Options
Beijing Silk Market street vendors' talk : a sociolinguistic study
Author
Wang, Long Long
Supervisor
Chew, Phyllis Ghim Lian
Abstract
This study delineates the comprehensive ecology of English in contemporary China, in which its diffusion is in various settings and its speakers are stratified in line with their language mastery continuum. The delineation, according to the history of English contact in China, is a déjà vu scenario. Therefore, this study reviews the complete history of English evolution in China briefly but comprehensively to support the fundamental argument that the multiple varieties CO-exist when English diffusion happens in various settings. The research on the multiple English varieties in China has focused attention on the educated variety exclusively. This study, targeting some samples from the expanding group of Chinese street vendors and using contact linguistics as the theoretical framework, investigates the vendors' English vernacular socially, historically and linguistically. The sociolinguistic features of the Chinese Street Vendors' Talk are discussed at the level of phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax and its social contexts, compared with Chinese Pidgin English (CPE). The analysis is based on 40 audio-recorded naturalistic interactions between Chinese street vendors and foreigner customers. Finding indicate that the Chinese Street Vendors' Talk shares similar external factors with CPE. Most imp6kantly, it shares similar phonological, lexical, morphological and syntactical features with CPE and other pidgin varieties. This study also utilizes the collected interview data investigating the mode in which the Chinese vendors have formed their pidginized English vernacular.
Date Issued
2009
Call Number
PE3502.C54 Wan
Date Submitted
2009