Lexicalization
The lexis of a language is open to the greatest
intrusion from a language in contact.
Loanwords:
the registers of science, technology, fashion, television, cinema and
advertising have a particularly high frequency of such items.
Loan
shifts: two types: extension of a lexical item from English, e.g. transport is translated into a Tamil pokkuvarattu “going and coming”, and
lexis-bound translation in which the aim is to establish lexical equivalence,
e.g. illegal license is translated as
donga laysensū and common man is translated as sri samanya “Mr common”.
Hybridisation:
at least one component is from English, e.g. tikit ghar for “ticket office”.
Parallel
lexical sets: the use of parallel lexical sets which have roughly the same
denotation meaning is an interesting example of the structure of the
multilinguals’ verbal repertoire, e.g.:
Sanskritisation Persianisation Englishisation Gloss
Dayā karnā rahan karnā piti karnā “to pity”
Ghrinā
karnā naphrat karnā hate karnā “to hate”
Pratikshā
karnā intizar
karnā wait karnā “to wait”
Pyār
karnā muhabat
karnā love karnā “to love”
English provides an additional lexical item for
which there already is a native lexical item. In many South Asian languages,
the borrowed word from English is perceived as “neutral” in many interactional
contexts, or its use implies a certain status, class or level of education. The
native words have caste, class or regional connotations. This is not true of an
English word, and, in that sense, then, English has “neutrality”. Using English
words or phrases where correct translation equivalents are available in an
Indian language is common in educated informal speech.
Grammar
At the grammatical level, Englishisation is
mode-dependant and register-dependant. “Mode-dependant mean restricted in terms
of spoken or written mode. The “register-dependent” features have high
frequency in a specific register. The following are illustrative of the
Englishisation at the grammatical level:
Impersonal
constructions, this construction
is no longer register-specific, and is now used in the colloquial style in
Hindi-Urdu, for example kahā gayā hai
“it is said”
Passive
construction, some modifications
in the passive are attributed to English, particularly the passive with the NP
agent. In Hindu-Urdu a construction with overt manifestations of the agent has
a high frequency in formal registers
Word
order, the SVO construction in Hindi-Hurdu is used for stylistic effect, as
opposed to the traditional SOV. The following constructions are also attributed
to the influence of English:
Indirect
speech, in such constructions there is a vak-shifting of a pronoun as in:
Bil ne kahā ki vo khā rahā hai, “Bill
said that he is eating” (here maī (I)
shifts to
Vo (he))
Post-head
modifier “jo” (who) as in:
Vo larka jo āyā thā čalā gayā, “That boy
who came has left”
Parenthetical
clause, attributed to contact with Persian and English. Has
Pragmatic
implications which indicate reaction to a situation.
The “mixers” and “mixing”
The “mixers” are South Asian bilinguals who
“mix” a South Asian language and English. Mixing with English is found in both
spoken and written modes of South Asian languages. The motivations for the use
of code-mixing with English include the following:
Register-identification:
particularly the registers of science and technology. This is particularly true
since the registers of local languages are as yet not quite stable and
institutionalized.
Style-identification:
Englishisation of style is a marker of education, modernity and westernization.
Elucidation
and interpretation: in using specialized vocabulary or technical concepts
after using the term in the local language. It is like providing a “translation
equivalent”.
Social value represents the interlocutor’s
attitude towards a person who has linguistic flexibility in English, since the
use of English is considered an indicator of status, modernization, mobility
and “outward-looking” attitude. Englishisation has contributed to the
development of several stylistic and discoursal strategies. We have nativised
English discourse, and we have Englishised discourse in South Asian languages.
In nativised English the speech acts, strategies of persuasion, request,
apology and command, are South Asian, while the lexicalization is English; it
is in this sense that English has a local cultural identity. South Asian
languages have adopted certain strategies, of thanking, introducing, etc.,
which show the influence of English speck patterns.
The written mode of South Asian languages has
also been Englishised; the whole system of punctuation marks has been adopted.
In most South Asian languages, e.g. Hindi, the punctuation marks were
traditionally restricted to two vertical lines “II” termed virām, for marking the end of a paragraph, and one vertical line
“I” termed ardha virām, for a full
stop. This has been replaced by a full set of English punctuation marks. The
practice of breaking a text into paragraphs has also been introduced.
