Who’s being elitist? A debate about the enregisterment of Singlish
This article is a rejoinder to Lee (2023) who makes certain claims about the enregisterment of Singlish via a case study of Spiaking Singlish. In challenging Lee’s key claim that Spiaking Singlish deploys a form of elitist language, I argue that the Singlish features in the book need not demand a so...
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| Другие авторы: | |
| Формат: | Journal Article |
| Язык: | English |
| Опубликовано: |
2024
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| Online-ссылка: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178272 |
| _version_ | 1826111286031679488 |
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| author | Lu, Luke |
| author2 | School of Humanities |
| author_facet | School of Humanities Lu, Luke |
| author_sort | Lu, Luke |
| collection | NTU |
| description | This article is a rejoinder to Lee (2023) who makes certain claims about the enregisterment of Singlish via a case study of Spiaking Singlish. In challenging Lee’s key claim that Spiaking Singlish deploys a form of elitist language, I argue that the Singlish features in the book need not demand a solely ludic reading and actually draw from everyday practices. Accordingly, enregisterment ought to be understood as a diachronic and evolving process in the vein of Butler’s (1999) notion of sedimentation. Moreover, Lee’s characterization of the ‘monolectal Singlish user’ is classist and reductionist, unsupported by recent research and census data. Consequently, Spiaking Singlish need not be seen as an elitist work, but as contributing to ever-changing attitudes towards Singlish in the public sphere. This article is an alternative iteration to Lee’s (2023) that has implications for the way we understand enregisterment in Singapore and choose to represent it as a process. (Enregisterment, Singlish, Singapore, sociolinguistics, language ideological debates). |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T02:48:12Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/178272 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T02:48:12Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1782722024-06-15T16:56:37Z Who’s being elitist? A debate about the enregisterment of Singlish Lu, Luke School of Humanities Arts and Humanities Singlish Enregisterment This article is a rejoinder to Lee (2023) who makes certain claims about the enregisterment of Singlish via a case study of Spiaking Singlish. In challenging Lee’s key claim that Spiaking Singlish deploys a form of elitist language, I argue that the Singlish features in the book need not demand a solely ludic reading and actually draw from everyday practices. Accordingly, enregisterment ought to be understood as a diachronic and evolving process in the vein of Butler’s (1999) notion of sedimentation. Moreover, Lee’s characterization of the ‘monolectal Singlish user’ is classist and reductionist, unsupported by recent research and census data. Consequently, Spiaking Singlish need not be seen as an elitist work, but as contributing to ever-changing attitudes towards Singlish in the public sphere. This article is an alternative iteration to Lee’s (2023) that has implications for the way we understand enregisterment in Singapore and choose to represent it as a process. (Enregisterment, Singlish, Singapore, sociolinguistics, language ideological debates). Published version 2024-06-10T05:13:15Z 2024-06-10T05:13:15Z 2024 Journal Article Lu, L. (2024). Who’s being elitist? A debate about the enregisterment of Singlish. Language in Society, 1-23. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047404524000162 0047-4045 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178272 10.1017/S0047404524000162 2-s2.0-85187700443 1 23 en Language in Society © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Arts and Humanities Singlish Enregisterment Lu, Luke Who’s being elitist? A debate about the enregisterment of Singlish |
| title | Who’s being elitist? A debate about the enregisterment of Singlish |
| title_full | Who’s being elitist? A debate about the enregisterment of Singlish |
| title_fullStr | Who’s being elitist? A debate about the enregisterment of Singlish |
| title_full_unstemmed | Who’s being elitist? A debate about the enregisterment of Singlish |
| title_short | Who’s being elitist? A debate about the enregisterment of Singlish |
| title_sort | who s being elitist a debate about the enregisterment of singlish |
| topic | Arts and Humanities Singlish Enregisterment |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178272 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT luluke whosbeingelitistadebateabouttheenregistermentofsinglish |