Singlish particles and politeness work in face-threatening speech acts
Having been thought to be ‘crass’, ‘uneducated’ and ‘unintelligent’, Singlish, also commonly known as Singapore Colloquial English, is perceived to be an impolite language. In particular, Singlish particles, which are purportedly Singlish’s most distinctive feature, have been said to exacerbate thre...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/170522 |
| _version_ | 1811685750136111104 |
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| author | Lai, Yun-Sxin Tan, Ying Ying |
| author2 | School of Humanities |
| author_facet | School of Humanities Lai, Yun-Sxin Tan, Ying Ying |
| author_sort | Lai, Yun-Sxin |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Having been thought to be ‘crass’, ‘uneducated’ and ‘unintelligent’, Singlish, also commonly known as Singapore Colloquial English, is perceived to be an impolite language. In particular, Singlish particles, which are purportedly Singlish’s most distinctive feature, have been said to exacerbate threats to addressees’ negative and positive face. However, existing literature has found that in informal speech settings, Singlish may actually be beneficial for politeness, mainly by virtue of its status as a language of solidarity. This article seeks to explore the relationship between Singlish particles and politeness, by investigating the use of particles within two types of inherently face-threatening speech acts–assertions and directives–and how these particles boost politeness by mitigating the face threats present in these speech acts. Our analysis of 72 hours of conversational data suggests that Singlish particles hold much potential to help speakers appeal to their addressees’ positive face needs in informal settings. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T04:49:29Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/170522 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T04:49:29Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1705222023-09-18T04:48:04Z Singlish particles and politeness work in face-threatening speech acts Lai, Yun-Sxin Tan, Ying Ying School of Humanities Humanities::Linguistics Singlish Pragmatic Particles Having been thought to be ‘crass’, ‘uneducated’ and ‘unintelligent’, Singlish, also commonly known as Singapore Colloquial English, is perceived to be an impolite language. In particular, Singlish particles, which are purportedly Singlish’s most distinctive feature, have been said to exacerbate threats to addressees’ negative and positive face. However, existing literature has found that in informal speech settings, Singlish may actually be beneficial for politeness, mainly by virtue of its status as a language of solidarity. This article seeks to explore the relationship between Singlish particles and politeness, by investigating the use of particles within two types of inherently face-threatening speech acts–assertions and directives–and how these particles boost politeness by mitigating the face threats present in these speech acts. Our analysis of 72 hours of conversational data suggests that Singlish particles hold much potential to help speakers appeal to their addressees’ positive face needs in informal settings. Ministry of Education (MOE) This work was supported by the Ministry of Education – Singapore [Academic Research Fund Tier 2 (MOE2019-T2-1-084)]. 2023-09-18T04:48:04Z 2023-09-18T04:48:04Z 2023 Journal Article Lai, Y. & Tan, Y. Y. (2023). Singlish particles and politeness work in face-threatening speech acts. Asian Englishes, 25(1), 146-166. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2022.2132130 1348-8678 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/170522 10.1080/13488678.2022.2132130 2-s2.0-85140877994 1 25 146 166 en MOE2019-T2-1-084 Asian Englishes © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved. |
| spellingShingle | Humanities::Linguistics Singlish Pragmatic Particles Lai, Yun-Sxin Tan, Ying Ying Singlish particles and politeness work in face-threatening speech acts |
| title | Singlish particles and politeness work in face-threatening speech acts |
| title_full | Singlish particles and politeness work in face-threatening speech acts |
| title_fullStr | Singlish particles and politeness work in face-threatening speech acts |
| title_full_unstemmed | Singlish particles and politeness work in face-threatening speech acts |
| title_short | Singlish particles and politeness work in face-threatening speech acts |
| title_sort | singlish particles and politeness work in face threatening speech acts |
| topic | Humanities::Linguistics Singlish Pragmatic Particles |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/170522 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT laiyunsxin singlishparticlesandpolitenessworkinfacethreateningspeechacts AT tanyingying singlishparticlesandpolitenessworkinfacethreateningspeechacts |