scholarly journals Quantifying the Differences Between Lexical Categories

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. e399
Author(s):  
Brett Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Lexical Categories ◽  
Energy Distance ◽  
Rigorous Description ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Parametric Statistics ◽  
Modern Standard ◽  
Non Parametric

The Cambridge grammar of the English language (HUDDLESTON; PULLUM, 2002) attempts to present a comprehensive and rigorous description of Modern Standard English. Much of the book is taken up with describing the properties of the various lexical categories, including determinative and pronoun. The distinction between these categories has been questioned by various authors in English (ABNEY, 1987; CROFT, 2001; HUDSON, 2004; MATTHEWS, 2014; POSTAL, 2014/1966; SOMMERSTEIN, 1972) and other languages (e.g., NAU, 2016). Here, I employ energy distance, a novel family of non-parametric statistics, to adjudicate between these positions. Following Crystal (1967), I binarily encode the features (has/doesn’t have feature) of the determinatives and pronouns from CGEL in a 138 word-forms by 232 features matrix. The results provide support for CGEL’s analysis (k-groups produces a 93% correspondence with CGEL’s categorization) and show that energy distance statistics applied to such matrices can help us adjudicate between competing lexical category analyses without resorting to methodological opportunism (CROFT, 2001).

Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy: Politics in the Vernaculars

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernice Schrank
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Great Variability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Cultural Assumptions ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
Autobiographical Fiction ◽  
Literature And Language

This essay examines the political uses to which Behan puts language in his autobiographical fiction, Borstal Boy, both as an instrument of domination and a means of liberation. Identifying Standard English language and literature as important components of the British imperial project, Behan creates, as a linguistic alternative, ‘englishes’, a composite language in which differences of geography, class, age, education, and occupation create a demotic speech of great variability and expressive force. In so doing, Behan sabotages the cultural assumptions and justifications for colonial exploitation embedded and validated in Standard English literature and language.

Singaporeans' reactions to Estuary English

English Today ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia Boh Peng ◽  
Adam Brown
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Personal Communication ◽  
The Other ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Teaching Model ◽  
Received Pronunciation

A consideration of whether EE could conceivably be an alternative to RP as a teaching model.Since David Rosewarne first coined the term in 1984, much has been written about Estuary English (EE). The definition usually given of Estuary English is that if we can imagine a continuum with Received Pronunciation (RP) at one end and Cockney (an urban accent of London) at the other, then Estuary English is in the middle. This definition is restated by Wells (1998-9) as ‘Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England. This highlights two chief points: that it is standard (unlike Cockney) and that it is localized in the southeast (unlike RP)’. The book English Language for Beginners (Lowe & Graham 1998) contains on p. 156 a diagram giving the actress Joanna Lumley as an example of RP, the boxer Frank Bruno for Cockney, and the comedian and writer Ben Elton for EE. This is ironic, in that Ben Elton himself denies that he is a speaker of EE (John Wells, personal communication).

Nepalese English (Nenglish): Diverse and expanded assortment of Standard English

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (01) ◽  
pp. 39-49
Author(s):  
Nani Babu Ghimire
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Literal Translation ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Written Form

Nepalese English is a new version of Standard English which is developed due to the effect of the Worlds Englishes. When the English language is expanded, the consequence has been seen in the use of English according to the socio-cultural context of the countries. The use of English either in spoken or written form is also seen differently from the Standard English in Nepal. To uncover this change in the use of English in Nepal, I studied two fictions (novels) written by two Nepalese literary figures in English based on qualitative analysis of the authors’ practice in the use of Nepalese English in writing fiction and found that there is the influence of Nepalese socio-cultural, socio-political, social norms and values in English literature. The finding also illustrated that Nepalese words (characters, location, kinship and taboos terms) are making their entries, complete sentences in Nepali are written, English suffixes are being attached to Nepalese words and vice versa, the word order of English is changed in Nepalese English (Nenglish), the literal translation of Nepalese proverbs are being introduced in English literature. The practice of writing English literature using Nepalese English is being extended to create its own features in English language which leads to develop Nepalese English as a separate variety in the field of language study.

Implementing ELF-informed Activities in an Elementary Level English Preparatory Classroom

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibel Sert ◽  
Yonca Özkan
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Elementary Level ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Educational Setting ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Mixed Method Design ◽  
Personal Interests

AbstractUpon the advocacy of the integration of English as a lingua franca, namely ELF, into English language teaching, some scholars (Hino & Oda, 2015) have focused on its possible implications for classroom settings. Implementing ELF-informed activities in an elementary level classroom within a norm-based educational setting, this study aimed to enable students to experience these activities, and explore their pre and post views regarding Standard English, the concepts of good English, and my English. In addition, it also investigated students’ preference for their educational setting after the implementation. The implementation took seven weeks and the activities were created by the researchers. Within a mixed method design, qualitative and quantitative data were collected via semi-structured interviews and two statement lists. The findings indicated that the majority of the students enjoyed the activities and their pre and post views regarding Standard English, good English and my English differ from each other. However, a substantial number of them preferred to be educated with Standard English in their language learning process. Findings also revealed that potential reasons behind this preference may be the domination of norm-based approach in their context, personal interests and prime objectives, and norm-based exams.

scholarly journals Challenges of the Sudden Switch from Mother Tongue Instruction to English as a Medium of Instruction

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 76
Author(s):  
Shahinaz Abdullah Bukhari
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
English Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
Classroom Communication ◽  
Mother Tongue Instruction

The present study explored the challenges encountered through the transition from using the mother tongue as a medium of instruction at schools to using English as a medium of instruction at universities. Two focus groups were conducted with Saudi undergraduates and faculty members from different Saudi universities. The focus groups investigated how participants perceive this experience, what difficulties they face and how they cope. Participants expressed their preference for using English as a medium of instruction in higher education to maximise students’ future and international opportunities. Participant students reported difficulties in lecture comprehension, taking notes while listening and classroom communication. Participant content lecturers reported difficulties related to students’ reluctance to speak in English, lack of English terminology and insufficient lecture comprehension. Some suggestions that have been offered to overcome these challenges include the following: designing adequate trainings for content lecturers on teaching their content in English; using Arabic-English bilingualism as medium of instruction; giving emphasis to academic literacy and communication skills over the use of standard English models and enhancing the collaborative work between English language teaching practitioners and content lecturers.

scholarly journals The Impact of Texting on Standard English: The Students’ Perspective

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamal Kaid Mohammed Ali ◽  
S. Imtiaz Hasnain ◽  
M. Salim Beg
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Perceptions And Attitudes ◽  
English Second Language ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Academic Year

Overindulgence in social networking, in general, and texting, in particular, is much in practice. It is cutting across various population boundaries and has almost assumed an endemic proportion. Its consequential impact on the standard language has acquired greater importance. This paper aims to determine the perceptions and attitudes of English Second Language (ESL) learners at Aligarh Muslim University towards the consequences of texting on Standard English. The data were collected through a five-point scale questionnaire from ninety students who were enrolled at Aligarh Muslim University during the academic year 2010-2011. The respondents completed a 16-item questionnaire. The students from which the data were collected were grouped according to their levels. The results indicate the negative impact of this new usage of the language in breaking the rules of English language and influencing their literacy. Moreover, the questionnaire results from respondents' point of view show that regardless of their heavy use of texting, most respondents have a negative attitude towards texting and they viewed it as a threat to Standard English.

scholarly journals THE STUDENT’S LEARNING STYLE AND THEIR WRITING SKILL AT SMK TIARA AKSARA

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Eka Sari ◽  
Ikhfi Imaniah ◽  
Immtihan Hanim
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Learning Style ◽  
Quantitative Method ◽  
Writing Test ◽  
Writing Skill ◽  
Parametric Statistics ◽  
Non Parametric ◽  
Normally Distributed

Writing is an activity that not only need physical act but also mental act. Students can put their statements, idea and opinion in composing writing. Moreover, students learn with visually, auditory and kinesthetic. Students with multi learning style usually better in learning and understand lessons, particularly in writing. Due to the statement, this study is aimed to find out the correlation between students’ learning style and their writing skill. This study use survey quantitative method and analyze the data by using statitisctical hypotheses. Based on the data analysis, it was found that student’s learning style was not normally distributed, whereas the data of writing test was normally distributed. Therefore, the researchers used non-parametric statistics to analyze the hypotheses. Kendall Tau calculation was used and obtained that Zcount ((0,35) <  Ztable (1,96) with significant 0,05. Thus, H0 is accepted and Hi is rejected. It means that there is no correlation between students’ learning style and their writing skill. In this case, learning style were not dominat factors affected writing skill.

scholarly journals Distribution of plant communities as a function of the relative insolation of the Czyżówki rocky ridge in the Ojców National Park

2014 ◽  
Vol 60 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 327-338
Author(s):  
Stefan Michalik
Keyword(s):  
Plant Communities ◽  
Great Degree ◽  
National Park ◽  
Parametric Statistics ◽  
Microclimatic Conditions ◽  
Non Parametric

Highly significant dependences were found between the distribution of plant communities and the relative insolation on a small rocky ridge with relief and microclimatic conditions varying to a very great degree. The dependences are presented in graphical and numerical forms, and their significance is tested using non-parametric statistics.

scholarly journals (Re)claiming English Language Today

2019 ◽  
pp. 177-185
Author(s):  
Nadežda Stojković
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Cultural Renewal ◽  
Paradoxical Situation ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
National Languages ◽  
The Impact

In the huge and most diverse discussion on the influence of the English language as a second, international, or bridge language, there are distinctive voices drawing attention to the fact that this language as nowadays so widely used in innumerable contexts, is no longer ‘owned’ by the community of speakers to whom it is mother language, those primarily of the countries from where English language originates. Moreover, the number of people speaking, or rather using English language today either as their second or foreign language, by far outnumbers people to whom it is native. Situation being such, it is further claimed the concept of ‘standard English’ reflects inherent inequality stance, for if it belongs to everyone speaking it, then insisting on the supremacy on only one of its variants means placing all those speakers of it in a subdued position, and this possibly being yet another facet of English an agent of neocolonialism and globalization (Pennycook 1998, Phillipson 1992). The spread of the English language has been much investigated as oppressive to the formation and expression of personal and collective identities, degrading national languages and through globalization diminishing the impact of local cultures (Bhaba 1990), that it challenges cultures and discourses, being the impetus for continuous re-codification and re-colonisation (Foucault 1980). However, equally significant in relevance and number, the opposing views claim English today offers an expanded community of users enabling new ways of expressing, changing, negotiating voices that offer chances for cultural renewal and exchange around the world, that the awareness of this brings “decolonizing of the colonizers mind” (Penycook 2013). Taking the flip side of the situation, English language natives are noted to be in a paradoxical situation of being expatriates from their own language, themselves “co-victims” (Bratlinger 1990). This insurgent knowledge of the status of English language today is certainly to instigate further investigation, ‘writing back’ of what ontology this language now embodies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document