Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T09:55:06.578Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Assessing representations of South African Indian English in writing: An application of variation theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2005

Rajend Mesthrie
Rajend Mesthrie
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines three representations of South African Indian English in print: The Adventures of Applesammy and Naidoo (1946) by Ray Rich; The Lahnee's Pleasure (c. 1972) by Ronnie Govender; and The Wedding (2001) by Imraan Coovadia. The use of dialect is a defining feature of all three texts. I show that the tools provided by variation theory are particularly useful in the analysis of literature that uses direct speech to portray characters and types. In particular, the principles of variation theory can be used to: (a) reveal the nature of stereotyping in the first text (a parody), which relies on the suppression of variation, and the generalization of linguistic and social characteristics; (b) evaluate the fidelity of a “realist” dialect representation of the community in the second text (a play); and (c) help characterize the nonrealist, nonstereotyping, imaginative use of language in the third text (a post-modern novel).An early version of the research for this article was presented at the IAWE (International Association of World Englishes) Conference, Potchefstroom University, 2001; at seminars at the University of Cape Town and University of Pennsylvania in 2002; and at NWAVE (New Ways of Analysing Variation in English and Other Languages), Stanford University, 2002. A revised and expanded version was presented at ASNEL (Association for the Study of New English Literatures), Magdeburg, 2003. I thank participants at these conferences and three anonymous LVC referees for feedback and comments, Malcah Yaeger-Dror for discussions of her related research, and Sarah and Clare Johnson for the graphics. I am especially grateful to the University of Cape Town's Research Committee for a grant that supported this research.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , October 2005 , pp. 303 - 326
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Apte, Mahadev. (1994). Stereotype and social attitudes. In R. Asher (ed.), The encyclopedia of language and linguistics (Vol. 8). Oxford: Pergamon. 4348–4350.
Baugh, John. (1992). Hypocorrection: Mistakes in production of vernacular African American English as a second dialect. Language and Communication 12(3/4):317–326.Google Scholar
Bell, Alan. (1984). Language style as audience design. Language in Society 13(2):145–204.Google Scholar
Brown, R.W. (1965). Social psychology. New York: Free Press.
Chambers, Jack. (2003). Sociolinguistic theory ( 2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.
Coovadia, Imraan. (2001). The wedding. New York: Picador.
Durnford, Philip B. (1946). Foreword. In R. Ray, The Adventures of Applesammy and Naidoo. 2nd ed. Pitermaritzburg: Shuter and Shooter. 3–4.
Ellis, Rod. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fonollosa, Marie-Odile. (1995). Le théâtre, reflet de la langue parlée? (representation de la langue parlée dans le théâtre de Michel Tremblay dans les années 1970 et 1980). Master's thesis. Université de Montréal.
Giles, Howard, Bourhis, Richard, & Taylor, Donald. (1977). Toward a theory of language in ethnic group relations. In H. Giles (ed.), Language, ethnicity and intergroup relations. London: Academic. 307–348.
Govender, Ronnie. (n.d.) (c. 1972). The lahnee's pleasure. Johannesburg: Ravan.
Hill, Jane. (1993). Hasta la vista baby—Anglo Spanish in the American Southwest. Critique of Anthropology 13:145–176.Google Scholar
Hosali, Priya. (2000). Butler English: Form and function. Delhi: B. R. Publishing.
Janda, Richard D., & Auger, Julie. (1992). Quantitative evidence, qualitative hypercorrection, sociolinguistic variables—and French speakers 'eadaches with English h/Ø. Language and Communication 12(3/4):195–236.Google Scholar
Kallen, Jeffrey. (2002). Irish in America: Mr. Dooley and Hiberno-American dialect writing. Paper presented at the American Dialect Society/LSA Conference, January 3, 2002.
Labov, William. (1966). The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.
Labov, William. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Lanham, Leonard W., & Macdonald, Carol. (1979). The standard in South African English and its social history. Heidelberg: Julius Groos Verlag.CrossRef
Le Page, Robert, & Tabouret-Keller, Andreé. (1985). Acts of identity—Creole-based approaches to language and ethnicity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marriott, S. (1997). Dialect and dialectic in a British war film. Journal of Sociolinguistics 1(2):173–194.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend. (1990). Did the Butler do it?: On an analogue of Butler English in Natal, South Africa. World Englishes 9(3):282–288.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend. (1992a). Language in indenture: A sociolinguistic history of Bhojpuri-Hindi in South Africa. London: Routledge.
Mesthrie, Rajend. (1992b). English in language shift—The history, structure and sociolinguistics of South African Indian English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mesthrie, Rajend. (2002). Mock languages and symbolic power: The South African radio series Applesammy and Naidoo. World Englishes 21(1): 99–112.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend. (2003). Children in language shift: The syntax of fifth generation Indian South African English speakers. South African Journal of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 21(3):119–126.Google Scholar
Orwell, George. (1934). Burmese days. New York: Harper.
Platt, John, Weber, Heidi, & Ho, Mian L. (1984). The New Englishes. London: Routledge.
Rich, Ray. (1946). The adventures of Applesammy and Naidoo. (3rd ed.). Pietermaritzburg: Shuter and Shooter. (1st ed.: 1945)
Ronkin, Maggie, & Karn, Helen. (1999). Mock Ebonics: Linguistic racism in parodies of Ebonics on the Internet. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3:360–380.Google Scholar
Schuchardt, Hugo. (1891). Beitrage zur Kenntnis des englischen Kreolisch III, Das Indo-Englische'. Englische Studien 15: 286–305. Translated and edited by G. G. Gilbert (1980) in Pidgin and creole languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 38–64.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter, & Hannah, Jean. (1985). International English: A guide to varieties of standard English ( 2nd ed.). London: Edward Arnold.
Wolfson, Nessa. (1979). The conversational historical present alternation. Language 55:168–182.Google Scholar
Yaeger-Dror, Malcah. (1992). Introduction to Communicative accommodation: A new perspective on ‘hypercorrect’ speech. Language and Communication 12(3/4):181–192.Google Scholar
Yaeger-Dror, Malcah, & Deckert, Sharon. (2000). Disagreement, contraction and dialect: evidence from a large corpus of American English. CLIC 2. 49–59.Google Scholar
Yaeger-Dror, Malcah, Hall-Lew, Lauren, & Deckert, Sharon. (2002). It's not or isn't it? Using large corpora to determine the influences on contraction strategies. Language Variation and Change 14:79–118.Google Scholar