SEEL 105 Language, Culture, and Society PDF

REVIEW ON THE LINGUISTIC COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE A. Language a system of conventional spoken, manual (signed), or written symbols by means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves....

REVIEW ON THE LINGUISTIC COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE A. Language a system of conventional spoken, manual (signed), or written symbols by means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves. Language is the ability to produce and comprehend both spoken and written (and in the case of sign language, signed) words. Understanding how language works means reaching across many branches of psychology— everything from basic neurological functioning to high-level cognitive processing. Language shapes our social interactions and brings order to our lives. Henry Sweet, an English phonetician and language scholar, stated: “Language is the expression of ideas by means of speech-sounds combined into words. Words are combined into sentences, this combination answering to that of ideas into thoughts.” The American linguists Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager formulated the following definition: “A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates.” B. Macro Skills Language teaching covers four macro-skills needed for communicating – listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Good language teachers plan lessons, and sequences of lessons, which include a mixture of all the macro-skills, rather than focusing on developing only one macro-skill at a time. Oral skills Literacy skills Receptive skills Listening Reading Productive skills Speaking Writing Listening and speaking are oral skills. Reading and writing are literacy skills. Each week teachers should include some activities which focus on developing the students’ oral skills (e.g. pair and group interactions and games) and some activities which focus on literacy skills (e.g. reading and analyzing texts and then students write their own). The four skills can also be grouped another way. Listening and reading are receptive skills since learners need to process and understand language being communicated to them in spoken or written form. Speaking and writing are known as productive skills since learners need to produce language to communicate their ideas in either speech or text. It is common for language learners to have stronger receptive than productive skills, that is they can understand more than they can produce. Teachers often link activities for developing students’ receptive and productive skills. C. Communicative Competence If a language learner is asked what they think the goal of a language course is, they would probably answer that it is to teach the grammar and vocabulary of that language. However, if they are asked what their goal is as language learners, they would most probably answer that it is to be able to communicate in that language. SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material  Page |2 Fortunately, the focus of second language teaching has moved from purely teaching grammar and vocabulary, to providing the skills for effective communication. In linguistics terminology, a language course should not only have “linguistic competence” as its goal, but “communicative competence” in general. But what do these terms mean? Communicative competence is a term coined by Dell Hymes in 1966 in reaction to Noam Chomsky’s (1965) notion of “linguistic competence”. Communicative competence is the intuitive functional knowledge and control of the principles of language usage. As Hymes observes: “…a normal child acquires knowledge of sentences not only as grammatical, but also as appropriate. He or she acquires competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk about with whom, when, where, in what manner. In short, a child becomes able to accomplish a repertoire of speech acts, to take part in speech events, and to evaluate their accomplishment by others.” (Hymes 1972, 277) In other words, a language user needs to use the language not only correctly (based on linguistic competence), but also appropriately (based on communicative competence). Of course, this approach does not diminish the importance of learning the grammatical rules of a language. In fact, it is one of the four components of communicative competence: linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence. 1. Linguistic competence is the knowledge of the language code, i.e. its grammar and vocabulary, and also of the conventions of its written representation (script and orthography). The grammar component includes the knowledge of the sounds and their pronunciation (i.e. phonetics), the rules that govern sound interactions and patterns (i.e. phonology), the formation of words by means of e.g. inflection and derivation (i.e. morphology), the rules that govern the combination of words and phrases to structure sentences (i.e. syntax), and the way that meaning is conveyed through language (i.e. semantics). 2. Sociolinguistic competence is the knowledge of sociocultural rules of use, i.e. knowing how to use and respond to language appropriately. The appropriateness depends on the setting of the communication, the topic, and the relationships among the people communicating. Moreover, being appropriate depends on knowing what the taboos of the other culture are, what politeness indices are used in each case, what the politically correct term would be for something, how a specific attitude (authority, friendliness, courtesy, irony etc.) is expressed etc. 3. Discourse competence is the knowledge of how to produce and comprehend oral or written texts in the modes of speaking/writing and listening/reading respectively. It’s knowing how to combine language structures into a cohesive and coherent oral or written text of different types. Thus, discourse competence deals with organizing words, phrases and sentences in order to create conversations, speeches, poetry, email messages, newspaper articles etc. 4. Strategic competence is the ability to recognize and repair communication breakdowns before, during, or after they occur. For instance, the speaker may not know a certain word, thus will plan to either paraphrase, or ask what that word is in the target language. During the conversation, background noise or other factors may hinder communication; thus, the speaker must know how to keep the communication channel open. If the communication was unsuccessful due to external factors (such as interruptions), or due to the message being SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material  Page |3 misunderstood, the speaker must know how to restore communication. These strategies may be requests for repetition, clarification, slower speech, or the usage of gestures, taking turns in conversation etc. These four components of communicative competence should be respected in teaching a foreign language —and they usually are by modern teaching methods employed in second language teaching. Usually most of the above are best learned if the language learner immerses into the culture of a country that speaks the target language. D. Components of Language Linguistics It is the study of language, its structure, and the rules that govern its structure. Linguists, specialists in linguistics, have traditionally analyzed language in terms of several subfields of study. It is the scientific study of language. There are three major components of language. These components are form, content, and use. Form involves three sub-components of syntax, morphology, and phonology. Content is also known as semantics and use is also known as pragmatics. SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material  Page |4 Major levels of linguistics: This diagram outlines the various subfields of linguistics, the study of language. These include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Phonetics and Phonology Phonetics is the study of individual speech sounds; phonology is the study of phonemes, which are the speech sounds of an individual language. These two heavily overlapping subfields cover all the sounds that humans can make, as well as which sounds make up different languages. 1. Phonology Phonology looks at the sound of speech and the shaping of syllables. The sound for /p/ is different depending on its placement in a word and the vowels near it. For example, /p/ can vary in sound in such words as pea, poor, and soup. Each word contains /p/ but the sound is slightly different. Sequencing also changes the of words the -ed sound is different in “jogged” than it is in “walked” the first has a /d/ sound while the second has a /t/ sound. ***Phonetics is the study of speech sounds as physical entities (their articulation, acoustic properties, and how they are perceived), and phonology is the study of the organization and function of speech sounds as part of the grammar of a language (UGA Linguists, 2023). 2. Morphology Morphology is the study of word structure. It describes how words are formed out of more basic elements of language called morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of a language. Morphemes are considered minimal because if they were subdivided any further, they would become meaningless. Each morpheme is different from the others because each singles a distinct meaning. Morphemes are used to form words. Base, root or free morphemes are word that have meaning, cannot be broken-down into smaller parts, and can have other morphemes added to them. Examples of free morphemes are ocean, establish, book, color, connect, and hinge. These words mean something, can stand by themselves, and cannot be broken down into smaller units. These words can also have other morphemes added to the. Bound or grammatical morphemes, which cannot convey meaning by themselves, must be joined with free morphemes in order to have meaning. In the following examples, the free morphemes are underlined; the bound morphemes are in capital letters: oceanS, establishMENT, bookED, colorFUL, DISconnect. Common bound or grammatical morphemes include the following: -ing (the present progressive), -s (the regular plural; e.g., cats), -s (the possessive inflection; e.g., man’s), and –ed (the regular past tense; e.g., washed). Morphemes are a means of modifying word structures to change meaning. The morphology of a given language describes the rules of such modifications. SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material  Page |5 3. Syntax Syntax is the study of sentence structure. The basic meaning of the word syntax is “to join,” “to put together.” In the study of language, syntax involves the following: 1. The arrangement of words to form meaningful sentences 2. The word order and overall structure of a sentence Syntax is the rules for the structure of a sentence. Syntax deals with such details such as sentence organization, the order of clauses, relationships between words, elements of a sentence, etc. Syntax also determines which word combinations are acceptable. For example, if I say, “He went to town.” it is acceptable, however, if I say, “town to went he” it does not work because of the syntax of English. There are certain common rules of syntax. A sentence must contain a noun phrase and a verb phrase. Using our previous example “He went to town” contains a noun phrase “He” and a verb phrase “went to town.” Another example would be the “The big dog ran to the house.” The noun phrase for this example is “The big dog” and the verb phrase is “ran to the house.” 4. Semantics Semantics is the study of meaning in language. The semantic component is the meaning conveyed by words, phrases and sentences. Semantics includes a person’s vocabulary or lexicon. Vocabulary development depends heavily upon environmental exposure, as well as the individual capacity each child brings to the learning situation. Important aspects of vocabulary development include knowledge of the following: antonyms, or opposites, synonyms, multiple meanings of words, humor/riddles, figurative language (including metaphors, idioms, proverbs), deictic words, or words whose referents change depending on who is speaking (e.g., this here, that, come, go). 5. Pragmatics Pragmatics is the study of rules that govern the use of language in social situations. In pragmatics, one focuses on use of language in social context. Pragmatics places greater emphasis on functions, or uses of language, than on structure. Language context involves where the utterance takes place, to whom the utterance is directed and what and who are present at the time. Pragmatic skills also involve the appropriate knowledge and use of discourse. Discourse refers to how utterances are related to one another it has to do with the connected flow of language. Discourse can involve a monologue, a dialogue, or even conversational exchange. When people talk to one another they are engaging in discourse. Pragmatic skills are important social skills for social, academic and vocational success. SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material  Page |6 E. Micro and Macro Linguistic Studies Linguistics in terms of study can be divided into two types, namely micro linguistics and macro linguistics. Micro linguistics is understood as linguistics which has a narrower nature of the study. That is, it is internal, only sees language as language. Macro linguistics is broad, the nature of the study is external. Macro-linguistics takes a broad view of linguistic phenomena, studying the contexts in which language is used and its development over time and in and among individuals. F. 1. First Language vs. Second Language Language is the most significant aspect which makes us different from all other species. Accordingly, language acquisition is the most impressive aspect of human development both in psychological and cognitive perspective. However, all the normal human beings acquire the language they first encounter as children. Then they might learn multiple languages but those languages will always be different from the first language they acquired by being exposed to. So, it is evident that there are a lot of differences between the first language and the second language of a person. A first language is the mother tongue or native language of a person while a second language is a language a person learns in order to communicate with the native speaker of that language. The first language is like an instinct which is triggered by birth and developed with the experience of being exposed to it. A second language is a personal choice of a person. There is no other alternative to a first language. A person cannot decide his/her first language. It comes to him/her as an inheritance/legacy/birthright. On the other hand, a second language is always fixed by the person. There are many alternatives to a second language. A person/community can choose a second language among other languages. The acquiring process of the first language is very rapid while the learning process of the second language can vary from language to language and from person to person, but can never be as rapid as the first language acquisition. The first language is ‘acquired’ and the second language is ‘learned’. The difference between these two words describes the qualities of the two languages. ‘Acquire’ means “to come into possession or ownership of” which indicates that the first language is like a dynamic and abstract property which comes into possession of a person. On the other hand, ‘learn’ means “to gain knowledge or skill by study, instruction, or experience” which indicates that there is nothing passive in second language learning. SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material  Page |7 A first language is completely acquired with 100% proficiency within 6 years from the birth. However, a second language can never be learned as efficiently as a first language; though good competence can be achieved in the second language, the process is slow. The first language acquisition is always natural and there is no need for instruction in acquiring it. But a second language learning is not natural and it needs continuous guidance and instruction. The first language acquisition begins with telegraphic speech. The term 'telegraphic speech' deriving from the word ‘telegram’ was coined by Roger Brown, an American psycholinguist, in 1963. It refers to the two-word a child can utter when s/he is 18 to 24 months of age. Examples of telegraphic speech: Mom see, Dad go, No ball, Daddy walk, Mommy milk, etc. On the other hand, the second language acquisition begins with a full sentence. A child cannot start learning the second language without being fully efficient in the first language. The first language is a natural part of a person’s everyday life. But the second language is a new aspect of the person’s life if s/he chooses it to be. The first language does not require any conscious effort; the acquisition process of the first language is subconscious. The second language requires constant conscious effort so that the learners can internalize the structures of the second language. 2. Mother Tongue vs. Native Language Mother tongue and Native language have similar, meanings and are often actually interchangeable, however there is a subtle difference. Native language refers to the language of the area the person grows up in. For example, growing up in the United States, your native language would be English. It's the language used every day everywhere you go by most of the people there. Mother tongue refers to the language of the family you grew up in. The language your parents spoke in the house, or to each other out-and-about if applicable. Often, parents will use the same language as that of the region (parents in the U.S. speaking English) however it can differ. Take for example a family of immigrants from Mexico to the United States. In their house and with family/friends they may use Spanish. But at school, restaurants, stores, etc. they would use English. In this case, the native language is English and the mother tongue is Spanish. Typically, the two will refer to the same language, in which case they are interchangeable; however, in some cases they may differ. Similarities Between Mother Tongue and First Language - Mother tongue, first language and native language are usually synonyms. - It is usually the language we learn as a child and the language we speak at home. - A person is generally most fluent and competent in his or her mother tongue or first language. SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material  Page |8 Difference Between Mother Tongue and First Language There is no significant difference between mother tongue and first language since both refer to a person’s native language, which is the language a person acquires in early childhood as it is spoken in the family. However, in some countries, the term mother tongue refers to the language of one’s ethnic group, instead of one’s first language. 3. Foreign Language A foreign language is a language acquired primarily via classroom learning, and not a language spoken in the learners' community. G. Prescriptive vs. Descriptive Grammar Languages and grammar rules are closely connected, naturally adapt to their circumstances, and often represent their speakers' social identities. In English, there are two kinds of grammar: prescriptive grammar & descriptive grammar. 1. Prescriptive Grammar: It is the traditional approach of grammar that tells people how to use the English language, what forms they should utilize, and what functions they should serve. Prescriptive grammar is essential as it helps people use formal English speech and writing. In addition, "those who follow it (or those who endorse others to follow it) claim that doing so will help to streamline one's words and make one's prose more elegant" (Tamasi & Antieau, 2015, p. 24-25). Schools aim to teach prescriptive grammar to provide people a common standard of usage. Examples: In English, less goes with mass nouns (e.g. “ less money”), and “fewer” goes with count nouns (e.g., “ fewer items.”) In English, speakers should not split infinitives (e.g., “to boldly go;“) instead, write or say (“to go boldly.”) In English, speakers should not use passive voice (e.g., “The meeting was held by the university;”) instead, write or say (“The university held the meeting.”) In English, speakers should avoid phrasal verbs (e.g., “come over to have some tea;”) instead, write or say (e.g., “visit me to have some tea.”) 2. Descriptive Grammar: This is how native English speakers actually talk and write, and it has no concrete idea of the way it should be structured (Tamasi & Antieau, 2015, p.28). It is not saying how it should be used; however, it focuses on describing the English language as it is used. It is also not saying that there is a right or wrong way to use language. Examples: English Adjective order: (opinion, size, physical quality, shape, age, color, origin, material, type, and purpose (e.g., “This is a beautiful, small, green, American island.”) SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material  Page |9 Some native speakers say: ~ “I am younger than him” instead of “I am younger than he.” ~ “He graduated American university” instead of “He graduated from American university." ~ “I ain't going nowhere.” instead of “I am not going anywhere.” Both types of grammar are concerned with rules, but in different ways. In terms of teaching a language, both kinds of grammar have advantages and disadvantages. Prescriptive Grammar Advantages & Disadvantages: (+) Teaching prescriptive grammar creates formal writers and resources. (+) Teaching prescriptive grammar is beneficial for both non-native teachers and learners, as it has definite rules of language that help reduce confusion. (-) Prescriptive grammar might keep non-native speakers wondering and confused when they talk with a native speaker, as they might realize that some natives do not write or speak with these rules. Descriptive Grammar Advantages & Disadvantages: (+) The descriptive grammar approach improves non-native speakers’ pronunciation and helps them sound like native speakers. (+) The descriptive grammar approach helps language learners understand the applied usage of language and communicate better with native speakers. (-) The descriptive grammar approach is sometimes not used in formal settings, such as exams and speech. H. Diachronic vs. Synchronic "Diachronic linguistics is the historical study of language, whereas synchronic linguistics is the geographic study of language. Diachronic linguistics refers to the study of how a language evolves over a period of time. Tracing the development of English from the Old English period to the twentieth century is a diachronic study. A synchronic study of language is a comparison of languages or dialects— various spoken differences of the same language—used within some defined spatial region and during the same period of time. Determining the regions of the United States in which people currently say 'pop' rather than 'soda' and 'idea' rather than 'idear' are examples of the types of inquiries pertinent to a synchronic study." (Colleen Elaine Donnelly, Linguistics for Writers. State University of New York Press, 1994) SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material  P a g e | 10 I. Oral vs. Written Language Oral language (used in public speaking) and written language (used for texts) does not function the same way. Try a brief experiment. Take a textbook, maybe even this one, and read it out loud. When the text is read aloud, does it sound conversational? Probably not. Public speaking, on the other hand, should sound like a conversation. McCroskey, Wrench, and Richmond highlighted the following twelve differences that exist between oral and written language: 1. Oral language has a smaller variety of words. 2. Oral language has words with fewer syllables. 3. Oral language has shorter sentences. 4. Oral language has more self-reference words (I, me, mine). 5. Oral language has fewer quantifying terms or precise numerical words. 6. Oral language has more pseudo quantifying terms (many, few, some). 7. Oral language has more extreme and superlative words (none, all, every, always, never). 8. Oral language has more qualifying statements (clauses beginning with unless and except). 9. Oral language has more repetition of words and syllables. 10. Oral language uses more contractions. 11. Oral language has more interjections (“Wow!,” “Really?,” “No!,” “You’re kidding!”). 12. Oral language has more colloquial and nonstandard words (McCroskey, et al., 2003). These differences exist primarily because people listen to and read information differently. First, when you read information, if you don’t grasp content the first time, you have the ability to reread a section. When we are listening to information, we do not have the ability to “rewind” life and relisten to the information. Second, when you read information, if you do not understand a concept, you can look up the concept in a dictionary or online and gain the knowledge easily. However, we do not always have the ability to walk around with the Internet and look up concepts we don’t understand. Therefore, oral communication should be simple enough to be easily understood in the moment by a specific audience, without additional study or information. Oral language is designed to be listened to and to sound conversational, which means that word choice must be simpler, more informal, and more repetitive. Written language uses a larger vocabulary and is more formal. J. World Englishes The term World Englishes refers to the differences in the English language that emerge as it is used in various contexts across the world. Scholars of World Englishes identify the varieties of English used in different sociolinguistic contexts, analyzing their history, background, function, and influence. Languages develop to fulfill the needs of the societies that use them. Because societies contain a diverse range of social needs, and because these needs can differ SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material  P a g e | 11 across cultures and geographies, multiple varieties of the English language exist. These include American English, British English, Australian English, Canadian English, Indian English, and so on. While there is no single way for a new variety of English to emerge, its development can generally be described as a process of adaptation. A certain group of speakers take a familiar variety of English and adapt the features of that variety to suit the needs of their social context. For example, a store selling alcoholic beverages is called a “liquor store” in American English, whereas it is called an “off-licence” in British English. The latter term derives from British law, which distinguishes between businesses licensed to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption off the premises and those licensed for consumption at the point of sale (i.e., bars and pubs). Such variations do not occur in terms of word choice only. They happen also in terms of spelling, pronunciation, sentence structure, accent, and meaning. As new linguistic adaptations accumulate over time, a distinct variety of English eventually emerges. World Englishes scholars use a range of different criteria to recognize a new English variant as an established World English. These include the sociolinguistic context of its use, its range of functional domains, and the ease with which new speakers can become acculturated to it, among other criteria. The Origin of World Englishes This section, which is not meant to be exhaustive, provides a simplified narrative of how World Englishes emerged as a field of inquiry. 1965 Linguist Braj Kachru (1932-2016) publishes his first journal article, entitled “The Indianness in Indian English.” In the article, he lays the theoretical groundwork for the idea of World Englishes by interpreting how English is nativized in India, delineating some of its unique sociological and cultural aspects, and showing that “Indian English” is a unique variety of English which is neither an American or British English. 1984 Kachru formally introduces the term “World Englishes” at the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Conference along with the global profile of English. Later, he proposes the three concentric circles model. Both papers are subsequently published. SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material  P a g e | 12 Kachru's three concentric circle model. Image c/o Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons 4.0 License). The inner circle refers to the countries where English is used as the primary language, such as the USA, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. The outer/middle circle denotes those countries where English usage has some colonial history. This includes nations such as India, Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Zambia. The expanding circle includes countries where English is spoken but where it does not necessarily have a colonial history or primary/official language status. This includes nations such as China, Japan, South Korea, Egypt, Nepal, Indonesia, Israel, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, USSR, and Zimbabwe. Any country where English is regularly spoken (even in limited contexts—e.g., for international business) that does not fall under the first two categories is considered to be in the expanding circle. The boundaries between outer and expanding circles can be blurred as the users of English in any of these specific countries may fluctuate because of the demographic shifts, economic motivations, and language education policy. Kachru argues that it is important to view each variety of English in its own historical, political, sociolinguistic, and literary contexts. This concentric circle model does not only show the wide spread of English across the world, but also emphasizes “the concept of pluralism, linguistic heterogeneity, cultural diversity and the different theoretical and methodological foundations for teaching and research in English” (1984, p. 26). Kachru also defines the quality of “nativeness” in World Englishes “in terms of both its functional domains and range, and its depth in social penetration and resultant acculturation” (1997, p. 68). A community acquires “native” English-speaking status as it uses English in broader a greater number of societal contexts. This process, however, is shaped by the historical role of English in the community (e.g., as the language of a colonizing force). It is this interaction between functionality and history that leads to the nativization of English in a particular society or population group. Consequently, Kachru argues, the English language belongs not only to its native speakers but also to its various non-native users throughout the world. SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material  P a g e | 13 K. Philippine English (Filipino English) Unlike most postcolonial nations, the Philippines did not inherit English from the British but from the Americans. When the Philippine-American War ended in 1902 and the islands officially became an unincorporated territory of the United States, the new colonial administration quickly introduced English as the primary language of government, business, and education. It established a new public school system and sent American English- language teachers all over the country. These American teachers were called Thomasites after the name of the ship they arrived in, the USS Thomas. So effective were American efforts to make English the second language of the Philippines that within a few years, Filipino schoolchildren were learning it from Filipino teachers. By the 1920s Filipino writers such as Paz Marquez Benitez and Jose Garcia Villa had begun producing literary works in English. Within a few decades, English had been woven into the fabric of Philippine society, and not even independence from the United States in 1946 could unravel the threads of linguistic assimilation. Today, English is constitutionally named as one of the Philippines’ official languages, and it continues to be an integral part of local life and culture. English is the language of business, science, technology, government, education, and international communication. It is present in the country’s print and broadcast media, and in its vibrant artistic and literary scene. Filipino proficiency in English drives a thriving, world-leading outsourcing industry, as well as a rapidly growing education sector that is attracting increasing numbers of international students. The Philippine variety of English has evolved beyond the American standard, having developed distinctive features of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse determined by the native languages and culture of its Filipino speakers. It is clear that what once a completely foreign language has been embraced by Filipinos and made their own. It is also true that the continuing presence of English in the Philippines gives rise to a number of very thorny issues related to national and regional identity, educational policy, and language politics. But no matter how these issues are addressed, it cannot be denied that in the little over a century that it has remained in their islands, Filipinos—with their rich indigenous heritage, colourful colonial history, and multiplicity of languages—have made an indelible mark on English. As Filipino writer Gemino Abad famously put it, ‘English is ours. We have colonized it too’. Vocabulary Philippine culture is a complex, colorful mosaic combining indigenous Asian features with varied Western influences. The country’s rich diversity is reflected in its languages, including Philippine English, whose vocabulary is abounding in words and phrases that are uniquely Pinoy. The first Philippine additions to the English lexicon came in the form of plant and animal names borrowed from local languages. The following are just a few of the words that can be found in the OED with quotations dating back to the 18th century, before English came to the Philippines but right when English-speaking authors began writing about the region’s flora and fauna: SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material  P a g e | 14 abaca, n. (first attested 1751) – a kind of banana plant, Musa textilis, native to the Philippines, the petioles of which yield a strong fibre; the fibre itself, used for making paper, ropes, matting, etc.; Manila hemp. taclobo, n. (1885) – A bivalve mollusc, of great size, the Giant Clam (Tridacna gigas) of the Indian and China seas. tamarau, n. (1898) – A diminutive black buffalo, Bubalus mindorensis, peculiar to the island Mindoro, in the Philippines. ylang-ylang, n. (1876) – an anonaceous tree (Canangium odoratum) of Malaysia, the Philippines, etc., with fragrant greenish-yellow flowers from which a perfume is distilled; hence, the perfume itself. Philippine English is characterized by a host of words borrowed from a variety of linguistic sources, the main ones being Filipino, the Tagalog-based national language, and Spanish, the colonial tongue that preceded English. Loan words and loan blends such as the following form part of the everyday vocabulary of Philippine English: balikbayan box, n. (1984) – a carton shipped or brought to the Philippines from another country by a Filipino who has been living overseas, typically containing items such as food, clothing, toys, and household products. barangay, n. (1840) – a village, suburb, or other demarcated neighbourhood; a small territorial and administrative district forming the most local level of government; from Tagalog. barkada, n. (1965) – a group of friends; from Tagalog, ultimately from Spanish barcada ‘boat-load’. despedida party, n. (1929) – a social event honouring someone who is about to depart on a journey or leave an organization; a going-away party; a blend of Spanish and English. estafa, n. (1903) – criminal deception, fraud; dishonest dealing; from Spanish. kikay kit, n. (2002) – a soft case in which a woman’s toiletries and cosmetics are stored; blend of Tagalog and English. pan de sal, n. (1910) – a yeast-raised bread roll made of flour, eggs, sugar and salt, widely consumed in the Philippines, especially for breakfast; partly from Tagalog, partly from Spanish. pasalubong, n. (1933) – a gift or souvenir given to a friend or relative by a person who has returned from a trip or arrived for a visit; from Tagalog. sari-sari store, n. (1925) – a small neighbourhood store selling a variety of goods; blend of Tagalog and English. sisig, n. (1987) – a dish consisting of chopped pork, onions, and chillies; from Kapampangan. suki, n. (1941) – a buyer or seller involved in an arrangement whereby a customer regularly purchases products or services from the same provider in exchange for favourable treatment; also the arrangement itself; from Tagalog. Aside from direct borrowing, Filipinos employ a range of other methods to create new words, such as adding derivational affixes, creating new compounds, shortening and blending of words, inventing new initialisms: SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material  P a g e | 15 batchmate, n. (1918) – a member of the same graduation class as another; a classmate; formed by combining batch, n. with mate, n. KKB, int. (and adj.) (1987) – ‘Kaniya-kaniyang bayad’, lit. ‘each one pays their own’, used esp. to indicate that the cost of a meal is to be shared. mani-pedi, n. (1972) – a beauty treatment comprising both a manicure and a pedicure; formed by clipping and blending the words manicure, n. and pedicure, n. presidentiable, n. (1840) – a person who is a likely or confirmed candidate for president; formed by adding the –able suffix to president, n. Philippine English speakers also translate directly from their other languages, change the function of words, coin neologisms based on analogy with existing English formations, maintain words that have fallen out of use in American English, and even totally transform the meaning of words: carnapper, n. (1945) – a person who steals a motor vehicle; a car thief; formed following the model of kidnapper, n. comfort room, n. (1886) – a toilet; an old-fashioned American euphemism that continues to be widely used in the Philippines. high blood, adj. (1997) – angry, agitated (e.g., I am so high blood because of this traffic jam!); use of a noun phrase as an adjective. to go down, phrasal v. (1993) – to alight from a vehicle; to get off a bus, train, etc., esp. at a specified stop; a translation of the Filipino verb bumaba. salvage, v. (1980) – to apprehend and execute (a suspected criminal) without trial; complete semantic change from the original English meaning ‘to rescue’. SEEL 105: Language, Culture, and Society Learning Material