city crammed with elegant Victorian and
Georgian architecture and plenty of remnants from convict days.
3. Linguistic Similarities and Differences
3.1 Most Common words
In Australian English what word is used the most? All of newspapers said “the” is
the number one word, as can be expected. The Australian uses “the” from 5.79% to 7.63%
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
in Australian English. Other common words, in order, are “to”, “and”, “a”, “for”, “in”, “of”,
“was”, “at”, “on”, “that”, “is”, “with”, and “said”. The use of the word “said” is especially high
because I used newspapers to research.
On the other hand, I looked up the verbs “get” (“gets”, “got”), “give” (“gives”, “gave”),
“take” (“takes”, “took”), “make” (“makes”, “made”) “have” (“has”, “had”), and “do” (“does”,
“did”), because the book titled You Can Communicate With Foreigners Using Only “Get” and
“Give” (Michihiro Matumoto1998) said these five verbs are often used in English and if you
know these verbs you can speak English well. Of these five verbs only “have”, (“has”, “had”)
always appeared in the top 20 words of each newspaper.
3.2 Use of Australian Vocabulary
The Australians love to use slang, abbreviation, and mintage to express their
feelings freely. There are so many words which only the Australians know, but it is hard to
research all of words in this research. Then I picked the very commonly known words
“Aussie”, “mate”, “bloody”, and “uni”. “Aussie” is someone from Australia and more friendly
than Australian. In the newspapers “Aussie” is used from 0.042% to 0.002%. Midwest Times
made the most use of “Aussie”. On the other hand, “Australian” was used from 0.2% to
0.039% in the newspapers. The West Australia made the most use “Australian”. Both
Midwest Times and The West Australia are in Western Australia so maybe people living WA
are proud of being Australian or Aussie from the result. We may also conclude that the
Midwest Times may try to appear more casual where as the West Australia is more formal.
Second, “mate” is a famous Australian English word meaning a friend but it can be
used to talk about or to anyone even a total stranger. Again, The Midwest Times had the
highest rate (0.021%) of using “mate” of all the newspapers. The people living in around
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
Geralton where the Midwest Times is must be real Australians. The second highest was
Northern Territory News (0.015%), and Whyalla News was third (0.009%).
The third word “bloody” is an all-purpose intensifying adjective. In this research
Northern Territory News used this word the most (0.008%) and then Gold Coast Bulletin
(0.007%) and Launceston Examiner (0.005%).
As for the last word “uni”, I also looked up “university”. “Uni” appeared from 0.004%
to 0.001% in five newspapers: Canberra Times, The Sunshine Coast Daily, Alice Springs
News, The West Australia, and The Advocate. On the other hand, “university” appeared in
10 newspapers, all except the Northern Territory News, Whyalla News, The
Transcontinental, The Chronicle. The Launceston Examiner got the best score(0.032%),
and next was The Sunshine Coast Daily(0.028%).
ii
One more set of words I researched is”Aborigines” and “Indigenous people”.
According to Australian Dictionary, the Australians tend to call Aborigines Indigenous people
because the term Aboriginal people sometimes sounds insulting. Then I am curious if it is
true or not from the result. The answer is that six of the fourteen newspapers are using
Indigenous people instead of using Aborigine. Indeed, I only found “Aborigines” in two
newspapers, both from NT, where more Aboriginal people probably live than any of the other
states because it has their sacred place.
It is indeed interesting that only these
newspapers and use the term”Aborigines” and not “Indigenous people”.
3.3 Use of Gender Related Language
We can also learn the social background of different areas through the newspapers.
I researched words with “-person”, “-woman”, “-man” to see how equal the level of gender
was in use of these words.
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
First of all, I researched “spokesperson”, “spokeswoman”, and ”spokesman” which
the only term that has three variations in the newspapers. It means that this job is popular
among both woman and man, and going to equal level of stage. The Sunshine Coast Daily,
Alice Springs News, and The Advocate, use the term “spokesperson” in higher numbers
than “spokeswoman” and “spokesman”. However, in the rest of cities “spokesman” is still
higher than “spokesperson” and “spokeswoman”.
I also looked up the word “chairperson”, “chairman”, and “chairwoman” but I could
not find “chairwoman” unfortunately. Perhaps this job still has a male atmosphere even
though there are some active chairwomen. Although it has both names for this job,
“chairman” is still stronger than “chairperson”.
Here are the rest of words with no “-person” and “-woman” variations; “salesman”,
“storeman”, “businessman”, “barman”, “ironman”, “sportsman”, “gloveman”, “paceman”, and
“batsman”.
3.4 Use of British English or American English
Most of people say that Australian English is British English. As discussed in the
introduction, however, young Australian people are likely to use American English. That
would be interesting if I could show where Australian English is British English or American
English from the result.
One of the most common differences between British and American English is
spelling. In British English, American word “meter” is “metre”, “center” is “centre” and
“threater” is “theater”. In case of Australian English, all of these words use British spellings.
Second, in British English, “traveler” is “traveller” and “marvelous” is “marvellous”. In this
case too Australian newspapers use British English words “traveller” and “marvellous”.
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
Finally In British English, American “behavior” is “behaviour”, “color” is “colour”, humor is
humour, and “labor” is “labour”. However, from the results, not all American words with “or”
use “our”. Australian words “colour”, “behaviour”, and “humour” are definitely British English.
However, the Australians use both “favour” and “favor” and both “labour” and “labor”.
According to Australian dictionary, Australians use both “labor” and “labour” because they
have some exceptions like an “Australian Labor Party”.
Australian English uses British words with “en~” rather than American words with
“in~” for example,except for “enquiry” and “inquiry”. Also, American “flier” and “tire” are
British and Australian “flyer” and “tyre”.
However, there are many Australian words with “~ise” and “~ize” at the same time;
“capitalise” and “capitalize”, “organise” and “organize”, “minimise” and “minimize”. Although
their use might depend on the person, every Australian knows both spellings. It is interesting
that some words with “~ise” and “ize” use only American style or British style. For example,
as for “prize”, the Australians use American style because every newspapers did not use
“prise”. On the other hand the Australians use “realise” which is British style. As for words
with “~ce” and “~se”, The Australians use both of them except “offense” which is used only
British style. Both “cheque” and “check” are used by the Australians as well. As a result, it is
hard to tell Australian English is British or American English because it is mixed.
4. Language and Locality
4.1 Local Animals
Australia is famous for unique animals like kangaroos, koalas, crocodiles, and
emus etc. In this section, we summarize the distribution of Australian animals from the
newspapers. Here are the animals found in the newspapers; kangaroo, koala, emu, dingo,
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
crocodile, and platypus. According to Longman Dictionary, a “platypus” is a small furry
Australian animal that has a beak and feet like a duck, lays eggs, and gives milk to its young.
It lives around SA and Tas. It is interesting that the word “platypus” (0.001%) appeared only
The Advocate from Tas. “Crocodile” (0.137%) which is a large reptile that has a long body
and long mouth with sharp teeth also appeared only Northern Territory News from NT. There
are two kinds of crocodiles which are freshwater crocodile and saltwater crocodile. The
former lives in west of WA and the latter lives in NT. Which is fiercer? It is saltwater crocodile
who eat crabs, fish, caw, horse, and human. Perhaps this is why the people living in NT pay
more attention to this crocodile in the newspapers.
4.2 Local Geography
There is a lot of natural beauty in Australia, and this section will research the
relationship between the newspapers and its geographies. First word “ocean” gets a high
score in Midwest Times from WA because there is Indian Ocean next to WA. “Sea” and
“ocean” did not appear in Vic. However, these words should not have appeared commonly
in Alice Springs News because of the midland, but it has a few instances of “sea” (0.008%)
and “ocean” (0.001%) in it. I also compared these three words; “beach”, “coast”, and “shore”.
“Coast” is more use than “beach” and “shore”. It is not surprising that The Sunshine Coast
Daily uses “coast” the most, even though I omitted words like “Gold Coast” or “Sunshine
Coast”, then The Advocate and Canberra Times do so. It is interesting that The Gold Coast
Bulletin is fourth in use of “coast”.
Next I checked the words “river”,”creek” and, “stream”. As for the word “river”,
Northern Territory News got the best score because there are many rivers with various
names. On the other hand, Whyalla News and The Journal do not have these words. For the
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
words “sand” and “desert”, only “desert” gets an extremely high score in Alice Springs News.
This is because there are some deserts like Great Sandy Desert, Simpson Desert, and
Great Victorian Desert around Alice Springs. Furthermore, I researched the words
“mountain”, “mount”, and “hill” and found out that there is only “hill” in Vic. What natural
resources are close to the Australians from the result are “coast (0.712%)”, “beach
(0.502%)”, “river (0.161%)”, “creek (0.126%)”, “mount and mountain (0.122%)”, “hill
(0.111%)”, “sea (0.1%)”, “ocean (0.087%)”, ”shore (0.066%)”, “desert (0.022%)”, “sand
(0.02%)”, and “stream (0.004%)”. This “coast” is, of course, different from the “coast” in
“Gold Coast” or “Sunshine Coast” so it seems from these newspapers that “coast” and
“beach” are closer than “mountain” or “hill” for the Australians.
4.3 Local Sports
The Australians love to play and watch sports like cricket, tennis, golf, and football, and
swimming. The first word “cricket” came from Britain and is an unknown sports for the
Japanese. It is “like” baseball with two teams of eleven players, in which players try to get
points by hitting a ball and running between two sets of special sticks. Cricket is very popular
among the Australians. From the results, NT, WA, and Vic had extremely high occurrences
of cricket, so there may be more people who love to read the articles of cricket than the
people from the rest of the states. Second word “tennis” got a high score in SA and NT got
very low scores close to zero. The third word “golf” seems to be popular among NSW and
Tas. The fourth word “football” is very popular in Vc and SA. On the other hand, it does be
not occur often in NSW and Qld
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
4.4 Local City and State Names
Here are the six states and one territory.
New
Queensland
South
Northern
Western
South
Victoria
Territory
Australia
Australia
Tasmania
Wales
①
0.001
0.086
0.003
0.004
0.008
0.011
0.003
②
0.003
0.012
0.01
0.002
0.007
0.008
0.007
③
0
0.224
0
0.004
0.004
0.014
0.004
④
0.006
0.16
0.004
0.002
0
0.009
0.002
⑤
0.008
0.023
0.084
0
0
0
0
⑥
0
0.013
0.032
0.004
0.004
0.004
0.004
⑦
0.002
0.016
0.003
0.021
0.008
0.021
0.003
⑧
0.011
0
0
0.011
0
0
0
⑨
0
0
0
0
0.079
0.009
0.004
⑩
0
0.014
0
0.007
0.058
0
0
⑪
0
0.005
0
0
0
0.121
0
⑫
0
0.003
0
0
0
0.046
0.003
⑬
0.005
0.101
0.003
0.001
0.001
0.022
0.062
⑭
0
0.018
0
0
0
0.018
0.226
*Grey box shows that it has to be the best score because it belongs its area.
New South Wales should have been most common in Canberra Times and Sydney
Morning Herald. However, The West Australia had the best use of “New South Wales”. On
the other hand, SA and Vic which I chose to research as very local have no occurrences of
“New South Wales”. The total number of occurrences of New South Wales in each state is
as follows: NSW is 0.036%, Qld is 0.518, NT is 0.139%, NT is 0.056%, WA is 0.169%, SA is
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
0.283%, and Tas is 0.318%. Interestingly, the state that is the most influential in Australia
from the result is Queensland, even though the capital is in New South Wales.
Here are twelve familiar Australian cities in the world.
Table. 2-1. Occurrences of major Australian cities in each newspaper <Part 1>
Canberra
Sydney
①
0.147
0.048
②
0.008
③
Gold
Alice
Brisbane
Cairns
Darwin
0.017
0.053
0.003
0.014
0.002
0.066
0.003
0.018
0.002
0.007
0.002
0.011
0.082
0.5358
0.167
0.007
0.018
0
④
0.002
0.031
0.035
0.092
0.006
0.017
0.004
⑤
0
0.008
0
0.015
0
0.387
0.053
⑥
0.011
0.028
0.002
0.005
0.004
0.054
0.238
⑦
0.021
0.09
0
0.03
0.003
0.005
0.005
⑧
0
0.011
0
0
0
0
0
⑨
0.009
0.009
0
0
0
0
0
⑩
0
0.007
0
0.007
0
0.007
0.007
⑪
0.016
0.011
0
0
0
0
0
⑫
0
0.01
0
0.003
0
0
0
⑬
0.004
0.03
0.023
0.058
0.003
0.017
0.002
⑭
0
0.009
0.005
0.028
0
0
0
Coast
Springs
According to these results, Gold Coast Bulletin, Northern Territory News, and
Lauceston Examiner write articles about their hometowns extremely. On the other hand,
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
Canberra and Sydney do not seem to get into their town that much. Melbourne seems to be
the capital of Australia because each newspaper put “Melbourne” almost equally and more
than Sydney and Canberra. Compared with Sydney and the capital, Canberra, Sydney
appeared in the newspaper more than Canberra.
Most countries have a strong idea about its capital but in the case of Australia it is
still weak. Indeed, some people out of Australia believe that Sydney is the capital of
Australia. From the total scores, Canberra is 0.229%, Sydney is 0.323%, Gold Coast is
0.62%, Brisbane is 0.449%, Cairns is 0.028%, Darwin is 0.526%, Alice Springs is 0.313%,
Perth is 0.035%, Adelaide is 0.278%, Melbourne is 0.572%, Hobart is 0.058%, and
Launceston is 0.457%, you can see the points said above.
Table. 2-1. Occurrences of major Australian cities in each newspaper <Part 2>
Perth
Adelaide
Melbourne
Hobart
Launceston
0.02
0.015
0.052
0.003
0.001
①
0.02
0.012
0.058
0.002
0
②
0.01
0.018
0.082
0
0
③
0
0.006
0.022
0.002
0
④
0.02
0.038
0.03
0
0
⑤
0
0.021
0.018
0
0
⑥
0.14
0.026
0.072
0.005
0
⑦
0.13
0
0.021
0.011
0
⑧
0
0.053
0
0
0
⑨
0
0.079
0.058
0
0
⑩
0.01
0
0.079
0
0
⑪
0
0.003
0.062
0.003
0.003
⑫
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
0
0.007
0.045
0.032
0.006
⑬
0
0
0
0
0.447
⑭
5. Conclusion
As a result of this research, I learned a lot of Australian things from this corpus of
newspapers. It was especially interesting to research the social background of Australia
through the news: nature, sports, animals, etc.
However, the work here is still very exploratory.
It is hard to say anything
conclusively in an assertive tone because this result researched from the newspapers, is
just my viewpoint of the results. Statistics can be made to say anything, but the important
point of concordances is knowing what numbers to pick and making conclusions from the
numbers.
Concordances open doors to unknown worlds, and it is up to the researcher to
interpret them. The more you want to know something, the more you can go deeply through
the corpus. I played around with one more research topic about the level of safety by
checking the words “police”, “cop”, and “copper” which means police. Here, Sydney Morning
Herald in Sydney got the high score, then Northern Territory News where Darwin is located
and The West Australia where Perth is located got the second and third scores. From this
result, I could say Sydney has the most cases involving the police so that the level of safety
is very low. Thus this side of social background in Australia may also be researched. If you
want, you can continue this kind of research on and on.
Finally research by using corpus was extremely hard. One must sit in front of a
computer all the time and bear unpleasant gifts such as a stiff back, congestion and lost
data.iii However, doing this kind of research is rewarding for some reason.
Australian English through Online Newspapers
(Nambu)
The Full Monty: Social features and English features
By
Miwa Tamba
A GRADUATION THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF FOREIGN STUDIES
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
BACHELOR OF ARTS
IN ENGLISH STUDIES
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
Dec 17, 2002
This paper consists of approx. 3800 words
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
１. Introduction
Movies are mirrors which reflect the times. Movies portray what’s
going on the times. It is said that if you see a movie you can get a glimpse of
the climate at that time, people’s way of thinking and interests. Movies have
dynamic power which can control or influence your values. Movies can be
used as a vehicle to promote the director’s or writer’s will.
For example, “Michael Collins”, a film which deals with the Ireland
dispute seems to be depicted much in favor of the IRA. Audiences can be
exploited by the use of the movies as propaganda. During world war Ⅱ,
Hitler propagandized through films. Sometimes movies can be rather
hypocritical or lack credibility when they contain a strongly biased message.
On the other hand, movies can genuinely help people to have an awareness
of the issues.
With the big success of the Full Monty, it is fair to say that
unemployment issues are recognized more. Not only unemployment issues,
but various other issues are dealt with in this film, such as divorce, diet,
sexless couples, depression, and homosexuality which you can see in all
contemporary societies today.
In this thesis, chapter 2 introduces the movie itself and Chapter 3
introduces social features of the film. Furthermore Chapter 4 introduces the
features from the point of English view.
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
2. Background of the film
Chapter 2 tells you the plot of the film, awards and success, and
meaning of the title of the film.
The Full Monty is a movie which could completely change your
perception of Britain. Before they see this film most Japanese may have only
fond, posh images for Britain as they adore this country. This image probably
came from the Peter Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland, Tea, cute double Decker
buses, the Queen and so on. The Full Monty, however, is the story of working
class people, therefore it could sweep away the posh image of Britishness.
This movie might be a kind of a shock. However I think people will
probably like Britain better than before since they will get the impression
that this film shows much more of real Britain than what they used to
imagine before. This film gives a message which is interpreted as “don’t lose
hope and struggle through when you are in a tough situation”
The northeast of England has traditionally been one of the poorest
regions of the UK. The Full Monty seems to accurately reflect life in a typical
Northern English city. The Full Monty is a “feel-good movie” but what really
captures your heart is a sense of sadness and strong spirit in a poor northern
city.
2.1. The Plot
The story is set in Sheffield, the northern city in England which used
to be thriving “thanks to steel” in the early 1970s. But now 25 years later, the
city has lost the liveliness and the steel industry is almost closed. Gaz is the
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
main character who has been made redundant and is on the verge of losing
his only son since Gaz cannot pay custody for his wife. One day he sees the
women queuing up to see a performance by the Chippendales, male strippers
and comes up with the idea of raising money by stripping and going further
than them, by going the “full monty” –taking all his clothes off. Then he
persuades his best friend Dave, chubby, self-conscious guy who is also a
laid-off steelworker and together they assemble a troupe of six. Lomper has
his old mother to take care of and was committing suicide from depression
when Gaz and Dave first met him. Gerald was their foreman but now he is
also unemployed and has been unable to tell his wife, who has been still
using her credit card for 6 months. Then there’s Horse, an old black guy who
is drug addicted, and Guy, young handsome, homosexual guy who cannot
either sing or dance but has big equipment which looks great in a G-string.
Everybody has their own problems. This is the story of how these guys are
dealing with unemployment, with their feelings of uselessness, with their
vulnerability.
2.2. Awards and success
The film has received 4 awards in the BAFTA (British association of
Film and Television Awards) Awards ceremony in 1997. It was voted Best
Film, Best actor (Robert Carlyle who played the main character Gaz), Best
supporting Actor (Tom Wilkinson who played Gerald, a former foreman of
others) and Audience-Most popular Film. The film was also nominated for 4
1998 Academy Awards-Best picture, Best director- Peter Cattaneo who made
his debut with this film, Best Screenplay Written Directly for the screen-
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
Simon Beaufoy, Best Original Musical or comedy score- Ann Dudley. The ‘98
Oscars were dominated by the film The Titanic but The Full Monty did earn
an Oscar for Best Original Music.
The film had been number one at the box office in Britain for five
weeks after its release and surprisingly it became number three at the US
office without the general release. It was only shown at 387 screens out of a
possible 10.000. Many people returned to see it again and again. Director
Peter Cattaneo explains the success of The Full Monty, “The comedy was
complemented by a serious tone because it was about real people. In addition
to being funny, it was a story with a contemporary relevant about what long
term unemployment does to people.” The film is a comedy, but its humour
derived from situations which audiences could find themselves in real life.
The Full Monty has also become a Broadway musical set in Buffalo in
the US.
2.3. Meaning of “The Full Monty”
There are some theories about the meaning of the title “Full Monty” are as
follows;
1) Fieldmarshall Montgomery, he Desert Rats fame, nicknamed Monty,
would always insist on getting a full English breakfast every day with all
the trimmings. Thus if anyone got the whole lot, they got the full Monty.
2) Soldiers demobilized from the army were given a full suit of clothes from
the tailors – Montague Burton’s. Therefore, a full suit was a full Monty.
3) From the medieval French – ‘montre’ meaning ‘to show’.
4) From an old Edwardian tale meaning the Full Monte Carlo.
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
5) A pile of cards given to the winners of a Spanish card game – ‘full monte’
3. Social Features of The Full Monty
The full Monty is made in 1997 and depicted the society after
Thatcher’s era (1979-1990). After the World War II Britain became one of
the most well ordered welfare states in Europe with the famous “from the
cradle to the grave” policy of the Labour Party cabinet.
In Britain then, after you left school you were allowed about 60
pounds a week, fixed living expenses from the government if you were
unemployed or short of income, even though you hadn’t paid
unemployment insurance. Therefore you were guaranteed the minimum
standard of living when you finished school even if you didn’t have a job.
It was said that this is the cause of the high unemployment rate.
Also an unemployed person didn’t have to pay for medical
prescriptions, dental treatment, eye tests or cheap glasses. Besides that
they didn’t need to pay for their children’s school lunch.
Pregnant
women got vitamin tablets for free and if you were a unemployed
pregnant woman, you received 100 pounds a week.
However, during 1979-1990, when Thatcher was Prime Minister, she
cut down sharply on the welfare budget and in inverse proportion to the
rise in prices, the unemployment allowance went down. Therefore people
could not make a living even if they were on the dole. The Full Monty was
made in this social background. In this Chapter the issues dealt in the
film
such
as,
divorce,
unemployment,
homosexuality
and
male
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
masculinity, are discussed
3.1. Divorce
In the film Gaz is a divorced father who cannot afford money to share
custody of his son, Nathan. Now his mother has a new partner. National
Statistics (it only take statistics in England and Wales) show that the
number of the divorce in Britain increased by 1.4%, from 155,000 in 2000 to
157,000 in 2001. This is the first time that the number of divorces has
increased since 1996. The provisional divorce rate increased to 13.0 divorcing
people per 1,000 married population in 2001 from 12.7 in 2000. Unexpectedly,
1997, when the film was made divorce number decreased. We can say that
the divorce rate dropped in 2000’s compared with the 80’s and 90’s. In 1971
the divorce number is extremely high because of The Divorce Reform Act in
introduced in 1969.
Divorces (Includes annulments. Data for 1961 to 1970 are GB only.)
*”The Divorce Reform Act in1969 in England and Wales came into effect in 1971. This
Act introduced a single ground for divorce- irretrievable breakdown of marriage-which
could be established by proving one or more of certain facts: adultery; desertion;
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
unreasonable behavior; separation of two years with mutual consent and separation of
five years at the solo wish of the petitioner.” (National Statistics)
In 2001 70 % of divorce couples were both in their first marriage.
Over the last 10 years the age at divorce has risen from 39 to 42 years for
men and from 36 to 39 years for women, reflecting the rise in age at marriage.
In 2001 the average age at first marriage are 30.4 years for men and 28.4
years for women and in 1991 these are 26.5 years for men and 24.6 years for
women.
In September 2001 the remarriage rate was 24.9 remarriages per 1000
divorced men and 23.8 remarriages per 1000 divorced women. The average
ages of remarriage at the same period are 42.9 for men and 40.2 for women.
When they have children, females tend to take children with them. The
survey shows that 88% of step families consisted of a couple with at least one
child from the female partner’s previous relationship and 9 % of step families
consisted of a couple with at least one child from male partner’s previous
relationship. 3% of step families consisted of both children. In the Film,
Nathan lives with his mother and her new partner.
3.2. Unemployment
Unemployment is another main issue in The Full Monty and in
contemporary British society. According to the investigation of National
Statistics; Labour Force Survey (LFS) figures for July to September 2002
show that employment fell by 36,000 compared with the previous three
months. Male employment dropped by 22,000 compared with a fall of 14,000
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
among women. The number of full time workers was down by 72,000 on the
other hand part-time employers increased by 37,000.The working age (men
are 16 to 64 and women are 16 to 59) employment rate- the percentage of the
working age population in work- was 74.3 %, down from 74.5 % in the period
April to June. The trend in the employment rate has been broadly flat over
the last year. The LFS shows that unemployment rose by 45.000 over the
quarter to stand at 1.541 million for the July to September quarter. The
unemployment rate rose from 5.1 % to 5.3 %. The trend in the unemployment
rate has been increasing over the past year.
In the film the image of the security guard is used to emphasis the
terrible social plight of many workers. Many ex-steelworkers and miners
have become security guards, often working for as little as 2 pounds an hour.
3.3. Homosexuality
In the latter stage of the film Lomper and Guy became a couple. So
how many gay people in are there in Britain? According to The National
Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles in October 2002 asked the question
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
“How would you define your sexuality?”
93% said Heterosexual
3% Homosexual
3% Bisexual
1% Didn't know
The survey point to about 5 % of the population of London and 1 %
outside London are gay. With a conservative estimate that means:
5% of 8 million Londoners =400,000
1% of 52 million elsewhere = 520,000
Total Gay People = 920,000
Also, according to the survey;
Should gay sex be made illegal?
23% Yes
77% No
Should same-sex couples be allowed to marry?
50% Yes
50% No
Should same-sex couples be allowed to adopt children?
41% Yes
59% No
Hate crime against youngsters
83% of young gay people have experienced verbal abuse
47% have suffered anti-gay violence
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
It is interesting that 23 %of people severely consider that gay should be
made illegal but when it comes to marriage and children, almost half people
are rather tolerant. But still, 83% of young gay people have experienced
verbal abuse and 47% have suffered anti-gay violence. Thus you can know
that gay people are not well accepted in British society.
3.4. Male Masculinity
Some people claim that the centre of the topic of The Full Monty is
about the male masculinity.
In the film, men are feeling useless because of
being jobless. Gaz cannot keep his dignity. He can’t afford to take Nathan to
the football match or heat his house. Nathan complains to Gaz about the cold
in his house and says to him “Can’t we do normal things?” “You always make
me do stupid things.”
Being talked to by his son like this heightens Gaz’s
feeling of uselessness.
Compared with the men who know only working in the steel mill and
cannot get a new job, women are increasingly going out to work and
becoming the new breadwinners. This gives women more financial
independence and often leads to them wearing the trousers in the
relationship, further contributing to man’s loss of masculinity. Women
therefore have more money than men and they go to the famous strip
dancers’ Chippendale’s show and cheer and wolf whistle towards the strip
dancers. Gaz and Dave witness them and feel miserable, but this gives Gaz
the idea of strip show then.
Simon Beaufoy, the writer of the screen play, was born and grown up in
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
Yorkshire and come up with the idea for the script with the closure of the
steel mills in the late 1980s. He comments “With women increasingly
becoming the breadwinners and traditionally roles being reversed by their
new-found economic independence, men were forced to reexamine their
relationships and deeply-held beliefs about gender roles. Fifteen years ago
male strippers were unheard of in England. There have been huge changes
in the past several decades in how men and women view each other and in
The Full Monty we used the need not to lose hope, and the humour and
optimism that is present even in life’s most difficult moments.”
Men worry about their body as well as women do. Dave has a strong
complex about being chubby and wrapping himself with a cling film. Horse
buys some dodgy tool to make his manhood bigger. All of the men in the film
are very self-conscious of taking all their clothes off and scared of being a
laughing stock. Thus male insecurity and vulnerability are well depicted
throughout the film.
In the end of the scene, all six men managed to take all of their clothes
and become “Full Monty”. “They show that they have the balls to show their
balls”. You can interpret that by taking all of their clothes off, they regain
masculinity and self esteem that has been taken from them through the loss
of their jobs.
4. Features of English in The Full Monty
English spoken in the Film serves to break another general
stereotype towards Britain. When watching this film for the first time, one
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
may not understand exactly what the characters are saying as they
pronounce in a very different way from what is generally considered the
Standard English pronunciation.
Chapter 4 analyses English features in the film such as local
pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and rise features based on social
factors.
4.1. Features based on location
The English spoken in Sheffield has typical features of northern
English. For examples of the pronunciation, in northern England and middle
England, they don’t have /
/ vowel, so they pronounce /
/ instead of /
/.
You easily find it throughout the film. e.g. but /b
t/, bloody /bl d /, (in the
film). Also they pronounce dance /d ns/, laugh/l
f/ (in the film) which they
are pronounced /da:ns/, /la:f/ in Received Pronunciation(RP). In some words,
/a: / vowel is replaced by /
/ vowel.
Hughes (1979) shows how the /h/ sound is dropped and is said that it
is normal not to be pronounced. In the film, when Gaz’s son Nathan says,
“dad, I’m hungry” it is pronounced /aim ngri/ and when Lomper says “I can’t
stand heights, me.” it is sounded /aik nt st ndaits mi/, and Gaz says to
Nathan, “you’ve got a hangover.” and it is sounded /juvg t n
/,
Dave also says “come’ere”
4.2. Local Pronunciation
There
are
some
Sheffield
accents.
These
seem
completely
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
incomprehensible at first glance, but if you once master the changes of accent,
dialect and grammar of Northern English. You can figure them out.
“Eenosenowtabartit” means “He knows nothing about it.”
→Ee (He) nose(knows) nowt(nowt→nothing) abartit( about it)
“Purremineer” means “put them in here”
→Purr (put) em(them) ineer(in here)
“Midadzgorrajag” means “My dad got a jag.”
→Mi (Me→ My) dadz(dads) gorr (got) ajag( a jag).
“Tintintin” means “It isn’t in the tin)
→Tint(It isn’t) intin (in the tin)
4.3. Local Grammar
Form the grammatical point of view, the most frequent feature is that
the past tense of verb ‘to be’ is always “were”. Here are many examples from
the film. “That were your bloody maintenance!” “That were mine.” “That
were crap.” “That were our Jean isn’t it?” “When I were about 12” “I were a
stripper”
Another feature, they don’t put three person’s –s for examples. “ it don’t
matter”, “ she don’t think so”( in the film). Hughes (1979) says that in some
areas a past participle is used as a past tense. This happens several times in
the film, for example Lomper telling Gaz “I seen him go”. In Northern
English, the possessive is frequently replaced as the objective. I often heard
this used in Liverpool. In the film Gerald says “it were me first interview.”
and Gaz says “he’s me child.”
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
4.4. Local Vocabulary
In the Full Monty, there are many examples of slang which make up the
distinctive
northern
English
vocabulary.
Some
words
are
quite
location-specific. You could hear only in Sheffield or in small districts of the
city.
Some examples of these are:
Aye= yes, lad= a boy or young man, lass=a girl or young girl,
nowt=nothing, summat=something, nahden= now then (greeting) chuffing=
a mild swear word (used to emphasize what you are saying), Widger= penis,
(Gerald says to Gaz “Little and Large prancing round Sheffield with their
widgers out”). Beggar=a fellow, (Lomper says “here’s the beggar” when he
finds Nathan), Benny= a sudden outburst of temper (Gaz said to Dave “all
right, don’t get a benny on.”) Eppy= a fit of anger (Dave said to Gaz “Jean’ ll
throw an eppy.”).
These words only seem to be found or have special meanings in
Sheffield. Mash=brew, as in brew the tea. Nesh= feeling cold when others
don’t, or being unnecessarily frightened.
In addition, many local words are used quite frequently in the film.
For example, “Ay up” is used to catch attention and appears in the film 5
times.
“Chuff” is the most frequently used word in the film, it is used in
place of harsher swear words which would be inappropriate in a comedy for
children. e.g. “Chuffing Ｎora!” “That’s much of a chuffing SOS is it?” “I don’t
see why they chuff out” “chuffing woman’s doing D.I.Y.” “What’s that
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
pasty-face chuffer<which means Lomper> want?” “My chuffing pleasure” (as
sarcastic), “Go get chuffed”.
4.5. Features based on social factors
The Full Monty is about the story of working class people. Most of the
characters speak with local accents to some extent. It is hard to find people
who don’t speak it in the film. Only one instructor at the job centre and the
interviewers speak with RP. Gerald is the only guy who belongs to the middle
class but he speaks with accents and dialog especially when he is with other
guys or gets angry. For instant he says “you bloody bastards!! Why did you do
that? Why did you do that to me?? It were me first interview!!” when Gaz and
Dave disturbed his interview. Gerald is the one who speaks with less accent
and he changes his accent when he answers at the interview. Hughes (1979)
points out that “a regional accent speaker (may) attempt to change his
accents in a formal place or when he is with a RP speaker. A regional accent
speaker is practically a RP learner so he speaks slower than usual in order
not to make mistakes.”
5. Conclusion
In this paper, Chapter 1 introduces the relationship between movie
and society and Chapter 2 mentions the background and plot of the film,
awards and success, and meaning of the title of the film. In Chapter 3 social
features depicted in the film such as divorce, unemployment, homosexuality
and male masculinity are discussed and Chapter 4 describes English
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
features in the film the point of local pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary
and rise features based on social factors.
It was hard to write Chapter 4 since there was no available online
Transcript of this film. With such a resource, I could have used concordance
software and examined the words statistically.
In the future, one could compare “The Full Monty” with other films
which also depict life in Northern England cities such as “Brass off”, “Billy
Eliot”, “Trainspotting” and “Purely Belter”, and analyze the similarities and
differences of the situation in each film as well as the English features of
other local cities.
Bibliography
Holden, Wendy (1998). The Full Monty Based on the screenplay by Simon
Beaufoy. Penguin Readers.
Trudgill, P. and Arthur Hughes (1987).
English accents and dialects: an
introduction to social and regional varieties of British English.Edwar Arnold
Ltd.
National Statistics On line
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/
British stripper film goes all the way By Matt Wolf, Asociated Press
. http://www.canoe.ca/ JamMoviesReviesF/fullmonty.html
The Full Monty- Take the Quiz
http://www.foxsearchlight.com/fullmonty/quize2.htm
The Full Monty A freshing change By Robert Stevens
The Full Monty: Social features and English features (Tamba)
http://www.wsws.org/public_html/iwb11-3/monty.htm
The Full Monty: Taking it off for Thatcherism By Michael Bronski
http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/dec97bronski.htm
Film features full frontal humor By Liz Braun, Toronto Sun
http://www.canoe.ca/ JamMoviesReviesF/fullmpnty_braun.html
The Full Monty
http://www.demon.co.uk/dayco/monty.html
Ururun taizaiki
http://ururun.com/bn/226.htm
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation
BY
Ayami Murakami
A GRADUATION THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF FOREIGN STUDIES
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
BACHELOR OF ARTS
IN ENGLISH STUDIES
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
Dec. 17, 2002
This dissertation consists of approx. 3200 words
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation
(Murakami)
1. Introduction
When Japanese learn English, many of them have difficulty with Phonetics of
English. Why is this? One reason is that the foreign languages may have some phonemes
which they usually don’t say in mother language. For example, ‘th’and ‘f’ and other things
are not used in Japanese. Also another reason is that the rhythm of Japanese is different
from one of English.
In this report, I will write the particularly and difference things in term of writing
system and phonetics, using Japanese, and English. Next I will find the relationship of
writing system and phonetics. Finally I wrote what makes our English skill of pronouncing
better.
2. Typological writing systems
Different languages use different types writing systems. There are usually some writing
systems per a language. It is very difficult to classify them. They can be classified
typologically. Here, I first define three writing systems in English and Japanese according to
typology: Logographic writing system, Syllabic writing system and Alphabetic writing system,
as they are used in English and Japanese.
2.1. Pictographic and Logographic writing systems
A pictographic writing system is not a system of writing at all since it uses no recognizable
graphic units but simply pictures of items or situations. This writing system is highly stylized,
and it is open-ended since any new symbols may be added to suit the situation. It represents
meaning without any intervening levels of language structure. For example, Picture 1 may be
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation
(Murakami)
easily interpreted as representing a man spearing a pig, regardless of what language known
to the reader. However, it does not represent any particular meaning in any particular
language.
Logographic writing systems, however, represent ideas and objects. There is no alphabet in
this writing system and symbols are not used for their phonetic values. Today’s major
logographic writing system is Chinese characters used in China, Japan and Korea. In this
section, those of China and Japan are discussed.
This writing system represents whole morphemes or words. In this writing system, each
basic graphic unit represents a morpheme. In isolationg languages like Chinese, many words
consist of a single morpheme. Those languages which use a logographic writing system have
a number of words which consists a single morpheme, therefore are written by representing
each morpheme with a single logograph.
The 5-6,000 characters of Chinese language where every symbol is a unique word and has
to be memorized separately seem much more difficult to both learn and to use than the two
dozen letters of the Roman alphabet. One of the main features of alphabetic systems is that
there are few components to decipher the meaning of individual symbols. Also the children in
China or Japan learn to read and comprehend faster than those in countries using the
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation
(Murakami)
alphabet. That’s because the road from the individual letters of alphabet to actually reading
and comprehending written text is a long and laborious process.
The number of letters varies in different alphabets but it usually does not go above 50. On
the other hand, the Chinese writing system has a large number of characters. It is thought that
a person should know at least 3,000 characters to be able to understand newspapers. Even
smaller dictionaries contain at least 6,000 characters, whereas the largest ones can have as
many as 40-50,000. It is impossible task to memorize so many characters even for the most
educated person.
However, only about 6,000 characters are essential in everyday use and Chinese students
acquire these in the course of several years. For example, if a second-grader does not know
how to write the word “telecommunication”, it does not impede his or her reading abilities in
any way.
Another example of a logographic writing system is ‘kanji’ which means “Chinese
characters” in Japanese. Since Japanese had no native writing system, it first used Chinese
characters around the 5th century via Korea. Until the seventh century AD, the Japanese
were writing Japanese called ‘kanji’ using the Chinese style.
When the Japanese imported Chinese writing, they first imported Chinese writing not
logogrammatically but phonetically. For example, If they needed to write the word, “onna”
which means woman, early Japanese writing would write first a Chinese character that
represent the word ”on” or something close to it and another Chinese ideogram which
translates into the Chinese word “na”. Soon the Japanese adapted Chinese writing to the
Japanese language. The Japanese began to use the characters logogrammatically. It had
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation
(Murakami)
used the character that corresponded not to the sound but to the meaning of the Chinese
word. At this time both methods were used when one wrote Japanese using Chinese
characters.
This writing system is used in English which is regarded as an alphabetic writing system.
Even English can be shown to use a few symbols which are clearly logographic and it thus
not purely alphabetic. For example, numerals such as 1(one), 2(two) and miscellaneous
symbols such as & (and), %( percent).
2.2. Syllabic writing system
In syllabic writing systems, each basic symbol represents a syllable. In terms of efficiency
and economy, a syllabic writing system is much better than a logographic system of writing
since all languages have more different morphemes than they have syllables. The number of
separate syllabic characters is higher than for languages which have a very large number of
different syllables. The most familiar syllabic writing in common use today is Japanese.
These are Hiragana and Katakana in Japanese. Hiragana is used to write native Japanese
words and Katakana is usually used to write foreign loanwords. In the seventh and eighth
centuries, the Japanese invented these writing systems which are based on Chinese
characters.
Hiragana was introduced by the Buddhist, Kubo Daishi who had studied Sanskrit, a
phonetic alphabet, in India. Hiragana is made of simple and cursive strokes in which each
character represents a single syllable. In older days it was called ‘onna-de’, “woman’s writing”
and made possible the great works of Japanese literature composed by women such as
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation
(Murakami)
Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Syonagon. Their works made Hiragana become the dominant
writing system in Japan.
Later the Buddhist developed another writing system Katakana. This writing system is a
syllabic like Hiragana. However, Hiragana was produced by drawing Chinese characters in
quick, cursive, fluid stroke. On the other hand, Katakana takes Chinese characters and draws
only one part of the character, a kind of shorthand.
Kanji ”onna”
Hiragana
Katakana
These characters of Hiragana and Katakana are both derived from the same Chinese
character which stands for “woman”. Reading Japanese, we need to the ability to move
between three distinct writing systems. Often a work will be written using a combination of
both Kanji and Kana.
2.3. Alphabet writing systems
Alphabets are phonetic systems where the individual sounds of the language, such as
English, are represented with letters. Letters are symbols which only have phonetic values
and do not mean anything by themselves. The letters in a word have to be read together and
vocalized, either aloud or mentally, in other to be understand as a concept.
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation
(Murakami)
This writing system is potentially the most economical and efficient one. In this writing
system, each basic letters represents an individual segment or phonemes and reach
language has many fewer individual segments or phonemes than it does different syllables.
English orthography is replete with arbitrary spellings, and although t is basically alphabetic,
there are letters that actually stand for more than one segment and sequences of letters that
represent single sounds.
In addition, there are so-called silent letters which now have no sound value, although they
may have had sound value at the time the spelling of the words in question was set.
By the way, Japanese has an alphabetic writing system, Romaji. In everyday written
Japanese, romaji can be used to write numbers and abbreviations. When typing Japanese on
computers most people, both Japanese and non-Japanese, use romaji, which is converted to
kanji, hiragana or katakana by the input software. It is possible to type in hiragana or katakana
if you have a Japanese keyboard, but few people don’t.
3. Relationship between Phonetics and Writing system
3.1 Vowels and Consonants
English has approximately 11 vowels and 20 consonants. Japanese on the other hand has
5 vowels and 16 consonants. However, in the Japanese kana system, these sounds are
arranged in consonant-vowel pairs, and this arrangement forms the basis for the system.
a
i
ka
ki
u
ku
e
ke
o
ko
ga
gi
gu
ge
go
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation
(Murakami)
sa
si/shi
su
se
ta
ti/chi tu/tsu
te
so
to
da
na
ni
nu
ne
no
ha
hi
hu
he
ho
ma
mi
mu
me
mo
ya
ra
yu
ri
ru
za
zi/ji
-/di
pa
ba
zu
-/du
pi
bi
ze
de
pu
bu
zo
do
pe
be
po
bo
yo
re
wa
ro
o/wo
n
From this discussion it is clear that many sounds exist in English that cannot be expressed
in written Japanese. For example, [ , , v, f, r, l ] and [ , , ] and schwa and other one.
What will the word including these pronunciations be described in katakana of Japanese?
Valentine Day – ヴァレンタイン・デー
Thanks
- スァンクス(サンクス is usually described.)
Vest
- ヴェスト(ベスト is usually described)
Mother
- マザー
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation
(Murakami)
To the truth, these words aren’t pronounced correctly in Japanese. In Japanese, [ v ] in
‘Valentine’ becomes [ b ]. Also [ ] in ‘thanks’ becomes [ s ] and [ ] in ‘mother’ becomes [ z ].
Also, Japanese characters for these sounds which are made up of two sets of English
alphabets are called hiragana and katakana. For example, the “ka” sound which is written
with a ‘k’ and an ‘a’ in English alphabet is written one characters “か” or “カ” in Japanese. So,
most Japanese can’t separate this sound ‘ka’ and say ‘k’ and ‘a’. The reason why it happens
is discussed in next section.
3.2 Syllables and Writing system
In most linguistic literature, syllables are defined as the basic sound unit for making words.
The smallest possible word in any language is one syllable long. If it is too short to be a
syllable in the language, it cannot be a word. There are no words in a language that are
shorter than one syllable. Each language has different types of syllables.
Syllables are the sound unit of speech that organizes groups of segments. Segments are the
smallest sound units and are either consonants or vowel. The parts of a syllable include the
onset, the rhyme, the nucleus and the coda. These syllable parts, or constituents, organize
the segments that make up each syllable. These syllable trees use a word ‘cat’.
FLAT
Onset
ENGLISH
Rhyme
onset nucleus coda
Head
onset
JAPANESE
Coda
nucleus coda
onset
nucleus
coda
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation
(Murakami)
k
C
V
t
k
C
C
V
t
k
C
C
t
V
C
English allows branching rhymes and so they can have CVC syllables like‘cat’
[ k t ]. In construction, Japanese never allows branching rhymes. Japanese has only V and
CV syllable structures, which are also called morae, except for the syllable including the
sound [ n ]. In addition, most Japanese can’t pronounce if the word is separated [ k ] and
[
t ]. The reason is that one character of Japanese is made up of two sounds which is CV
syllable structure. In detail, Japanese has only a few main syllable structure variations.
V: vowel
[ a, i, u, e, o ]
YV: semivowel + vowel
[ ya, yu, yo, etc.. ]
CV: consonant + vowel
[ ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, etc.. ]
CYV: consonant + semivowel + vowel
[ kya, kyu, kyo, etc.. ]
In English, syllables may have several structures from ‘V’ to ‘CCCVCCC’. Japanese
speaking English tend to separate syllables with longer syllable structure into morae like
Japanese. For example, ‘strike’ is one syllable whose structure is CCCVVC in English. In
construction, this word in Japanese is five marae. These are syllable trees of the word ’strike’.
English
Japanese
syllable
onset
mora1
rhyme
m.2
m.3
m.4
m.5
onset nucleus
nucleus coda
s
t
r
a
i
k
s
u
t o
r a
i
k u
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation
(Murakami)
C
C
C
V
V
C
C
V
C V
C V
V
C
V
3.3 Stress and Mora Syllable timing
Syllables are also the basic unit of rhythm in English. Rhythm is timing patterns among
syllables. The timing patterns are not the same in all languages.
English is a stress-timed language. That means that the rhythm of English is determined by
stress syllable. And whether a syllable is stressed or unstressed will determine whether it falls
on the beat or off the beat in the rhythm of a word or in the rhythm of a sentence. English
words are composed of one or more syllables. In all words of two or more syllables, one
syllable is stronger than the others in the same word. A stressed syllable is louder, longer,
clear and higher pitched than unstressed syllables. So the combination of stressed and
unstressed syllables helps to create the word rhythm in English. For example, the adjectives,
‘content’ and ‘happy’ are both two syllables, but their stress patterns are different.
‘happy(hap-py)’ is stressed on the first syllable and ‘content(con-tent)’ is stressed on the
second. If we change the stress of ‘content’ from first syllable to second syllable, the word will
change from the adjective to the noun. This change of stress according to grammatical
function is quite common in English, and results in pair of words like ‘record’ and ‘reduce’.
In construction, Japanese is mora-timed language. A mora is a unit of rhythmic weight, and
then the rhythm of Japanese places a beat on each mora in a word or a sentence. Japanese
has not stress accent but pitch accent. For example, the word ‘hashi’is two syllable structure.
Pitching the first syllable of the word higher means ‘chopstick’ in English and pitching the
second syllable higher means ‘bridge’. Also ‘ame’ has two meaning, ‘rain’ and ‘candy’.
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation
(Murakami)
This difference between English and Japanese makes Japanese English speaking
unnatural and so hard. That’s because most Japanese tend to apply the rhythm of Japanese
which is mora-timed, when they speak English. As you know, Syllable stress of English is very
important. Each word is decided to be put stress. However, Japanese speaking English
randomly put stress in any one of the syllables in a word and sometimes such a stress
mistake can cause its meaning changed.
4. Conclusion
In this graduation thesis, I wrote the relationship between writing system and phonetics
using English and Japanese. This relationship between writing system and phonetics
apparently looks nothing. That’s because it is difficult to be clear and it is invisible in speaking
these languages.
At the beginning of this report, writing system is difficult to separate correctly.
That’s because even English which is regarded as purely alphabetic writing system uses
logographic writing system like a numeral. Also Japanese which is regarded as syllabic
writing system uses an alphabet writing system, romaji when typing Japanese on computer.
One of some reasons why Japanese are not good at pronouncing English sounds is
that Japanese pronounce doesn’t have several consonants and vowels of English. Those
sounds change another sounds in Japanese.
The other reason is the difference of syllable structure. English words have several
structures. Japanese has main CV syllable structure that one character of Japanese is made
up of two sounds. So this difference makes Japanese difficult to speak English frequently
such as native English speaker.
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation
(Murakami)
In speaking English, to know the difference of syllable timing is very important. Most
Japanese tend to apply the rhythm of Japanese which is mora-timed, when they speak
English which is stressed-timed. This thing makes Japanese English speaking unnatural and
so hard.
If Japanese people want to improve their English skill of speaking, they would do well
to know the differences and relations in writing system and phonetics between English and
Japanese.
Bibliography
Lyovin Anatole V.(1997) An Introduction to the Languages of the World, New York Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
International Phonetic Association (1999) Handbook of the International Phonetics
Association, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
Sakakura Ryoichi (1998) Nihongogakugairon, Tokyo:Kyodosha Insatsujo
Mori Nobuhisa (1998) Eigo eigo eigogaku, Tokyo:Hirakawakogyosha
“Sekai no moji”
Nakanishi insatsu Available at; http://www.nacos.com/moji/index, Sep
27,2002.
“Pictographic Writing System” CORNELL UNIVERSITY Available at;
http://www.library.cornell.eu/africana/Writing Systems/Picto.html, Oct 4, 2002.
Hooker Richard, “CUNEIFORM” Available at;
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/GLOSSARY/CUNEI.HTM, Oct 11, 2002
Chinese Symbol “Aoyol.com”,Available at; http://www.logoi.com/notes/symbols.html, Oct 24,
2002.
Hooker Richard “Japanese Writing”Available at;
Relationship between Typological Writing and English and Japanese Pronunciation
(Murakami)
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ANCJAPAN/ARITING.HTM, Nov 8, 2002
“Japanese Romaji” Omniglot
Available at; http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese romaji.htm, Dec 6, 2002.
Chi-Fen, Chuen-Yn Fan, and Hsiang-Pao Lin,
“A New Perspective on Teaching English Pronunciation”
Available at;http://members.tripod.com/chifenchen/paper-2.html, Dec 9, 2002.
Box Gwyneth “ Rhythm and Stress” Available at;
http://www.poewar.com/articles/Rhythm.htm, Dec 13, 2002
Miwa Jouji “Mora and Syllable” Available at;
http://sp.cis.iwate-u.ac.jp/sp/lesson/j/doc/mora.html, Dec 13, 2002
Seminar 1 Short Papers
Research Student Special Paper
o)
Proverbs of English
BY
（Yuki Kataino）
A FIVE PAGE PAPER
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE OF
SEMINAR 1 (World Englishes)
Kumamoto Gakuen University Foreign Language Department
English Course
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
December 20, 2002
This paper consists of approximately 1200 words
Cat and Dog Proverbs in English (Kataino)
Abstract
There are a lot of English proverbｓ similar to those in Japanese. Proverbs are a part of
everyday language even if we don’t use them everyday. Many of the proverbs that we use in
English are actually quotations from the Bible or famous writers like Shakespeare. These
express feeling of joy, sorrow and grief and so on, as in Japanese. This paper will research
the common denominator and various differences between Western and Japanese
proverbs.
1. Introduction
There are many proverbs in the world, and ones have the wisdom of the ancients and
salutary lessons of Japan, China and Western people in each short phrase. We sometimes
speak them lightly to express our feelings of joy, sorrow and lamentation briefly. However
we don’t know how these are made, how many and what kind of proverbs exist. So this
paper classified two interesting types that are “Proverbs using animals”, “Cat” and “Dog”.
2. Body
There are various proverbs of using animal all over the world. The following tables shows
two kinds of animal, dog and cat, proverbs in English and Japanese.
① Cat Proverbs
<English>
<Japanese>
b. 「Shinpaiha mino doku.」
a. Curiosity killed the cat.
（気苦労は猫をも殺す）
苦労は命取りになること）
1
（気
Proverbs of English( Kataino)
d. 「Onino inumano sentaku.」
c. When the cat is away, the mice will play.
（思う
存分心をくつろげること）「Torinakisato
(Nekoga inaito nezumiga abareru.)
no koumori.」
f. 「Nekoniha kyuusei.」
e. A cat has nine lives.
に死なない）
(Nekoni inotiga kokonotuaru.)
h. 「Neko ni katuobusi.」
g. He sets the fox to keep the geese.
（好物
を近くに置いては油断のならないこと）
(Kituneni gatyouno banwo saseru.)
i.
（容易
Caviar to the general.
j.
（高級すぎて大衆にはわからないもの）
「Neko ni koban.」
（価値あるものでも持つ人によって何の
役にも立たないこと）
k. Cats hide their claws.
l.
「Nouaru takaha tumewo kakusu.」
（本当に実力のあるものは、やたらにそ
(nekoha tumewo kakusu.)
れを現さないものだということ）
②Dog proverbs
m. Give a dog a bad name and hang him.(inuni n.
（軽々しく人の悪口を言うことは慎むべ
きだということ）
omeiwo ataete shasatu seyo)
p. 「Shaka ni sekkyou.」
o. Teach a dog to bark.
（よく
知っている者になお教えること。説く必
(Inuni hoerukotowo oshieru.)
要のないたとえ）
r. 「Sawaranukamini tatarinashi.」 （物
q. Let a sleeping dog lie.
事に関係しなければ、禍を招くことはな
(Neteiru inuha nekaseteoke.)
いこと）
t. 「Inumo arukeba bouni ataru.」
s. A flying crow always catches something.
（物事
( Tondeirukarasuha itumo
を行うものは、時に禍に合う。また、やっ
nanikawotoraeru.)
てみると思わぬ幸いにあうこと）
2
Proverbs of English( Kataino)
v. 「Kenen no naka.」
u. Cat - and - dog.
（犬と猿。互いに仲が悪いこと）
(kennen no naka.)
“Cat” and “Dog” are often used for bad meaning in proverbs. English proverbs with dogs
have cruel images like kill, strike and fling a stone. And originally “dog” means spy or sordid.
「犬も歩けば棒に当たる（Inumo arukeba bouni ataru）」, a Japanese proverb, also originally
means “a dog which anything doesn’t do bad thing is to be struck with a stick.”
One reason that dogs appear as bad animals is that they are violent and humble in
the Bible. The second reason for the difference between Japanese and English proverbs
with dogs is that in English, dogs are considered domestic animals, while Japanese dogs
are considered free or independent animals. There are many bad meaning idioms with dogs
in English as well. for example: a dirty dog「ひどい野郎」, a lazy dog「怠け者」, a dog’s chance
「わずかな見込み」, die a dog’s death「みじめな死に方をする」.
But on the other hand, in Japanese proverbs (p,r), dogs are expressed using the
words “shaka” or “kami” (Buddha or god). The usage is not as religious as usual “shaka” or
“kami”, but its difference of expression is so interesting.
Turning to cats, we see there are different animal words used in same meaning
proverbs like cat - bat (c-d), cat - hawk (k-l). It’s quite strange and these to reflect each
cultural background or customs towards cats and other animals. On this topic, Okutu (1994,
p.160) stated, “While cats have been sacred animals since ancient Egypt, they are
considered diabolic. And also, cats are considered more impudent and stronger than dogs.”
3
Proverbs of English( Kataino)
Especially interesting is the difference between English and Japanese, in proverbs
(u,v). Because, the Japanese proverb : 「犬猿の仲」 was translated using “cat” in instead of
“monkey”. That’s a very interesting difference, which appears to be based on culture.
3.
Conclusion
The more I research about animal proverbs, the more I feel that there are many proverbs
which express discrimination or dirtiness towards dogs and cats. It may reflect the
background of the period proverbs come from. However proverbs are beneficial expressions.
They are convenient when we talk about something hard to put into words.
Although every country is different, similar proverbs appear in English and Japanese.
There are two reasons for this: (1) every country’s culture (i.e. human culture) also has
many common aspects, and (2) cultural exchange promotes spreading of new ideas. The
difference between English and Japanese proverbs is merely that the material differs by
culture. Proverbs are fossils of thought or customs, so we can compare our cultures to cross
age or border barriers.
<Bibliography>
Akimoto, Hirosuke.(2000) “Eigono kotowaza” Osaka: Sougensha
Mitoma, Naomitsu.(1997) “Kokusaikaha eigono kotowazakara” Kokubunji: Shinfusha
Okuta, Fumio.(1994) “Eigono kotowaza” Tokyo: Nihon Jitugyou Syuppansya.
“English Course of Yoshio Hayashi.”
Available at; http://www6.plala.or.jp/yhayashi/ the last day, 16/12/2002
“English Expression Dictionary.” ( Eigo hyougen jiten )
4
Proverbs of English( Kataino)
Available at; http://home.alc.co.jp/db/owa/ehj_idx
“English Proverbs Instruction Dictionary.” (Eigo kotowaza kyoukun jiten.)
Available at; http://www2.starcat.ne.jp/~kuniando/, 20/11/2002
“English Workbook..” Available at; http://www.aimrun.com/proverbs.shtml
“Tea Time.” Available at; http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/7288/, 16/12/2002
“Words of Wisdom OK 312.” Available at; http://www.ok312.com 16/12/2002
5
Animal Symbolism
BY
Junko Morikawa
A FIVE-PAGE PAPER
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE OF
SEMINAR 1 (World Englishes)
Kumamoto Gakuen University Foreign Language Department
English Course
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
December 20, 2002
This paper consists of approximately １569 words
Animal Symbolism (Morikawa)
1. Introduction
Each culture has their own original history or ideas regarding animals. As a result, we can
enjoy them and have chances to be surprised by the variety of expressions in animals depending on
where we come from. We do not have a longer history than that of the animal world. As long as
humans have developed, we have spent time with animals. It is not too much to say that we have
survived our life with animals.
However, we can know the truth that all our ideas are not accepted all over the world simply
because each symbol originated from specific countries. They are never wrong.
I specially focus on animal symbolism because we are familiar with animals. On top of that,
we should realize our point of view towards those animals, which we hold unconsciously. For
instance, we may unconsciously use them as sports teams’ mascots, like grizzlies in Missoula,
Montana. Grizzlies are original inhabitants of Montana. Also they, indeed are strong and powerful. In
this paper, I compare several thoughts and refer to some proverbs of animals’ symbols and then see
how they relate to us.
2. Common Symbols in the World
First off, let’s take a dog as the animal that is nearest to us. Many people keep dogs as pets
in the world and believe that dogs and humans can make good companions. They seem to be close
for us because they show their loyalty and are considered “Man’s best friend.” One of the proverbs
says, “Love me, love my dog.” (Konishi, 1995, pg. 525) This meaning shows that a dog is a part of
our life or, to be overstated, they are part of our body, partly because dogs have shared time with us
as healing pets or guard dogs. Hunting dogs give humans profits and sled dogs help men living in
regions with heavy snowfalls.
The white dove is a symbol for peace in the world. We pray for a peaceful world by holding
up a white dove. We commonly consider it as a symbol of peace world-wide. This is good because,
concretely speaking, if the symbol of peace were completely different our hope to peace would
never come true. The unified idea, the dove, is one of the steps to achieve our goals. In English,
addition to the peace symbol, especially, “a dove means someone in politics who prefers peace and
discussion to war”. (Summers, 1978, pg. 534)
Because of analyses by animals emphasizing general human character, fortune-telling by
animals has become popular in Japan. This was the result of several types of fortune-telling and
1
Animal Symbolism (Morikawa)
scientific human analyses. Originally, “these resources came from the ancient eastern principles of
Yin and Yang.” (http://www.noracom.net/nyumon) We can see our own tendencies of personalities.
Let’s take an example of a lion. Generally speaking, we have typical images for lions. They
are the kings of animals, and they are so strong that they hunt smaller or weaker animals as their
food. They look perfect. No one tries to fight against them in the world of animals. According to these
stereotypes, some of the fortune-telling characteristics turn out as can be expected. Those
explanations say:
“It is natural that a lion is given special treatment and gets attention because he has status as the
king of animals. Also he worries about keeping up his appearances and he tries not to show his
weakness.” (http://www.noracom.net/nyumon/what/index.html)
As a result, from this type of fortune-telling, these universal symbols are spread around the world. Some
are from tradition; others come from the animals’ “essential nature”.
3. Famous Animal Symbols in Particular Areas
Some countries have their own special animals. Depending on their environment, there may be several
native animal types. Those animals hold peculiar symbolic meanings.
3.1. American symbols
The easiest American animal symbol to recognize is an eagle. As Americans’ patriotic feelings get
stronger, we often see noble eagle’s forms more and more. Some invisible power is hidden in the eagle symbol.
The American eagle is a symbol of American grace, beauty and strength. Also this bird is called king of birds. “In
justice, the eagle’s eyes are considered something that is watchful and never misses important evidence or
information. Moreover, there are several kinds of eagles, such as the Golden Eagle, Double-headed Eagle and
Bald Eagle, that have been used for battle flags or crests from ancient times.” (Maass, my host family, 2002)
Another animal indigenous to America is the buffalo. Japanese usually have never seen a buffalo. But
“the buffalo reminds Americans of a symbol of the Old American West, while the coyote is a symbol of the New
American West.” (Maass) They are not familiar in our area but only in their area.
Many varieties of animals represent many different facets of America. In the economic and political
worlds, for example:
“In the stock market, a bull is a symbol for a strong, confident market. The bear has opposite symbol
and is the symbol for a cautious market. In politics, the donkey symbolizes the Democratic Party and
the elephant symbolizes the Republican Party.” (Maass)
2
Animal Symbolism (Morikawa)
Originally, the donkey is the symbol of a dullard, and is considered stubborn and persevering. It is obvious that
the donkey does not have a good character.
3.2 Chinese Symbols
When you go to Chinese restaurants, you will surely see some dragons on the plates. It is obvious to
say the dragon is a large imaginary animal that has wings and a long tail. We have some scary images of
dragons, which are supposed to breathe out fire from their mouths. These are the general images in the world.
However, on the other hand, “the dragon means many good things such as good luck or happiness in China.
(Henry Lo, my friend, personal communication, 2002) Judging from their appearances, it is obvious that
opposite symbol makes us amazed.
3.3 More than One Symbol
Symbols do not necessarily have a single meaning. It is more interesting to see the other side of
images based on character or history. In this section, I discuss two animals, a turtle and a fox, which are
representative of this phenomenon.
A turtle represents a solid distinctive feature from its movement. Also there is a fairly tale that determines
its symbolism: “The Tortoise and the Hare.” In this story, the tortoise wins the race because he paces himself and
keeps moving at a steady rate and does not stop to eat or rest unlike the hare. Relating to this story, not only
Japanese culture but also other countries seem to think that the turtle represents someone that is slow, steady
and prepared. There is another different meaning in Japan, however. Turtles are said to live to 10,000 years old
and always be happy. This is impressive new symbol unlike ever-common symbol I have mentioned above for
other countries people. Owing to its appearance or movement, it represents multiple symbols like love and
protection and healing.
Also, take a look at a fox. It is easy to view it as a sly and cunning animal. Japanese proverb says; Tora
no i wo karu kitsune. It means a person who takes advantage of borrowed authority to throw his weight about.
People around the world assume that a fox is sly, but Japan has another unique symbol. Some of the shrines
use the fox as their symbol. If this one symbol, the fox is sly, is believable, the shrines would be unpopular. A fox
is an honored symbol except for its craftiness, as well. Originally it is said, “the fox is messenger of the god Inari.
It plays a precious role in Japanese religion.” (http://inari.jp/h_qa/h01.html#top)
3.4 Animals as Product Images
Animals are close to human beings. It is easy to feel familiar with them. This nearness bring us clear
3
Animal Symbolism (Morikawa)
images with ease, which is why they are often used as mascots or names of things. They end up being cute or
attractive to us, and their stereotypes suit some products. Some animals that are fast or strong are used as
names for cars; for example, "Dodge Ram, Mercury Cougar and Lynx, Chevy Impala and Ford Mustang”.
(Maass)
Mickey Mouse, Snoopy and Hello Kitty are also cute lovely characters. They are popular around the
world. People possessing them would not imagine them as dirty or stinking mice or sharp-eyed cats.
Let’s make a comparison between a teddy bear and an animal bear to figure out how we unconsciously
have several symbolisms. Before teddy bears were made, nobody believed bears to be adorable and small
figures. Their symbols were rather scary or big.
4. Conclusion
Almost animals have their own symbols based on their own special appearance or character, which are
different from others. These symbols are firmly grounded; almost like stereotypes, not only in one part of the
world but virtually universally. As human beings are separated into several races, indigenous animals differ in
each area. These examples I mentioned in contents of my essay prove that animals are on so good terms with
us that they tend to become symbols.
All animals to which we apply good symbols are friendly warm animals toward human beings due to
changes or breaks in their existing images. Such symbolism will give good images for children to touch all
animals, even scary ones.
It is interesting to pay attention to animals that are used as mascots around our society. They exist very
close to us.
Bibliography
・
Della Summers (1978) Longman Dictionary of English: Addison Wesley Ltd.
・
“Animal fortune-telling” (http://www.noracom.net/nyumon/what/index.html, as of Oct.21, 2002)
Personal Communication (Maass Katie, Emily, Amanda, my host family, Oct., 2002)
・
Personal Communication (Henry Lo, my friend, Oct., 2002)
・
“Q&A of Oinarisan” (http://inari.jp/h_qa/h01.html#top, as of Dec. 9, 2002)
“Animal Symbolism” (http://www.arcanamatrix.com/furpeople/symbolism.htm, as of Oct. 31, 2002)
Konishi Tomohitchi (1988) Taishukan’s GENIUS English-Japanese Dictionary: Taishukan
4
Early Education of English as a Foreign Language
BY
Michiko Hayashida
A FIVE PAGE PAPER
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE OF
SEMINAR 1 (World Englishes)
Kumamoto Gakuen University Foreign Language Department
English Course
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
December 20, 2002
This paper consists of approximately１１００ words
Early Education of English (Hayashida)
1. Introduction
It is very popular to start learning English early in Japan. There are many English
Conversation schools for kids and they are still increasing. Elementary Schools introduced
general education class including English conversation class. People might think that the
reason Japanese people can’t speak English well because we didn’t learn practical English
like listening and speaking in early age. So we must be good at speaking English if we start
learning English. But does early Education of English bring us only advantages? This
paper will research the influence of early English education including both good and bad
effects.
2. Good effects
There are some good effects of early English education. One of them is that child
can easily accept English better than Junior high school students because Junior High
school students are in the middle of puberty and already have a sense of shame and feeling
of wrongness. Children in elementary school can learn without these feelings; therefore they
can master more practical English. (Outu, 2002, pg15).
Another effect is the younger they learn English; the younger they will have a better
chance of sounding like a native speaker. Many researches (Hakuta; 1999; Long 1990;
Thomson 1990; among others) pointed out that there is a specific time period (Critical
Period) in which language learning occurs best. This is before puberty after which, most
probably as a result of maturational process in the brain, this ability disappears (Birdsong,
1999, pg41). People lose neural plasticity in the brain with age. People who start learning
younger must be able to speak well articulated English.
1
Early Education of English (Hayashida)
Moreover, children might take an interest in foreign countries and cultures owing to
being taught by native English speaker. This is the biggest effect I expect from learning
English at an early age.
3. Bad effects
It seems that early English education brings us good effects, but it also contains
bad effects. One of them is a reduction of Japanese ability. If elementary schools introduce
English conversation classes, that means Japanese and other classes are forced to reduce
the class time, so children might drop lose their Japanese ability. The psychologist Brumfit
said “If children learn a foreign language before they master their native language, they lose
the ability to think.” (source: page) He insists that foreign languages should be learnt after
children build the basic ability to think.
The second reason is that if children come to dislike English in their elementary
school days, it is very difficult to like English in the future. Education at an early age affects
children’s attitudes toward English. In addition to this, children would master incorrect
grammar or pronunciation if they are taught by teachers who are using incorrect
pronunciation or grammar. Actually, this situation might happen in Japan because there are
not enough ALTs (Assistant Language Teacher), so a Japanese teacher who is not familiar
with English might have to teach English (Outu, 2002, pg 23).
The reason that elementary schools introduce English conversation classes as part
of the general education class is to develop communication ability through deeper
international understanding. Children are flexible and can easily learn new things so it is the
best time to start English. But in this view of thinking, what communication ability is is very
vague. Communication ability is the ability to express one’s thoughts and feeling clearly, so
2
Early Education of English (Hayashida)
that other people understand them. To learn fixed conversation forms by rote doesn’t mean
one can communicate with other people. To communicate with other people, you need
grammar ability, ability of sociolinguistics and ability of discussion. The grammar is the ability
of language, e.g. example grammar and vocabulary. The ability of sociolinguistics is to know
the role in conversation and choose words to suit the situation. The ability of discussion is to
understand the message in context and the ability of talk (Canal, 1998, pg 26). Like this,
communication ability is not only language skill but also needs many skills. So it is
impossible to develop communication ability through learning English in elementary school
days.
4. The best time to start learning English.
As mentioned above, learning English is the one of the best ways to communicate
with other people. To communicate with other people, you need not only language skill, but
also knowledge. But physically, there is a limited period to absorb foreign language easily
(http://www.presercive.org). Hence it follows that English education should be introduced
step by step. Before 8 years old the brain system is already fully developed, so elementary
school is the best time to introduce English by listening. Junior high school is the best time to
start learning grammar. It is necessary to lay the foundation of reading, writing, listening and
speaking. Junior high school students have already developed ability of acknowledge and
have a good memory and excel at absorbing information.
5. Conclusion
It is very important to learn a new foreign language. To know new languages and
learn new words is the start to be aware of new cultures. However, a rapid decline in
3
Early Education of English (Hayashida)
language learning could be found around the end of puberty, rather than a general
monotonic decline with age. But this doesn’t mean that the earlier people start, the better
they master. English education should be carried out our according to their age and capacity.
We shouldn’t forget our communication skill and thinking skills are based on our native
language, Japanese. If people can’t get enough native language skill, even if children grow
up they can’t communicate with the other people.
References
Birdsong, David “Second Language and Critical Period Hypothesis.” Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, 1999
Brumfit, C.J.&K.Johnson “The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching.” Oxford
University Press, 1979.
Canale, M. &M.Swain “Theoretical Basis of Communicative Approaches to Second
Language Teaching and Testing.” Applied Linguistics1: 1-47
CPH and Second Language Acquisition http://www.preserice.org
Hakuta, Kenji “A Critical Period for Second Language Acquisition?” Standford University,
1999
Long, Michel “Maturational Constrains on Language Development.” Studies in Second
Language teaching 3-4: 3-18, 1990
Moskovsky, Chiristo “The Critical Period Hypothesis revisited.” University of Newcastle,
2001
Outu, Yuki “Shougakkou de naze Eigo.” Iwanami shoten, 2002
Thomson, E “Foreign Accents Revisited.” Language Learning41: 177-204, 1991
http://www.next.go.jp/
4
Italian and English
BY
Asako Uenishi
A FIVE PAGE PAPER
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE OF
SEMINAR 1 (World Englishes)
Kumamoto Gakuen University Foreign Language Department
English Course
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
December 20, 2002
This paper consists of approximately １９００ words
5
Italian and English (Uenishi)
1. Introduction
The European continent has many countries, and European people speak many languages. I
had a chance to visit both Italy and the United Kingdom. Although Japanese study English for a
long time, it was the first time for me to “experience” another language, like Italian.
There are big differences between Italian and English; for example, in grammar and
pronunciation, but both languages use the Roman alphabet. So I’m interested in the differences
between them.
In this paper, I want to research Italian and English. Especially, I want to make clear
what big differences are from historical background to Italian Pronunciation.
2.
Historical relationship between English and Italian
There
is
a
common
parent
language
in
European
Language.
It’s
Pronto-indo-European. Both English and Italian are called Indo-European.
It is thought that The Indo-European family was organized from German Language,
Romance Language and Slavic Language. Romance differentiated into French, Italian and
Spanish. Slavic differentiated into Russian and Polish. German Language differentiated into
German, and German Language differentiated into three groups, West-German Language,
North-German Language, East-Language.
Italian and English were from West-German Language.
2.1 The origin of English
English belongs to the West-Germanic group of the family of Germanic languages. In
the fifth century, Germans (their language was called Englisc after one of their tribes, the
Anglo-Saxon) immigrated to Britain, and became the origin of the English language. It was
1
Italian and English (Uenishi)
influenced by the French language in the eleventh century, during the Norman Conquest in
1066. There was a big change in the vowel sounds in the fifteenth century, which brought about
the present difference between pronunciation and spelling. English is the most common
language in the world at the present.
2.2. The origin of Italian
The origin of Italian is Latin, which was spoken by ancient Romans. Latin changed
gradually during the decline of the Roman Empire. It changed diversely everywhere in Europe
through The Middle Ages.
In the eighth century, Latin was divided into Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and
Rumanian. These are called Romance languages. Italian is a remnant of Latin.
English
Latin
Italian
French
Spanish
Rumanian
Water
Aqua
Acqua
Eau
Agua
Apa
Son
Filius
Figlio
Fils
Hijo
Fiu
Wolf
Lupus
Lupo
Loup
Lobo
Lup
Eight
Octo
Otto
Huit
Ocho
Opt
*sleep
Dormit
Dorme
(il)dort
Duerme
Doarme
Table １．*≪He sleeps≫ in Indo-European languages
Table １ shows the relationship of words in different languages that all developed
from Latin. They belong in Indo-European language, so their spellings are very similar.
Especially, first letters of words are all same. This mean, their language’s source is same.
3.
Pronunciation
2
Italian and English (Uenishi)
Italian pronunciation is different from English pronunciation. Italian pronunciation is
similar to Japanese pronunciation. Japanese often use “romaji” when they read foreign words.
3.1 The English and Italian alphabets compared
≪English≫
Ab c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q
r s t u v w x z
There are 26 letters in the English alphabet.
≪Italian≫
Ab c d e f g h i l m n o p q r s
t u v z
There are 21 letters in the Italian alphabet.
j, k,w,x,y treats as a word of foreign origin.
As can be seen from j, k, w, x, y. 2, when we compare the English and Italian
alphabets, the Italian one doesn’t have the letters “j, k, w, x, y”. This means that when Italians
find words with these letters in other languages, they are sometimes at a loss as to how to
pronounce them. The following paragraphs will explore this phenomenon more carefully.
The “w” in foreign or international words may either sound as a German w in
würstel (i.e. like Italian v), or as English w in window (i.e. as the Italian vowel u). When Italians
are in doubt, they usually pronounce letter w in the German way, as suggested by the name
given to the letter, which means double v.
The X in foreign or international words always sounds as English x. As for a Y in
foreign or international words, it always sounds as English y, i.e. as the Italian vowel I.
“J” is always pronounced as English. “J” often pronounce romaji’s ya, yu, yo,
3
Italian and English (Uenishi)
for example, Italian football team’s name “Juventus” pronounce yubentosu in romaji. “Y”. The
Italian “j “ is “long i”. “j” only use in a few Christian names and surnames.
K is always sounds as “English k”. But “romaji” Ka, Ki, Ku, Ke, Ko, is Ca, Chi, Cu, Che, Co.
“h” is silent. It is never pronounce. Ha, Hi, Hu, He, Ho, pronounce “a, i, u, e, o”.
Like this, Italian pronounciation is very different from English. So it is difficult to pronounce for
English-speaker. But some of them are different from “romaji”. So, Italian is familiar to
Japanese-speakers.
(ア) Pronunciation of Italian alphabetical clusters
In this section, we see a sound chart of Italian pronunciation for English-speaker.s Native
English speakers made this chart, so it’s good to compare from Italian to English. This is a good
chart to learn how to pronounce Italian for English speakers.
CLUSTER
CE, CI
SOUND
While ca, co and cu are pronounced like in English, ce and ci have a
soft sound, like in English che and chi.
CIA, CIE,
When cluster the ci is followed by a further vowel, the sound of i is
CIO, CIU
dropped, becoming merely graphic (only to show that c has to be
pronounced as English "ch").
CHE, CHI
A letter h between c and e or between c and i gives the cluster a hard
sound:
Che sounds like an English ke, while chi sounds like an English ki.
GE, GI
The clusters ga, go and gu are pronounced like in English, but ge and
gi have a "soft" sound, like English je and jy.
GIA, GIE,
Also in this case, when cluster the gi is followed by a further vowel, i
GIO, GIU
becomes mute, and the sound of English "j" is followed by the second
vowel.
4
Italian and English (Uenishi)
GHE, GHI
In the same way explained above, an h inserted between g and
vowel e or i gives the cluster a hard sound:
Ghe sounds like an English gue in guest, while ghi sounds like an
English gui in guild.
GLI
When gl is followed by vowel i, it has the same sound as ll would
have in Spanish words like caballo, lluvia, etc.
GLIA, GLIE,
This sound does not exist in English, although a very similar
combination is obtained in expressions such as "I will call you", where
GLIO, GLIU
the "ll" cluster is followed by "y" + another vowel.
To get even closer to the Italian sound, while pronouncing this cluster
you should press the back of your tongue against your rear teeth and
your palate.
When gli is followed by vowels a, e, o and u it gives the vowel the
Spanish "ll" sound: glia sounds like Spanish "lla", glie like Spanish
"lle", glio like Spanish "llo", and gliu like Spanish "llu".
Instead, when gl (without an i) is followed by vowels a, e, o and u, it is
simply pronounced as in English, in words like glass, glove etc.
GN
It is pronounced exactly as a Spanish ñ, in señor, mañana.
The gn cluster is always followed by a vowel.
SCE, SCI
Cluster sc only has a special sound when followed by vowels e and i,
in which case it sounds like the English sh in sheriff, fashion.
SCIA, SCIE,
In any other case (sca, sco, scu) the pronunciation is like English sk.
SCIO, SCIU
When cluster sci is followed by a vowel (scia, scie, scio, sciu), the
sound of i is omitted, i.e. this vowel only acts as a phonetic part of the
cluster, needed to produce the "sh" sound.
From “Teach Yourself Italian”, http://www.geocities.com/f_pollett/i-ind.htm Some consonants
change sound when they come together forming one syllable (monosyllabic clusters).
4.
Ｉｔａｌｉａｎ Grammar
5
Italian and English (Uenishi)
As in all languages, there are many rules in Italian grammar. This section will
introduce some of them and compare them with English.
<Personal Pronoun>
English
Italian
I
io
you
tu /lei
he
lui
she
lei
we
noi
yours
voi
they
loro
All Italian verbs change according to 6 personal pronoun.
For example, “essere” case. “essere” is “be” mean in English.
i
o
s
o
n
t
u
s
e
i
l
u
i
/
l
e
i
/
o
l
e
i
e
n
o
i
v
o
i
l
o
s
s
r
o
i
a
i
e
s
o
m
o
t
e
n
o
If there is no subject, it can be identified what subject in the sentence. Because the verb
change following the subject.
In case of Interrogative sentence, it has to pronounce as lifting in the word-final position.
All European language not only Italian Language grammar has gender. They divide
into masculine and feminine. And they have neuter, gender (for plants, non-living objects,
general concepts, etc.). It’s only in pronouns.
One other side, English doesn’t have gender. All English words changed according to
the gender of the noun they are related to.
6
Italian and English (Uenishi)
Secondly, it is important singular or plural both Italian and English.
They are common. English has “-s” in plural case. Italian change following to gender in plural
case, too.
5. Conclusion
Italian and English are very different, which makes it difficult to find out a good way to
study. However, based on your first foreign language, the way to study a second foreign
language may differ, so important to know how the two foreign languages are different.
One attractive point of the Italian language is its pronunciation. There aren’t Italian
rhythmical sounds in English. On the other hand, Italian grammar is very complex. Especially,
Gender is difficult to distinguish for non-native Italian speakers. In this respect, English is easy to
study for foreigners, because it doesn’t have gender.
Bibliography
“Teach Yourself Italian”, http://www.geocities.com/f_pollett/i-ind.htm
7
Number Superstitions
BY
Sayuri Araki
A FIVE PAGE PAPER
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE OF
SEMINAR 1 (World Englishes)
Kumamoto Gakuen University Foreign Language Department
English Course
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
December 20, 2002
This paper consists of approximately １４００ words
Number Superstitions (Araki)
OUTLINE
1. Introduction
2. The similarities around the world
Number 2
Number 3
3. The differences around the world
Number 4, 9
Number 13
４．Conclusion
1. Introduction
Superstition and folk belief go together wherever people live, whatever people belong to
in the world. We know of no group, no race, no culture, and no nation without at least a few
superstitions. It is a phenomenon always found that people seem to be superstitious. While
people discuss computers and space science nowadays, it is a funny and pleasant story
that men of today stick to various superstitions such as bewaring of Friday the Thirteenth,
weddings in June and so on. Each superstition has its own peculiar origin and history.
Exactly how or why they evolved no one knows, but over the years superstitious beliefs
have developed about virtually every sort of event or situation in life. (Steele, 1983, p79) At a
glance, however, there seems no reason, superstitions include deep meaning and have
something to do with culture and age. Actually, superstitions not only attract our interests but
also play an important role in understanding different cultures. In this paper, we will research
the two aspects of number superstitions; the similarities and the differences in countries.
2. Similarities in numbers in different countries.
Number 2
-If there are three people in a picture the one in the middle will die first.- ( in Japan and
1
Number Superstitions (Araki)
America )
This seems a somewhat deadly superstition, however, we are very careful in taking
pictures not to be in the middle among three people. How come people avoid the middle
person? It represents the second person no matter which side we start counting from.
Therefore, we probably guess that the number two is taken as something bad among the
people. Moreover, one book says two is the number of ill omens and brings troubles and
misfortune to people.
There is, however, a different idea that the number 2 is lucky and represents balance,
harmony and intellectualism.(Pickering, 1995 p265)
Number 3
- It is bad luck to walk under a ladder.- ( in Christian countries)
Actually, this came from an early Christian belief that a leaning ladder against a wall
forms a triangle with the wall and ground. According to traditional Christianity, the three
sides of triangle represent the family; father, mother, and child. So passing through the
triangle destroys the wholeness of family. We must never violate the Holy Trinity (Trinity of
God the Father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit) by walking through a triangle. Therefore,
this belief is the root of the idea that three is thought of an important and lucky number as
keeping the special power.
-What
happens
twice
happen
three
times.-
(in
Japan
and
America)
We seem familiar with the belief that all things come in threes. This is because, as
mentioned above, it represents the traditional form of the family – three is thought to be lucky.
In our lives, happiness such as letters, gifts, and visitors comes in threes.
2
Number Superstitions (Araki)
But, generally, it is said that bad events – like accidents and funerals- come in threes
as well. For example, two deaths in the family means that a third is sure to follow (according
to Keela2@Prodigy.net). Another common superstition in the world shows that misfortunes
never come singly.
For Numbers 2 and 3 then, both have good and bad points in many cultures. This may
tend to make people confused as to which idea in reliable practically.
3. Differences in number superstitions.
3.1. Numbers 4, 9 ( in Japan, Korea and China.)
The number “Four” in Japanese is shi, but “Death’ in Japanese is also pronounced
“shi” for this reason most Japanese try to avoid that sound. Besides, as we know, some
hospitals in Japan do not have the room number 4 or 9. Number 9 is pronounced “ku” in
Japanese with a different word which means pain or worry.
In Korea, too, when you go to the store to buy your first set of dishes, you will find
sets of five or more. You pretty much cannot get anything in a set of four. This is
because the Korean word for 4 is also pronounced like the Chinese word for “death” like
Japan.
In China, needless to say, the unluckiest number is four as it sounds like the
Chinese word for death. However, the number “9” is good, because nine in Cantonese
sounds like the word “sufficient”.
Incidentally, in Western counties, the nine is associated with magic because three
times three equals nine so that nine is thought of as a very powerful number for bringing
good luck.
Therefore, it is clear that superstitions can differ from county to country even
3
Number Superstitions (Araki)
though people are very close in culture, race and customs.
3.2. Number 13 ( in Christian countries )
Many traditions consider the number thirteen to be unlucky. For instance, in France,
houses are numbered twelve, not thirteen but twelve and a half and then fourteen. Italian
never uses the Number 13 in even public lottery. Most American high-raise buildings do not
have thirteen floors, and airlines leave out the thirteen seats in planes. It seems that
Westerners avoid the number 13 as Japanese keep away 4 or 9 from any room number in
hospitals.
However, the number 13 on its own is not unlucky number in Greek. The opposite
image is often considered true by many Greeks. That is number 13 is considered to be lucky.
This is because that some areas in Greece think that the number 13 represents the 12
apostles and Christ with Christ being the 13th member.
When it comes to Friday the 13th, it does not have negative image. In the Greek
culture it is Tuesday the 13th of the month which is absolutely unlucky day. It is the
combination of the date “Tuesday” with “Thirteen” that is considered very unlucky to the
Greek people.
Actually in most western cultures Friday the 13th is considered on unlucky day.
Those who know about these things, inform us that Adam and Eve were expelled from the
Garden of Eden on a Friday, Noah’s flood started on a Friday in Bible and ancient Jew put
Christ on a cross on a Friday. Christians also say that twelve witches plus one devil are
present at Satanic ceremonies so Friday and 13 make a deadly combination.
In the case of Egyptians, they believed that the thirteenth step of their symbolic life –
ladder let to eternal life. This is because they did not think of death as the end of life, but
4
Number Superstitions (Araki)
instead as a transformation. There is a pyramid with thirteen steps; thirteen leaves and
berries on the olive branch. And it is said that an eagle holding thirteen arrows which
represents the thirteen colonies. It seems that number 13 is not recognized as unlucky
number even some 10% or more believe Christianity there.
4. Conclusion
It is clear that number superstitions have no universal origin, because there are
differences among countries even though people have same cultural backgrounds and
religions such as Christianity or Buddhism. Therefore, people have made their own
superstitions which had come from their lives naturally since they started to settle down.
There are, however, common superstitions when one country’s’ culture influences the
others.
In conclusion, we should never worry that if a superstition tells it something is a bad
thing for you without a good reason. Superstitions are simply superstitions and not facts,
because people differ in the views of looking at superstitions in many ways, which
include the unlucky numbers 4, 9 and Friday the Thirteen around the world.
Bibliography
Uematsu,T Thesaurus of Superstition in English-Speaking countries. (in Japanese) 1998
Tokyo: Taiheisha
Collis, H
101 American Superstitions. 1998 Tokyo: Koeisha
Steele, P Ozak Tales and Superstitions. 1983 Luisiana: Pelican Publishing company.
Pickering, D Caseell Dictionary of Superstitions (in Japanese) 1995 London: Cassell PLC
Available at: http://www.e-musicbox.com/super.htm (15/12/’02))
Available at: http://www.sandiego-books.com/numbers.htm (15/12/’02)
Available at: http://www.islandnet.com/~luree/silly.html (15/12/’02)
Available at: http://tsinoy.com/Roots/TsinoyNga.cfm?ID=129 (15/12/’02)
Available at: http://www.greekspider.com/superstitions/ (15/12/’02)
5
Honorific Wordｓ of English
BY
Yumi Hashimoto
A FIVE PAGE PAPER
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE OF
SEMINAR 1 (World Englishes)
Kumamoto Gakuen University Foreign Language Department
English Course
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
December 20, 2002
This paper consists of approximately 1,13０ words
Honorific Words in English (Hashimoto)
Abstract
Japanese haｓ honorific words but English has them, too. There can be several
variations of one sentence, and expressions range from informal to polite. Common
examples of polite expressions are
1. Expressions of request (Would you ～, Can you ～ etc )
2. Expressions of TPO (time, place, occasion) (Smith→Mr. Smith)
There are other polite expressions in English as well. This paper researches many
variations of polite expressions that are used in situations 1 and 2.
1. Introduction
Japanese has honorific words, but Japanese young boys and girls can’t use them.
Japanese honorific words are very difficult and we must be careful in our choice of them.
Then, I wondered if English has honorific words too and found a book called Honorific
expression handbook of English. There are many examples in it, but I chose two of them.
The titles are (a) Expressions of request, (b) expressions of TPO. In the following paper
these two topics will be discussed in detail.
2. Honorific words
(a) Expressions of request
Asking someone for something is often a little bit difficult, because we need to
think about the other person’s convenience as well as our own. There are several
ways of making requests. Here are examples.
1. Can you…?
2. Could you…?
3. Do you think you could…?
4. Do you think you possibly…?
5. I don’t suppose you could…?
6. I am wondering if you could…
7. I was wondering if you could…
1
Honorific Words in English (Hashimoto)
To use one of these, we must first decide and consider the next three factors.
First is the content of the request. If the request is not so important, we can use
“Can you…?”
ex) 「途中でこの手紙を投函してもらえませんか」
Can you post this letter on your way?
But if it is important, we should use “Could you…?” or “I am wondering if you
could…?”
ex) 「50 万円貸してくれませんか」
Could you lend me 500,000 yen?
I am wondering if you could lend me 500,000 yen.
Second, the variety of sentence used depends on whether the acceptance of
the request is a natural duty for the person or simply kindness.
For example, when you get someone to do a request by paying money, you
don’t need to use “Can you…?”Nor “Could you…?” If you ask the water in the
restaurant, you can say, “Water, please!” or “Bring me a glass of water, please!”
When you want to use a polite sentence of request, it’s important to explain the
circumstances before you ask anything to someone and choose words that make it
easy to for the other party to refuse.
On the other hand, when you must refuse a request, you can’t simply say, “I
don’t want to.” It’s better to say, “It’s impossible.”
The third factor to take into consideration is closeness between the two parties.
If you ask a stranger to open the door, he or she will probably say, “Yes, I can.”, but
they may not open the door. While you buy a ticket at the station, if you keep an
2
Honorific Words in English (Hashimoto)
eye on the baggage for a moment and the person is your wife or best friend, you
should say, “I’m going to buy a ticket. Can you keep an eye on the baggage for a
moment?” If the person is friend, people say, "I’m going to buy a ticket". Could you
keep an eye on the baggage for a moment?” On the other hand, if you ask a
person who is not so familiar to you, you may want to say, “I just have to buy a
ticket. Do you think you could keep an eye on the baggage for a moment?” We
emphasize the degree of honorific words. And when you ask a stranger, you should
say, “Excuse me. I just have to go and buy a ticket. I was wondering if you could
keep an eye on my baggage for me, please.” In this sentence, to use “I was
wondering” allows the other person to refuse easily.
(b) Expressions of TPO
Honorific words are important, but the expression must suit the situation (TPO)
and the speaker. For example, one difference that exists at least in Japanese is a
difference between male and female speech. If you are a man, you had better say
like a man, “It might be correct.”(In Japanese, Tadashiikamoyo) If you are a woman,
you had better say like a woman, “It’s correct to some extent.”(In Japanese,
Aruimidehatadashii)
We must also change the level of words according to the degree of
closeness. When we call someone, for example we may use:
Ex) Sir → Mr. Smith → Smith → Frederick → Fred → Freddy → Buddy →
Honey2 depending on the degree of closeness.
The last word “Honey” is very close. If you say to an older person, ”Hi, Buddy!", it’
2
Honorific expression handbook of English, 1987, p40
3
Honorific Words in English (Hashimoto)
s so rude, but on the contrary, if you say to your best friend, “How do you do, Mr.
________?”, your friend would probably think you were not truly his friend.
To express time, place and occasion is a little bit difficult.
3. How to use “darling”, “honey” and nicknames
Japanese people use “darling” and “honey” when they call their partner jokingly, but in
America, those words are used in all earnestness. “Darling” and “honey” can’t be used
by a third party--those words are only used between partners. “Honey” is used for
children as adults call them “Boku” in Japan.
Nicknames are used in every country. In Japan, people also use nicknames, but they
are often used for people whose name is long. If American people hear someone’s
nickname, they can usually recognize their real name, for example:.
ex) Andrew → Andy, Richard → Dick, Ann → Nann, Nanny, Nancy, Margaret
→ Meg, Peg, Eve → Eva
There are many nicknames for American people but some of these are quite
strange. For example, we can’t imagine Dick is Richard, or Peggy is Margaret.
In Japan, too, we usually know what name he or she has when we hear their
nickname.
Ex) Makiko → Maki, Makko, Makky, Yukiko → Yukko,
Akio → Aki-chan Yusuke → Yu-kun
Like this, there are many expressions for nicknames. Sometimes, there are some
people whose name and nickname are completely different in Japanese as well.
Nicknames have intimacy.
4
Honorific Words in English (Hashimoto)
4. Conclusion
Honorific words in English seem to be just as difficult as honorific words in Japanese.
In this paper, we reviewed the following things.
1) When a person asks someone for something, the person chooses the level of
politeness of words by whether that someone has higher status or not.
2) Whenever people first meet, they call each other politely. Gradually they become
friend, then they begin to use nickname with each other.
3) Japanese people often hear “darling” or “honey” and think they are only used by
couples, but this is not true. Nicknames in America and Japan have great
difference.
To be able to use honorific words satisfactorily is important, because to express a
polite attitude leaves a good impression. When young people get out into the world, if
they don’t use honorific word and take a polite attitude, they will have much trouble. If
people don’t want to have trouble, they should study honorific words and good
attitudes.
Bibliography
Tsukagoshi, Satoko Honorific words of Japanese and English. Available at
http://home.kanto-gakuin.ac.jp/~kg041101/html/seminar/2001/tsukagoshi.htm
Tomoda, Takako Japanese Studies. Available at
http://www.arts.monash.edu/japanese/staff-tomoda.html
Fukuda, Kazuo Politeness Phenomenon. Available at
http://www.aa.aeononet.ne.jp/~hideki/study/english/fukuda/fukuda.html
Matsumoto, Yasuhiro and Matsumoto Airin (1987) Honorific expression handbook of English
5
Honorific Words in English (Hashimoto)
Tokyo: Hokuseidou
6
How did English turn into an international language?
BY
Rena Kawamura
A FIVE PAGE PAPER
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE OF
SEMINAR 1 (World Englishes)
Kumamoto Gakuen University Foreign Language Department
English Course
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
12/18/02
This paper consists of 1019 words
How did English turn into an international language?(Kawamura)
Introduction
Now, English is spoken by only one out of ten persons as a native
language. Moreover, the English speaking population has grown to over 1
billion people. English is currently spoken all over the world, so that now it is
called the international language.
In this paper, I want to investigate why
English turned into an international language, because English developed to
this point from a tiny language of an ethnic minority of northwestern
Europe.
1. History of modern English
In the 16th century, the change from medieval English to modern
English was a remarkable development, and included the following:
(1) Change of the pronunciation of the vowels of London English
When the predominance of London English progressed over the 17th
century into the 18th century, the English of the upper class of London was
established as standard English.
For example:
＜イー＞（tyme＜チィーメ＞）―＜アイ＞（time＜タイム＞）
＜エー＞(dede＜デーデ＞)―＜イー＞（deed＜ヂィード＞）
8
How did English turn into an international language?(Kawamura)
＜アー＞（make＜マーケ＞―＜エイ＞(make＜メイク＞)
(2) Fixing and spread of English forms by introduction of printing
When considered from the point of language and development of literature,
the spread of printing was a revolutionary occurrence. Thereby, spelling and
style were standardized.
(3) During the Renaissance, new learning accompanying a religious
revolution and development of the Elizabeth literature.
When Shakespeare's work, which is the highest peak of the Elizabeth
literature, was widely read by everybody with pleasure, people who learned
English increased.
2 .English overseas expansion
Next, the further overseas expansion of English and colonial policy of
the people from Britain caused the spread of English all over the world. The
areas in which English especially advanced were: 1. Africa 2.Asia 3.Oceania
4.Anglo-America. The British style of speaking made English popular to the
upper class. Especially, the social characteristics of the ruler's language in
9
How did English turn into an international language?(Kawamura)
British English because popular and standard.
Based on English and also the background of language invasion, the
following situations came about:
(1) The situation that English turned into a language that promises social
status and produces money
(2) Military invasion, Commercial expansion, Activity by the missionary,
official language of English by law
(3) Population influx to cities and urbanization.
3. English education
It is not so long ago that Japanese people began to study English. The
first foreign language which began to be studied in Japan was the Dutch
language, and English education started because Tokugawa Shogunate made
14 interpreters of Nagasaki study English formally after that in 1809.
Now, English reigns as one of the most important subjects of the
entrance examination to an upper school in Japan. Moreover, only a few
private high schools in a small number of cities teach foreign languages
other than English, for example, German, and French at secondary school.
10
How did English turn into an international language?(Kawamura)
If Japanese children go into a junior high school, everybody will begin
to study English now. This is true for the secondary education stage not only
in Japan but in 76 out of 85 countries around the world, where the foreign
language has become a required subject.
The number of countries offering various target languages are as
follows.
As a
subject
compulsory As
a
subject
Elective Total
English
40 countries
35 countries
75
French
20 countries
40 countries
60
German
5 countries
47 countries
52
Spanish
0 countries
32 countries
32
Russian
4 countries
17 countries
21
Italian
1 countries
27 countries
28
Figure: The number of countries where foreign languages are taught as
compulsory and elective subjects in secondary school. (From K.Oritani
Eigono oitachi 1981, page161)
4 English as an international language
The language most widely spoken as a native language in the world
is Chinese which has more than twice as many speakers as English. Spanish
is the native language of almost all the countries of Iberia, South America
and Central America. However, for Chinese or Spanish, compared with
English, the ranking as an international language falls considerably. English
11
How did English turn into an international language?(Kawamura)
is used as a formal native language by the language population of 270
million in the countries of Britain, Canada, the United States, New Zealand,
Australia, Ireland, the Republic of South Africa, and other British-American
domains. English is used as an official language of about 30 nations on every
continent. Also, there is much English used in publications, such as science,
engineering, and political literature, and English is a common language in
aviation. Rather than other languages, English is non-native in the world
mostly and is taught as a foreign language and used as a second language.
The Inflection and structure of English are simpler than other main
languages.
English is widely studied by many people in the world and its
international position as a common language is maintained by them.
5 Conclusions
Now, English is turning into a common language in the world. If a
politician, a scholar, an educator, and a businessman cannot understand
English and cannot express themselves in English, they may be able to
perform neither research nor work satisfactorily. For these reasons alone,
12
How did English turn into an international language?(Kawamura)
English is studied by people in the world. We have to learn English, because
English turns into an international language.
Bibliography
An English root
12/11/02, Internet. Available
http://www.alc.co.jp/eng/vocab/etm/etm_cl053.html
English history
12/08/02, Internet. Available
http://www.inr.co.jp/zakkaya/his/
The features of old English
11/23/02, Internet. Available
http://www.infoaomori.ne.jp/~sakamoto/oe1.html
The Norman Conquest History of Subsequent English
12/11/02, available
http://www.alc.co.jp/eng/vocab/etm/etm_cl054.html
The vocabulary from old English
11/23/02, Internet Available
http://www.infoaomori.ne.jp/~sakamoto/oe2.html
Nakamura, Kei (1989) Eigo ha donna genngoka Tokyo:Sanshoudou Oritani,
Oota, Yuuzou (1981) Eigo to nihonjin Tokyo: TBSburitanika
Oritani, Kaoru (1981) Eigo no oitachi
Osaka:Sougensha
13
Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ English Pronunciation
BY
Sawako Kamizato
A FIVE PAGE PAPER
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE OF
SEMINAR 1 (World Englishes)
Kumamoto Gakuen University Foreign Language Department
English Course
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
December 20, 2002
This paper consists of approximately 1,130 words
Japanese English Pronunciation (Kamizato)
1．Introduction
Japanese English has some special characteristics and,
pronunciation is one of them. Japanese English pronunciation is sometimes
not understood in English, and causes misunderstandings, because some
English phonemes are difficult for Japanese, and English has stress which
differs from Japanese English stress. This paper will discuss the
pronunciation differences between Japanese English and native English.
In this paper, I compare ①phonetic system and ②word stress, because
these are the most important characteristics of Japanese English
pronunciation.
2．Phonemic system (phonemic inventory) of Japanese and English
Japanese has 5 vowels, but English has more than 11 vowels, and more
than 25 consonants. This means that one must substitute for 2 or 3 English
vowels.
Vowels: The sound isn't interrupted when a sound comes out.
Consonants: The sound that a sound blocked off in some form when a sound
tries to come out.
Japanese vowel
あ
English vowel
a,u,∂,Λ,
い
i
う
u,
え
e,ε
お
o,
English pronunciation is centered around consonants. In a single syllable, many
consonants can be pronounced; for example, /strengths/ has six consonants in a
single syllable. On the other hand, Japanese is centered around vowels. Japanese
syllables (technically called mora) are made up of only one consonant at most, and
Japanese doesn’t have means to pronounce a consonant without a vowel. This is why
Japanese must divide some English syllables into many Japanese ones by inserting
vowels.
R, L
right, light
Japanese English Pronunciation (Kamizato)
N, M
pan, pam
F, H
food, hood
J, Z
jeep, zip
SH, C
she, see
TH, S
thank, sank
Japanese, doesn’t differentiate these pronunciations, and Japanese doesn’t have
some pronunciations that are in English..
Additionally, English has 5 diphthongs. 「 ei ai oi au ou 」
English diphthongs begin the pronunciation of a low vowel. And end at a high vowel of
(i, e). This is English consonant pronunciation occurs after the vowel ends. (with some
exceptions) and which are pronounced in the closed jaw position. This jaw position is
easy to connect to the next consonant pronunciations naturally. The second vowel is
pronounced at half the strength of the first vowel. “ＤIPHTHONG” translates into
“２重母音(nijyuboin)”in phonetics terminology, but this translation is misleading
Japanese. This is because Japanese pronounce 2 重母音 at the same pitch. So
Japanese don’t have idea that the pronunciation changes the pitch of vowel. When
Japanese pronounce diphthongs at the same pitch, it sounds like Japanese
pronunciation.
3．Stress and rhythm
There are two levels of stress in English: word level stress, meaning for
“strength in the word” and sentence level stress or “strength in rhythm of the
sentence” (also called stress timing). While the Japanese react to “tone and
the length of the word” and they don't feel strength in the rhythm of the
sentence, because Japanese has the same strength in each syllable (=syllable
timing). They feel a “beat rhythm of syllables” strongly. However, English
features clearly “the stress beat of rhythm”. In English, when they pronounced
the stressed syllable, they pronounce it strong, long, and clearly in the word
and the sentence. Also, the pronunciation of non-stressed syllables is short,
weak, and vague in the word and sentence. Then the strong stressed parts
have a tendency to have a high pitch.
The stressed syllables don’t have loud voice only. They have high pitch,
long length of the sound, and slow speed. The stressed parts of the sentence
are generally words with new information and important meaning. (i.e.
Japanese English Pronunciation (Kamizato)
content words: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, numeral, negative etc…) Words
which are possible to suppose from grammatical knowledge usually do not
have stress in the sentence. (function words: personal pronouns, relative
pronouns, auxiliaries, prepositions, articles etc…)
Instead of stress, Japanese uses pitch, and this is a big characteristic of
Japanese. Expressing the tone of the sound means that knowledge of the
word is bigger than structure of the sentence. In Japanese, there are many
syllables in one word, so the pitch of a single word is clearly set. If one
mistakes the pitch of the sound, this gives the listener incongruity (for
example, ame means rain, but ame means candy). This difference of
intonation causes dialect differences and so on, so this is important as a basis
for linguistic identity.
It is said that there is a big difference in syllables between Japanese and
English, but little is written about the fact that the Syllable is the cause of
Japanese Katakana English. A syllable is a sound pause. Basically, the
sound pause is decided by the number of vowels, and Japanese has many
vowels (see section 2 above). For example, in「すきやき」―「 su/ki/ya/ki 」
there are six sound pauses, so it’s a word of four syllables.
On the other hand, an English syllable has many consonants around a
vowel; for example: “bread” － [ br-ea-d ] It’s a word of one syllable. This
word is the combination of three consonant and one vowel but this word is
one syllable. So in English, one vowel is pronounced in one beat. This word
is one breath. But Japanese pronunciation is always accompanied by the
vowel. And, katakana English is「ブレット」－「bu- re- e-do」. Japanese people
misunderstand this as three or four syllables.
Japanese has a mechanism which puts a vowel between all consonant
clusters, so this is the problem of Katakana English for Japanese English
pronunciation.
4: Conclusion
It is said that the mother tongue is a strong influence to learn a
language. However there are big differences between the language of
Japanese and English. Many learner of languages don’t care or know about
them. Therefore, they make mistakes under influence from the mother
tongue.
The fact is that many mistakes can be prevented if they have
Japanese English Pronunciation (Kamizato)
knowledge about the difference of Japanese and English. Especially this
paper aimed at pronunciation and considered the differences. There are big
linguistic differences about the pronunciation.
The culture has influences on the language learning too. Katakana
English is peculiar to Japanese culture. And these differences make
Japanese English pronunciation.
Bibliography
America English, Hatuonkyousokubon ;( America English, The pronunciation
manual)
http://www.scn-net.ne.jp/~language/kyosokhon/ky0sokuhon.htm as of Dec. 2002
Eigo ga dekinai wake (The reason which can’t do English)
http://www.f4.dion.ne.jp/~kenmac/sub1.html
Eigono hatuon ni tuite (About English pronunciation)
http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/mr-phoenix/hatsuon.htm as of Dec.2002
Nihongo to eigo no tigai; (The difference of Japanese and English) as of Dec. 2002
http://www.shizuoka-eiwa.ac.jp/~hshimizu/hikaku/jap-eng.lang.html
Nihonjin no eigo no hatuon wo yokusuruniha (For improving Japanese
pronunciation)
http://www.bh.wakwak.com/~howtoeigo/proindex.html as of Dec.2002
Renzokuzadankai; (The continuation conversazione) as of Dec. 2002
http://www.so-net.ne.jp/medipro/igak/04nws/news/n2001dir/n2423dir/n2423_01.ht
m
Tsujimura Natsuko
(1996) An introduction to Japanese linguistics: Blackwell Publishers Ltd
Yoneoka Judy, Arimoto Jun (2000) English of the word.Tokyo: Sanshusha.
English and Japanese Rhythm
BY
FUMIKO TAKIGUCHI
A FIVE PAGE PAPER
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE OF
SEMINAR 1 (World Englishes)
Kumamoto Gakuen University Foreign Language Department
English Course
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
December 20, 2002
This paper consists of approximately 1450 words
English and Japanese Rhythm( TAKIGUCHI)
Ⅰ. Introduction
Many people will imagine music if they hear the word “rhythm” but
language has also fixed rhythm. Rhythm makes a pleasant sound by
repeating regularly the syllables with stress and it depends on the syllable is
pronounced strongly or weakly.
The foundation of the rhythm of language is the syllable. It is also the
unit of stress. In Japanese, one syllable includes one vowel, e.g. a i u e o and
one consonant, kana ; the Japanese system of syllabic writing is one syllable
because all the sounds includes one vowel. In English, one syllable is the
portion including one vowel and it is possible that a short word on the
surface has lots of syllables or against that, a long word doesn’t have many
syllables. Below is a sample of one of these words.
“Spring” is one syllable because it has one vowel. “Summer” is divided
sum- -mer, and it consists of two parts including sound each vowel, -u-, -e-,
so “summer” is a word of two syllables. A word with more than one syllable
has one a syllable that is pronounced more strongly than any other
syllable.
Ⅱ .
Difference
between
English
and
Japanese
Stress-timed
and
Syllable-timed rhythm
English has the tendency to pronounce words between each stress at
equal intervals. It is thought that English rhythm is influenced by Japanese
when Japanese people pronounce or hear English since the rhythm is
different. As contrasted with English, Japanese is pronounced by syllable (=
English and Japanese Rhythm( TAKIGUCHI)
mora). The great difference between English and Japanese rhythm is
Stress-timing or Syllable-timing.
According to rhythm, languages are classified as Syllable-timed or
Stress-timed. Although Japanese is probably the most perfect example of a
syllable-timed language, French and Brazilian Portuguese also have
syllable-timed rhythm, and English is clearly a Stress-timed language.
In Syllable timed languages, the rhythm of speech is based on the
syllable, each syllable taking a similar amount of time to be pronounced.
Therefore, the amount of time to say a given sentence depends on the
number of syllables. The more syllables in the rhythm unit, the more
compressed these syllables are pronounced.
These are examples:
(1)
The
cat
in the
hat
The cat in the yellow
hat.
The cat in the bright yellow hat.
(2)
Dogs
The dogs will
bite
bones.
bite the
bones.
The dogs will have bitten the
bones.
((2) from Eigo Onseigaku Nyumon (Introduction to English Phonetics) 1998)
The elements constituting the English rhythm are stress and
intonation. As for the stress of words and phrases, the position of stress
changes with the meaning of a word, the kinds of part of speech, etc. The
isochronic stress-timed rhythm may collapse because of sentence stress.
English and Japanese Rhythm( TAKIGUCHI)
From the syllable with stress to the next syllable with stress is a
rhyme or rhythmic unit. It takes about same time. This is not physically
quite the same time but it we feel it psychologically. These rhythmic units
occurring repeatedly at the same time is called isochronism. English is a
language of the stress-timed rhythm because it’s stress patterns keep
isochronism. In other words, the stress repeatedly appears to leave about the
same space.
People whose native tongue is English tend to stuff their unstressed
syllables together between the stressed ones in such a way that the stresses
occur at more or less regular time intervals. This is that the time taken to
say a phrase in English does not depend on the number of syllables but on
how many stressed syllables it contains.
Native speakers of Japanese need to realize the special character of
English to speak in English because the rhythm is in the strength and
weakness of stress, and rhyme without regard to the number of syllables.
The vowel of the syllable with stress has a clear quality of the sound.
However, unstressed syllables are compressed and pronounced rapidly. The
English that Japanese speak is pronounced in a monotone and the difference
in stress is poor. Japanese is a language of the syllable, with a timed rhythm
unlike English. Japanese apply a Japanese rhythm to English. It takes
Japanese about the same time for each syllable and the rhythm can be
timed.
English rhythm is a stress-timed rhythm but the Japanese rhythm
style is Syllable-timed rhythm. Another element that constitutes the English
English and Japanese Rhythm( TAKIGUCHI)
rhythm is intonation. It gives words some spices. Intonation works to
emphasize a word, reverse the meaning, or to be lively, cheerfully, bored
because the intonation helps express.
Ⅲ. Japanese syllable-timed rhythm
A good example of Japanese rhythm can be seen in Haiku composed of
three lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Many traffic catchwords in
Japan are also in 5-7-5 pattern. On the other hand, English poetry has
rhyme or alliteration. The same or similar pronunciation is brought the end
or head of the line, and the poetic effect is heightened because of the
repeating sounds.
Japanese rhythm is Haiku Rhythm. It is concretely the five-seven, or
seven-five syllable meter. Japanese realize the words depend on five or seven
sounds-rhythm. The difficulty of Japanese is that it is not easy to read and
speak if Japanese people unify into five or seven sounds. It is possible that
this impression is out of date, theatrical, and emphasized too much. As for
Haiku, it is ideal that Japanese rhythm with the rule of five-seven sounds as
a whole is followed but not too strictly.
Ⅳ. Syllable and mora
Because of the above, native speakers of Japanese feel that syllable is
the smallest unit to pronounce but there is a difference in interpretation as
to how many syllables are in words with so-called weak morae ((ん), a nasal
at the end or middle of a Japanese word, Sokuon (っ), doubled consonant, or
English and Japanese Rhythm( TAKIGUCHI)
Chouon (―), a long vowel). This depends on the independence as a syllable of
the weak morae. For example:
ニッ・ポン(Japan)
セン・セイ(teacher)
In principle, these special sounds combine just before syllable into a
part of the syllable and as a whole constitute one syllable. In addition, a gap
of the syllable is regarded right after that. Nevertheless, Japanese people
also can split the sounds and pronounce them closely and very slowly. For
example,
ニ・ッ・ポ・ン
セ・ン・セ・イ
This each of sounds are pronounced as about same length. Let’s
see the next samples:
1, コセキ
[koseki] (hestric spot)
2, コーキ
[ko:ki] (opportunity)
3, コンキ
[konki] (patience)
4, コッキ
[kokki] (national flag)
(from Nihongo No Onin To Akusento (Japanese phoneme and accent), 1989 p.37)
1st word is three syllables and 2nd, 3rd and 4th are two syllables,
but they all have same times and they consist of three units. Moreover,
although the long syllables with special sounds (コー), (コン), (コッ) are one
as syllable, the length of the sound consists of two units. The unit to express
the length of this sound is called beat (mora). Syllable is pause, “the unity of
sound”, but beat (mora) is a unit of the time counted a length of this sound.
Beat (mora) is pronounced about the same time (Isochronism of beat).
The difference between syllable and mora is their unit.
English and Japanese Rhythm( TAKIGUCHI)
Specifically, it shows a tendency that syllable as a unit of phonetic pause is
used, but mora as a unit of time is used.
Ⅴ. Conclusion
As the above, there are many fundamental differences between
English and Japanese rhythm. English rhythm is expressed by stress and
Japanese rhythm is expressed by syllables. In addition Japanese syllables
strictly are mora.
When we truly understand them, for example, it is possible to take
Mother Goose or haiku as this object of study. If it is carried out, we may
realize the difference between English and Japanese unique and exquisite
rhythms.
Bibliography
Eigo no Rizumu (English Rhythm). Available at;
http://www.pluto.dti.ne.jp/~hayase/m_english/rhythm.html (2000/7/11)
Kageyama(Fujimoto)Noriko. Bilingual Haiku. Available at;
http://home.att.ne.jp/star/biling-haiku/rhythm-rhyme.htm (2002/6/5)
Means, Charlotte. Using Chants to Help Improve Rhythm, Intonation, and Stress.
Available
at;
http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/jalt/pub/tlt/98/apr/sh_means.html
(1998/10/2)
Mikuma Yoshifumi. English Rhythm and Delivery; Available at
http://www.hicat.ne.jp/home/mickmar/delivery/deliverhythm.html
Nakajo, O(1989) Nihongo no Onin to Akusento (Japanese phoneme and accent)
Nema, H (1996) Eigo no Hatsuon to Rizumu (The Pronunciation And Rhythm of
English)
English and Japanese Rhythm( TAKIGUCHI)
Sakano, N (1996) Shichigochou no Nazo o Toku (Clear the Seven-Five syllable meter)
Setomi Daigoh and Nakajima Yoshitaka. Rhythm as viewed in perceptual psychology.
Available at; http://www.kyushu-id.ac.jp/~ynhome/JMPC/jmpc-e.html
Study of Effective Teaching Materials for Acquisition of English Rhythm. Available at;
http://www.nara-edu.ac.jp/~nakyoken/reikai01/ishigure.html (2001/3/10)
Watanabe, K (1980) Eigo no Rizumu、Handobukku (The Rhythm of English, Handbook)
Writer's Resource Center: Rhythm and Stress Available at;
http://www.poewar.com/index.html (2002/11/26)
Baseball English between Japan and the U.S.
Koji Yasui
A FIVE PAGE PAPER
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE OF
SEMINAR 1 (World Englishes)
Kumamoto Gakuen University Foreign Language Department
English Course
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
(01/08/2003)
This paper consists of approx 1134 words.
Registration number 13100258
Baseball English between Japan and the U.S.( Yasui)
1. Introduction
Baseball was born in the U.S. and came to Japan about one hundred years ago,
it is natural that baseball consists of English words and ruleｓ because it was born in
an English speaking country. On the other hand, baseball has been popular in Japan
for a long time and a lot of Japanese has come into it. This paper will show you various
differences of baseball English between both countries.
The differences are divided into four sections. The first section compares
baseball words Japanese people made and correct words in the U.S. The second
section approaches baseball words from a grammatical view. The third section shows
borrowing words from other sports.
2 Baseball words coined in Japan
After baseball has come into Japan, Japanese people faced the word problems.
At that time, there is few English speaking people in Japan and they could not ask
anyone. So they made baseball words lending English. This section gives four typical
examples with explanation.
(1) Guts pause (JP) = He thrusts his first triumphantly. (U.S.)
Most Japanese people think this phrase is correct English, but Robert Whiting says
“Spoken Guts has means like that ‘Courage’ and ‘Spirit’ but the word originally
implies ‘the internal organs’ so American people does not use this word in formal
scene.” (1990,P.27)
(2) Avec homerun (JP) = Back-to-back homers (U.S.)
This is a very multinational phrase. Because it contains three languages. “Avec”,
which Japanese people sometime use as meaning “a couple” actually means “with” in
French. Homerun is used both in the U.S. and Japan.
(3) Dead ball (JP) = Hit by the pitch (U.S.)
Baseball English between Japan and the U.S.( Yasui)
Dead ball expresses the action that a ballplayer hit by a pitch falls down on the field
well, but he has not died.
(4) Basta (JP) = Busted play (U.S.) Busted play means the play that a batter hit a
pitch pretending that he would bunt.
This word has a problem. Whiting (1990, P.26) says “Basta is heard as ‘bastard’
which means ‘bad man’ so when a TV announcer shouted the word, I thought he had
insulted someone on TV.” (1990,P.26-27) There is a hypothesis where this word came
from. The hypothesis is that a Japanese baseball fan misunderstood seeing an
American baseball fan shouting ‘bustard’ when the rival team did a busted play.
Other examples of baseball words coined in Japan are as follows:
Nighter (JP) = Night game (U.S.) This word is made from Japanese journalists. This is
a perfect English word coined in Japan.
Home in (JP) = Getting home (U.S.) In English, ‘home in’ means a conducting of
missile
Over throw (JP) = Overhand throw (U.S.) Wild pitch is right. These words seems
almost same to Japanese people but meanings are very different in the U.S.
Speed ball (JP) = Fast ball (U.S.) This expression is often heard in Japan, but this word
expresses a kind of drug in the U.S. so Japanese people should watch out in using this
word.
Catch ball (JP) = Play catch (U.S.) In English, this word signifies a command.
Back net (JP) = Back stop, or netting (U.S.) The man who made this word combined
the two English words.
Grip end (JP) = Knob (U.S.) Since the parts of bat looks likes a knob of the door.
Camp (JP) = Spring training (U.S.) They do not go to the location for training, not for
camp.
Lucky boy (JP) = He is hot tonight (U.S)
Baseball English between Japan and the U.S.( Yasui)
Next batter’s circle (JP) = On-deck circle (U.S.)
These words are only a part of all the baseball words coined in Japan. Most
Japanese baseball fans still think these words are correct today.
3 Grammar mistakes
This paragraph will show you some phrases which are grammatically different
from the original English but Japanese people use them in general. Phrases are divided
into two types.
(1) Word order reversed
Pass ball (JP) = Passed ball (U.S). “Pass ball” is an imperative phrase.
Left over (JP) = Over the left field (U.S.). Preposition should be front.
Season off (JP) = Off season (U.S.). Adjective should be in front of noun.
Base cover (JP) = Cover base (U.S.). Object should be behind of verb.
Order mistake sometimes leads big meaning difference. Japanese people
should be careful
(2) Grammatical morphemes are missing
Pitcher mound (JP) = Pitcher’s mound (U.S.) Difference is very small but it is wrong in
the U.S.
Relief (JP) = Reliever (U.S.). Relief pitcher or reliever is right.
One hand catch (JP) = One handed catch (U.S.). Japanese does not have past
participle so this mistake is hard to find.
These differences are very small and it is hard to distinguish for Japanese
people but the small differences have each means.
Baseball English between Japan and the U.S.( Yasui)
4 Borrowing words from other sports
This section shows cases where baseball English in Japan is borrowed from
other sports that came into Japan earlier than baseball.
Knock out (JP) = Pitching change (U.S.)
The word is lent from boxing words. In the U.S. this word is not seen in baseball game
Game set (JP) = Game is over. (U.S.)
Game set is used only for the tennis game in MLB. In Japan, tennis has come earlier
than baseball so it was lent to baseball.
Open game (JP) = Exhibition game (U.S.)
This is same case of the last word. It came from tennis game’s ‘opening game’
These mistakes are deeply related with the historical relationship between the
introduction of various foreign sports into Japan
5. Conclusion
This paper shows many differences in baseball English between both
countries but this is a small part of it all. This paper does not say all English words
coined in Japan are wrong. In those words, there are some words that can be
understood by American people and used to speak in the U.S. Today, many Japanese
baseball players play active parts in major league baseball, so many Japanese baseball
fans are going to the U.S. to see major league baseball. If you think all baseball English
in Japan is right in the U.S., please watch out. The Japanese English is not only no
used but can also lead to misunderstanding.
Ｂｉｂｌｉｏｇｒａｐｈｙ
Baseball English between Japan and the U.S.( Yasui)
Baseball dictionary. Available
at;http://www.geocities.co.jp/Heartland-Sumire/8209/yakyuyougo.html (07/01/2002)
English words coined in Japan vs. MLB words.
http://www.baseball.com/waseieigo/wasei.html (11/18/2002)
Available
at
Palm Baseball. Available at; http://homepage1.nifty.com/fdh/palm/index.html
(07/01/2002)
Whiting, Robert (1990) Nitibei Yakyu Masatu (The baseball friction between Japan and
U.S. in Japanese ). Tokyo : Asahi shoten
English in Trainspotting
BY
Noriko Inakazu
A FIVE PAGE PAPER
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE OF
SEMINAR 1 (World Englishes)
Kumamoto Gakuen University Foreign Language Department
English Course
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
December 20, 2002
This paper consists of approximately 1,278 words
English in Trainspotting(Inakazu)
1. Introduction
Do you know Trainspotting? It is a movie about the drug narcotics,
he is in his late twenties, made in Scotland in 1996, and it was a great hit in
all over the world. So it is said to best one of 90’s pop-culture.
In this movie, they use very special English; spoken language, slang
and so on. The English has two characteristics, location and generation
which from a social standpoint.
1. Location -----------------------------------British English
Scottish English
2. Generation /social status ------------Slang, Vulgarism
----------- About drug
This report gives the particular words have these characteristics,
and explains the meaning in American English.
2. Location oriented vocabulary
There are two types in this vocabulary. One is based on England.
The other is based on Scotland.
2.1 Examples of British English
British English and American English have many differences
each other. The biggest it is about food, clothing and shelter. About “food”,
most famous food in England is French fries, but it is American English. In
Britain, they call it chips, parenthesis, potato chips in America is ”crisp” in
British English. About “shelter”, flat is apartment and flat mate is roommate,
bedsit is studio apartment in American English. This is an abbreviation of
bed-sitting room. There are many abbreviations, for example, telly is
omission of television, mod cons is modern conveniences’ omission.
Other terms about life are betting shop; which means curbstone
betting ticket office, and hire purchase; it is install plan in America. Terms
means currency are quid; 1 pound, grand; it is 1000£ in British English. But
in American English, it is 1000$.
Cheers is “Bye” on the telephone. When they pronounce it /t∫iz/, it
34
English in Trainspotting(Inakazu)
means “Thank you”. Aye is a dialect of British English means “yes”.
Slang and spoken language also have features based on location of
England. These slang are used in only England, the American don’t use. For
examples, bird means girl, bloke means man, fellow, sunshine is used for hail,
punter; customer or customer of prostitute, gambler. Derogatory languages
are doss; loser, waster, wanker; fool based on its original meaning; person
who masturbates. In verbs, go down means “be sent up”, sub means borrow,
get an advance, clock means figure out, are. In adjectives, dodgy; chancy,
risky, humpty is upset, angry, are.
Vulgar languages are fuck all means nothing, shite off is shit off;
sweat about, get nervous about. Vulgarisms have different spelling are
faeces; excretions, and arse, each spelling are “feces” and “ass” in American
English.
2.2 Examples of Scottish English
Scottish English has unique words, spelling, pronunciation, and grammar.
For example, specky; spectacled, with glasses (affront), lassie; girl, wee is
little, so, wee gadge is nerd, uncool person. In grammar, ken is peculiar to
the Scottish dialect. Ken means know, adding the end of a sentence, it
means “~, do you understand?”
Sheriff and suit are very special term. Sheriff has different meaning
in each, American English, British English, and Scottish English. In
American, it means the highest-ranking law officer of a county who is elected.
The other, in British, it means secretary of state, High Sheriff. In Scottish, it
means judge of region court, sheriff court.
The other, suit is pronounced differently in each English. Further, in
Scottish English, *spelling differs too.
<American English>
[su:t]
<British English>
[sju:t]
<Scottish English>
[swi:t] */suite/
3 Generation / Status oriented vocabulary
In Trainspotting, Renton and other major roles in this movie are the
35
English in Trainspotting(Inakazu)
masses, but they lose their job, and some of them are narotics. Following
words are slang, vulgarisms, cant about drug, and phraseologies about social
system or problem.
3-1 Slang, Vulgarisms
In Trainspotting, they use various slang. Almost of them are foul,
concerned with sex, derogatory, and nonsense. The words used the most
frequently are fuck and shite which for emphasis.
Expressions include “fuck” are the fuck; used when you are angry or
surprised to emphasize what you are saying, fucking; very, very much, awful,
fucked – up; mess, fuckup; donkey, fool. Affronts are fucker, mother fucker;
horrible man, fellow. The other expressions are, get the fuck; get out of town;
no way, fuck everything; not respect or care about the people and things
around you, fucking people over; mistreating people, treating people badly,
fuck’s sake; for Christ, for God’s sake, for goodness’ sake, for heaven’s sake.
Fuck off! is Get out! Go away!
The other vulgarisms are, mug; donkey, fool, scum; a bad disgusting
person, sperm, brat; a bad kid, psycho; mad, crazy, pished; drunk, puss; face,
buftie; fuck with their butt; gay man, Shites it! is God damn you!
3-2
Sex language
These are vulgar languages has meaning about sex. Slang means sex
act are pussy, fuck, shag, screw, cunt, meat injection and so on. Vulgarisms
about sex are cunt; fellow, women’s sexual organ, sex, pussy; women’s sexual
organ, sex, cock; penis, balls; testicles, meat injection; penis, sex, jerk off;
masturbates.
3.3
Drug and the other societal language
There are many slang words in Trainspotting that have to do with
drugs, because the movie stars people from the working class who often
use drugs, for example, score; get drug, joint; a marijuana cigarette, gear;
drug, chemicals; drug.
Especially, there are many cants mean heroin, an old-fashioned
drug, because they use heroin most frequency. These are cant about heroin,
skag, junk, smack, smackhead; drug addict, addicted to heroin, hit; heroin
injection.
36
English in Trainspotting(Inakazu)
About the other social language, most of people of this movie are the
jobless, and they call walfare given by the government to people who lose
their job Giro. Giro is check drawn through Giro bank in England, and it
intends welfare for which issued on check. Another, one of Renton’s friends,
Shick boy is pimp. The cant means an intercessor with prostitute.
3.4 Other
These are worthy of special mention and not belong among each
category mentioned before.
Radge; means stupid, crazy, is not based on British English nor
Scottish English. This word is derived from rage and raj in Gypsy.
The other remarkable word is tin. Tin, means can, is British English.
In America, they use “can”. Now, they use “can” rather than “tin” in city like
London, England. Nevertheless, people in this movie use “tin”. This suggests
Edinburgh in Scotland where they live is country and is old fashioned.
It is nickname of people that interests in this movie. Nickname
displays the character and his or her background. Give character’s nickname
of the movie as examples, Renton; lead is called Rent or Rent boy which
means male prostitute. His friend, Shick boy’s “sick” is from his morbid ness,
and Begbie is called the beggar.
4 Conclusion
The lines of movie are the reflection of the time. They conclude
many terminologies. For example, if it is a movie about trial, they use legal
terms. In a movie about war, they use army terms.
In “Trainspotting”, they use special cant about trend, social problem.
Besides, title of movie, song, name of entertainer, musician are contained in
their conversation. So, watching movie, we realize “ language is life”
Bibliography




Yamagishi, Katsuei (1981). Eigo to Beigo wa kokogachigau: Iwanami
shinsyo
Oishi, Itsuo (1995). Eigo to Beigo ~sonochigai wo yomitoku~: Iwanami
shinsyo
Suzuki Masao (1999). SCREENPLAY: TRAINSPOTTING: Sukuriinpurei
syuppan
Speards. Richard. A/ Masami Yamada (1989). SLANG AND
37
English in Trainspotting(Inakazu)


EUPHEMISM: Kenkyuusya
LONGMAN ADVANCED AMERICAN DICSTIONARY: Longman
OXFORD LEARNER’S Word finder DICTIONARY: Oxford
38
ENGLISH IN HONGKONG
BY
ZHAO YAQUN
IN PARTIAL FULFILIMENT
OF
THE REQUIRMENT FOR THE COURSE OF
SEMINAR 2 (WORLD ENGLISH)
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Foreign Language Department
English Course
Supervisor: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
2002.7.8
This paper consists of approx.2.8790 words
39
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
Working Abstract
Language shifts is a useful barometer for societal change (wright
1997:1)Hong Kong has its language problems since colonialisation to the
present day under the sovereignty of PRC. After the handover, some old
problems diminished and some new problems arose. I want to reach it
through four aspects.
1.
civil service
2.
legal system
3.
business sector
4.
educational filed
This paper will research Hong Kong English through these four aspects.
Outline
1. Introduction (Hong Kong has its language problems since colonialisation
to the present PRC.)
2. civil service
3. Language education
4. Business sector
5. legal system
6. Conclusion
Introduction
Language serves as the most common medium of communication. As the
society becomes more sophisticated, language embodies more ideologies,
including social, gender and national identities of the speakers. Language
shifts is, then, a ‘useful barometer for societal change’. (Wright 1997:1) In
Hong Kong, a city just returned to People’s Republic of China for two years,
has its language problems, since colonialisation to the present days under
the sovereignty of People ‘s Republic of China.. Its latest language problems
mainly arise from its international status as a decolonized city, yet a
dependent region of PRC. After the handover, some old ‘language problems’
diminish and yet some new arose, which can reflect people’s attitude on
40
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
language, the political ideologies and function of languages.
Approach and Outline
In this essay, I will explore the languages issues currently most important
in language planning in Hong Kong. The approach I have taken is to
examine the stance adopted by the four aspects of society on language policy.
These aspects are the civil service, legal system, business sector and
educational field. To examine their stances on languages more attentively,
three language issues currently most controversial in Hong Kong can be
highlighted, namely 1) the balance between sovereignty and
internationalism 2) the choice of ‘standard’ languages and Hong Kong
stylistic languages and 3) the pragmatic nature of language education in
Hong Kong. Most of these are distinct language controversies of Hong Kong
owing to its political and cultural background. It is not that fair to regard
them as all ‘language problems’ as they only show the linguistic
distinctiveness of Hong Kong. The only issue that needs to be resolved is the
people’s attitudes on learning language: to learn languages with pleasure
and creativity, rather than just use language for instrumental purposes.
１．Language Usage during Colonialisation
Under British colonialisation, English was the language of administration,
legal system, commerce and education in Hong Kong. Cantonese, the
‘language’ used by the most population, was used solely for the lower social
functions. We can see that language usage in Hong Kong during
colonialisation reflects the distinct social stratification. In 1925, Lancelot
Forster, the first professor of Education at the University of Hong Kong,
observed “Hong Kong is merely a pied-de-terre both for British and Chinese
residents…. The contact between the two races is for mutual gain – material
gain. There is contact but no fusion, no community of though or
feeling.” (Sweeting 1990: 231-239)
English is the elitist language signifying ‘westernisation’, which suggests
‘modernization’, and many young Hong Kong Chinese were keen on
41
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
mastering English as a means to gain wealth and social status. English, as a
colonial language, also helped Hong Kong to be an international trading
centre and entreport. It was made the only official language from the mid
1840s to 1974. Those citizens who hope to join the civil service should be able
to master English, which, on the other hand, implies being wealthy and in
friendly terms with the British.
The colonial language, though it has helped raising the international
status, and speeding up modernization in Hong Kong, did not gain the
wholesome support of some nationalistic Hong Kong Chinese. They had an
anti-British attitude and hope to retain Cantonese as the discourse for all
walks of life, including the civil service. Some even asserted that there was a
British conspiracy to enslave the Chinese by forcing them to learn English.
For example, one critic cited a 1902 report, which regarded the mission of
Anglo-Chinese schools to cultivate educated Chinese for the advancement of
the British interest in China, as evidence that the teaching of English to the
Chinese in Hong Kong has an ulterior motive. (Chung 1987) English,
however, remained as the top language used in Hong Kong until the eve of
decolonialization.
The Official Languages Ordinance in 1974 declared that English and
Chinese were both official languages. Chen suggests some reasons for this
legislation, which included ‘the repercussions in Hong Kong of the Cultural
Revolution …and the Chinese sentiment against colonial rule.’ (1985:
19-47) Thus, there is always a wonder on the SAR and Chinese government’s
attitudes on language development in Hong Kong after the handover.
Language usage after the Change of Sovereignty after the change of
sovereignty, the government’s direction on language policy was conveyed in
the Basic Law and the campaigns it has held. With decolonialization,
English is still used widely in Hong Kong as an instrumental tool for success
in business. According to the article 9 of the Basic Law , English may also be
used as an official language in Hong Kong by the executive authorities,
legislature and judiciary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, in
addition to Chinese.
According to Lau, it would be premature, if not wrong, to pronounce the
demise of English after the transfer of sovereignty. In the first place, there is
42
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
no attempt to eliminate English for political reasons. Secondly, there is
widespread consensus in the community on the importance of
English. (1997:119) We can see that, however, the superior status of
English during colonialization has been shared with Chinese, the native
tongue of Hong Kong people, since the eve of handover.
Another query about language development is what is meant by ‘Chinese’,
Mandarin or Cantonese? It is recognized that ‘Chinese’ in the Basic Law
means ‘Cantonese’ – the ‘language’ which is used mostly in Hong Kong
society and that Mandarin is used for correspondence with the Beijing
Government. With the complex accouterment of these three languages, the
nature and role of each language in the society can be reflected in how the
government distributes the functions of languages in daily life. The language
usage can then show the government’s ideological concern in language
planning. In the following, I will illustrate language usage in four essential
fields in the society, the civil service, legal system, business sector and
educational field, in order to examine the language usage pattern in Hong
Kong after the change of sovereignty.
２．Civil
Service
The education system in Hong Kong has evolved under predominant
British influence characterized by the 6=5=2 school system,i.e.6=year
primary, 5=year secondary and 2=year matriculation. The education system
has evolved in a pragmatic and incremental way. They have borrowed good
practices from overseas and adapted them to the situation in Hong Kong.
The education system has served them well and has contributed significantly
to the economic success of Hong Kong.
However, years of prosperity and transition of Hong Kong from a
manufacturing into a services economy have eroded the attractiveness of
teaching as a career and have raised concern about the quality of teaching.
The introduction of universal education some twenty years ago has created
strains in the education system and led to a general perception that
academic standards have declined. As Hong Kong moved into a new historic
era and became a Special Administrative Region of the People’ Republic of
China in July 1997, the Government has therefore taken a fresh look at
43
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
where they are and where they should go from here. The focus is on the
quality of education.
The debate that's raging in the country's Internet forums centers on the
status of English. More specifically, it's about the benefits of learning English
as a second language, ESL in academic parlance. '
Someone posted an inflammatory article claiming that the current
popularity of ESL is "a sign of linguistic imperialism? It adds that "our
national culture is in a crisis as learning English has become an essential
part of our life?
This has been followed by thousands of postings either in support of this
view or ridiculing it. In a recent Sina.com online poll, of the 10,000
respondents, one-third shows vigilance against English as an imperialist
force while 44 per cent sees it as a positive trend towards international
integration. The remainder either has no opinion or believes there's no
nationwide English fever.
One of the events that triggered this controversy was a series of remarks
by , Professor To Choyee, an expert on education with the Chinese University
of Hong Kong and the University of Michigan. Professor To has repeatedly
warned of the negative consequences of China's nationwide ESL campaign.
He argues that China should promote Chinese rather than English as the
language of choice in the academic world and that students are spending too
much time on learning English, resulting in a waste of resources.
３．Language Education
The funny thing is there's never been an orchestrated campaign for
nationwide conversion to English. But if you live in China, you'd surely feel
there is one.
It's rumored that there are over 2,000 special schools teaching English in
Hong Kong. The Guangzhou municipal government announced that the
city's public servants should possess an English vocabulary of at least 1,000
words. Peppering conversations with English words exudes a cosmopolitan
air, at least among the young generation.
Yet, Chinese people are known for their enthusiasm rather than high
standard of English speaking. A Chinese professor in Guangzhou, who does
not want to reveal his name, once pondered writing a book entitled China:
44
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
the Land of Bad English by compiling errors in bilingual signs prominently
displayed in public places in Chinese metropolises.
For example, some airport departure terminals are festooned with
"Welcome Back Again? Posters, but what they actually mean is "Goodbye
and thank you for visiting our city.? When some television anchorwomen
speak English, their poor pronunciation may give you goose bumps.
Many people in Hong Kong's expatriate community would rather endure
the funny English than the xenophobia implied in the online outburst the
English sentiment. "when someone uses patriotism to defend the advantage
of his native language over another one, it becomes so pathetic that it simply
turns.
４．The SAR Challenge on Education
The chief executive of the Hong Kong SAR, the Hon ,C H Tung, in his
1998 Policy Address entitled “In times of Adversity”, has said, “the starting
point for the development of an enlightend, knowledge-based society is good
education. To take Hong Kong forward to an increasingly competitive world,
they must give education top priority. “Put simply, no plan for manpower
today means no manpower for plans tomorrow.
In developing a blueprint on education for the next generation, they
begin by asking how do they see the worked evolving and what are the skills
and orientations that the children will need, it is in order to lead a
meaningful life in the 21st Century. This is a million-dollar question as the
future abounds with imponderables, what they know for sure is that the only
constant is change itself, therefore the challenge to education is how to equip
the young people with the versatility and ability to deal with the unknown
and cope with change.
The Education Commission, which advises the Chief Executive of the
Hong Kong SAR on all aspects of education policies, has just completed a
review of education aims for each level of education. Hong Kong’s children
must develop the capacity and aptitude for life-long learning. They must
have a good mastery of information technology skills, and the creativity and
resourcefulness to harness, share and synergies information and ideas in the
global village of the 21st Century. This will require investment in information
technology in education and a shift in pedagogy from the traditional
45
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
textbook-based, teacher-centered approach to a more interactive,
thought-provoking and learner-centered approach.
To uphold Hong Kong’s position as a modern international city in the
global economy of the 21st Century, the young people must develop a global
outlook, a good understanding of other cultures and the ability to live in
harmony in a multi-cultural society. Our aim is to develop the young people
to be good international citizens, who respect the rule of law and have a
strong sense of responsibility to the family, society, country and the world,
Following on from this, the young people must also possess the language
skills to communicate effectively in a global community, Today, English is
still largely the business language in Hong Kong and over 90% of the
population speak a local Chinese dialect they want their students to speak
English, Putonghua (the official Chinese Language) and Cantonese (the
everyday dialect in Hong Kong).
Finally, as Hong Kong becomes a Special Administrative Region of
China, the young people have to adjust to a newly found identity. They have
to learn more about china e.g. the meaning of the national flag and the
national anthem, which previously were not taught in the school, Civic
education also has to be updated to incorporate aspects of the Basic Law,
including the constitutional arrangements for Hong Kong, and the
relationship between the Hong Kong SAR and the central government of
China. Learning of Putonghua, the official language of china has become a
part of the formal curriculum.
５．Education system
Since 1978, Hong Kong have provided nine years of free and universal
education for all children between the ages of 6 and 14. At Secondary 4 level
school places are provided for about 85% of the 15-year old cohort, with
another 10% being provided with technical and vocational education.
Beyond this level, one out of three Secondary 5 graduates can go on to a
two-year sixth form course, and about a quarter of our 17-20 age group have
access to first-degree and sub-degree studies, including teacher preparation
courses.
Hong Kong has a long tradition of community participation in education.
Out of 1231 publicly funded primary and secondary school, only 82 are
directly operated by the Education Department. The rest are run by
46
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
churches, private organizations and trusts. There are a small private school
sector with 144 private schools only, including 42 international school , Nine
tertiary institutions offer degree and sub-degree programmes , including an
open university.
Firm in the belief that a well-educated community supported by highly
qualified professionals is essential for maintaining Hong Kong is
competitiveness in the global market, they have been investing heavily in
education. In 1998/1999, education continues to be the single biggest item of
public expenditure, which amounts to US$6800 million, or 18.4%, of the
budget. Compared to two years ago, the expenditure has increased 40%. This
reflects a strong commitment on the pare of the Hong Kong special
Administrative Region(SAR) to invest in people, as they brace themselves for
new challenges in the 21st century.
６．Business sector
"Language is mainly a tool, Mao Xinli said . He is currently managing
director of Four Seas Consulting Services, whose business includes language
training. Mao attributed some of the frustration of language students to the
low quality of language teaching. 'There are so many people and so many
institutions that are offering learn-English-quick curriculum. Many of these
are fly-by-night operations. They rent makeshift rooms, hire temporary
teachers, charge obscenely high fees and make promises that no mortal on
earth can possibly fulfill. There's no way anyone can master a new language
in a week or three months.
Reports show that ESL has become a 10-billion-yuan business in HK-Of
the 37 billion yuan annual book sales, ESL takes up as much as 25 per cent
of the market share. And a few ESL teachers in Shanghai command an
hourly rate of 1 ,000 yuan (US$120). Even on average, a student pays 10-20
yuan (VS$1 .2-2.4) for one hour of ESL training.
Depending on whom you ask, "Crazy English is either one of China's
most successful language training programmes or "an evil cult, Li Yang, its
founder, advocates a method that has the trainees shout at the top of their
lung for hours a day. It resembles a direct sales marketing campaign than a
language learning session. '
The only good thing about this approach is, it helps break people's
47
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
timidity.? Mao Xinli said. "Its published results are greatly exaggerated. It’s
a publicity stunt for recruiting rather than a solid technique for enhancing
language proficiency.?
Guo Hua, a language professor in Beijing, seems to concur. He was
heading the Beijing branch of the "Crazy English? programe until he
realized that "this is just a hoax? He apologized for "misleading students into
thinking that English could be within easy reach once you open your mouth
and shout slogans?
As so many people pray for a Midas touch that could make the process of
learning English fast and pain free, most of them walk away from the
classrooms with no noticeable improvement in their language skills. "
The waste in the ESL industry is astounding, observes one newspaper
critic. "This waste has been caused mostly by our traditional language
training methodology, said Professor Dai, who has published books in both
Chinese and English. "Our schools treat English as another science subject.
it has been dissected to death. That's why some of China's students are able
to achieve perfect scores on grammar and vocabulary for internationally
standardized tests such as TOEFL or GRE, yet can hardly conduct a regular
telephone conversation.
"Most people pick up a language by listening to it spoken in a natural
environment. But they commit bits and pieces to memory by rote. They dub
foreign movies, have non-native speakers hosting English-language
television shows, translate foreign newspaper articles and create
weird-sounding equivalents for computer applications. They take away the
normal settings for a language and put in something artificial. No wonder
the English you'd hear in our country sounds awkward and stilted. Dai
added.
Government should do research to find out the best ways in terms of
textbooks, manpower and time management, and language courses should
be tailored to the needs of specific professions.
The push for more people to speak better English may have contributed
to the backlash. ”for example, we’d be lucky if Guangdong officials are able to
speak proper Mandarin as many people have a hard time understanding
their Cantoness-accented words. For a place with a negligibly small expact
population. What’s the practical use of having offcials speaking broken
English? “Those whose jobs require English may need more than 1000
48
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
words to conduct business or communicate effectively? Dai Fan asked,
associate professor of English language with Sun yat-sen University in
Guangzhou, who has looked at most of the virtual gripes over the perceived
ascendancy of ESL.
Students who don’t see an immediately needs for language skills are
among the loudest complainers. They are under constant pressure to pass
tests and deliver high grades to their parents to teachers. A course that takes
a lot of memorizing won’t easily be their favorites.
The English resisters predict that, if we don’t stop it, English will
eventually dominate the world and the Chinese language is doomed.
Professor Yu Genyuan, a renowned linguist, explains that it is economic
power that has propelled English to the forefront of world communication.
But Yue Jianguo, a media commentator, Argues that while it’s a fact that
English is for the foreseeable future the world’s preferred language, that
does not imply that other languages will perish, let alone a language like
Chinese with such a huge user base, Even countries with English like
Chinese with such a huge user base, even countries with English as the
official language have room for people’s mother tongues and a multitude of
dialects.
Speaking of official languages the US experienced a storm in a teacup a
few years ago. Some Chinese people may be surprised to know that English
never declared America’s official language. But some politicians wanted to
change that a businessman remarked in a radio commentary that there’s
no need to bestow that title on any language. Immigrants would want to
learn English if they expect more job opportunities. People who have small
businesses in many US urban centers may want to learn Spanish talk to
their customers. It’s all dictated by one’s specific needs.
More and more people know that they need to broaden their job-seeking
horizons. English is bound to be on their hot pursuit list. The latest
nationwide language receive an average of 53.378 yuan annually, while those
with medium-and low-language capabilities are paid an average of 38898
and 31211yuan. There may be other factors at play here, but such a wide gap
has got to have a strong impact on a populace whose “iron rice bowl? He
recently been smashed.
“It’s ludicrous to say that learning English will turn a Chinese citizen into
a traitor of his or her own country. Even though it’s true that a language is a
49
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
carrier of culture, it does not automatically lead to identification with
everything in that culture, it does not automatically lead to identification
with everything in that culture, and it does not entail colonialism said Yue
Jianguo who goes on to cite a precedent:” Japan has based its language on
Chinese, but it has not turned into a Chinese colony or turned its people into
china loyalists.
７．In the area of education, the Basic Law specifically
·empowers the SAR Government on its own “to formulate policies on the
development and improvement of education”.
· provides that “community organizations and individuals may, in
accordance with law, run educational undertakings of various kinds”
· assures tertiary institutions of their continued “autonomy and
academic freedom”.
·maintains that “students shall enjoy freedom of choice of educational
institutions and freedom to pursue their education outside of Hong Kong”.
Experience over the past 18 months shows that China has lived up to
the promises in the Basic Law. Business is as usual. The difference, if any, is
the fact that Hong Kong people now enjoy a higher degree of autonomy in
making decisions on internal affairs.
A glaring example is the SAR Government decided to intervene and
trade in the financial market after successive speculative attacks on the
Hong Kong dollar. The SAR Government took full responsibility for the bold
decision which, prior to the transition, could not possibly have been taken
without prior consultation with the Foreign Office in London.
Since the transition in July 1997, political confidence among the people
of Hong Kong has risen. As the graph shows, the index on political confidence
rises from 100 in April 1996 to over 150 in December 1998. On the contrary,
On the contrary, the index on economic confidence fell by 18 percentage
points over the same period. The primary concern in Hong Kong now. As in
many other Asian countries, is with economy.
Hong Kong has its share of the economic pinch from the financial crisis
in Asia. Retrenchment in public expenditure would normally be a prudent
option, but the Government has decided steadfastly that expenditure on
50
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
education will continue to grow. This is made possible by the huge reserves
which we have accumulated through prudent financial management in the
good years.
Conclusion
In term of educational attainment, in the ten-year period between 1986
and 1996, the proportion of the population, aged 15 and above, with
secondary or higher education increased from 57% to 68%. The biggest
increase is in respect of tertiary education which rose from 9% to 15% over
the same period. This is the direct result of a rapid expansion of tertiary
education in mid-1980, as educated people emigrated overseas due to
uncertainties over the future of Hong Kong. Now the situation is reversed
with many emigrants returning to work in Hong Kong.
Founded on the innovative concept of “one country, two systems”, the
Basic Law provides the constitutional framework for the Hong Kong SAR. It
firmly guarantees that the previously existed legal, social and economic
systems will continue, and empowers the people of Hong Kong to manage
their own affairs.
Being an open economy and one of the freest markets in the world, Hong
Kong is sensitive to competition in the global community. The recent
economic downturn has steeled the SAR Government’s resolve to upgrade
the human capital, and ignited the fervor of many educators to join in the
effort. Change is at the heart of the challenges facing Hong Kong, and
effective change depends on People principals , teachers, parents , students,
the Government and the community at large must collaborate to make it
work.
Bibliography
http://www.HongKong.scmp.com (13/6/2002)
http://www.HongKong.com (English)Homepage )
(15/6/2002)
http://www.altavista.com
(15/6/2002)
http://www.ed.gov.hk/cindex.asp
(3/12003)
http://www.search.chinadaily.com.cn (3/1 2003)
http://www.sina.com
(5/1 2003)
English Language Centre-English-The British Council (13/6/2002)
51
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
South China Morning Post Online Coverage of Hong Kong Politics and News
(13/6/2002)
Political Attitudes of Hong Kong English
(13/6/2002)
I have never been used this kind of stunning concordance. It has many wonderful
functions and it is easy to find out what you want to know.
i
When I was researching this thesis, my friend, Danny from Canada said it is hopeless
to find out these kinds of slang in the newspapers because they use formal English
language. This is the greatest thing I could find “uni” which is like Australian slang in
the newspapers.
ii
Also in my case, the research always had a limit that there are only two rooms that I
could use the concordance software in KGU. Then I lost the floppy when it had the
introduction of this thesis, and the 2131 words that I wrote for this thesis suddenly
disappeared at one fifty-five at early morning. I should keep away from the so many
numbers and computer stuff for a while.
iii
Bibliography
Books
Morimoto, Ben. Aussie English Dictionary. Tokyo: Taishu-Shoten, 1994.
Matumoto, Michihiro. You can Communicate with Foreigners to Use only
“Get” and Give”. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1998.
Internet Resources
Australian Embassy. Australian Animals.
http://www.australia.or.jp/gaiyou/nature/animals.html, January 2, 2003
Okawara, Mami. Unchiku of Australian English.
http://www11.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/cg7/samtaki/unchiku1.html, January 2, 2003
52
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
Online Newspaper sites
1. Canberra Times (63394 tokens), http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/home.asp
2. Sydney Morning Herald (60501 tokens), http://www.smh.com.au/index.html
3. The Gold Coast Bulletin (28181 tokens), http://www.gcbulletin.com.au/
4. The Sunshine Coast Daily (54429 tokens), http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/
5. Northern Territory News (13166 tokens), http://www.news.com.au/nt/
6. Alice Springs News (114217 tokens), http://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/
7. The West Australia, (62530 tokens), http://www.thewest.com.au/
8. Midwest Times (9482 tokens), http://geraldton.yourguide.com.au/home.asp
9. Whyalla News (22655 tokens), http://whyalla.yourguide.com.au/home.asp
10. The Transcontinental(13877 tokens), http://portaugusta.yourguide.com.au/home.asp
11. The Chronicle (18947 tokens), http://wangaratta.yourguide.com.au/home.asp
12. The Journal (30448 tokens), http://www.thejournal.com.au/
13. The Advocate (40290 tokens), http://www.theadvocate.com.au/.
14. Launceston Examiner (21724 tokens), http://www.examiner.com.au/index.asp
53
English in Hong Kong(Zhao)
54