Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes [1 ed.] 9789811546952, 9789811546969

Table of contents :
Contents
Contributors
1 Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes: An Overview
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Cultural Linguistics
1.3 Cultural Linguistics and Cultural Conceptualisations
1.4 Cultural Schemas and Categories
1.5 Cultural-Conceptual Metaphors and Language
1.6 Cultural Conceptualisations and World Englishes
1.7 This Volume
1.8 Concluding Remarks
References
2 Australian Aboriginal English and Linguistic Inquiry
2.1 Aboriginal English and Networks
2.2 Linguistic Networks Within Aboriginal English
2.3 Sociolinguistic Networks Within Aboriginal English
2.4 Cultural Linguistic Networks and Aboriginal English
2.4.1 Aboriginal English and Cultural Imperatives
2.5 Conclusion
Appendix
References
3 A Corpus-Based Exploration of Aboriginal Australian Cultural Conceptualisations in John Bodey’s The Blood Berry Vine
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Background
3.2.1 The Emergence of Australian Aboriginal English
3.2.2 Earlier Studies of Australian Aboriginal English
3.3 Cultural Conceptualisations and Aboriginal English
3.4 Methodology
3.5 Findings
3.5.1 Conceptualisations of the tribe in ACE-Lit
3.5.2 Conceptualisations of the tribe in BBV
3.6 Discussion and Conclusion
Appendix 1: Butt et al.’s (2012: 81) Summary of Process Types and Participant Roles
Appendix 2: Concordance Lines
References
4 Re-schematisation of Chinese Xiao (Filial Piety) Across Cultures and Generations
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Literature Review
4.3 Data Description and Analysis
4.4 Findings and Discussion
4.5 Conclusion
References
5 “So You’re One of Those Vegetarians?” Emergence of Korean English
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The Korean Schema of 'U-Li-Ju-Ui'
5.3 “So You are One of Those Vegetarians.”
5.4 Cultural Schema of Jang-Yu-Yu-Seo and Address Terms
5.5 “My Boss and His Wife…”
5.6 Conclusion
References
6 Don’t Kiasu and Rush Ok? A Cultural-Linguistic Take on the Interaction Between Loanwords and Constructions in World Englishes
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Some Theoretical Concepts
6.2.1 Borrowing
6.2.2 Lexical and Constructional Mediation
6.2.3 Cultural Metonymy
6.3 Data and Method
6.4 Kepoh
6.4.1 Forms of Kepoh and PoS Constructions
6.4.2 Forms of Kepoh and Syntactic Functions
6.5 Kiasu
6.5.1 Kiasu and PoS Constructions
6.5.2 Kiasu and Syntactic Functions
6.6 Whakama
6.7 Concluding Remarks
References
7 ‘Till Death Do Us Wed’—About Ghost Brides and Ghost Weddings in Hong Kong English
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Ghosts in Hong Kong English
7.3 Findings
7.4 Conclusion
References
8 Decoding yuán and duyên Across Chinese, Vietnamese and Other Asian Cultural Practices
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Literature Review
8.3 Methodology
8.4 Data Analysis and Findings
8.4.1 Similar and Different Meanings of Yuán and Duyên in Chinese and Vietnamese
8.4.2 Different Ways to Communicate the Concept(s) Across Cultures
8.4.3 Continuing and Dynamic Re-Schematisation and Heterogeneous Distribution of the Culturally Constructed Concept(s) Across Different Societies in East and Southeast Asia
8.5 Implications
8.6 Conclusion
References
9 Bilingual Creativity in Saudi English
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Literature Review
9.2.1 Saudi Arabia
9.2.2 Cultural Conceptualisations
9.2.3 Saudi English
9.3 Methodology
9.4 Findings and Discussion
9.4.1 Cultural References
9.4.2 Syntactic Creativity
9.4.3 Lexical and Semantic Creativity
9.4.4 Translation
9.4.5 Code-Switching
9.5 Conclusion
References
10 A Space for Everybody? Conceptualisations of the Hijras in Indian English as a Showcase for Gendered Space in Indian Society
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Analytical Framework
10.3 Methodology
10.3.1 Informants
10.3.2 Data
10.3.3 Transcription and Annotation
10.4 Results
10.4.1 Word List
10.4.2 Pronouns: they and we
10.4.3 Conceptualisations of hijra
10.4.4 Spatial Conceptualisations
10.5 Discussion
10.6 Conclusion
References
11 Family Matters: Cultural-Linguistic Investigations into the Domain of family in Indian English
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Kinship Terms
11.2.1 Prominence in the Lexicon
11.2.2 Prominence in Discourse
11.3 The Role of the Family in the Marriage Issue
11.3.1 Family as a Decision-Maker
11.3.2 Family as a Criterion in Matchmaking
11.4 Synthesis and Conclusions
References
12 Cultural Conceptualisations of Yoga in American and Indian English: A Corpus-Based Study
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Theoretical Background
12.2.1 World Englishes
12.2.2 Cultural Linguistics
12.2.3 Corpus Linguistics
12.2.4 Relevant Prior Empirical Studies
12.3 Data and Methodology
12.4 Findings and Discussion
12.5 Conclusion
Appendix
References
13 Expressive and Reserved Cultural Linguistic Schemas: British and American Pride Clusters
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Cultural Linguistics
13.3 Emotions and Emotion Event Scenarios
13.4 Pride
13.5 Pride in British Versus American English
13.5.1 Reservation Versus Expression
13.5.2 Politeness
13.5.3 National Pride
13.5.4 Religion
13.5.5 Conservatism
13.5.6 Machismo
13.6 GRID Data Analysis
13.6.1 Research Methodology and Materials
13.6.2 Results
13.6.3 Conclusions
13.7 Corpus Data Analysis
13.7.1 American English: Types and Objects of Pride
13.7.2 British English
13.7.3 Proud as—Similes
13.7.4 Monitor Corpus Data
13.7.5 Expressive Features of Language: Language in Other Emotions
13.8 Conclusions
References
14 The Interplay of Blended Languages and Blended Cultures in Memes: Cultural Conceptualisations Used by Serbian Speakers of English
14.1 Introduction
14.2 A Cultural Linguistic Perspective on the Glocalisation of English in the Serbian Context
14.2.1 Humour and Cultural Conceptualisations: Internet Memes
14.3 Methodology and Data Collection
14.4 Results and Discussion
14.4.1 Cultural Schemas
14.4.2 Cultural Categories
14.4.3 Cultural Metaphors
14.5 Concluding Remarks
References
15 A Successful Business Negotiation is Resource Sharing: Investigating Brazilian and German Cultural Conceptualisations in ‘Conceptual Scripts’
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Investigating Conceptual Realities in the Expanding Circle
15.3 Conceptual Scripts
15.4 Methods
15.5 Conceptual Scripts of Success in Business Negotiations
15.6 Concluding Remarks
References
16 Cultural Conceptualisations of witchcraft and traditional healing in Black South African English Herbalist Classifieds
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Notes on Classifieds and Herbalist Advertisements
16.2.1 Definition, Content and Forms of Herbalist Advertisements
16.2.2 Linguistic Properties of Herbalist Advertisements
16.2.3 Cultural Knowledge and Herbalist Advertisements
16.3 Traditional Healers in Sub-Saharan and South Africa
16.4 Traditional Healers in the SUN Classifieds Corpus
16.4.1 Titles and Terms of Address and Respect
16.4.2 Cultural Conceptualisations of witchcraft and traditional healing
16.4.3 Notes on Cultural Hybridity
16.5 Conclusions
References
17 Culture-Specific Conceptualisations of Corruption in African English: Linguistic Analyses and Pragmatic Applications
17.1 Introduction
17.2 Analytical Concepts and Methods
17.2.1 Conceptual Metaphor, Cultural Models and Cultural Schemas
17.2.2 Empirical Basis
17.3 The Kinship-Based African Community Model
17.3.1 General Considerations
17.3.2 The leadership is eating Network
17.3.3 The enrichment is eating Network
17.4 Conceptualisations of Corruption in African English
17.4.1 General Considerations on the Corruption Issue
17.4.2 Expressions of Corruption in African English
17.5 Pragmatic Applications
17.6 Conclusions
Appendix
Section on Family from the Questionnaire Survey
References

Citation preview

Cultural Linguistics

Marzieh Sadeghpour Farzad Sharifian   Editors

Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes

Cultural Linguistics Series Editor Marzieh Sadeghpour, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University, School of Languages, Hughesdale, VIC, Australia

Cultural Linguistics was founded by the late Professor Farzad Sharifian, an outstanding, field-defining scholar. The world-renowned linguist launched the series to advance multidisciplinary inquiry into the relationship between language and cultural conceptualisations. Building from his academic legacy, this series champions research that advances our understanding of how features of human languages encode culturally constructed conceptualisations of experience. Cultural Linguistics publishes monographs and edited volumes from diverse but complementary disciplines as wide-ranging as cross-cultural pragmatics, anthropological linguistics and cognitive psychology to present new perspectives on the intersection between culture, cognition and language. Featured themes include: • • • • • • •

Cultural conceptualizations and the structure of language Language and cultural categorization Language, culture, and embodiment Language and cultural conceptualizations of emotions Cultural conceptualizations and pragmatic meaning Cultural conceptualizations and (im)polite language use Applied Cultural Linguistics (e.g., Cultural Linguistics and English Language Teaching, Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics and Intercultural Communication, Cultural Linguistics and Political Discourse Analysis)

The series welcomes proposals that fit the description above. For more information about how you can submit a proposal, please contact the publishing editor, Alex Westcott Campbell: [email protected]

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14294

Marzieh Sadeghpour Farzad Sharifian •

Editors

Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes

123

Editors Marzieh Sadeghpour Monash University Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Farzad Sharifian Melbourne, VIC, Australia

ISSN 2520-145X ISSN 2520-1468 (electronic) Cultural Linguistics ISBN 978-981-15-4695-2 ISBN 978-981-15-4696-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

In Memory of Farzad Sharifian, Series Editor, Cultural Linguistics 2017–2020

Farzad Sharifian died before publication of this work was completed.

Contents

1

Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes: An Overview . . . . . . . . Farzad Sharifian and Marzieh Sadeghpour

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Australian Aboriginal English and Linguistic Inquiry . . . . . . . . . . Ian G. Malcolm

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A Corpus-Based Exploration of Aboriginal Australian Cultural Conceptualisations in John Bodey’s The Blood Berry Vine . . . . . . . Siew Imm Tan

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Re-schematisation of Chinese Xiao (Filial Piety) Across Cultures and Generations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zhichang Xu and Nina Fang

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“So You’re One of Those Vegetarians?” Emergence of Korean English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hyejeong Ahn and Chonhak Kim

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Don’t Kiasu and Rush Ok? A Cultural-Linguistic Take on the Interaction Between Loanwords and Constructions in World Englishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Kim Ebensgaard Jensen

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‘Till Death Do Us Wed’—About Ghost Brides and Ghost Weddings in Hong Kong English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Denisa Latić

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Decoding yuán and duyên Across Chinese, Vietnamese and Other Asian Cultural Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Zhichang Xu and Thuy Ngoc Dinh

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Bilingual Creativity in Saudi English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Wafaa Othman S. Fallatah

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Contents

10 A Space for Everybody? Conceptualisations of the Hijras in Indian English as a Showcase for Gendered Space in Indian Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Anna Finzel 11 Family Matters: Cultural-Linguistic Investigations into the Domain of FAMILY in Indian English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Frank Polzenhagen 12 Cultural Conceptualisations of Yoga in American and Indian English: A Corpus-Based Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Ray C. H. Leung 13 Expressive and Reserved Cultural Linguistic Schemas: British and American Pride Clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and Paul A. Wilson 14 The Interplay of Blended Languages and Blended Cultures in Memes: Cultural Conceptualisations Used by Serbian Speakers of English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 Diana Prodanović Stankić 15 A Successful Business Negotiation is Resource Sharing: Investigating Brazilian and German Cultural Conceptualisations in ‘Conceptual Scripts’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Milene Mendes de Oliveira 16 Cultural Conceptualisations of WITCHCRAFT and TRADITIONAL HEALING in Black South African English Herbalist Classifieds . . . . . 333 Arne Peters 17 Culture-Specific Conceptualisations of Corruption in African English: Linguistic Analyses and Pragmatic Applications . . . . . . . . 361 Frank Polzenhagen and Hans-Georg Wolf

Contributors

Hyejeong Ahn Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore Thuy Ngoc Dinh Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Wafaa Othman S. Fallatah School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University, Clayton, Australia; Department of Languages and Translation, Taibah University, Yanbu, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Nina Fang Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Anna Finzel University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany Kim Ebensgaard Jensen Department of English, Germanic and Romance Languages, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Chonhak Kim University of Seoul, Seoul, South Korea Denisa Latić University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany Ray C. H. Leung University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk State University of Applied Sciences in Konin, Konin, Poland Ian G. Malcolm Edith Cowan University, Mount Lawley, WA, Australia Milene Mendes de Oliveira University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany Arne Peters University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany Frank Polzenhagen University of Koblenz-Landau, Landau, Germany Marzieh Sadeghpour Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Farzad Sharifian Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Diana Prodanović Stankić University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia

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Contributors

Siew Imm Tan University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia Paul A. Wilson University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland Hans-Georg Wolf Department of English and American Studies, The University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany Zhichang Xu Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Chapter 1

Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes: An Overview Farzad Sharifian and Marzieh Sadeghpour

1.1 Introduction Cultural Linguistics is an interdisciplinary sub-branch of linguistics that explores the relationship between language and cultural conceptualisations (Sharifian 2011, 2015, 2017). It explores how features of human languages and language varieties are entrenched in cultural conceptualisations such as cultural schemas, cultural categories and cultural metaphors. Using examples from a number of varieties of English, we will show how studies of world Englishes may benefit from adopting the perspective of Cultural Linguistics, which reveals how English is used by communities of speakers around the world to express their culturally constructed conceptualisations and world views. Cultural Linguistics also provides a solid basis for identifying varieties of English, basing this on the examination of the underlying level of cultural conceptualisations. We will also argue that Cultural Linguistics significantly benefits from studies of world Englishes, in that varieties of English provide rich data regarding how one and the same language may be associated with different systems of cultural conceptualisations. The chapter begins by presenting an overview of the emerging field of Cultural Linguistics and then reviews research that has hitherto been conducted on varieties of English from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics. This will be followed by a discussion of how Cultural Linguistics can provide a general principle for identifying a variety of English and in compiling dictionaries of world Englishes.

F. Sharifian · M. Sadeghpour (B) Monash University, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_1

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1.2 Cultural Linguistics The term ‘cultural linguistics’ may be used to refer to the general area of research on the relationship between language and culture, which dates back at least to the work of influential scholars such as Wilhelm Von Humboldt (1767–1835) and later Franz Boas (1858–1942), Edward Sapir (1884–1939), and Benjamin Whorf (1897– 1941). However, Sharifian (2011) uses the term ‘Cultural Linguistics’ to refer to a rather recent multidisciplinary area of research that explores the relationship between language and conceptualisations that are culturally constructed and that are instantiated through features of languages and language varieties. In the following section, we elaborate the use of the term conceptualisation.

1.3 Cultural Linguistics and Cultural Conceptualisations On the theoretical front, Cultural Linguistics is an attempt to provide a broader frame for understanding the relationship between language, culture and conceptualisation by advancing the notion of cultural cognition: a group-level, collective cognition that emerges from the interactions between the members of a speech community across time and space. This new field of research draws on several disciplines and sub-disciplines including cognitive science, distributed cognition and complexity science. The framework of cultural cognition and language subscribes to the cognitive anthropological view of ‘culture as an inter-subjectively shared cognitive system’ (D’Andrade 1995), but it views this cognitive system to be a form of ‘distributed cognition’ (Hutchins 1994), albeit heterogeneously shared between the members of the speech community. Viewed this way, cultural cognition reveals some properties of complex adaptive systems, such as the parts constituting the system not being able to contain the whole. That is, an individual’s cognition does not capture the totality of the cultural cognition present on a group level. The framework shares the central view of cognitive linguistics, that is, meaning is conceptualisation, but regards conceptualisation as predominantly culturally constructed. Each of these themes requires a more detailed discussion, although this falls beyond the scope of this chapter (see Sharifian 2011 for more details). In general, Cultural Linguistics views the relationship between language, thought and culture to be a complex, dynamic and multidirectional one, with the human conceptual faculty acting as an active agent mediating between cultural experience and human language. This view runs counter to such deterministic and rather simplistic propositions, as the one that views human languages as structuring and shaping human thought and worldview. It is worth noting that although the latter is often attributed to scholars such as Sapir and Whorf, in recent decades others have presented much more sophisticated accounts of the views held by these scholars (see Lee 1996).

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The major analytical tools of Cultural Linguistics are cultural schemas, cultural categories and cultural-conceptual metaphors. These conceptual units are closely associated with various features of human languages. The following section elaborates on each of these notions and explores the ways in which they underpin features of human languages.

1.4 Cultural Schemas and Categories Over the last century, the notion of ‘schema’ has proved to have very high explanatory power across various disciplines including cognitive science, education, artificial intelligence, cognitive anthropology and linguistics (Bartlett 1932; Bobrow and Norman 1975; Minsky 1975; Rumelhart 1980; D’Andrade 1995; Holland and Cole 1995; Strauss and Quinn 1997; Sharifian 2001). The Cambridge dictionary of psychology (Matsumoto 2009) defines a ‘cognitive schema’ as follows: A mental representation of some aspect of past experience or some part of one’s general knowledge. Schemas are a basic unit of analysis in some areas of cognitive psychology. It is supposed by cognitive psychologists that schemas are constantly being created, modified, and imposed on perceptions, situations, understanding, and processes. (Matsumoto 2009: 116)

Cultural schemas are a class of schemas that are culturally constructed and serve as a basis for communicating and interpreting cultural meanings (Strauss and Quinn 1997). A typical example often provided for a cognitive schema is that of ‘the restaurant schema’, which includes knowledge about sub-events such as ordering, eating, tipping, paying the bill, etc. It is clear that although the schema of ‘restaurant’ is common to many cultures, there are differences in the content of restaurant schemas across cultures, for example, in terms of the sub-events, type of food served, etc. Cultural schemas capture encyclopaedic meaning that is culturally constructed for lexical items of human languages. Palmer (1996: 63) maintained that ‘[i]t is likely that all native knowledge of language and culture belongs to cultural schemas and the living of culture and the speaking of language consist of schemas in action’. Take the example of the word ‘privacy’ in for example, American English. The knowledge that forms the web of concepts that define ‘privacy’ in relation to various contexts and factors is best described as the cultural schema of PRIVACY. The cultural construction of this schema is partly reflected in complaints that some speakers make about members of various other speech communities, such as ‘they don’t understand the meaning of privacy’. Cultural schemas also provide a basis for pragmatic meanings, in the sense that the knowledge which underlies the enactment and uptake of speech acts is largely culturally constructed and captured in cultural schemas assumed to be shared. In some languages, for example, the speech act of ‘greeting’ uses semantic items associated with cultural schemas of ‘eating’ and ‘food’, whereas in some other languages it is associated with cultural schemas that relate to the health of the interlocutors and their family members. The available literature in the area of

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pragmatics makes very frequent references to ‘inference’ and ‘shared assumptions’ as the basis for the communication of pragmatic meanings (Levinson 1983). It goes without saying that any view of speakers making inferences or assumptions about the knowledge of the hearers technically implies that cultural schemas are necessary for making sense of speech acts. In short, cultural schemas integrate pieces of associated knowledge and provide a basis for a significant portion of semantic and pragmatic meanings in human languages. Another class of cultural conceptualisation is that of cultural category. Categorisation is one of the most fundamental human cognitive activities. Many studies have investigated how children engage in categorising objects and events early in life (Mareschal et al. 2003). Children usually begin by setting up their own categories, but they explore and discover, as part of their cognitive development, how their language and culture categorise events, objects and experiences. As Glushko et al. (2008: 129) put it, ‘[c]ategorization research focuses on the acquisition and use of categories shared by a culture and associated with language—what we will call “cultural categorization”’. Cultural categories exist for objects, events, settings, mental states, properties, relations and other components of experience (e.g. birds, weddings, parks, serenity, blue and above). Typically, these categories are acquired through normal exposure to caregivers and culture with little explicit instruction. The allocation of many objects, events and experiences into categories such as ‘food’, ‘vegetables’, ‘fruit’, etc., and their prototype instances, are culturally constructed. It should be noted that the reference to ‘weddings’ in the above quotation as a category is distinct from the use of this word in relation to cultural schemas. ‘Wedding’ as a cultural category refers to the type of event that is categorised as ‘wedding’, for example, as opposed to ‘engagement’ or ‘dining out’. ‘Wedding’ as a cultural schema includes all other aspects of the event, such as the procedures that need to be followed, the sequence of events, the roles played by various participants and the expectations associated with those roles. As for the relationship between cultural categories and language, many lexical items act as labels for the categories and their instances. As mentioned above, in English the word ‘food’ refers to a category, and a word such as ‘steak’ is an instance of the category. Usually, categories form hierarchies, in that instances of a category can themselves serve as categories with their own instances. For example, ‘pasta’ is an instance of the category of ‘food’ while also being a category with its own instances, such as ‘penne’ or ‘rigatoni’.

1.5 Cultural-Conceptual Metaphors and Language A major analytic tool within cognitive linguistics is that of ‘conceptual metaphor’. Rather than seeing it as simply a figure of speech, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) characterised metaphor as fundamental to human thought and action. They argue that our

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‘ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature’ (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 545). Since our conceptual system structures how we perceive the world, then it follows that ‘the way we think, what we experience, and what we do every day is very much a matter of metaphor’ (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 545). If language is closely linked to our conceptual system, it serves as a rich source of data for exploring our conceptualisations including conceptual metaphors. One of the examples that Lakoff and Johnson (1980: 456) give is the conceptual metaphor of time is money, reflected in expressions such as ‘You’re wasting my time’, ‘You need to budget your time’ and ‘Do you have much time left’? In recent years, many studies have shown how a close analysis of language use can highlight underlying conceptual metaphors (Cameron and Low 1999; Cameron and Maslen 2010; Yu 2009a, b). The notion of conceptual metaphor is also central to Cultural Linguistics, in that it focuses on exploring the cultural basis of conceptual metaphor (Sharifian et al. 2008; Yu 2009a, b). As Yu (2003: 14) maintains, ‘the relation between metaphor, body, and culture is extremely intricate, with all of them mingled together, and each of them penetrating the others, giving rise to a colourful spectrum of cognition’. Chapters in Sharifian et al. (2008) explore cultural traditions that have given rise to conceptual metaphors of internal body organs, as for example, the heart as the seat of emotions, showing that the links between particular organs and their associated emotions are not universal. In Indonesian, for example, it is hati ‘the liver’ that is associated with love (Siahaan 2008). Siahaan traces back this conceptualisation to the ritual of animal sacrifice, especially the interpretation of the liver organ known as ‘liver divination’, which was practised in ancient Indonesia. Yu (2009b) explores the origin of the conceptualisation of xin ‘heart’ in ancient Chinese philosophy and traditional Chinese medicine. According to the Chinese conceptualisation, as well as the physiological centre of the human being, the heart is traditionally believed to be the central faculty of cognition, and even, in a cosmic view, the ‘mirror of the universe’. In other words, the heart is seen as governing the entire body, including the brain. Yu reveals how this conceptualisation is still widely manifested in the Chinese language today.

1.6 Cultural Conceptualisations and World Englishes Thus far, the varieties of English that have been significantly explored from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics are African Englishes (Polzenhagen and Wolf 2007; Wolf 2008; Wolf and Polzenhagen 2009), Aboriginal English (Malcolm and Rochecouste 2000; Malcolm and Sharifian 2002; Sharifian 2001, 2002, 2005, 2007), and an emerging variety that Sharifian has called ‘Persian English’ (Sharifian 2010a, b). These strands of research have revealed how Cultural Linguistics can account for the localisation of English as certain cultural conceptualisations are encoded in various features of the English language. The widespread global spread of English has resulted in an increasing number of cultures becoming associated with

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English (Smith 1983) thus giving rise to the development of more and more varieties of English. The paradigm of world Englishes therefore stands to benefit from adopting an approach that can examine the interrelationship between language and culture, and this is what Cultural Linguistics offers. The following sections present examples of cultural conceptualisations in several varieties of English to reveal the power of examining varieties of English from a Cultural Linguistics perspective. In the course of the development of new varieties of English, speakers associate English words with cultural schemas that were not originally associated with English words. For example, the word ‘law’ in Aboriginal English refers to cultural schemas that capture bodies of rules, values and traditions that relate to many of aspects of social life among Aboriginal people, from rules of polite behaviour to rules whose breach could entail serious punishment such as spearing. A report on the recognition of Aboriginal law (Australian Law Reform Commission 2012) observes that ‘most systems of indigenous customary laws include customs or principles which may appear to observers to be more like rules of etiquette or religious beliefs, as well as other more obviously “legal” rules and procedures’. Another example of a word in Aboriginal English that signifies an Aboriginal cultural schema is ‘language’, which has a special symbolic significance to Aboriginal speakers. Language ‘is much more than just words. It’s a direct link to land and country. It holds traditional songs and stories’ (Aboriginal elder Joan Tranter, cited in New South Wales Reconciliation Council 2011). According to the Aboriginal worldview, ancestor beings created the land and the people during the Dreamtime and ‘planted’ the Aboriginal languages in different Aboriginal ‘countries’. Thus, ‘language’ links Aboriginal people to their land (see more in Rumsey 1993). The word ‘country’ in Aboriginal English captures culturally constructed geographic boundaries, and as such, the word instantiates an Aboriginal cultural category. An example of a cultural schema associated with an English word from an African variety is the word ‘outdooring’ (an adjective turned into a noun) in Ghanaian English (De Bruijn 2006) which is used to refer to a child naming ceremony. Dzansi (2002: 2) describes such ceremonies as follows. During naming ceremonies, the newborn baby is given water and any local brewed gin to taste, symbolising the facts of life, and to bless the child that he or she may be a truthful member in the community, and be able to differentiate good from evil when he or she grows up.

1.7 This Volume Despite the growing number of research studies exploring the emergence, legitimacy and linguistic aspects of world Englishes, the pragmatic and cultural features of world Englishes have received less attention (Sharifian 2015; Sadeghpour and Sharifian 2017; Sadeghpour 2019). Contributions to this volume represent the interconnectedness of world Englishes and cultural conceptualisations of their speakers and the distinctive cultural features of different varieties of English.

1 Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes: An Overview

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In this volume, varieties of English are analysed with the analytical tools of Cultural Linguistics to show the significant impacts of cultural conceptualisations on world Englishes and use of English as a local and international language. The following table presents a list of world Englishes which are studied with the framework of Cultural Linguistics in this volume. Chapters

Author/s

World Englishes

2

Ian G. Malcolm

Australian Aboriginal English

3

Siew Imm Tan

4

Zhichang Xu and Nina Fang

Chinese and Australian English

5

Hyejeong Ahn and Chon Hak Kim

Korean English

6

Kim Ebensgaard Jensen

Singaporean, Malaysian, and Maori English

7

Denisa Lati´c

Hong Kong English

8

Zhichang Xu and Thuy Ngoc Dinh

Chinese and Vietnamese English

9

Wafaa Othman S. Fallatah

Saudi English

10

Anna Finzel

Indian English

11

Frank Polzenhagen

12

Ray C. H. Leung

Indian and American English

13

Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and Paul A. Wilson

British and American English

14

Diana Prodanovi´c Stanki´c

Serbian English

15

Milene Mendes de Oliveira

Brazilian and German English

16

Arne Peters

Black South African English

17

Frank Polzenhagen and Hans Georg Wolf

African English

As shown in this table, a wide range of world Englishes have been analysed with the Cultural Linguistics framework. In Chap. 2 of this volume, Ian G. Malcolm reviews some of the findings of linguistic research on Australian Aboriginal English studies over the past 45 years. In his survey, Malcolm finds that the focus of studies has shifted from merely linguistic analysis to more sociolinguistic and Cultural Linguistic studies. He adopts the framework of Cultural Linguistic and studies how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have adopted and adapted English to express and maintain their own identity and cultural conceptualisations. He argues that Australian Aboriginal English, as a variety of English, can illustrate ‘the way in which two cultures can, in quite different ways, make one language their own’. In Chap. 3, Siew Imm Tan adopts a comparative corpus-based approach and compares the keywords of The Blood Berry Vine short story in Australian Aboriginal English with The Australian Corpus of English Literature. Findings of her analysis show that the keywords in the Australian Aboriginal English story are associated with Aboriginal Australians’ cultural schemas and categories. In this chapter, she shows how Aboriginal Australians adapted English to express their world views and cultural conceptualisations.

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In Chap. 4, Zhichang Xu and Nina Fang collected classical Chinese texts, contemporary fiction works and online corporato study cultural schema of Xiao in Chinese variety of English and its closest Chinese English translation ‘filial piety’. Findings of their analysis show that Xiao has been re-schematised throughout time and space. This result supports the argument of Cultural Linguistics that cultural conceptualisations are negotiated and re-negotiated over time and space and distributed unevenly among a cultural community. Xu and Fang’s study broadens world Englishes speakers’ understanding of Xiao and its translation as ‘filial piety’ in Chinese variety of English and increases the awareness of how concepts communicated in world Englishes are culturally constructed. Hyejeong Ahn and Chon Hak Kim’s research on Korean English, presented in Chap. 5, supports one of the main arguments of the Cultural Linguistics regarding the emergence and existence of world Englishes. Cultural Linguistics argues that English as an additional language speakers mainly draw on their own culturally constructed conceptualisations when communicating in English. To find out exclusive features of Korean English, Ahn and Kim analysed Han Kang’s novella, The Vegetarian, translated by D. Smith. Their analysis shows that it is not possible to comprehend Vegetarian novella without knowledge about Korean cultural schemas of u-li-ju-ui and jang-yu-yu-seo. They conclude that despite the formal surface-level similarities of Korean English with the Kachruvian Inner Circle varieties of English, understanding Korean English requires knowledge of Korean cultural conceptualisations. Most research studies in the field of World Englishes are mainly descriptive linguistic studies looking at describing and explaining linguistic features of different world Englishes. So, the interaction between different world Englishes and intercultural communication has been a less explored area so far (Sharifian 2015; Sadeghpour 2019). In Chap. 6, focusing on the cultural lacunae in intercultural communication through localised world Englishes, Kim Ebensgaard Jensen studies the interaction between lexically and constructionally mediated cultural conceptualisations in Davies’ (2013) GloWbE corpus. He conducts semantic analysis of the interaction between the loanwords kepoh and kiasu in Singaporean and Malaysian English and whakame in Maori English and grammatical constructions. Data analysis and findings in this chapter provide insights into how speakers of world Englishes construe the cultural conceptualisations associated with lexical importations. In Chap. 7, in a corpus-based study, Denisa Lati´c looks at the cultural conceptualisations of ghosts in Hong Kong and how it is represented in marriage related references in Hong Kong variety of English. She used the analytical tools of Cultural Linguistics and keyword chains and deducted cultural conceptualisations such as a woman’s identity is her marital status, an unmarried female ghost is a persona non grata, a restless spirit is a threat/dangerous force in the event schema Ghost Wedding. She discusses that representation of such marriage related references in Hong Kong English is rooted in the Hong Kongers’ cultural conceptualisations that life and death coexist. In Chap. 8, Zhichang Xu and Thuy Ngoc Dinh explore culture-specific concepts and cultural keywords of yuán and duyên (fate) in Chinese and Vietnamese English

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from the perspectives of Cultural Linguistics. They used ‘mixed emic and etic reflexive approach’ and collected conversation and social media interaction data. They also compared their collected data from Chinese and Vietnamese informants with additional data collected from fieldwork notes from cultural informants including Japanese, Korean, Indian, Indonesian and Burmese. Their analysis indicates that although cultural conceptualisation of yuán or duyên exists widely in both Chinese and Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian countries, it is heterogeneously distributed among the members of these communities. In this chapter, the authors emphasise the significance of developing an awareness of cultural conceptual variations across cultures for intercultural communications in world Englishes. In Chap. 9, Wafaa Othman S. Fallatah looks at bilingual creativity in Saudi variety of English. She collected a corpus from 30 newspaper articles by Saudi authors and conducted interviews with Saudi participants. Analysis of the collected data reveals that cultural references, syntactic creativity, lexical and semantic creativity, translation and code-switching are the five most common features of bilingual creativity in Saudi English. In the interviews with the participants, Fallatah found religion, women, gender segregation and family as four main reasons for such bilingual creativities. In Chap. 10, Anna Finzel explores the cultural conceptualisation of hijras or third gender in Indian English. She collected a corpus of interviews with Indian English speakers (none of whom identified as a hijra) and analysed the information and discourse of the participants regarding the conceptualisation of hijras. She conducted several analyses, for instance a pronoun analysis (they vs. we) to find out how Indian English speakers perceive the hijras. Findings of the analyses show that despite their significant role in history, hijras have an ambiguous place in Indian society, possibly influenced by British colonial conceptualisations. In Chap. 11 and in another study on Indian English, Frank Polzenhagen looks at the concept of family in India and its representation in Indian English. He collected a corpus from an Indian English dictionary, standard corpora of English and a small corpus of matrimonial advertisements taken from English-medium newspapers in India. Using the analytical tools of Cultural Linguistics, he looks at the concept of marriage and its linguistic expressions in Indian English and studies the cultural model of the self, family and community. Linguistic analysis, comparisons and findings presented in this chapter show how linguistic features of a variety of English represent the underlying cultural conceptualisations of its speakers. In Chap. 12, in a comparative corpus-based study, Ray C. H. Leung looks at the concept of yoga which originated in India and then introduced to America. He analysed 387-million-word United States section and 96-million-word Indian section of the Corpus of Global Web-Based English (GloWbE) with the analytical tools of Cultural Linguistics. Findings of his study show that American and Indian English have their own unique and significantly different collocates of yoga. Leung discusses that frequent occurrences of words bearing Sanskrit origin such as guru, Patanjali and sutras as well as lexical items associated with religion like God and bible instantiate the conceptualisations yoga as tradition and yoga as religion in Indian English. Collocates of yoga found in American English (e.g., pants, mat, Pilates and

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studio) reflect American capitalistic lifestyle. Data analysis in this chapter shows that despite the presence of yoga in both American and Indian English, it is schematised differently across these two speech communities. In Chap. 13, Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and Paul A. Wilson explore communication differences between British and American cultures. Stereotypically, British culture is considered to be reserved and American culture is believed to be more expressive. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and Wilson examined the extent to which these stereotypes could be verified focusing on the cultural emotion of pride in American and British English. For this purpose, they used the GRID methodology and employed the Cultural Linguistics framework to analyse the British National Corpus (BNC), the Corpus of American English (COCA), and the most current data of British and American media-based monitor materials. The GRID results of their study indicated that the cultural emotion of pride in American English was conceptualised relatively more by the feeling of dominance and more expression features, and is more likely to be experienced more frequently (than British English pride) probably because it is more socially accepted. The qualitative and quantitative language corpus analysis results show that although the cultural emotion of pride is used frequently in both cultures, it is culturally conceptualised differently and used differently in the discourse of these Englishes. In Chap. 14, Diana Prodanovi´c Stanki´c studies the glocalisation of English in the Expanding Circle of Serbia, and shows how adopting English as an international language has impacted cultural conceptualisations of speakers of Serbian. To do so, she looks at multimodal humorous discourse in online communication of Serbian English users. She collected a corpus of 100 cultural ‘funny Serbian memes’ from online websites and social networks and analysed them through the analytical framework of Cultural Linguistics. Results of her analysis showed that English as an international language was used in memes mainly in discussing highly culturally sensitive or taboo topics. She found that using English in such memes has resulted in negotiation and renegotiations of cultural conceptualisations, emergence of new blended cultural schemas and re-schematisation of the existing Serbian cultural schemas. In Chap. 15, Milene Mendes de Oliveira defines the analytical tool of ‘conceptual script’ and argues that this analytical tool goes beyond identifying cultural conceptualisations by showing the relationship between cultural conceptualisations and their contextual meaning. The author uses conceptual script for analysing cultural conceptualisations in Brazilian and German varieties of English. She interviewed business persons about ‘success in business negotiations’, and analysed the transcribed interviews for ‘metaphors, metonymies, image schemas, blends, cultural schemas, and also the cognitive semantic construals of force dynamics, fictive motion, and windowing of attention’. Results of her analysis show that speakers of these world Englishes drew on their own cultural conceptualisations when communicating in English. These findings confirm one of the main arguments of Cultural Linguistics that speakers of world Englishes adapt English to express their own cultural conceptualisations. In Chap. 16, Arne Peters provides a usage-based approach to cultural variation in the Black South African variety of English. He collected a corpus of herbalist

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11

classifieds published in a South African newspaper and conducted a collocational and conceptual analysis of titles, terms of address, and witchcraft and traditional healing. Results of the data analysis in this chapter provide linguistic evidence for localisation of English in South Africa. The analysis of schemas, categories and metaphors found in the corpus also show how linguistic features of Black South African English reflect shared cultural cognition of its speakers. In Chap. 17, Frank Polzenhagen and Hans-Georg Wolf employed Corpora of English in Cameroon, authentic African English written material obtained from internet sources and two standard corpora of British and American English to study expressions from the domains of political leadership, wealth and corruption in African English and compare their findings with American and British English. To achieve these aims, they reviewed the cultural model of the kinship-based African community and explored conceptualisations of corruption in African variety of English. They analyse African English expressions of corruption and found various metaphors, categories and schemas representative of African community culture. They discuss that, compared with British and American English, high frequency of lexical items denoting corruption in African English reflect the significance of corruption issue in this society. Polzenhagen and Wolf argue that studying world Englishes through the lenses of Cultural Linguistics highlights the interrelatedness of cultural conceptualisations and world Englishes.

1.8 Concluding Remarks This chapter introduces the framework of Cultural Linguistics and presents cases for exploring varieties of English from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics. The global spread of English has led to the localisation of the language by many speech communities around the world. This localisation has partly taken place by as different speech communities used English to express their cultural conceptualisations. This is a phenomenon which may best be revealed by studies of these varieties of English from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics. In turn, world Englishes also provides rich sources of data for the examination of the interrelationship between language and cultural conceptualisations, and as such makes a significant contribution to the development of Cultural Linguistics. A unique contribution of Cultural Linguistics to studies of world Englishes is its potential to identify varieties of English which may be otherwise invisible in terms of their cultural-conceptual system, which may be their major source of divergence from other varieties. Similar to world Englishes, Cultural Linguistics adopts a critical perspective towards issues of language and power, in particular towards discrimination against speakers of marginalised varieties of English. Finally, the caveat should be expressed that the characterisation of varieties of English in terms of their cultural conceptualisations should not be confused with the characterisation of speakers. It is acknowledged that increasing trans-cultural mobility means many speakers have been exposed to interaction with more than one variety of English. As a result many draw on more than one system

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of cultural conceptualisations, as in the case of migrants engaging in multicultural contexts. Globalisation and the significant growth in human mobility are yielding speakers that may be termed trans-varietal, that is, speakers who may not be easily identified as simply speaking one major variety of English. This phenomenon needs much further examination, in particular from an empirical perspective. Acknowledgements Parts of this chapter were first published in the, Sharifian, F. (2015). Cultural Linguistics and world Englishes. Journal of World Englishes, I34(4), 515–532. https://doi.org/10. 1111/weng.12156.

References Australian Law Reform Commission. (2012). Recognition of Aboriginal Customary Laws. ALRC Report 31/7. Retrieved August 1, 2012, from http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/report-31. Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bobrow, D. G., & Norman, D. A. (1975). Some principles of memory schemata. In D. G. Bobrow & A. M. Collins (Eds.), Representation and understanding: Studies in cognitive science (pp. 131– 149). New York: Academic Press. Cameron, L., & Low, G. (Eds.). (1999). Researching and applying metaphor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cameron, L., & Maslen, R. (Eds.). (2010). Metaphor analysis: Research practice in applied linguistics, social sciences and the humanities. London: Equinox. D’Andrade, R. G. (1995). The development of cognitive anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Davies, M. (2013). Corpus of Global Web-Based English. http://corpus.byu.edu/glowbe. De Bruijn, E. (2006). Problematic pidginizations: Who can accept Ghanaian English? Retrieved May 2, 2012, from http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/cpercy/courses/6362-debruijn.htm. Dzansi, M. P. (2002). Some manifestations of Ghanaian indigenous culture in children’s singing games. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 3(7). Retrieved June 20, 2015, from http:// www.ijea.org/v3n7/. Glushko, R. J., Maglio, P. P., & Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Categorization in the wild. Trends in Cognitive Science, 12(4), 129–135. Holland, D., & Cole, M. (1995). Between discourse and schema: Reformulating a cultural-historical approach to culture and mind. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 26(4), 475–490. Hutchins, E. (1994). Cognition in the wild. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Lee, P. (1996). The Whorf theory complex: A critical reconstruction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Levinson, S. C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Malcolm, I. G., & Rochecouste, J. (2000). Event and story schemas in Australian Aboriginal English. English World-Wide, 21(2), 261–289. Malcolm, I. G., & Sharifian, F. (2002). Aspects of Aboriginal English oral discourse: An application of cultural schema theory. Discourse Studies, 4(2), 169–181. Mareschal, D., Powell, D., & Volein, A. (2003). Basic level category discriminations by 7- and 9-month-olds in an object examination task. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 86(2), 87–107. Matsumoto, D. (2009). The Cambridge dictionary of psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Minsky, M. (1975). A framework for representing knowledge. In P. H. Winston (Ed.), The psychology of computer vision (pp. 211–217). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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New South Wales Reconciliation Council. (2011). Our place teaching kit. Retrieved August 11, 2012, from http://issuu.com/nswreconciliationcouncil/docs/ourplaceteachingkit. Palmer, G. B. (1996). Toward a theory of cultural linguistics. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Polzenhagen, F., & Wolf, H. G. (2007). Culture-specific conceptualisations of corruption in African English: Linguistic analyses and pragmatic applications. In F. Sharifian & G. B. Palmer (Eds.), Applied Cultural Linguistics: Implications for second language learning and intercultural communication (pp. 125–168). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Rumelhart, D. E. (1980). Schemas: The building blocks of cognition. In R. Spiro, B. Bruce, & W. Brewer (Eds.), Theoretical issues in reading comprehension (pp. 33–58). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum. Rumsey, A. (1993). Language and territoriality in Aboriginal Australia. In M. Walsh & C. Yallop (Eds.), Language and culture in Aboriginal Australia (pp. 191–206). Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. Sadeghpour, M. (2019). Englishes in English Language Teaching. London: Routledge, https://doi. org/10.4324/9780429505133. Sadeghpour, M., & Sharifian, F. (2017). English language teacher perceptions of world Englishes: The elephants in the room, Asian Englishes, 9(2), 242–258. Sharifian, F. (2001). Schema-based processing in Australian speakers of Aboriginal English. Language and Intercultural Communication, 1(2), 120–134. Sharifian, F. (2002). Conceptual associative system in Aboriginal English. Doctoral dissertation, Edith Cowan University, Perth. Sharifian, F. (2005). Cultural conceptualisations in English words: A study of Aboriginal children in Perth. Language and Education, 19(1), 74–88. Sharifian, F. (2007). Aboriginal language habitat and cultural continuity. In G. Leitner & I. G. Malcolm (Eds.), The habitat of Australia’s Aboriginal languages (pp. 181–195). Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. Sharifian, F. (2010a). Cultural conceptualisations in intercultural communication: A study of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 3367–3376. Sharifian, F. (2010b). Semantic and pragmatic conceptualisations in an emerging variety: Persian English. In A. Kirkpatrick (Ed.), Routledge handbook of World Englishes (pp. 442–457). New York: Routledge. Sharifian, F. (2011). Cultural conceptualisations and language: Theoretical framework and applications. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Sharifian, F. (2015). Cultural Linguistics and world Englishes. World Englishes, 34(4), 515–532. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12156. Sharifian, F. (2017). Cultural Linguistics. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Sharifian, F., Dirven, R., Ning, Yu., & Neiemier, S. (Eds.). (2008). Culture, body, and language: Conceptualisations of internal body organs across cultures and languages. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. Siahaan, P. (2008). Did he break your heart or your liver? A contrastive study on metaphorical concepts from the source domain organ in English and in Indonesian. In F. Sharifian, R. Dirven, & N. Yu (Eds.), Body, culture, and language: Conceptualisations of heart and other internal body organs across languages and cultures (pp. 45–74). Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. Smith, L. E. (1983). English as an international langauge: No room for linguistic chauvinism. In L. E. Smith (Ed.), Readings in English as an international language (pp. 7–11). Oxford: Pergamon Press. Strauss, C., & Quinn, N. (1997). A cognitive theory of cultural meaning. New York: Cambridge University Press. Wolf, H.-G. (2008). A cognitive linguistic approach to the cultures of world Englishes: The emergence of a new model. In G. Kristiansen & R. Dirven (Eds.), Cognitive sociolinguistics: Language variation, cultural models, social systems (pp. 353–385). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Wolf, H.-G., & Polzenhagen, F. (2009). World Englishes: A cognitive sociolinguistic approach. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

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Yu, N. (2003). Metaphor, body, and culture: The Chinese understanding of gallbladder and courage. Metaphor and Symbol, 18(1), 13–31. Yu, N. (2009a). From body to meaning in culture: Papers on cognitive semantic studies of Chinese. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Yu, N. (2009b). The Chinese HEART in a cognitive perspective: Culture, body, and language. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Chapter 2

Australian Aboriginal English and Linguistic Inquiry Ian G. Malcolm

Abstract This paper surveys some of the findings of linguistic research into Australian Aboriginal English over the past 45 years, drawing largely on research in which the author has been involved. It is argued that, during the period of study, the discipline of linguistics has moved from a focus primarily on linguistic description to one which includes the social exchange of speech (sociolinguistics and discourse analysis) and, more recently, to one which includes the study of the mental imagery which is common to both culture and language (Cultural Linguistics). Without being exhaustive, the paper provides a detailed illustration of findings at each of these three levels of inquiry and proposes reasons as to why Aboriginal speakers have re-moulded English (and continue to do so) in the way they have.

2.1 Aboriginal English and Networks One of the many Aboriginal legends which have been gathered by R. M. and C. H. Berndt (1964: 331) relates how the echidna and the tortoise came to be the way they are. It tells us that the echidna and the tortoise were once in human form but they quarrelled about a snail which both of them wanted to eat. Eventually, the tortoise, in a rage, picked up a bundle of light bamboo spears and threw them at the echidna. They stuck in her back and became quills. Thereupon the echidna picked up a large flat stone and threw it at the tortoise, where it stuck to his back like a shell. And so that is how they are the way they are today. It has been an enduring preoccupation of Australia’s original inhabitants to seek to account for the ways in which things are, looking for connections between the past and the present, between the human and the non-human worlds, between the things This paper is derived from one originally presented as a keynote address to the Postgraduate Conference of the University of Western Sydney, Parramatta, Inventions and Intersections, 16 July 2015. I. G. Malcolm (B) Edith Cowan University, Mount Lawley, WA, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_2

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I. G. Malcolm

people do and their consequences, between things which are different, yet, in some way, the same. To some extent, the history of Aboriginal English research has been of the same order. The English used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people1 has to be accounted for. It is deceptively similar to Australian English, yet profoundly different; it uses many of the same words and grammatical features, yet does different things with them; its imagery evokes a world distinctive to its speakers; it is entailed in different speech events and interactional exchanges; it operates differently as a medium of narration, foregrounding things which are backgrounded in Australian English, or vice versa; it summons up for its speakers a world of shared meanings which evoke a past which is strongly relevant to the present and which Australian English speakers do not share. Linguistics provides tools for exploring Aboriginal English and, as knowledge of the dialect has expanded, different areas of linguistics have had to be brought into the exploration. An attempt will be made here, briefly, to survey some of what has come from the applications of descriptive linguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and Cultural Linguistics, and to consider where it has led us. It will be shown how different modes of analysis have enabled complementary networks of different elements to be revealed, at each level, so that the dialect in use can be seen as a complex, ingenious and ongoing creation of successive generations of speakers. First, let me clarify my use of the term ‘network.’ I am using it to mean a pattern of relationships among items of the same kind. Hence, at the most basic level, the phonological, a language consists of a repertoire of sounds, together with rules which govern how they may be uttered, combined and contrasted; at another level, the morphological, it consists of making meaningful combinations of sounds into a repertoire of independent words, and co-dependent word stems and affixes, again with rules as to what combinations are possible to allow what shades of meaning; then there is the level of syntax where there is a repertoire of ways of allowing words to come together meaningfully into a network of interrelated patterns enabling the expression of the range of ideas that need to be communicated. Beyond the linguistic, there is the sociolinguistic level which consists of networks of speakers and understood rules as to how they will use language in interaction and creative expression, and beyond this is the conceptual level which consists of networks of shared mental images which underlie the linguistic forms. The speakers of Aboriginal English have maintained these networks in a consistent way across the continent despite pressure from Australian English speakers to have them conform to their patterns. It is clear that using English, for Aboriginal speakers, does not mean abandoning the cultural and conceptual frameworks which are their inheritance from earlier generations, though it may mean finding new ways of expressing them. The existence of Aboriginal English is evidence that a new language may be adopted without the loss of continuity of culture associated with

1 Unless

indicated otherwise, the term Aboriginal English is intended, in this paper, to apply to varieties spoken by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

2 Australian Aboriginal English and Linguistic Inquiry

17

languages which are, in many cases, no longer used. Evidence for this may be derived from varieties of Aboriginal English across Australia.

2.2 Linguistic Networks Within Aboriginal English Of course, there were 250 or more languages in Australia before English was added to them, and so the linguistic scene before the British came was not homogeneous. However, in many ways, the gap between English and the indigenous languages was wider than that between any of the existing languages. Using descriptive linguistics, we can give a broad-brush picture of the differences we find. First, if we look at the repertoire of sounds recognised in English and in most Aboriginal languages, we find contrasts in (a) the vowel sounds recognised, and (b) the consonant sounds recognised. If we look at the ways in which the recognised sounds are networked into a system, we find contrasts in (a) the ways in which sounds may come together, (b) the patterning of stressed and unstressed syllables, and (c) the ways in which pronunciation may be modified to reflect meaning. The acrolectal variety of standard Australian English has a repertoire of 12 vowels and 9 diphthongs or glides between two vowels. Arranging them according to the part of the tongue which is raised when they are pronounced, the 12 vowels fall into three groups, front, central and back, as follows: FRONT

CENTRAL

BACK

/i/ as in key

/ɜ/ as in herd

/ɔ/ as in for

/ı/ as in hit

/ə/ as in unstressed the

/ɒ/ as in hot

/ɛ/ as in head

/u/ as in food

/æ/ as in hat

/υ/ as in put.

/ʌ/ as in hut /a/ as in heart

18

I. G. Malcolm The nine diphthongs are: /eı/ as in hay /oυ/ as in hoe /aı/ as in high /aυ/ as in now /ɔı/ as in boy /ıə/ as in near /ɛə/ as in there /ɔə/ as in core, and /υə/ as in pure

This, then, for the Australian English acrolect, is the repertoire of vowel sounds which are recognised as distinct from one another and necessary for distinguishing meanings. Speakers of Aboriginal English come with quite different expectations as to what vowel sounds can be distinguished from one another and are necessary for distinguishing meanings. They may modify this sound repertoire in the following ways: Australian English

Aboriginal English

FRONT /i:/ as in creek, been

/krık/ creek (WA) /bın/ been (WA, NT, QLD)

/ı/ as in his

/i:z/ his (WA), /hi:z/ his (NSW, WA)

/ɛ/ as in get, pegs, fellows

/gıt/ get (WA), /pıgz/ pegs (NT), /falaz/ fellows (WA, SA, NSW)

/æ/ as in flag

/flɛjg/ flag (NT)

/ʌ/ as in just

/dȝıs/ just (WA, SA)

CENTRAL /ɜ/ as in turtle

/to:tl/ turtle (Torres Strait Is.)

/ə/ as in unstressed the, was, your

/da/ the (QLD) /waz/ was (SA), /ja/ your (NSW)

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BACK /ɒ/ as in dog

/dɔ:g/ dog (WA), /gɔ:n/ gone (NT) c.f. QLD /hʌt/ hot (WA)

/u/ as in allowed to

/laυda/ allowed to (WA)

Diphthongs: /eı/ as in make

/mεk/ make (WA) c.f. VIC

/oυ/ as in boat

/bot/ boat (WA) /na:/ no (WA)

/aı/ as in high

/ma/ my (NSW) c.f. VIC

/ıə/ as in here

/ıjʌ/ here (WA)

/ɛə/ as in there, everywhere

/ðε:/ there, /εprıwε:/ everywhere (WA) c.f. VIC, QLD

In other words, the vowel repertoire in Australian English tends to be modified in Aboriginal English, so that (a) the distinctions between /i:/, as in been, and /ı/, as in bin, are not made so strongly; (b) there is a strong tendency to substitute the vowel /a/ for other vowels, in particular, /ε/ and /ђ/, as in fellers (/falaz/), /u/, as in to (/ta/); (c) front vowels /ε/, /ı/ /æ/ and /2/ are liable to be interchanged; (d) the distinction between /A/, /O/and /f/ is not so strongly maintained; (e) there is a strong tendency to reduce diphthongs to single vowels, so that /ei/ becomes /ε/, /oυ/ becomes /o/ or /a/, /aı/ becomes /a/ and /εђ/ becomes /ε:/. Some of these trends are also present in informal Australian English, but I would argue that it is not so much Australian English influence as continuity with longstanding patterns of vowel use within Aboriginal communities which is responsible here. The ever-presence of the vowel /a/ in Aboriginal English relates to the fact that this is, according to Capell (cited by Readdy 1961: 60), “the commonest vowel statistically in most Aboriginal languages”. The tendency to avoid the central vowels /f/ and /ђ/ can be related to the fact noted by Dixon (1980: 131) that “Australian vowels …are…seldom centralised—unlike English vowels which can often be reduced to [ђ].” In fact, as Dixon (1980: 131) has also noted, “Most Australian languages have just three vowel phonemes…/i/, /u/, /a/”, so the tendency to merge other English vowels with these, or with one another, is understandable. Likewise, the idea of diphthongisation, or gliding from one vowel to another, which we take for granted

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I. G. Malcolm

in Australian English, is usually not possible in Aboriginal languages (Dixon 1980: 131), so it is understandably less prominent in Aboriginal English. The consonant repertoire in Australian English, briefly, includes 24 consonants of 8 main types, distinguished according to the ways in which they are articulated:

PLOSIVE

FRICATIVE

AFFRICATE

Unvoiced

Voiced

/p/ as in pat

/b/ as in bat

/t/ as in p

/d/ as in dip

/k/ as in cot

/g/ as in got

/f/ as in fine

/v/ as in vine

/Ɵ/ as in thin

/ð/ as in then

/s/ as in sip

/z/ as in zip

/ʃ/ as in ship

/ȝ/ as in pleasure

/tʃ/ as in chin

/dȝ/ as in gin

NASAL

/m/ as in me /n/ as in knee /ŋ/ as in sing

LATERAL

/l/ as in light

RHOTIC

/r/ as in right

GLOTTAL SEMI-VOWEL

/h/ as in hat /j/ as in yes /w/ as in wed

Some features of the repertoire of consonants in Australian English are evident from the list. First, it can be seen that 16 of our consonants exist in pairs, one of which is voiced and the other unvoiced, so the recognition of the voiced/voiceless distinction is often essential to conveying meanings. It is also observable that 10 of our consonants are fricative or affricate in formation, and that we have far less differentiation in other categories, like nasal, lateral and rhotic. These features are significant in distinguishing English from most Aboriginal languages. The voiced/voiceless distinction among consonants is irrelevant in Aboriginal languages (Dixon 1980: 137) and most Aboriginal languages have no

2 Australian Aboriginal English and Linguistic Inquiry

21

fricative consonants (Dixon 1980: 132) and no glottal /h/ (Eades 1993: 3). On the other hand, Aboriginal languages may distinguish up to six different nasal, four lateral (or l-like) and two rhotic (or r-like) consonants (Kaldor 1982: 39–40). Features of Aboriginal English that reflect these facts include (a) Non-recognition of voiced/voiceless distinctions, as in /laυda/

allowed to

/pli:s/

please

(b) Substitution of plosive for fricative consonants, as in /tıŋ/

thing

/dεn/

then

/pınıʃ/

finish

/nɛba/

never

/ sta/

sister (Maningrida)

(c) Variant pronunciations transferred from Aboriginal languages, as in /ʃʌrrup/

shut up (the rr represents the flapped r)

/hırrim/

hit him

(d) Deletion of sounds not shared by Aboriginal languages, as in /ɒspitl/

hospital

/sʌmtaım/

somemes

(e) Merging of sounds not common to Aboriginal languages, as in /ʃeis/

chase

/fıs/

fish

It is not only differences in the repertoire of sounds recognised that affect Aboriginal English pronunciation but also differences in the networking or acceptable patterning of those sounds. It follows that, because it is the normal practice in Aboriginal languages to alternate vowels and consonants in words rather than allowing a build-up of consonants, we find consonant clusters simplified in Aboriginal English, either by removing one consonant where sometimes two or three or more come together, as in

22

I. G. Malcolm /drɛkli/

directly

/nɛks/

next

/ðæs/

that’s

/ınıt/

isn’t it

/a:nı/

aune,

or by inserting an epenthetic vowel, as in /i:miju/

emu

/səlipıŋ/

sleeping.

Another area where Aboriginal English diverges from Australian English is in the way in which stress is placed on syllables. The placement of stress in Australian English varies significantly, from first syllable, as in common or reputable, to the second, as in permitted or announcement, to the end of the word as in entertain or underrate. The allocation of stress also varies in Aboriginal English, but there is a pervasive tendency to give more stress to the first syllable, as in /’gıda:/

guitar

/’tɔ:jada/

four wheel drive vehicle

/’lɒŋweı/

a long way away

This often entails eliding syllables which are unstressed, as in /’kæŋgru/

kangaroo

/’prɒpli/

properly

/’li:nəra/

Leonora

We continue to see continuities with Aboriginal languages here. Douglas (1976: 34) has noted that in Nyungar the primary stress falls on the first syllable in each word. Another feature which distinguishes Aboriginal English from Australian English is the way in which words are recognised. In Australian English, we are most likely to emphasise words by making them louder. In Aboriginal English, it has been observed right across Australia that speakers lengthen the vowels in words, together with raising the pitch, to provide emphasis, as in

2 Australian Aboriginal English and Linguistic Inquiry

23

We ed it hiiiigh up on a big tree… Dey were waaaay down out da road She got a biiiig mouth looong me liiitle bit biiiiges shark

Much more could be said about the phonology of Aboriginal English but we need to move on to look at some of the alternative grammatical patternings to those of Australian English which it has developed. One of the basic morphological features of nouns in English, but not in Aboriginal languages (Harkins 1994: 45), is that they are normally marked for number. Hence, even though the number may be apparent from the context, as in two dogs, we still mark the noun dogs as plural. There are some exceptions to this, of course, in that, for example, we would not mark the noun sheep as plural, and we do not normally mark the number of non-count nouns such as equipment or water. Aboriginal speakers in adopting English have not adopted all of these conventions, and they have added some distinctive means of marking number. Thus, it is common to have count nouns with the plural implied from the context rather than marked, as in We seen lots of snake S aernoon we.. are gunna.. do some funny thing about..Nyungar stuff.. (examples from Malcolm et al 1999: Two Way English).

Where Australian English has irregular plurals, Aboriginal English may emphasise them, as in the case of five sheeps.

Or, drawing on other devices for indicating number which exists in Aboriginal languages, Aboriginal speakers have developed periphrastic modes of marking plurality or quantity, as in alla bird

birds

loa dog

dogs

clean water mob

(plenty of) clean water (Alice Springs).

Number is also marked in the English pronoun system, but again Aboriginal English has modified this. The ambiguity of the second person pronoun you, which may have a singular or plural referent, is overcome by the adoption (from Irish

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I. G. Malcolm

English) of the plural form yous, sometimes adapted to you-mob (Harkins 2000: 68). There is also a strong sense among Aboriginal speakers that you need a personal pronoun to refer to just two people—something which Australian English doesn’t provide, so the broader forms of Aboriginal English maintain dual forms from creole, like, in Central Australia (Koch 2000: 40–42), me’n’you

1st person dual inclusive, ‘the two of us, including the hearer’

mintupala

1st person exclusive dual, ‘the two of us, excluding the hearer’

which can be used as an alternative to we, and youtwofella

2nd person dual, ‘the two of you’

which can alternate with youfella

2nd person plural, ‘you’.

The plural ‘you’ form youfella (or y[o]ufellas, or youfla, or youfella mob) persists widely across Aboriginal Australia, and various dual forms, such as yudubela, yunabela, yuntupela and you-n-him are found widely across the north, while you two or yutu can be heard in less remote areas. The pervasiveness of this patterning can be understood when we take account of the fact that, as Dixon (1980: 475) has said, “Almost every Australian language has singular, dual and plural first and second person pronouns—‘I’, ‘we two’ and ‘we all (three or more)’; ‘you (singular)’, ‘you two’ and ‘you all (three or more).’” Much more could be said about morphology, but this has to be a broad-brush survey so we will move on to syntax, or the patterns for the inclusion or exclusion and ordering of words in sentences. Generally speaking, Aboriginal English follows the same rules as Australian English for the ordering of words into clauses or sentences, but there are a number of exceptions to this. One area of marked divergence is where the verb to be is involved. We use the verb to be to link a subject to its complement as in They are smart, where the complement is an adjective, or She is a student, where the complement is a noun. We also need it to support a “dummy” subject, as in There are apples in the bowl or This is your classroom. And, of course, we need to use the same verb as an auxiliary when we are using the verb in the passive, as in Students are taught maths, or to form the progressive, as in They are making a noise. There is, then, in standard English, a strong need to relate everything to the existence, which is what the verb to be is all about. It is, however, possible to emphasise the action or state without relating it to existence, and this is what seems more natural to Aboriginal speakers. You find, then, that Aboriginal English speakers will say

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25

Dey big dinosaur

for

“They are big dinosaurs” (Ceduna, SA)

They green

for

“They are green” (Leonora, WA)

E got some sand

for

“There is some sand”

Real big mob over there

for

“There are a lot over there” (Goulburn Valley, Vic., McKenry 1996)

That a prey snake

for

“That’s a prey snake” (Yarrabah, Qld, Alexander 1965)

A bee sng him

for

“He was stung by a bee” (Qld)

I sing down

for

“I am staying” (Maningrida, NT)

(Broome, W.A., c.f. NT)

Another feature of Standard English is the way in which the use of definite and indefinite articles operates. Of course, the normal expectation is that the speaker will use a definite article, the, before a common noun representing something which is specific because it is obvious from the context, or it has already been mentioned, e.g. Could you pass me the scissors? On the other hand, the indefinite article a/an, is used before singular count nouns which lack this kind of specificity, e.g. Have you got a hammer? If one wants to be very specific, one can use the demonstrative adjective this, or those, e.g. Where are those nails I gave you? Aboriginal languages, however, generally do not have articles, though they do have demonstratives (Dixon 1980: 271). Predictably, then, we find that in Aboriginal English both definite and indefinite articles are often not used, as in I wanna go shop

“I want to go to the shop” (Alberton, SA, Wilson 1996)

We bin even go Gordonvale

“We even went to Gordonvale”. (Yarrabah, Qld)

Where the definiteness or indefiniteness is seen to be relevant, it may be shown either by the use of demonstrative, as in an that rain e bin fall down

“and the rain came down” (Kununurra, WA, c.f. NSW, Qld)

Dem girls got the music goin

“The girls put the music on” (La Perouse, NSW, c.f. WA, NT, SA)

or by the use of one, as in e came and grab one pig

“he came and grabbed a pig” (Onslow, WA, c.f. NT, SA, Qld).

One other syntactic feature worthy of reference is the formation of questions. Standard English requires subject and auxiliary verb to be reversed, as in Are you coming? or Did he go?, or, in some cases, for a “wh” question to be used, before the reversed subject and auxiliary, as in Where are you going? As we have already mentioned, the auxiliary system is not completely incorporated into Aboriginal English, so alternative question forms have developed within the dialect. The first Aboriginal users of English would have drawn on a variety of English sources, including non-standard varieties. One form brought to Australia by speakers of non-standard English was the tag init, which, indeed may still be heard among

26

I. G. Malcolm

non-standard dialect speakers (Penhallurick 2008: 361). This can serve as an allpurpose tag, whatever the auxiliary verb involved. In this case, the non-standard question form was closer to precedents in Australian languages than were the rather convoluted standard forms (Kaldor 1982: 59). They also, as we shall see, fitted Aboriginal patterns of speech use better, so this tag, and many other variants, have been adopted, as in One got sick, init?

“One was sick wasn’t he?” (Roebourne, WA)

They don’t lay eggs here, in?

“They don’t lay eggs here, do they?” (Jigalong, WA)

She had de tent at the bushes, ina Janey?

“She had the tent in the bush, didn’t she, Janey? (Perth WA)

Our stories are otherways, you know, ana?

“Our stories are different, aren’t they? (La Perouse, NSW, c.f. W.A.)

E was all dressed in white, eh?

“He was all dressed in white, wasn’t he? (Carnarvon, WA, also across Australia)

Descriptive linguistics has, then enabled us to see the logic of the ways in which Aboriginal English, in its phonological, morphological and syntactic features, has made English different.

2.3 Sociolinguistic Networks Within Aboriginal English Increasingly as the twentieth century bore on, linguists were recognising that purely linguistic descriptions of languages and dialects were insufficient to capture what was going on in them since languages were not just networks of linguistic symbols, but networks of speakers and hearers who had certain expectations of one another. Using a language is coordinating your own input with that of others, consenting to certain conventions about initiating and responding to speech and about working together to create speech events. One of the leading U.S. scholars arguing for this understanding was Dell Hymes. In my doctoral thesis completed in 1979 I was able to use Hymes’s concepts of speech act, speech event and speech routine to analyse Aboriginal students’ classroom interactions. In 1983 in her doctoral thesis at the University of New England, Diana Eades used Hymes’s concept of the ethnography of communication (Hymes 1968) to analyse communication in Aboriginal English more generally. This provides a cross-cultural framework for the analysis of the behaviour of senders, receivers and audiences of messages. In brief, some of the findings of sociolinguistic study of the use of Aboriginal English include that

2 Australian Aboriginal English and Linguistic Inquiry

27

1. Speech events are socially emphasise in a number of ways: (a) There is a strong sense of group involvement, shown, for example, in – the use of the question tag, with a downward inflection, to invite group corroboration, e.g. We’ll have a wicked time, unna, budda… (Perth), That new one more better, eh (Butcher 2008: 635), …more sharks there, init (Broome);

– the use of affiliative tags: had a good feed, boy (Perth, Malcolm 2002a: 78), Let’s cruze, you yorgas [girls] (Perth, Collard 2011: 33);

– the use of tags to mark idea units as interactive: e goes ‘Oh get out woman,’ you know (Perth, Malcolm 2002a: 81), no but it was so scary, you know (Perth, Malcolm 2002a: 81);

– collaborative narration (Malcolm & Rochecouste 2000: 271), i.e. speakers may share in the telling of a narrative; – attribution, showing that the material recounted is a group, rather than an individual, possession, e.g. Alan, brother-in-law dere tell me (Geraldton), …my mum’s grandfather…e told my mum’s mum.. then my mum’s mum told me… (Mullewa, WA);

– inclusion of all people involved in the incident narrated: On the Easter holiday we went ting Laverton, me, Patrick, um Trevor and Robert (Leonora, WA, names changed), I went fishing with my dad at … One Arm Point an we went with some of our cousins.. and Joe and Shane and my Uncle Jack and my Aunty Laura.. wid my sisters.. my sisters came too and my two brothers.. an my step mum.. me and my big boy cousins me and Brian we were doing backflips off the.. sand-dunes … (Kimberley) (Malcolm et al. 1999a: 47);

– discomfort associated with being singled out: It can be an object of shame, or profound embarrassment, for an Aboriginal member of a group to be singled out, either for praise or blame, or to give an individual response. This is a particular problem in school contexts, where discourse is often based on individualised questioning.

(b) There is a sense of assumed common knowledge, as in the use of:

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I. G. Malcolm

– lack of explicitness yeah I was swinging on that there (Perth, Malcolm 2002a: 31), Rodney an’ Richard went down a thing … (Onslow, WA), …we went to thing, we went along and we nearly got bog (Leonora), …we been see Maureen-watha [Maureen’s kids] (Roebourne, WA), …there was me an that (Perth, Malcolm 2013), …cooked up kangaroo an all that for us (Perth, Malcolm 2002a: 109).

Two Aboriginal English speakers explained how awkward they felt about the level of explicitness expected by Australian English speakers: Tanya: When a person, like Aboriginal person, says something, they just say it, like “I’m going to the shop.” And a white person says “Well, why’re you goin’ to the shop? Oh, well what are you gonna buy? Like, if I said, “Yeah, I’m goina go shop,” then you [Bonnie] don’t have to ask me what I’m goina do… Bonnie: Well like, lunchtime, I say to you, “I’m goin shopping.” An thas it. Tanya: But all of youse [whitefellas] might wanta know more. (Malcolm et al. 1999b: 33).

(c) There is also a respect for ownership of knowledge, such that inquisitive questioning is not appreciated. Eades (2013), who has studied this matter in depth, has pointed out that in South-East Queensland, and probably beyond, it is not appropriate to seek substantial information from Aboriginal English speakers directly. Rather, a response needs to be “triggered” by offering the person what one already knows on the subject and being prepared to wait in silence to see if it is followed up. An example from Eades (2013: 40) is A: Heard there was the biggest row at the pub last night. B: Yeah, Joe got stuck into Fred and Bill. He was really drunk. Went and rang up Bert and Jim to come and help him kill Bill (laugh).

2. There are different expectations as to initiation and closure of turns (a) Greetings, as such, may not be given, but orientation questions may be used as the way of initiating communication. Eades (to whom I owe this term) has observed that, in areas of South-East Queensland and Northern New South Wales, and possibly beyond, “phrases such as Where are you going?, Where did you come from? are interactionally equivalent to ‘Hullo,’ ‘Hi,’ ‘Gidday’ etc” in Australian English. I have observed that, in Western Australia, orientation questions often function to establish territory or family connections, as in:

2 Australian Aboriginal English and Linguistic Inquiry A:

Where d’ya people come from?

B:

We come from dis side eeya.

A:

Where are ya, dis side?

B:

Dis side….Beagle Bay side (Malcolm et al 1999a:55).

A:

Um, do you know, do you know um, Shane C.?

B:

Yeah that’s my cousin…Mum’s cousin I think

A:

We’ ah yeah, thass my brother, cousin brother.

B:

Well there’s um there’s an older one as well, isn’t there?

A:

Um Donny…

29

(Rochecouste & Malcolm 2003:25).

(b) Nyungar speakers will often signal the commencement of a turn in which they have a story to tell with Ne, ne, ne… or Unna, unna… or True as God… (Cahill, 1999: 27)

(c) Aboriginal speakers often use turn termination markers to show that they have finished what they wanted to say. These may take the form, for example, of That’s all (Alice Springs, Harkins 1994: 206) That’s the end. That’s all now. (Carnarvon, Ingada Village p. 6)

3. Aboriginal speakers are sensitive to the tone or key of speech Speakers of Aboriginal English are well aware of different levels of speech which may be required for different purposes. It may be necessary to speak in a soft, low tone in addressing certain kin. It is understood that, in informal contexts, accompanied by drinking, a casual form of speech termed “talking light” may be used, in which some language mixing may occur. On the other hand, the expectation of talk with European Australians is more that it will be “strong talk” a kind of talk which requires concentration, and which may be more threatening in tone. (See further Malcolm 1982). The overall findings of sociolinguistic research into Aboriginal English show that it is not simply the English of another cultural group used by Aboriginal people. Rather, it has become a part of the way of life of Aboriginal people, reflecting their values and assumptions about how to interact.

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I. G. Malcolm

2.4 Cultural Linguistic Networks and Aboriginal English After many years of using descriptive and sociolinguistic approaches to study Aboriginal English, I became increasingly aware of the need to proceed beyond the linguistic and the social networks to the underlying cognitive networks which give them meaning. The work of Gary Palmer of the University of Nevada (1996) provided an initial direction for this. Palmer in 1996 proposed a theory of cultural linguistics which sees all language and culture as founded in mental imagery. As he summed it up, In this cultural linguistics, phonemes are heard as verbal images arranged in complex categories; words acquire meanings that are relative to image-schemas, scenes and scenarios; clauses are image-based constructions; discourse emerges as a process governed by the reflexive imagery of itself; and world view subsumes it all (Palmer 1996: 4).

In other words, behind the linguistic usages of speakers are cultural predispositions in the form of mental imagery. Working with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal colleagues over an extended time, listening to tape-recorded interactions and oral narratives and poring over transcripts, I had become increasingly aware that the language was evoking for us diverse mental imagery and, in order to really understand one another we needed to appreciate the differences in world view from which the differences in language and speech use stemmed. Palmer’s theory does not assume an essentialist view of Aboriginal culture and language, but one in which change is constantly being negotiated: Through time and incessant patter, speakers in language communities collaborate and negotiate over the imagery of evolving world views. Old or new, unwanted ideas are filtered out. New imagery and language emerge together (Palmer 1996: 6).

This, at one level, is what we can observe in the development of Aboriginal English. When Aboriginal people encountered English they were coming into contact with a linguistic variety (or a number of varieties) which had developed to facilitate the expression of a response to the world conceived in a way which was not their own. That English they initially simplified through pidginisation and re-conceptualised through relexifying or overlaying English words on, forms of expression which were already there (from the indigenous languages or creoles). In the course of time, some forms, new and old, were filtered out and others, entailed in the expression of a different and evolving world view, emerged. We can observe this in the vocabulary of Aboriginal English, its genres and its speech use conventions. To my knowledge, the world’s first, and only, Professor of Cultural Linguistics, was Farzad Sharifian of Monash University. In successive works (e.g. 2002, 2011, 2017), he enabled significant refinement of the theory of Cultural Linguistics and contributed substantially to its application to the understanding of Aboriginal English. He stressed the importance of conceptualisation, or cognitive processes, used by members of a group to enable them to exchange and negotiate experiences. Speakers constantly depend on categories which have developed within the group

2 Australian Aboriginal English and Linguistic Inquiry

31

for the representation of what are seen to be conceptually related elements of experience, and on schemas which provide “templates” (Sharifian 2011: 3) for seeing how elements of experience relate to one another. Other linguistically relevant processes include group-distinctive metaphors and conceptual blends (Sharifian 2011: 3). Sharifian (2002) employed an association-interpretation research approach (i.e. interpreting speakers’ associations) in exploring with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians what schemas were evoked by a range of verbal items which were presented to them, and he found significant group-specific differences which he attributed to their respective distinctive schemas. Sharifian gives emphasis (2011: 4, 6) to the fact that the cultural conceptualisations which characterise a group are in distributed representation across the group and are not necessarily fully shared by every member. He supports the view of Palmer (1996) that such conceptualisations are negotiated and renegotiated in the course of the life of the group. Applying Cultural Linguistic concepts to the analysis of Aboriginal English, Sharifian has drawn attention to core conceptualisations such as kinship (2011: 48; 2017: 92) and the image schema of the Dreamtime, which is conceived as a period when creative beings journeyed across the land, bringing into being its particular environmental features, and causing certain sites to be sacred. He has also explicated, as cultural schemas, emotional concepts associated with social behaviour such as shame and sorry. In addition, he has drawn attention to cultural metaphors such as the proposition schema: THE EARTH AS A HUMAN BEING.

2.4.1 Aboriginal English and Cultural Imperatives Cultural Linguistics has supported the view that as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have made English their own, they have moulded its potential in a number of ways. It is possible to approach the modifications they have made as generated by conceptual imperatives. This means seeing the lives, perceptions, the culture and the English of Aboriginal people as one. This, I believe, is in accordance with Palmer’s claim (1996: 207) that discourse can be analysed as indexical of culture. Aboriginal English and Australian English summon up different imagery for their users. They index different cultural conceptions. How do we find evidence of this? Principally, by working together in teams of speakers of Aboriginal English and Australian English, exploring what we mean, respectively, by the texts we produce, and seeking to find what cultural/conceptual imperatives drive the ways we use and interpret the language. My initial attempt to look beyond, or by way of, the language to the cultural imperatives was written up in a paper published in the International Journal of Learning in 2002 (Malcolm 2002b) where, on the basis of an analysis of over 200 oral narratives which I and my colleagues had gathered in Western Australia over some 8 years, I attempted to account for the priorities that had been shown by

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I. G. Malcolm

the Aboriginal narrators in the way in which they had used language to represent experience. Especially relevant in this exercise were the story schemas whereby the narrators made what they had to say fit into a pattern of expectation of how things are. The story schema would determine what was significant and what was peripheral, what vocabulary and grammatical features should be used, and what discourse markers should give cues as to what was important. With respect to the story schemas, the narrators consistently organised their material in one of five main preferred patterns: 1. Scary things (narratives entailing schemas about encounters with the spirit world) 2. Hunting (narratives entailing schemas involving attempts to track and kill prey, followed by cooking and eating it) 3. Observing (narratives based on observation and reporting of observations) 4. Family (narratives focused on family members and their interactions) 5. Travel (narratives structured around alternating moving and stopping activities). Each schema had associated vocabulary and images which, to the Aboriginal listener, would be sufficient to summon up the entire schema. So, for example, went along (on an even, elevated note) would identify a moving segment in the Travel schema, and the mention of red eyes or someone watching would give evidence of the Scary Things schema. What was especially noteworthy was that, to an Australian English listener, the schemas chosen might not seem appropriate, that is, for example, that a travel schema might be used to narrate an event which did not seem to be about travelling. Overall, on the basis of the modes of expression, I found four cultural imperatives emerging in all the narratives: 1. ACTION: Represent life as action, not existence. 2. OBSERVATION: Observe carefully and report observations discretely. 3. CONTEXT RELEVANCE: Verbalise only what cannot be inferred from the context. 4. HUMAN RELATEDNESS: Include the other person. In a paper published in the journal Linguistics and Education in 2011 (Malcolm 2011), I sought to understand, in terms of mental imagery, some 40 features of Aboriginal English grammar and semantics where forms have been retained which resist the influence of Australian English. It seemed to me that the departures from Australian English were always in the direction of re-integration of elements which, in Australian English, were often abstracted. A summary of these findings is in Table 2.1 (Appendix), where I have attempted to show on a range of dimensions (time, number, gender, attributes, function, activity and spirituality) how Aboriginal English is English modified to enable it to express a view of the world which favours integration rather than abstraction. I am not, of course, suggesting that every innovation which Aboriginal English brings to English can be related to this cultural imperative.

2 Australian Aboriginal English and Linguistic Inquiry

33

It was necessary, for example, to have vocabulary which would enable Aboriginal speakers to distinguish themselves from the members of the white majority. Some words probably imported initially into New South Wales Pidgin by way of Melanesian Pidgin (Simpson 1996), enabled this need to be met: whitefella, wadjela (etc.) ‘white person’ blackfella

‘Aboriginal’

The vocabulary of Aboriginal English exhibits many other features, including the retention of terms which show the ongoing relevance of the colonial past, like flog, drop, take over, behind bars and boss, the latter term now having, ironically, undergone semantic shift to mean ‘great’ or ‘excellent.’ There is also a rich store of metaphors, many of them humorous in intention, such as emu, for a person with long legs, cabbage ears for a person trying to overhear a conversation, as well as many words from Aboriginal languages, past and present, some partly anglicised. One commonly heard around Perth is the term monartj, the Nyungar word for ‘black cockatoo’ which provides a place for a uniformed police officer within an Aboriginal cultural/conceptual setting. Overall, however, the evidence for pervasive influence of cultural imperatives is, I think, strong.

2.5 Conclusion I have attempted in this survey to show that Aboriginal English is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon through which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have shown their ability and desire both to adapt linguistically to the culture which has progressively come to dominate their land and also to use the adopted language as a means of maintenance of their cultural and conceptual identity in the face of language loss. Linguistic research has contributed to our being able to reveal this, first, through descriptive linguistics, by showing the networks of linguistic features, phonological and morpho-syntactic, which enable English to bear the imprint of the languages which preceded it in this land. Second, sociolinguistic research has enabled us to see how the speech communities using Aboriginal English have made English into a truly indigenised form of communication which, in the way in which it is networked, preserves the social values formerly maintained through other languages. Third, the advent of Cultural Linguistics has enabled it to be shown that Aboriginal English, while explicitly not unlike Australian English, has implicit cultural and conceptual underpinnings which govern the way in which it represents reality and are, for the most part, only accessed by those who speak it. Aboriginal English is a remarkable accomplishment of its speakers and a demonstration to all Australians of the way in which two cultures can, in quite different ways, make one language their own.

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Appendix See Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 Pervasiveness of integration/abstraction differences between SAE and Aboriginal English Abstraction

Integration

Australian English

Aboriginal English

Strong differentiation of present from past e.g. we came back

Time

Less strong differentiation of present from past e.g. we come back [i.e. ‘we came back’]

Strong differentiation of singular from plural e.g. They got some turtles

Number

Less strong differentiation of singular from plural, e.g. Dey got some turtle

Strong differentiation of male from female e.g. …she started packing up he, she, it have different reference

Gender

Less strong differentiation of male from female e.g. This old woman he started packing up [h]e can cover he/she/it

May be considered in own right e.g. north, quick[ly], full[y] late, dark, morning wrapping, smoke Often depicted through verb of being e.g. They are too small

Attributes

More anchored to the entity e.g. north-way, quick-way, full- way late-time, dark-time, morning-time paper-wrapping, fire-smoke Depicted without verb of being e.g. They too small

Considered distinct from substance e.g. a tent, a didgeridoo

Function

Often considered together with substance e.g. a calico, a bamboo

Often depicted through verbs of being e.g. …they are doing school, shell, liar function as nouns

Activity

Perceived without reference to being e.g. …they doin schooling, shelling, liar-say derived as verbs

Considered as separate from the material e.g. law (assumed secular)

Spirituality

Often considered as inherent in the temporal e.g. law (assumed religious)

2 Australian Aboriginal English and Linguistic Inquiry

35

References Alexander, D. H. (1965) Yarrabah Aboriginal English. B.A. Honours thesis, University of Queensland, Brisbane. Berndt, R. M., & Berndt, C. H. (1964). The world of the first Australians. Sydney: Ure Smith. Butcher, A. (2008). Linguistic aspects of Australian Aboriginal English. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 22(8), 625–642. Cahill, R. (1999). Solid English. Perth: Education Department of Western Australia. Collard, G. (2011). A day in the park. Perth: Western Australian Department of Training and Workforce Development. Dixon, R. M. W. (1980). The Aboriginal Languages of Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Douglas, W. H. (1976). The Aboriginal Languages of the South-West of Australia (2nd ed.). Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Eades, D. (1993). “Aboriginal English.” Pen 93 (Primary English Teachers’ Association, N.S.W.). Eades, D. (2013). Aboriginal ways of using English. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. Elwell, V. M. R. (1977) Multilingualism and Lingua Francas among Australian Aborigines: A case study of Maningrida. B.A. Honours thesis. Australian National University, Canberra. Harkins, J. (2000). Structure and meaning in Australian Aboriginal English. Asian Englishes, 3(2), 60–81. Hymes, D. (1968). The ethnography of speaking. In J. A. Fishman (Ed.), Readings in the sociology of language (pp. 99–138). The Hague: Mouton. Kaldor, S. (1982) “The Aboriginal languages of Australia.” In R. D. Eagleson, S. Kaldor, & I. G. Malcolm (Eds.), English and the Aboriginal child (pp. 31–72). Canberra: Curriculum Development Centre. Koch, H. (2000). Central Australian Aboriginal English: In comparison with the morphosyntactic categories of Kaytetye. Asian Englishes, 3(2), 32–58. Malcolm, I. G. (1982). Speech use in Aboriginal communities: A preliminary survey. Anthropological Forum, 5(1), 54–104. Malcolm, I. G. (2002a) Aboriginal English genres in Perth. Mount Lawley: Centre for Applied Language and Literacy Research and Institute for the Service Professions, Edith Cowan University. Malcolm, I. G. (2002b). Indigenous imperatives in navigating language and culture. International Journal of Learning, 9, 25–44. Malcolm, I. G. (2011). Learning through standard English: Cognitive implications for post-pidgin/creole speakers. Linguistics and Education, 22, 261–272. Malcolm, I. G. (2013). Aboriginal English and associated varieties: Shared and unshared features. In B. Kortmann & K. Lunkenheimer (Eds.), The Mouton World Atlas of variation in English (pp. 596–619). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Malcolm, I. G. (2014). ’A Day in the Park’: Emerging genre for readers of Aboriginal English. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 34(4), 566–580. Malcolm, I. G., Haig, Y., Königsberg, P., Rochecouste, J., Collard, G., Hill, A., & Cahill, R. (1999a) Towards more user-friendly education for speakers of Aboriginal English. Mount Lawley: Centre for Applied Language and Literacy Research, Edith Cowan University and Education Department of Western Australia. Malcolm, I. G., Haig, Y., Königsberg, P., Rochecouste, J., Collard, G., Hill, A., & Cahill, R. (1999b) Two-way English. Mount Lawley: Centre for Applied Language and Literacy Research, Edith Cowan University and Education Department of Western Australia. Malcolm, I. G., & Rochecouste, J. (2000). Event and story schemas in Australian Aboriginal English discourse. English World-Wide, 21(2), 261–289. McKenry, R. (1996). Deadly, eh cuz!: Teaching speakers of Koorie English. Melbourne: Language Australia. Palmer, G. (1996). Toward a theory of cultural linguistics. Las Vegas: University of Texas.

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Penhallurick, R. (2008). Welsh English: Morphology and syntax. In B. Kortmann & C. Upton (Eds.), Varieties of English 1: The British Isles (pp. 360–372). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Readdy, C. A. (1961) South Queensland Aboriginal English. B.A. Honours thesis. Brisbane: University of Queensland. Rochecouste, J., & Malcolm, I. (2003). Aboriginal English genres in the Yamatji lands of Western Australia. Mount Lawley: Centre for Applied Language and Literacy Research, Edith Cowan University. Sharifian, F. (2002) Conceptual-associative system in Aboriginal English. PhD thesis, Edith Cowan University. Sharifian, F. (2011). Cultural conceptualisations and language: Theoretical framework and applications. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Sharifian, F. (2017). Cultural Linguistics: Cultural conceptualisations and language. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Simpson, J. (1996). Early language contact varieties in South Australia. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 16(2), 169–207. Wilson, G. J. (1996) Only Nungas talk Nunga English: A preliminary description of Aboriginal children’s English at Alberton, South Australia. M. Lett. (Linguistics) thesis, University of New England.

Chapter 3

A Corpus-Based Exploration of Aboriginal Australian Cultural Conceptualisations in John Bodey’s The Blood Berry Vine Siew Imm Tan

[…] literary representations are never just benign descriptions; they enter into and shape our national discourse. (Leane 2016)

Abstract John Bodey is an award-winning Aboriginal Australian writer. This paper reports a corpus-based study of Aboriginal Australian cultural conceptualisations as represented in his short story, The Blood Berry Vine. The story is set in the Kimberley region of Western Australia and comprises 8,787 words in running text. A comparison of The Blood Berry Vine and ACE-Lit, a 147,163-word reference corpus of general Australian English literature, found keywords and distinctive transitivity patterns associated with the expression of Aboriginal cultural categories and cultural schemas. The study contributes to our understanding of aspects of Aboriginal worldviews and demonstrates the feasibility of combining a corpus-based approach with transitivity analysis in analysing and identifying variation in cultural conceptualisations. Keywords Cultural Linguistics · Aboriginal English · Cultural conceptualisations · Corpus linguistics · Transitivity analysis

3.1 Introduction Australian Aboriginal English (AbE) is a term widely used to refer to the variety of English spoken by the vast majority of Indigenous Australians, many of whom are bicultural and of mixed descent (Eades 1991: 85). Along with Torres Strait Creole, and Kriol—the creoles spoken by Aboriginal communities in north and northwestern Australia (Harkins 2000: 61; Peters 2014: 115), AbE is one of the languages that have emerged as a result of contact between English and the languages of the Indigenous population of Australia, comprising diverse Aboriginal groups and Torres S. I. Tan (B) University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_3

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Strait Islanders. This contact has produced phonological, grammatical, lexical and pragmatic features that diverge significantly from standard Australian English (see Malcolm 2000: 215–217 for a review). Although initially stigmatised, this distinctive variety of English is today widely recognised as the ‘adopted code of a surviving culture’—one which is not merely a medium of communication but also a means of maintaining traditional discourse and culture, of expressing a shared history, and with the emergence of AbE writings, of challenging mainstream discourse (Malcolm 2000: 217–218). It is this last function of AbE that is the focus of the present paper. Since the 1970s, there has been a growing body of AbE literature—autobiography, poetry, drama and so on—that challenges ’European representations of aboriginality in the post-colonial era’ (Malcolm and Grote 2007: 167). The use of English to project Aboriginality has inevitably led to the adaptation of the language in creative ways, not all of which are positively regarded. Waanyi writer, Wright (1997), explains it in this way: We see the world differently, our experience of the world differs from the rest of the population, and our linguistic expression will differ from what is accepted as Standard English. If Aboriginal writing causes unease it is because it challenges non-Aboriginal perceptions of standard English, or white concepts, values and ways of describing events, places, people etc.

Located within the theoretical framework of Cultural Linguistics (Sharifian 2017), the study reported in this paper explored a short story, The Blood Berry Vine (BBV), for quantitative and qualitative evidence of alternative ways of looking at the world. BBV is a story of the ill-fated love between Nunjupuni, a young woman who had been promised to a powerful tribal elder, and Danaranni, a man from a neighbouring tribe. Their love earned them the wrath of the tribal elder who, together with other members of his tribe, pursued them, and in the end speared them to death. BBV is one of the four short stories that appear in John Bodey’s (2000) When Darkness Falls. Set in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, this work won its writer the 1997 David Unaipon Award for unpublished Aboriginal writers. In Bodey’s own words, these stories ’unfolded […] from within’ for ’children white, black and brindle of all ages and background’ (ibid.: preface). Its authenticity makes this work an apt one for a corpus-based study of the representation of Aboriginal cultural conceptualisations in AbE literature. Using a corpus-based approach, the study compared BBV with a corpus of general Australian English literature and identified differences in transitivity patterns in the context of particular keywords. It is proposed that these lexicogrammatical differences are functional manifestations of variation in cultural conceptualisations. This study demonstrates the potential of employing corpus linguistics and transitivity analysis in constructing a critical understanding of how Aboriginal worldviews are represented in literature.

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3.2 Background In order to better understand the findings to come, it is perhaps desirable here to briefly consider how AbE came to be, and how it has been studied.

3.2.1 The Emergence of Australian Aboriginal English It has been estimated that there was an Indigenous population of more than 300,000 people speaking between 200 and 300 distinct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages in Australia at the beginnings of European colonisation in 1788 (see, for example, Biddle 2012: 3). The contact between the first colonisers and the original inhabitants of Australia was said to be initially ’peaceful but relatively restricted’ (Schneider 2007: 119), but this soon changed with large-scale European settlement and expansion. In the 150 years that followed, many Indigenous people fell victim to waves of measles, whooping cough and influenza (Threlkeld 1837)—against which they had not yet developed immunity. Others were massacred (Evans and Thorpe 2001), or violently driven off their traditional lands, and consequently deprived of traditional foods as large swathes of native bushland were converted to agricultural and mining land. The decimation in turn led to “secondary causes of death, including despair and alcoholism” (Harris 2003: 83; see also McGlade 2012: 33–65). Historians differ in their estimates of the resulting Indigenous population decline, but even the most conservative figures indicate that by the 1920s, about 80% of the original population had died (Harris 2003: 81). Besides the dramatic Indigenous depopulation, the implementation by the Australian government of assimilation policies in the first half of the twentieth century (Australian Human Rights Commission 2009: 58) also had a catastrophic impact on Indigenous languages and their “habitat” (Leitner and Malcolm 2007: 1; see also Harris 2003: 92 on the loss of languages such as Kwaimbal, Kurnai and Yeeman). Under these policies aimed at erasing Indigenous cultures, languages and identities, whole groups were forcibly relocated to reserves and missions, and banned from speaking their own languages. Many of the so-called mixed-race children of Aboriginal descent were taken from their families to be raised in European households. By 1990, as many as two-thirds of the traditional languages of the land had either died out or become critically endangered, having ’only a handful of elderly speakers remaining’ (Schmidt 1990: 1). Of the remaining languages, only 20 were in ’a relatively healthy state […] being actively transmitted to and used by children’, while about 70 were considered threatened (ibid.). It was in this sociolinguistic landscape that AbE emerged. During the initial stage of contact, the need to communicate, negotiate and trade gave birth to jargon and pidgins (Leitner and Malcolm 2007: 6–7; Schneider 2007: 119; see also Troy 1990; Harris 2007 for the background of NSW English Pidgin). Some of these early contact varieties died out, while others converged, stabilised and creolised (see Harris 2007:

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143–146 for the emergence of Northern Territory Kriol). Elsewhere, English-based contact varieties emerged within government reserves as diverse Aboriginal language groups came into contact with one another and with English-speaking settlers for whom they worked (see Gourlay and Mushin 2015: 79–81, for the background of the Queensland Aboriginal vernacular). Contemporary AbE is viewed by most scholars as a language-shift variety, which emerged as diverse Aboriginal language groups were either prevented from speaking their own language or chose ’not to actively speak or transmit their language to younger generations’ (Schmidt 1990: 117), causing a widespread shift from their traditional languages to English (Siegel 2012: 774; Peters 2014: 118). The degree to which AbE has been influenced by pidgins and creoles is difficult to establish, although some studies have shown that they share certain lexical and grammatical features (Harkins 2000: 61; Malcolm 2013). Malcolm and Grote (2007: 153) estimate that AbE is today the main language of three-quarters of Indigenous Australians. Some of these first-language speakers of AbE are ’semi-speakers’ of their traditional languages, such as Dyirbal, Guugu Yimithirr, Umpila and Kuku Yalanji (Schmidt 1990: 119). For the rest, it is a part of their linguistic repertoire, which may also include their traditional language, a creole and standard Australian English (McConvell 1991: 153). Indigenous Australians who speak both AbE and standard Australian English switch between the two varieties depending on the domain of interaction, the interlocutors involved and the social meaning that the speaker is expressing (McConvell 2008: 241–242). That many AbE speakers are bicultural—through descent, and through participation in and with mainstream Australia—means that this variety has continued to be in intense contact with standard Australian English. AbE is however expected to continue to be relevant. As noted by Peters (2014: 120), the growing respect for and recognition of Indigenous cultures across Australia since the beginning of the twenty-first century has reduced the pressure for speakers of AbE to conform to standard Australian English. In fact, there is evidence that features of AbE are finding their way into the speech of young Euro Australians suggesting the growing influence of this variety (Harkins 2000: 76).

3.2.2 Earlier Studies of Australian Aboriginal English Consisting of ’a continuum of varieties which, at their broadest, have much in common with creoles, and which, at the other extreme, share most of their features with informal standard Australian English’ (Malcolm and Grote 2007: 153), AbE nevertheless has a wider identity (Malcolm 2013: 267) and a common sociocultural context (Eades 1991: 85–86) which justify its identification as a single variety of English. Eades (ibid.) notes that regardless of their traditional linguistic affiliation, AbE speakers tend to have similar extensive kin-based social networks characterised by familial rights and obligations, a very public social life, and an inclination to

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employ indirectness in social interaction. It is thus that the present paper adopts the viewpoint that AbE is a single variety with numerous dialects. The distinctiveness of AbE has been variously analysed and interpreted. As with other shift varieties, it demonstrates phonological, lexical, morphosyntactic, pragmatic and discourse features that reflect the influence of diverse Aboriginal substrate languages (Kaldor and Malcolm 1991: 69; Peters 2014: 118–120). These features—“phonemic slips, grammatical alterations and semantic modifications originating from [the speaker’s] linguistic background”—were initially viewed as interference features resulting from informal second-language acquisition or failure to master English properly (Vaszolyi 1976: 46). The language itself was regarded as a variety in transition resulting from ’educational deprivation’, and it was predicted that ’increasing Aboriginal access to schooling’ would produce ’a considerable improvement’ in the English spoken by Indigenous Australians. (ibid.). Successive generations of scholars have been less prescriptive and less Eurocentric in their approach, attributing the maintenance of ’a clearly-marked and distinctive form of English’ (Malcolm 1994: 12) by Indigenous Australians to its socio-cultural relevance. Though divergent from standard Australian English, AbE is, for the majority of Indigenous Australians, the first and the most ’immediately communicative’ language, a ’culture carrier and a vehicle of thought’, a language of wider communication and one used for the entire spectrum of social functions that were previously performed by a traditional language (Malcolm 1994: 12–14). Eades’ extensive body of research (e.g. 1991, 2007, 2013) demonstrates how the maintenance of pre-contact communicative strategies has produced significant pragmatic variation in AbE. The appropriation of a former colonial language for wideranging functions in contexts where pre-contact sociocultural norms are still valued has required the language to be adapted and refashioned, and it is this that has given AbE its distinctive phonological, lexical, grammatical and pragmatic structures. Besides its socio-cultural relevance, AbE also carries covert prestige. As noted by Burridge and Kortmann (2008: 26), with the loss of so many Indigenous languages, it has ’become an important means of signalling [its] speakers’ cultural and social identity’. Its use as a medium of communication among Indigenous groups that speak mutually unintelligible languages (Malcolm 2000: 212) has resulted in many of its distinctive features becoming important markers of ’solidarity’ and ’cultural maintenance’ (Vinson 2008: 1). More recently, contributions from the field of Cultural Linguistics (e.g. Malcolm and Rochecouste 2000; Malcolm and Sharifian 2002, 2005; Sharifian 2014, 2017) have added another dimension to our understanding of AbE. Using a culturalconceptual approach, these studies demonstrate how the lexical and grammatical characteristics of AbE are often reflective of its speakers’ attempts to communicate Aboriginal cultural conceptualisations (Sharifian 2006: 20). It is to these aspects of AbE that we now turn.

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3.3 Cultural Conceptualisations and Aboriginal English Sharifian’s (2006, 2011, 2015, 2017) model of cultural conceptualisations has been shown to be a powerful analytical framework for exploring and interpreting the distinctiveness of AbE, and in fact, for studying variation in world Englishes (e.g. Polzenhagen 2007; Polzenhagen and Wolf 2007; Wolf 2008; Xu and Sharifian 2017). Located within the broader field of Cultural Linguistics, this model posits that within a language, there reside conceptualisations—’various sub-configurations of human cognition’ (Sharifian 2004: 75)—that are culturally constructed by members of the speech community. These conceptualisations take shape as members of the speech community share life experiences and social interactions over many generations and across geographical areas (Sharifian 2006: 12). These ’networks of distributed representations’ are unevenly spread across the cognition of members of the cultural group (Sharifian 2011: 5). So although group conceptualisations emerge from these shared experiences and interactions—with the result that members of the group often appear to ’think as if in one mind’ (ibid.)—they do not necessarily represent the conceptualisations of any individual member of the group, and variation does in fact occur from one individual to the next according to variables such as age, gender, group affiliation, education background and so on. Conceptualisations are also dynamic, constantly being renegotiated among members of the group in response to changes in the circumstances of the group. Cultural conceptualisations manifest themselves diversely, as cultural schemas, cultural categories, cultural metaphors and so on. Cultural schemas are thematic representations of particular concepts—such as those that characterise events, roles, images, propositions and emotion (Sharifian 2017: 12–13). Through shared experiences and social interactions, certain aspects of the relevant concept emerge to become salient, while others are de-emphasised, resulting in schemas that represent the way the concept is viewed by the group. Cultural categories are the distinct entities that enter the taxonomic representation of a broader category through the cultural group’s perception that these entities have shared meanings. In a study comparing how ordinary English words are used by Aboriginal and Anglo-Australian children in Perth (Western Australia), Sharifian (2004) discovered that even general words like home, people and family evoke different schemas and categories for the two groups. For instance, it was found that the word family for the Aboriginal participants encompassed a kinship schema that was far more extensive than the Anglo-Australian interpretation of the word. Besides the extensive kinship networks, family for the Aboriginal children also instantiated ’norms of conduct, obligations and responsibilities, norms of respect and a lot more’—cultural schemas that have been maintained across ’time and space’ in spite of competition from non-Aboriginal conceptualisations (ibid.: 82). That family for these AbE speakers includes categories such as uncle, aunt and cousins; in addition to father, mother, brother and sister—categories reflecting a nuclearfamily configuration expressed by the Anglo-Australians—is further evidence of the inter-cultural variation in conceptualisations surrounding this lexical feature.

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Cultural metaphors are features of language that reflect the mapping of a cultural schema or a cultural category onto others (Sharifian 2006: 11). A frequently cited example of AbE metaphor is land is kin. While land and kin clearly denote different things, AbE speakers conceive of and talk about land as kin, often referring to country as grandfather or mother (ibid.: 18). This metaphor reflects the significance of the connection between people and the land in Aboriginal worldviews. Although often associated with lexical and semantic variation, the manifestations of Aboriginal cultural conceptualisations have also been found at the syntactic and discourse levels. Malcolm and Rochecouste (2000) isolated diverse discourse strategies and discourse markers, as well as lexical features, employed by Yamatji speakers of AbE that reflect ’survival strategies such as observation, orientation to time and space, avoidance of isolation from the group, persistence in hunting down game and caution with respect to the unknown’ (ibid.: 285). These discourse patterns were attributed to the maintenance of conceptualisations of travelling, hunting, observing and encountering the unknown among the Yamatji participants. A related study by Sharifian et al. (2004) found these cultural conceptualisations to pose significant comprehension problems for the non-Aboriginal participants of their study. When required to recall AbE narratives, these participants exhibited an incomplete understanding of the texts, which was attributed to their unfamiliarity with the underlying conceptualisations. The participants compensated by drawing on alternative conceptualisations and piecing together discrete pieces of semantic information that they had managed to retrieve from listening to the texts. The value of this model for the present study lies in its explanatory capacity where differences between AbE and standard Australian English are less apparent. Variation in cultural conceptualisations reflecting alternative ways of looking at the world has been observed even when the variety of English spoken is phonologically and grammatically very similar to general Australian English (Sharifian 2008: 334).

3.4 Methodology Cultural conceptualisations have been studied using diverse qualitative and quantitative research designs (for a review, see Malcolm and Sharifian 2005: 517). The present study utilises a corpus-based approach, combining quantitative keyword analysis with qualitative transitivity analysis of concordance lines. Halliday’s (1994) transitivity analysis has been widely used to understand how language users represent human experience (see also Halliday and Matthiessen 2004; and Butt et al. 2012). It is based on the assumption that human experience can conceivably be expressed in any number of ways, and the way a language user chooses to express it—the lexicogrammatical choices they make—are manifestations of their worldview. It is this that makes transitivity analysis a useful toolkit for studying cultural conceptualisations. This study examined the transitivity patterns of relevant concordance lines

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at the constituent and clause levels for evidence of distinctive cultural conceptualisations. The metalanguage and notation conventions used here are based on Butt et al.’s (2012: 62–106) review, a summary of which is provided below. Underlying Halliday’s transitivity analysis is the assumption that there are three categories of human experience—Processes, Participants and Circumstances—and the way that these are constructed and then packaged to express an experience or event says something about how that experience or event is perceived by the language user. Processes, realised by verbal groups, are ’expressions of happening, doing, being, saying and thinking’ (Butt et al. 2012: 67). They can be divided into seven types: Material, Behavioural, Mental, Verbal, Existential, Relational attributive and Relational identifying. Each Process type is accompanied by a specific set of possible Participant roles—typically realised by nominal groups, but which can also be realised by prepositional phrases and embedded clauses functioning as nominal groups. So, for example, where Material Processes are concerned, the possible Participant roles are Actor (the Participant who is the do-er), Goal (the Participant affected by the Process), Range (the Participant unaffected by the Process) and Beneficiary (the Participant who receives the outcome of the Process or for whom the Process is done). A reproduction of Butt et al.’s (2012: 81) summary of Process types and the corresponding Participant roles is provided in Appendix 1. In order to allow for a corpus-based comparison of BBV with general Australian English literature, the short story was first digitised, producing a mini-corpus of 8,787 words. The reference corpus was extracted from The Australian Corpus of English (ACE), which comprises materials from the 1980s, including 73 copyright-cleared samples of literature ranging from general fiction and detective stories to science fiction and romance (for details, see Green and Peters 1991). These samples yielded 147,163 words, well within the critical value for a reference corpus, which according to Berber-Sardinha (2000), should be at least five times as large as the study corpus. The two corpora were analysed using Wordsmith Tools, a suite of three programmes called WordList, KeyWords and Concord. First, WordList was used to extract a list of all the words that occurred in the two corpora. This resulted in a 1,602-item word list based on BBV and another of 15,661 items based on ACE-Lit. The two lists were then compared using KeyWords. This revealed 41 words that are key, that is words that are unusually frequent in BBV in comparison with ACE-Lit (see Table 3.1 for the complete list). Four of these words were chosen for concordance analysis on the basis of their keyness and interconnectedness—tribe, elders, tribes and laws. To ensure exhaustiveness, all instances of these words, as well as their derivatives, were extracted using the wildcard function * in Concord. So, for instance, a search of law* in ACE-Lit yielded not only law but also abortion-law, accountant/lawyer, daughter-in-law, law-abiding and law-bending. Appendix 2 shows all the concordance lines that were utilised in this study. Once the relevant concordance lines were extracted, they were analysed for patterns of transitivity. This involved, first, identifying the clause complex—or the sentence—within which an instant of a keyword occurs. Three vertical lines ||| were used to mark the end of each clause complex.

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Table 3.1 Key words of BBV compared to ACE-Lit N

Key word

1

dani

2

nunjupuni

3

would

4

they

5 6

Freq.

%

RC. Freq.

RC. %

0

Keyness

42

0.48

241.80

37

0.42

0

105

1.19

453

0.31

117.56

144

1.64

804

0.55

114.94

tribe

19

0.22

2

96.36

spear

19

0.22

6

82.48

7

man

54

0.61

180

8

danaranni

12

0.14

0

9

brothers

16

0.18

8

10

tree

19

0.22

18

0.01

60.15

11

old

48

0.55

194

0.13

57.68

12

elders

9

0.10

0

13

their

69

0.79

405

0.28

50.75

14

camp

15

0.17

13

49.14

15

dani’s

8

0.09

0

46.03

16

curlew

8

0.09

0

46.03

17

nunjupuni’s

8

0.09

0

46.03

18

vine

8

0.09

0

46.03

19

grandad

8

0.09

0

46.03

20

tribes

9

0.10

1

45.40

21

hunt

9

0.10

2

22

water

27

0.31

85

23

spears

10

0.11

4

24

nijilla

7

0.08

0

25

child

18

0.20

37

0.03

38.32

26

to

311

3.54

3,587

2.44

36.94

27

the

646

7.35

8,518

5.79

34.25

28

return

14

0.16

23

0.02

34.14

29

story

15

0.17

28

0.02

33.94

30

plain

11

0.13

12

31

night

27

0.31

110

0.07

32.13

32

blood

15

0.17

31

0.02

31.82

33

die

9

0.10

7

34

his

126

1.43

1,219

0.83

30.00

35

land

14

0.16

30

0.02

28.99

36

grandson

5

0.06

0

212.99

0.12

78.90 69.05 62.44

51.78

41.58 0.06

41.51 41.25 40.27

32.84

30.66

28.77 (continued)

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Table 3.1 (continued) N

Key word

37

making

38 39

Freq.

%

RC. Freq.

RC. % 0.01

Keyness

12

0.14

22

27.45

laws

6

0.07

2

roo

6

0.07

2

40

her

118

1.34

1,172

0.80

25.68

41

he

166

1.89

1,809

1.23

25.33

25.75 25.75

Next, the boundaries of ranked clauses, i.e. clauses that come directly under the clause complex, were defined. The end of each ranked clause was marked using two vertical lines ||. Ranked clauses can either be independent, i.e. functioning independently of other constituents within the clause complex; or dependent, i.e. dependent on other clauses to impart its full meaning. A third type of ranked clause is an interrupting clause—a dependent or independent clause that comes directly under the clause complex but interrupts the flow of other ranked clauses. These were enclosed using double angle brackets  . Finally, embedded clauses were identified. These are clauses that do not come directly under the clause complex, functioning instead at the group/phrase level. Embedded clauses, enclosed in double square brackets [[ ]], can function as a qualifier in a noun group, or a postmodifier in an adverbial group or can act as a noun group while appearing like a prepositional group. In addition, prepositional phrase qualifiers were also identified. These were enclosed in single square brackets [ ]. These notation conventions are reflected in all the sentences cited in Sect. 3.5 below. Three other conventions are used in the presentation of these sentences— (1) keywords and their derivatives are italicised; (2) the clause that is the focus of analysis within each sentence, usually a ranked clause, is represented in bold; and (3) the superscript code at the end of each cited sentence indicates the concordance line that corresponds to the sentence—hence CLT14 at the end of sentence 4 below (see p. 51) means that this sentence corresponds to the 14th concordance line of tribe* from BBV (see Fig. 3.1 in Appendix 2).

3.5 Findings Below is presented the analysis of the system of transitivity reflected in the ranked clause within which a keyword occurs. As will be demonstrated, the distinctive transitivity patterns surrounding these keywords can be associated with the expression of Aboriginal cultural conceptualisations in BBV.

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3.5.1 Conceptualisations of THE TRIBE in ACE-Lit The Macquarie Dictionary (2017) lists four definitions of the word tribe, two of which are relevant to this study—‘a group of people united by such features as descent, language or land ownership’ and ‘colloquial [humorous] a family or class of people’. With regard to the usage of this word, Macquarie cautions that ’this word has sometimes been associated with negative attitudes to traditional societies, hence [there have been] efforts to replace it with other words such as people(s) or community’. Some Australian universities discourage the use of the word tribe in referring to cultural groupings in Indigenous Australian societies, rationalising that it is a European word which ’tends to impart western preconceptions developed from colonial experiences in North America and Africa’ (Indigenous Terminology 2016). That both tribe and tribes emerged as key words in the analysis of BBV is thus interesting. Occurring only three times in the 147,163-word ACE-Lit, tribe* clearly represents a peripheral construct in general Australian English literature. The transitivity analysis of the contexts of tribe* in ACE-Lit shows that it is never represented as a Participant—as doing, saying, thinking, behaving, relating to or even existing—in a given environment. Instead, it occurs in supporting constituents. In (1) below, the embedded clause, who has been disgraced and driven from his tribe, qualifies patriarch within the non-finite dependent clause, which gives more information about the main clause by commenting on the character’s feelings. Here, tribe is used in the colloquial sense of “a family or class of people”. In (2), the prepositional phrase, from the Bundaru tribe, functions circumstantially as the locative source of old Mary—the tribe is thus constructed as being powerless to prevent a young and somewhat foolish Old George from stealing one of their own: (1)

He had become hypochondriac and diffident, || feeling like a patriarch [[who has been disgraced and driven from his tribe]]. |||CLt1

(2)

Old George must have been quite a lad in his day || because in his mispent youth he stole old Mary away from the Bundaru tribe || when they were all having some big general corroborie over near Ayers Rock years ago. |||CLt2

Besides this lack of agency, the tribe in ACE-Lit also evokes a schema associated with obscurity and primitiveness. In (3) below, the selection of the nonspecific pointer some and the noun phrase stone age to premodify tribes reflects such conceptualisations: (3)

An imminent trip with the faculty of anthropology to some stone age tribes in Papua or Borneo.CLt3

So although the meanings of tribe* in ACE-Lit match the dictionary definitions of the word, as a cultural category, it is shrouded in negative connotations. By comparison, the conceptualisations of the tribe as represented in BBV are far more faceted.

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Table 3.2 Comparative frequencies of tribe* in BBV and ACE-Lit (actual and normalised to per million words) Forms of tribe

BBV

ACE-Lit

Actual frequency

Normalised frequency

Actual frequency

Normalised frequency

19

2,162

2

14

tribes

9

1,024

1

7

tribesmen

2

228

0

0

tribespeople

1

114

0

0

tribal

3

341

0

0

Total

34

3,869

3

21

tribe

Let us then explore the cultural schemas and cultural categories that are evoked in the transitivity patterns found in the contexts of tribe*, elder* and law* in BBV.

3.5.2 Conceptualisations of THE TRIBE in BBV The cultural category of the tribe is located more centrally in the representation of the world in BBV. Quantitatively speaking, the variation between the two corpora in the frequencies of inflected, derived and compound forms of tribe is remarkable. As shown in Table 3.2, when the frequencies are normalised to per million words, there are 3,869 occurrences of tribe* in BBV, as opposed to 21 in ACE-Lit. Besides this variation in frequencies, the prominence of tribe* in BBV can also be deduced from the regularity with which it is represented in Participant roles. Of the 34 actual occurrences of tribe*, 28 are in constituents that realise Participants, and only five are in those that realise Circumstances. There is also an instant where tribe* occurs in a stray phrase which cannot be analysed (see the 13th concordance line in Fig. 3.1 of Appendix 2). Fifteen of the Participant constituents are instances where tribe* functions as the head of the group/phrase, and the remaining 13 are instances where tribe* modifies another head. Table 3.3 shows the functional constituents within which tribe* occurs, the Participant role played by each constituent, and the Process with which each is associated. As can be seen, Material Processes such as supplied, lived, had walked and hunted, were driven, should be killed and so on dominate, occurring a total of 16 times. Of these, the tribe is represented as Actor—the do-er of the Process—14 times; and as Goal—the one affected by the Process—twice. Thus, not only is the tribe central to the actions and happenings in the world of BBV, it is also constructed as possessing agency. The second most common Process type is Relational attributive, which occurs six times in the contexts of tribe*. Other Process types represented are Mental (twice), Verbal (twice), Relational identifying (once) and Existential

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Table 3.3 Tribe* in functional constituents 1. Participants realised by nominal groups and prepositional phrases headed by tribe* Constituents

Participant role

Process

of the coastal tribe [[that came from Attribute near [[where Thangoo Station is today]] ]] CLT4

Relational attributive: were

Each tribe CLT8

Actor

Material: supplied

his tribe CLT10

Actor

Material: would return

by a northern tribe

CLT12

Actor

Material: were driven

the other tribe CLT14

Actor

Material: lived

The tribe [[that belonged to this area]]

Actor

Material: lived

from the tribe [[that lives on the lower reaches [of the Big River] ]] CLT17

Attribute

Relational attributive: come

this tribe CLT22

Actor

Material: had walked and hunted

Many tribes CLT23

Actor

Material: dotted

Actor

Material: had settled

CLT16

The tribes

CLT25

The tribes CLT28

Goal

Material: were driven

about those two tribes CLT30

Attribute

Relational attributive: is

tribes [from all over the land] CLT31

Actor

Material: gathered

the tribesmen CLT32

Actor

Material: had moved

the tribesmen CLT33

Actor

Material: were back

2. Participants realised by nominal groups and prepositional phrases modified by tribe* Constituents

Participant role

Process

to the tribal elders CLT1

Receiver

Verbal: was sent

CLT2

Sayer

Verbal: decided

the Elders [from the Crab Creek tribe]

Actor

Material: walked

The people [of Danaranni’s tribe [from the Big River] ] CLT6

Actor

Material: were getting ready

a couple [one from each tribe] CLT7

Goal

the tribal elders CLT5

Material: should be killed

in screaming distance [of her tribe] CLT9 Attribute

Relational attributive: was

No one [of my tribe] CLT11

Senser

Mental: would dare

Value

Relational identifying: was

[[where the tribe got their water]]

CLT20

the people [of the tribes] CLT24

Actor

Material: had gathered

the names [of the tribes] CLT26

Phenomenon

Mental: have been forgotten

the main gathering [of the tribes] CLT27

Carrier

Relational attributive: was

one [of these tribes] CLT29

Carrier

Relational attributive: came (continued)

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Table 3.3 (continued) 1. Participants realised by nominal groups and prepositional phrases headed by tribe* Constituents

Participant role

Process

much likelihood [[of making any direct contact [with the other tribespeople] ]]

Existent

Existential: wasn’t

CLT34

3. Circumstances realised by prepositional phrases in which tribe* occurs Constituents

Type

Process

into the tribal grounds [of that tribe [[that lived on the sandy ridge [of Crab Creek [facing the sea] ] ]] ] CLT3

Location

Material: had stumbled

into the tribal grounds [of that tribe [[that lived on the sandy ridge [of Crab Creek [facing the sea] ] ]] ] CLT15

Location

Material: had stumbled

in the tribe CLT18

Location

Relational identifying: was

to his family and the tribe With this tribe CLT21

CLT19

Angle

Relational attributive: would be

Accompaniment

Material: came

(once). Clearly, the internal patterns of clauses within which tribe* occurs reflect conceptualisations that are far more dynamic in BBV compared to ACE-Lit. Differences between the two corpora are also apparent at the group/phrase level. Unlike the examples from ACE-Lit, the structure of the Participant constituents in Table 3.3 does not construct a negative connotation of the tribe. Most of the premodifiers used in these constituents are articles (a, the), demonstratives (this, those), possessives (his), pointers (each, other, many)—deictics that are, on the whole, unremarkable as they are common devices used in the English language to pinpoint the intended referent. The diverse heads that are modified using words and phrases associated with the tribe (see Sect. 3.2 of Table 3.3)—elders, people, couple, distance, names, gathering and so on—indicate social entities that are tribally defined. Again, there is nothing that associates the tribe with backwardness and isolation. Below, we will examine how the internal structure of the constituents within which tribe* occurs interacts with the overall structure of the ranked clauses to express the conceptualisations of the tribe in BBV. The relevance of the cultural categories of tribal elders and tribal laws will also be explored. As will be shown, the packaging of events and experiences surrounding these keywords evokes distinctive ways of looking at the world.

3.5.2.1

THE TRIBE

and community living

In BBV, the tribe is strongly associated with community living. As Actors of Material Processes such as lived and had settled, the tribe is often represented as

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51

a group of people who make their home together. Home is usually defined in terms of its relative location, way over that way, from where we came; or its characteristic geographical feature, over there, on that red ridge close by the creek we call Crab Creek; or food security, in areas that gave them food in large enough quantities to sustain them through the seasons. This cultural schema is reflected in the following: (4)

Way over that way, lived the other tribe. |||CLT14 Way over that way, Circumstance

(5)

lived Process: Material

The tribe [[that belonged to this area]] lived over there, || on that red ridge [close by the creek [[we call Crab Creek]] ] ]. |||CLT16 The tribe [[that belonged to this area]] Actor

(6)

the other tribe. Actor

lived Process: Material

over there, Circumstance

The tribes had settled in areas [[that gave them food in large enough quantities [[to sustain them through the seasons]] ]]. |||CLT25 The tribes

had settled

Actor

Process: Material

in areas [[that gave them food in large enough quantities [[to sustain them through the seasons]] ]]. Circumstance

Besides living together, members of the tribe also travel to distant places as a group, often to participate in ceremonies that include other tribes in the region. These journeys necessitate activities encapsulated by Material Processes such as had walked and hunted, were getting ready and would return: (7)

Man-making time had come, || and this tribe had walked and hunted its way to the gathering place. |||CLT22 this tribe Actor

(8)

had walked and hunted Process: Material (complex)

its way Range

The people [of Danaranni’s tribe [from the Big River] ] were getting ready to return home || when the Elders [from the Crab Creek tribe], walked into their camp || and demanded to speak with the Elders. |||CLT6 The people [of Danaranni’s tribe [from the Big River] ] Actor

(9)

to the gathering place. Circumstance

were getting ready Process: Material

to return home Circumstance

After the man-making ceremony, he realised || his tribe would soon return to their own land. |||CLT10 his tribe Actor

would Process:-

soon Circumstance

return -Material

to their own land. Circumstance

The representation of the tribe as Actors of intransitive Material Processes in these sentences serves to emphasise that where tasks and events involving the

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day-to-day are concerned, they are undertaken collectively by the group. The group is therefore bound by common interests that they work together to protect. That these Processes are without Goals also allows the impact of these activities to be de-emphasised. Hence, for instance, in sentence (7) above, what was hunted (the absent Goal of the Material Process of hunted) was not as important as the fact that the hunting was accomplished collectively by this tribe. In BBV, the unity of the tribe is also reflected in Processes depicting disputes. Below, members of the tribe are constructed as a common Actor, united in confronting their enemies—driving them away (10), gathering to watch them (11), moving to prevent them from going forward (12) and pursuing them (13): (10)

(11)

The tribes were then driven south by a northern tribe back to Buckley’s Plain, || where they were eventually speared. |||CLT12 The tribes

were

then

driven

south

Goal

Process:-

Circumstance

-Material

Circumstance

had gathered Process: Material

the people [of the tribes] Actor

to watch. Circumstance

Before they could make a move to return to the sea, || the tribesmen had moved || to block them [[from going there]]. |||CLT32 the tribesmen Actor

(13)

back to Buckley’s Plain, Circumstance

They could see no other, || but behind him had gathered the people [of the tribes] to watch. |||CLT24 behind him Circumstance

(12)

by a northern tribe Actor

had moved Process: Material

At night they eluded the men set to guard them || and began to make their way to the coast, || but by daylight the tribesmen were back on their tracks, || encircling them || and pushing them the way [[they wanted them to go]]. |||CLT33 by daylight Circumstance

the tribesmen Actor

were back Process: Material

on their tracks, Circumstance

Another aspect of tribal living portrayed in BBV is the maintenance of inter-tribal relationships and cooperation: (14)

Each tribe supplied two such men. |||CLT8 Each tribe Actor

supplied Process: Material

two such men. Goal

3 A Corpus-Based Exploration of Aboriginal Australian Cultural …

(16)

It was the one way to keep the Laws of the Land sacred to young and old, || and this incident could not have come at a better time or place, || with tribes [from all over the land] still gathered after the ceremonies. |||CLT31 tribes [from all over the land] Actor

3.5.2.2

53

still Circumstance

gathered Process: Material

after the ceremonies. Circumstance

A person’s identity is inextricably linked to his or her tribe, and THE TRIBE is inextricably connected to the land from which it originates

The intimate relationship between individuals, their tribe and the land is a recurring cultural schema in BBV, observable at the clause level as well as at the group/phrase level. An exploration of Relational attributive clauses in the context of tribe* reveals the tendency to define characters of the story (e.g. Nunjupuni’s people and I) in terms of their tribal membership: (17)

Nunjupuni’s people were of the coastal tribe [[that came from near [[where Thangoo Station is today]] ]]. |||CLT4 Nunjupuni’s people Carrier

(18)

were Process: Relational attributive

of the coastal tribe [[that came from near [[where Thangoo Station is today]] ]]. Attribute

I come from the tribe [[that lives on the lower reaches [of the Big River] ]]. |||CLT17 I

come

carrier

Process: Relational attributive

from the tribe [[that lives on the lower reaches [of the Big River] ]]. Attribute

the tribe that they belong to is in turn defined in terms of its land of origin (17 and 18 above, as well as 19 below): (19)

Now one of these tribes came from the great river, || and another from very near here. |||CLT29 one [of these tribes] Carrier

came Process: Relational attributive

from the great river, Attribute

This schema is reinforced at the group/phrase level. As can be seen in Sect. 3.1 of Table 3.3, where tribe* heads the Participant constituents, there is a recurring tendency to qualify it using clauses that describe the geographical origin of the

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tribe—that came from near where Thangoo Station is today, that belonged to this area, and that lives on the lower reaches of the Big River. In terms of premodification, adjectives are not commonly used, and on the two occasions when they are, these adjectives (coastal and northern) too suggest the salience of place identification to the tribe. The cultural category of tribal grounds also alludes to the importance of the link between the tribe and its homeland (see Sect. 3.3 of Table 3.3).

3.5.2.3

TRIBAL ELDERS are influential members of THE TRIBE who play leadership roles within the community

Another cultural schema associated with the tribe is its social structure, reflected in the transitivity patterns found in the contexts of tribe* and elder* in BBV. The Macquarie Dictionary (2017) defines the noun elder as ‘a senior person of status in an Aboriginal community, especially one who holds knowledge of traditional language and culture’ as well as ‘an older person of high standing and influence in a community, clan, tribe, etc., often a chief or ruler’. Neither of these senses of the word occurs in ACE-Lit. In BBV, elder* occurs 11 times, and the plural form elders ranks 12th in keyness (see Table 3.1). Elders* is also one of the most frequently evoked cultural categories in the context of tribe*—of the 13 Participants realised by nominal groups and prepositional phrases modified by tribe*, three are headed by the noun elders (see Sect. 3.2 of Table 3.3). Represented as senior members of the community in BBV, tribal elders are very influential, especially in matters related to tribal laws—they arbitrate in disputes (20), transgressions by other members of the tribe are reported to them for further action (21), and they lead their tribe in confrontations with others (22): (20)

“So it shall be,” || the tribal Elders decided. |||CLT2 “So it shall be,” Projected clause

(21)

decided. Process: Verbal

A message was sent to the tribal elders [of Nunjupuni’s transgression]. |||CLT1 A message Verbiage

(22)

the tribal Elders Sayer

was sent Process: Verbal

to the tribal elders Receiver

[of Nunjupuni’s transgression]. PP qualifier of Verbiage

The people [of Danaranni’s tribe [from the Big River] ] were getting ready to return home || when the Elders [from the Crab Creek tribe], walked into their camp || and demanded to speak with the Elders. |||CLT5 the Elders [from the Crab Creek tribe], Actor

walked Process: Material

into their camp Circumstance

An analysis of the concordance lines of elder* revealed other dimensions of their influence. In the sentences below, tribal elders are represented as a group of

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powerful individuals engaging in wide-ranging Material Processes with Goal, and therefore with high impact—imposing a punishment for a violation of tribal laws (23), commanding another member of the tribe (24), and even arranging a marriage (25): (23)

The younger brother had seen the glint in the old man’s eye || as the Elders had granted him his right [[to wound]], || and had noted his smirk of satisfaction || when they warned the boy that the wounds inflicted could cause his death. |||CLE6 the Elders Actor

(24)

him Recipient

his right [[to wound]], Goal

One of the Elders sent the fastest runner in their midst || to go back to the camp and get others. |||CLE8 One of the Elders Actor

(25)

had granted Process: Material

sent Process: Material

the fastest runner in their midst Goal

There was nothing they could do about it; || the marriage had been arranged by their father and the Elders. |||CLE10 the marriage Goal

had been arranged Process: Material

by their father and the Elders. Actor

Their status within the tribe is also clearly signalled where elder* occurs in embedded clauses functioning as qualifiers, as can be seen below: (26)

And you should know || that I am a woman [[promised to an elder]] ||; our union will take place with the coming of the rains. |||CLE1

(27)

He stood before the Elders || to take whatever punishment [[they thought fit to give him]]. |||CLE11

The authority of tribal elders is thus wide-ranging, often extending into the family domain and includes matters that many Euro Australians would regard as personal.

3.5.2.4

TRIBAL LAWS

are sacred

Closely associated with tribal living is the cultural category of tribal laws. According to Bourke and Cox (1994), the sacredness of Aboriginal laws lies in the belief that they were established by ancestral spirits who emerged from the land during The Dreaming. This cultural schema is evoked in BBV through the recurrent cluster, laws of the land (see Fig. 3.4 in Appendix 2). This does not, by any means, suggest that this expression is restricted to AbE. The law of the land is in fact Latin in origin and is widely used to refer to diverse systems of laws, constitutions, legislation, and so on. In ACE-Lit, this phrase does not occur but the concordance lines of law* include references to this sense of the word and its associated conceptualisations

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(see Fig. 3.5 in Appendix 2). Thus, the law can be reformed (line 1), studied (lines 4 and 12), laid down (line 9), bent (line 11), and so on. Such conceptualisations do not occur in BBV. Besides association with the land, the cultural category of tribal laws is also represented as the code of life that governs the tribe. This is reflected below in the personification of tribal laws—the cultural category is assigned Mental and Behavioural Processes more typically associated with human Participants: (28)

The Law requires two wounds, [one from each party]. |||CLL1 The Law Senser

(29)

requires Process: Mental

two wounds [one from each party]. Phenomenon

The law stood. |||CLL2 The Law Behaver

stood Process: Behavioural

The cultural category of tribal laws is steeped in spirituality—adherence to these traditional laws is crucial for the well being of the tribe: (30)

Let this be a lesson to one and all || that we must abide by the Laws [of the Land] in all issues || if we are to live in peace, harmony and safety with one another. |||CLL4 we Actor

(31)

must abide by Process: Material

the Laws [of the Land] Goal

in all issues Circumstance

It was the one way [[to keep the Laws of the Land sacred to young and old]], || and this incident could not have come at a better time or place, || with tribes from all over the land still gathered after the ceremonies. |||CLL6 It

was

Token

Process: Relational identifying

the one way [[to keep the Laws of the Land sacred to young and old]], Value

3.6 Discussion and Conclusion This paper has demonstrated the value of adopting a corpus-based approach in studying variation in cultural conceptualisations. Quantitative keyword analysis drew the cultural categories of the tribe, tribal elders and tribal laws from the short story, while qualitative transitivity analysis of concordance lines at the constituent and clause levels allowed distinctive cultural schemas to emerge from the language. The data revealed that, in general, Australian English literature, the tribe tends to be located in the periphery of the events and experiences depicted, often triggering schemas associated with primitiveness and isolation. By comparison, in BBV, this cultural category is often constructed as Participants that are directly

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involved in the happenings of the world, evoking schemas that emphasise community living, mutual responsibility and the connection the people have with the land. The cultural categories of tribal elders and tribal laws are salient aspects of the conceptualisations of the tribe as represented in BBV. The Processes assigned to tribal elders emphasise the roles and responsibilities of senior members of the group, while those assigned to tribal laws focus on the group’s commitment to traditional rules and values that guide their conduct. Similar cultural schemas have been identified in earlier studies of Aboriginal conceptualisations of kinship, the land and the law (see Sharifian 2017 for a review). These findings must however be interpreted in context. In many parts of the English-speaking world today, the word tribe is a contentious one. Besides the cautionary statements that often preface the word in dictionaries and style guides, the frequency of use of tribe in mainstream discourse has fallen. For instance, a search for tribe in Google Books Ngram Viewer (between 1800 and 2000) revealed that the word peaked in usage between 1840 and 1860, but has fallen in frequency since then. In spite of the conceptualisations evoked in BBV, Indigenous Australians are certainly not unanimous in their acceptance of this word. Many find this and other categorising labels such as horde and mob offensive, while others use these terms freely. Tertiary institutions in Australia are keen to promote the use of ’appropriate terminology’ for Indigenous Australian studies, but consensus on what is appropriate has been difficult to achieve. This lack of consensus, even among AbE speakers, is unsurprising given what we know about the heterogeneous distribution of cultural conceptualisations, and the trend towards linguistic reclamation. In fact, future research should investigate how these conceptualisations and their representations have evolved since the 1980s, when BBV was written. Whether the changes, if any, can be attributed to changing life experiences and patterns of social interaction is also worthy of further investigation.

Appendix 1: Butt et al.’s (2012: 81) Summary of Process Types and Participant Roles

Process type

Domain

Restriction

Participants

Material Function: to construe the material world of doing

outside activities: doing something

none anyone/anything can do

Actor = do-er Goal = affected Range = not affected Beneficiary = to/for

Behavioural Function: to construe conscious behaviour

physiological and psychological behaviour: the doing version of Mental or Verbal Processes

needs consciousness

Behaver = do-er Behaviour/Range = done

(continued)

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(continued) Process type

Domain

Restriction

Participants

Mental Function: to construe and may project the inner world of consciousness

inside activities: thinking, knowing, liking, wanting, perceiving

needs consciousness human characteristics

Senser = do-er Phenomenon = thing known, liked/disliked, wanted, perceived

Verbal Function: to construe saying

bringing the inside outside: saying something

none anyone/anything can say NB: inanimate saying is close to identifying

Sayer = do-er Verbiage = said Receiver = said to Target = said about

Existential Function: to construe existence

introduce existence of new Participants

none

Existent

Relational attributive Function: to construe relationships of description

to characterise or none assign membership to a class

Carrier = thing described Attribute = description

Relational identifying Function: to construe relationships of identification and equation

to decode known none meanings and encode new meanings

Identified = that which is to be identified Identifier = the new identity Token = form Value = function or role

Appendix 2: Concordance Lines See (Figs. 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5).

3 A Corpus-Based Exploration of Aboriginal Australian Cultural … N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34

Concordance by other eyes. A message was sent to the demand payback.” “So it shall be,” the to Danaranni, he had stumbled into the Nunjupuni’s people were of the coastal when the Elders from the Crab Creek night together. The people of Danaranni’s a couple should be killed, one from each but the families of the boys as well. Each that she was in screaming distance of her the man-making ceremony, he realised his coolness of the night air. No one of my were then driven south by a northern to go as fast as he could. Nunjupuni’s way, from where we come, lived the other stumbled into the tribal grounds of that was young, like the man in the story. The my friends call me Dani]. I come from the the better hunter, the fastest runner in the would be a handicap to his family and the drying slowly, and this was where the where the fishing was good. With this Man-making time had come, and this sustain them through the seasons. Many behind him had gathered the people of the a people, known only to ourselves. The only the story remains; the names of the Plains, and the main gathering of the along the coast to Cape Boileau. The that provided for peace. Now one of these near here. This story is about those two have come at a better time or place, with make a move to return to the sea, the their way to the coast, but by daylight the making any direct contact with the other

tribal tribal tribal tribe tribe, tribe tribe, tribe tribe, tribe tribe tribe tribe. tribe. tribe tribe tribe tribe. tribe. tribe tribe tribe tribes tribes tribes tribes tribes tribes tribes tribes. tribes tribesmen tribesmen tribespeople.

Fig. 3.1 Concordance lines of tribe* from BBV N 1 2 3

Concordance has been disgraced and driven from his he stole old Mary away from the Bundaru faculty of anthropology to some stone age

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elders of Nunjupuni’s transgression. Her Elders decided. “I am ready,” Dani told grounds of that tribe that lived on the that came from near where Thangoo including Nunjupuni’s intended husband, from the Big River were getting ready to then there would be some action. He supplied two such men. As the days grew but she also knew it was unlikely anyone would soon return to their own land. would dare to touch me ... you do not back to Buckley’s Plain, where they were Nunjupuni and Dani ran before the line of They too lived close to the salt water, that lived on the sandy ridge of Crab that belonged to this area lived over there, that lives on the lower reaches of the Big Bundjadjill would return to the camp with They would soon tire of looking after a got their water. They lived an easy life. came Danaranni, a young man already had walked and hunted its way to the dotted the land, and each took its turn to to watch. There was nowhere left to run. had settled in areas that gave them food in have been forgotten. “You know the was on the creek known today as Deep were then driven south by a northern tribe came from the great river, and another It happened so long ago that only the from all over the land still gathered after had moved to block them from going were back on their tracks, encircling them Except for a girl who could not sleep that

(CLT)

tribe. tribe tribes

But today he would return from the desert when they were all having some big in Papua or Borneo. But the university

Fig. 3.2 Concordance lines of tribe* from ACE-Lit (CLt) N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Concordance should know that I am a woman promised to an see the sunset.” “You threaten me? Me? Your demand payback.” “So it shall be,” the tribal into their camp and demanded to speak with the were getting ready to return home when the had seen the glint in the old man’s eye as the by other eyes. A message was sent to the tribal Now the hunt was on in earnest. One of the given Dani. It was something that one day the had been arranged by their father and the by coming forward. He stood before the

elder; Elder, Elders Elders. Elders Elders elders Elders Elders Elders. Elders

our union will take place with the coming of the soon to be your older brother?” “I warn you,” decided. “I am ready,” Dani told them. “Then Everyone gathered around to listen; after much from the Crab Creek tribe, including had granted him his right to wound, and had of Nunjupuni’s transgression. Her husband-tosent the fastest runner in their midst to go back should get off their arses and do something The law stood. As much as Nunjupuni loved to take whatever punishment they thought fit to

Fig. 3.3 Concordance lines of elder* (noun only) from BBV (CLE)

60 N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

S. I. Tan Concordance payback stand here to take punishment. The been arranged by their father and the Elders. The they believed him to be, he should abide by the lesson to one and all that we must abide by the “I am ready,” Dani told them. “Then by the those onlookers. It was the one way to keep the the skills of the hunter, the ways of men and the In this way, they kept in contact, and made

Law law Laws. Laws Laws Laws laws laws

requires two wounds, one from each party. Let stood. As much as Nunjupuni loved her little He had jeopardised her marriage; it was only the of the Land in all issues if we are to live in of the Land, since you have offended both the of the Land sacred to young and old, and this of the land. His job was to hunt for food to that provided for peace. Now one of these tribes

Fig. 3.4 Concordance lines of law* from BBV (CLL) N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Concordance Communist fellow-traveler, Zionist, whom she considered to be the best perfect and hadn’t given her town-bred old chundering sessions, sports cars and with minimal necessity is the basic I don’t see how that detracts from the of Karma anymore that it detracts from the Americans quickly developed their own his leave at Christmas and I’ve laid the a quiet, dignified, often diffident, always Nothing real bad of course. Not so much Wales, has just finished his second year of against the war to be flagrant at $40,000 a year, thanks to the tax RAPE’ is noticeably lacking from the his taxation accountant and his lesbian Canberra?’ `Busy.’ `And your new probate on. He failed. Louise, I knew, was his `Hey, hey, hey, relax, Clare! This is

abortion-law accountant/lawyer daughter-in-law law law law law Law law law-abiding law-bending Law. lawlessness laws laws. lawyer. lawyers?’ sister-in-law. son-in-law

reformer, feminist radical, member of in the country. He knew that he was telling credit for having the guts and fortitude studies. Then quietly, with the air of an of life here, the real necessity behind the of Karma anymore that it detracts from the of averages. I don’t see how the Enforcement Neurons to quell the effects down, if I’m away, he must be on duty citizen. But the seventeenth and eighteenth as bouncing. Steal a dozen tooth-picks I know because over two weeks’ meals I on our streets. The south-east Asian wars of California), Bennie Kidron: `THOU SHALT RESPECT THY WIFE we cannot refrain from life just because we `I’m impressed. They’re very efficient. I’ll Our wives bustled out with more coffee, Martin, remember? I’m on your side.

Fig. 3.5 Concordance lines of law* from ACE-Lit (CLl)

References Australian Human Rights Commission. (2009). 2009 Social Justice Report: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. Retrieved Jan 3, 2018, from https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/social_justice/sj_report/sjrepo rt09/pdf/sjr_2009_web.pdf. Berber-Sardinha, T. (2000). Comparing corpora with WordSmith Tools: How large must the reference corpus be? In Proceedings of the Workshop on Comparing Corpora (pp. 7–13). Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania: Association for Computational Linguistics. Biddle, N. (2012). Indigenous Population Project: 2011 Census Papers. Australian Capital Territory: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University. Bodey, J. (2000). When Darkness Falls. St. Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. Bourke, C., & Cox, H. (1994). Two laws: One land. In C. Bourke, E. Bourke, & B. Edwards (Eds.), Aboriginal Australia: An Introductory Reader in Aboriginal Studies (pp. 49–64). St. Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. Burridge, K., & Kortmann, B. (2008). Introduction: Varieties of English in the Pacific and Australasia. In K. Burridge & B. Kortmann (Eds.), Varieties of English 3: The Pacific and Australasia (pp. 23–36). Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Butt, D., Fahey, R., Feez, S., & Spinks, S. (2012). Using Functional Grammar: An Explorer’s Guide (3rd ed.). South Yarra, Victoria: Palgrave Macmillan.

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Eades, D. (1991). Communicative strategies in Aboriginal English. In S. Romaine (Ed.), Language in Australia (pp. 84–93). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Eades, D. (2007). Aboriginal English in the criminal justice system. In G. Leitner & I. G. Malcolm (Eds.), The Habitat of Australia’s Aboriginal Languages: Past, Present, and Future (pp. 299–326). Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Eades, D. (2013). Aboriginal Ways of Using English. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. ‘elder’. In Macquarie Dictionary (2017). Retrieved Dec 15, 2017, from https://www.macquariedic tionary.com.au/features/word/search/?word=elder&search_word_type=Dictionary. Evans, R., & Thorpe, B. (2001). Indigenocide and the massacre of Aboriginal history. Overland, 163, 21. Google Books Ngram Viewer. Retrieved Jan 4, 2018, from https://books.google.com/ngrams. Gourlay, C., & Mushin, I. (2015). ‘Up Dere la’: Final particle la in a Queensland Aboriginal vernacular. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 35(1), 76–101. Green, E., & Peters, P. (1991). The Australian corpus project and Australian English. ICAME Journal, 15, 37–53. Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd ed.). London: Edward Arnold. Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (3rd ed.). London: Arnold. Harkins, J. (2000). Structure and meaning in Australian Aboriginal English. Asian Englishes, 3(2), 60–81. Harris, J. (2003). Hiding the bodies: The myth of the humane colonisation of Aboriginal Australia. Aboriginal History, 27, 79–104. Harris, J. (2007). Linguistic responses to contact: Pidgins and creoles. In G. Leitner & I. G. Malcolm (Eds.), The Habitat of Australia’s Aboriginal Languages: Past, Present and Future (pp. 131–151). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Indigenous terminology. (Last updated: 12 January 2016). University of New South Wales. Retrieved Dec 13, 2017 from https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/indigenous-terminology. Kaldor, S., & Malcolm, I. G. (1991). Aboriginal English: An overview. In S. Romaine (Ed.), Language in Australia (pp. 67–83). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Leane, J. (2016). Other peoples’ stories: When is writing cultural appropriation? Overland, 225(Summer), 41–45. Leitner, G., & Malcolm, I. G. (2007). Introduction. In G. Leitner & I. G. Malcolm (Eds.), The Habitat of Australia’s Aboriginal Languages: Past, Present and Future (pp. 1–22). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Malcolm, I. G. (1994). Issues in the maintenance of Aboriginal languages and Aboriginal English. Paper presented at the 10th National Languages Conference of the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers’ Association, Perth, Australia. Malcolm, I. G. (2000). Aboriginal English: Adopted code of a surviving culture. In D. Blair & P. Collins (Eds.), English in Australia (pp. 201–222). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Malcolm, I. G. (2013). Aboriginal English: Some grammatical features and their implications. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 36(3), 267–284. Malcolm, I. G., & Grote, E. (2007). Aboriginal English: Restructured variety for cultural maintenance. In G. Leitner & I. G. Malcolm (Eds.), The Habitat of Australia’s Aboriginal Languages: Past, Present and Future (pp. 153–179). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Malcolm, I. G., & Sharifian, F. (2002). Aspects of Aboriginal English oral discourse: An application of cultural schema theory. Discourse Studies, 4(2), 169–181. Malcolm, I. G., & Sharifian, F. (2005). Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue: Australian Aboriginal students’ schematic repertoire. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 26(6), 512–532. Malcolm, I. G., & Rochecouste, J. (2000). Event and story schemas in Australian Aboriginal English discourse. English World-Wide, 21(2), 261–289.

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McConvell, P. (1991). Understanding language shift: A step towards language maintenance. In S. Romaine (Ed.), Language in Australia (pp. 143–155). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McConvell, P. (2008). Language mixing and language shift in indigenous Australia. In J. Simpson & G. Wigglesworth (Eds.), Children’s Language and Multilingualism: Indigenous Language Use at Home and School (pp. 237–260). New York: Continuum. McGlade, H. (2012). Our Greatest Challenge: Aboriginal Children and Human Rights. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Aboriginal Studies Press. Peters, P. (2014). Differentiation in Australian English. In S. Buschfeld, T. Hoffmann, M. Huber, & A. Kautzsch (Eds.), The Evolution of Englishes: The Dynamic Model and Beyond (pp. 107–125). John Benjamins: Amsterdam and Philadelphia. Polzenhagen, F. (2007). Cultural Conceptualisations in West African English: A CognitiveLinguistic Approach. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Polzenhagen, F., & Wolf, H.-G. (2007). Culture-specific conceptualisations of corruption in African English. In F. Sharifian & G. B. Palmer (Eds.), Applied Cultural Linguistics: Implications for Second Language Learning and Intercultural Communication (pp. 125–168). John Benjamins: Amsterdam and Philadelphia. Schmidt, A. (1990). The Loss of Australia’s Aboriginal Language Heritage. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Aboriginal Studies Press. Schneider, E. (2007). Postcolonial English: Varieties Around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sharifian, F. (2004). Cultural conceptualisations in English words: A study of Aboriginal children in Perth. Language and Education, 19(1), 74–88. Sharifian, F. (2006). A cultural-conceptual approach and world Englishes: The case of Aboriginal English. World Englishes, 25(1), 11–22. Sharifian, F. (2008). Cultural models of home in Aboriginal children’s English. In G. Kristiansen & R. Dirven (Eds.), Cognitive Sociolinguistics: Language Variation, Cultural Models, Social Systems (pp. 333–352). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Sharifian, F. (2011). Cultural Conceptualisations and Language: Theoretical Framework and Applications. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Sharifian, F. (2014). Conceptual metaphor in intercultural communication between speakers of Aboriginal English and Australian English. In A. Musolff, F. MacArthur, & G. Pagani (Eds.), Metaphor and Intercultural Communication (pp. 117–129). London: Bloomsbury Academic. Sharifian, F. (2015). Cultural Linguistics and world Englishes. World Englishes, 34(4), 515–532. Sharifian, F. (2017). Cultural Linguistics. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Sharifian, F., Rochecouste, J., & Malcolm, I. G. (2004). ‘But it was all a bit confusing…’: Comprehending Aboriginal English texts. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 17(3), 203–228. Siegel, J. (2012). Regional profile: Australia Pacific region. In B. Kortmann & K. Lunkenheimer (Eds.), The Mouton World Atlas of Variation in English (pp. 764–782). Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. Threlkeld, L. E. (1837). Report of the mission to the aborigines at Lake Macquarie, New South Wales. Original Documents on Aborigines and Law, 1797–1840. Sydney: Macquarie Law School. Retrieved Jan 3, 2018, from http://www.law.mq.edu.au/research/colonial_case_law/nsw/other_ features/correspondence/documents/document_103a/. ‘tribe’. In Macquarie Dictionary (2017). Retrieved Dec 15, 2017, from https://www.macquariedic tionary.com.au/features/word/search/?word=tribe&search_word_type=Dictionary. Troy, J. (1990). Australian Aboriginal Contact with the English Language in New South Wales 1788–1845. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. Vaszolyi, E. G. (1976). Aboriginal Australians speak: An introduction to Australian Aboriginal linguistics. Mount Lawley: Aboriginal Teacher Education Program, Mount Lawley College of Advanced Education. Edith Cowan University Research Online. Retrieved July 7, 2017, from http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks/6737/. Vinson, T. (2008). Some lexical variations of Australian Aboriginal English. Griffith Working Papers in Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication, 1(1), 1–6.

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Wolf, H.-G. (2008). A cognitive linguistic approach to the cultures of world Englishes: The emergence of a new model. In G. Kristiansen & R. Dirven (Eds.), Cognitive Sociolinguistics: Language Variation, Cultural Models, Social Systems (pp. 353–385). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Wright, A. (1997). Language and empire: The empires of the east have crumbled into dust, but the English language remains. Paper presented at the Brisbane Writers’ Festival, Brisbane, Australia. Xu, Z., & Sharifian, F. (2017). Unpacking cultural conceptualizations in Chinese English. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 27(1), 65–84.

Chapter 4

Re-schematisation of Chinese Xiao (Filial Piety) Across Cultures and Generations Zhichang Xu and Nina Fang

Abstract The notion of xiao (filial piety) in Chinese has a long history, and its original meanings include ‘respecting ancestors’ and ‘worshiping gods’. Its denotative meanings have been broadened since Xizhou Dynasty, approximately 1046-771 BC, to include taking care of and being obedient to parents. Hence xiao (filial piety) in Chinese has been inherited, schematised and re-schematised throughout generations until now. In this chapter, we explore the Chinese culturally constructed concept of xiao through the lenses of Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes. In particular, we trace how cultural conceptualisations of Chinese xiao and its closest Chinese English translation ‘filial piety’ travel across cultural boundaries from ancient China to Chinese diasporas overseas and across generations. We collect data from classical Chinese texts on xiao, contemporary fiction works by second-generation migrant writers with Chinese heritage, and Internet chatrooms and forums with themes surrounding Chinese xiao (filial piety) to deconstruct how the concept has been schematised and re-schematised across time and space. Keywords Xiao (filial piety) · Cultural conceptualisations · Cultural schemas · Re-schematisation · Cultural Linguistics · World Englishes

4.1 Introduction The unprecedented globalisation has enabled people all over the world to communicate with one another in almost all dimensions, including conventional means of communication and mediated communication through interpreting/translation and various social media. As a result, culturally constructed concepts (CCCs) are constantly communicated, (re-)negotiated and (re-)schematised through intercultural communication. One of the CCCs that permeates the Chinese society throughout the Z. Xu (B) · N. Fang Monash University, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: [email protected] N. Fang e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_4

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history and across the Chinese diasporas is the notion of 孝 (xiào), or commonly translated into English as ‘filial piety’. The Chinese notion of xiao can be traced back to one of the classical Chinese texts entitled Xiào Jing, translated as the Classic of Filial Piety, which is a text of unknown authorship dated around the fourth century BC. The text consists of conversations regarding xiao between Confucius (551-479BC) and one of his disciplines, named Zengzi (505-435BC). The text comprises 18 short chapters documenting what Confucius said about the notion of xiao. Since then, the notion of xiao has been highly regarded by Chinese, and it has been considered to be one of the top virtues among many others, for example, 仁 (ren, benevolence), 义 (yi, righteousness), 礼 (li, propriety), 智 (zhi, wisdom), 信 (xin, faith) and 忠 (zhong, loyalty). From an etymological and morphological perspective, the Chinese character xiao (孝) contains two major radicals, with selvam耂 indicating ‘old’, and 子 meaning ‘son’. The morpho-semantic denotation of the character means that xiao (孝) is originally about sons supporting their aging parents. The most common collocations of xiao (孝) include xiaoshun (孝顺, literally meaning filial and obedient), xiaoxin (孝心, a filial heart), xiaodao (孝道, filial way), xiaojing (孝敬, filial and respectful), xiaozi xiansun (孝子贤孙, filial son and good grandson), zhongxiao (忠孝, loyal and filial), daixiao (戴孝, wearing mourning garment), buxiao (不孝, unfilial), yuxiao (愚孝, unquestioning filial piety), jinxiao (尽孝, to do one’s filial duty), shouxiao (守孝, to observe mourning for one’s parents) and diaoxiao (吊孝, a condolence visit). In this chapter, we explore the Chinese notion of xiao and its closest Chinese English translation ‘filial piety’ through the lenses of Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, in terms of their heterogeneously distributed cultural schemas and the process of re-schematisation of the notion from ancient China to Chinese diasporas and across generations. After reviewing relevant literature on Chinese xiao and its translation of ‘filial piety’, we describe and analyse data, which consist of excerpts taken from classical Chinese texts, contemporary fiction works by second-generation migrant writers with a Chinese heritage, and Internet chatrooms or forums with themes surrounding the notion to deconstruct how the Chinese notion of xiao has been schematised and re-schematised across time and space. The research questions for this chapter include the following: (1) To what extent is the Chinese notion of xiao different from or similar to ‘filial piety’? (2) What are the relevant meanings and schemas of Chinese xiao? (3) To what extent is Chinese xiao re-schematised across time and space? Relevant research so far has been largely treating the notion of xiao as an equivalent expression of ‘filial piety’ in Chinese English, and it has predominantly been in the domains of social welfare, clinical and applied gerontology, psychology, nursing, social work, intergenerational communication and sociology. There remains a gap in the research of this notion in linguistic and cultural studies. For this chapter, we adopt Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes as an overarching framework, in particular the analytical tools of ‘cultural conceptualisations’ including cultural conceptual

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schemas (Sharifian, 2011, 2017a, b; Xu, 2014; Xu & Dinh, 2013; Xu & Sharifian, 2017) to deconstruct the notion of xiao in terms of its re-schematisation process across time and space from ancient China to contemporary Chinese diasporas, and from socio-cultural realities to fictional and virtual worlds across generations. The significance of the chapter is that it contributes to people’s understanding of the Chinese culturally constructed concept of xiao and its associated Chinese English translation of ‘filial piety’. It also contributes to Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes research literature, particularly to the nexus between the two growing disciplines for unpacking culturally constructed concepts for intercultural communication.

4.2 Literature Review The review of the literature consists of three major parts, including a selective translation of the Confucian classical text of Xiao Jing, i.e. the Classic of Filial Piety; a review of relevant research on ‘filial piety’; and an introduction to cultural schemas and the process of re-schematisation in relation to Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes. Xiào Jing (also spelt as Hsiao Ching) is a ’comparatively small work, of not more than two thousand characters, dealing with the virtue of Hsiao ‘filial piety’ in its predictable contexts, i.e. with respect to one’s behavior towards parents and other seniors, and also in connection with the comparable attitude of fealty and duty one is traditionally called upon to show towards one’s lord (君)’ (Boltz, 1993, p. 141). Xiao Jing begins with ’Confucius giving a short lecture on the fundamental nature of Hsiao to his disciple Tseng tzu (曾子) who appears waiting in attendance on his master. It continues in a didactic, sometimes aphoristic, vein with comments on filial piety and allied virtues as they ostensibly characterised a ‘golden age’ of past kings, and as they ought, according to Confucius, to be practised in the socially and politically disrupted age of his own time’ (Boltz, 1993, p. 141). Although the text is of an unknown authorship, ’it was early on assumed that Confucius or perhaps Tseng tzu was the author’ because the text ’appears in large part to be a record of questions and answers between Confucius and Tseng tzu’. ’Tseng tzu’s questions and Confucius’ answers here never stray far from the subject of filial piety’. The conventional interpretation is that “Confucius composed the Hsiao Ching orally, and recited it to Tseng tzu who in turn write it down” (Boltz, 1993, pp. 141–142). The 18 short chapters in Xiao Jing illustrate different meanings and implications of ‘filial piety’ in ancient Chinese societies. According to Xiao Jing, the notion of xiao is considered to be moral norms prescribed by the Heaven, and the fundamental virtue among all the human virtues. A close examination of the entire Chinese classical text of Xiao Jing as well as its paraphrased version in modern Chinese reveals the intricate and layered meanings of xiao (filial piety). The following is a list of selective translations of the 18 short chapters of Xiao Jing.

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(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

(11) (12) (13)

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Xiao is the origin of all moral behaviours and it’s the root of civilisation; the notion of xiao begins with the love of one’s body without doing any harm or damage to it, as the body is given by one’s parents. Xiao ends with one’s establishment and achievement in serving the Lord, hence the kingdom, and gaining a great reputation to make one’s parents proud; For the Son of Heaven, xiao means that he should serve his parents as much as educate his people so that people worship and depend on him, and abide by laws of the kingdom; For the governors/ministers, xiao means that they should humble themselves to maintain the prosperity and nobleness, as well as the security of the kingdom, and to ensure a harmonious relationship with their people; For the senior officials, xiao means appropriateness in morality, speech and behaviour in the form of abiding by the laws, and diligence in serving the Son of Heaven, and sustaining the prosperity inherited from their ancestors; For the officials and educated people, xiao means serving the Lord in the same way as serving their parents, and remaining loyal to the Lord by sustaining their positions and incomes, without disgracing their parents; For common people, xiao means following the seasons of nature and harvesting yields from the land to feed and support their parents, and leading a simple and thrifty life of their own; Xiao represents the laws of the Heaven and the nature on the Earth, and it’s the fundamental virtue of human behaviour. It is closely related to universal love, morality and righteousness, respectfulness and humbleness, as well as courtesy and harmony; Xiao enables people to distinguish good from evil, so that they abide by laws and do not commit crimes; Xiao can be adopted, as it has been by past kings, to manage and rule their kingdoms to achieve harmony without inflicting from natural disasters and human chaos; For saints, nothing can be more significant than xiao. It follows the law of nature to love one’s parents. Saints follow the law of nature so they are respected and loved, and they become models for common people; When children with xiao look after their parents, they try their best to respect them on a daily basis; they can feel the joy when they cook and serve food for their parents; they take care of them with a worrisome heart when their parents are sick; they deal with the events and ceremonies with a grieving heart when their parents pass away; and they worship their ancestors in a serious and orderly manner; There are over three thousand crimes, but to behave without xiao can be regarded as the biggest crime; Promoting xiao is the best approach for educating people to respect and love one another; Xiao should not be taught from door to door, or face to face on a daily basis, but it should be instilled among people so that they respect their parents, their seniors and their ministers/governors, and the Lord;

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(14) People treat their parents with xiao so that they can treat their ministers/governors and the Lord in the same manner; they treat their seniors with respect so that they can treat their superiors and older generations in the same manner; they manage their own families well so that they can serve the kingdom and rule the nation with a lasting reputation for generations to come; (15) Xiao does not mean absolute obedience. When a father acts unrighteously, his son should correct him directly; when the Lord acts unjustly, his ministers/governors should provide advice to him straightforwardly; (16) To have xiao towards one’s father, one gets to know the power of the Heaven; to have xiao towards one’s mother, one gets to know the love of the Earth. To have xiao towards one’s parents, one can reach the ultimate wisdom, revelation and insightfulness; (17) The xiao relationship between ministers/governors and the Lord should be that when they serve the Lord they should be absolutely loyal; and when they retire and return home, they should think of ways to right the wrongs of the kingdom; (18) Children with xiao should cry naturally when their parents pass away. Their sadness and grief may affect their behaviour, their speech and their appearance. They may not find food tasty or appealing. However, they should still eat in three days after the passing of your parents in order to maintain their own health and well-being. Their grief should not exceed three years. They should arrange their parents’ funerals appropriately with all the details taken good care of. During every Spring and Autumn, they should pay tribute to their deceased parents, relatives, and ancestors to fulfil the duties of the children with xiao. Current research on filial piety has been largely conducted in the domains of social welfare, clinical and applied gerontology, psychology, nursing, social work, intergenerational communication and sociology. The following is a review of relevant research on filial piety. Mao and Chi (2011)’s research on 19,415 adults aged 60 and older regarding the perceived filial piety of their children shows that ’how aging parents perceive their children’s filial piety has been shown to be an important indicator of older adults’ well-being’ (Mao & Chi, 2011, p. S99). They take filial piety and xiao as equivalent expressions, and defining them as ’a prominent, family-centered cultural value that adjusts children’s attitudes and behaviors toward their parents to ensure parental well-being’, and they argue that filial piety ’is still widely expected and continues to exert far-reaching influence in the parent-children dyads among Chinese families’ and that it ’has contributed toward keeping different generations connected and has led to an inherent sense of obligation for children to support their parents in the changing Chinese context’ (Mao & Chi, 2011, pp. S99–S100). In terms of ‘methods for children to practice filial piety toward their parents’, Mao & Chi (2011, p. S99) have found out that they often take the form of ’paying attention to parents’ emotional and instrumental needs, being respectful and obedient in order to increase family harmony, and exhibiting supportive behaviors, such as expressing love and affection toward parents, providing financial support, meeting parents’ housing needs, taking

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care of parents when they are sick, and even making sacrifices to ensure parental well-being’. Wang, Laidlaw, Power, and Shen (2010) have conducted studies regarding ‘expectation and non-expectation’ in relation to older people’s belief of filial piety in China. They also regard filial piety and xiao as equivalent expressions, and they consider them as a ‘construct’ which implies ’a large range of demands from material to emotional requirements, including support, memorializing, deference, compliance, respect, and love’. They argue that ’the structures of filial piety are often generalized within cultures and within families to apply to elder respect and authority relationships beyond the family’ (Wang et al., 2010, p. 22) Their research suggests that ’in current societies in Mainland China, the belief of filial piety is maintained by the elders as an important tradition. As a cornerstone of traditional ethical value in China, filial piety still plays its traditional role in current social life’. (Wang et al., 2010, p. 34). Ho, Xie, Liang and Zeng (2012, p. 49) have conducted a quantitative study regarding filial piety and traditional Chinese values in relation to high and mass cultures, and they have found that ’some traditional Chinese values have negative psychological consequences from a contemporary perspective. In particular, they add to the extant literature that implicates Confucian filial piety in the formation of cognitive conservatism, authoritarian moralism, and prejudice toward outgroups’. In addition, Tsai, Chen and Tsai (2008, p. 284) have investigated perceptions of filial piety among university students, and they have found five major themes regarding how university students view filial piety, including ’following cultural traditions, reciprocating parents’ love and care, loving parents from the heart, achieving intergenerational well-being, but practising filial piety would depend on future circumstances’. Chong and Liu’s (2016, p. 10) research examines the contemporary interpretation of filial piety by middle-aged and older Chinese adults in Hong Kong. Their findings show that the long-held tenets of filial behaviour expected by the older adults become more ‘relaxed and realistic’. While these adults still hold expectations about the provision of emotional and companionship support from their children, they no longer consider financial support essential, as they rely rather on ‘the government and the public social-security assistance than their children’. Based on the ‘China General Social Survey’ data, Xu (2012) has explored the issue of filial piety from an intergenerational communication perspective. Her analysis suggests that ’despite the seemingly everlasting importance of filial piety in Chinese societies, social conditions are changing and have come to redefine children’s obligations to their parents’ (Xu, 2012, p. 44), and that ’the older generation appears to adapt to the impact of social changes on intergenerational relationship rather well, whereas the younger generation continues to believe in fundamental responsibilities for parents. The status of ageing and the nature of intergenerational relationship seem to have undergone changes from supreme conformity to reciprocal exchange of advice, assistance and emotional support’ (Xu, 2012, p. 42). Yeh, Yi, Tsao and Wan (2013) have compared filial piety in three major Chinese societies including those of Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China. They frame

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their research along two dimensions of filial piety, namely ‘reciprocal filial piety’ (RFP) and ‘authoritarian filial piety’ (AFP). RFP ’is guided by spontaneous affection originating from long-term close interactions that fulfil the psychological need for mutual relatedness between two individuals’. AFP ’is guided by obedience to normative authority (role of parents) and fulfils the need for collective identification’ (Yeh et al., 2013, p. 278). They adopt a quantitative method to measure cross-societal differences in a number of ‘filial items’. Their findings show that ;filial piety, especially RFP, remains potent among all three societies’, and that ’filial piety has not been eroded by modernization and democratization’. However, the core essence of filial piety in Taiwan and Hong Kong ’has shifted from absolute submission and parental authority to mutual affection and equality in the parent-child relationship’, whereas in mainland China, filial piety still manifests ’differential functioning of affection-based gratitude and submission to absolute authority’ (Yeh et al., 2013, p. 292). Lum et al. (2016) have developed an itemised Contemporary Filial Piety Scale taking account three major factors, including ‘pragmatic obligations’ (i.e. practical and pragmatic caregiving), ‘compassionate reverence’ (i.e. emotional caregiving) and ‘family continuity’ (i.e. maintaining a family lineage). Their findings show that in terms of ‘pragmatic obligations’, ’both children and parents are increasingly more inclined to openly share their needs and concerns with one another and to participate in joint decision making so as to arrive at a mutually agreed plan of care in old age’; in terms of ‘compassionate reverence’, ’establishing emotional bond with children, through reconciliation and the intergenerational transfers of moral values, is imperative for elderly parents to maintain and achieve a sense of dignity at later life’ and in terms of ‘family continuity’, ’the filial tradition of family lineage has, to a certain degree, become less of a priority in the modern era’ (Lum et al., 2016, pp. 1243–1244). The above review of the relevant research on filial piety shows that a wide range of domains and disciplines from clinical and applied gerontology to intergenerational communication and sociology are concerned with filial piety research and that a large majority of the research adopts a quantitative oriented methodology. There remains a gap in linguistics and cultural studies regarding a qualitative orientation towards researching ‘filial piety’, tracing back to its origins of the notion of xiao, as documented in the Chinese classical text of Xiao Jing. In addition, the research on filial piety so far has mainly been on a number of Chinese societies based on questionnaire survey responses. Hence, there is also a gap in terms of text and discourse analysis of the notion of xiao and filial piety in the dimensions of socio-cultural and virtual realities. This chapter aims to adopt a framework based on Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes to deconstruct the meanings and schemas of xiao and filial piety through a qualitative text and discourse analysis of classical Chinese texts on xiao, fiction works by second-generation migrant writers with a Chinese heritage, and online Internet chatrooms and forums on the themes of xiao and filial piety. The third part of the literature review focuses on the notion of cultural schemas and the process of re-schematisation in relation to Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes. Cultural Linguistics is a discipline with multidisciplinary origins that

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explores the relationship between language and cultural conceptualisations (Sharifian, 2011, 2017b). In particular, Cultural Linguistics ’explores the features of human languages that encode culturally constructed conceptualisations of the whole range of human experience’ (Sharifian, 2017b, p. 1). The analytical framework of ‘cultural conceptualisations’ includes ’the notions of cultural schema, cultural category and cultural metaphor/metonymy (cross- or intra-domain conceptualisation)’. ’Cultural schemas capture beliefs, norms, rules, and expectations of behaviour as well as values relating to various aspects and components of experience’. ’Cultural categories are those culturally constructed conceptual categories that are primarily reflected in the lexicon of human languages’. ’Cultural metaphors are cross-domain conceptualisations that have their conceptual basis grounded in cultural traditions such as folk medicine, worldview, or a spiritual belief system’ (Sharifian, 2017b, pp. 3–4). It can be noted that cultural schemas, categories and metaphors are not homogeneously distributed among the members of a speech community. In fact, they are heterogeneously distributed. ’Cultural Linguistics views cultural cognition, cultural conceptualisations, and language as heterogeneously distributed across the minds of the members of a speech community. Linguistic interactions between speakers from the same speech community often reveal differences in the degree to which speakers draw on a particular cultural schema’. Such patterns of heterogeneously distributed cultural schemas often provide an explanatory mechanism (Sharifian, 2017a, p. 241). Sharifian (2017a, p. 134) points out further that there are two major levels of cognition, including macro-level and micro-level. Cultural schemas ‘have a collective life at the emergent level of cognition that characterizes a speech community’, which is referred to as the ‘macro-level’. ’Although speakers usually operate on the basis of shared cultural schemas, in reality (at the micro-level) they may share some but not all components of a cultural schema understood as operating at the macro-level of the overall system’ (Sharifian, 2017a, p. 135). According to Sharifian (2017a, p. 135), “the notion of ‘heterogeneously distributed cultural conceptualisation’ is not just a theoretical construct but also an analytical tool”. This chapter adopts the ‘heterogeneously distributed cultural conceptualisation’ as a tool alongside the analytical framework of ‘cultural conceptualisations’, particularly the process of ‘reconceptualisation’. Sharifian (2017b, p. 5) proposes that “an important aspect of our conceptual life is what can be referred to as the reconceptualisation of cultural conceptualisations. This phenomenon is gaining momentum as the processes of globalisation bring about increased contacts between different speech communities and, consequently, different systems of cultural conceptualisation”. In this chapter, one of the ‘reconceptualisation’ processes, namely re-schematisation, is adopted and validated through data analysis of the shifting schemas of the notion of xiao and filial piety from those entrenched in the classical text of Xiao Jing to fiction works of second-generation migrant writers with a Chinese heritage, and Internet online chatrooms and forums.

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4.3 Data Description and Analysis The data for this chapter have been collected mainly from three sources, including the classical Chinese text of Xiao Jing, contemporary fiction works by second-generation migrant writers with a Chinese heritage, including Benjamin Law and Alice Pung, and Internet online chatrooms and forums with themes surrounding Chinese xiao. In this section, we deconstruct how the notion of xiao has been schematised through the analysis of the 18 chapters of Xiao Jing, and how the relevant schemas of xiao are heterogeneously distributed among Chinese communities and diasporas, and how they are re-schematised across time and space, including virtual realities. (1) Xiao Jing (Conversations between Confucius and one of his disciplines, Zeng Zi, also spelt as Tseng Tzu) As reviewed in the literature review section, Xiao Jing is a Chinese classical text, which explores the virtue of xiao ’in its predictable contexts, i.e. with respect to one’s behavior towards parents and other seniors, and also in connection with the comparable attitude of fealty and duty one is traditionally called upon to show towards one’s lord (君)” (Boltz, 1993, p. 141). The notion of xiao has predominantly an ‘oral’ history, as the classical text is in a conversational format, and it is believed to have been ‘composed’ by Confucius orally, and it was ‘recited’ to Tseng tzu, who in turn wrote it down (Boltz, 1993, pp. 141–142). A review of the 18 chapters of Xiao Jing shows that (1) the notion of xiao has been highly regarded in Chinese moral history and the government of past kingdoms as well as contemporary Chinese societies, as Chap. 1 of Xiao Jing specifies explicitly that ’xiao is the origin of all moral behaviors and it’s the root of civilisation”; (2) the notion of xiao has a wide range of meanings, and it is also an ongoing process of growth and maturity in behavioural as well as moral dimensions, from the love of one’s body, as it is given by one’s parents, to one’s highest achievement and reputation in life for the highest governing body, i.e. the Lord, and for one’s ancestors and offspring; (3) the notion of xiao establishes and reinforces hierarchical structures at both micro- and macro levels, i.e. the self and the other, including the family and the society. The hierarchy starts from one’s own self, i.e. body and mind, to one’s brothers (and sisters), parents, seniors, superiors, to officials in the ruling bodies of the society, from senior officials, governors/ministers to the Lord and the Son of Heaven (cf. Chaps. 2–9); (4) xiao is pragmatically utilised as a means in both families and societies for regulating and ruling people so that they observe laws of the Heaven and the Earth. Therefore, xiao is not only about respecting and obeying one’s parents, but also about serving the government, the Lord and his kingdom; (5) As such, xiao has a legislative function in regulating or punishing people’s minds and behaviours as Chap. 11 of Xiao Jing stipulates that ‘to behave without Xiao can be regarded as the biggest crime’; (6) xiao can be taught explicitly, e.g. in the way Confucius was having a conversation with his disciple Zeng Zi, however, it is largely instilled implicitly among people of different generations; (7) one thing that is commonly misinterpreted in contemporary societies about xiao is that it means unquestioning

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compliance and obedience, however, according to Xiao Jing, the Classic of Filial Piety, xiao does not mean absolute obedience. ’When a father acts unrighteously, his son should correct him directly; when the Lord acts unjustly, his ministers/governors should provide advice to him straightforwardly” (Chap. 15); (8) xiao has been an implicit means for achieving wisdom and harmony within families and between the Heaven and the Earth, i.e. the human societies. The schemas derived from Xiao Jiang are that xiao is the highest virtue among all the virtues, and it is explicitly about honouring, respecting and looking after parents; in the meantime, it is also about humbleness, courtesy, righteousness, morality, lawabiding, loyalty, prosperity, nobleness, and the worship of the Lord or the Son of Heaven. Ultimately and implicitly, xiao is about achieving a harmonious relationship between the Heaven and the Earth. (2) Fiction works (by second-generation migrant writers with a Chinese heritage) There has been an emerging literature in World Englishes which is characterised by literary creative writings by first and subsequent generations of migrants. Their literary works, albeit fictional, reflect the writers’ cultural heritages and multicultural life journeys and trajectories. In this section, excerpts from the fiction works by Benjamin Law and Alice Pung are selected, which reflect traces of xiao and filial piety partly due to the writers’ cultural conceptual schemas derived from their Chinese cultural heritage. Both Benjamin Law and Alice Pung are second-generation migrant writers, and they have written and published creative works that have explicit references to migrant families from Asian/Chinese backgrounds in the Australian context. The excerpts are mainly selected from Unpolished Gem (Pung, 2006), and The Family Law (Law, 2011). UG1 (1st example from Unpolished Gem) My mother teaches me to obey my elders, and I grow up with filial piety permeating through every pore, so that when we have dinner with my grandmother, no one ever starts eating until she picks up her chopsticks. My grandmother sits at the head of the table, and I am always seated on her right-hand side. Whenever an unsuspecting soul picks up their chopsticks prematurely, she turns to me. “You know, Agheare, when your uncles and father were small, whenever they picked up their old chopsticks before the adults did, or whenever they did not hold their bowls in their hands properly, I would say, ‘No manners hah?’ and they would plead for me to teach them. ‘Ma,’ your uncle would say, ‘Give me a whack over the knuckles if you catch me doing that again!’” My grandmother loves using this story of my father and his sadomasochistic siblings to prove how well she brought up her children, but after hearing it so many times and seeing my father smile over the table every time, I have my doubts about it. (Pung, 2006, p. 25) [Note: Texts are underlined by the authors of the chapter.] UG1 is an example regarding how ‘filial piety’ (in this case, about table manners) has been implemented within a family context, and how it is perceived across generations e.g. ‘seeing my father smile over the table every time, I have my doubts about it’. Filial piety is explicitly ‘taught’ through intergenerational conversations, and it is

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about courtesy, appropriate manners, and behavioural as well as attitudinal ‘respect’ to the elders, e.g. not picking up chopsticks before the elders do. UG2 Next, my grandmother says her version of grace. “Ah, Buddha bless our Father Government,” she exults. “Treating us better than our sons do. Giving old people money every fortnight.” “Agheare,” she tells me, “when you are old enough and speak the English good enough, you have to write them a letter.” “Yes, Ma.” “In the letter I want you to write how much old people appreciate the money.” “Yes, Ma.” She has a little think about it. “It’s so much. Oh, it’s all too much really. I want you to write that.” “Yes, Ma.” “More filial than sons!” cries my grandmother, ignoring my father who is no longer smiling at the dinner table. “Buddha bless Father Government!” (Pung, 2006, pp. 25–26). UG2 shows that filial piety is a deep-rooted assumption or expectation that ‘sons’ are supposed to support their parents. However, in this case, it is the government of the host country that supports the older migrants financially. This shows that ‘filial piety’ has a dimension or expectation of financial support, and that the filial piety of ‘sons’ can be used as a measure in a comparative sense, i.e. the government plays more of a filial role to the elders than the sons. In UG2, it can also be understood that the ‘grandmother’ is indirectly blaming her son for his lack of filial piety, as the text goes ‘… cries my grandmother, ignoring my father who is no longer smiling at the dinner table’. UG3 My grandmother sits at the table and starts to count her Father Government money. Her Father Government money includes the money my father earns because he gives everything to her. “Here is twenty dollars for next week’s grocery shopping,” my grandmother says. (Pung, 2006, p. 29). In UG3, ‘my father … gives everything to her (my grandmother)’ is an explicit act of ‘filial piety’. In this context, ‘everything’ includes ‘the money my father earns’. It can be noted that one of the dimensions of the second-generation migrants’ perception of filial piety of their parents towards their grandparents is the unconditional financial support.

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UG4 The first wife was a marriage arranged by his father. Marrying for love was a luxury, yet when he met my grandmother he could afford few luxuries in his life, being a teacher with two daughters to support. But he did it anyway. And now he wondered whether he had any regrets, whether what he did was a wise thing, considering the crazy things this second wife did. Yet he did not doubt that any child my grandmother took on as her own ended up being obedient to her, filled with such filial piety and respect that they became members of her little army. His sons obeyed him because they were afraid of him, but they followed her because she commanded them. The children seemed no longer theirs, but hers alone, for she alone held power over them. (Pung, 2006, p. 44). UG4 shows a few aspects of filial piety in the family domain, including (1) arranged marriage by the father; (2) grand children’s filial piety and respect towards their grandmother; (3) the family hierarchy in the form of ‘power’ within the family with the grandmother being on the top, followed by the father, and then the grand children. UG5 “Aiyohh, yours don’t speak to you anymore? Well, I have it worse. Mine can’t speak to me anymore!” lamented my mother as she raised one eyebrow towards me. “See that one there? She can’t even string a proper sentence together!” “At least you have a girl! A girl can keep you company when you are old.” My auntie watched me at the wok, trying to fry up some taro cakes for lunch. “Yes, but she’s gone with the ghosts already. She’s going to marry one, and then it will be the end of us. At least you have sons who can marry good Chinese girls, give you daughters-in-law who will listen to you, as daughters never do.” (Pung, 2006, pp. 148–149). UG5 shows that issues regarding filial piety are commonly discussed among family members and relatives in terms of gender-related ‘expectations’ or role schemas of the sons and daughters, e.g. daughters keeping parents company and sons marrying other girls and bringing them home as daughters-in-law for the parents. UG6 “And when we grow old, they’ll do what they do in this country and cart us off to old people’s homes! And we’ll be stuck with the old white ghosts. Eating their food, their cheeses and other vomity things.” “How terrible!” This vision of nursing-home nausea so overwhelmed my mother and auntie that they both turned their heads towards me. “You won’t let that happen to us, will you?” asked my aunt. “Kids these days have no loyalty,” sighed my mother. “When they get husbands, they are going to move far, far away from us. It’s no use diffing up promises from them now. Just wait till they get older, they will follow their husbands. And we’ll be like mutes! Wordless!” My mother’s voice was raising. (Pung, 2006, pp. 148–149).

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UG6 depicts the notion of ‘filial piety’ further as the family stories unfold in Unpolished Gem. This excerpt expresses explicitly the mother’s and auntie’s expectation of not being carted off to ‘old people’s homes’ by their children when they get old, and also their disappointment that ‘kids these days have no loyalty’. UG7 “Aiiiiee,” wailed my mother, “it’s so glaringly obvious to me now why we have been having all these troubles! I can’t understand why we failed to see it before!” “Ahhh,” my father muttered, “I am so tired. Tell me about it and then let me rest!” His hands went to his eyes, his thumbs digging into the hollows at the corner of each socket and moving in small circular motions. This was his wake-up massage, learned from his acupuncture training in China when he was sixteen. “It’s our toilet!” said my mother fervently. “It’s our toilet!” My father’s hands stopped moving. Had my mother gone dingdong? “Which one?” “Our toilet! In this room! The ensuite toilet!” cried my mother. “That’s the answer to the problems I have been having!” “What do you mean?” “I just had a dream,” cried my mother, “about our Buddhist shrine, you know, the one downstairs with your father’s picture on it! Aiyoh, how could we be so stupid as to put the family shrine in such a place?” “Hah?” My father was befuddled. “I thought we agreed that the study was the best place, no kids coming to whack Ah Bah’s photograph off the shelf!” “No, no, no!” cried my mother, “You don’t understand! The shrine downstairs is directly below our toilet upstairs! That’s why I have been having such troubles! That’s the reason!” We were crapping on our gods and ancestors. That was why there was no peace in this new house, why my mother clutched her heart every day and complained of the largeness of everything. Once we moved the shrine to a more auspicious place, all her troubles would be alleviated. (Pung, 2006, pp. 125–126). UG7 is about the punishment incurred due to disrespect to one’s ancestors, or being unfilial to one’s ancestors, which are presented in the form of the family ‘Buddhist shrine’ with the Ah Bah’s picture on it. The location of household objects such as the family shrine signifies the feng shui of the family, which may bring about prosperity or otherwise ‘troubles’, according to certain Asian cultural schemas. UG8 My Grandmother was putting on her brown corduroy slip-on shoes, and I was holding her walking stick. “Come with me to buy flowers for the Buddha,” she told me, and off we went to Footscray. Grandchildren were meant to be arm attachments for elderly people, like soft chattering walking frames. I held my grandmother’s arm as she shuffled slowly down the street. (Pung, 2006, p. 171). As shown in UG8, the notion of fulao (扶老, holding the elderly) as a sign of being filial to the elders, i.e. literally holding the elders’ arms, ‘as arm attachments, or soft chattering walking frames’, is schematised, which reinforces of the Chinese image schema of ‘holding the arms of elders’ as enacting filial piety.

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UG9 When I was at home, I was wearing a mask. I could not be flippant or funny or laugh too laud lest my parents thought me an uncontrollable flirt, or worse, smitten. The worst thing about our relationship was the being watched. We were putting on a show. He was trying as hard if not harder than I was to be acceptable—to be the obedient prospective son-in-law. He drank the herbal medicines my father made, and adopted what he thought was a manly reticence. (Pung, 2006, p. 260). UG10 And I would go home and continue the other play, the one that has not ended, the one that will never end, and I would resume my role as “dutiful daughter”, this time with more understanding and compassion. (Pung, 2006, p. 272). As shown in UG9 and UG10, the second-generation migrant children and their non-Chinese boy/girlfriends are aware of the filial piety expectations in Chinese family settings, so they are consciously ‘putting on a show’ or continuing the ‘play’ of perceived filial acts, e.g. being an ‘obedient prospective son-in-law’ and a ‘dutiful daughter’. FL1 (1st example from The Family Law) We feared she would go crazy with loneliness and tried implementing a telephone roster. Each of us would speak to her once a week – five children, one for each weekday—by phone, the only piece of technology with which she was comfortable… (Law, 2011, p. 162). In FL1, the five children of the Chinese migrant family enact their ‘filial piety’ by implementing a telephone roster to ‘speak to’ their mother so that she would not ‘go crazy with loneliness’. FL2 ….You can’t buy things to cater to his hobbies; he doesn’t have any. Over the years, buying gifts for Dad nearly always ended in tears or in panic attacks at suburban shopping malls. He complicated things further by actively discouraging us from buying him presents, sometimes expressing his disgust so forcefully that it ruined Christmas. He’s the father, he’d say. He was supposed to provide for us. (Law, 2011, p. 168). As shown in FL2, filial piety in the migrant family between the first and second generations can be reciprocal in the sense that children are eager to buy their parents presents but parents tend to refuse, assuming that they play the role of providers for their children. FL3 Poh-Poh felt trapped and rejected by her six surviving children; Mum wanted to bring her back to Australia with us. But we all knew it was impossible. My grandmother had already been deported once from Australia. In any case, it would have been

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regarded as shameful for her to live with one of her daughters rather than a son. (Law, 2011, p. 189). FL3 shows a gender-related expectation or practice regarding filial piety in terms of the schema that an aging parent staying with his/her daughter ‘rather than a son’ is regarded as ‘shameful’. FL4 When she smiled weakly, I smiled back. ‘How are you?’ I asked her in Cantonese. It seemed like the polite thing to do. It was a mistake. ‘What’s the use of me living at all?’ she wailed in Cantonese. ‘What’s the point? I was born, gave birth to children, then they dumped me here to rot and die. I may as well be in the ground right now, except Hong Kong doesn’t even have enough ground bury me in. So they’ll burn me instead. They’ll burn my bones.’ (Law, 2011, p. 189). FL4 can be related back to the Xiao Jing, particularly chapter 18 regarding how children are expected to take care of their aging parents before or after they leave this world. The excerpt shows the frustration of the senior lady in terms of self-blaming of ‘what’s the use of me living at all’, and her disappointment about the possible inappropriate treatment of her by her supposedly unfilial children. FL5 Elderly Asian people had a fundamental aversion to the idea of retirement villages. Their idea of a nursing home was the cramped kind you find in Hong Kong or Beijing, or the culturally mismatched Australian one filled with white people playing bingo. Shipping old folks off to these places was the ultimate shame for Asians, a last kick in the guts before your children unceremoniously rolled you, still breathing, into a shallow grave. Chinese culture dictated that an elderly mother lived with her eldest son until she died, or until the son couldn’t stand it any longer and murdered her, whichever came first. (Law, 2011, p. 191) FL5 reiterates the Chinese cultural schema regarding filial piety that aging parents are supposed to be taken care of by their ‘eldest son’ instead of being ‘shipped off’ to a nursing home. The above analysis of the excerpts regarding filial piety from fiction works by second-generation writers shows that the schemas of filial piety are still entrenched in Chinese cultural cognition and conceptualisations. These range from proper table manners, to appropriate caregiving, including care and financial support of their aging parents in or after their final years. The schemas are also embedded in the implicit or explicit expectations of gender-related roles, e.g. the daughters keeping parents’ company and the sons getting married, bringing home daughters-in-law and carrying the family heir. In addition, unfilial acts, e.g. misplacing the family shrine, are schematised as being the reason for publishment. Emerging schemas as elaborated in the above excerpts include filial piety being reciprocal between second generation and their parents, and the second generation putting on a show or a play to act as an obedient son or a dutiful daughter. What the excerpts have in common

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is that all of these (un-)filial behaviours are enacted in the migrant family domain across generations. (3) Internet chatrooms and forums surrounding the theme of xiao (filial piety) The Internet chatrooms and forums provide a vibrant platform for intercultural communication regarding culturally constructed concepts. They also provide a different dimension in which the notion of xiao (filial piety) can be explored across cultural boundaries. The participants are usually anonymous, therefore more candid views on xiao (filial piety) can be expressed. For this chapter, we select chatroom/forum discussions from www.reddit.com/r/AsianParentStories and http://twi tter.com/hashtag/FilialPiety. The data collection was conducted between May and September of 2017. Due to the various lengths of the posts on the two Internet sites, from a few to a few hundred words per post, we select only relevant data for the purpose of identifying views, acts and schemas of xiao (filial piety). These include a list of selected questions that are posed regarding ‘filial piety’, the hashtagged responses on ‘filial piety’ and some excerpts from the follow-up posts following some of the selected questions. (1) Questions posted regarding ‘filial piety’ • Do young Chinese feel resentful that they are expected to support their parents financially? • What are the pros and cons of filial piety? • Is filial piety moral? • Is filial piety taken too far? • What image reminds you of filial piety? • What do westerners think of filial piety? • When you want to express the meaning of ‘filial piety’, what word or phrase do you use? • How has the concept of filial piety changed over time? The questions that are posted on the Internet chatrooms and forums indicate how the notion of xiao (filial piety) has been re-conceptualised, particularly from multicultural perspectives across cultural boundaries. A more critical lens has been adopted to re-schematise culturally constructed concepts, such as xiao (filial piety), e.g. Is filial piety moral? Is filial piety taken too far? What are the pros and cons of filial piety? The responses to some of the questions also reveal that the notion of filial piety has been re-schematised from their original meanings as illustrated in the 18 chapters of the Confucian classical text on filial piety. For example, chatroom and forum participants argue that “… great respect and unquestioning obedience are two very different things”; “the fact one is older than another or the fact that one is the parent of another is insufficient warrant to grant respect – there must be a reasonable argument for that respect”. One of the participants points out that “To me filial piety as a social obligation doesn’t make sense. Gratitude makes sense, I can feel gratitude for my

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parents raising me well, but it’s a feeling, and one that they’ve never really gone out of their way to try to address. So to me filial piety puts the focus on the wrong things and breeds entitlement”. In addition, the chatroom and forum participants also share their interpretations of ‘filial piety’ and some of their personal experiences. For example: • “Let us define it first: Filial piety is about an appropriate relationship of child with feelings towards parents”. • “The way I understand it [filial piety] for girls in more traditional Chinese families is that there is a mask or face or demanor to put on that pleases your parents and elders. It can be a tone of voice, the pouring of tea, the way answers are phrased … For guys, it is maybe a bit more internal. Maybe an internal conformity to an expectation, but that expectation is also implicit, as is so much of Chinese culture and language.” • “I have a hard time with filial piety, mostly because my father was abusive and is an alcoholic.” In terms of whether the concept of filial piety has changed over time, one of the participants’ responses summarises it well: “Respect for one’s elders is not a scientifically factual concept. Every society, every culture, every age teaches filial piety in its own construct. Change is inevitable. I think most of us see it as becoming more ‘lax’ and less well defined in ‘our day than in days previous.” (2) Hashtagged responses: #FilialPiety The following is a collection of hashtagged responses on ‘filial piety’, which show how people in virtual realities conceptualise ‘filial piety’. • “Getting your mother set up with her first smartphone: priceless” • “You’re taking for granted that #filialpiety is #collectivist. It’s not meaningfully collectivist, having no reference to a collective.” • “#FilialPiety enforced by #Taiwan Supreme Court: Dentist Must Pay His Mother Nearly $1 Million for ‘Upbringing’” • “I’m always being told to 扶 (fu: support) my grandparents to show #filialpiety. Unsure it helps them walk faster—seems to hurry them along!” • “On the day he graduated, he made mother a promise. It gets put to the test.” • “#Marketing to Chinese customers? Better know meaning of #filialpiety” • “A Chinese Virtue is Now the Law. Legalising a cultural obligation = belabouring obligation. #myculture #filialpiety”. The hash tagged responses show that one of the re-schematised meanings of filial piety in contemporary societies is that it can be used as a marketing tool for targeting ‘filial’ buyers of commercial products such as mobile phones and healthcare products for their parents as presents. Other emerging ‘filial piety’ schemas include (dis)associating filial piety with collectivist cultures, making promises to their parents when children graduate from universities and reinforcing the virtue of filial piety as

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law, as in the example of the Taiwan Supreme Court’s ruling that a dentist repays his mother nearly $1 million for the ‘upbringing’.

4.4 Findings and Discussion This section addresses the research questions set out in the introduction section, namely (1) To what extent is the Chinese notion of xiao different from or similar to ‘filial piety’? (2) What are the relevant meanings and schemas of Chinese xiao? (3) To what extent is Chinese xiao re-schematised across time and space? Based on the literature review and the data analysis, we come to the following findings: (1) The Chinese notion of xiao has a long tradition, dating back to the earlier Confucianism regarding harmonious relationships between the Heaven and the Earth. It still permeates contemporary Chinese societies, including Chinese diasporas, and virtual realities. Some original meanings of xiao have shifted in different historical and socio-cultural contexts. For example, the meaning that xiao begins with the love of one’s body has gradually lost its impact in contemporary societies, as people currently associate xiao primarily with parent-child relationship within the family domain. In addition, in its historical context, the notion xiao also means worshipping the Lord, or the Son of Heaven. However, due to the Cultural Revolution movement in the 1960s and the1970s, this meaning has been categorised as acts or thoughts of feudal superstition, therefore, it’s been gradually detached from its original meanings. Given the semantic shifts of the notion, it is essential to have a linguistic and cultural perspective to deconstruct the meanings and schemas of xiao, because the value of culture can be adopted as a tool in investigating the semantic structure of lexical categories, and “such an approach implicitly assumes culture to—at least sometimes—permeate word meaning (semantics) and not just word use (pragmatics)” (Gaby, 2017, p. 187). (2) Over time and space, the notion of xiao has been schematised and re-schematised in relation to its closest Chinese English translation of ‘filial piety’. The literature and data analysis show that there are semantic discrepancies between Chinese xiao and ‘filial piety’. The ‘discrepancies’ are largely due to processes of re-schematisation over time and space. One example is that, according to Xiao Jing, the notion of xiao does not necessarily mean absolute obedience. As Chap. 15 of the text stipulates, “when a father acts unrighteously, his son should correct him directly; when the Lord acts unjustly, his ministers/governors should provide advice to him straightforwardly”. However, the notion of ‘filial piety’ has been stigmatised as unconditional obedience of children towards their parents, therefore, it has been critically challenged as to whether it is moral, or taken too far. (3) The schemas derived from the Confucian classical text Xiao Jing can be summarised as follows: xiao is the highest virtue among all the virtues, and

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it is explicitly about honouring, respecting and looking after parents; in the meantime, it is also about humbleness, courtesy, righteousness, morality, lawabiding, loyalty, prosperity, nobleness, and the worship of the Lord or the Son of Heaven. Xiao is ultimately about achieving a harmonious relationship between the Heaven and the Earth. However, the re-schematisation of ‘filial piety’ in contemporary societies and Chinese diasporas as evidenced through secondgeneration migrant fiction works and Internet chatrooms and forums engenders emerging schemas of ‘filial piety’ from multicultural, intergenerational, business, and critical perspectives. Instead of being adopted as a social construct that contributes to harmonious relationships as it was originally meant, it has been increasingly re-conceptualised as sources of tension between generations and of intercultural conflicts. It has also been re-conceptualised as a marketing tool for products that can potentially be promoted to children for their parents to show their filial piety. (4) The re-schematisation process of xiao and filial piety has its historical, sociocultural and economic underpinnings. In addition, the notion has been reschematised in different dimensions, including latitudinal (geographical), longitudinal (historical) and altitudinal (virtual) realities. Geographically, the notion has diasporadically spread across Asia and Southeast Asia into different parts of the world through migration, globalisation, language contact and cultural blending; historically, the notion has been re-schematised from the love of one’s body, respecting and serving one’s parents and ancestors, and worshiping the Lord, to reciprocal support and mutual assistance financially and emotionally across generations, to legal considerations using filial piety for ruling or punishing unfilial acts and behaviours, and marketing implications for promoting commercial products. In virtual realities, this notion has been reiterated, praised, questioned, challenged and critically appraised across cultural boundaries and generations. (5) The notion of xiao and filial piety is a dynamic concept, and it needs to be approached not just quantitatively as the literature review has shown in many other disciplines, but also in a qualitative manner, adopting Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes perspectives, particularly the analytical frameworks of cultural conceptualisation and re-schematisation (Sharifian, 2017b), and lexical and semantic change and variation (Z. Xu & Dinh, 2013). Benczes, Burridge, Sharifian, and Allan (2017, p. 621) have explored cultural schemas surrounding ageing, and they find out that “ageing is no longer conceptualised as dependence and decline; … ageing—and old age in particular—is increasingly viewed as a period of independence, self-fulfilment and social engagement.” Like the notion of ‘ageing’, the meanings and cultural schemas of xiao and filial piety have also been evolving, as explored throughout this chapter.

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4.5 Conclusion The culturally constructed concept of xiao in Chinese has been schematised and re-schematised for centuries throughout generations over time and space. In this chapter, we have adopted Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes as theoretical and analytical frameworks to explore the concept and its closest Chinese English translation ‘filial piety’. Through data analysis of classical Chinese texts on xiao, contemporary fiction works by second-generation migrant writers and Internet chatrooms and forums with themes surrounding Chinese xiao and filial piety, we have traced how cultural conceptualisations of xiao and filial piety evolve across cultural boundaries from ancient China to Chinese diasporas and across generations in three dimensions, including latitudinal (geographical), longitudinal (historical) and altitudinal (virtual) realities. As one of our first attempts to deconstruct Chinese culturally constructed concepts through the lenses of Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, this chapter is both a product and a process of our ongoing quest for the intricate relationship among languages, varieties of English including Chinese English and their corresponding cultural conceptualisations.

References Benczes, R., Burridge, K., Sharifian, F., & Allan, K. (2017). Cultural Linguistics and ageing: What naming practices in australian English can reveal about underlying cultural conceptualisations. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), Advances in Cultural Linguistics (pp. 607–624). Singapore: Springer. Boltz, W. G. (1993). Hsiao Ching 孝经. In M. Loewe (Ed.), Early Chinese texts: A bibliographic guide (pp. 141–153). Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California. Chong, A. M. L., & Liu, S. (2016). Receive or give? Contemporary views among middle-aged and older Chinese adults on filial piety and well-being in Hong Kong. Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development, 26(1), 2–14. Gaby, A. (2017). Kinship semantics: Culture in the lexicon. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), Advances in Cultural Linguistics (pp. 173–188). Singapore: Springer. Ho, David Y. F., Xie, W., Liang, X., & Zeng, L. (2012). Filial piety and traditional Chinese values: A study of high and mass cultures. PsyCh Jounral, 1, 40–55. Law, B. (2011). The family law. Collingwood, VIC: Griffin Press. Lum, T. Y. S., Yan, Elsie C. W., Ho, A. H. Y., Shum, M. H. Y., Wong, G. H. Y., Lau, M. M. Y., et al. (2016). Measuring filial piety in the 21st century: Development, factor structure, and reliability of the 10-item contemporary filial piety scale. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 35(11), 1235–1247. Mao, W., & Chi, I. (2011). Filial piety of children as perceived by aging parents in China. International Journal of Social Welfare, 20, S99–S108. Pung, A. (2006). Unpolished gem. Melbourne, VIC: Griffin Press. Sharifian, F. (2011). Cultural conceptualisations and language. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Sharifian, F. (2017a). Cultural Linguistics. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Sharifian, F. (2017b). Cultural Linguistics: The state of the art. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), Advances in Cultural Linguistics (pp. 1–28). Singapore: Springer. Tsai, H.-H., Chen, M.-H., & Tsai, Y.-F. (2008). Perceptions of filial piety among Taiwanese university students. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 63(3), 284–290.

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Wang, D., Laidlaw, K., Power, M. J., & Shen, J. (2010). Older people’s belief of filial piety in China: Expectation and non-expectation. Clinical Gerontologist, 33, 21–38. Xu, J. (2012). Filial piety and intergenerational communication in China: A nationwide study. The Journal of International Communication, 18(1), 33–48. Xu, Z. (2014). A cultural Linguistics approach to Asian Englishes. Asian Englishes, 16(2), 173–179. Xu, Z., & Dinh, T. N. (2013). How do “WE” (World Englishes) make sense in ELF communication? Words and their meanings across cultures. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 2(2), 365–388. Xu, Z., & Sharifian, F. (2017). Unpacking cultural conceptualisations in Chinese English. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 27(1), 65–84. Yeh, K.-H., Yi, C.-C., Tsao, W.-C., & Wan, P.-S. (2013). Filial piety in contemporary Chinese societies: A comparative study of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. International Sociology, 28(3), 277–296.

Chapter 5

“So You’re One of Those Vegetarians?” Emergence of Korean English Hyejeong Ahn and Chonhak Kim

Abstract This paper addresses the emergence of Korean English that encodes the Korean cultural schema of u-li-ju-ui and jang-yu-yu-seo as demonstrated in Han Kang’s novella, The Vegetarian, which was awarded the Man Booker International Prize in 2016. The book describes the story of Yeong-hye who decides to become a vegetarian. This paper employs the analytical framework of Cultural Conceptualisation, derived from (Sharifian 2002, 2011, 2015a, 2015b, 2017) to show that English used in Han Kang’s work expresses the two distinct Korean cultural schemas of u-li-ju-ui and jang-yu-yu-seo. The English language examined in this paper is drawn from Part 1 of the three-part English translation by the British translator D. Smith. It, first, explores the Korean cultural schemas of u-li-ju-ui which are instantiated in the specific attitudes and responses of family members and acquaintances when they hear of Yeong-hye’s decision to become a vegetarian. The paper then identifies address terms in Korean English that particularly reflect the cultural schema of jang-yu-yu-seo. The findings provide preliminary evidence to support the notion that Korean English does not necessarily contain different formal features from ’Standard’ variety English, but does, however, pertain to particular semantic meanings that portray Korean cultural schemas. The analytical framework of Cultural Conceptualisations is utilised effectively within this paper as a tool with which to study Korean English, which is still very much an embryonic field of research in the area of world Englishes. The paper argues that more studies need to be carried out to further examine the features of Korean English and to make them known to the broader international community.

H. Ahn (B) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore e-mail: [email protected] C. Kim University of Seoul, Seoul, South Korea © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_5

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5.1 Introduction The short novella, The Vegetarian, by Han Kang received international critical acclaim and won the 2016 Man Booker Prise (Alice 2016). It is a story of Yeonghye, a South Korean housewife and her sudden decision to become a vegetarian. The story portrays the Korean conceptualisation of the unusual concept of ’someone being a vegetarian’. It dramatically illustrates the brutal social treatment that Yeonghye receives as a result of her taking up vegetarianism which is seen as a defiant act and a threat to the harmonious order of Korean society. The descriptions of people’s irritated and infuriated responses to Yeong-hye’s conversion deliver the message that being a vegetarian is almost impossible in Korea and gives an insight into how strongly Korean society demands conformity and how little it is concerned with individual identity. There is almost no research into the complexity of Korean conceptualisations around what being a vegetarian is and how this can be captured in the English language. The present study thus aims to fill these gaps by analysing the linguistic data drawn from the characters’ utterances in response to Yeong-hye’s conversion. This study is an attempt to move beyond an examination of the formal features of varieties of English such as phonology, morphology and syntax that have been largely employed in the paradigm of world Englishes (Bolton 2010, 2012; Schneider 2003, 2014). Instead, it aims to show the characteristics of Korean English at the semantic level by focusing on the responses of various characters to Yeong-hye’s announcement she has decided to follow a vegetarian diet and the characters’ usage of address terms. First, an examination of the linguistic data referring to typical instantiations of the Korean cultural schema of u-li-ju-ui1 (WE-ISM) is carried out, followed by an examination of the address terms used by characters drawn from not only the Korean cultural schema of jang-yu-yu-seo (there must be order between seniors and juniors) but also from u-li-ju-ui. The findings provide preliminary evidence to support the premise that while Korean English does not necessarily contain different formal features of ’Standard’ variety English, it is used to express particular semantic meanings that portray Korean cultural schema including u-li-ju-ui and jang-yu-yu-seo. The present study argues that the characters’ utterances are deeply indicative of Korean cultural schemas, and uniquely define the characteristics of Korean English. It is believed that the findings of this study provide useful insights into understanding how Korean English reflects Korean cultural schemas and make a valuable contribution to the study of Korean English and our understanding of instantiations of Korean cultural conceptualisations concerning the cultural schemas of u-li-ju-ui and jang-yu-yu-seo.

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5.2 The Korean Schema of ’U-Li-Ju-Ui’ The cultural schema of u-li-ju-ui, which can also be called WE-ISM, refers to the collective sense of the socially unified and homogenous selfhood of Koreans (Choi 2007; Hoffman 1993). The fundamental values of u-li-ju-ui emphasise human interdependence and group belongingness. Accordingly, in order to maintain the paramount status of u-li-ju-ui, individual behaviour needs to be determined by the thoughts, feelings and actions of others, in particular the senior members of the group. Arguably, u-li-ju-ui indicates attributes of collectivist society of the sort that Hofstede and Minkov (2010) define as encouraging social cohesion and the expectation that its members ’fit in’ to defined norms. However, u-li-ju-ui as discussed below contains more complex and culturally specific meanings associated exclusively with Koreans. In order to understand the cultural schema of u-li-ju-ui, it is necessary to provide an in-depth explanation of the notion of u-li (literally ’we’): (i)

The concept of u-li evokes psychological feelings of intimacy, closeness, love, acceptance, belonging and similar positive emotions in Koreans.

(ii) U-li requires self-sacrifice for the benefit of the group and discourages individuals from standing out, as differentiated identities can potentially disturb the cohesion and uniformity of the u-li group. (iii) Meanwhile, the exclusiveness of u-li demands that strong bonds are maintained and a deep emotional commitment is made to the u-li group. (iv) The notion of u-li naturally sets a conceptual boundary between ’we’ (u-li) and ’others’ (nam). This boundary is far more defined than that associated with the western construct of ’we’ and ’others’. The boundary creates societal attitudes of distrust towards those outside the u-li group and constructs their societal relationship to the group as nam. Once one is considered as a member of the u-li group, the member has a strong bond with other members of the u-li group, on the other hand, when one is considered as nam, the rest of the u-li group would even feel uncertain about being able to accept this person as a member or to easily interact with them. (Choi 2007; Hoffman 1993)

At the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the instantiation of u-li-ju-ui, such as self-sacrificing for the group, was also noted among the Korean short track speed skating athletes in the final of the men’s mass start event. Two Korean skaters, Lee and Chung, were advanced to the finals for this event. Lee, as a senior member, was highly anticipated to win the gold medal, while Chung was the most junior member on the Korean team. Despite the fact that the mess start race is an individual event that stresses an individual’s ability to win the race, the Korean team believed that it needed team play to be successful. As a result, the Korean national team instructed the junior member, Chung, to aid Lee to win by being a pacemaker and racing in the front position. While Chung led the skaters through the race, Lee remained at the tail and bided his time for the spurt. Since the mess start game is a long-tracked race, a skater in the front position faces high wind resistance and consumes more energy, thus skaters avoid racing in the front. However, Chung was instructed to sacrifice himself to race in the front position in order to help his teammate Lee to win the race. When Lee won the race, he patted Chung as a token of his gratitude for setting the

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right pace for him which helped him win the gold medal in the Olympics. During his interview with the local broadcaster, Chung who finished 8th in the game also stated that “I am satisfied with the result as I was part of perfect team play in the finals’. As can be seen by Chung’s remark, an individual sacrifice was requested for the good of the team and Chung as a member of the u-li group was committed to his responsibility to place the national team’s final result before his own success. The instantiation of u-li-ju-ui is not only evident in cultural behaviour among Koreans but also in Korean linguistic norms. The concept of ’we’ is widely evoked in a range of referencing situations. For example, when a Korean mother refers to her son, she would always refer to him as u-li a-deul (’our son’) using the plural first-person possessive ’our’ instead of the singular first-person possessive ’my’. The use of u-li is drawn from the schema of u-li-ju-ui and highlights the strong emotional attachment to one’s own son and it also fundamentally represents the son as a member of the u-li community and emphasises he is not nam (’other’) to the u-li community. This use of u-li is similarly found in a number of social domains such as our company, our school, our department and so on. The expression ’our company’ refers to one’s place of employment and the expression ’our school’ refers to the school one either attends or has graduated from. The meaning of ’our’ in these instances cannot be understood as an equivalent to ’my’ in ’Standard’ variety English as the word ’my’ is centred on the notion of ’ego’ expressing an individual identity, while the u-li is expressing ego as a group identity. The concept of u-li represents one’s personal and emotional attachment and belongingness to the company or the school and self-consciousness and self-valuation which is marked by the organisation one belongs to. If speakers lack knowledge of Korean u-li-ju-ui that governs Korean linguistic behaviour in address terms, it can potentially cause rather embarrassing misunderstandings, especially when a Korean speaker says ’our wife’ or ’our husband’ when referring to one’s own wife or husband. In short, many aspects of Korean life are deeply rooted in the cultural schema of u-li-ju-ui that emphasises the individual’s relationship with society, and society’s relationship with those defined as ’other’. The following section explores some lexical instantiations of u-li-ju-ui found in The Vegetarian.

5.3 “So You are One of Those Vegetarians.” In Han Kang’s novella, The Vegetarian, instantiations of the cultural schema of uli-ju-ui can be identified in utterances such as, ’I won’t eat meat’ and, ’So you are one of those vegetarians’ made by the Korean characters in the story. The cultural schema of u-li-ju-ui is particularly noticeable when a member of the supposedly u-li group breaks the rules of u-li-ju-ui. For example, mealtime in Korea is often considered a central event within the family and across other groups with which one is allied where various social relationships are built, fostered and maintained, thus dining together signifies belonging and bonding (Oh and Lee 2004). The Korean diet is conventionally omnivorous, thus, eating a vegetarian meal during group mealtime

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is considered deviant. This can also be seen as a conscious refusal of the bonding process with the other meat-eating group members disrupting group harmony during mealtime. The following example, excerpt (1) illustrates Yeong-hye’s announcing her vegetarian diet at a dinner with her husband and his senior work colleagues. (1) Up until then my wife had merely sat and observed the scene in silence, but as the waiter was on the point of ladling some onto her plate, she finally opened her mouth…“I won’t eat it…I don’t eat meat”. She said, slightly louder this time. (Smith 2007, p. 22)

Given that u-li-ju-ui places an importance on unity and conformity, thereby fostering emotional bonds within the members of the u-li group, eating one’s own ’specialised’ meal can potentially be considered as signalling an intention to distance oneself from the group. Yeong-hye’s remark, “I don’t eat meat” and, “I won’t eat it” causes discordance at the dinner table with her husband’s senior work colleagues who are meat-eaters. Her behaviour of keeping to a vegetarian diet can be interpreted as, “I am not interested in joining these activities with you and I don’t mind not being a member of ‘your’ group”. As explained above, the Korean cultural schema of u-li-juui demands strict devotion to unity and conformity while discouraging idiosyncratic behaviour. Therefore, announcing her vegetarianism makes Yeong-hye stand out and draw attention to herself as it breaks the fundamental value of u-li-ju-ui. In addition, what makes her remark, “I won’t eat it (meat)” culturally unappreciated is that it is voiced in a context that significantly undermines her husband and risks damaging his career. Her expected role as a wife closely identified with her husband and part of the u-li group is signalled by the writer in the scene on the way to dinner during which he emphasises the importance of this evening and his warning to Yeong-hye, “I need this evening to go well. You know it’s the first time the boss has invited me to one of these dinners” (Oh and Lee 2004: 20). The dinner invitation from the husband’s senior work colleagues is an indication that they are considering accepting him as a member of their u-li-group which is highly significant in a society which is as hierarchical and collective as Korea (Yum 2009). Yeong-hye’s refusal to play her part in this situation can be interpreted as immature, inconsiderate and selfish, and neglectful of her expected role as wife. The responses to Yeong-hye breaking the fundamental values of u-li-ju-ui are presented in the following excerpt (2). (2) My word, so you’re one of those vegetarians, are you? My boss asked. (Smith 2007, p. 23)

Given the cultural schema of u-li-ju-ui that governs people’s social relationships in Korea and demands societal conformity, the remark by his boss “My word, so you’re one of those vegetarians, are you?” may suggest a number of meanings such as (i)

“I am actually rather offended by your refusal of my invitation to my u-li group, particularly, as I would have expected you to heartily welcome my invitation.” The boss’s response shows his surprise at Yeong-hye’s rejection of the invitation extended to her husband to join his highly exclusive inner group.

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After the boss’s comment, “My word, so you’re one of those vegetarians, are you?”, a sequence of comments which show disapproval of Yeong-hye’s vegetarianism is made by other diners. For example, such comments as, “vegetarianism goes against human nature”, “is narrow minded” and “uncomfortable” and so on. Some of the comments show more explicit and strong rejections of vegetarianism such as, “I would hate to share a meal with someone who considers eating meat repulsive.” Following excerpts from (3) to (6) are people’s responses to Yeong-hye’s statement: (3) …“But surely it isn’t possible to live without eating meat?” his wife asked with a smile. (Smith 2007, p. 23) (4) "Meat-eating is a fundamental human instinct, which means vegetarianism goes against human nature, right. It just isn’t natural…in any case, the idea of a special diet always made me feel uncomfortable. It seems to me that one shouldn’t be too narrow-minded when it comes to food"… (Smith 2007, p. 23) (5) “People who arbitrarily cut out this or that food, even though they are not actually allergic to anything… That’s why I would call narrow-minded,” the executive directors wife chimed in…"A balanced diet goes hand in hand with a balanced mind, don’t you think?”… (Smith 2007, p. 23) (6) “I would hate to share a meal with someone who considers eating meat repulsive…” (Smith 2007, p. 24)

The following excerpt (7), reports the thoughts of Yeong-hye’s husband as he realises he is being excluded from the u-li group as the dinner progresses towards its end. He is beginning to understand that he has missed his opportunity to join the u-li group and this is possibly due to his wife’s idiosyncratic behaviour. (7) Now and then, perhaps out of pity, they made an effort to include me, but in my heart of hearts, I knew that they wanted to keep a certain distance between us. (Smith 2007, p. 25)

In addition to the responses of Yeong-hye’s husband’s senior colleagues to Yeonghye’s vegetarianism, the following excerpts show her family’s reaction to her decision. Her own mother in a phone conversation with her son-in-law says, “What kind of talk is that? Surely you can always just tell her not to follow this diet…” My mother-in-law was lost for words (Oh and Lee 2004; 27). In addition, the strong negative reaction of Yeong-hye’s father to her vegetarianism is also evident in his conversation with Yeong-hye and her husband in the following excerpts from (8) to (12):

5 “So You’re One of Those Vegetarians?” Emergence of Korean English (8)

“Yeong-hye”, my father-in-law bellowed, “are you still not eating meat?” He’s never used a telephone in his life, and I could hear his excited shouts emerging from the receiver. “What d’ you think you are playing at, hey? Acting like this at your age…” (Smith 2007, pp. 28–29)

(9)

“I am sorry, father in law.” (Smith 2007, p. 29)

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(10) “No, I am the one who’s ashamed.” (Smith 2007, p. 29) (11) It shocked me to hear this patriarchal man apologise-in the five years I’d known him, I’d never once heard such words pass his lips. Shame and empathy just didn’t suit him. (Smith 2007, p. 29) (12) I informed her (Yeong-hye’s sister)of my wife’s new found vegetarianism in the same way as I had just done with her mother, listened to exactly the same sequence of astonishment followed by an apology… (Smith 2007, p. 27)

The excerpts (8), (10), (11) and (12) demonstrate Yeong-hye’s family’s disapproval and their apologies to Yeong-hye’s husband regarding her decision to become a vegetarian. For Yeong-hye’s family, someone’s wife being a vegetarian is considered a highly immature decision and indicative of her neglecting her familial responsibilities, therefore, her vegetarianism should be discouraged and immediately stopped. In their eyes, Yeong-hye, as a wife, should play an active role in building harmonious family bonds instead of breaking the unity within the family by choosing an individual diet. Furthermore, the cultural schema of u-li-ju-ui also moves these family members to apologise on behalf of Yeong-hye, as seen in excerpts (9), (10), and (12) because Yeong-hye is one of their close u-li group members being a wife, a daughter and a sister. Their apologies admonish Yeong-hye and demonstrate their efforts to maintain harmony in the group on her behalf. (13) “This whole vegetarian business stops right now,” she (my mother-in-law) said. (Smith 2007, p. 36) (14) “Well, what are you waiting for? Come on, eat up (meat dish),” my father-in-law boomed. (Smith 2007, p. 36)

In excerpts (13) and (14) above, Yeong-hye’s mother and father urge her to give up her vegetarian diet. The Korean cultural schema of u-li-ju-ui plays a central role in reinforcing obligatory conformity and evoking strong reactions to what is considered non-Koreanness, as demonstrated in this case by being a vegetarian. Yeong-hye’s parents consider that being a wife and a vegetarian is a move which negatively affects the harmony of the family and shows disregard for her role as a wife, therefore, it should be repressed immediately. Expressions such as, “I won’t eat meat” and, “so you are one of those vegetarians” cannot be distinguished from potential utterances in either American or British ’Standard’ varieties of English in terms of the the morphosyntactical aspect. However, what makes these expressions uniquely Korean is that they are expressions of Korean English that arise from the conceptualisation of the Korean cultural schema of u-li-ju-ui that captures pragmatic features of Korean lives. This schema moves family members to make apologies, to become angry, and causes work colleagues to ’raise an eyebrow’ when it is challenged.

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5.4 Cultural Schema of Jang-Yu-Yu-Seo and Address Terms The Korean cultural schema of jang-yu-yu-seo refers to one of the core Confucian values that emphasise the orderly social relationships between senior and junior. Confucian philosophy has been a critical part of Korean social and political life for more than 500 years (Yum 2009). As a result, it has strongly influenced communication patterns amongst Koreans (Yoon 2004). For example, the value placed on social order between seniors and juniors is explicitly represented by highly stratified address terms, which are basically reconcilable with the hierarchical order of human relationships. For example, the use of first names and pronouns, particularly second-person pronouns such as neo (’you’) to designate a status-superior addressee, is considered inadequate, and kinship terms, and personal titles of occupation and so on in various contexts are used instead (Ahn 2017). As can be seen below in Table 5.1, the set of address terms for status-inferior addressees is less complicated and it is common to call someone who is statusinferior by their first name or hak-sang (’student”’) if an addresser does not know the addressee’s first name. For example, Table 5.1 shows that the range of choices of address terms applicable to status superior persons is far greater than that for status inferiors. This may be large because little concern has been given to developing various forms of address terms since referring to a status-inferior addressee by their first name is the most common practice. For more details of Korean address terms, refer to the following studies (Ahn 2017; Brown 2011; Hwang 1991; Kim 2015; King 2006; Koh 2006; Lee and Harvey 1973; Park 2013).

5.5 “My Boss and His Wife…” Han Kang’s novella, The Vegetarian, inevitably employs the cultural schema of jangyu-yu-seo in the usage of address terms. As mentioned in the section above, the choice of address terms in Korean is determined by the relative position between an addresser and an addressee. This feature is particularly evident as the story is narrated by Yeong-hye’s husband whose social position is lower than most of the people that he addresses in the story. Throughout the novella, the use of first names, for example, is strictly avoided. The excerpts below are from several conversations between Yeonghye’s husband and her family members as well as Yeong-hye’s husband and his work colleagues. First, the following excerpt shows the use of the job titles of the addressers whose professional positions are higher than that of Yeong-hye’s husband. The addresser, Yeong-hye’s husband, describes the people already in attendance when he arrives at dinner slightly earlier than the rest of the invitees. (15) My boss, the managing director, and the executive director had already arrived, along with their wives. The section chief and his wife turned up a few minutes after us, completing the party….My boss’s wife, an imposing woman with finely plucked eyebrows…escorted my wife and me over to the dining table…the eyes of the executive director’s wife met mine (Smith 2007, p. 21).

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Table 5.1 Korean address terms Types of address terms

For status-superior addressees

For status-inferior addresses

Parents

a-beo-nim (esteemed father), a-beo-ji (father), appa (dad) eo-meo-nim (esteemed mother), eo-meo-ni (mother), eom-ma (mum) jang-in-eo-leun (father-in-law) jang-mo-nim (mother-in-law)

sa-wi/family name + seo-bang (son-in-law) myeo-neu-li/sae-a-gi (daughter-in-law)

Uncle/Aunt

sam-chon (paternal uncle) oe-sam-chon (maternal uncle) go-mo (paternal aunt) i-mo (maternal aunt)

dong-saeng, (younger brother and sister & referring to any younger person)

Brother/Sister

nu-na (older sister of male) eon-ni (older sister of female) hyeong (older brother of male) op-pa (older brother of female)

Brother/Sister-in law

cheo-hyeong (wife’s older sister) cheo-jo-ka (wife’s sister’s son) first cheo-nam (wife’s brother) name dong-seo (wife’s sister’s husband) son-wis-dong-seo (wife’s elder sister’s husband)

Occupation titles (school)

(family name) + seon-saeng/gyo-su + (honorific particle suffix-nim) Kim seon-saeng-nim (Teacher Kim) Kim gyo-su-nim (Professor Kim)

hak-saeng (student & less intimate young person) (Ahn) Hyejeong-yang (Kim) Chonhak-gun

Occupation title (company)

family name + Occupation title + nim (Kim) sa-jang-nim (owner of a company) gwa-jang-nim (manager) sang-mu i-sa-nim2 (managing director) jeon-mu-nim (executive director) bu-jang-nim (the section chief)

first name (Ahn) Hyejeong-ssi first/family name + Occupation title (Ahn) Hyejeong-dae-li

(Ahn 2017)

As can be seen in excerpt (15), instead of the first name of the dinner guests, job titles such as the managing director, the executive director and the section chief are used. The first names of these people’s wives are also not mentioned either, but his wife, and boss’s wife are used instead. In addition to this, when Yeong-hye’s husband reports his conversation with the members of his wife’s family, the use of first names is also strictly avoided since his social position is one of the lowest in that group. The following excerpt illustrates his use of kinship terms such as my father-in-law, my mother-in-law, my wife and her sister and so on, instead of their first names.

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In excerpt (16), Smith’s attempt to adhere to the Korean cultural schema of jangyu-yu-seo is evident from her regular avoidance of given names for the characters in her translation. However, what is interesting to note is that Smith’s attempt to encode the schema of jang-yu-yu-seo in the usage of address terms sometimes results in a misidentification of the specifically encoded relationship between the addresser and the addressee. For example, in excerpt (16), in the English version, the pronoun “her sister” is used to refer to Yeong-hye’s sister, whereas in excerpt (17), the Korean version, the correct form of address, cheo-hyeong (my sister-in-law) is used. In the Korean version, the address term cheo-hyeong denotes the relationship between the addresser and the addressee, while in the English version, the address term “her sister” removes the addresser from the term, but simply encodes the relationship between addresser’s wife and the addressee instead. Similar examples are apparent in the following excerpts from (18) to (21). In the Korean version, kinship terms such as cheo-hyeong (wife’s elder sister/my sisterin-law), cheo-jo-ka (wife’s sister’s son/my nephew), son-wis-dong-seo (wife’s elder sister’s husband/my brother-in-law whose wife is an elder sister of my wife) and dongseo (wife’s sister’s husband/my brother-in-law) are used. These terms are translated into the simpler forms of “my sister-in-law In-hye”, “my nephew Ji-woo”, “her husband” and “he”, respectively, as shown in excerpt (19). (18) 처형이 결혼 전부터 운영해온 화욥품 가게의 수입으로….얼마전 처조카가 세 돌이 지나 어린이집에 가자…나는 손윗동서가 부러웠다. 미대를 나와 작가라고 행세 하 긴 하지만 생계에 도움이 되지 않는 동서였다. (Han 2007, p. 44). Cheo-hyeong-i gyeol-hon jeon-bu-teo un-yeong-hae-on hwa-jang-pum ga-ge-ui suib-eu-lo….Eol-ma-jeon cheo-jo-ka-ga se dol-i ji-na eo-lin-i-jib-e ga-ja…Na-neun son-wis dong-seo-ga bu-leo-woss-da. mi-dae-leul na-wa jag-ga-la-go haeng-se ha-gin ha-ji-man saeng-gye-e do-um-i doe-ji anh-neun dong-seo-yeoss-da. (19) Even before she got married, my sister-in-law In-hye had managed to secure an apartment with the income she received from….As soon as my nephew Ji-woo turned three and went to a nursery….I envied her husband. He was an art college graduate who liked to pose as an artist, yet didn’t contribute a single penny to their household finances (Smith 2007, p. 34).

In the Korean version of excerpt (18), the relationships between the addresser and addressee are the only consideration in the choice of address terms, thus, all terms are centred around the notion of “the ego”, the addresser. Smith expresses these rules by using kinship terms such as “my sister-in-law” and “my nephew” with

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occasional additions of the first names of characters such as my nephew, Ji-woo and my sister-in-law, In-hye, even though the Korean version does not include these personal names. This translation choice was probably made as a deliberate strategy to ease the cognitive load on the international readership who would not all be familiar with Korean systems of address terms. However, an interesting disparity in the usage of address terms can be found in the use of “her husband” and “he” in excerpt (19). These two address terms clearly remove the notion of “the ego”. The address term “her husband” centres the relationship between In-hye and In-hye’s husband on Inhye (not on him) and the address term “he” also does not denote the addressee’s relationship with the addresser. All the address terms used in excerpt (18) show the relationship between the addresser “the ego” and the addressees, while excerpt (19), the English version, dispenses with the ego-centred address terms. In other words, the original text displayed strict adherence to the Korean cultural schema of jangyu-yu-seo, while this was not the case in the English version. The reasons behind Smith’s decision to change the system of address terms is unclear, but it is probably because of her consideration of the international readership who are not familiar with the Korean address term system or the limited linguistic devices available for the explicit expression of ego-centred address terms in the English language. The following excerpts (20) and (21) clearly illustrate the disparity of address terms between the original Korean text and the English translation. In order to understand the disparity, a rather elaborate explanation is needed, and it will be helpful to explain address terms as portrayed in Fig. 5.1 first. (20) “매형이 수완이 참 좋으세요.” (Han 2007, p. 45) Mae-hyeong-i su-wan-i cham joh-eu-se-yo. (21) “My brother-in-law certainly has a good head for this kind of thing.” (Smith 2007, p. 35).

Figure 5.1 analyses the two address terms, mae- hyeong and dong-seo, which can both be translated as “brother in-law” in “Standard” variety English. However, in Korean, both terms denote different kinship relationships. The term mae-hyeong can only be used by Yeong-hye’s younger brother to refer to the husbands of his two elder sisters, while the term dong-seo can only be used by Yeong-hye’s husband to refer to his wife’s elder sister’s husband. Excerpt (20) is from a conversation between Yong-hye’s younger brother and Yeong-hye’s elder sister’s husband. As can be seen in Fig. 5.1, the address term mae-hyeong is the only one possible, since Yeong-hye’s Yeong-hye’s younger brother

mae- hyeong

Yeong-hye

Yeong-hye’s elder sister

Husband

Husband dong-seo

Fig. 5.1 Address terms for male family members

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younger brother is referring to his elder sister’s husband, (i.e. Yeong-hye’s elder sister’s husband). However, when excerpt (20) is translated into a monologue and is narrated by Yeong-hye’s husband as shown in excerpt (21), the addresser changes from Yong-hye’s younger brother in the Korean text to Yong-hye’s husband in the English translation. In the English text, the address term “my brother-in-law” that refers to “my wife’s elder sister’s husband” denotes the relationship between Yeonghye’s sister’s husband and Yeong-hye’s husband. Although both “my brother-in-law” and mae-hyeong refer to the same person, those terms are concerned with different kinships between the addresser and the addressee. Yong-hye’s elder sister’s husband should be addressed as dong-seo by Yeong-hye’s husband, and as mae-hyeong by Yeong-hye’s younger brother as these terms concern different family relationships. However, in the “Standard” variety of English, both terms are collectively known as “brother-in-law”. In addition, the Korean excerpt (20) is in dialogue form in the original text and could have been translated into a sentence like, “You certainly have a good head for this kind of thing.”, said by Yeong-hye’s younger brother. Instead, Smith has Yeong-hye’s husband narrate the incident to the reader. The exact reason for Smith’s choice in translation is unknown, although it is possible she wished to show consideration for international readers who may have little awareness of complicated kinship terms that make little difference to them. However, this results in a change in the addresser’s relationships with his addressee, thus, the denoted kinship relations have subsequently been changed. Some of the address terms have not been accurately translated into English in Smith’s version. This may be due to the limited linguistic code available in the English language and Smith’s awareness of the likely impatience a more accurate rendition might evoke in readers unfamiliar with such terms of address. However, what is evident from the analysis of the address terms in The Vegetarian is that there is little concern about using a character’s first name, in other words, the address terms that describe relationships between the addressers and addressees are represented to a large degree, suggesting the features of Korean English.

5.6 Conclusion The primary goal of this study has been to examine the characteristics of Korean English used in The Vegetarian as translated by D. Smith. The result of the study reveals that although, at the surface level, Korean English appears similar to the “Standard” variety of English, it is intrinsically and closely associated with Korean cultural schemas. It is impossible to fully understand these Korean English expressions without a comprehensive understanding of the Korean cultural schemas of u-li-ju-ui and jang-yu-yu-seo. The characters’ utterances examined in this paper are intended to portray reactions conditioned by the collectively experienced and defined cultural schemas of u-li-ju-ui and jang-yu-yu-seo in the original text. The cultural schema of u-li-ju-ui evokes expectations about people’s behaviour and demands

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certain social and familial responsibilities of one as a wife and a daughter. Yeonghye’s decision to become a vegetarian challenges these expectations, a move which risks a potential disintegration of the WE-group. This produces certain reactions from the Koreans involved which are encoded in Korean English in phrases such as, “My word, so you’re one of those ‘vegetarians’, are you?” spoken by Yeong-hye’s husband’s boss and the statement, “This whole vegetarian business stops right now” as spoken by her mother. Outsiders to Korean culture need to have a deeper understanding of what is meant by utterances voiced in “Standard” varieties of English. Phrases like, “I won’t eat meat” expressed at a dinner table with friends and acquaintances may seem innocent enough to a non-Korean, but in Korea this type of statement immediately evokes various responses in the minds of Koreans. This is certainly rather different from the likely response of those whose conceptualisations are not governed by the cultural schema of u-li-ju-ui. These expressions need to be understood in the light of an underlying concern that posits the enduring values of a collectively defined selfhood. In addition, in the novella, characters’ names are rarely used. The family members and other characters are mainly referred to by either kinship terms or occupational titles, exposing a strictly codified and socially hierarchical system which gives little importance to individual identity. English used in the novella places great significance indeed on one’s social position in relation to others in Korean society, suggesting the features of Korean English. Currently, linguistic devices available in “Standard” varieties of English are markedly insufficient to address a person in a culturally appropriate Korean manner. This opens the door to the need for more empirical studies to develop comprehensive lexical items that convey an intrinsically Korean way of addressing people. The present study acknowledges its limitations in that the analysed data is from excerpted and translated texts. Nevertheless, it is believed, the results of the analysis strongly support the argument which shows characteristics of Korean English, including Korean perceptions of vegetarianism and the scant regard for addressing individual identity. More studies into utterances made by Korean English speakers would provide more knowledge as to how Korean English can encode particular notions of Korean cultural schemas in broad situational contexts. Notes 1. The transcription system used in all examples in this article follows the Revised Romanisation of Korean (국어의 로마자 표기법) [gugeoui romaja pyogibeop] which is the official Korean language romanisation system in South Korea proclaimed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. 2. The English translation for occupational and corporate titles are approximately translated. Due to differences in corporate cultures, the titles do not necessarily have exact English counterparts. For example, the literal meaning of the term sang-mu i-sa is first, the word sang means “routine, always”, mu means “duty, affairs” and i-sa means a director.

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References Alice (2016, May 16). The vegetarian wins the man booker international prise 2016. Retrieved Feb 23, 2018, from http://themanbookerprize.com/resources/media/pressreleases/vegetarian-winsman-booker-international-prize-2016. Ahn, H. (2017). Seoul Uncle: Cultural conceptualisations behind the use of address terms in Korean. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), Advances in Cultural Linguistics (pp. 411–432). Singapore: Springer. Bolton, K. (2010). Creativity and world Englishes. World Englishes, 29(4), 455–466. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1467-971X.2010.01674.x. Bolton, K. (2012). World Englishes and linguistic landscapes. World Englishes, 31(1), 30–33. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-971X.2011.01748.x. Brown, L. (2011). Korean honorifics and politeness in second language learning. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Choi, J.-S. (2007). Understanding Koreans and their culture. Seoul: The One Media. Han, K. (2007). The Vegetarian (D. Smith, Trans.). Paju, South Korea: Cangbi Publishers/Portobello Books. Hoffman, D. (1993). Culture, self, and ‘uri’ [we]: Anti-Americanism in contemporary South Korea. Journal of Northeast Asian Studies, 12(2), 3–20. Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J., & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (F. t. s. www.geerthofstede.nl, Trans.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Hwang, S. J. J. (1991). Terms of address in Korean and American cultures. Intercultural Communication Studies, 1(2), 117–136. Kim, M. (2015). Women’s talk, mothers work: Korean mothers’ address terms, solidarity and power. Discourse studies, 17(5), 551–582. King, R. (2006). Korean kinship terminology. In H.-M. Sohn (Ed.), Korean language in culture and society (pp. 101–117). Hawai: University of Hawai’i Press. Koh, H. E. (2006). Usage of Korean address and reference terms. In H.-M. Sohn (Ed.), Korean language in culture and society (pp. 146–154). USA: University of Hawai’i Press. Lee, K.-K., & Harvey, Y. K. (1973). Teknonymy and geononymy in Korean kinship terminology. Ethnology, 12(1), 31–46. https://doi.org/10.2307/3773095. Oh, S.-Y., & Lee, H. (2004). A thought on Korea food culture and collectivity. Korean Journal Food culture, 19(19), 556–565. Park, E. H. (2013). A socio-linguistic study on the usage of ‘Seonsaengnim’ as a form of address in Korean Urimalgeul, 59(1), 1–24. Schneider, E. W. (2003). The dynamics of new Englishes: From identity construction to dialect birth. Language, 79(2), 233–281. Schneider, E. W. (2014). New reflections on the evolutionary dynamics of world Englishes. World Englishes, 33(1), 9–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12069. Sharifian, F. (2002). Chaos in aboriginal English discourse. In A. Kirkpatrick (Ed.), Englishes in Asia (pp. 125–142). Australia: Language Australia Ltd. Sharifian, F. (2011). Cultural conceptualisations and language. Amsterdam/Philadephia: John Benjamins. Sharifian, F. (2015a). Cultural Linguistics. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 473–492). London: Routledge. Sharifian, F. (2015b). Cultural Linguistics and world Englishes. World Englishes, 34(4), 515–532. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12156. Sharifian, F. (2017). Cultural Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Yoon, K.-J. (2004). Not just words: Korean social models and the use of honorifics. Intercultural Pragmatics, 1(2), 189–210. Yum, J. O. (2009). The impact of confucianism on interpersonal relationships and communication patterns in East Asia. Communications Monographs, 55(4), 374–388.

Chapter 6

Don’t Kiasu and Rush Ok? A Cultural-Linguistic Take on the Interaction Between Loanwords and Constructions in World Englishes Kim Ebensgaard Jensen Abstract With a globally spread language like English that has been adopted by several cultural groups in territories all over the world, it is unavoidable that there will be cultural lacunae in local varieties that need to be filled so as to allow members of the local cultural group to express certain cultural content. The most straightforward way to do this is to borrow, as importations, lexemes and expressions from the local language(s) of the cultural group in question, which allows for lexical mediation of cultural conceptualisations. In language usage, lexemes interact with constructions, such that constructions contribute to construing the conceptual semantics associated with the lexemes. This also applies to borrowed importations, and the interaction between culturally mediating lexemes and constructions may provide an insight into how members of the cultural group construe the mediated cultural content in what could be called constructional mediation of cultural conceptualisations. In this chapter, we explore patterns of interaction at the semantic level between the importations kiasu and kepoh (Singaporean and Malaysian English) as well as whakama (Maori English) in the GloWbE corpus to see how constructional semantics interact with the cultural conceptualisations associated with the lexemes.

6.1 Introduction Glocalisation (Sharifian 2017: 85–94) of English as a global language encompasses processes of linguistic domestication (Epoge 2015) whereby the language adapts to meet local communicative needs. Adamo (2007: 43) describes the process as follows:

K. E. Jensen (B) Department of English, Germanic and Romance Languages, University of Copenhagen, Emil Holms Kanal 6, 2300 Copenhagen, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_6

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In the continents to which these varieties of English belong there has been a similarity in the process of acquisition of the language, as a consequence of which these ‘Englishes’ are said to be native Englishes with native speakers. In its new environments, the language has gone through a process of nativisation, whereby it has acquired socio-cultural elements from the environments with which it has come into contact, bringing about the so-called ‘New Englishes’ that are easily identifiable and distinguishable from the traditional native varieties and entirely legitimate in their own right.

This includes using English as a resource for expressing local cultural conceptualisations. As translation scholars (e.g. Vinay 1995: 33) have long been aware, there are typically lacunae in a language. Lacunae are relevant in connection with glocalisation, as there are often elements in the worldview of the cultural group that adopts English which cannot be expressed in the English language. In such cases, cultural lacunae need to be filled. One way to do this is to assign new conventions in the local variety of English to an already existing English expression. For instance, in Hong Kong English, banana can denote a social stereotype of a Westernised Chinese person while boiled egg can denote a stereotype of a Chineseised Western person (Wolf and Polzenhagen 2013: 147–148; Cummings and Wolf 2011: 11, 14). Another strategy is to borrow expressions from the local language(s) that already encode the cultural content in question. For instance, Nigerian English has borrowed the words danfo and okada, both of which encode salient modes of transportation (Adamo 2007: 44). Cultural conceptualisations are clearly encoded in the vocabulary of World Englishes in a process of lexical mediation of cultural cognition. They can also be expressed more subtly in patterns of language use such as the interaction between constructions and lexemes (e.g. Gries and Stefanowitsch 2004). The reflection of cultural cognition in the use of grammatical constructions may be called construction-mediated cultural cognition. Consider the following examples: (1) I am just too Asian to wear shoes in the house (GloWbE US G …yboard.wordpress.com) (2) Will Tony Aido be man enough to apologize to all those he has insulted before (GloWbE GH G …peascefmonline.com) Both examples draw on stereotyping cultural categories. In (1), a high degree of Asianness prevents the wearing of shoes in the house from taking place. Not wearing shoes in the house is highlighted as representative of the Asian category in a stereotyping manner. Thus, a force-dynamic relation in the form of blockage (Johnson 1987) is conceptualised as the link between Asian and the activity of wearing shoes indoors. This relation along with the scalar construal of Asianness can be attributed to the semantics of the too X to V construction (Jensen 2014b). In (2), a sufficiently high degree of manness makes possible the apologising. Consequently, the ability to apologise for wrongdoings is highlighted as representative of the man category. Again, the construction, this time the X enough to V construction (Jensen 2015), contributes a scalar and force-dynamic construal of

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the category and behaviour associated with it. In this case, a force-dynamic relation of enablement (Johnson 1987) is applied.1 This chapter explores the interaction between lexically and constructionally mediated cultural conceptualisations in Davies’ (2013) GloWbE corpus, which represents Inner and the Outer Circle Englishes (Kachru 1992). More specifically, qualitative and quantitative semantic analyses of the interaction between the loanwords kepoh and kiasu (Singaporean and Malaysian English) and whakame (Maori English) and grammatical constructions are presented.

6.2 Some Theoretical Concepts The pivotal theoretical notion in Cultural Linguistics is cultural conceptualisation (Sharifian 2011). Three major types of cultural conceptualisation have been proposed: • cultural schemata: culturally constructed schematic cognitive models, • cultural categories: culturally constructed conceptual categories, • cultural metaphors: culturally constructed conceptual metaphors. All three are among the cognitive structures that members of a cultural group understand the world through. They are the main components of worldview. This section discusses a few additional concepts which could be valuable to linguists with an interest in constructions and cultural conceptualisation.

6.2.1 Borrowing Haugen (1950: 212) defines borrowing as “the attempted reproduction in one language of patterns previously found in another”. In Haugen’s (1950) terminology, the original pattern is called the model. Thus, danfo and okada in Nigerian English are lexical models. Loans that are close to the model are called importations, while loans that somehow differ from the model are substitutions. We can assume that, while they may be formal substitutions, local loanwords in most World Englishes are semantic importations that serve to fill cultural lacunae in English. The borrowing language is called the recipient language while the language that is borrowed from is called the donor language (Theil and Eifring 2005: Sect. 6.2.1). There is a general assumption that speakers borrow from a foreign language into their native language (e.g. Haugen 1950) and that the donor language is typically a prestigious or a colonial language. However, in the case of World Englishes, due to glocalisation (Sharifian 2017), domesticisation (Epoge 2015) and nativisation (Adamo 2007), English is often the recipient language, which is adapted to fit the local 1 The

too X to V and X enough to V constructions involve the semantic relations of excess and sufficiency respectively (see Fortuin 2013).

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culture(s). Therefore, it is unavoidable that local varieties of English borrow several words from local or indigenous languages to fill lacunae. In a Cultural-Linguistic perspective, the borrowings are semantic importations that evoke indigenous cultural coneptualisations, thus allowing members of the cultural group to talk about salient cultural content in the local variety of English.

6.2.2 Lexical and Constructional Mediation Mediation is an overarching term for the linguistic encoding of cultural conceptualisation. ‘Mediation’ (and ‘mediate’) in the terminology proposed here is based on the following definition of mediate: “occupy an intermediate position or form a connecting link or stage between two others” (Princeton University 2010). The underlying idea is that cultural conceptualisations are not simply packed into words by speakers and writers and subsequently unpacked in complete form by recipients as the conduit metaphor of communication would otherwise have it (Reddy 1979). Units denoting cultural conceptualisations are dependent on conventions in the speech community and prompt recipients to apply a range of cognitive processes in decoding the unit. Communication requires cognitive effort in both interlocutors in the en- and decoding processes, both of which involve a range of construal operations (Croft and Cruse 2004: 40–73). Successful mediation of cultural conceptualisations hinges on common ground: if the sender assumes common ground, but the recipient does not have access to the cultural conceptualisations in question, the recipient will be unable to decode the sender’s message in an intended way. I am well aware that the term ‘mediation’ could itself be misunderstood to be a reflection of the conduit metaphor. After all, a conduit is a connecting link between two parties that allows one party to transmit something to the other party. However, mediation is not necessarily unidirectional and requires the recipient to be more active than the recipient in the conduit-based conception of communication. Many studies within Cultural Linguistics have shown how cultural conceptualisations are expressed lexically. Some examples are • divine (Ghanaian English) evokes a cultural schema involving ‘contact with the unseen world to discover the reasons behind a misfortune, evil etc.’ (Blench 2006: 14; Sharifian 2017: 87). • aunty (Singaporean English) reflects a cultural category in Singaporean culture as it refers to middle-aged (or older) women who are generally uneducated (Wong 2006: 458; see also Sharifian 2015: 522). • marae (Maori English) denotes not only a tribal complex of buildings but also encodes a complex cultural schema of Maori tribal identity (Degani 2017). Such lexically encoded cultural conceptualisations are examples of lexical mediation. Cultural conceptualisations can also be constructionally mediated. This is when cultural conceptualisations are semantically encoded into grammatical constructions or more indirectly reflected in the use of constructions.

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Understanding construction-mediated cultural conceptualisation presupposes an understanding of construction grammar theory (e.g. Fillmore et al. 1988; Goldberg 1995; Croft 2001) in which conventional syntactic constructions are meaningful structures. Constructions are pairings of form and conventionalised meaning that are entrenched routines in the speech community (Croft 2005: 274) and stored as exemplars (e.g. Bybee 2013) in a constructional network (e.g. Croft and Cruse 2004: 318–323) which is usage-based and, like culture in Cultural Linguistics (Frank 2015: 495), a complex adaptive system (Beckner et al. 2009). Below are three examples of constructions addressed in the literature: • The ditransitive construction (Goldberg 1995): The syntactic template S V IO DO is what expresses the transfer of possession such that the subject encodes the agent, the verb encodes the specific act of transfer of possession, the indirect object encodes the beneficiary or recipient, and the direct object encodes the theme that undergoes the process of transfer of possession. • V into V-ing (Gries and Stefanowitsch 2004): In British English, this construction is a causative construction in which V-ing encodes an action or situation that causes the situation encoded by the V-ing to happen (more specifically, it causes the agent of the V-ing situation to perform the action that constitutes this situation). • V (DO) until ADJ (Jensen 2014a): In American English, this construction is primarily used in recipes and serves to instruct readers in preparing ingredients in the dish in question. The V-element encodes the action performed on the ingredient, while the optional direct object (which is often absent) encodes the ingredient itself, and the ADJ-element encodes the resultant state of the ingredient. Arguably, socio-cultural contexts may be constructionally encoded, as in the case of his/her/your majesty. This is one type of constructional mediation. However, constructions that do not directly encode cultural information may still be used in ways that reflect underlying cultural cognition. For instance, Gries and Stefanowitsch (2004: 232–233) find verb combinations in the V and V-ing positions which reflect what they call cultural frames (which correspond to cultural schemata in Cultural-Linguistics terminology) pertaining to commercial transaction. For instance, verbs of trickery, coercion and negative emotion co-occur with verbs of commercial transaction indicating a conceptualisation of commercial transaction in which sellers are more active participants than buyers, who are passive and more readily exploitable. While I distinguish between lexical and constructional mediation, the two arguably interact frequently such that both lexemes and constructions contribute to the mediation of cultural conceptualisations in specific usage-events. Consider this example of Maori English: (3) I put to Dame Te Ata the idea of inviting 30 to 35 iwi chairmen to my marae in Kaikoura to discuss the collaborative approach and she agreed to support me. (GloWbE NZ B pureadvantage.org)

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Marae is used in conjunction with the prepositional construction to X which, together with invite and another prepositional construction (in X in the form of in Kaikoura), selects and highlights within the marae cultural schema (Degani 2017) the spatial-locative aspects of a marae as a place.

6.2.3 Cultural Metonymy Metonymy is a ubiquitous conceptualisation process that belongs under attention/salience in Croft and Cruse’s (2004: 40–73) typology of construal operations. Metonymy involves an operation of selection in which a salient part of a whole is selected to represent another aspect of the whole or the entire whole itself (conversely, the entire whole may be selected to represent an aspect of the whole). There are three major categories of metonymy, each of which subsumes multiple subtypes: partfor-whole metonymy (4), whole-for-part metonymy (5), and part-for-part metonymy (6): (4) Nice wheels, bro! [wheels for car] (5) I have a meeting with my bank tomorrow [bank for staff at bank] (6) I like Iron Maiden [musical artist for music] Metonymy applies to categories whenever a category feature or member represents the entire category or vice versa. For example, referring to hippies as treehuggers not only construes hugging trees as a salient feature of the hippie category but also as a defining feature that represents a category member (in a way, the category member is reduced to this one feature). As suggested in Jensen (2017), metonymy can be a type of cultural conceptualisation. An example of cultural metonymy is the use of marae in Maori English to express one or more of the many facets of the marae cultural schema (Degani 2017) such that the label of the entire complex schema represents a part of that schema which is salient in the communicative situation in question. Cultural metonymy in cultural categories is also seen in social stereotypes in which a specific member of a social category within a culture becomes representative of the entire category or a particular feature of a social category in a culture becomes the defining feature of the entire category and is applied to all members thereof.

6.3 Data and Method This study draws on Davies (2013), which, documenting twenty national varieties of English used in Internet communication, contains some 1.9 billion words. Table 6.1 provides a basic overview of the contents of GloWbE. The corpus represents Internet variants of Inner and Outer Circle Englishes (Kachru 1992) where English has the status of L1 and L2, respectively.

6 Don’t Kiasu and Rush Ok? A Cultural-Linguistic Take … Table 6.1 Overview of GloWbE

107

Country

Code

Size (words)

United States

US

386,809,355

Canada

CA

134,765,381

Great Britain

GB

387,615,074

Ireland

IE

101,029,231

Australia

AU

148,208,169

New Zealand

NZ

81,390,476

India

IN

96,430,888

Sri Lanka

LK

46,583,115

Pakistan

PK

51,367,152

Bangladesh

BD

39,658,255

Singapore

SG

42,974,705

Malaysia

MY

42,420,168

Philippines

PH

43,250,093

Hong Kong

HK

40,450,291

South Africa

ZA

45,364,498

Nigeria

NG

42,646,098

Ghana

GH

38,768,231

Kenya

KE

41,069,085

Tanzania

TZ

35,169,042

Jamaica

JM

39,663,666

Total

1,888,632,973

Each of the lexemes under investigation was retrieved from GloWbE. After duplicates were weeded out, each instance was classified in terms of PoS constructions (such as, for instance, counting and non-counting constructions and determiner noun phrase constructions for nominal uses and tense and finiteness constructions for verbal uses) and syntactic functions in broader constructions such as argument structure construction constructions. The analyses focus on the conceptual-semantic interaction between the semantics of the constructions in which the lexemes appear and are based on what we know about the constructions from extant research.

6.4 Kepoh Kepoh (also spelled keh poh, kaypoh, kay-poh, kay poh and kay poh chee/chi) is a semantic importation in Singaporean and Malaysian English whose donor language is Hokkien. It denotes a busybody person who is particularly inquisitive and constantly seeks to gather and verify information through asking

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questions or observing happenings and events that are particularly interesting. For example, in a news report, Thiagarajan (2016) describes as kepoh two motorcyclists who crashed into one another because their attention was diverted towards a traffic accident. Kepoh is a salient personality type in the Malaysian and Singaporean cultural groups. Thus, kepoh denotes a social-cultural category: • Category: kepoh – Attributes: person curious information-savvy busybody meddling – Actions: – – – –

seeking out information distributing information asking questions observing people and happenings.

This is of course a gross simplification, and a detailed etic study of Malaysians’ and Singaporeans’ conceptions of kepoh would probably yield a much more complex and nuanced model. Forms of kepoh and occur in SG and MY (with a hapax legomenon in the IN). Figure 6.1 provides an overview of the distribution of forms of kepoh in GloWbE in frequency per million words (FPM).

Fig. 6.1 Distribution of forms of kepoh

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6.4.1 Forms of Kepoh and PoS Constructions Tables 6.2 and 6.3 provide overviews of the distribution of forms of kepoh appearing in PoS constructions in MY and SG. In GloWbE, forms of kepoh appear in nominal, adjectival and verbal constructions (and in some contexts where the word class membership unidentifiable). Word classes themselves can be seen as schematic constructions with very basic communicative functions (Croft 2001: 66): • nominal: reference (i.e. expression of entities), • adjectivals: modification (i.e. expression of attributes), • verbals: predication (i.e. expression actions and establishment of relations among entities). Uses of a given lexeme, such as an importation, in different PoS constructions can provide insights into underlying cognitive processes and structures associated with the lexeme. For instance, if used in typical verbal contexts, the underlying concept is arguably construable as having to do with certain types of actions or behaviours, while, if used in typical adjectival contexts, it is construable as an attribute or feature. The use of forms of kepoh in nominal, adjectival, and verbal constructions suggests that speakers of Singaporean and Malaysia English construe kepoh in different ways, highlighting different aspects of the category complex. Focusing on nominal uses, we see that forms of kepoh are used in both plural and singular constructions.2 When in the singular, they are used with reference to kepoh as a more abstract mindset and behaviour (7) or with reference to people that display behavioural patterns associated with the kepoh category (8); when in the plural, it is used in the latter sense exclusively, construing a multiplicity of people displaying kepoh behaviour (9): (7) The kepoh-ness in me decided to tag along Yoshida-san. (GloWbE MY G …journey.blogspot.com) (8) I am doing great, thank you, you need to state worse before I have a bigger laugh. Come back and show me you have ‘G*d’s’ authority before you make yourself a kaypoh and a back-alley psychiatrist, I recognise neither in you. (GloWbE MY G Malaysia-today.net) (9) Too much vigilantism will result in a righteousness society where kaypohs pick on everything they don’t approve of in the name of creating more civil living. (GloWbE SG G …nglishdictionary.com) Let us turn to use of determiners in noun phrase constructions. Figures 6.2 and 6.3 provide overviews of the types of determiners that forms of kepoh occur within MY and SG respectively. With zero-determiners, forms of kepoh typically appear in the plural and refer to people, as seen in (10): 2 In

constructionist theory, derivational and inflectional suffixes are morphological constructions (Booij 2010).

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0236

0.0000

0.0000

0.1650

kay poh chi

kay-poh

kaypoh

keh poh

kepoh

Totals

0.0471

0.0236

0.0707

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.3299

0.0707

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0236

ADJ No degree-modifier

Plural

Singular

N

kay poh

Form

Table 6.2 Forms of kepoh in PoS constructions in MY (FPM)

0.0471

0.0000

0.0471

0.0236

0.0471

0.0707

Degree-modifier

V

0.0708

0.0236

0.0000

0.0236

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

Infinitive

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

Ing-form

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0236

0.0000

0.0000

Past tense

0.0236

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0236

0.0000

NA

110 K. E. Jensen

0.0000

0.0233

0.0000

0.1163

0.0000

0.0000

0.1629

kay poh chi

kay-poh

kaypoh

keh poh

kepoh

Totals

0.0000

0.0000

0.0233

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.5352

0.0233

0.0000

0.3490

0.0465

0.0000

0.0698

ADJ No degree-modifier

Plural

Singular

N

kay poh

Form

Table 6.3 Forms of kepoh in PoS constructions in SG (FPM)

0.0000

0.0000

0.0233

0.0000

0.0000

0.0233

Degree-modifier

V

0.0931

0.0000

0.0000

0.0465

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

Infinitive

0.0000

0.0000

0.0233

0.0233

0.0000

0.0000

Ing-form

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

Past tense

0.1369

0.0000

0.0000

0.0698

0.0233

0.0000

0.0465

NA

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Fig. 6.2 Forms of kepoh and determiners in MY

Fig. 6.3 Forms of kepoh and determiners in SG

(10) Would Malaysians look specially stupid wandering around in ‘Heaven’ looking for sales bargains and partake in all sorts of kiasu activities dressed in Biblical costumes and maybe even carrying crosses, walking on water, handling snakes and scorpions and chastising each other as kaypohs, with ships and scorpions. (GloWbE MY B Malaysia-today.net) There are also usage-events in SG in which kaypoh is used like a proper noun: (11) kaypoh said Total bloody con-(genital)-job. (GloWbE SG B …ktimes.wordpress.com)

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This is simply because a user, who is also a productive blog commenter, has chosen kaypoh as their username. When forms of kepoh are used with indefinite articles, like (8) above, and (12) below, they also refer to people: (12) If you would like to part of the movement to celebrate World AIDS Day or you’re just a kepoh that wants to know what’s going on with the celebration, just head to on BTS this Saturday:) (GloWbE MY G ruxyn.com.my) In terms of metonymy, nominal uses of forms of kepoh involve category-formember metonymy. For instance, in (7) kepoh-ness refers via use of the category label to the mindset itself. In conjunction with the preposition phrase in me, then, kepohness, through the a person is a container metaphor construes kepoh behaviour as a personality trait inherent in the writer. In examples (8–9), the nominal uses of forms of kepoh also evoke the category and specify one or more persons displaying kepoh behaviour via category-for-member metonymy. In terms of adjectival uses, forms of kepoh appear either without degree-modifiers or with degree-modifiers. For the most part, adjectivally used forms of kepoh assign kepohness as an attribute to humans: (13) when you’re young it’s out of morbid fascination, when you’re older it’s becos you kaypoh3 to see who’s related, when you old it’s becos you’ve gone senile, suffering from alzheimers or nobody told you you’re DEAD. (GloWbE SG G sammyboy.com) The infinitive clause to see who’s related postmodifies kaypoh in a similar fashion to what we see in expressions like curious to see or eager to know. In such ADJ to V constructions, the ADJ-element sets up a feature, and the infinitive clause specifies a proposition that causes this attribute because it is desired by the person in question. For instance, in John was curious to see what happened next, it is John’s desire to see what happens next that causes the curiosity. Similarly, (13) expresses a scenario in which the desire to see who is related causes the kepohness that makes people who are older read obituaries, suggesting that there may be causal dimensions to kepoh in which the desired knowledge prompts kepoh behaviour. The following example has the writer describe themselves as being first a little bit kay poh chi and then, having issued several requests for information, as being really very kay poh chi: (14) i wld like to be a little kay poh chi do you have a blog, I wld like to see don’t be shy if you do, just tell me all I know is that you come from miri like anything cheesy and also kolo mee finish schooling up to form three practice Kungfu, silat or taichi dreamer a thambi or a tangachi besides writing, what is your hobby sorry sorry, I really very kay po chi ciao now! i’m here giggling crazily soon my boss is going to fire me! (GloWbE MY …enwings.blogspot.com)

3 Kaypoh

could, in this case, perhaps also be used as a verb.

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Both a little bit and (really) very are degree-modifiers and appear in degreemodifying constructions that serve to intensify, attenuate, or otherwise modify the degree of whatever feature the head adjective expresses. A little bit belongs to a class of degree-modifiers that Paradis (1997: 89–91) calls diminishers which ‘serve to attenuate the force of the adjectives they apply to’ (Paradis 1997: 89). In contrast, very is a booster (Paradis 1997: 82–86), which establishes a high degree on the scale in question. Here, it is further boosted by the presence of really. Paradis (1997: 8991) suggests that diminishers can be used in the name of understatement. That may be the case here; however, even if a little bit kay poh chi is intended to be such an understatement, the writer clearly finds it necessary to reevaluate their degree of kepohness and self-assign a new, much higher degree, with really very kay poh chi. In the following examples, kay poh and kepoh are used with the degree-modifier so, which construes a relatively high degree of kepohness: (15) The children in the past were not so ‘kay poh’ or curious. (GlowBe SG …express.blogspot.com) (16) I was a bit pissed hahahaah cos why is he so kepoh go an film people’s moments with their other half! (GloWbE MY G fourfeetnine.com) In (15), we see a variant of the so X that Y construction, which, according to Bergen and Binsted (2017), is a causal construction in which so X sets up a high degree of Xness, and the that-clause expresses a situation that is caused by the high degree of Xness. The person in question films people’s moments with their spouses, which is construed as being caused by his high degree of kepohness. Again, this suggests that kepoh is a matter of causality. Here a causal relation is set up in which kepohness causes kepoh behaviour. The fact that kepoh is used adjectivally with degree-modifiers sugges/ts that the concept kepoh has the potential to be construed as a scalar concept; that is, there are degrees of kepoh, and there is a point on the kepoh scale where kepoh behaviour is enabled. Metonymically, adjectival uses of forms of kepoh denote features that are conventionally salient through use of the category label in category-for-feature metonymy. The communicative function of adjectivals, then, allows speakers to assign these features as attributes to people and other entities, reducing the referent to those features. Finally, forms of kepoh appear in verb phrase constructions, as seen in the following examples: (16) Plus kay-pohed again approaching one older lady who was getting help by a nice young man. (GloWbE MY B …ackyard.blogspot.com) (17) Eh… I just went to kaypoh a few blogshops yesterday and most of them fit size US 8-10. (GloWbE SG B …ylives.wordpress.com) (18) Naughty boy kaypoh-ing again. (SG B …ianbee.wordpress.com)

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Fig. 6.4 In- and monotransitive verb forms of kepoh in SG

In MY, verbal uses of forms of kepoh are exclusively intransitive (examples are seen in (16) and (19)): (19) I used to read personal blogs quite a bit when I was studying (lots of free time to kepoh), but now I mostly read beauty blogs for balanced information which we may not get in printed media. (GloWbE MY G mywomenstuff.com) In MY, as seen in Fig. 6.4, the majority of instances of forms of kepoh used as verbs are also intransitive but monotransitive uses also occur. While intransitive and monotransitive uses both highlight the behavioural part of the kepoh category, intransitive uses construe it as a more general undirected activity, while monotransitive uses construe it as a directed activity. The metonymic function is very clear here: the name of the entire underlying category is used to denote category-bound actions associated with the category.

6.4.2 Forms of Kepoh and Syntactic Functions Moving on to forms of kepoh appearing in positions in argument structure constructions (Goldberg 1995), we can see that, in MY (Fig. 6.5), forms of kepoh mainly appear in copula constructions as subject complements. A copula construction establishes a link between the referent of the subject and what the subject complement expresses. Below is an example: (20) I could care less if She is ‘real’ – if She is She won’t need you to be Her Kaypoh. (GloWbE MY G Malaysia-today.net)

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Fig. 6.5 Forms of kepoh in argument structure constructions in MY

Her Kaypoh exemplifies a noun phrase construction and, as a subject complement, sets up a relation between the implied subject in the infinitive clause such that the referent of the implied subject is placed in the kepoh category. Rather than setting up a classificatory link between the referent of the subject and the kepoh category, this use sets up a descriptive link in which kepohness is highlighted as an attribute ascribed to the referent of the subject. In Fig. 6.6, we see that, while subject complement uses are also rather frequent in SG, the form kaypoh is particularly frequently used in the subject role. The subject complement uses of forms of kepoh in SG are identical to those in MY, with nominal uses setting up a classificatory link of categorisation and adjectival uses setting up a descriptive link. In SG, all subject uses have forms of kepoh in nominal

Fig. 6.6 Forms of kepoh in argument structure constructions in SG

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Fig. 6.7 Forms of kepoh in modifying constructions in MY

Fig. 6.8 Forms of kepoh in modifying constructions in SG

constructions. However, 50% of all instances of forms of kepoh in subject position are of the kaypoh said type seen in (11). Turning to subjects, not surprisingly, when forms of kepoh appear in subject position, it is primarily nominal forms that refer to people who display kepoh behaviour. However, there is one interesting instance in (7) above in which kepohness occurs as a subject which, via the predicate decided to tag along Yoshida-san, personifies kepohness. Kepoh-ness is also postmodified by the preposition phrase in me, metaphorically presenting the writer as a container of kepohness and giving kepohness agency and control over the writer. While a dramatic conceptualisation and perhaps more of an innovative metaphor, it might be a reflection of the causality of kepohness discussed above.

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Let us turn to forms of kepoh in modifying constructions. Figures 6.7 and 6.8 provide overviews of the distribution of forms of kepoh in pre- and postmodifying constructions. In both corpora, the premodifier use is the most frequent one. In all cases of forms of kepoh as modifying constructions, the forms of kepoh appear in noun phrase constructions in which they construe kepohness as an attribute of the referent of the head noun. This should be clear in the following examples: (21) The kaypoh relatives have stopped commenting on how tall you’ve grown. (GloWbE SG G …nglishdictionary.com) (22) An at this point, I’d like to give every single member of the kaypoh brigade a big kick in the backside. (GloWbE SG G maybebaby.com) (23) Malaysians have a very kiasu and kaypoh characteristic. They worry about what other people are doing (or cannot do). (GloWbE MY …hethiuth.blogspot.com)

6.5 Kiasu Also a Hokkien-based importation in Singaporean and Malaysian English, kiasu appears primarily in MY and SG with a few occurrences in AU, GB, HK and LK (as seen in Fig. 6.9). Kiasu encodes a category of a person with a selfish attitude based on the fear of missing out on something (Ho et al. 1998; Hwang et al. 2002; Cheng and Hong 2017); the concept kiasu is similar, but not identical, to Western greed. While greed primarily has to do with the accumulation of an excess of what one desires and is motivated by the lust for possessing these things, kiasu is motivated by fear of losing, failing and missing out. In addition to the patterns of accumulative behaviour that characterise Western greed, competitive behaviour,

Fig. 6.9 Distribution of occurrences of kiasu

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controlling behaviour and extreme preparedness as well as general selfishness are considered instances of kiasu behaviour. The category can be set up as follows: • Category: kiasu – Features: greedy grabby competitive afraid to lose afraid to fail afraid to miss out – Actions: – accumulation of things – competitive actions (such as cutting queues or elbowing people out of the way) – picking all options (when faced with alternative choices) – being extremely prepared ahead of time. As with the category structure proposed for kepoh, this category model is extremely simplified and systematic research into Malayians’ and Singaporeans’ experiences and conceptions of kiasu would be likely to paint a much more complex picture.

6.5.1 Kiasu and PoS Constructions Table 6.4 shows that kiasu is used in adjectival, nominal and verbal PoS constructions. This indicates that kiasu can be construed as an attribute, an entity and behaviour (or patterns of actions). Table 6.4 Kiasu in PoS constructions Varieties

ADJ

N

No degree-modifier

Degree-modifier

Singular

Plural

Infinitive

AU

0.0067

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

GB

0.0000

0.0052

0.0026

0.0000

0.0000

0.0026

HK

0.0000

0.0000

0.0247

0.0000

0.0000

0.0247

LK

0.0215

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0000

0.0215

MY

1.6030

0.5422

0.9429

0.2829

0.0000

0.0943

SG

2.4200

1.2566

1.3962

0.0233

0.0233

0.2327

Totals

5.8552

0.0233

0.3758

2.6726

V

NA

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Fig. 6.10 Distribution of kiasu-ness, kiasu-ism and kiasu-ø

Starting with nominal uses, we see the most common uses of kiasu in the singular in (24–25)—namely with the nominalising suffixes -ness and -ism (see Fig. 6.10 for a distribution of these in SG)4 —with reference to kiasuness as a more abstract personality trait. (24) We are encouraging kiasuism by creating scarcity, explained very well here by an economist blogger. (GloWbE SG B …ogcomms.blogspot.com) (25) Perhaps in their pursuit for kiasu-ness and being cheapo, SMRT and SBS might have actually purchased systems, trains, rails, rail claws, cable ties that are not the best? (GloWbE SG B new.acperience.net) Example (26) illustrates the use of kiasu in the nominal plural N-s construction. This use highlights the member of the kiasu category and then construes a multiplicity: (26) kiasus need to escape the pressure cooker island to remain sane and productive (GloWbE MY B rockybru.com.my) Turning to determiner constructions, Fig. 6.11 shows that kiasu occurs the most frequently in zero determiner constructions (27), but that possessive pronouns (28), indefinite articles (29), genitives (30), demonstrative pronouns (31) and definite articles (32) also occur in noun phrase constructions headed by kiasu and its -ness and -ism derivatives. (27) Call it kiasuness… But if you do nothing you may regret it or there is this gnawing thought that says, man what kind of Mother are you? (GloWbE MY G …htahpah.blog.com) (28) My concern is that our kiasuism is driven by fear. (GloWbE SG …nglishdictionary.com) (29) Rather than receiving summonses and all – why can’t you not land yourself those e.g. Drive better, park legally, don’t drive like a Malaysian driver, or do whatever – not behave like a kiasu dump your rubbish illegally, steal electricity… etc. etc.?! (GloWbE MY B malaysia-today.net) 4 No

instances of kiasuness and kiasuism were found in MY.

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Fig. 6.11 Kiasu and determiners

(30) Daddy’s kiasuism * also contributed to another rare milestone for a three-yearold and moh* born to two parents from an East London housing estate – her first Chinese rhyme. (GloWbE SG G dadsforlife.sg) (31) Those ultra kiasus must be taught about gratitude some how. (GloWbE MY B …ustdie.wordpress.com) (32) We’re talking about the land of the ‘kiasus’ here and one upsmanship is the name of the game. (GloWbE MY B chedet.cc) The metonymic processes in nominal uses of kiasu are as follows: • Plural forms denote a plurality of kiasu people through having the name of the category, and the category as such, represent members of the category. • In the singular, category-for-member metonymy is also at play, construing the referent as a singular entity. Alternatively, in particular with the -ism and -ness derivatives, singular nominal uses of kiasu can denote kiasuness as a more abstract personality trait in a metonymy in which the category stands for the essence of the personality of a person that displays kiasu behaviour. Adjectival uses of kiasu select features of the category and assign them primarily to people. Adjectival kiasu may be used without degree-modifiers (33) and with degree-modifiers (34). The latter indicates that kiasuness is, or can be, construed as semantically scalar: (33) Brought some Primary One coursebooks for her. Yeap, kiasu mum! Just to prepare her well for the unexpected in Primary One. (GloWbE MY G …ingnite.blogspot.com)

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(34) Not many people realise just how kiasu the South Koreans and Japanese are. (GloWbE MY G paultan.org) The metonymic process is clear as adjectival uses of kiasu prompt readers to engage in processes of category-for-attribute metonymy. Lastly, the following example illustrates the verbal use of kiasu: (35) Don’t kiasu and rush ok? (GloWbE SG B …shgrow.wordpress.com) Kiasu here occurs in the negated do-insertion construction, which is one of the four so-called NICE constructions (e.g. Bache and Davidsen-Nielsen 1997: 283), where it serves as the main verb for which do serves as an auxiliary. Furthermore, it appears as a coordinand in a coordinating construction in the form of kiasu and rush which serves as the head of the verb phrase construction in question. Arguably, this coordinating construction is a pseudocoordinating construction in which the coordinands are not actually information structurally juxtaposed. It is likely to be an instance of the causal pseudocoordinating construction in which the first coordinand is the cause of the second one. For instance, in Don’t be a jerk and treat women that way, the treatment of women is caused by the recipient’s being a jerk. Likewise, the recipient’s rushing in (35) is caused by their kiasuness.

6.5.2 Kiasu and Syntactic Functions We see in Fig. 6.12 that kiasu is primarily used as a subject complement. We see examples of that below:

Fig. 6.12 Kiasu and syntactic functions

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(36) For me, I kiasu and I prefer to earn guaranteed cash back up to RM1, 200 a year with my OCBC Titanium MasterCard and Maybankard 2 American Express combination with spending RM2K/month. (GloWbE MY B …ionsxys.blogspot.com) (37) So, I still think parents are being too kiasu if they start planning for their children’ Primary One registration when their children are 3 years old? (GloWbE SG G kiasuparents.com) Its function is similar to the use of forms of kepoh in subject complement positions. Subject uses of plural forms of kiasu denote people that display kiasu behaviour. With singular realisations, kiasuness and kiasuism primarily serve as subject in copula constructions while singular forms of kiasu with indefinite articles as determiners refer to individual kiasu people. However, there are a few cases where the -ness and -ism derivatives, and even kiasu itself, appear in event-denoting clauses: (38) Kiasuism evolved as a natural response (GloWbE SG G …nglishdictionary.com) (39) Their kiasuness do not allow them to listen to no one. (GloWbE MY B isuhot.com) (40) …kiasu seeps in early, eventually germinating in brilliant engineering students (GloWbE SG G …tionalgeographic.com) As seen in Fig. 6.13, the most common modifying construction that kiasu appears in is the premodiying construction, further indicating how kiasu can be construed as an attribute.

Fig. 6.13 Kiasu in modifying constructions

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6.6 Whakama Whakama is imported from Maori into Maori English and roughly means shy, ashamed, abased or humbled. Whakama links to a fairly complex cultural schema. While shame typically applies at the level of the individual, whakama can be individual, shared among a few individuals and shared by all members of an entire group (Sachdev 1990): It represents the feeling state in a person when he or she has felt dishonoured in the eyes of others because of having failed to honour obligations to kinsfolk or friends, or because of an insult or other such violation of group rules. The essential aspect is the feeling of shame because of loss of honour in the eyes of other members of the group. … In addition whakama results from a charge of impropriety in the eyes of others, irrespective of the presence or absence of guilt. (Sachdev 1990: 434)

Whakama covers feelings of inferiority, inadequacy, and diffidence as well as self-doubt (Sachdev 1990: 434; Ritchie 1963: 178). Sachdev (1990: 435–436) lists a number of causes of whakama: • Awareness of socially disadvantaged status in relation to other Maori or New Zealanders of non-Maori descent. • Having been insulted or put down without being able to retaliate. • Uncertainty in conflict, in particular when unsure how to respond or set a course of action to save one’s own or others’ face. • Intentional or unintentional wrongdoing (such as deceit, impoliteness, insults, ignoring marae protocol) revealing contravention of moral codes or conventions. • Wrongdoings of an individual’s close friends or next-of-kin can result in whakama in the individual on behalf of or shared with the wrongdoer in question. • If an entire group or community loses something—be it something tangible like land or wealth or something less tangible like social influence or the connection with Maori cultural values – the entire group can become whakama. Whakama is clearly as much tied in with one’s immediate community, or whanau, and interaction with other individuals as with the individual. There are only four occurrences in NZ (with an FPM of 0.0491), and we will discuss three of them here. The first example is from website of the New Zealand Ministry of Justice: (41) You might have all sorts of feelings about going to court. You may feel: Scared like you don’t feel like eating, hanging out with friends, etc. tense, worried, anxious, depressed like you can’t sleep or you’re having nightmares upset embarrassed, whakama confident like you want to run away OK, pai unsettled annoyed you can’t just get on with your life numb resentful angry like you can’t get on with your life until it’s all over like you don’t want to go to school or work However you feel is OK. Most people feel some of these things when they go to court. (NZ G justice.govt.nz)

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Whakama appears in an asyndetic coordination construction embedded in a list which is itself asyndetic. Whakama and embarrassed are juxtaposed as coordinands; thus, whakama is presented as an alternative to embarrassment. Moreover, the asyndetic juxtaposition of embarrassment and whakama suggests that the concepts embarrassment and whakama are related and similar, but not identical. Embarrassment, whakama is an item on a list which itself serves as the direct object in a monotransitive construction where the main verb is feel, highlighting the emotional aspect of the concept of whakama. The following two examples are from a blog post on cultural considerations in sentencing in the New Zealand court system: (42) He blamed the Brown family for the break-up of his relationship, felt insulted and humiliated by what had happened, and a sense of whakama (shame/embarrassment) stayed with him until the offending occurred. (NZ B …thomsonreuters.co.nz) (43) It is understood why M regarded what he perceived as K’s rejection with a sense of shame and unworthiness, and accepted the various conditions of whakama (shame/embarrassment) which he went through: all of that explained the lead up to the tragic event but were not an excuse for his behaviour, still less any justification. (NZ B …thomsonreuters.co.nz) In both cases, whakama appears with an explanatory parenthetical appositive construction, informing non-Maori readers that whakama is related to shame and embarrassment. More interesting is the fact that whakama appears as the prepositional complement in an of -genitive construction. What is important is what the of -genitive postmodifies. In (41), it postmodifies sense, again highlighting that whakama is an emotion. In (42), it postmodifies conditions. This may be taken to specify the causal nature of whakama that Sachdev (1990: 435–436) discusses. However, I think that condition is not used in the condition-consequence sense, but in the sense of conditions being the difficulties that people in challenging situations face.

6.7 Concluding Remarks When we investigate the interaction between what we call lexical mediation and constructional mediation of cultural conceptualisations in World Englishes, underlying cognitive structures and processes heave into view that can provide insights into how speakers of local varieties of English construe the concepts associated with lexical importations. The points made in this chapter are in no way intended to be the final statements on the matter, but they are intended to show that studying the interaction between lexicon and grammar in world Englishes can potentially be a fruitful avenue for research in Cultural Linguistics, as the grammatical contexts in which lexical importations are used can provide insight into ways in which members of the cultural groups that have adopted localised varieties of English.

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References Adamo, G. E. (2007). Nigerian English. English Today, 23(1), 42–47. Bache, C., & Davidsen-Nielsen, N. (1997). Mastering English: An advanced grammar for nonnative and native speakers. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Beckner, P., Ellis, N. C., Blythe, R., Holland, J., Bybee, J., Ke, J., et al. (2009). Language is a complex adaptive system. Language Learning, 59(s1), 1–26. Bergen, B., & Binsted, K. (2017). Embodied grammar and humor. In G. Brône, K. Feyaerts, & T. Veale (Eds.), Cognitive linguistics and humor research (pp. 49–68). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Blench, R. (2006). A dictionary of Ghanaian English. Retrieved from http://www.rogerblench.info/ Language/English/Ghana_English_Dictionary.pdf. 2 Jan 2018. Booij, G. (2010). Construction morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bybee, J. (2013). Usage-based theory and exemplar representations of constructions. In T. Hoffmann & G. Trousedale (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of construction grammar (pp. 49–69). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cheng, C.-Y., & Hong, Y.-Y. (2017). Kiasu and creativity in Singapore: An empirical test of the situated dynamics framework. Management and Organization Review, 13(4), 871–894. Croft, W. A. (2001). Radical construction grammar: Syntactic theory in typological perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Croft, W. A. (2005). Logical and typological arguments for Radical Construction Grammar. In J.-O. Östman (Ed.), Construction grammars: Cognitive grounding and theoretical extensions (pp. 273–314). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Croft, W. A., & Cruse, D. A. (2004). Cognitive linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cummings, P., & Wolf, H.-G. (2011). A dictionary of Hong Kong English: Words from Fragrant Harbor. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Davies, M. (2013). Corpus of global web-based English. http://corpus.byu.edu/glowbe. Degani, M. (2017). Cultural conceptualisations in stories of M¯aori-English bilinguals: The cultural schema of marae. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), Advances in cultural linguistics (pp. 661–680). Singapore: Springer. Epoge, N. (2015). Domestication of English in Africa via proverbial expressions: A lexico-semantic study of transliteration in the English of AkOOse native speakers in Cameroon. Globe: A Journal of Language Culture and Communication, 2, 55–69. Fillmore, C. J., Kay, P., & O’Connor, M. C. (1988). Regularity and idiomaticity in grammatical constructions: The case of let alone. Language, 64(3), 501–539. Fortuin, E. (2013). The construction of excess and sufficiency from a crosslinguistic perspective. Linguistic Typology, 17, 31–88. Frank, R. (2015). A future agenda for research in language and culture. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 493–512). New York: Routledge. Goldberg, A. E. (1995). Constructions: A construction grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Gries, S Th, & Stefanowitsch, A. (2004). Covarying collexemes in the into-causative. In M. Achard & S. Kemmer (Eds.), Language, culture and mind (pp. 225–236). Stanford, CA: SCLI. Haugen, E. (1950). The analysis of linguistic borrowing. Language, 26(2), 210–231. Ho, J. T. S., Ang, C. E., Loh, J., & Ng, I. (1998). A preliminary study of kiasu behaviour: Is it unique to Singapore? Journal of Managerial Psychology, 13(5/6), 359–370. Hwang, A., Ang, S., & Francesco, A. M. (2002). The silent Chinese: The influence of face and kiasunism on student feedback-seeking behaviors. Journal of Management Education, 26(1), 70–98. Jensen, K. E. (2014a). Performance and competence in usage-based construction grammar. In R. Cancino & L. Dam (Eds.), Multidisciplinary perspectives on language competence (pp. 157–188). Aalborg: Aalborg University Press. Jensen, K. E. (2014b). This construction is too hot to handle: A corpus study of an adjectival construction. In Japanese Cognitive Linguistics Association (Ed.), Proceedings from the 14th

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annual meeting of the Japanese cognitive linguistics association (pp. 740–748). Tokyo: Japanese Cognitive Linguistics Association. Jensen, K. E. (2015). Adjectives and usage-patterns in the [X enough to VERB]-construction. Paper presented at the 13th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference. Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. Jensen, K. E. (2017). Corpora and cultural cognition: How corpus-linguistic methodology can contribute to Cultural Linguistics. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), Advances in Cultural Linguistics (pp. 477– 505). Singapore: Springer. Johnson, M. (1987). The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Kachru, B. B. (1992). Models for non-native Englishes. In B. B. Kachru (Ed.), The alchemy of English: The spread, functions, and models of non-native Englishes (pp. 48–74). Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. Paradis, C. (1997). Degree modifiers of adjectives in spoken British English. Lund: Lund University Press. Princeton University (2010). Wordnet. URL: http://wordnet.princeton.edu. Accessed 9 July 2018. Reddy, M. (1979). The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in our language about language. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and Thought (pp. 284–324). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ritchie, J. E. (1963). The making of a Maori: A case study of a changing community. Reed: Wellington. Sachdev, P. S. (1990). Whakama: Culturally determined behavior in the New Zealand Maori. Psychological Medicine 20, 433–444. Sharifian, F. (2011). Cultural conceptualisations and language: Theoretical framework and applications. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Sharifian, F. (2015). Cultural linguistics and world Englishes. World Englishes, 34(4), 515–532. Sharifian, F. (2017). Cultural linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Theil, R., & Eifring, H. B. (2005). Linguistics for students of Asian and African Languages. Oslo: Institutt for Østeuropeiske og Orientalske Studier., Universitetet i Oslo. Thiagarajan, T. (2016). Kepoh M’syan motorcyclists get distracted by accident, end up crashing into each other. World of Buzz. URL: https://www.worldofbuzz.com/kepoh-msian-motorcyclistsget-distracted-accident-end-crashing. Accessed 12 June 2018. Vinay, J. & J. Darbelnet (1995). Comparative stylistics of French and English: A methodology for translation. (trans., J.C. Sager & M.-J. Hamel). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Wolf, H.-G., & Polzenhagen, Frank. (2013). Cognitive sociolinguistics in L2-variety dictionaries of English. In M. Pütz, J. A. Robinson, & M. Reif (Eds.), Cognitive Sociolinguistics: Social and cultural variation in cognition and language use (pp. 133–160). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Wong, J. (2006). Contextualizing aunty in Singaporean English. World Englishes, 23(3/4), 451–466.

Chapter 7

‘Till Death Do Us Wed’—About Ghost Brides and Ghost Weddings in Hong Kong English Denisa Lati´c

Abstract The present corpus-based analysis was initiated by the author’s previous research on cultural conceptualisations from the domains of family and money in Hong Kong English (Lati´c and Wolf 2017). It showed that local cultural practices can be linguistically traced in collocations such as ‘hungry ghost’, ‘hell money’ and ‘worship ancestors’, which are instantiations of the underlying cultural conceptualisation ghosts are humans. In Hong Kong, life and death, the real and the other world coexist in the traditions and language of its inhabitants, which will be fleshed out with marriage-related references within the domain of ghosts in this chapter. It is argued that the domain under investigation is part of a larger conceptual network and that the corresponding (cultural) keywords form chains (cf. Peters 2017), as they do not appear isolated, but rather trigger or—as Wierzbicka (1997: 17) put it—‘lead us to’ related keywords and collocations. ‘Ghost bride’, ‘ghost marriage’ and ‘ghost wedding’ testify to that principle and demonstrate that keyword chains can be used as a measuring unit in an attempt to quantify qualitative studies. The present analysis contributes to the further exploration of the domain of ghosts in Hong Kong English (HKE) and illustrates that the length of the ghost-related keyword chain reflects the preoccupation with this domain on many levels of Hong Kong people’s lives. Keywords Hong Kong English · Cultural Linguistics · Corpus linguistics · Cultural conceptualisations · Keyword chains

7.1 Introduction The pursuit of luck and fortune in Hong Kong is visible and tangible at every corner of the city. It is visible in the shops that have at least one sticker or lucky charm with the Chinese character for fortune (福, fú) printed on it, it shows in the little altars at the entrances of restaurants and cafés, in the Hong Kongers’ performed rituals such as burning paper offerings, especially during big holidays like the Chinese New Year D. Lati´c (B) University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_7

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and Ching Ming. It even shows in Hong Kong’s breathtaking skyline—a modern day skyline shaped by an ancient Chinese ‘system of magic’ (Emmons 1992: 39): fung shui. Hong Kong’s architecture is unique for many reasons, one of them being that some skyscrapers are built with holes (serving as pathways) in them, so that the dragons’ flight route is not blocked when they head from the hills to the water. This fact alone is indicative of how the city has managed to retain ancient Chinese traditions while being a former British colony characterised as a modernised and Westernised metropolis that refers to itself as ‘Asia’s world city’ (cf. Brand Hong Kong). This alleged dichotomy turns out to morph into a harmonised blend of East and West, and the above illustrates that the magical is entrenched in nearly every aspect of life in Hong Kong. Whether it being on a private, spiritual, superstitious or a formal, official level, in which the government is involved in fung shui-related positioning of office furniture and urban development and planning (cf. Zipf 2004: 456; Emmons 1992: 44, Ho 2004). Linguistically, the preoccupation with fung shui on the political level has led to the emergence of the collocations ‘fung shui claims’, i.e. villages or communities seeking remedies for disturbed fung shui, and ‘fung shui compensation’, i.e. payments granted by the Hong Kong Government to residents, whose fung shui was disturbed due to construction projects (cf. Hong Kong Government Press Releases, DeBernardi 2011: 360f). The South China Morning Post (henceforth SCMP) estimates that 10 million HK$ of public funds were spent on fung shui compensation in the first decade of the twenty-first century. 福 (fú), fortune or luck, is the common denominator when studying seemingly distinct domains in HKE; at the same time, it resembles the relatedness and networklike functioning of the domains under investigation. Thus, a city so passionately devoted to accumulating wealth and fortune based on, inter alia, a several thousandyear-old (superstitious) philosophy shows that it is vital and with reason to look at how the supernatural shapes the Hong Kongers’ shared cultural cognition and thereby also Hong Kong English (henceforth HKE), which will be demonstrated with the domain of ghosts in the present chapter. Despite a lot of academic engagement in the field of HKE, studying HKE from a Cognitive Sociolinguistic and Cultural Linguistic perspective is left to the usual suspects, such as Polzenhagen and Wolf (2010), Cummings and Wolf (2011), Wolf and Chan (2016), and most recently Lati´c and Wolf (2017). The plethora of prior research on HKE is structurally and sociolinguistically motivated and analyses HKE in terms of syntax, phonology and attitudes towards the variety (cf. Zhang 2013; Sewell 2009; Grundy and Jiang 2001; Hung 2000, respectively). Although academics’ research on the relationship between language and culture dates back to the eighteenth century (cf. Sharifian 2017b: 7ff.; Polzenhagen and Wolf 2010: 282), a Cultural Linguistic blueprint was not provided until 1996 when Gary Palmer published his groundbreaking book Toward a Theory of Cultural Linguistics. In it, he not only argues that ‘language and world view are part of the same cognitive network’ (Palmer 1996: 16), he also introduces the notion of culturally constructed ‘imagery’, which refers to all the sensations we experience in front of our ‘mind’s eye’ before we talk (Palmer 1996: 3). One of the crucial characteristics of imagery in relation to language is that it is dynamic, as ‘discourse invokes conventional imagery

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and provokes the construction of new imagery. At the same time, imagery structures discourse; they are mutually constitutive’ (Palmer 1996: 6). With the further development of Palmer’s Cultural Linguistics, ‘cultural conceptualisation’ has come to replace imagery and constitutes the key analytical tool for studying the relationship between language and culture (see Sharifian 2015: 477). Much like the dialectic nature of Palmer’s imagery, cultural conceptualisations ‘are developed through interactions between the members of a cultural group and […] are negotiated and renegotiated throughout time and across generations’ (Sharifian 2011: 5). For Sharifian (2003, 2011, 2015) ‘cultural conceptualisation’ serves as an umbrella term for the notions of ‘conceptual metaphors’, ‘cultural keywords’ and the cognitive processes of schematisation and categorisation, which he defines to be part of a collective cultural cognition, the ‘knowledge that emerges from the interactions between members of a cultural group’ (Sharifian 2015: 476). In other words, Sharifian emphasises the existence of a collective level of conceptualisation that in itself embeds individual cognition. As he writes, ‘cultural conceptualisations are heterogeneously distributed across the members of a cultural group, in the sense that individuals do not exactly share all the elements of the conceptualisations that are drawn upon by the entire group’ (Sharifian 2011: 5, original emphasis). Additionally, cultural conceptualisations can be instantiated in forms other than language, such as arts, literature, rituals and cultural events (cf. Sharifian 2017a, 2017b: 3), in a similar way as imagery is based on ‘experiences obtained through all the sensory modes’ (Palmer 1996: 3) and is therefore culturally constructed. Palmer (1996: 4) also calls for more systematicity in the anthropological analysis of language in order to unify ‘mutually inconsistent theories’ (p. 4) under the umbrella of Cultural Linguistics. In her book Understanding Cultures through their Key Words (1997) published only 1 year later, Anna Wierzbicka opens with the programmatic and much-cited claim that ‘there is a very close link between the life of a society and the lexicon spoken by it’ (p. 1). The definition of (cultural) keywords is equally apt and straightforward; they are ‘words, which are particularly revealing in a given culture’ (pp. 15–16) and which serve as ‘focal points around which entire cultural domains are organized’ (p. 16). She also provides a guideline on how to identify culturally specific keywords, a guideline that—by dwelling on raw frequencies—applies corpus linguistics as the preferred methodology. Thus, in order to justify that the word in question carries cultural salience, one has to make sure that it is not ‘marginal’, frequently used in a particular domain, that it forms phraseological clusters and ‘frequently occurs in proverbs’ (cf. Wierzbicka 1997: 16). All of which are basic techniques applied in both quantitative- and qualitative-corpus-based research (cf. Rayson and Garside 2000; Kilgarriff 1997). In his comparison of the LOB (American English) and BNC (British English) corpora, Kilgarriff (1997) found out that the word frequency lists reject the null hypothesis, i.e. the hypothesis that there is no difference between the corpora was falsified. Kilgarriff (1997) concludes that ‘[t]his reveals a bald, obvious fact about language. Words are not selected at random. There is no a priori reason to expect them to behave as if they had been, and indeed they do not’ (p. 6, original emphasis). He does not take into account cultural peculiarities of AmE and BrE as the root of the diverging frequencies of the respective keywords and carries out a purely quantitative approach. What the study illustrates is that the frequency

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analysis is a way of detecting variety of specific keywords, which can then be used as basis for qualitative Cultural Linguistic endeavours. Since Cultural Linguistic approaches to language—specifically to World Englishes—centre around semantic and pragmatic meaning1 (cf. Sharifian 2011, 2017a: 6; Palmer 1996) they generate qualitative studies. Frequencies help to pinpoint what is of importance to a speech community at a given time (a question that has even gained mainstream attention through Google Trends2 for example), whereas Cultural Linguistics offers insights as to why a given keyword is frequently used by explaining ‘how the frequencies of certain lexical items are motivated by underlying cultural conceptualisations’ (Peters 2017: 134). By taking a contrastive approach, cultural peculiarities of a language can be best highlighted, which is especially fruitful in the realm of World Englishes, as they share a common core, i.e. English and thereby constitute a gateway to the analysis of intra-linguistic variation. A case in point is the domain of ghosts and the keywords ‘ghost’ and ‘ancestor’ in HKE and American English (henceforth AmE). Just by looking at the per million frequencies of the lemma [ghost], which is 23.78 in HKE and 25.00 in AmE,3 one would come to the conclusion that they are equally culturally relevant for the varieties under investigation, with an even higher frequency in AmE. However, a closer look at the keywords in context, concordance lines and collocations revealed that ghosts are of greater relevance for speakers of HKE, as ghosts are part of different domains of people’s lives, such as religion, movies, music, politics, whereas in AmE there is an overwhelming limitation of usage to the domain of fiction (with 7501 tokens this makes up 52% of the overall frequency of the lemma [ghost]), where ghosts are primarily considered a matter of entertainment. The already low frequencies in the remaining sections (spoken, magazine, newspaper, academic) are of even less significance when looking into the section magazine with the second highest per million frequency of 19.82. Out of the first 100 concordance lines, 64 referred to [ghost] in the realm of fiction, discussing ghost stories and fictional characters in TV shows such as Game of Thrones. The salience of ghosts in HKE will be explained in more detail in Sect. 7.2 of the present chapter. Prior to that, there is another theoretical implication made by Wierzbicka (1997) that is important for the following analysis. She compares keywords to a ‘tangled ball of wool: by pulling it, we may be able to unravel a whole tangled “ball” of attitudes, values, and expectations, embodied not only in words, but also in common collocations, in set phrases, in grammatical constructions, in proverbs and so on’ (p. 17). As an example she uses the Russian word sud’ba (‘fate’), which leads to other ‘fate-related’ words, collocations, proverbs, etc. In a similar spirit, Peters’ (2017) analysis of cultural conceptualisations of fairies, banshees and the church in Irish English revealed the consecutive nature of cultural keywords, which he subsumes 1 Additionally, Sharifian (2017a, 2017b: 6) identifies morpho-syntax as third component of language

relevant to Cultural Linguistic studies. Trends is a tool that enables users to research the most frequent queries on its platform, which can also be sorted by region, year, genre, language, etc. Cf. https://trends.google.de/trends/? geo=DE. 3 The figures are retrieved from GloWbE and COCA, respectively. 2 Google

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under the notion of ‘keyword chains’. Keyword chains describe ‘the collocational patterns for one keyword [that] yield the next keyword, the collocations of which then again disclose the next keyword and so forth’ (Peters 2017: 43). Additionally, keyword chains are indicative of ‘the centrality of some semantic fields’ (Peters 2017: 139), which makes them useful parameters in order to measure semantic salience within one domain, but also in cross-domain conceptualisations (cf. children are an investment in HKE). Regarding the domains of fairies and banshees the keyword chain for the Irish English context looks as follows: ‘banshee’ > ‘fairy’ > ‘fairy music’ > ‘music’ > ‘traditional music’. Thus, (cultural) keywords form chains, as they do not appear isolated, but rather trigger related keywords and collocations. ‘Ghost bride’, ‘ghost marriage’ and ‘ghost wedding’ in HKE testify to that principle within the domain of ghosts. In that sense, keywords can be best understood in terms of a concrete source domain: keywords are atoms. Like atoms, keywords are the smallest constituents of a domain that are able to associate or dissociate with other words and thereby constantly create new collocations and phrases. In the following, the mechanisms of that principle will be demonstrated by the example of the domain of ghosts in HKE.

7.2 G HOSTS in Hong Kong English When analysing the domain of ghosts in HKE it is inevitable to take a look at the domain of family as well, as demonstrated by Lati´c and Wolf (2017). In a Confucian society, the family provides the template for interpersonal relationships, which in HKE is referred to as ‘family education’. That is, the life skills one is taught at home, which include both academic and moral education. An inherent part of family relations, specifically in the relationship between parents and their children is the notion of filial piety, meaning ‘respecting the superior’ (Hwang 1999: 170) and implying ‘never disobey’ (Confucius’ answer when asked about filial piety, cf. Eno 2015: The Analects of Confucius, 2.5). Confucius carries on to explain what filiality is essentially about: ‘A young man should be filial within his home and respectful of elders when outside’ (The Analects of Confucius 1.6) and ‘what is meant by filiality today is nothing but being able to take care of your parents’ (The Analects of Confucius 2.7). These behavioural instructions, rather rules, are applied to the spiritual domain of ghosts as well. In Hong Kong, ancestors are conceptualised as ghosts, which in turn are conceptualised as humans due to the cultivation of filial piety. In HKE, this instantiates in collocations such as ‘hungry ghosts’ and ‘worship ancestors’. Generally speaking, pre-defined obligations govern the treatment of ancestors and ghosts. For example., elderly care that can be understood in terms of a return-on-investment for the parents follows logically from conceptualising children as investment and, from the children’s perspective, earning money is supporting the parents (cf. Lati´c and Wolf 2017: 201). Therefore, the salient conceptualisation ghosts are humans in HKE (as the basis for the collocation ‘hungry ghost’) is acted out by, inter alia, burning paper offerings to the ghosts and ancestors (cf. Scott 2007). These

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are paper replicas of worldly goods, such as phones, houses, cars, clothes and money, that are burned to satisfy basic human desires in the other world, which trigger the conceptualisation paper objects are real objects in the other world. It is a concept so deeply entrenched in Hong Kong that the custom of burning paper money has not only led to a set of synonyms, such as paper/spirit/ghost/hell money, but also to the modification of the transitive verb ‘to burn sth.’ to a ditransitive verb taking two objects in HKE, as noted by Wolf (2008: 375) and further supported by the following example retrieved from the Hong Kong Corpus of Spoken English (HKCSE) (Cheng et al. 2005) and an informant from Hong Kong, respectively: (1) deaths or something that what is it called festival called the Jun Yen Festival no that comes in May no (.) there you go go to your ancestral graves and give them offerings and burn people money and things like that b: well it’s er Ching Ming (.) * Festival x: ** uhuh when is that b:it’s during the March (.) mm (.) * during the March

(2) Another Chinese belief is that people living can send gifts to the deceased by burning the object. Since there is no other gifts better than cash, so money is the most favourable item. Burning real cash is not practical, and since the deceased is going to use it in the underworld, it made sense to burn them note issued by the underworld authority.

In order to convey the entire meaning of the cultural custom, a second object is required, hence the transitive verb ‘to burn sth.’ is morpho-syntactically extended in HKE to ‘to burn so. sth.’. A second way of linguistically realising the underlying conceptualisation paper objects are real objects in the other world is by adding a prepositional phrase: ‘to burn sth. to so.’, as shown in the following example from an interviewee that painted a hypothetical scenario of his father having passed away in order to explain how they would treat the father’s ghost. (3) For example my dad die and I will let him in some places up on a hill and when it is Ching Ming I will go to his grave and pray to him. […] pray he is doing ok and burn something to him. Burn like clothes, but not real clothes, made by paper. And it is burned, you burn it and it means that people will receive [what] you burn.

Burning paper offerings has even entered the legal sphere when in 2016, Gucci asked shop owners to stop selling paper replicas of Gucci products, due to trademark infringement. A case that called Hong Kong-based lawyers to the stage, discussing under which Hong Kong law Gucci could legally argue for a case of trademark infringement.4 In Hong Kong’s spiritual mindset, it is believed that life continues after death, which can be subsumed under a worlds-in-mirrors scheme. It is the belief that the burned paper cars, clothes or money will be driven, worn and spent, respectively, and thus it is not surprising that other worldly traditions are transferred to the supernatural as well: wedding and marriage. In two separate seminars and without prior input, I asked my Master’s programme students at the University of Potsdam, who were predominantly socialised in Germany or other Western cultures, what their associations with the collocation 4 Cf.

Zhang, Jing, ‘Gucci’s PR faux pas in Hong Kong over luxury paper tomb offerings’, South China Morning Post. 3 May 2016. https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-luxury/article/1940630/ guccis-pr-faux-pas-hong-kong-over-luxury-paper-tomb.

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‘ghost bride’ were. The following are overlapping answers that were mentioned in both groups. The most frequent one is a runaway bride who does not attend her own wedding ceremony and leaves the groom waiting at the altar, which could be derived from the modern dating phenomenon of ‘ghosting’, i.e. cutting ties with someone without warning. The second most frequent association with ‘ghost bride’ is a bride that commits suicide on her wedding day. Thirdly, a ghost bride is a bride who is preoccupied with losing weight prior to the wedding, which makes her exhibit phenotypical features of a ghost as depicted in pop culture: skinny, pale, malnourished and rather unpleasant to look at. Clearly, this sample survey is not representative, but it does reflect the underlying conceptualisation of ghosts in the Western world that ties in with the data presented above. Ghosts occupy a space in the realm of fiction, predominantly in an eerie fashion. Coming back to the Hong Kong context, the collocation ‘ghost marriage’ consists of the two characters 冥 (underworld) and 婚 (marriage) and describes ‘a posthumous marriage in which one partner or both are deceased’ (Stockard 1989: 90; Schwartze 2010) or to put it more bluntly ‘at least one has to be dead already’ (interviewee from Hong Kong). Ikels’ (1985) studies on the importance of marriage to Chinese parents are also in tune with the worlds-in-mirrors scheme (cf. Lati´c and Wolf 2017), as she explains that ‘[t]hese so-called ghost marriages are a logical extension of the intense belief held by many Chinese that the marrying off of one’s children is among the most important duties of parenthood’ (p. 254). Consequently, parents arrange a ghost wedding ceremony for their deceased children so that ‘they can have children and carry on the family lineage in another place’ (Feng Shui Master Szeto Fat-Ching in an interview with ABC News Australia).5 There are different scenarios that would initiate a ghost wedding. A deceased daughter might appear in the dreams of her family asking to be married (cf. Jordan 1971: 181; Ikels 1985: 253). The groom is then found by placing a red envelope at a prominent place on the road and the one that happens to pick it up will be announced bridegroom, alternatively, the groom can be chosen beforehand and the red envelope will be placed on his doorstep. Once chosen, he has to accept the money and serve as groom for the ghost bride; otherwise, his bride would seek vengeance. It is to be noted that this has no consequences for him in real life; he is still free to get married to a non-ghostly bride, which does not hold true for women. In case a woman’s fiancée dies, she will still be married to him and has to live her life as a married woman fulfilling the duties and obligations demanded by her in-laws at least for a few years (personal communication with informants in Hong Kong, see also Jordan 1971). Another scenario is that the ghost ‘strikes misfortune upon her natal family or the families of her married sisters’ (Jordan 1971: 182) to call attention to her misery. Traditionally, a spirit medium is consulted to arrange the marriage. After the ceremony, paper objects, such as clothes, money and furniture, will be burned for/to the newlyweds (cf. Topley 1955: 30). The actuality of this topic becomes obvious when taking a closer look at Hong Kong and Chinese 5 Cf.

‘Ghost marriages: A 3,000-year-old tradition is still thriving in rural China’, 8 April 2016. https://www.abc.net.au/news/programs/the-world/2018-04-06/ghost-marriages:-a3,000-year-old-tradition-is/9628594.

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pop culture that features movies such as Ghost Bride (鬼新娘, 1987 with the English subtitle Spiritual Love, 2016), Revelations of a Ghost Marriage (冥婚啟示/非常 婚事, 2014) starring one of Hong Kong’s most famous actresses Sandra Ng or the novel Ghost Marriage (冥婚, 2011) by Zhou Dedong. A simple Google search string consisting only of the first Chinese character 冥 (underworld) shows that the eighth most frequently googled topic is 冥婚 (ghost marriage) in Chinese.

7.3 Findings The examples presented in this chapter are a small part of an ongoing study and were obtained from a variety of qualitative research methods for data collection: participant observation (PO), focus group discussion (FG) and a questionnaire (Q) in its first piloting stage that turned out to yield fruitful insights. Taking on the role of a participant observer developed naturally with spending roughly 6 months in Hong Kong, interacting with locals and assimilating to the local culture. The interactive group environment in focus group discussions can not only yield a large set of data in a short time, but more importantly, they ‘are able to produce “collective narratives” on the research issues that go beyond individual perspectives’ (Hennink 2014: 3), which, in terms of the Cultural-Linguistics paradigm, are particularly revealing on the level of the overarching cultural cognition. The reasons for using a questionnaire as research method are manifold, it not only has a wide scope and can reach many people in a shorter period of time than the researcher would with interviews, it can also be designed to combine qualitative and quantitative researches. As of writing, the following examples are taken from 13 informants (5 male, 8 female, age 23–64). All of them were born and raised in Hong Kong and two spent 6 months or longer in an English-speaking country after they had reached the age of 20. In the present case, the informants were confronted with open-ended questions (What is a ghost marriage? What is a ghost bride?), as these are qualitative in nature and provide insights about the respondent’s genuine opinion (cf. Maxwell 2009). The findings and their respective analyses will be grouped by the method they were obtained from. The following examples are questionnaire answers to the questions asking for a brief definition of ‘ghost marriage’ and ‘ghost bride’: (4) When I read the word: ghost brides, ghost marriages, the first thing is ‘sad romance’, not a horrible feeling, why? Cause I think that ghost was people, also, like you and me. Why? They hope to make the marriage [a] success. […] Yes maybe the deaths are selfish, some people may say if there is true [sic] love, you need to give up sometime. It’s a long long topic which link with ‘what is love’, so I think it’s not a standard answer. […] I would define ‘ghost bride’ and ‘ghost marriage’ are some human spirits across the alive world and the dead one. (5) In Chinese culture, building a family is the representation of showing your loyalty to whole family, not only your parents. If a guy die young, some parents would like to hold a wedding for he marry the fiancee in the reality or another girl who died young

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too. In this case, the girl hasn’t the right to determine her marriage; she is just a chess of finishing someone’s dream of building a family. (6) Those were the corrupt culture of ancient China. Many people thought that men must marry at the moment. Even someone who haven’t married before death, his family will arranged “ghost wedding” for him after his death, they found a woman to married this non-existent person, a live chicken will be used as a bridegroom when holding a wedding. I think those women were poor, their human rights were deprived. Some tradition even buried them with the dead together, it is terrible and inhuman.6 (7) I know the concept for this topic but I can’t use English to explain. (8) I think of hungry Ghost Festival in China, that it seems like a taboo for Chinese people.

The above answers from a group of undergraduate college students in their mid20s and early 30s have one thing in common: they were all familiar with the concept, but had varying opinions on it. In (3), it becomes obvious that the student’s language draws on the underlying cultural conceptualisation ghosts as humans when he writes ‘I think that ghost was people, also, like you and me’ and that ghosts ‘are some human spirits across the alive world and the dead one’. By referring to ‘selfish deaths’ he points to a special case of ghost marriages, in which young couples commit suicide together and their parents would then host a ghost wedding for them, as has been reported from (and about) Hong Kong (cf. Committee on Prevention of Student Suicides Hong Kong). Examples (4) and (5) reflect the centrality of family in Chinese culture and the concomitant contempt for this custom which is categorised as ‘corrupt culture of ancient China’ that deprives the ones involved of their human rights. Example (6) is a phenomenon that was encountered in all other data collection stages as well; the informants were not able to answer the questions, unless they translated the concept to Cantonese first. Obviously, this cultural custom is framed through the Cantonese language, which also includes a specific vocabulary that the informants never had to translate. Though minimalist in nature, the answer in example (7) reveals the underlying sacredness of the concept which makes it a ‘taboo topic for Chinese people’. While following up on my Ph.D. supervisor’s, Hans-Georg Wolf, research on Nam Man Praat Oil in Singapore, the following aphorism regarding the superstitious was pointed out me: ‘to keep it sacred you have to keep it secret’. The Nam Man Praat Oil shop owner in Singapore was initially very reluctant to share in-group knowledge with an obvious out-group member. He also pointed out that using that oil for good luck is to be understood as a ritual that is rather performed but not talked about, especially not to out-group members (e.g. researchers). It is for that reason that example (7) could be interpreted as reflecting the sacredness of the event schema ghost wedding.

6 In the Chinese novel Ghost Marriage, the abandoned wife has three treasures (2015) by Duo Qi the protagonist wakes up in a coffin buried with her dead groom after a ghost wedding had been arranged.

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The following excerpt related to ghost brides and ghost marriages is an orthographic transcription of a focus group discussion that lasted for roughly 1 h and included five participants aged 26–45: (9) This could be some kind of Chinese myth, we don’t know that. We’re from Hong Kong (laughs). Could be some old traditions that’s reviving. There are different category of people in Hong Kong and probably, I don’t know, maybe older generation they would know that. […] I don’t really know about those. It is Chinese tradition. […] I don’t know about anything like it in Hong Kong. I never experience anything like that among my friends or families, so yeah, but this could definitely Chinese, I believe that, you know, it’s very common.

The data gathered through participant observation (PO) is bound to be told like an anthropological anecdote, as it was not a formal interview, nor a pre-arranged group meeting where the participants knew a gweilo (HKE for ‘stranger/foreigner’) will meet them to ask questions. Hence, the atmosphere in this familiar environment of a PO can be trusted to yield authentic and genuine responses. During an after-dinner stroll through the streets of Mong Kok (lit. ‘busy corner’, a district in Hong Kong) with two of my Cantonese-speaking informants (age 28 and 64) who were both born and raised in Hong Kong, I steered the conversation to the topic of the supernatural and eventually asked the same questions that were presented to all informants. Looking at each other and translating the terms ‘ghost bride’ and ‘ghost marriage’ to Cantonese, they only then realised what I was asking from them. They translated the Chinese characters for me and explained the cultural practice of marrying ghosts, the prominent placing of a red envelope to attract a groom, that ‘at least one has to be dead already’ and that it is based on the Chinese belief that an unmarried spirit will be restless. According to cultural practice, restless spirits need to be appeased and taken care of. Both confirmed the existence of ‘ghost marriages’ but denied it could have anything to do with, let alone be trending in Hong Kong and dismissed it as a rural, therefore mainland Chinese, practice. ‘Ghost bride’ and ‘ghost marriage’ are frequently used in anthropological and journalistic discourse, which triggers the question why the collocation ‘ghost groom’ is not part of the concept. The answer is linked to the cultural practice of ancestor worship (cf. Lati´c and Wolf 2017), in which ‘the woman’s spiritual identity is excised from her natal line (the line of the father) and subsumed within the lineage of her husband’ (Schattschneider 2001: 856, see also Freedman 1970). That is, if a woman dies unmarried her name will not be put on an ancestral tablet, which means that she will have nobody to worship her, leading to an afterlife as a restless spirit. This stands in contrast to male offspring who are not bound to be ‘excised’ from their family as they traditionally hold a place on their father’s ancestral tablet. The strong focus on ghost brides and not a single reference to the male counterpart in the form of a ‘ghost groom’ suggests that the discourse is more elaborate for women, which, in turn, is explained with the fact that for women the question of marriage bears severe fundamental and existential consequences. Thus, the underlying cultural conceptualisation for the existence and non-existence of a linguistic expression is the overarching conceptualisation ghosts are humans and more specifically: a

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woman’s identity is her marital status, an unmarried female ghost is a persona non grata, a restless spirit is a threat/dangerous force. Everyday life situations show how connected seemingly different domains are, such as law, finance, business, politics and religion. For example, when the Hong Kong Government issued the new HK$ bills, Hong Kongers took to social media to share their thoughts. The new 100HK$ bill depicting a Cantonese opera singer was of particular concern. A Hong Kong law student wrote the following on Twitter: (9) The new Bank of China HK$100 note has been mocked as resembling “hell money” for ancestors in the afterlife. Be reminded of a cautionary tale never to accept laisee [red envelope] from strangers on the street during Lunar New Year. They may be looking for partners for relatives who died young. https://twitter.com/elson_tong/status/102176 9993006940162

Thus, because the new HK$ bill resembles money issued by the ’underworld authorities’, an informant from Hong Kong also expressed his frustration by saying ‘people in HK look at this differently [...], to me and a lot of people living in HK, that is a very bad design’ (personal communication via Telegram). Further comments on a local newspaper’s (Apple Daily) Facebook page,7 albeit in Cantonese, advised to spend the scary-looking note immediately,8 so as to not attract wandering ghosts to their homes that would confuse it with ghost money and come collect it. Yet others write that the Bank of China seems to have collaborated with the ghost bank, claiming the note looked scary and that they’re afraid it won’t be accepted as legitimate cash payment in stores (得啦得啦, 怕左你喇, 用支付寶得未啊). Another user juxtaposed a picture of the 100HK$ note and a ghost money note with the caption ‘look closely/carefully and don’t burn it in a wrong way!’ (睇清楚唔好燒錯!). Example (9) above is the perfect illustration of what was referred to as a conceptual network in the beginning of the chapter. The mundane act of releasing a new HK$ note relates back to the custom of arranging ghost weddings and the concomitant warning to stay alert if you don’t want to be married off to a ghost bride. As has been thoroughly elaborated, the domain of ghosts unpacks diverse and comprehensive atomic bonds that branch out into various semantic fields. The keyword ‘ghost’ alone triggers the following keyword chain for the event schema ghost wedding: ghost > hungry ghost > ancestors > worship ancestors > lineage > marriage > ghost bride > ghost wedding > ghost marriage. The keyword chain shows that the chain links are mutually dependent and logically follow from the preceding one. Additionally, it needs to be emphasised that the keyword chain is not meant to be a holistic representation of the entire domain of ghosts, but that it pertains to only one event schema therein. This fact and the length of the keyword chain lucidly illustrate how elaborate, semantically salient and culturally relevant the domain of

7 https://www.facebook.com/hk.nextmedia/?tn-str=kF. 8 The Chinese sentence is the following: 設計非常嚇人, 收到要馬上花去, 不敢帶回家. It roughly

translates into ‘the design is very scary. I have to spend this bill immediately because I don’t dare to bring it home’.

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ghosts in HKE is. For comparison, based on the collocations, their relative frequencies and keywords in context in COCA the keyword chain for the domain of ghosts in the AmE context would look like this: ghost > ghost stories.

7.4 Conclusion The spiritual and superstitious is entrenched in nearly every aspect of life in Hong Kong, for example, local politics and law, which form the basis for collocations such as ‘fung shui claims’ and ‘fung shui compensation’. This not only shapes HKE but also has behavioural implications for its inhabitants, as exemplified with the domain of ghosts in the present chapter, which aimed at further contributing to and supporting Peters’ (2017) claim that keyword chains are reflective of the salience of certain sematic fields in a given speech community. Furthermore, it was proposed to use keyword chains as an additional analytical tool, as they pose a quantifying mechanism within inherently qualitative studies, such as those generated in the field of Cultural Linguistics. A case in point is the comparison of the keyword chain for the event schema ghost wedding in HKE and the one based on the corpus data of AmE, which is already exhaustively described with two chain links (ghost > ghost stories) whereas in HKE nine chain links are needed to analyse and accurately represent only one event schema from the domain of ghosts: ghost > hungry ghost > ancestors > worship ancestors > lineage > marriage > ghost bride > ghost wedding > ghost marriage. The fact that the relative frequency of [ghost] is comparable in both varieties (and even slightly higher in AmE) makes the keyword chain analysis particularly insightful because it illustrates that the domain of ghosts is culturally much more relevant for the Hong Kong context, which would otherwise not be reflected via the numerical data from the corpora. It is not proposed that ghost weddings are celebrated frequently in Hong Kong or that the length of the keyword chain suggests that they are a salient part of Hong Kong culture. Rather, the present analysis has shown the Hong Kongers’ familiarity with the concept at various age levels, how elaborate and extensive the domain of ghosts in HKE is and that the underlying conceptualisation ghosts are humans constitutes the basis for the detection and formation of other conceptualisations based on the worlds-in-mirrors schema (Lati´c and Wolf 2017: 211). Based on the speech data obtained in Hong Kong the following cultural conceptualisations can be deduced for the event schema ghost wedding: a woman’s identity is her marital status, an unmarried female ghost is a persona non grata, a restless spirit is a threat/dangerous force. By analysing languages and their cultural conceptualisations through individual domains, which, in turn, are atomically structured through the keywords they entail, a set of relations or related concepts can be detected by taking a bottom-up approach. Through keyword chains we are able to make claims about the quantitative salience of semantic fields and the respective cultural conceptualisations they trigger. This, in turn, reflects the make-up

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of the shared cultural cognition speakers draw on, which can also be statistically supported. Where Hong Kong men are warned via Twitter how to avoid being married off to a ghost bride, the release of new HK$ bills triggers superstitious anxieties, paper offerings might cause an international law suit and ghosts naturally have human needs it is obvious that the boundaries between reality and the afterlife are almost nonexistent or at least fuzzy. That is why in the Hong Kong English speech community we find collocations such as ‘ghost bride’, ‘ghost wedding’ and ‘ghost marriage’, which are all based on the underlying conceptualisation ghosts are humans and prove that it truly does branch out into all spheres of ordinary human life.

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Peters, A. (2017). fairies, banshees, and the church. Cultural conceptualisations in Irish English. In H.-G. Wolf, F. Polzenhagen, & A. Peters (Eds.), Cultural linguistic contributions to World Englishes. International Journal of Language and Culture (Vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 127–148). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Polzenhagen, F., & Wolf, H.-G. (2010). Investigating culture from a linguistic perspective: An exemplification with Hong Kong English. ZAA, 58(3), 281–303. Rayson, P., & Garside, R. (2000). Comparing Corpora using frequency profiling. In WCC ’00 Proceedings of the Workshop on Comparing Corpora (Vol. 9, pp. 1–6). Schattschneider, E. (2001). “Buy me a bride”: Death and exchange in northern Japanese bride-doll marriage. American Ethnologist, 28(4), 854–880. Schwartze, L. J. (2010). Grave Vows: A cross-cultural examination of the varying forms of ghost marriage among five societies. Nebraska Anthropologist, 60, 82–95. Scott, J. L. (2007). For gods, ghosts and ancestors. The Chinese tradition of paper offerings. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Sewell, A. (2009). World Englishes, English as a Lingua Franca, and the case of Hong Kong English. English Today, 25(1), 37–43. Sharifian, F. (2003). On cultural conceptualisations. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 3(3), 187– 207. Sharifian, F. (2011). Cultural conceptualisations and language. Theoretical framework and applications. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Sharifian, F. (2015). Cultiral linguistics. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 473–492). New York/London: Routledge. Sharifian, F. (2017a). Advances in Cultural Linguistics. Singapore: Springer. Sharifian, F. (2017b). Cultural Linguistics. Cultural conceptialisations and language. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Stockard, J. E. ([1989] 2009). Daughters of the Canton Delta. Marriage patterns and economic strategies in South China, 1860–1930. Stanford: Stanford University Press. The South China Morning Post. Retrieved from https://www.scmp.com/. Topley, M. (1955). Ghost marriages among the Singapore Chinese. Man, 55, 29–30. Wierzbicka, A. (1997). Understanding cultures through their key words. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. Wolf, H.-G. (2008). A cognitive linguistic approach to the cultures of World Englishes: The emergence of a new model. In G. Kristiansen & R. Dirven (Eds.), Cognitive sociolinguistics (pp. 353–385). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Wolf, H.-G., & Chan, T. (2016). Understanding Asia by means of cognitive sociolinguistics and cultural linguistics. The example of ghosts in Hong Kong English. In G. Leitner, A. Hashim, & H.-G. Wolf (Eds.), Communicating with Asia. The future of English as a global language (pp. 249–266). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Zhang, Q. (2013). The attitudes of Hong Kong students towards Kong Kong English and Mandarinaccented English. English Today, 29(2), 9–16. Zipf, C. W. (2004). Feng Shui. In S. Sennot (Ed.), Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture (pp. 455–456). New York: Fitzroy Dearborn.

Chapter 8

Decoding yuán and duyên Across Chinese, Vietnamese and Other Asian Cultural Practices Zhichang Xu and Thuy Ngoc Dinh

Abstract In this chapter, we explore the cultural concept of yuán in Chinese or duyên in Vietnamese, and its equivalent or comparable concept(s) in a number of other Asian cultural practices, including Japanese, Korean, Burmese, Indonesian and Indian. We adopt the lenses of Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, in particular, the analytical framework of Cultural Linguistics and the relationship between local cultures and World Englishes. The data for this research consists of three interrelated and extended ‘conversations’, based on the substantial input from the two researchers of this chapter as cultural informants, and interactions with other informants from a number of Asian cultural backgrounds. The analysis of the ‘conversations’ and the interactions shows that the cultural concept of yuán or duyên exists widely in Chinese and Vietnamese societies, and across other East Asian and Southeast Asian countries. The analysis also shows that the cultural meanings of the concept(s), albeit certain similarities, are heterogeneously distributed across different cultural and speech communities. We also explore the implications of this research for intercultural communication, and for relevant research in World Englishes and Cultural Linguistics.

8.1 Introduction It is commonly understood that culturally constructed concepts exist in different societies and they are either uniquely associated with certain speech and cultural communities, or shared across cultures with a certain extent of variation. Some culturally constructed concepts can be tacit in the sense that they are practiced without being explicitly stated. One of such culturally constructed concepts is 缘 (yuán) in Chinese or duyên in Vietnamese. Etymologically speaking, the Chinese character 缘 is recorded as a Sino-Vietnamese word, meaning ‘fate’, and its Vietnamese equivalent expression is duyên, which means predestined affinity, or charm and grace. Z. Xu (B) · T. N. Dinh Monash University, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_8

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The Chinese character 缘 is a phonogram or a picto-phonetic character, containing two parts, the left part of the character implies ‘silk’ or ‘thread’ and the right part indicates the pronunciation, i.e. yuán, of the character. The character itself is also a polysemous word, with major denotative meanings including (1) cause, reason, because; (2) chance; (3) rim, edge, brink or fringe; (3) climb up; (4) along or alongside; (5) insulator and (6) food (usually donated to Buddhist monks and nuns). The meanings of the character 缘 in Chinese depend primarily on how it is collocated with other Chinese characters. The most common collocation is yuanfen (缘分), meaning predestined relationship, or luck by which people are brought together; other collocations include yuanhe (缘何), meaning why, or reasons for; renyuan (人 缘), meaning people/human connections; xueyuan (血缘), meaning blood connections; jiyuan (机缘), meaning chance or opportunity and huayuan (化缘), meaning (of Buddhist monks or Taoist priests) begging for alms or seeking financial aids. The Vietnamese counterpart of the concept, i.e. duyên has also a number of denotative meanings, including (1) cause, reason and origin of incidents (as in duyên c´o,: cause); (2) edge, frontier, alongside (duyên hải: area along the sea); (3) last, more (duyên niên: more age); (4) fate, destiny; (5) compatibility and bondage in relationship; (6) attraction, inner beauty, pleasant looking, positive aura and (7) tactfulness, politeness and pragmaticism in communication. Because of the tacit nature of the culturally constructed concept with a Buddhist origin, it can be deemed untranslatable across certain languages including English. It can be noticed that in Chinese variety of English, it is transliterated as yuan, and in Japanese and Korean, the concept is expressed in Romanised spellings such as en and yeon. In Vietnamese, it is spelt as duyên. Although the concept may not be directly translatable into English, there is a word or notion that speakers of English tend to associate with the concept, and the word is serendipity, which means the making of happy and unexpected discoveries by accident, or the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy and beneficial way. The etymology of serendipity suggests that the word can be alluded to an old name for Sri Lanka, i.e. Serendip, or Sarandib as the original Persian name for Sri Lanka, and the Sanskrit Sinhaladvipa, which literally means the island where lions dwell. The Sino-Vietnamese concept of yuán or duyên is apparently different from the English notion of serendipity etymologically and semantically, and it changes and varies across other Asian cultural practices. In this chapter, we aim to decode this cultural concept and its equivalent or comparable concept(s) in a number of other Asian cultural practices, including Japanese, Korean, Burmese, Indonesian and Indian. We adopt the theoretical and analytical frameworks of Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, and collect conversational data regarding the culturally constructed concept through an innovative emic and etic reflexive approach. The data consists of three interrelated and extended conversations between the two researchers of this chapter based on emic Chinese and Vietnamese cultural perspectives, and other cultural input from an etic perspective involving Japanese, Korean, Burmese, Indonesian and Indian cultural practices. Throughout the chapter, we explore the following research questions: (1) What are the salient cultural meanings of the concept of yuán in Chinese and duyên in

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Vietnamese? (2) Does the concept, or its equivalent or comparable concept(s), exist in other Asian cultural practices? (3) What are the implications of decoding culturally constructed concepts for intercultural communication?

8.2 Literature Review The theoretical and analytical frameworks regarding this chapter are constructed, drawing primarily upon ongoing research in Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes. Cultural Linguistics ‘explores the features of human languages that encode culturally constructed conceptualisations of the whole range of human experience’ (Sharifian, 2017b, p. 1). The analytical framework of Cultural Linguistics consists of ‘language’ analysis, i.e. morpho-syntax, semantics/pragmatics and discourse, and the identification and analysis of ‘cultural conceptualisations’, including cultural schemas, cultural metaphors and cultural categories (Sharifian, 2017b, p. 5). In addition, World Englishes, as a discipline, has ‘consistently sought to ground its work in the “sociolinguistic realities” of all English-using societies worldwide. Its approach has had particular relevance for the English-using societies of the postcolonial Outer Circle (and Expanding Circle), including many African, Caribbean and Asian locations, but the resonances of WE are now felt in many Inner Circle societies’ (Bolton & Davis, 2006, p. 6). Increasing mobility of speakers of World Englishes across the Kachruvian three concentric circles and the unprecedented spread of English worldwide have made it possible for culturally constructed concepts to cross-linguistic and cultural boundaries. ‘It is acknowledged that increasing trans-cultural mobility means many speakers have been exposed to interaction with more than one variety of English. As a result many draw on more than one system of cultural conceptualisations’ (Sharifian, 2015, p. 529). Therefore, it is essential to explore the nexus between Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes for in-depth understandings of culturally constructed concepts for intercultural communication. ‘Cultural Linguistics views the relationship between language, thought and culture to be a complex, dynamic and multidirectional one, with the human conceptual faculty acting as an active agent mediating between cultural experience and human language’ (Sharifian, 2015, p. 517). ‘The framework of cultural cognition and language subscribes to the cognitive anthropological view of culture as an intersubjectively shared cognitive system, but it views this cognitive system to be a form of distributed cognition, albeit heterogeneously shared between the members of the speech community’ (Sharifian, 2015, p. 517). The research on the culturally constructed concept of yuán or duyên in this chapter traces the heterogeneous intersubjective distribution of tacit knowledge and intangible cultural concepts across linguistic and cultural boundaries. In terms of the heterogeneous distribution of lexical meanings across cultures, Xu and Dinh (2013) have explored lexical semantic variations of English words from five categories, including food, place, event, body and spirituality among speakers of ten linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Regarding abstract and intangible words or

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concepts closely associated with beliefs and spirituality, i.e. fate, they have discovered that while various cultural informants share certain denotative meanings, e.g. fate is ‘prototypically something predestined’, and a near equivalent to destiny, involving (un)controllability and spirituality (Xu & Dinh, 2013, p. 374), the associative or connotative interpretations of fate vary across cultures. For example, fate can be associated with something that is fixed and unchangeable or superstition in certain cultures, while in others, it can be altered through human actions. Fate can be idiosyncratically associated with suffering and death, or in contrast, with good deeds and positive results. ‘The different conceptualisations of fate illustrate that a word can have positive connotations in some cultures, but neutral or negative connotations in other cultures, and that a word can have both prototypical representations and idiosyncratic variations’ (Xu & Dinh, 2013, p. 375). In addition, Dinh and Sharifian (2017, p. 157) have explored the Vietnamese cultural conceptualisations of Tet, a Vietnamese word for ‘lunar new year’, and they contend that cultural-conceptual schemas are ‘heterogeneously distributed across Vietnam and in common with those in other regions because culture can be shared across borders’. Decoding culturally constructed concepts in English involves an understanding of lexical borrowing or loanwords from languages other than English. ‘A common way in which a new variety of English takes on the culture of its speakers involves several processes associated with vocabulary. For example, the new variety of English will adopt words from local languages which reflect and describe local phenomena’ (Kirkpatrick, 2015, p. 460). ‘It is important that we all recognise how local varieties of English borrow words from local languages and adapt the meanings of other words in order for the new variety of English to be able to reflect the cultures of their speakers’ (Kirkpatrick, 2015, p. 463). Apart from studying loanwords into varieties of English, it is also important to understand culturally constructed concepts in their own linguistic habitats. In this chapter, instead of investigating the nearest English translations of the concept of yuán or duyên, we take this concept also as a cultural keyword, and we explore the salience of its cultural meanings in its varying cultural contexts and societies. ‘Cultural keywords’ are words which are particularly important and revealing in a given culture, and they are common and frequently used among speech-community members, and they also occur in proverbs, sayings, songs and book titles. Cultural keywords tend to encode material culture, social rituals and institutions, people’s values, ideals, attitudes, their ways of thinking about the world (Wierzbicka, 1997, p. 16). ‘Every lingua-culture inherits, and transmits, historically and culturally-shaped ways of thinking’ (Wierzbicka, 2010, p. 1). For those who live transcultural lives, they confirm ‘that different societies and lingua-cultures have different tacit norms for intercultural communication’ (Wierzbicka, 2010, p. 1), and that ‘there are certain cultural key concepts in their native languages which they can’t give up, even when they become fluent in their second language’ (Wierzbicka, 2010, p. 21). In terms of cultural and pragmatic salience, Kecskes (2007, p. 404) argues that key issues in language use and language processing include ‘salience, literalness, relevance, common ground and cooperativeness’. He suggests that ‘salient meanings of lexical units are first accessed automatically, and are then revised in the case of

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a misfit with context. Salient meaning overrides literal meaning in production and comprehension’ (Kecskes, 2007, p. 401). There can be ‘collective salience’ and ‘individual salience’. In addition, ‘what is salient for the speaker may not be equally salient for the hearer, and what is relevant for the speaker may not be equally relevant for the hearer’ (Kecskes, 2007, p. 401). The culturally constructed concept of yuán or duyên has not been extensively researched in the academic literature of either linguistic or cultural studies. A limited number of research articles regarding this concept, e.g. those by Chang and Holt (1991), Goodwin and Findlay (1997), and Goodwin (1999), were mainly published in the 1990s, and they focus on personal relations and cross-cultural interpersonal communication. For example, Chang and Holt (1991, p. 28) categorise yuan as a ‘Buddhist conception’, pointing out that yuan is the ‘chief force that allows contextual factors to play a role in determining whether people will or will not be associated with each other’ (Chang & Holt, 1991, p. 30). They also point out that ‘the idea of yuan is so pervasive in Chinese life that its expression is to be found in almost any situation in which Chinese talk or write about their personal relationships’ (Chang & Holt, 1991, p. 32). ‘In Chinese thought, any relationship has its roots in uncounted numbers of lifetimes and is situated in a complex web of interdependent causative factors that are outside the control, or even the comprehension, of the human mind’ (Chang & Holt, 1991, p. 34). They argue that unlike Western views regarding ‘interpersonal relationships’ which are considered as relationships that can be ‘worked on’ through communication, what is characteristic of Chinese views of relationship is that ‘Chinese are more likely to accept the conditions imposed by the context, even if they do not fully understand those conditions’. (Chang & Holt, 1991, p. 35). Regarding the meanings of yuan, Chang and Holt (1991, pp. 35–36) point out two levels of understanding by the Chinese. ‘The more abstract sense of the word relates to the complexities of Buddhist theology and particularly to its depiction of a shifting, unstable world of innumerable causative factors’. The second level, which is the ‘common usage’ of the concept, ‘relates to immediate experience and serves as a metaphor by means of which Chinese come to describe their relationships’. In addition, they have also summarised the meanings of yuan in ‘three basic principles’, including (1) yuan is typically used to describe initial interaction conditions; (2) yuan is typically used to account for more important relationships and (3) yuan cannot be forced (Chang & Holt, 1991, p. 50). Goodwin and Findlay (1997, p. 86) point out that yuan is normally seen as ‘a unique Chinese response to personal relationships, originating from the unique religious and philosophical history of Chinese culture’, and that yuan can be seen to ‘have an important function in the maintenance of social harmony and group solidarity, an important feature of Chinese societies’. However, they also question the extent to which the concept is ‘really a unique Chinese phenomenon’. They propose that ‘the concept of yuan is multifaceted, but essentially refers to “relational fatalism”— the belief that personal relationships are predestined to succeed or fail, and that the interactants themselves have only limited control over this process’ (Goodwin & Findlay, 1997, p. 86). In addition, Goodwin and Findlay (1997, p. 90) acknowledge that ‘the Chinese concept of yuan may reflect experiences and beliefs that are widely

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recognised across very different cultures although the extent to which these beliefs are endorsed is likely to reflect broader cultural values’. One of the objectives of this chapter is to explore the extent to which the concept of yuán is endorsed by informants from East Asian and Southeast Asian countries. Goodwin and Findlay (1997, p. 90) argue that ‘although the association between yuan and traditional Buddhist beliefs has weakened, the belief in yuan still persists’. Goodwin (1999) argues that ‘many important “culture-bound” or “emic” concepts in the study of relationships may be more universal than is often assumed’ (Goodwin, 1999, p. 69). He points out that ‘this concept may have a complex relationship with actual practices. While there is evidence to suggest that this notion is still recognised and valued, even among “modern” university students, the belief in yuan may be more like a ritualistic tradition used, post hoc, to explain relationship success or failure’ (Goodwin, 1999, p. 69). In order to explore the salient cultural meanings of yuán in Chinese and duyên in Vietnamese, and the extent to which this concept exists in other Asian cultural practices, we adopt a qualitative and interpretative method, which we term as a ‘mixed emic and etic reflexive approach’, for this chapter, and our methodology is detailed and justified in the following section.

8.3 Methodology Research in Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes has been conducted through a wide range of methods. ‘Methodologically speaking, Cultural Linguistics is … linguistic ethnography combined with an ethnography of cultural conceptualisations ’ (Sharifian, 2017a, p. 95). ‘A Cultural Linguistics analysis can start as soon as the researcher comes across one or more particular features of his or her language that stand out as encoding a particular cultural conceptualisation. There are, for instance, words that appear to be untranslatable; such words may in fact encode conceptualisations that are by their very nature culture-specific’ (Sharifian, 2017a, p. 96). The concept under investigation in this chapter, i.e. ‘yuán or duyên’, can be categorised as such a culturally constructed concept in Chinese and Vietnamese. In addition, a general approach in Cultural Linguistics tends to combine a language-based analysis with a ‘thick description’, or an in-depth inquiry that provides a ‘significant insight into the nuances and complexities of the culturally constructed conceptualizations of experiences by the members of a speech community’, and this can be done ‘through the ethnographic analysis of any body of data, any source of knowledge that may provide access to such conceptualisations’ (Sharifian, 2017a, p. 97), including ‘interviews and focus group data, field notes and participant observation, conversation analysis, and analysis of naturalistic narratives’ (Sharifian, 2017a, pp. 111–112). One of the specific research methods is ‘conceptual-associative analysis’, in which ‘similarities and clusterings in associative responses’ among speakers from a given speech community are very likely to reveal cultural conceptualisations. ‘Importantly, identification of cultural conceptualisations in associative

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responses needs to be informed by emic (i.e., insider based) sources’ (Sharifian, 2017a, pp. 98–99). As far as research methods in World Englishes are concerned, Bolton (2003, pp. 42–43) has provided an extensive review of the World-Englishes literature and he has identified a number of ‘discernible’, yet ‘overlapping and interesting’ approaches to the study of World Englishes. These approaches include the ‘English studies’ approach, the ‘English corpus linguistics’ approach and a range of ‘sociolinguistic’ approaches covering from ‘the sociology of language’, to ‘linguistic futurology’. This chapter is situated at the nexus between World Englishes and Cultural Linguistics primarily because it deals with the intricate relationship between local cultures and World Englishes, in terms of how the culturally constructed concept of yuán or duyên has been encoded and decoded across different cultural and speech communities. As such, this chapter adopts an innovative approach to data collection and analysis, based on current research in Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes. We tentatively term this as a ‘mixed emic and etic reflexive approach’ to conversation and social media interaction data collection and analysis. Essentially, the data for this chapter consists of three major in-depth and extended conversations between the two researchers for this chapter as cultural informants. These conversations are interrelated, and they are designed in such a way that emic and etic cultural perspectives are captured, and the cultural conceptualisations of yuán or duyên in Chinese and Vietnamese and a number of other Asian cultures are included and analysed. The first conversation provides emic reflexive interpretations of the major cultural meanings of the concept yuán or duyên in Chinese and Vietnamese. Prior to the first conversation, the two researchers had conducted respective research into the cultural meanings of the concept through various sources including consulting dictionaries, gathering online information through Wikipedia and other relevant websites, and having informal chats with people from their own respective speech communities. As informed cultural informants, when they met for the first conversation, they shared their cultural input and insights into the meanings of yuán or duyên’. The second conversation provides etic reflexive cultural interpretations of the concept or its equivalent or comparable concept(s) from various cultural perspectives including Japanese, Korean, Burmese, Indonesian and Indian. Prior to the second conversation, the first author of this chapter had collected information regarding the concept from a number of Japanese and Korean cultural informants, while the second author had collected relevant information from a number of Burmese, Indonesian and Indian cultural informants. Therefore, the second conversation was primarily about reporting and sharing findings of the cultural interpretations of yuán or duyên, and its equivalent or comparable concepts from culturally Burmese, Indonesian and Indian perspectives. This conversation is largely etic in that the two authors approach the cultural interpretations of those specified Asian and Southeast Asian cultures as ‘outsiders’. The third conversation is essentially a discussion of the preliminary findings and implications of the research for intercultural communication. Prior to the third conversation, the authors had transcribed their first two conversations, and gathered all the relevant data collected from various sources including the interpretations of

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the concept(s) under investigation from other cultural informants. They had also analysed the conversation data in terms of how the meanings or interpretations are homogeneously or heterogeneously distributed across cultures. One of the salient features of this mixed emic and etic reflexive approach lies in its cultural perspective-taking and self-reflexivity. In this chapter, the extended and interrelated ‘conversations’ are regarded and used as an ongoing ‘hermeneutic dialogue’ concerning the interpretations of the culturally constructed concept of yuán or duyên from emic and etic perspectives. The conversations, therefore, are not indirect indications of the cultural realities in a research domain, but in vivo data of authentic cultural discourse and practice to be interpreted. Fook (1999, p. 12) defines ‘reflexivity in its simplest terms’ as ‘an ability to locate yourself in the picture, to understand, and factor in, how what you see is influenced by your own way of seeing, and how your very presence and act of research influences the situation in which you are researching’. In addition, there is also ‘relational reflexivity’ (Fook, 1999, p. 17), which involves ‘interaction with other people’ during the mixed emic and etic reflexive processes. In this yuán or duyên project, the two researchers have been involved in the whole process of data collection, both as emic cultural informants and gatherers of relevant cultural information from etic perspectives. ‘The idea of the researcher as instrument … is at its most common in ethnographic work’ in terms of ‘the whole person as the medium by which information is obtained, selected and interpreted’ (Fook, 1999, p. 16). In addition, as pointed out by Dörnyei (2007, p. 27), ‘most data collected in the social sciences, arts and humanities, regardless of whether it is qualitative or quantitative, is related to people—what they do, what they are like, what they think or believe in, what they plan to do’. It can be understood that the interpretation of culturally constructed concepts, such as yuán or duyên, often involves ‘tacit’ knowledge due to the ‘embodied nature’ (Fook, 1999, p. 13) and the ‘contingent nature’ (Fook, 1999, p. 19) of such knowledge and its construction. ‘Not all knowledge can be articulated explicitly in language form, but some must be experienced to be understood’. For example, the second author of the chapter would need to explain this yuán or duyên concept to her Burmese, Indonesian and Indian cultural informants because they do not share the same scripts. ‘This tacit knowledge, whilst not explicit, nevertheless influences our explicit understandings, often all the more powerfully precisely because it is not explicit’ (Fook, 1999, p. 17). There can be potential issues with the involvement of researchers as cultural informants, in terms of subjectivity, because self-reflexivity as a method in research involves ‘subjectivity’. However, ‘subjectivity is potentially an integral part of research, rather than merely a factor to be identified and its effects therefore minimized. It is a feature to be capitalized upon, rather than an inconvenient phenomenon’ (Fook, 1999, p. 13). Regarding the researchers’ role and involvement, or the ‘self’ in self-reflexivity as a method, ‘since the self is the lens through which we see and understand the world, then it is crucial that the lens itself be included reflexively in any understanding of our world’ (Fook, 1999, p. 17). In terms of emic and etic perspectives, Finefter-Rosenbluh (2017, p. 1) points out that the role of the insider/outsider researcher has been recognised, acknowledging

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the ‘epistemological ground for claims to knowledge’ in relation to the researcher’s life experience. ‘There is an understanding that researchers are located in relations that construct both their inside and outside social boundaries’, and ‘the terms insider/outsider are not definitive and should rather be considered as fluctuating, shifting, and as part of a continuum’ (Finefter-Rosenbluh, 2017, p. 1). Cheek, Lipschitz, Abrams, Vago and Nakamura (2015, p. 751) argue that ‘dynamic reflexivity is central to enabling flexible and emergent qualitatively driven inductive mixed-method and multiple methods research designs’. Often, ‘reports of mixedmethod and multiple methods research focus on what was done rather than how it came to be done’; however, a reflexive data collection and analysis approach may redress this absence of the ‘process’ of data collection and the evolution of the ideas and findings. ‘Such reflexivity employs a thoughtful, conscious self-awareness involving continual evaluation of subjective responses, inter-subjective dynamics, and the research process itself’ (Cheek et al., 2015, p. 752). The mixed emic and etic reflexive approach focusing on researcher-as-culturalinformant data analysis enables the researchers to explore and interpret the interplay between subjectivity and reflexivity, in the sense that reflexivity is achieved first through acts of conversation or in Costa, Burke and Murphy’s (2018, p. 10) term of ‘narration’, which aims at ‘translating individual’s experiences into “tangible” forms of knowledge that bring tacit understandings of practices to a “visible” state’. Such reflexive conversations can also be regarded as ‘acts of introspection’ (Costa et al., 2018, p. 10), which facilitate the meaning-making of culturally constructed concepts. In the case of this chapter, a qualitatively interpretive approach should be adopted, as Chang and Holt (1991, p. 31) argue that ‘the study of yuan, a subtle philosophical concept expressed in a variety of ways in very indirect and suggestive language, requires an interpretive approach toward cultural description’.

8.4 Data Analysis and Findings The three major extended conversations between the two researchers were recorded and transcribed, and the transcripts serve as the primary data for a mixed emic and etic reflexive analysis for this chapter. Additional data also include fieldwork notes while the two researchers spoke to other cultural informants including Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Burmese and Indian, as well as email and social media communication for the purpose of collecting relevant information regarding the culturally constructed concept(s). A number of close examinations of the data have suggested the following findings: (1) there are similar and different meanings of yuán and duyên in Chinese and Vietnamese; (2) there are different ways to communicate the concept(s) of yuán and duyên across cultures and (3) there can be continuing and dynamic re-schematisation and heterogeneous distribution of the culturally constructed concept(s) across different societies in East and Southeast Asia.

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8.4.1 Similar and Different Meanings of Yuán and Duyên in Chinese and Vietnamese Chinese and Vietnamese appear to share similar meanings of the culturally constructed concept(s) of yuán and duyên to a considerable extent while they also develop slightly different denotations and connotations in their respective cultural practices. The common meanings they share include the Buddhist origin; cause and effect; connection or relationship, especially in the domains of love and marriage; connection between strangers, acquaintances and friends; connection to the previous life and afterlife in the sense of fate and destiny. In Chinese, the Chinese character 缘 also evokes the denotative meanings of edge, alongside, insulator and food depending on how the character is allocated with other characters, while in Vietnamese, duyên is believed to be created through doing good deeds, and it also refers to charisma and beauty of certain people. The following conversation excerpts may serve to elaborate on a number of other aspects of how yuán and duyên operate in Chinese and Vietnamese languages and societies.

8.4.1.1

The Ubiquity of the Concept(s) in Chinese and Vietnamese Societies

The concepts of yuán and duyên are ubiquitous and they permeate in Chinese and Vietnamese societies. There can be an explicit connection between yuán in Chinese and duyên in Vietnamese as they share similar pronunciations (Excerpt 1) and meanings (Excerpts 2, 3 and 4), as noted by the two researchers. Excerpt 1 M (The first author of this chapter): … so we’re talking about the notion yuán, and how do you pronounce this in Vietnamese? T (The second author of this chapter): duyên. M: Okay. Yuán and duyên. Even the pronunciations are similar. T: Yeah. Excerpt 2 M: Some of the more commonly used meanings include connection. It’s mainly interpersonal kind of connection or relationship. And people believe that there is this yuán existing between two people. And if they have a very good yuán, they may get married, and they may fall in love with one another for no reason. [laugh] T: [laugh]. M: And … but this can also take place in between strangers, if the two strangers meet for a number of times within in a context, you know, on a certain day. They say, oh, they probably have this yuán thing in between them.

Excerpt 2 above shows that the concepts are primarily about human ‘connection’ in both Chinese and Vietnamese societies. In addition, the concepts are ‘destiny’ related, as shown in Excerpt 3 below:

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Excerpt 3 T: And it is also closely related to Karma. Yes, so duyên is the first, and Karma follows. So it’s also related to destiny. M: And also because of the big Buddhist kind of origin of the meaning, people feel like the yuán is kind of related to destiny in terms of the after-life, present life, or even before birth, the previous life. And it’s also a spiritual kind of interpretation. T: And then it encourages people to do a lot of good deeds so that they can accumulate good connections in preparation for their later life or next life.

Excerpt 4 below shows that the concepts can also exist between people and certain objects and things: Excerpt 4 M: Overall, this is about ‘relationship’ or ‘connection’ between people or among people. T: And duyên is also used for places, for animals, for objects. Even we buy a car, we also believe that this car has a duyên with you, and that’s why you come here and buy this car. The same happens for buying pets, and why we live in a particular place, because duyên also exists between people and certain objects and things.

The ubiquity of the concepts in both Chinese and Vietnamese societies has been explicitly expressed by the two researchers, as shown in Excerpt 5. The extent to which these concepts permeate the societies is described as ‘widely existing’, covering the connection ‘between family members, between neighbours, between husband and wife, and between friends’. Excerpt 5 M: … So as far as I know, this notion of yuán has been widely existing in Chinese culture. So there are a lot of set phrases and idioms which contain the character 缘. And depending on how this character is collocated with other characters, it may have different meanings. So a lot of people say that this notion comes from Buddhism, and the original meaning is really the cause and effect. And a lot of other meanings are derived from this Buddhist interpretation of yuán. T: Yes, I was brought up into a Vietnamese Buddhist family, and so in my family, people usually use the word duyên a lot to talk about the connection between us, between the family members, between neighbours, between husband and wife, and between friends as well.

8.4.1.2

The Functionality of the Concept(s) in Chinese and Vietnamese Societies

It can be noted that the concept(s) may serve certain pragmatic functions in Chinese and Vietnamese societies. For example, Excerpt 6 shows that the concept(s) can be adopted as a compliment, and Excerpt 7 shows the pragmatic function of ‘comforting’ people of the concept(s). Excerpt 6 T: In Vietnamese, we use the word a lot to compliment on the beauty of a person. So if we say someone is beautiful, we very much talk about their outside appearance, but when we talk about duyên, we mean that person has the particular charisma or aura. So

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Z. Xu and T. N. Dinh it’s more than just like the outside appearance, but we feel like we are easily connected to that person. And then the beauty within glows. Yeah. Even we talk about the smile, there might be a very beautiful smile, but then we’re not impressed. But there might be a smile, and we say that you have a very duyên smile, so that smile can be very impressive, and it creates a very pleasant feeling among the people around. Yeah, and also we use the duyên for the way we talk, so it’s very much related to politeness and impoliteness. So, if a person talks in a very pragmatic way, we also say you have a duyên in talking a lot. So it is used in an aesthetic sense, yes, the beauty in communication, and outside appearance, and I think we don’t use that sense a lot. … Yeah. I think the meaning of duyên refers to beauty because it comes from the fact that duyên means powder. So someone with the powder is beautiful. So, overtime it’s just like, it’s not just the powder, but the beauty within. M: Yes, when you were talking about, you know, the interpretations of duyên in Vietnamese language and culture, I was also reflecting on some set phrases in Chinese, and we also, we do have this meaning of charisma and beauty, so we have two specific collocations, one has ‘person yuán’. If one has ‘person yuán’, it means he or she is very popular. So, that means you have the ‘person yuán’, you are kind of easily getting along with other people. And there’s another one which is ‘eye yuán’. It means looking good. You look like you’re popular. And, you know, people may fall in love with you at the first sight, so that means their ‘eye yuán’ works magic, in this case. Excerpt 7 T: The concept is also used to comfort people, to explain things, because sometimes something happens out of nowhere. M: Exactly, and it’s beyond your control. T: Yes, it’s beyond your control, because of different objective factors. They use the concept to explain the mishaps. M: Yes mishaps do happen. [laugh] T: [laugh]

8.4.1.3

Relevant Schemas and Cognitive Linguistic Structures Regarding the Concept(s)

One of the most salient schemas of yuán and duyên is the belief that no matter how far people are apart from one another, if there is yuán or duyên, they will be brought together and meet one another, as shown in Excerpt 8. Excerpt 8 M: We do have a lot of proposition schemas, or set expressions or beliefs, like if yuán exists, even if you’re a thousand miles away, you’ll eventually come to meet. So the distance wouldn’t make much of a difference if you have yuán, eventually you’re going to meet. T: Yeah. I think in Vietnamese it is quite similar. If we are far apart from each other and we have duyên, then there would be more possibilities that we meet each other again. But if we are close to each other, even next door, if we don’t have duyên, then we just pass each other.

Other schemas in relation to the concept(s) include ‘good deeds, friendship ´ and and marriage’ (e.g. Excerpt 9), and ‘the uncontrollability of yu an duyeˆn ’ (e.g. Excerpt 10).

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Excerpt 9 M: And it’s also related to marriage because we have a set expression, it says that 十年 修得同船渡, 百年修得共枕眠. That means ten years of meditation or good deeds, or if you have been doing good deeds for ten years, and then that sort of meditation would bring two people to cross a same river in the same boat or ferry. That means you have this yuán, so you can journey together. And then, if you have a hundred years of good deeds, and then the hundred years may bring the two people to rest their heads on the same pillow. That means they get married. They stay in the same bedroom. So that shows that yuán really brings people together. T: And in Vietnamese we have duyên usually collocating with ‘fate’, and also Karma, and number. So, we have, like, because the number is fixed, we can’t change it, so it’s like a destiny. If a couple are happily married with each other, they say because of the duyên, and they owe each other a lot, so they have to live with each other so that they can support each other. Excerpt 10 T: And we have another idiom, which is ‘everything depends on duyên, and let duyên decide’. So, if something goes, then let it go, because the duyên is over, so we can’t revert it. So in Vietnamese culture, the concept is adopted to explain for the separation as well, not just the connection.

In addition, the concept(s) can be modified with adjectives such as ‘deep’ or ‘shallow’, and ‘thin’ or ‘thick’, to capture the extent to which the connection exists among people (e.g. Excerpt 11). Excerpt 11 M: And in Chinese we can describe yuán with the adjectives like the ‘deep yuán’, and the ‘shallow yuán’. T: To talk about the connection as well? M: Yeah! To talk about how … how people are bonded together. And if the marriage ends, like if people get divorced, so they say oh, the yuán doesn’t exist any more. It’s not your fault. It’s not my fault. It’s just like we don’t have this yuán any more. T: Yeah, in Vietnamese, we use the adjective ‘thin’. So, if it is very thin then people cannot be together for long. M: Exactly, like they break up. T: But if it is ‘thick’, then it is very strong. It’s like a chord. It is very hard to break. M: Exactly.

8.4.1.4

The Concept(s) of yuán and duyên as ‘Food’ and Their Other Meanings

Excerpt 12 below shows that the meanings of the concept(s) may vary, and they are context dependent. For example, yuán and duyên may refer to food, good deeds, a new beginning or joy. Excerpt 12 M: … And another collocation that I didn’t mention last week was 化缘 (huayuan). Huayuan means, you know, the process or the act of Buddhist monks and nuns coming down hills or coming out of the mountains where they reside, not necessarily to beg

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Z. Xu and T. N. Dinh for food, but to receive food from the common people, you know, a lot of Buddhist worshippers and believers would prepare good food to share with these monks and nuns, so the whole process is called huayuan, so in this case, the term yuán also means food. Through donating food by the people, through accepting food from the perspectives of the nuns and monks, there is this sort of a connection between them. And people believe that if you give food to monks and nuns, you are accumulating something good, and if you have accumulated enough of this ‘good’ thing, then you move upwards, so you can probably live a better life in your afterlife. So this is a way of doing charity, doing good deeds, to accumulate this … or to strengthen this yuán with your afterlife. T: I think we have a very similar concept in Vietnamese, and we call it duyen khoi. Yes, khoi means you start, and start something that is joyful, not just like ‘start’ in a neutral sense. So it’s also similar to the Chinese concept that you have shared. Duyên also means food. So the monks also go down hills, and get the donation from the people. And when we donate the food to the monks, actually we start doing good deeds, and we start sharing the joy, and actually accumulating the joy for ourselves as well.

8.4.2 Different Ways to Communicate the Concept(s) Across Cultures The extent to which the culturally constructed concept(s) of yuán and duyên exist varies from China to Japan and Korea, and from Vietnam to Burma, Indonesia and India. Therefore, there are different ways to communicate the concept(s) across cultures.

8.4.2.1

Communicating the Concept Across Chinese, Japanese and Korean

Since Chinese, Japanese and Korean share certain written scripts or characters, this concept can be communicated through its ‘written’ form, i.e. 缘 (or 緣), with minimal explanation. However, it takes some effort and explanation to convey the similar concept across a number of Southeast Asian cultures. Even though the concept or its relevant concept(s) exists, it is expressed in different written scripts. The following Excerpts 13 and 14 show how the concept(s) can be expressed and conveyed across cultures. Excerpt 13 M: In my case, since Japanese and Korean languages share some Chinese characters, it would be easier for me to express the notion to them, because if the participants are able to recognise some Chinese characters in their respective languages, I simply write the character 缘 (or 緣) through an email or through written communication, and they would immediately identify the notion by simply looking at the character.

In terms of how the concept is expressed in Japanese and Korean, and its variant meanings, the following data, collected from both conversations and email and social media communication, show that, apart from sharing the Chinese character 缘 (or 緣), Japanese and Korean have also linguistic- and cultural-specific representations of the concept.

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Excerpt 14 M: One of my Japanese colleagues said that the expression of the notion in Japanese is en. I found this interesting, because, in Chinese it’s yuán, and in Vietnamese it’s duyên. And he said that en can also refer to a special reason behind a link. So I think this is relevant to our understanding of cause and effect. You know, this is the reason behind a link, between things and people, where the link can be taken as good or bad. This is also relevant to our understanding of the good yuán/duyên and bad yuán/duyên.

Apart from conversation data excerpts, additional data collected through email communication and social media interaction in their ‘written’ form also illustrate different ways to communicate the concept(s) across cultures. For example: In Japanese, there are four types of scripts, Kanji (縁), Hiragana (えん), Katakana (エン), and Romanisation (en). 縁 is written differently from the one in Chinese. For ‘en’, it can be in 縁 or えん, but Hiragana and Katakana are phonetic scripts and don’t convey meanings as such, hence えん can be 縁 円 園 etc. in Kanji. [Email data from a Japanese informant] Broadly speaking, 因緣인연 [in-yeon] can be interpreted as ‘destined’ relationship. There are a number of cases that ‘in-yeon’ can be used/ (1) 夫婦因緣부부 인연 [Bu-bu in-yeon]: The pronunciation of Sino-Korean is different from Chinese. We use the term when we have found a life-long partner, i.e., husband or wife. If you are old and not married, people say, you haven’t found your ‘in-yeon’ yet. Your ‘in-yeon’ is somewhere out there; (2) 子息因緣자식 인연 [ja-sig in-yeon]: We also use the term to describe the connection between parents and children. If a couple does not have a child or can’t have a child, people say, you must not have the ja-sin in-yeon. And also, If a daughter married to someone whom her father did not approve, the father can say, ‘I would cut off the daughter-in-yeon with you’; (3) Sa ram in yeon사람 인연 (people-in-yeon): Sa ram is a traditional Korean word, so there are no Sino-Korean characters. Because of the sa ram-in-yeon, I met you at Monash and you became my supervisor. In Korean cultural practices, we believe that once we have established the in yeon with people, it’s really hard to cut off. In Korean, we say, it’s as hard as cutting off water. [Social media Facebook message data from a Korean colleague]

It is worth noting that even among Chinese who share the culturally constructed concept of yuán, it is not as straightforward as it is assumed to be when it comes to explaining the concept in English to non-Chinese people. The following is a Facebook interaction between two Chinese, with the latter being the first author of this chapter. Z: Do you have the English definition of yuán? Just for me to explain the concept clearly to my Indian friends. M: The closest English translation is serendipity, but it’s not exactly what we Chinese mean by yuán, is it? Or predestined meeting, chance encounter by fate etc. A connection or tie by fate.

8.4.2.2

Communicating the Concept Across Vietnamese, Burmese, Indonesian and Indian

The concept also exists to a certain extent across Southeast Asia, and it can be expressed in various ways. The following data, e.g. Excerpt 15, taken from the second conversation between the two researchers show that explaining and exemplifying

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are common ways to communicate the concept across to Vietnamese, Burmese, Indonesian and Indian people. Excerpt 15 T: Yeah, so I contacted Vietnamese, Burmese, Indonesian and Indian participants, and we don’t share the same script, so I could not write the word in Vietnamese to explain to them. So I had to spend quite a lot of time at the beginning of our conversations, explaining what duyên means in my culture and also giving examples from Chinese so that the participants could reflect on their own cultures to see if the concept existed. M: That sounds interesting to me. Have you asked whether they had particular scripts for this concept? T: Yes, and they wrote them down in their own languages as well, but not all of the participants said that they had that concept in their own cultures.

The following social media interaction between a Chinese and an Indian shows how the culturally constructed concept is communicated: Z (Chinese): Btw, I wanna ask you a question. In China, we believe that when two people meet each other, there is a kind of connection in fate between us. If we meet each other, know each other, we say we have that connection. If we have to leave each other eventually, we say we don’t have that connection anymore. In your culture, do you have such a kind of belief? We have a term for it in Chinese, which is yuan. Do you have such a concept? J (Indian): Fate, omen, kismet etc. Z: Are these English words exact translations for the ones you use in Malayalam? J: Yup … except the word omen, which is also commonly used here.

8.4.2.3

The Concept and Its Comparable Concept(s) in Burmese, Indonesian and Indian

Interviews and social media communication with Burmese, Indonesian and Indian participants show that the concept and its comparable concept(s) exist to a certain extent in their own respective cultural practices, e.g. yag sat and phuu-sar in Burmese; takdir and jodoh (in Indonesian) or jodo (in Javanese) in Indonesian and omen, kismet, karma, bhagya (in Bengali) and moksha (in Hindu) in Indian. Excerpt 16 T: So the first word is yag sat. Yag sat is used for everyone. It means regardless of our origins, social factors, if we’re destined to meet each other, it means we have the yag sat. We will meet each other and we get to know each other very fast, and very well. And it also explains even we meet someone only once in our life, that is because in our previous life, we are somewhat related to each other. That’s why in this life, we meet each other, and we play different roles. And the second word, which also means duyên, is phuu-sar. And this one is particularly used for love and relationship, not for everyone. And this emphasises on the connection. That means if we have the phuu-sar with each other, no matter what barriers we may have, for example, one comes from a poor family and one comes from a rich family, or we’re of different age groups, they will be together. At whatever time, we don’t know, but they will be. So I feel that in Burmese culture, the notion of yag-sat and phuu-sar explains for the ‘connection’.

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Excerpt 17 T: The notion of yuán/duyên may exist in Indian and Indonesian cultures in different ways, and they say that they use the word Karma, like in Indian culture, that I think embodies the notion of yuán/duyên. Karma is fate related, and it’s decided through people’s actions or behaviours in their present and previous lives. So, for example, if we’re supposed to meet someone, that is because in our previous life, we had created some kind of relationships, that’s why we meet someone. And this concept has also been mentioned in their stories, epics, myths etc., but the word karma is the key word. In Indonesian culture, one participant said they didn’t have the notion of duyên, but they had the notion of takdir, and that is used for love, or encounters, for bad experience and good experience, and they say that it means destiny. If two people are destined, or to have takdir with each other, they will meet and live with each other. … According to the Indonesian participant, it’s written by God. So, we cannot control our destiny. So, in some cultures they say, takdir Allah, it means destiny of God. That means let God decide how our life will be. So we can’t change it. And it explains for separation as well, so if someone gets divorced or stays single throughout their lives, it means their takdir is supposed to live alone, and they don’t have the connection with anyone in this life.

However, the concept of takdir and its relevant cultural conceptualisations exist heterogeneously across Indonesian informants. Another Indonesian informant clarifies that ‘takdir in Indonesian context is originally from an Arabic word’. She further elaborates that: The meaning has developed into a ‘belief’ because of God’s intention or wish that people will come to a place or experience something destined by God. It’s a very ‘religious’ concept for most Moslem but because of the large population of the Moslem, you can say that it is now becoming a ‘common’ belief. You are right in putting the word takdir together with ‘Karma’ even though Karma has a more positive connotation. Takdir tends to refer to ‘laziness’, i.e., just accept whatever God decides while ‘karma’ has the element of ‘if you do good to others you’ll receive goodness in return’. [Social media Facebook message data from an Indonesian colleague]

It can be noted that the concept of takdir has been perceived more critically by progressive groups, such as academics, activists, feminists and scientists in Indonesia, and the Indonesian participant has listed a number of reasons: ‘(1) its religious stand (Islam); (2) patriarchy—more rules of takdir for women; (3) old fashioned male dominated belief; and (4) anti-critical thinking and scientific evidence’. Further social media communication data with the Indonesian participant shows that there is another concept, i.e. Jodoh in Indonesian or Jodo in Javanese, which may capture the cultural phenomenon of two people meeting (for reasons unexplained) or falling in or out of love, as illustrated in the following data except: M: Apart from takdir, I was wondering whether there’s some more neutral or slightly positive concept(s) in Indonesian culture that may account for, e.g., two people meet (for reasons unexplained), or fall in love (or out of love)? I (Indonesian participant): Jodoh. This is a very positive word. It is originally a Javanese word, but it is adopted nationally. It literally means ‘something that is just meant to be’. [Social media Facebook message data from an Indonesian colleague]

Similar to the concept of yuán and duyên in Chinese and Vietnamese, the Indonesian concept of Jodoh also has multiple meanings, referring to a soulmate, or an

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appropriate spouse or partner. It means having good chemistry between people in terms of love and marriage. It can also be used to explain an event or encounter that is meant to be or to happen regardless of circumstances. When the culturally constructed concept(s) of yuán and duyên are communicated to Indian informants, what they come up with include fate, omen, kismet (despite its Arabic origin), karma, bhagya (in Bengali) and moksha (in Hindu). The following social media interactions show how Indians understand and express the relevant or comparable concepts. Z (a Chinese informant with an Indian husband): I asked my Indian neighbour and my husband, and they both said they have exactly the same belief in their culture. For Catholics, when a child is born, they believe God writes on God’s palm about who will be the baby’s partner, what the baby will become and when the baby will die. Basically it means the baby’s fate. Karma is different. Karma means if I help someone, someone is going to help me in the future. If I do good things, good things will happen to me and vice versa. [Data taken from a Facebook interaction between a Chinese informant and the first author of this chapter]. Z: Do you have a specific term for such a concept? J (an Indian neighbour of Z): Fate, omen, kismet etc. Z: Are these English words the exact translations for the ones you use in Malayalam? J: Yup … except the word omen, which is also commonly used here. Z: Which one is commonly used? Omen? J: Omen is a little bit different. It means an event regarded as a portent of good or evil. Z: Hmmmm then what do you call this thing? J: Fate and kismet are the words which have an equivalent meaning of what you asked. Yes of course … we do believe that even if things happen in coincidence they are meant to happen in one’s life … in a similar way no one comes to our life accidentally … they are meant to be a part of our life. Fate is part of our belief too. (Data taken from social media interaction between a Chinese informant and an Indian informant). B: (an Indian informant) The ideas of kismet and karma of course do exist. In Bengali we say bhagya which could be good or bad. Something like this was written in my destiny. [Data taken from a Facebook interaction between a Chinese informant and the first author of this chapter]. A: (another Indian informant) We have a strong concept, of life being beyond this one birth. Our souls travel through many births before reaching heaven or as we call it moksha. So, a lot of whatever, that happens with us is pretty determined by our past doings called karma. Falling in and out of love is a huge example of this cycle. This concept is very much like one’s biological DNA. It is always present and impacting, whether we are aware or not. It is like a profit and loss balance sheet, maintained by God. B: Yes Moksha is a Hindu concept having to do with the life cycle of birth, death and rebirth. It is related to the concept of karma which refers to your deeds in this life. If you have good karma, i.e., you have performed good deeds, it will beneficially affect the quality of your future lives. Moksha is liberation from this cycle of life, death and rebirth. It is similar to the Buddhist concept of Nirvana and is very desirable. There are certain earthly things that keep us from achieving moksha—such as wealth/success, desire (not necessarily sexual but pleasure of all kinds), etc. To achieve moksha and be liberated from the cycle of life, death and rebirth, one must relinquish these desires and even renounce their families and society—something like what the Buddha did. Only then can they

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achieve moksha or true liberation. [Data taken from a Facebook interaction between an Indian informant and the first author of this chapter].

It can be concluded through the above data analysis that such concepts that refer to earthly connections due to heavenly determination or arrangement exist across cultures and their expressions and associated cultural conceptualisations vary and therefore heterogeneously distributed.

8.4.3 Continuing and Dynamic Re-Schematisation and Heterogeneous Distribution of the Culturally Constructed Concept(s) Across Different Societies in East and Southeast Asia There can be noticeable heterogeneous distributions of the cultural conceptualisations of the concept(s) of yuán and duyên among East and Southeast Asian societies, for example, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Burmese, Indonesian and Indian. While Chinese and Korean primarily associate the concept with love and marriage, and other interpersonal relationships, Japanese tend to treasure or value the concept as something precious among people, and it is commonly associated with tea ceremonies, as shown in Excerpt 18. Excerpt 18 M: And all the four Japanese colleagues mentioned the expression 一期一会. They would call it ichi-go-ichi-e, meaning once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, or once-in-a-lifetime experience. So I think that has captured our understanding of yuán/duyên as a connection, or as a very valued or treasured meeting with people, or with other objects and things. … And they say that they can print them out, the four characters, and then hang them on the wall, particularly when they have tea ceremonies. You know, they treasure the bond, the atmosphere, and also the meeting. One of the Japanese informants, in particular, informed me that 一期一会 can be expressed in calligraphy on a scroll for a tea ceremony room, and she said that it’s very common. And she said that 一期一会 is quite a popular expression in Japan, especially in Zen, so it shows different domains where the notion of en is expressed or used in Japanese context, such as tea ceremony.

In addition, in Japanese cultural practices, this en connection may refer to people and their workplaces, as shown in Excerpt 19. A similar practice has also been pointed out by a Korean cultural informant, as shown in Excerpt 20. Excerpt 19 M: I had another conversation with a Japanese professor previously, and she also pointed out that en could exist between people and their workplaces, for example, they may say that I work for this company because I have this en with that company. And that layer of meaning is very fascinating. I think the Japanese colleagues agree that there is this kind of a connection between people and their companies or workplaces. Excerpt 20 M: In terms of Korean understandings of this notion, I’ve contacted a couple of my Korean friends and colleagues. One of them says that there are two meanings of this

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Z. Xu and T. N. Dinh notion in general. The first is ‘relationship, bond, and tie’, for example, 연인, which means someone who’s in a relationship, and 연이 깊다 refers to the ‘deep meaning’ that people have among them so they see one another often. The second meaning is 연줄, and it means ‘connections’. For example, someone has more connections than other candidates in this job so he or she will get this job easily. I find this second layer of meaning interesting, as it sort of coincides with one of the meanings my Japanese colleague has associated with, that is to say, people have this sort of connection with their workplace or jobs.

Even though there can be heterogeneous distributions of the concept, it is also worth noting that Chinese, Japanese and Korean share a certain extent of common cultural conceptualisations, e.g. the Buddhism origin of the concept and a number of other meanings of the shared character 缘 or 縁. Excerpts 21 and 22 illustrate this. Excerpt 21 M: And my Japanese colleagues also admit that this notion comes from Buddhism. One of them said there’s an expression in Japanese, that is 袖すり合うも多生の縁 (sode suri au mo tashoo no en). She said that it’s from Buddhism teaching, that people’s en is not coincidental, but because of their karma from their past lives. So that’s really a shared understanding, it’s about the karma, and it’s about the past life. It’s not coincidental, and it’s not accidental. Excerpt 22 M: Yeah, and my Japanese colleague has also shared the different synonyms of this expression, like enishi and yukari, and she said that the character or the notion also means ‘edge’. It’s fascinating really to find out that Japanese and Chinese share a lot of common understandings of this notion, but there are slight variations among ourselves.

The concept of yuán/duyên is believed to be originated from Buddhism, as a number of cultural informants for this research have explicitly mentioned, e.g. in the first conversation, T has elaborated on the concept in relation to Buddhism, saying that ‘duyên creates the probability to meet, yes, but the Karma decides the length, or the stability after the relationship has started’. In Vietnamese, the concept of duyên plays an indispensable role in its societies, as mentioned by T, quoting a commonly used Vietnamese idiom, which is ‘everything depends on duyên, and let duyên decide’. T confirms this by saying that ‘if something goes, then let it go, because the duyên is over, so we can’t revert it’. Such re-schematised and dynamic cultural conceptualisations also exist in Burmese, Indonesian and Indian cultural practices, where Buddhism, Moslem and various social beliefs and religions are practiced in the sense that what determines human encounters and experiences lies beyond human consciousness and control. Therefore, such culturally constructed concepts are both practiced ubiquitously and critically perceived as being of supernatural agency.

8.5 Implications The data analysis in Sect. 8.4 shows that the culturally constructed concept(s) of yuán and duyên exist in Chinese and Vietnamese societies extensively, and similar or comparable concepts also permeate other Asian and Southeast Asian societies. The

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concept of yuan is a ‘reciprocal concept’ (Chang & Holt, 1991, p. 38), and it has its origins in Buddhism in the sense that it is a ‘metaphor that stands for the sum total of all conditions in the natural world’ (Chang & Holt, 1991, p. 46). The concept is also closely related to the Buddhist notion of karma, which is understood as ‘a kind of blanket responsibility for an individual’s acts on earth during a given lifetime. … All that we are at the present moment is the result of the karma that we have produced in the past’ (Chang & Holt, 1991, pp. 32–33). Research on such culturally constructed concepts and their associated meanings and conceptualisations across cultural discourses and practices has implications for intercultural communication in terms of establishing cultural ‘common ground’, and for the theory and practice in World Englishes and Cultural Linguistics in relation to understanding cultural keywords and cultural salience, speech acts and cultural pragmatics, as well as developing intercultural strategies and metacultural competence. Xu (2014, p. 173) suggests that ‘Asian speakers of English should not only acquire linguistic competence and communicative competence associated with Asian Englishes, but also understand cultural conceptualisations and develop metacultural competence for intercultural communication’. To explore the implications of this research for intercultural communication and for relevant research and practice in World Englishes and Cultural Linguistics, the two authors of this chapter had a third extensive conversation. The following six implications are based on their conversation data analysis. These include (1) implications for understanding cultural keywords and cultural salience; (2) the importance of building a ‘common ground’ for intercultural communication; (3) further understanding of speech acts and cultural pragmatics; (4) unpacking varieties of English from a World-Englishes and Cultural-Linguistics perspective; (5) enhancing intercultural strategies in terms of active exposure and active familiarity and (6) developing metacultural competence for intercultural communication. The research presented in this chapter has implications for relevant research on culturally constructed concepts in relation to ‘cultural keywords’ and cultural salience, as shown in Excerpt 23. Excerpt 23 T: I read a research study on the keywords of Vietnamese culture, and the word duyên is one of the keywords. And it’s similar to Anna Wierzbicka’s work on cultural keywords. And then if we know about that core concept of a particular culture, then we have a deep understanding of the culture. M: … we should consider cultural keywords, because cultural keywords are also related to cultural salience. You know, if yuán is one of our cultural keywords, then definitely it’s very culturally salient.

The current research confirms and elaborates on the importance of building a ‘common ground’ for intercultural communication involving people from different linguistic backgrounds and cultural practices, as shown in Excerpt 24. Excerpt 24 T: In intercultural communication, building a common ground is very important, for example, if I talk to a Chinese, and they talk about yuán, or I talk to a Burmese, and they

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Z. Xu and T. N. Dinh relate to their own concept similar to duyên, then immediately we can build a connection, and then we can have a profound understanding of what we are talking about, and the more common ground we have, the better we understand each other, and more time-saving our communication is, because this is not a concrete concept, this is a very abstract concept. M: I like the idea of building the common ground across cultures, because that’s one of the keys to intercultural communication. And it’s also efficient, and it helps get people connected with one another immediately. And it makes intercultural communication very efficient, because, you know, once you have established the common ground, you don’t have to explain a lot of things. You feel this kind of implicit or tacit connection with one another.

The current research provides insights for further understanding of speech acts and cultural pragmatics in relation to culturally constructed concepts, as shown in Excerpt 25. Excerpt 25 T: I think, in terms of intercultural communication, our behaviours, and especially the topics we talk about, so as we can see we can use the notion to comfort people, yes, build a relationship with people, and explain for things that we cannot use our common sense to explain. And in Vietnamese culture, it relates to politeness and impoliteness. For example, in our culture, we don’t see asking a person about their marital status as impolite, but in another culture, it might be avoided, but there are other issues that are considered to be impolite related to having no duyên, because, duyên relates to the pragmatics and speech acts. M: And also I like your elaboration on the functions of the notion in certain societies, like in Vietnamese society, it’s a politeness indicator, or it can be used to comfort people, and so, from our linguistics perspective, the notion is really related to pragmatics and speech acts in terms of how and what we say in our intercultural communication.

The current research has implications for unpacking varieties of English from a World-Englishes and Cultural-Linguistics perspective, as shown in Excerpt 26. Excerpt 26 M: I think one of the implications is really about how a variety of English can be distinguished from other varieties, like, people usually refer to pronunciations, accents, you know, and the choice of words, and syntactic features, and stuff like that, however, it’s really the cultural conceptual level of thinking or conceptualisations that define the variety, like how we approach, how we understand cultural-conceptually the notion, defines the existence of such a variety. So, we are arguing that there is a Chinese variety, Vietnamese variety, Burmese variety, Indonesian variety, and Indian variety, simply because they have their cultural conceptual understanding of such a tacit notion of yuán. So, that’s an important implication, which is about the cultural conceptual level of defining a variety of English.

Another implication of the current research is about enhancing intercultural strategies in terms of active exposure to and familiarity with different cultural schemas and practices, particularly those that may not be common across cultures. This is illustrated in Excerpt 27. Excerpt 27 M: We keep emphasising that we should get exposed to different varieties, and we should familiarise ourselves with our, you know, different varieties of English. So, it’s really

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about the exposure and familiarity with varieties of English. However, we can do that on a daily basis. What we can take a step further is to do some explicit research so that we can share the research findings, and people read them, and they understand. I would call this ‘active exposure’, rather than ‘passive exposure’, or active familiarity, because we provide in-depth understandings for people to understand such tacit concepts.

Last but not least, the current research has significant implications for developing metacultural competence of people when they engage in intercultural communication, particularly for those speakers of World Englishes who communicate in English as a Lingua Franca in a global context. This is illustrated in Excerpt 28. Excerpt 28 M: And another implication is about metacultural competence, which is related to Cultural Linguistics, and it is about awareness, explication and negotiation. So I think our chapter may serve to improve people’s metacultural competence, because after reading this, people may become aware of such a notion existing, and how it varies across cultures. And they may even learn how to explain such a notion from their mother tongue perspectives, and how to negotiate meanings of this notion across cultures. T: One thing I’d like to add is like through my conversation with an Indonesian, at first she didn’t confess that that notion existed in her own culture, so it took a lot of time to clarify, to give some sort of situations, so as for implications for intercultural communication in the sense that we need to have, like you say, related to metacultural competence, the clarification, giving an example, exemplifying, and also reflection, and then comparing, and so, because, that concept may exist, but it’s not salient, so it’s a chance for us to gain a deeper understanding of different cultures. M: Yes, I like the way you have consolidated the notion of metacultural competence, in terms of exemplifying, reflection, comparing, clarification, in order for people to have a deeper understanding of abstract concepts, and some of the ‘hidden cultural schemas’ or ‘silent cultural schemas’, or in my case, or in my term, it would be cultural blind-spots of interesting culturally constructed concepts.

8.6 Conclusion In this chapter, we have explored culturally constructed concepts, including yuán in Chinese and duyên in Vietnamese, and similar or comparable concepts in Japanese, e.g. en, and Korean, e.g. in-yeon, as well as yag sat and phuu-sar in Burmese, takdir and jodoh in Indonesian and fate, omen, kismet, karma, bhagya (in Bengali) and moksha (in Hindu) in Indian cultural practices. We have reviewed relevant literature in World Englishes and Cultural Linguistics in order to construct an analytical framework for analysing culturally constructed concepts. We have proposed a ‘mixed emic and etic reflexive approach’ for data collection and analysis surrounding tacit cultural knowledge and culturally constructed concepts such as yuán and duyên. Through data analysis, we argue that certain culturally constructed concepts spread across cultural practices in East and Southeast Asian societies and their cultural conceptualisations are dynamic and re-schematised, hence heterogeneously distributed. This research has significant implications for intercultural communication, as well as ongoing research in World Englishes and Cultural Linguistics.

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References Bolton, K. (2003). Chinese Englishes: A sociolinguistic history. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Bolton, K., & Davis, D. R. (2006). A content analysis of World Englishes. World Englishes, 25(1), 5–6. Chang, H.-C., & Holt, G. R. (1991). The concept of Yuan and Chinese interpersonal relationships. In S. Ting Toomey & F. Korzenny (Eds.), Cross-cultural interpersonal communication (pp. 28–57). London and New Delhi: Sage Publications. Cheek, J., Lipschitz, D. L., Abrams, E. M., Vago, D. R., & Nakamura, Y. (2015). Dynamic reflexivity in action: An Armchair walkthrough of a qualitatively driven mixed-method and multiple methods study of mindfulness training in school children. Qualitative Health Research, 25(6), 751–762. Costa, C., Burke, C., & Murphy, M. (2018). Capturing habitus: Theory, method and reflexivity. International Journal of Research & Method in Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743727X. 2017.1420771. Dinh, T. N., & Sharifian, F. (2017). Vietnamese cultural conceptualisations in the locally developed English textbook: A case study of ‘Lunar New Year’/’Tet’. Asian Englishes, 19(2), 148–159. Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods Research (Ed.), Research methods in applied linguistics: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methodologies (pp. 24–27). Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Finefter-Rosenbluh, I. (2017). Incorporating perspective taking in reflexivity: A method to enhance insider qualitative research processes. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 16, 1–11. Fook, J. (1999). Reflexivity as method. Aunnual Review of Health Social Science, 9(1), 11–20. Goodwin, R. (1999). Personal relationships across cultures. London and New York: Routledge. Goodwin, R., & Findlay, C. (1997). We were just fated together … Chinese love and the concept of yuan in England and Hong Kong. Personal Relationships, 4, 85–92. Kecskes, I. (2007). Dueling contexts: A dynamic model of meaning. Journal of Pragmatics, 40, 385–406. Kirkpatrick, A. (2015). World Englishes and local cultures. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 460–470). London and New York: Routledge. Sharifian, F. (2015). Cultural linguistics and world Englishes. World Englishes, 34(4), 515–532. Sharifian, F. (2017a). Cultural Linguistics. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Sharifian, F. (2017b). Cultural Linguistics: The state of the art. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), Advances in Cultural Linguistics (pp. 1–28). Singapore: Springer. Wierzbicka, A. (1997). Understanding cultures through their key words: English, Russian, Polish, German, and Japanese. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wierzbicka, A. (2010). Cross-cultural communication and miscommunication: The role of cultural keywords. Intercultural Pragmatics, 7(1), 1–23. Xu, Z. (2014). A cultural linguistics approach to Asian Englishes. Asian Englishes, 16(2), 173–179. Xu, Z., & Dinh, T. N. (2013). How do “WE” (World Englishes) make sense in ELF communication? Words and their meanings across cultures. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 2(2), 365–388.

Chapter 9

Bilingual Creativity in Saudi English Wafaa Othman S. Fallatah

Abstract This study aims at identifying features of Saudi English in light of the cultural conceptualisations shared by the Saudi speakers of English and the way they lead to instances of bilingual creativity. The data comes from newspaper articles and focus groups. First, data analysis followed Quinn (1982), Malcolm and Sharifian (2002), and Sharifian (2010) methods of analysing oral and written texts. Second, preliminary findings are compared to the previously identified bilingual creativity patterns and categories in the literature. Final findings have identified a number of features of Saudi English bilingual creativity that can fall into certain categories and recurrent themes. Identified categories include code-switching, syntactic and semantic creativity, translation, and lexical creativity and the themes mostly revolve around women, religion, gender segregation and family.

9.1 Introduction World Englishes has accumulated a significant body of literature (Bamiro, 2011; Osakwe, 1999; Zhang, 2015) that is mainly focused on the distinguishing rhetorical and linguistic features of the diverse emerging varieties of English. One of the significant approaches to investigating emerging English varieties is through investigating features of bilingual creativity in everyday speech (Bolton, 2010; Jones, 2010; Kachru, 1983; Malcolm & Sharifian, 2002, 2005; Maybin & Swann, 2007; Widdowson, 2008). Saudi English (SE) is one of the emerging World-Englishes varieties that is starting to gain attention, although it remains an under-studied area of research. This study aims to investigate bilingual creativity in SE from a CulturalLinguistics perspective. This will be achieved through identifying and analysing

W. O. S. Fallatah (B) School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Australia e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Department of Languages and Translation, Taibah University, Yanbu, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_9

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instances of bilingual creativity and investigating their distinct linguistic and pragmatic features within a cultural conceptualisations framework (Sharifian, 2017). It aims to answer the following questions: (i) What are the common features of bilingual creativity in SE and what functions do they serve? (ii) What categories can they be classified into? (iii) What cultural conceptualisations do they evoke?

9.2 Literature Review 9.2.1 Saudi Arabia The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is located in the heart of the Middle East and is internationally known for being the cradle of Islam and the world’s largest oil producer. It has a population of 33,795,13 (Central Intelligence Agency, 2019) who speak a variety of distinct regional dialects of Arabic such as Najdi, Hijazi, Ganobi (Saleh, 2000) and practise the Islamic faith as the official religion. Although KSA is geographically close to some non-Arabic-speaking countries such as Iran and Turkey, there has been a minimal linguistic influence on Saudi Arabic by the languages spoken there (Alasmari, 2013). However, the annual arrival of approximately 2.5 million pilgrims to KSA spikes localised linguistic contact in the Western region, Hijaz, where the holy cities are located. As a result, the Hijazi dialect is the only Saudi dialect that is highly influenced by other languages such as English, Turkish and Farsi. According to Al-Abed (1996) and Hai (2012), the Saudi community used to be a relatively isolated and ultra-conservative society, which led to the public rejection of foreign languages, considering them as inferior alternatives to Arabic, the language of the Holy Quran. Despite public resistance, the Saudi government managed to introduce the English language to the Saudi community in three main stages. Starting in 1928, the Saudi government gradually introduced English as a required subject at all levels in public schools, as a core unit at university and higher education levels, as a job-hiring requirement, and as a main language for a number of Saudi-owned mass-media outlets (Hammond, 2007; Mahboob & Elyas, 2014). Starting in 2005, the King Abdullah scholarship programme triggered a farreaching transformation in the Saudi educational, social and linguistic structure. It aimed to assist Saudi men and women to obtain academic degrees from top international universities, and hence prompted a strong linguistic contact with English, not only in the local Saudi environment but also in the Inner Circle countries’ linguistic environments (Taylor & Albasri, 2014). As a result, a large number of Saudis earned their degrees in countries such as Australia, the UK and the USA and started producing academic literature in English (Al-Qahtani, 2006). Starting in 2015, when King Salman ascended the throne, vast social, educational, legal and political changes took place as part of a total reform strategy titled Saudi Vision 2030 (The Saudi Ministry of Education, 2019). Most of the changes promoted Saudi bilingualism, such as the launch of the Saudi project for a tourist-friendly smart

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cross-border city, Neom (Farag, 2019). English is thus no longer considered to be a foreign non-Islamic language, and it is becoming a second language popular not only among the young, the elite or educated Saudis, but also among all those wishing to survive and keep up with the kingdom’s fast-moving development.

9.2.2 Cultural Conceptualisations In recent years, culture and its relationship to people on the individual and communal levels have attracted substantial academic interest (Albakry & Siler, 2012; Bectovic, 2011; Sharifian, 2013b, 2017; Yi, Hu, Scheithauer, & Niu, 2013). Naturally, researchers have attempted to design a number of cultural models to enable them to investigate this social phenomenon, such as those by Spradley (1972), Adaskou, Britten, & Fahsi, (1990), and Kronenfeld (2008). Malcolm and Sharifian (2005) and Sharifian (2003) presented one of the earliest cultural-conceptualisation models that focuses on the connection between culture and language. Sharifian defines cultural conceptualisations as conceptual structures such as schemas, categories, and conceptual metaphors, which not only exist at the individual level of cognition but also develop at a higher level of cultural cognition, where they are constantly negotiated and renegotiated through generations of speakers within a cultural group, across time and space. (2013a, p. 1592)

Sharifian (2003) hence classifies cultural conceptualisations into cultural schemas, cultural categories and cultural-conceptual metaphors, which disperse heterogeneously through a speech community. Firstly, cultural schemas are defined as ‘the building blocks of cognition used for storing, reorganising, and interpreting information’ (2013a, p. 1591). Schemas can be divided into sub-schemas such as event schemas, role schemas, image schemas, proposition schemas and emotional schemas. Some of the studies that have employed the cultural schema to investigate World-Englishes varieties are those by Jones (2010), Malcolm and Sharifian (2005), Sharifian (2001, 2010), and Xu (2014). Secondly, despite the early inclination to separate metaphor from thought and associate it with language, Lakoff’s (1993) theory of conceptual metaphors strongly contests that assumption and argues that metaphorical thinking is an intrinsic mental process. A conceptual metaphor is thus defined as ‘a cognitive structure that allows us to understand one conceptual domain in terms of another’, and studying the cultural metaphors provides a deeper understanding of the mental processes of a cultural group (Sharifian, 2013b, p. 1591). Thirdly, categorisation is a universal phenomenon that eradicates chaos by enabling people to minimise the time and effort required to process the maximum amount of information by following psychological principles that provide structure and substructure to the world (Rosch 1999). According to Rosch, categories are ‘logical, clearly bounded entities, whose membership is defined by an item’s possession of a simple set of criteria features, in which all instances possessing the criterial

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attributes have a full and equal degree of membership’ (1975, p. 193). Although categorisation is a universal phenomenon, the internal structures of semantic categories vary from one culture to another (Rosch, 1975; Rosch, Mervis, Gray, Johnson, & Boyes-Braem, 1976; Zhang, Lin, & Li, 2012; Karasawa, Maass, Rakic, & Kato, 2014). Kroll and De Groot (1997) and Kharkhurin, Reber, & Tilei, (2005) use the term ‘bilingual’ to refer to a person who actively uses, or attempts to use, more than one language, even if he or she has not reached fluency in the second language. By creativity, I do not refer to the ability of the extraordinary people who can produce outstanding artistic or scientific products, but rather to the novel nuances that exist in everyday thought and speech (Atkins & Carter, 2013; Maybin & Swann, 2007; Pope, 2005). Kachru defines bilingual creativity as the ‘creative linguistic processes which are the result of competence in two or more languages’ (1985, p. 20), a notion that is applied at the level of bilingual individuals as well as of bilingual speech communities. Kachru (1983, 1985, 1995, 1996) emphasised the need to adopt a fresh approach to investigating contact literature by exploring the bilingually creative discourse strategies that are distinctive to World-Englishes varieties. One may focus on bilingual creativity using two approaches: the product approach and the process approach (Jones, 2010). The product approach is primarily concerned with the linguistic particularities of the formal structures of the text, which could digress into error analysis. This is a crucial distinction between the speaker’s poor command of the language due to errors—especially on the syntactic level—and between consistent and systemic formal features of a new variety (innovations), a distinction that Kachru (1985) and Hamid and Baldauf (2013) have pointed out. On the other hand, the process approach explores the broader sense of the message by examining the subtle linguistic nuances that are meant to create social, psychological and attitudinal effects through negotiating different meanings, identities and social norms (Atkins & Carter, 2013; Widdowson, 2008). The process focus approach was preferred by numerous World-Englishes researchers, such as Rivlina (2015), Baker (2001), Jones (2010), Zhang (2002), Sui (2015), Kharkhurin and Altarriba (2016), and Fallatah (2017). The exactitude of exploring the bilingual creativity features of any English language variety at the formal as well as the deeper levels depends critically on how well one understands the cultural conceptualisations that are entrenched in them (Sharifian, 2017).

9.2.3 Saudi English Despite the great national and international academic interest KSA receives from disciplines such as historical, political, media and pedagogical studies, there are only a handful of studies that focus on SE as an emerging variety (Fallatah, 2017). The earliest study I could find was conducted by Wood (1983), who is the only one to have ever used the term ‘Saudi Arabian English’. In addition, it is the first study

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to compare it to other Arabic varieties such as Moroccan English, Egyptian English and Kuwaiti English. This study explored SE on the levels of syntax, semantics, lexis and phonetics. Al-Haq and Ahmed (1994) adopted an error-analysis approach rather than a World-Englishes approach to investigating students writing patterns on a microlevel. Similarly, Al-Haq and Smadi (1996) explored SE on the macro-level and from an error-analysis perspective, in the sense that they also labelled SE features as ‘errors’ and ‘deviations’. Other more WE-oriented studies include those of Al-Rawi (2012), who explored syntactic features of SE; Mahboob (2013); and Mahboob and Elyas (2014), who investigated SE in public school textbooks for syntactic features and cultural conceptualisations. Fallatah (2016) explored the features of SE research abstracts from a genre analysis perspective. One of the most recent studies was conducted by Fallatah (2017) and explored features of SE bilingual creativity in stand-up comedy, employing a cultural-conceptualisation framework. As this literature review shows, SE is a gravely under-studied variety despite the significant body of research conducted on numerous varieties of English from a cultural and bilingual creativity perspective. The fact that this study aims to explore SE from these two perspectives will help fill a gap in the literature and provide a point of reference for future research endeavours.

9.3 Methodology This chapter is part of an ongoing research project investigating bilingual creativity in SE. The data consists of 30 newspaper articles, written by 15 male and 15 female Saudi writers; two focus group sessions, one consisting of five male and the other of five female Saudi participants; and 10 face-to-face interviews with five male and five female Saudi informants. The data is transcribed and then analysed using the models of Malcolm and Sharifian (2002) and Quinn (1996, 2005) for analysing written and oral texts. I isolated and coded the parts of the data that I categorised as bilingually creative and elucidated their linguistic features and the possible Saudi cultural conceptualisations behind them. I discussed my selected parts and the categories I developed with four non-SE speakers (an Italian man, a Persian woman, and an Australian man and woman) for an etic perspective of the data. I discussed the preliminary findings in face-to-face interviews with the Saudi informants for an emic perspective. Hence, face-to-face interviews were mainly used to enrich my understanding of the identified instances of bilingual creativity in the data. Table 9.1 illustrates the details of the data sets regarding the data sources, the number of items and the participants’ gender. I organised the findings into bilingual categories based on those found in the literature (Adegbija, 1989; Albakry & Hancock, 2008; Albakry & Ofori, 2011; Baker, 2001; Bobda, 1994; Kachru, 1985; Kharkhurin, 2010; Kharkhurin & Wei, 2014; Pitzl, 2016; Pitzl, Breiteneder, & Klimpfinger, 2008; Rivlina, 2015; Tawake, 2003; Zhang, 2002). They include the following categories: borrowing, code-mixing,

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Table 9.1 Data sources and participants details Data source

Number

Gender

Age group

Method of collecting

Newspaper articles

30 articles

15 male 15 female

Not specific

The Internet/Survey Monkey

Focus groups

2 groups

(Group 1) 5 males (Group 2) 5 females

24–40

Word of mouth, WhatsApp groups

Face-to-face interviews

10 participants

5 males 5 females

20–35

Word of mouth, WhatsApp groups

code-switching, pronunciation shift, literal translation, non-literal translation, terms of address, metaphors, idioms, punning, religious expressions, gender reference, semantic/syntactic variation, tense variations, definite article insertion/deletion, indefinite article insertion/deletion, verb to be insertion/deletion, Arabic syntax transfer, plural form variations, pronoun variations, preposition variations, sentence order, subject–verb agreement, collocational creativity, technical jargon and phrasal verbs. The structure of the categorisation was then further refined through addition, deletion or amalgamation, which allowed clear umbrella categories and subcategories to emerge. Finally, I tabulated, discussed and exemplified the findings in each category in relation to bilingual creativity and the Saudi cultural conceptualisations.

9.4 Findings and Discussion Categorising instances is an essential part of making analysis manageable and meaningful; however, there could be occasions where category and example overlap. As a result, some examples are discussed in more than one category. The analysis showed a recurrent presence, absence or overlap of particular categories of SE bilingual creativity in comparison to those found in the literature. I therefore clustered them into five main categories and a number of subcategories, allowing clearer patterns to emerge. Categories identified include cultural references, syntactic creativity, lexical and semantic creativity, translation and code-switching. Table 9.2 illustrates the frequency of instances in each category and what subcategories they include in newspaper articles and focus groups. I ordered the categories from the highest number of total instances per category to the lowest. As Table 9.2 shows, categories vary significantly in numbers between newspaper articles and focus groups, a finding that might be genre-related, since one is a written genre and the other is a spoken one. In addition, the level of formality could be a contributing factor since writing in the government official newspaper is often more formal than speaking in a focus group consisting of five participants of the same gender.

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Table 9.2 Frequency of bilingual creativity categories in newspaper articles and focus groups (percentages are for the number of instances per category in relation to the total number of instances of all categories within the whole data. I rounded up fractions to their closest half or integer number) Categories

Categories include

Newspaper articles Focus groups Total

Cultural references

Cultural metaphors, cultural schema, cultural category, idioms and religious reference

162 (31.5%)

Syntactic creativity

Variations in the 70 (13.5%) tenses, definite and indefinite articles, the verb to be, the plural and singular forms, pronouns, prepositions, sentence structure, subject–verb agreement, collocations, redundancies, comparative and superlative forms

35 (7%)

197 (38.5%)

51 (10%)

121 (23.5%)

Lexical and semantic Expansion, reduction 32 (6%) creativity or redirection of the semantic and/or lexical range of words through processes such as extension, narrowing, wordplay, coinage and collocational creativity

36 (7%)

68 (13%)

Translation

Calque/literal translation of known Arabic phrases or clauses such as poetry or verses of the Holy Quran

39 (7.5%)

0 (0%)

39 (7.5%)

Code-switching

Code-switching, code-mixing, code-meshing and borrowing

16 (3%)

17 (3.5%)

33 (6.5%)

373 (72.5%)

139 (27.5%)

512 (100%)

Total

174 Table 9.3 The number of cultural reference instances according to gender

W. O. S. Fallatah Cultural references

Male

Female

Total

Newspaper articles

21

141

162

Focus groups

14

21

35

Total

35

162

197

9.4.1 Cultural References This category includes cultural metaphors, cultural schemas, cultural categories, idioms and religious references. The analysis showed an instance frequency of 38.5% for cultural references. However, looking into each data set separately shows that cultural references are more dominant in newspaper articles (162 instances) than in focus groups (35 instances). The differences in numbers of instances are even more noticeable between genders, as illustrated in Table 9.3. They show that cultural references occur significantly more in texts produced by females (162 instances) than males (35 instances), which is understandable since most cultural references in this data set mainly revolve around four interrelated broad themes: women, family, gender segregation and religion. These are topics that often appeal more to female writers and readers, as women constitute a considerable number of voices calling for reform regarding these social issues in particular. The first theme deals with Saudi women’s social and political reality in KSA, such as the need to lift the social and legal male guardianship of adult women and the need for better incorporation of women in the national workforce. In Example 9.1, the writer evokes the Saudi schema of GUARDIANSHIP ON WOMEN, which not only reflects the Saudi cultural conceptualisation of women as minors but also shapes the Saudi discourse about them. Example 9.1 (F_NPA)1 The commission assumes that it is not enough for a woman to be monitored by her family and they need an external censor.

Example 9.1 reflects the cultural acceptance of women being under a constant state of supervision by family, and that the commission is proposing external censorship as well. By the commission, the writer is referring to the Saudi Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. It is nationally known as the and internationally as the religious police. Within this commission Al-Haia schema, the lexical item monitor is semantically ameliorated from having negative meaning (when applied to a sane adult) to being a socially acceptable behaviour. The semantic amelioration of monitor creatively balances and mitigates the Saudi and non-Saudi reactions to the word. It raises questions about women’s situations by using a word that does not challenge the Saudi community, because monitoring women is an accepted social practice by most Saudis. It thus avoids the possible hostile 1 Examples

are numbered and coded in the following manner: Example 1 (F_FG) = Example # (gender_data set code).

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attitudes from some Saudi readers who would not like to challenge this aspect of Saudi culture. At the same time, the general negative semantic meaning of the word would still induce a negative response towards the situation of women in KSA from the non-Saudi readers and from those Saudis who encourage change in this regard. Example 9.2 (F_NPA) What seems striking here is that the commission now calling for hiring women in its team had previously objected to allowing women to work in lingerie jobs or as cashiers in supermarkets under the pretext that these jobs involve mingling between males and females.

Looking into the schema of gender segregation, one would find it to be present in most SE discourses about Saudi social life. One of the vivid manifestations and control factors of gender segregation is the Saudi Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which Saudi people refer to as the commission, or Al-Haia. The commission evokes a cultural schema of an all-male powerful nationwide organisation assigned by the government to monitor people’s behaviour and to make sure that it adheres to Islamic law, such as the Islamic dress code and calling people to prayer at prayer times, and to ensure as much as possible that there is no gender mixing in public places.2 The fact that the rest of the title did not follow the word the commission indicated the writer’s dependence on the shared knowledge with the Saudi reader about which commission is associated with such situations in Saudi life. Example 9.2 illustrates the complicated relationship the commission has with the public. On the one hand, mentioning the commission would evoke a positive schema for some Saudis, who think that it is a positive control factor in Saudi life to keep the Islamic values and Saudi way of life from corruption by Western culture. On the other hand, others believe that it is a suffocating force that is not keeping up with modern life and needs to be eliminated, or at least radically reformed. Mentioning the commission provides a unique Saudi context to the text regardless of what the writer’s stance on the subject is. There is semantic salience for the word the commission and definite semantic deterioration or semantic ameliorations depending on which side the reader takes regarding the commission argument. Although the commission is a strong reflection of how deeply religion integrates into the Saudi culture, there are other more subtle instances where religion reflects Saudi cultural conceptualisations. Example 9.3 (M_FG) A: Where shall we start? B: From the right.

In Example 9.3, the speakers referred to the concept of right in relation to the Saudi cultural schema of RIGHT IS BETTER THAN LEFT. In Islam, right is better than 2 The

dominion of the Saudi Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has been greatly downscaled since 2016, which is associated with the national reform plan (Saudi Vision 2030).

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left in all things in life, and in the Doomsday, when Allah summons all people before Him, good Muslims will be standing to His right and all sinners will be standing to His left, and hence, as a sign of blessing, anything good a Muslim does should start from the right if at all possible. For example, Muslims eat and drink with their right hands, enter houses with their right foot first, and serve food and drinks to guests using the right hand, starting with the guest on the right. That is why in Example 9.3, when the participant in the focus group did not know who should start talking first, another participant pointed at the person sitting to the right and said, ‘From the right’. There was no further explanation needed, and the participant on the right started talking immediately. The sub-context of this statement hence adds a cultural obligation, which is hard to refuse by Saudis but possibly hard to detect by nonSaudis. It is worth mentioning that on asking one of the face-to-face interviewees about this example, he said, ‘No one would say no to the right unless he is sorry for stupid]’. the word I am going to say QbiitQ Other dominant bilingual creativity instances involve the Saudi cultural schema of FAMILY. It involves the extension or narrowing of the term family according to Saudi culture, and in contrast to the general Western understanding of what constitutes a family, a big family, extended family and distant family. Example 9.4 (F_FG) The thing that I miss the most from Saudi Arabia is, of course, my family, for the most part. I have here my small family, my husband, and my kids but I miss my mom and dad and the cousins.

In Example 9.4, the speaker referred to the concept of family in relation to the Saudi cultural schema and cultural category of FAMILY. She used the modifier small to narrow the Saudi expanded semantic scope of the word family to refer to her husband and children, and a big family, which refers to the extended family and includes parents, cousins, uncles and grandparents. The speaker thus broadened the lexical meaning of family from the nuclear family to include the extended family and, possibly, the clan or tribe (distant relatives). This could be different from WESTERN SCHEMA OF FAMILY as illustrated in Fig. 9.1. Example 9.5 (M_FG) The morning when I went to the university, the homestay, I mean the father of the homestay, he told me, I went to the car with him, and when he was driving I dunno, and there is I mean a sign for the street name Disney World, I was laughing…

In Example 9.5, the speaker referred to the man in the homestay family he lived with as the father of the homestay, which evoked the Saudi cultural role schema of THE HUSBAND AS THE FATHER OF THE FAMILY, including the wife. In this role schema, the man of the house (the alpha male) is referred to as the father of the house in the sense that he is responsible financially, socially and, sometimes, legally, for everybody in it. As a result, it is socially acceptable for a woman to refer to her abona (our father), which is understood immediately to mean she husband as is referring to her husband and not her real father. If she needed to refer to her own

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Father

Mother

Family

Fig. 9.1 The FAMILY SCHEMA in Saudi versus Western cultural conceptualisations

father, she would say abuya (my father) or baba (Dad). The plural possessive pronoun signifies that the woman is referring collectively to herself and her children as one unit in relation to her husband. This role schema is very much related to the patriarchal cultural perspective of the man’s role in the house as the leader of the whole family. That is why this schema is not exclusive to couples with children, as ?bona (our father), and any man any married woman can refer to her husband as ?l?hil (the family) or ?lÝyaal (the kids), even if can refer to his wife as they have just married. This example also triggers the Saudi categorisation of family members. In this example, there is thus no way to tell whether the homestay family have children or not, because in the Saudi cultural role schema it is not necessary to have children for the husband to be called our father. Example 9.5 also triggers another Saudi cultural conceptualisation of an image albailt, FAMILY AS A HOUSE, which underlies the use of schema, that of certain metaphors and explains patterns of reasoning by Saudi speakers in matters related to family. In fact, it is the image schema of FAMILY AS A HOUSE that could be behind Saudi references such as the following: ahel albait 3 (the family of the house) si d albait (the master of the house)  

raÝii albeit (the caregiver of the house) rajul albeit (the man of the house) sit albeit (the lady of the house) 3 This

expression aal albeit or ahil albeit is used widely by Muslim people as a proper noun to refer to the descendants of the blood line of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). ahil albeit, however, is also widely used by Saudi people, particularly in the Hijazi dialect, as an adjective describing people living in the same house, who are usually, but not exclusively, family members.

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These phrases state the family member’s role schema as associated with albeit (the house). Such phrases, however, do not specify the position of the person in the si d albait (the master of the family tree as a blood relative. For example, house) could be the father, the husband, the eldest brother or even the eldest son, who is living in said house and is usually the financial provider of the family. bint al-bait (the daughter of the house) is a title that can be given to any, usually single, girl living in the family house, who could be a daughter, a sister, a niece or a distant female relative. This means that the image schema of FAMILY AS A HOUSE not only informs Saudi culture about who is considered a family member but also provides insights into how Saudis verbalise these relations and categorise family membership both vertically and horizontally.  

9.4.2 Syntactic Creativity This category includes variations in the verb tense, definite and indefinite articles, the verb to be, the plural and singular forms, pronouns, prepositions, sentence order and structure, subject–verb agreement, collocations, redundancies and comparative/superlative forms. The Syntactic Variations category has the second-highest percentage of occurrences in both data sets with 121 occurrences (23.5%). Table 9.4 shows some obvious differences between the two data sets and within the different genders. Syntactic creativity is present in males (48 instances) more than in females (3 instances) in the focus group data, while the opposite is true for the NPA data, with males accounting for 24 and females for 46 instances. This could be due to two main factors. Firstly, the female NPA topics almost exclusively address social–cultural issues, which could lead to a need for syntactic creativity to be able to express these social issues. Male NPA topics vary between social, political and economic, which may require less need for linguistic creativity. Secondly, the male focus group session was conducted at the home of one of the participants without the presence of the researcher (a moderator), and there was, therefore, a sense of ease and a friendly ambience that allowed them to focus on communicating their ideas more than in the formal structure. The female focus group Table 9. The number of syntactic creativity instances according to gender

Syntactic creativity

Male

Female

Total

Newspaper articles

24 (20%)

46 (38%)

70 (58%)

Focus groups

48 (39.5%)

3 (2.5%)

51 (42%)

Total

72 (59.5%)

49 (40.5%)

121 (100%)

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was conducted in a much formal setting, in an office with the researcher present and with not all participants knowing each other. Example 9.6 (F_FG) How did I do that with her?

In Example 9.6, the speaker used the preposition with instead of to when speaking about leaving her 5-month-old daughter with her parents back in KSA and coming to Australia. The prepositional phrase do something with someone indicates cooperation between two parties, but the prepositional phrase to do something to someone indicates the directionality of action. The Arabic preposition maQ, which translates as with, indicates both collaboration and directionality of action: Kaif Amelt MaQaha Kida How did I do this with/to her?

Example 9.7 (F_FG) You’re supposed to drive by your hands, but no, he didn’t drive by his hands.

Similarly, in Example 9.7, the speaker used the preposition by instead of with to describe how a person drives a car. Although driving by someone or something usually means passing by it, the phrase did not cause any confusion to the participants, perhaps because it replaced the Arabic preposition bi, which means both by and with: yaguud Al sayyara bi yadihi Drives the car with his hand.

Example 9.8 (F_NPA) To the point where one thinks that he must be completely decent even when he’s suffering from a heart attack or burning?

Example 9.8 shows that it is a common Arabic grammatical feature to collectively refer to both genders as male, which evokes the Saudi cultural schema of the patriarchal society. The writer was talking about a girl who suffered from a heart attack. Unfortunately, the girl died because she did not receive medical help in time because she was not wearing a cloak. When the writer wanted to make a general and logical argument about this incident, she changed the pronoun to a male reference, which could be due to two possible reasons. Firstly, it could be related to the lexical item she used at the beginning of the example, one, which is instinctively translated (one = male) and not (one + female affix). As a result, she continued as the rest of the sentence as a male reference for consistency. Secondly, according to the Arabic syntactic system, females can be included in male reference but not the , this could other way around. For example, when one says my boys , this can refer refer to one’s sons and daughters, but when one says my girls

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only to one’s daughters. Similarly, when the writer was trying to make a general argument about the importance of physical modesty in life-threatening situations, which is applicable to men and women alike, she instinctively transferred the Arabic syntactic system and used the male reference to convey a sense of generality and inclusivity. Example 9.9 (F_NPA) The religion is easy, beautiful and simply perfect.

Example 9.9 shows the insertion of the article the, which is common in Saudi texts since there is no one-to-one correspondence between the Arabic and the English noun identifiers. The above example identifies religion in a manner similar to Arabic.

In this specific case, one could easily infer that the writer is referring to Islam as the religion, because it was not followed by a noun to modify it, such as Judaism or Christianity. Example 9.10 (M_NPA) Whether we agree with that or not is another issue, but what I know for a fact is that a large percentage of them need to be enlisted in the army for training and discipline to become a better citizen.

Example 9.10 uses the singular form a better citizen and the plural form them in the same sentence, which shows another common Arabic speech feature. In Arabic, the shift from plural and singular is more malleable than in English depending on the speaker’s/writer’s intention to either generalise or specify the topic at hand, even in mid-sentence. In Saudi Arabic, when referring to a general idea or a concept, it is very common to switch to a male singular reference such as

9.4.3 Lexical and Semantic Creativity This category includes processes such as expansion, reduction or redirection of the semantic and/or lexical range of words through processes such as extension, narrowing, wordplay, coinage and collocational creativity. It is a category with a relatively low frequency of instances, containing 13% of the total instances, as shown in Table 9.2. Males produce 36% of the instances within this category in comparison to the females who produce 64%, as illustrated in Table 9.5.

9 Bilingual Creativity in Saudi English Table 9.5 The number of semantic and lexical creativity instances according to gender

181

Semantic and lexical creativity

Male

Female

Total

Newspaper articles

31 (24.5%)

55 (45%)

86 (70.5%)

Focus groups

13 (10.5%)

23 (19%)

36 (29.5%)

Total

44 (36%)

78 (64%)

122 (100%)

Example 9.11 (F_FG) How come you think two big accidents happen so close to each other in one Hajj season?

In Example 9.11, the lexical item season acquires a new meaning just by being creatively collocated to the lexical item Hajj. The new meaning is not associated with the usual division of the year based on weather, sports events or a fashion release. Instead, it is associated with the Muslim religious ritual, Hajj, which is the fifth pillar of Islam. Even though seasons usually extend for relatively elongated periods, Hajj as a ritual is internationally known as being performed mainly within 7 days or less. From that perspective, it can thus hardly be called a season in the Western understanding of the word. However, the Saudi cultural schema of HAJJ SEASON musim alèadZ not only includes the religious rituals performed by pilgrims in Makkah but also extends to include the 4-month period of extensive work and preparation for this event. This includes the seasonal jobs associated with it and the extensive demographic change of the population in Makkah and Madinah during the 2 months before and after Hajj due to the early arrival or late departure of millions of pilgrims. As a result, the lexical item season encodes the Saudi schema of HAJJ SEASON, which encompasses the temporal, religious, cultural, social, economic and geographical aspects of Hajj. Example 9.12 (M_FG) Yeah, yeah, this experience made me happy because when I presented our presentation in front, can you imagine in front of 100 people and it was the first I represented like this, 100 people attendance.

In Example 9.12, the participant used the verb present with the word presentation, which could sound strange and redundant to an L1 speaker of English. The word presentation is often collocated with the verbs give or make. This could be because in Arabic the two words meaning present and presentation are not as similar as they are in English, so they can be collocated without the same sense of redundancy:

taqdiim Ýard Present a presentation.

In Arabic, the verb give yuitee when collocated with presentation often means passing the presentation materials and slides to someone, and the verb make

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iÝdad when collocated with presentation means the preparation stage before the actual presentation. It could therefore be understandable that the participant made a linguistic transfer of the Arabic collocation into English. Example 9.13 (F_FG) My dream was bringing a Canadian child.

In Example 9.13, the speaker used the verb bring to refer to giving birth to a baby, which is a word replacement to the Saudi Arabic dialect verb:

gabat bint Brought a girl (word replacement) Gave birth to a girl.

The English verb (gives birth) foregrounds the physical process a woman goes through to deliver a baby. The Saudi Arabic verb gabat foregrounds the product (baby coming into the world), which goes hand in hand with the Saudi cultural schema of BASHFULNESS when referring to what Saudis consider to be sensitive topics such as giving birth. As a result, a euphemistic expression such as bringing a child or having a child is preferred to giving birth on the basis that the latter is somewhat explicit. Example 9.14 (M_FG) So he opened the light while he was driving.

Another instance of SE word replacement is Example 9.14, when the speaker used the verb open to refer to turn on the light, which is a very frequent semantic extension of the English verbs open and close to include the semantic meaning of the verbs ?ftaè (open) and ?Gliq turn on and turn off . Hence, as the Arabic verbs (close) are used with objects such as door, box, TV and lights, the semantic meaning of the English verb open in this example was expanded to include the semantic range of its Arabic equivalent. Example 9.15 (M_FG) It was good, it was good, but when she was rolling, I didn’t know what is she doing actually, it was like pshhhh, yeah you don’t, you don’t like feel it, but in the video that will be very good. And when we like passed the … after rolling, she gave me like a sign to open my hands, and after that, it was like really exciting…

In Example 9.15, the participant shared with the rest of the group his unforgettable experience of skydiving. He extended the semantic meaning of the word hand to include the entire upper limb of the human body, which was very clear from his body gesture by physically opening his arms when saying, She gave me like a sign to open

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my hands. In English, the word hand refers to the multi-fingered organ located at the end of the forearm of human beings. Although in standard Arabic the differences between hand and arm are clearly defined by lexical items such as hand yæd, arm ðiraaÝ, and upper arm Ýaðd, Saudi Arabic seldom makes such distinctions between the different parts. The three parts are referred to collectively as hand yæd and modifiers are used if specificity is required, such as misik yaddaha min foq He grabbed her hand from the top (upper arm).

Example 9.16 (M_FG) I am really happy that I did that robot.

In Example 9.16, the speaker described his experience of building a robot using the verb did instead of build or make. This could be a transfer from Arabic syntax where . the verb Ýamal means make, do and work. In Arabic, one can say Ýamalt rajul aalii, which translates as I made a robot; therefore, the speaker did not refer directly to the English verb, but instead, he translated into English what seemed like a suitable Arabic equivalent. Many Saudis extend the semantic range of the verb Ýamal, which includes do to encompass the semantic range of the Arabic verb the meanings do and make.

9.4.4 Translation This category has one of the least frequent instances with 7.5% of instances in the newspaper articles and 0% in the focus group. The analysis showed no significant difference between the genders, with 20.5% and 79.5% of instances for males and females, respectively. This category shows recurrent sources of translation, which are mainly Quranic verses; prophetic Hadith and much less so of Arabic collocations, labels and terms of address. These noticeable discrepancies between the NPA and the focus group data could be due to two reasons. Firstly, most of the translation instances are of either Quranic verses or prophetic Hadith, which Muslims regard as holy and have a great fear of misquoting or mistranslating. Unless absolutely confident, therefore, people often avoid quoting them, let alone translating them, in spoken discourse, such as the focus groups. In written texts, however, people have the liberty to check, revise and edit their quotes and their translations before publishing them, such as in the newspaper articles.

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Example 9.17 (F_NPA) It is part of the mercy of Allah that you deal gently with them. If you were severe or hardhearted, they would have broken away from you (Qur’an, 3:159)

In Example 9.17, the writer uses translation of quotes from Quran and provides the citation. The argument for the need to be gentle and kind-hearted with people is directed at members of the Commission4 who are notoriously harsh with the public when giving religious advice. Hence, offering a Quranic verse that supports the writers’ argument evokes a shared cultural schema among the Arab and Muslims, in general, and to the Commission members, in particular. This cultural schema involves fully submitting to the teaching of the Holy Quran and believing in its absolute perfection. It also evokes the role schema of the commission on the ground personnel of ultra-religious people with punitive demeanour. Translating Quran and providing a reference in the Saudi context strengthen the argument through backgrounding the semantic and lexical meaning of the verse and foreground the powerful cultural and religious schema it evokes. Similarly, including translations from Prophetic Hadith, which are the second most authoritative texts for Muslims, in SE serves the same purpose of evoking cultural conceptualisations, such as in Example 9.18. Example 9.18 (F_NPA) It is on this note that when the Prophet sent his companions to teach Islam to the people he advised them, “Facilitate religious matters to people and do not make things difficult.” (Al-Bukhari, 69)

Example 9.18 translates the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad to his companions who were about to be sent to different areas to teach Islam, so as to be easy on people and not to make religion difficult and complicated, otherwise people would run away from them. It is the cultural conceptualisation of the reader that Muslims should follow the teachings of their Prophet that makes the inclusion of this translation in the writer’s argument more authoritative to Muslims beyond the semantic meaning of the words. Other translations are more subtle than the outright translations of Quran or Hadith, such as the translation of jurisprudential phrases that would evoke specific cultural schemas associated with religion or metaphors.

4 For

further information about the commission, please refer to the section on Cultural references.

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Example 9.19 (F_NPA) Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh has denounced the savage act in Al-Ahsa, describing it as “shameful” and “an act of corruption on earth”.

In Example 9.19, the phrase an act of corruption on earth refers to a general jurisprudential rule of any intentional human act that would lead to evil and harm to people, such as terrorism. The inclusion of this translated phrase in SE evokes a cultural schema that includes delicate jurisprudential issues, such as What defines corruption? Who has the right to identify and prosecute people culpable of corruption? and What are the legal, social and religious ramifications for committing such acts? Those not familiar with this collocation would not have the cultural schema associated with the Arabic translation of this phrase and would not have any such concerns called to mind. Similarly, there are some instances when writers employed literal translation of specific Arabic collocations, such as in Example 9.20 and Example 9.21. Example 9.20 (F_NPA) Why do people tend to be extremists? Is this [sic] is a genuine attempt at perfection and piety?

Example 9.21 (F_NPA) A man recounted that he was an extremist in his youth and that he once lashed out at a mosque imam who preached about the “international tree day” and the necessity of caring for trees. At the time, the man, who snapped at the Imam for mentioning the day of the tree, thought he was saying the truth and fighting tyranny and injustice.

is a wellIn Example 9.20, the collocation perfection and piety known combination of the two most desired behaviours from a Muslim, which in everything in life, and being pious to gain are seeking perfection Allah’s love and satisfaction. In Example 9.21, the collocation tyranny and injustice is also a well-known collocation of the two things that a Muslim should fight against and never surrender to. Anything that may drive a Muslim away from following the teaching of Islam can be identified as tyranny and injustice and should, therefore, be rejected. The two collocations in SE evoke cultural schemas of what good Muslims should and should not do. In fact, not knowing the Arabic collocation and its cultural schema in Example 9.21 would raise the question of what is the connection between tyranny and injustice and preaching about International Tree Day. The answer is that some Muslims believe that Islam prohibits the celebration of any annual event other than Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al-Adha, and therefore, doing so is considered as an act of tyranny and injustice. It is the understanding of the cultural schema behind these collocations that provides context to the texts. There are very few instances of translation from Arabic to SE that are not related to religion, such as proverbs.

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Example 9.22 (F_NPA) Apparently, decency to religious police comes before life. There’s an Egyptian proverb that says, “Those who were ashamed ended up dying.” The proverb’s story is that when a fire erupted in a public bathroom [Turkish bath], the people inside started to look for their clothes and were ashamed to run out naked so they ended up dying!

about the Example 9.22 is a translation of a famous Arabic proverb dangerous outcome of being too shy. The fact that the meaning of the proverb could be to a certain degree ambiguous even to some Arab readers might be the reason why the writer chose to provide the story behind it. This proverb evokes a specific cultural schema of MODESTY and BASHFULNESS as related to Muslim people, in general and Saudis, in particular, regarding what they should show of their body and what people consider a positive or negative trait in a Muslim. It raises the question of how far a person is willing to go to be modest or bashful.

9.4.5 Code-Switching Code-switching is a dynamic stylistic device that has been considered a creative linguistic act by many scholars, such as Kachru (1985), Kharkhurin (2010), Kharkhurin and Wei (2014), Wei (2011), and Li (2013). By code-switching, I refer to the alteration between two distinct linguistic systems at the level of the word, phrase and clause in a single speech event, which allows the speaker to achieve multimodal and expressive linguistic effects. It is noticeable that code-switching is one of the lowest frequency categories, with a percentage of 6.5%. 3.5% of the instances were produced by the focus group and 3% by newspaper articles. Within this data, a certain code-switching pattern did emerge in terms of the domains and the desired linguistic/social effect. First, the code-switching falls almost exclusively into the following domains: labels of Saudi social organisations and religious or social-related titles and lexical items. Names of Saudi organisations include the following: Munasaha Shoura Al-ambience of Vice], and Hafiz

[Advice and reconciliation program], [Saudi version of a parliament], [The Saudi Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention [Social welfare program for unemployed Saudi women].

There were no follow-up explanations provided for any of these lexical items in the texts, since one could infer what they refer to from the context. In addition, providing the code-switching to Arabic evokes the Saudi cultural schema of these organisations for the Saudis as well as bringing the non-Saudi readers a bit closer to the Saudi organisational structure and how these structures differ slightly or profoundly from their Western counterparts. Another domain of code-switching

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is religion, such as religious terms of address, prayers phrases and jurisprudential lexical items. Examples of terms of address include the following: Hajj [a title given to a person who performed pilgrimage] Sheikh [a title given to men of religious or social status] Mufti [A man authorised to give official religious decrees] Imam [a person who leads a prayer in a mosque].

Examples of jurisprudential lexical items include the following: Jihad [any vigorous, emotional struggle for an idea or principle] Fatwa [religious decree].

Secondly, in certain examples, code-switching occurs to achieve a desired pragmatic/social effect. For example, the male focus group code-switched systematically when communicating a specific role schema, which is that of SAUDI HOST, as illustrated in the combination of phrases in Example 9.23. Example 9.23 (M_FG) Kahwa kahwa (coffee?) [making an offer] badak tЀrab kahwa? (Do you want to drink coffee?) baswi al kahwa (I am making coffee.) sawaitaha (Did you make it [the coffee]?) la la (no, no)!! [declining an offer to drink coffee] Ýat abdalaa (Give Abdulla) la kafa (not enough) Wahid, wahid (Have one more, Have one more.)

In this example, two participants exchanged these phrases among them, the two assuming the role of hosts to the rest of the group. Every time they talked to each other about their duty as hosts, they code-switched to Arabic, creating a side conversation that did not include the rest of the participants. The Saudi role schema specifies that the host should offer coffee and tea to guests and not wait for them to ask for it, such Ýat abdalaa (Give Abdulla). It also indicates that the host as in the phrase is responsible for pouring the coffee or tea and for refilling the glasses whenever they are empty. In addition, he or she should hold the pot in the left hand and present the filled cup with the right hand. If the host presents the cup with the left hand, the guest may feel insulted and may refuse to take it. (During the focus group discussion, they were serving using the right hand.) In addition, the host should insist that guests drink some more after that person has said that he or she has had enough, wahid, wahid (Have one more, have one more). The fact that the two responsible for serving coffee and tea were the only ones speaking in Arabic, and that they did this only when talking about this specific duty with each other, could indicate they are trying to be inconspicuous when performing their hosting duties as a Saudi host should be. Furthermore, they may be reminding themselves that, in this particular matter,

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they are Saudi hosts and that they should act as such, which shows the participants’ linguistic awareness and cultural sensitivity. This goes hand in hand with the finding of Harmaini (2014), who stated that one of the reasons for code-switching is to mark a sudden change in the role played in the discourse.

9.5 Conclusion In this study, I have presented an analysis of bilingual creativity in SE and explored how it relates to Saudi cultural conceptualisations. It has answered three questions: (i) What are the common features of bilingual creativity in SE and what functions do they serve? (ii) What categories can they be classified into? and (iii) What cultural conceptualisations do they evoke? The findings show that the common features of bilingual creativity in this data can be classified into five categories: cultural references, syntactic creativity, lexical and semantic creativity, translation, and codeswitching. Four themes were found to be the most salient and recurrent, namely, religion, women, gender segregation and family. Each category was exemplified and each example was the subject of a succinct discussion. Findings show that Saudis employ these linguistic devices to express their identity and cultural conceptualisations through evoking Saudi cultural schemas, cultural categories and cultural metaphors. In addition, this study highlights the scarceness of academic research about SE, which identifies the need for further investigation and more studies to explore other features of SE for a variety of purposes and within a variety of different fields.

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Chapter 10

A Space for Everybody? Conceptualisations of the Hijras in Indian English as a Showcase for Gendered Space in Indian Society Anna Finzel Abstract The hijras or kinnar, a third-gender community in South Asia, play a somewhat ambiguous role in Indian society. On the one hand, they are consulted when a child is born, because their blessing is highly esteemed. On the other hand, hijras often live in poverty and without access to education or healthcare (cf. Kalra, 2012). Their place thus seems to be inside, as well as outside of society (also cf. Hall, 1997). Data collected through sociolinguistic interviews with speakers of Indian English gives evidence for conceptualisations of the hijras’ ambiguous place in Indian society. It is argued that the case of the hijras is representative of Indian society inasmuch as gender seems to be an important factor in the division of social space. Moreover, it is suggested that conceptual contact with British English has impacted on conceptualisations pertaining to the hijras in Indian English (cf., e.g. Hinchy, 2014; also see Zenner, Backus, & Winter-Froemel, 2019).

10.1 Introduction The hijras of India are considered a ‘third gender’, a term which includes a variety of identities such as transgender, transsexual or intersex people, as well as emasculated men and people who identify as neither male nor female. Thus, gender categories in India are a complex matter.1 While the hijras have had a central role in Indian culture for centuries, their place in society is nowadays somewhat ambiguous. Although they are summoned in order to give blessings to newly-wed couples or newborn children, they also face discrimination and incomprehension, which often result in their

1 Also

cf., e.g., Blackwood (2010) on the tombois in Indonesia or Young (2000) on the burneshas in Albania. A. Finzel (B) University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, Potsdam 14469, Germany e-mail: [email protected] University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_10

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living in segregated communities 2 while making a living as sex workers or beggars. Consequently, hijras frequently live in poverty and without access to education or healthcare (see Kalra, 2012). However, some steps towards integration have recently been taken by several institutions. For instance, in a 2014 judgement by the Indian Supreme Court it was decided that ‘third gender’ be added to official documents as an option to be chosen besides ‘female’ and ‘male’ (McCoy, 2014). Furthermore, a policy that protects and socially aids transpeople was released in the state of Kerala in southern India in 2015 (Singh, 2016), and in the same year, Madhu Kinnar,3 a hijra, was elected Mayor of Raigarh in central India (Patkar, 2015). Reddy (2005, p. 257) points out that the suitability of hijras for official duties may be grounded in the fact that ‘hijras successfully declared themselves as the perfect antidotes to the rampant corruption and immorality of Indian politics’ and that it is ‘the lack of genitals and any expression of gendered, sexed, and kinship-mediated ties that apparently makes (or made) hijras ideal political leaders of contemporary India’. This quote contains a highly interesting conceptual chain based on the metaphor the nation is a body. In this logic, corruption and immorality are poison to the political body with gender, sex and kinship as causes of corruption and immorality. Consequently, hijras are antidotes to corruption and immorality because of their non-mainstream identity and the resulting affiliation to alternative social networks. In 2017, another measure was taken by Kochi metro in Kerala, when hijras were employed in housekeeping teams and as ticket agents in metro stations (Doshi, 2017). The importance of their visibility in daily work life was also mentioned by one of the informants to the present study who noted: ‘If they are working, they have equal rights, so they should have been given the equal opportunities and equal everything in the society’. Historically, the hijras have found reference in ancient Indian texts and mythology and their role in society was an important one, for instance, at the courts of the Mughals, where they held high positions (Khaleeli, 2014). The following quote from the 2014 judgement of the Supreme Court shows this entrenchment in mythology, and it also gives a hint of why the hijras nowadays still maintain the role as givers of blessings: Lord Rama, in the epic Ramayana, was leaving for the forest upon being banished from the kingdom for 14 years, turns around to his followers and asks all the ‘men and women’ to return to the city. Among his followers, the hijras alone do not feel bound by this direction and decide to stay with him. Impressed with their devotion, Rama sanctions them the power to confer blessings on people on auspicious occasions like childbirth and marriage, and also at inaugural functions which, it is believed set the stage for the custom of badhai in which hijras sing, dance and confer blessings. (quoted in Garud & Tharchen, 2017, p. 250)

Hinchy (2014) argues that the segregation of the hijras can to a large extent be attributed to the advent of colonialism in India. The British colonisers imposed their 2 These

communities have rich communal structures and many new hijras go through a rite of passage (nirwaan) during which male sexual organs are removed. 3 The term kinnar is an equivalent to the term hijra and is often used by the hijras themselves.

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understanding of the public space as something ideally orderly onto the previously salient local perception of the public space as something intrinsically disorderly (Kaviraj, 1997; Levine, 2003; both quoted in Hinchy, 2014). In line with these contrasting views of an orderly versus a disorderly public space was the conceptual restructuring of the domain of masculinity: In the new order, British men were placed on top of the ‘hierarchy of manliness’ (Hinchy, 2014, p. 275) and the hijras—who were erroneously labelled ‘men’ by the British—sorted on one of the lower levels. Subsequently, the public display of feminine dress worn by men was criminalised under the Criminal Tribes Act in 1871 (in north India, with later extension to other regions). This was a vital factor in marginalising the hijras because it forced them to retract to spaces that were not visible to the greater public. These developments were sparked by a discourse of ‘imperial hygiene’ (Bashford, 2004; quoted in Hinchy, 2014). Although this understanding is also based on the metaphor the nation is a body, different mappings are evoked in this reading: The hijras were seen as a threat to public health since they were understood as potentially morally contagious, hence implying a logic of public order is health and public disorder is a disease and obscenity and immorality are causes of public disorder. Therefore, removing everything disorderly, that is, pushing the hijras to the margins of society, was perceived as an apt hygiene measure (cf. Hinchy, 2014). According to Reddy (2005, p. 257), the hijras are even nowadays referred to as ‘dirty’ since they cannot readily be placed into customary binary social categories. Such references still instantiate the idea of emasculation is pollution. Henceforth, starting with the arrival of the British colonisers in India and the contact with new and self-consistently intertwined cultural conceptualisations, the public space in which the hijras could move became increasingly smaller. Their social marginalisation still persists today, possibly because they are visibly different—and in India, ‘[a]cts of seeing and being seen are deeply invested with moral value’ (Reddy, 2005, p. 259). Linked to that, but having different implications, is the notion that in Hinduism it is beneficial to be seen, because being visible might attract the complacence of the gods. Hence, if the hijras are made invisible, meaning that if they are pushed to the edges of society, then they are deprived of the opportunity to be seen by the deities (see Babb, 1981). In light of their marginalisation and their invisibility, it is perhaps not surprising that a prominent characteristic of the language of the hijras is the extensive use of abusive terminology (Hall, 1997). Since such language use is generally uncommon in India (as I was told by several informants), it might be an indicator of how the hijras reclaim their place in society, namely, by making themselves heard. Similarly, by exposing the genital area in public—an act that is especially crucial to hijra performances at weddings (see Bakshi, 2004)— they make themselves seen as well. The hijras thus have a dichotomous role in Indian society: On the one hand, their presence at births or wedding ceremonies is welcomed and widely accepted (see Nanda, 1986). On the other hand, however, they are marginalised and not integrated into Indian society. In the following, the analytical framework and the method of data collection and analysis are presented. The results are then discussed with a focus on the special role

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of the hijras and further extended to the gendered nature of social spaces in Indian society at large.

10.2 Analytical Framework Although there are a number of analyses from other research disciplines that survey the marginalised space in which the hijras move and live (cf., e.g. Hall, 1997, for a linguistic perspective; Reddy, 2005, for a sociological-medical perspective; Hinchy, 2014, for a sociological-historical perspective), to the best of my knowledge, there has not yet been a cognitive-linguistic approach to this issue. This chapter particularly stems from two culturally oriented paradigms that adopt a cognitive-linguistic view. Firstly, Cultural Linguistics ‘explores the relationship between language and cultural conceptualisations’ (Sharifian, 2017a, p. 2; original emphasis). Such conceptualisations encompass various cognitive phenomena like cultural schemas or cultural metaphors, all of which encode knowledge that is shared collectively by members of a particular culture. This shared knowledge may not be evenly distributed among speakers, but it makes up their cultural cognition from which they draw ideas about reality (see Sharifian, 2017a). In this chapter, the broader notion of ‘conceptualisation’ will be used for cognitive patterns of thought found in the data. The term is most useful in that it refrains from evaluating the degree of metaphoricity of certain mappings—and this in turn avoids bias in culturally oriented analyses. Secondly, this chapter draws on insights and methods developed within the framework of Cognitive Sociolinguistics, a paradigm which constitutes an interface between sociolinguistics and Cognitive Linguistics (see, for instance, the edited volumes by Kristiansen & Dirven, 2008; Geeraerts, Kristiansen, & Peirsman, 2010; Pütz, Robinson, & Reif, 2014). With devotion to a quantitative agenda, corpus-linguistic methods have long been employed in Cognitive Sociolinguistics. Adopting quantitative methods surely matches the cultural-linguistic principle as well, according to which cultural cognition is distributed and not all cultural conceptualisations are shared by all speakers of a community to the same extent. In the present analysis, corpus-linguistic methods (as used in other cognitive-sociolinguistic investigations, see, for example, Wolf & Polzenhagen, 2009) serve as a methodological tool for examining conceptualisations pertaining to the hijras as observed in a sample of 25 speakers of Indian English. The specific focus is on the conceptualisation of the pronouns we and they, cross-domain conceptualisations related to the target domain hijra, as well as spatial conceptualisations that conceptualise the hijras’ place in relation to Indian society. In the discussion, the findings are first brought together for an overall picture. It will then be suggested that the case of the hijras is exemplary inasmuch as it may be extended to other gender groups in Indian society, arguing that there might be a space for everybody, but that at the same time transitions between the spaces are sparse. An outlook at the end seeks to predict how the situation in India might be changing in the future.

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10.3 Methodology 10.3.1 Informants Twenty-five speakers of Indian English who had spent the most of their life in India took part in the study. The informants’ age ranged between 19 and 32 years, with an overall mean age of 24.4 years. All participants had a similar educational background, as they all either already held or were pursuing a university degree. Twelve of the informants were female and thirteen were male.

10.3.2 Data The data considered in this chapter is part of a larger corpus of data which features natural speech elicited in 25 interviews with the above-mentioned Indian English speakers. The interviews were conducted during a research stay at the University of Delhi, with the informants being recruited by convenience sampling (determined by availability; Dörnyei, 2012) and judgement sampling (determined by meeting the criterion of being a student; Hoffman, 2014). The interviews were, in general, structured, with little allowance for deviation from the catalogue of questions in order to receive comparable results. Nevertheless, there were some elements of semi-structuredness, as queries from the informants were not rejected and further explanations were given when needed. The complete catalogue of questions featured 12 questions on topics related to gender and society, but only the last question is taken into account for the present analysis. This question asked (a) whether the informants had knowledge of the existence of the hijras and (b) what their opinion on them was. From the answers given to this question, a small corpus of 8981 tokens and 1106 types was derived, resulting in a type–token ratio of 12.31. In spite of its small size, the corpus is quite specific with regard to data type (natural speech) and topic (hijras).

10.3.3 Transcription and Annotation Firstly, the data was transcribed with the help of the transcription programme Parlatype. The transcriptions were then imported into the corpus software ELAN, a tool which not only allows for the synchronisation of video and audio files, but also for annotations on multiple tiers. Separate tiers were created for the annotation of the • interviewer’s speech, • informant’s speech,

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informant’s tokenised speech, pronouns we and they, conceptualisations of hijra, spatial conceptualisations.

Although it may seem excessive to use ELAN, which is primarily a tool for multimodal analyses (including, to name but one example, gestural analyses), the possibility to do complex annotations proved to be helpful. ELAN also offers sufficient statistics and search options through which, for instance, the word list (see below) could be compiled. It is important to mention that the speech produced by the interviewer was annotated on a separate tier in order to be able to later exclude it from the analysis. This prevented noise through the interviewer’s speech that was mostly scripted (as it was usually the question itself) and through data that was not gathered from an Indian English speaker (as the interviewer was not a speaker of Indian English). All further descriptions of how the data was analysed can be found in the next section.

10.4 Results 10.4.1 Word List The first part of the analysis consisted in gathering a word list of the most frequently occurring lemmas in the corpus. They are ranked according to absolute frequency in Table 10.1, which includes open-class content words, while at the same time excluding the following items: • function words (like prepositions, pronouns or quantifiers); • ambiguous cases such as like (possibly a verb or an adverb) because the corpus is not part-of-speech tagged; • auxiliary and modal verbs such as be, have, do, must, can or should including their inflected forms; • the lexical verbs think, know, say or happen, which are frequently used as discourse markers as in ‘I think’, ‘you know’, ‘let’s say’ or ‘what happens is’; • the verbs become and get, as well as go. It is not surprising that hijra occurred most frequently, as this was the main topic of the question. A semantic set that showed a striking recurrence is connected to the domain people and community, into which several items can be categorised. These include, among others, the high-ranking items, people, society and India, but human, person and family fall into this category as well. Child can also be counted into this set, although it may be seen as a member of a set to do with procreation, to which birth would then also belong. While it could be concluded that the frequency of procreation words is, in this context, related to childlessness, this observation rather stems from a certain task assigned to the hijras: When a child is born, hijras

10 A Space for Everybody? Conceptualisations of the Hijras … Table 10.1 Most frequent words (N ≥ 15) in the corpus. The keywords are lemmatised and also partly include derived forms from other word classes with the same stem (e.g. the lemma of respect also includes respectable)

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Lemma

Frequency

Lemma (cont.)

Frequency (cont.)

hijra

115

different

23

people

89

time

22

society

80

take

21

money

54

bless

21

come

51

person

20

give

48

family

20

thing

45

treat

20

transgender

36

other

19

ask

35

good

17

live

35

accept

17

India

32

respect

17

birth

30

house

16

child

27

place

16

human

26

metro

15

part

23

often come to the house and bless the child (all the italicised words are also frequent lemmas). Since money occurs in the word list, there must be some issue that associates money with hijra. Instances of these conceptual linkages are given later on. There is another interesting accumulation of the semantic set of space-related words like house, place and metro. From a cognitive-linguistic view, it can hence be argued that there is a tendency to conceptualise the hijras by positioning them somewhere, suggesting that their actual localisation is an important aspect in conceptualising them. Different and other are interesting inasmuch as the lemmas (especially the former) might describe a prominent characteristic of the hijras, and at the same time the informants’ opinion on how they perceive them. Connected to this, same (14 occurrences) just missed the list of keywords but is nevertheless noteworthy since it complements the dichotomy. Drawing from these first findings, it seems plausible to suggest that the place of the hijras in Indian society as discussed in this chapter is a dominant topic in the discourse about them. This entails their actual place (i.e. where they are located) as well as their role in society and their relation to people in society. Although the corpus used here is relatively small, the above-mentioned frequency clusters are striking because the informants were merely asked about their personal opinion about the hijras. It needs to be noted, however, that the informants had been considering societal issues in the preceding parts of the interview, which might have led to these tendencies.

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10.4.2 Pronouns: THEY and WE A pronoun analysis focusing on the lemmas they and we was conducted in order to examine where these pronouns would put the hijras from the perspective of the informants. In this regard, it was especially interesting how we was conceptualised, that is, whether the speakers would display an inclusive or exclusive conceptualisation of the hijras. The they/we distinction is a means of identifying oneself with a particular social group (‘we’, i.e. the in-group) through a cognitive social categorisation process and consequential delineation from another social group (‘they’, i.e. the out-group, see publications in the field of social identity theory, e.g. Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Hogg & Williams, 2000). In a sociolinguistic approach, for instance, Deffa (2016a, 2016b) focused on the plural pronouns they and we as markers of identification with a certain cultural community. She found that second-generation Oromo-Americans tended to use we more frequently to refer to ‘We-Americans’ instead of ‘We-Oromos’, while it was the other way round with first-generation Oromo-Americans. The pronoun analysis was therefore a promising tool for examining how the hijras would fit into the conceptualisation of Indian society as reflected in the interviews. Based on Deffa’s method, the corpus was first searched for all occurrences of the lemmas they and we, which included ‘they’, ‘them’, ‘themselves’, ‘their’ and ‘theirs’, as well as ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘ourselves’, ‘our’ and ‘ours’. The occurrences were then coded with regard to whom they referred to, more precisely whether they referred to humans, in general, to all Indians, to non-hijras only or to hijras only. The remainder of cases was coded as ‘unspecified’ because it could not be determined with certainty whom the pronouns denoted (see Table 10.2). In total, the lemma they occurred more than five times more often (705 times) than the lemma we (124 times). This is not surprising, seen that the informants were asked to talk about a social group to which none of them belonged. Table 10.2 shows that they as represented in the data is conceptualised almost exclusively along an either/or distinction, actually splitting up the concept they in they/hijras and they/non-hijras. Only a marginal percentage of 0.28% of the occurrences conceptualises they as an inclusive concept that refers to they/humanity. In line with the concept of they, two-thirds of the occurrences related to the lemma we instantiate a concept of we which excludes the hijras. There is hence a visible tendency to juxtapose the hijras in opposition to the rest of society Table 10.2 Results of the pronoun analysis, lemmas they and we they

Frequency

they_hijras

%

we

Frequency

%

626

88.79

we_non-hijras

83

they_non-hijras

62

8.79

we_Indians

20

16.13

they_unspecified

15

2.13

we_unspecified

14

11.29

2

0.28

we_hijras

7

5.65

705

~100

Total:

124

~100

they_humanity Total

66.94

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(i.e. the non-hijras), opening up a discourse of ‘them versus us’. An example of this is given in (1). (1) They’re (they_hijras) simply just like us (we_non-hijras). (Inf-40)

Nevertheless, while the concept of they is relatively strict in dividing people into hijras and non-hijras, the concept of we as represented in the data entails ideas about we as the entirety of Indian society (see results for ‘we_Indians’), including the hijras. Example (2) illustrates this line of thinking. (2) The condition of hijras is very pathetic in our (we_Indians) society. (Inf-36)

Although none of the informants identified as a hijra, there are further instances of we referring to we/hijras. These instances occur due to the usage of indirect speech, that is, when the informants gave hypothetical quotes of how a hijra might think or react. In sum, it can be noted that the hijras are, in general, conceptually separated from the non-hijras. There is also evidence, albeit rather little, for an inclusive concept of Indian society, a concept into which hijras as well as non-hijras are integrated.

10.4.3 Conceptualisations of HIJRA In the next step, the corpus was searched for conceptualisations pertaining to hijra. Although this step generally included cross-domain conceptualisations, I would like to refrain from calling them metaphors and instead use the more neutral term ‘conceptualisation’. For people with a certain cultural background, some of the conceptualisations may be metaphorical, while they are non-metaphorical to people from other backgrounds.4 For this analysis, the corpus-based method suggested in Stefanowitsch (2006) was employed. This entailed a search for certain vocabulary and the subsequent annotation of conceptualisations that occurred within a context of eight items before and after the hits. The considered vocabulary included lemmas related to hijra (see (3)), as well as a number of pronouns (see (4)) in order to account for occurrences in which the discourse referents were not explicitly mentioned. (3) hijra = {hijra, transgender, eunuch, gender, LGBTI, homosexual, heterosexual, sexual, person, people, female, girl, woman, male, boy, man}5 (4) pronouns = {personal, possessive, reflexive, demonstrative, indefinite}

4 In the data presented here, a hijra is a human being would be such a case. As indicated by the informants, hijra and human being seem to belong to different semantic domains for a number of Indians. Dirven, Wolf and Polzenhagen (2007) have pointed out a reverse example: Against the backdrop of the West African model of community, calling a non-relative ‘brother’ is not a metaphorical conceptualisation because in this model kinship is understood in a much broader sense. 5 Not all theoretically possible search terms are listed here, because the search terms were selected according to whether they occurred in the corpus at all.

0.82 0.82 0.82

1 1

a hijra is a worthless person

a hijra is an alien

a hijra is a dangerous animal

0.82

0.82

1

a hijra is an object 1

1.64

2

being a hijra is being disabled

1

1.64

2

being a hijra is a normal condition

a hijra is a piece of litter

1.64

2

being a hijra is a faulty condition

a hijra is a monster

1.64 1.64

2 2

a hijra is a target of ridicule

1.64

2

being a hijra is a matter of sexuality

a hijra is a horrifying figure

3.28

4

being a hijra is a physical condition 2.46

4.10

5

being a hijra is an abnormal condition

2.46

7.38

9

a hijra is someone to be avoided

3

8.20

10

a hijra is a danger/threat

3

9.02

11

being a hijra is an innate condition

a hijra is a member of a different species

13.12

16

a hijra is an executor of spiritual power

a hijra is a god

17.21 16.39

21 20

a hijra is a human being

%

Frequency

Conceptualisation

Table 10.3 Conceptualisations of hijra in the corpus

-H

-H

-H

-H

-H

-H

-H

-H

-H

+H

Human (+H) versus non-human (-H)

-N

+N

-N

-N

-N

-N

-N

+N

+N

(continued)

Normal/natural (+N) versus abnormal/unnatural (-N)

202 A. Finzel

~100

0.82

1

being a hijra is having a pure soul due to emasculation 122

0.82

1

Total

0.82

1

%

being a hijra is an unnatural condition

Frequency

a hijra is an object of sexual pleasure

Conceptualisation

Table 10.3 (continued)

+H: 17.21% -H: 28.69%

-H

Human (+H) versus non-human (-H)

+N: 31.97% -N: 22.95%

-N

Normal/natural (+N) versus abnormal/unnatural (-N)

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Table 10.3 gives an overview of the cultural conceptualisations pertaining to hijra that are present in the corpus. Several conceptual linkages become obvious from the findings, perhaps most strikingly an opposition of ‘human’ versus ‘non-human’. There are a number of conceptualisations which make reference to the perceived non-human nature of the hijras (in total 28.69%).6 Examples for this pattern of thought are given in (5)–(7). (5) And we’re so horrified to look at something7 , it’s almost like they are a monster. (a hijra is a monster) (Inf-53) (6) They are simply, they are biologically a bit different species from what we are. (a hijra is a member of a different species) (Inf-40) (7) If, if he’s coming to certain festival or certain auspicious occasions, they are considered like equal to God in our country. (a hijra is a god) (Inf-31)

Further such conceptualisations involving non-human source domains can be found in the corpus, for instance, a hijra is a dangerous animal, a hijra is a piece of litter or a hijra is an object. Some other conceptualisations like a hijra is an executor of spiritual power or a hijra is an object of sexual pleasure cannot be clearly labelled as emphasising non-human aspects, but they certainly contribute to this line of thinking, as shown in example (8). (8) Many people say […] that if hijra gives a blessing […], then that will be very much effective. It may get effective […] to an individual. (a hijra is an executor of spiritual power) (Inf-34)

When taking a closer look, there is an interesting dichotomy here: While with human being as a reference point, monster or dangerous animal can be considered a conceptual downgrade, conceptualising hijra as god is surely an upgrade.8 In stark contrast to this emphasis of non-human aspects stands a hijra is a human being, which is the most frequent conceptualisation in the corpus (17.21%). It is legitimate to question whether this is actually a cross-domain mapping, because a hijra is in fact a human being. However, in the light of the examples given, I would argue that in the Indian context, a hijra is a human being is more likely a crossdomain mapping because the hijras are often perceived as non-human, as can be seen from the examples just given. The fact that a hijra is a human being is the most 6 It

needs to be noted that not all of the conceptualisations that were found in the data reflect the informants’ own opinion. In fact, since the participants largely focused on giving an account of how the hijras are, in general, perceived in Indian society, a large number of the negatively connoted conceptualisations (e.g. the ones that dehumanise the hijras) were instantiated in order to demonstrate how other people think about the hijras. 7 While ‘something’ usually refers to inanimate things, the present instance was not annotated as a hijra is an object because it was not clear from the data whether this conceptualisation was—consciously or subconsciously—evoked. I am indebted to Hans-Georg Wolf for pointing this out to me. 8 This conceptual hierarchy has been called the GREAT CHAIN OF BEING through which the world is ordered (see Lakoff & Turner, 1989). Further gender-related conceptualisations based on this model are described in Finzel (2016).

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frequent conceptualisation supports this claim since it appeared to be important to the informants to make sure that they see the hijras as human beings—contrary to what society believes. Examples (9)–(11) are based on a hijra is a human being, while (12) was annotated as being a hijra is an abnormal condition—the latter illustrates how society, in general, conceptualises the hijras as non-human beings. (9)

They are also human beings, they have also brains. (Inf-45)

(10) Earlier I didn’t had any ideas or any, any particular feelings, but after discussion I had, I thought that they are also human. (Inf-49) (11) They are humans, they should be treated as humans. (Inf-50) (12) Our society, you know, the the society has never accepted them as normal human being, that is the problem of our society. (Inf-36)

Connected to the human/non-human line of conceptualisations is a set of conceptualisations that opens up an opposition of normal/natural versus abnormal/unnatural. Perceiving the hijras as normal or natural is reflected in a hijra is a human being as mentioned above. It is also rendered in being a hijra is an innate condition and being a hijra is a normal condition, as can be seen in (13) and (14). In total, this strand of thinking is mirrored in 31.97% of all conceptualisations. (13) It is not in our hand that we decide can we get a male child or a female child or a child with no sex. (being a hijra is an innate condition) (Inf-27) (14) I’d like act like you are dealing with normal people […]. (being a hijra is a normal condition) (Inf-49)

The opposite case, in which the hijras are conceptualised as abnormal or unnatural, makes up 22.95% of the total number. Apart from the conceptualisations being a hijra is an abnormal condition and being a hijra is an unnatural condition, there are several examples which lend more concrete mappings to this way of perceiving reality. Hijras are, for instance, conceptualised as horrifying (see (15)), as having a faulty condition (see (16)) and—consequentially—as targets of ridicule and people to be avoided (see (17)). (15) And everybody is so horrified by their behaviour, you know. (a hijra is a horrifying figure) (Inf-53) (16) It is not their fault that he is a hijra. (being a hijra is a faulty condition) (Inf-46) (17) You do not want to interact with hijras. Nobody wants to interact or communicate with them. (a hijra is someone to be avoided) (Inf-36)

Another cluster of conceptualisations relates to the reasons for being a hijra. This explanatory cluster reveals a pattern of thought which mainly draws on innateness and physical difference, as, for example, conveyed in being a hijra is an innate condition (see above) and being a hijra is a physical condition (see (18)). Also noteworthy is being a hijra is being disabled (see (19)), which highlights physical difference as well. (18) Who are hijras, who are these transgender? They are simple human beings with a slight modification in the body. (being a hijra is a physical condition) (Inf-40)

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(19) If person with disability as in physical disability can be treated as a normal person in our society, then they can also be treated as a normal person in our society. That is their disability. (being a hijra is being disabled) (Inf-45)

Subsequently, rather than ascribing the realisation of being a hijra to an increasing awareness while getting older, the informants conceptualised them as being born as hijras. This understanding puts intersex people9 in the place of being the ‘real’ hijras, while excluding other transgender identities from this status. It needs, however, to be noted that a few informants saw the main distinguishing characteristic of a hijra in their sexuality, hence less based on a distinction on the anatomical level, as is shown in (20). (20) What’s different in them is that … their sexuality. (being a hijra is a matter of sexuality) (Inf-50)

It is suggested that in sum the majority of conceptualisations focus on difference versus similarity. There seems to be a consensus in the Indian society that the hijras are in some way or the other different from the mainstream society, a line of thinking which was strongly criticised by the informants. Nevertheless, their (perceived) difference has further implications, because the hijras were also conceptualised as a danger or threat (see (21)). (21) Nobody denies them money, like if there is a hijra, when they come to a certain person, like he or she will, you know, will donate them some amount of money because of their fear. Either for their blessing or for the fear that they will curse them. (a hijra is a danger/threat) (Inf-30)10

The example implies that it is the spiritual power of the hijras (through their godlike status) which adds fuel to the fear. On the other hand, this spiritual power may be the only means of finding entry into a society which might otherwise completely neglect them. Their allegedly disconcerting behaviour in public, especially touching or molesting other people, was also mentioned in this context. Lastly, the occurrence of being a hijra is having a pure soul due to emasculation is in line with the above-mentioned logic hijras are antidotes to corruption and immorality because of gender, sex and kinship as causes of corruption and immorality. The conceptualisation is conveyed in example (22), in which one informant makes a historical reference: (22) They were thought like they gave up their manhood, it was a cause of a lot of pain so their […] soul has become pure. (Inf-33)

Hence, the removal of sexual organs (in effect, emasculation) and the painful experience caused by this procedure appeared to be traditionally seen as a process of spiritual purification. This stands in stark contrast to emasculation is pollution and the perception of the hijras as ‘dirty’ (see introductory section). In fact, 9 That

is, people who were born with physical features that cannot readily be categorised as either male or female. 10 It was pointed out to me by Zoltán Kövecses that, through the spiritual power of a hijra for the hijra, there is also metonymy involved here.

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with a hijra is a piece of litter the data contains one conceptualisation that directly stems from notions of pollution and contagion. Such conceptualisations may have entered through British English, which in turn renders emasculation is purification possibly a cultural conceptualisation that was locally prevalent, but later intersected with contradictory foreign conceptualisations in the linguistic and cognitive contact situation during colonial times.11

10.4.4 Spatial Conceptualisations Since the word list rendered a number of space-related items, the corpus was additionally searched for spatial conceptualisations. Again, Stefanowitsch (2006) served as a methodological orientation, but this time it was spatial lexemes (see (23)), including prepositions, as well as lemmas related to people and community (another frequent word cluster from the word list; see (24)) that made up the set of search terms.12 (23) space = {part, margin, place, world, space, exclude, include, live, across, along, at, between, from, in, inside, into, near, out, towards, up} (24) people and community = {society, country, India, people, person, community}

It is important to point out again that the question which the informants heard did not ask them to locate the hijras in relation to Indian society, and yet they seemed to put an emphasis on doing so. An analysis of spatial conceptualisations thus promised to provide deeper insights into how exactly the hijras’ place in society was conceptualised. The analysis built on the container metaphor, which is a salient device to conceptualise a nation or community (also see Musolff, 2015). As the name already suggests, a group of people is metaphorically understood as a container, which makes sense when assuming that delineation from other groups is crucial in defining one’s own community. The container metaphor furthermore has various entailments. For instance, a container has relatively impenetrable outer edges which prevent it from external influences. It hence seems natural to distinguish between what is inside and what is outside the container. Other than that, the liquid in a container with solid boundaries may boil up so that the container is at risk of exploding. All such entailments may exist where the metaphor the nation/society is a container is employed (see, for example, Hart, Rymes, Souto-Manning, Brown, & Luke, 2005; Charteris-Black, 2006). The annotation process here was based on this container 11 Contact on the conceptual level is closely analysed in the volume Cognitive Contact Linguistics: Placing Usage, Meaning and Mind at the Core of Contact-Induced Variation and Change edited by Zenner, Backus and Winter-Froemel (2019; in the volume, see, e.g. Finzel & Wolf, 2019, on conceptual metaphors as contact phenomena) 12 Again, not all theoretically possible search terms are listed here, because the search terms were selected according to whether they occurred in the corpus at all.

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Table 10.4 Conceptualisations in the corpus which locate the hijras in relation to society Conceptualisation

Frequency

%

the hijras are outside of society

27

56.25

the hijras are part of society

12

25.00

the hijras should be part of society

7

14.58

the hijras are at the margins of society

2

4.17

48

~100

Total

metaphor inasmuch as it considered the in/out localisation of the hijras in relation to Indian society. The results of the analysis are displayed in Table 10.4. With Indian society being conceptualised as a container, the informants most frequently located the hijras as being outside of this container, as reflected in (25). (25) They are in their own world here in India. […] They are not living in like society like us. They cannot live anywhere. They have their own place, their own society. (Inf-31)

Related to this is the conceptualisation the hijras are at the margins of society, leaving uncertain whether these margins are inside or outside of the society-container: (26) People who are located in the centre of the country or the society they’ve, they negate or they try to neglect the means or the identity of people coming from the margins. […] So hijras have always been marginalised, excluded13 , beaten up, discriminated to the worst of cases in India. (Inf-29)

Since the informants generally showed an inclusive and accepting attitude, almost 40% of the conceptualisations in the corpus criticised the marginalised position of the hijras. This was done by either instantiating that the hijras are part of society as in (27) or by voicing the wish that at least the hijras should be part of society as in (28). (27) If you are knowing that people are living with you – like if, if there are people in your society and […] you know you have to live in that society – you need to […] give respect to them. (Inf-48) (28) They can work for themselves, so why not give them a position in the society? (Inf-45)14

While locating the hijras in relation to Indian society was not explicitly part of the question posed by the interviewer, spatial conceptualisations turned out to be a recurring phenomenon. These conceptualisations reflect the actual living situation of the hijras, who often have to face the consequences of their marginalisation, such as the deprivation of education, work, and money and the concomitant involvement in prostitution and begging. This in turn fosters their fate as social outcasts. However, 13 In

this example, ‘excluded’ is in turn again an instantiation of the hijras are outside of society. 14 Example (28) also ties in with the pronoun analysis above, as it insinuates the juxtaposition of ‘them versus us’.

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as one of the informants illustrated, their position remains ambiguous since they still have relevance to society: (29) The biggest form of the contrast exist here, that at one place you are excluding and discriminating hijra because they are something, they are someone different. And at the same place when your child is born you are taking the blessings of that same hijra and offering some money or something, whatever you want. (Inf-29). Statement (29) complements the findings concerning conceptualisations of hijra, where opposing lines of thought with respect to human versus non-human and normal/natural versus abnormal/unnatural could be observed. In the next section, the findings from all the conducted analyses are brought together and discussed

10.5 Discussion Returning to the discourse on imperial hygiene, it can be stated that conceptualisations based immediately on the metaphor the nation is a body are not prevalent in the Indian English data analysed for this chapter. However, there is a considerable number of conceptualisations motivated by the container metaphor, evoking an image of the Indian society as the container while placing the community of the hijras in relation to this container. Figure 10.1 summarises the results of the analyses in a conceptual logic that was drawn from the data. Part (a) of the figure is aligned with the spatial conceptualisations which put the hijras outside or at the margins of the society-container. Linguistically, this is reflected in the examined pronouns which divide Indian society into ‘them’ (hijras) versus ‘us’ (non-hijras). Their status as outsiders is also represented in a number of conceptualisations of hijra which insinuate a notion of difference: They are perceived as being inhuman, for instance, as monsters, and in connection with their possession of spiritual powers they are furthermore seen as a danger, to the extent that they are apparently not chased away–out of fear–like the Dalits (i.e. the untouchables), as one informant stated. Hence, their place is outside of society because they do not fit into mainstream society. Two of the informants mentioned that the hijras are even ghettoised, while others also referred to the existence of segregated communities and

Fig. 10.1 Conceptual logic of conceptualisations pertaining to hijra drawn from the data

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it became very clear that their living conditions are quite poor. Likewise, the potential spiritual power of the hijras, when seen as beneficial to people, is also a chance for them to enter society. Part (b), on the other hand, builds on another understanding observed in the collected data. This contrastive understanding is conveyed in spatial conceptualisations that locate the hijras within Indian society, or that at least express the idea that they should have a place inside the society-container. This pattern of thought was reflected in conceptualisations of hijra that allude to a notion of similarity: For instance, when conceptualising the hijras as normal/natural or as human and thus as people who are not different and should therefore be given the right to participate in society. It was also mirrored in the pronoun analysis in which the concept of we featured an inclusive perception of Indian society. But although the informants were generally very open-minded and tolerant, some of them mentioned that they also had experienced some unsettling encounters with the hijras. Arguably, their spiritual power is not the only reason that the hijras—in contrast, again, to the Dalits—are given a certain space in Indian society. Another explanation might come from the fact that it is a society which is generally strongly divided into spaces, with gender as one possible criterion of division. There is ample research on the interaction of space and gender, and on how ‘space is socially and culturally produced and gender relations are socially, culturally and spatially constructed’ (Rendell, 2000, p. 102). As Rendell further points out, various studies—building upon works from feminist anthropology and feminist geography—examine in what way men and women have different spaces in society (not only in Indian society) and how this circumstance reflects, generates and fosters gender relations. In this sense, the juxtaposition of the public and the private sphere is closely linked to their conceptualisation as a male and a female space, respectively. In the following, some specific examples of gendered spaces in Indian society are given. In their analysis of the Indian model of marriage, Polzenhagen and Frey (2017) have stated that in this model the preservation of family, honour and status is much more important than individual romance. This entails that future husbands and wives have little contact with each other while the families carefully arrange the marriages, so it is not necessary that men and women meet, but rather that they stay in their gendered realms as long as possible. Another case worth mentioning is that of Jyoti Singh who was gang-raped on a bus in Delhi by six men in 2012 and later died in hospital. In the subsequent investigations of this crime which moved India, one of the rapists was asked about his motives. He stated that a ‘decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night’ (Barry, 2015) and since she was out on the streets in the evening it was justified to rape her. Thus, measured against the world view of the rapist who showed little to no regret, Jyoti had allegedly violated the borders of the gendered space assigned to her, which tragically sealed her fate. The perception that the private sphere is reserved for women and the public sphere for men was also highlighted in the interviews, for example, in the following statement:

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(30) Males are the outsider, females are the insider. By, by this I mean the female lives inside the home, most of the time. (Inf-42)

Although the informant mainly referred to the situation in the middle class, it still became clear that certain spaces are assigned according to gender. Beyond the data considered for the chapter at hand (that is, in the larger set of data collected for the project in which this approach is embedded), there is further evidence for the salience of conceptualisations relating to the female space is inside and the male space is outside in Indian English. More evidence for the separation of public space into gendered spaces can be found in the gender-specific division of the public space itself: For instance, in many places all over India, public transport offers compartments which are especially reserved for women—separating them from the men, although surely for safety reasons (see McCarthy, 2013). Student hostels are also usually gender-specific, with strict controls at the entry (also see the report on the first gender-neutral hostel in Sahoo, 2018). This gender segregation already starts at a young age, as one informant narrated: (31) Girls should make friends with girls and boys should make friend with boys. […] When we grow up that in school also some kind of distinction is there, this row is for girls, this row is for boys. (Inf-46)

One result, if not cause, of the gendered spaces in Indian society is—tentatively proposed—the culture-specific concept of homosociality in India. It is highly promoted that men and women spend considerable time with people of the same gender. In line with this (potentially cultural) concept, it is also common to see male friends holding hands in public, an act which usually bears homosexual connotations in Western cultures. Although studies on homosociality exist in other research disciplines (e.g. Osella, 2012; Gabriel, 2014), it would be interesting to analyse the concept more closely from a cognitive-linguistic perspective in the future. The division of Indian society into social/gendered spaces seems to originate to some extent in the caste system: (32) You cannot imagine Indian society without caste. […] If you you are not understanding caste, you are not going to understand Indian society. […] It’s, it’s affect everything. (Inf-35)

The caste system rubs off or, in other words, lends its logic, to understanding society as a whole: (33) Christianity is also in the belief that it is divided into Protestants and Catholics. But in India it is also divided on the basis of caste at the same time. Where there are different churches for the upper caste, where there are different churches for the lower caste. Where are different graveyards for the lower caste. (Inf-36)

Thus, the readiness of Indian society for a division into social spaces appears to be triggered by the caste system which is highly reluctant to allow for the transgression of (metaphorical and actual) spaces that are assigned due to class, caste or gender. As was mentioned before, procreation is an important personal life goal in Indian culture. The hijras do not fall into this scheme of procreation since they usually do

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not reproduce (regardless of whether they are unable or unwilling). If, thus, marriage and procreation (see Polzenhagen & Frey, 2017) are so crucial, then it is clear why the hijras are considered as different or as causing disorder, like one informant put it: (34) Now people say that they’re incapable of reproducing the baby, […], they’re causing disorder in the society. […] There’s no proper functioning in the society because of them. So people think in this way. (Inf-42)

Statement (34) is quite a distinct activation of conceptualisations adhering to a negative assessment of the domain of public disorder. Although the statement does not directly trigger mappings of public disorder is a disease and obscenity and immorality are causes of public disorder, a conceptual logic introduced in the beginning, it adverts to non- procreation is a cause of public disorder and therefore also corresponds to ideas of the public space as ideally orderly–a conceptualisation imported by the British colonisers. At the same time, the hijras still play a role in the procreational process, namely, through their performances and blessings that they share at weddings and births, both life-changing events, at least from a traditional point of view. While the hijras do not belong to the female or male spaces which Indian society holds, it is argued that there is an additional gendered space reserved for people of a third gender. Since the visibility and acknowledgement of non-binary forms of gender in India is not a modern phenomenon but goes long back in history, this space might be a remnant from pre-colonial times. As long as one stays within the space reserved for one’s gender, there is a possibility to participate (in one prescribed way or the other) in social life. Conflict may arise where the borders of the assigned space are violated, as happened, for instance, in the case of Jyoti Singh. This would also explain why the contact with hijras in public space often causes discomfort to non-hijras. In this respect, it could be fruitful to examine the category transgender as represented in Indian English in more detail (cf., e.g. Rosch, 1975; Schmid et al., 2008; Finzel & Wolf, 2019). Various definitional issues of the lexeme ‘transgender’ in Indian English are possibly an indicator of its culture-specificity in the sense of Sharifian (2017b). With regard to the issue of cognitive contact, there is evidence that conceptualisations which entered through British English had impact on the way the hijras are nowadays understood (cf. Hinchy, 2014; also see Hunt, 2011). While before the advent of the British colonisers, hijras had higher positions within Indian society, they were then pushed to the margins. This exlusionary process can be gathered from the conceptualisations found in the data, made visible through pronouns which construct a discourse of ‘them versus us’, through conceptualisations of hijra which tap into a notion of difference and through spatial conceptualisations depending on the container metaphor. On the other hand, contrasting conceptualisations along an inclusionary agenda are traceable as well. A closer analysis of the texture and extent of cognitive contact prompted by the contact with British English might therefore be a promising endeavour. In order to examine transformations in existing patterns of thought, a diachronic analysis that employs historical and contemporary corpora

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seems beneficial. Such an analysis would further strengthen the view of language as a ‘collective memory bank’ (wa Thiong’o, 1986; cited in Sharifian, 2017a).

10.6 Conclusion It was shown how the place of the hijras in Indian society is ambiguous: They neither belong in the male nor the female space, but society nevertheless holds a gendered space for them to occupy. While the hijras historically played an important role, conceptualisations that entered through British English are likely to have implemented a more negative understanding of the hijras. For this chapter, Cultural Linguistics provided useful tools to analyse such societal structures, in this case with a focus on social marginalisation, and methods from Cognitive Sociolinguistics supported the analysis. While the present approach examined cultural conceptualisations of the hijras in Indian English spoken by non-hijras, it would certainly be important to delve into the issue of how the hijras conceptualise themselves. That they surely suffer from their marginalised position was pointed out by one informant: (35) And I don’t know how much it is correct and how much … and how much it is not correct, but when a hijra dies they [the other hijras; AF] beat the corpse with sandals so that in the next birth he, he or she, should either be a guy or a girl. (Inf-43)

There is, however, reason for hope that the situation of people with non-binary gender identities in India will improve. As India’s economic role in the world is getting more important, the number of social programmes which seek to integrate marginalised groups into Indian society increases. The measures of integration mentioned in the beginning are a first step. After Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a remnant from colonial times, which criminalised sexual acts ‘against the order of nature’, was mitigated on 6 September 2018, the Indian LGBTI community saw an overwhelming support from the population. For instance, Gautam Gambhir, an Indian cricketer, supported the hijra community at a public event and stated: I am supporting them (the community) and the cause of this event, which is to accept the community as they are. One thing I can assure that we can’t grow and move forward without involving anyone. They are as Indian as we are and should be treated with dignity and respect. (Anon, 2018)

The title of this chapter insinuates that Indian society is divided into social spaces, with ‘a space for everybody’ from which it is difficult to transgress to other spaces. At the same time, however, the diversity of Indian culture and its inclination to embrace diverse gender and sexual identities suggest that Indian society as a whole may also be ‘a space for everybody’ as a locus of integration.

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Hogg, M. A., & Williams, K. D. (2000). From I to we: Social identity and the collective self. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 4(1), 81–97. Hunt, S. J. (2011). Conservative hindu reactions to non-heterosexual rights in India. International Journal of Sociol Anthropology 3(9), 318–327. Kalra, G. (2012). Hijras: The unique transgender culture of India. International Journal of Culture and Mental Health, 5(2), 121–126. Karen, G. (2014). Formulating patriarchal homosociality: notes from India. NORMA 9(1), 45–59. Kaviraj, S. (1997). Filth and the public sphere: Concepts and practices about space in Calcutta. Public Culture, 10(1), 83–113. Khaleeli, H. (2014, April 16). Hijra: India’s third gender claims its place in law. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/apr/16/india-third-genderclaims-place-in-law. Kopytowska, M., & Musolff, A. (2015) Dehumanizing metaphors in UK immigrant debates in press and online media. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 3(1), 41–56 Kristiansen, G., & Dirven, R. (Eds.). (2008). Cognitive sociolinguistics: Language variation, cultural models, social systems. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (1989). More than Cool Reason. A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Levine, P. (2003). Prostitution, race, and politics: Policing venereal disease in the British empire. New York, NY: Routledge. McCarthy, J. (2013, March 28). On India’s trains, seeking safety in the women’s compartment. National Public Radio. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2013/03/28/175471907/on-indiastrains-seeking-safety-in-the-women-s-compartment?t=1538822524418&t=1539124758378. McCoy, T. (2014, April 15). India now recognizes transgender citizens as ‘third gender’. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/ 15/india-now-recognizes-transgender-citizens-as-third-gender/?tid=hp_mm&utm_term=.e5e cf501e2db. Nanda, S. (1986). The hijras of India: Cultural and individual dimensions of an institutionalized third gender role. Journal of Homosexuality, 11(3–4), 35–54. Osella, F. (2012). Malabar secrets: South Indian muslim men’s (Homo) sociality across the Indian Ocean. Asian Studies Review 36(4), 531–549. Patkar, E. (2015, March 3). India’s transgender mayor—Is the country finally overcoming prejudice? The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/mar/03/indiafirst-transgender-mayor-overcoming-prejudice-hijra. Polzenhagen, F., & Frey, S. (2017). Are marriages made in heaven? A cultural-linguistic case study on Indian-English matrimonials. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), Advances in Cultural Linguistics (pp. 573–605). Singapore, Singapore: Springer. Pütz, M., Robinson, J. A., & Reif, M. (Eds.). (2014). Cognitive sociolinguistics: Social and cultural variation in cognition and language use. Amsterdam, Netherlands; Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins. Reddy, G. (2005). Geographies of contagion: Hijras, Kothis, and the politics of sexual marginality in Hyderabad. Anthropology & Medicine, 12(3), 255–270. Rendell, J. (2000). Introduction: ‘Gender, Space’. In J. Rendell, B. Penner, & I. Borden (Eds.), Gender space architecture. an interdisciplinary introduction (pp. 101–111). London, England: Routledge. Rosch, E. (1975). Cognitive representations of semantic categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 104(3), 193–233. Sahoo, P. (2018, September 15). At TISS, India’s first gender-neutral hostel: ‘all students can come, chill’. The Indian Express. Retrieved from https://indianexpress.com/article/india/at-tiss-indiasfirst-gender-neutral-hostel-all-students-can-come-chill-5357408/. Schmid, H.-J., Ibriszimov, D., Kopatsch, K. & Gottschligg, P. (2008). Conceptual blending in language, cognition, and culture: Towards a methodology for the linguistic study of syncretic concepts. In A. Adogame, M. Echtler, & U. Vierke (Eds.), Unpacking the new: critical

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perspectives on cultural syncretization in Africa and beyond (pp. 93–124). Zürich, Switzerland: Lit. Sharifian, F. (2017a). Cultural Linguistics. Amsterdam, Netherlands & Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins. Sharifian, F. (2017b). Cultural Linguistics: The state of the art. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), Advances in cultural linguistics (pp. 1–27). Singapore, Singapore: Springer. Singh, T. (2016, July 9). Jobs for transgenders in Kochi metro and pensions for those above 60 years in Kerala. The Better India. Retrieved from https://www.thebetterindia.com/61176/kerala-transg enders-kochi-metro-jobs-pensions/. Stefanowitsch, A. (2006). Corpus-based approaches to metaphor and metonymy. In A. Stefanowitsch & A. T. Gries (Eds.), Corpus-based approaches to metaphor and metonymy (pp. 1–16). Berlin, Germany & New York, NY: Mouton de Gruyter. Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33–48). Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole. wa Thiong’o, N. (1986). Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African literature. London, England: Heinemann. Wolf, H.-G., & Polzenhagen, F. (2009). World Englishes. A cognitive sociolinguistic approach. Berlin, Germany & New York, NY: Mouton de Gruyter. Young, A. (2000). Women who become men: Albanian Sworn Virgins. Oxford, United Kingdom & New York, NY: Berg. Zenner, E., Backus, A., & Winter-Froemel, E. (Eds.). (2019). Cognitive contact linguistics: Placing usage, meaning and mind at the core of contact-induced variation and change. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter.

Chapter 11

Family Matters: Cultural-Linguistic Investigations into the Domain of FAMILY in Indian English Frank Polzenhagen

Abstract During the last decade, Cultural Linguistics has developed into a thriving research framework, with a comprehensive theoretical foundation and a range of distinct realms of application (see Sharifian, 2011, 2015a, 2017a, 2017b for an overview). Among the latter are investigations into outer circle varieties of English from a cognitive-cultural perspective (for a review of this strand, see Polzenhagen & Wolf, 2017; Sharifian, 2015b), and the present chapter is a contribution to this endeavour. Drawing from the toolkit of Cultural Linguistics, I will analyse linguistic expressions and their underlying cultural conceptualisations pertaining to the cultural key domain of family in one of the established outer circle varieties of English, i.e. Indian English. My data come from a recent dictionary of Indian English (Lucko, Peter & Polzenhagen, 2017; compiled by Uwe Carls), standard corpora of English and a small corpus of matrimonial advertisements taken from English-medium newspapers in India (compiled by Frey 2015). This chapter elaborates on earlier investigations into the concept of marriage in India by Polzenhagen and Frey (2017a, 2017b) and extends parallel studies on the concept of community in African English (Polzenhagen, 2007; Wolf & Polzenhagen, 2009) and Hong Kong English (Polzenhagen & Wolf, 2010) to the Indian context.

11.1 Introduction The study of World Englishes has come to be one of the most vibrant branches of English linguistics (for a recent overview, see Filppula, Klemola & Sharma, 2017). Throughout its evolution over the last decades, this research programme has been characterised by a diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches, ranging from studies in the descriptive tradition to investigations of the sociolinguistic situation and language policies in the respective regions and of language attitudes, ethnographic accounts, corpus-linguistic approaches with various scopes, critical F. Polzenhagen (B) University of Koblenz-Landau, Landau, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_11

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analyses targeting colonial and post-colonial ideologies and implications of globalisation, research into intercultural pragmatics and studies on bilingualism (see Wolf & Polzenhagen, 2009 for an overview and discussion). With the burgeoning field of Cultural Linguistics, new perspectives on World Englishes are beginning to be explored as one of the potential realms of application of this recent framework. What it adds to the general study of World Englishes is the specific focus on and modelling of culturally induced conceptual patterns underlying varieties of English and variation at this level across groups. In turn, the investigation of language varieties is insightful and promising for the cultural-linguistic enterprise in many respects, and English, being firmly rooted in various cultural contexts around the globe, is an ideal testing ground for this endeavour. First of all, it allows for a direct comparison at the level of linguistic expression, thus circumventing methodological problems of translatability. Furthermore, the study of how cultural conceptualisations show in a second language (L2) sheds light on the general question of how robustly the expression of these conceptualisations is bound to a particular language and language-specific structures, i.e. on the issue of linguistic relativity. Moreover, it contributes to a better understanding of the conceptual system of bilinguals, a field of research that has rightly gained some prominence in the current debate on the issue of linguistic relativity (see, e.g. Pavlenko, 2014). Several other potential benefits of this perspective can be added. There is a growing, albeit still small, body of literature that analyses World Englishes against the explicit background of Cultural Linguistics (see Polzenhagen & Wolf, 2017 and Sharifian, 2015b, 2017b: Chap. 9 for a review). However, several studies associated with Cultural Linguistics were and are, in fact, published under the label ‘cognitive sociolinguistics’, including work done by the present author (e.g. Wolf & Polzenhagen, 2009), or within other strands in Cognitive Linguistics and linguistically oriented cognitive anthropology. The most recent output of this type of research includes two collections of papers published as special issues of the International Journal of Language and Culture (Wolf, Polzenhagen, & Peters, 2017) and Cognitive Linguistic Studies (Callies & Onysko, 2017). The structure of the present chapter is as follows: In Sect. 2, I will first look into the lexical resources of Indian English in the domain of family, highlighting the vast body of kinship terms in this variety. The data come from a new comprehensive dictionary of Indian English (Lucko, Peter & Polzenhagen, 2017; compiled by Uwe Carls). Then, I will present corpus data attesting to the cultural keyness of this domain in the Indian context, taking British English as a reference point for comparison. In Sect. 3, I will turn to the role of the family in the arrangement of marriage. Two aspects will be addressed in some detail: (i) the family as a decision-maker in marriage issues and (ii) the family as a criterion in what is referred to as a ‘suitable match’. Here I will draw from data from a corpus of matrimonial advertisements,1 elaborating on earlier analyses given in Polzenhagen and Frey (2017a, 2017b). This corpus was compiled by Frey (2015) and consists of 600 matrimonial adverts taken from 1 Note that in Indian English these adverts are generally referred to as matrimonials (a nominal form).

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four English-medium Indian newspapers and a British-English reference corpus of 150 contact adverts taken from The Times (London).2 In each sub-corpus, gender is equally represented (i.e. 75 adverts in which a bride is looked for and 75 aimed at finding a groom), and all of the adverts stem from editions in the year 2010. The Indian component, with 150 adverts per newspaper, was drawn from The Times of India, The Statesman, The Hindu and The Milli Gazette.3 Owing to the fact that they are published in English, the four newspapers share a basis in the middle and upper social strata.

11.2 Kinship Terms It is an old intuition that the lexicon of a language reflects cultural patterns of the respective speech community in manifold ways. This intuition has been central to research into so-called ‘cultural keywords’, in particular, in the work by Wierzbicka (e.g. 1997), and the analysis given in the present section is guided by the spirit and methods of this approach. One of the ways culturally salient notions manifest in language is in terms of rich lexical fields in the relevant domains. Closely related, cultural keywords show in terms of the prominence of the relevant lexical items in the group’s discourse. While these are well-established stances in culturally oriented cross-linguistic research, the comparison of varieties of the same language (e.g. English) in this respect has received relatively little systematic attention so far. This is surprising especially in the case of outer circle varieties. The extensive lexical borrowing from the speakers’ native languages to the L2-lexicon as well as the specific discursive practices of L2-speakers are a unique window into the cultural foci of their community.

11.2.1 Prominence in the Lexicon From this perspective, a prime and straightforward access point into the domain under investigation, i.e. family, is the inventory of kinship terms in a given language or language variety.4 In the specific case of outer circle varieties, the general cultural 2 In the present chapter, text examples taken from the corpus are reproduced as they appear in the orig-

inal. In some cases, relevant items are highlighted. Some explanations on terms and abbreviations used in the Indian adverts are provided in footnotes. 3 The former two are originally English foundations (from 1838 and 1875, respectively). Around the time of Independence, they passed into Indian hands. The Hindu is an Indian foundation, first published in 1878. The Milli Gazette is a newcomer in the Indian press market, first published in 1999 and directed explicitly at a Muslim readership. See Frey (2015) for a detailed description of the corpus and the profile of the newspapers chosen. 4 For obvious reasons, kinship systems and kinship terms have been among the most prominent and well-known objects of anthropological research, in general, and frameworks with a strong linguistic

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salience of the family domain shows, first and foremost, in an often very rich and elaborate set of kinship terms borrowed from the relevant native languages. Indian English provides ample evidence of this point. The following list of 30 loans is culled from a recent comprehensive dictionary of Indian English (Lucko, Peter & Polzenhagen 2017; compiled by Uwe Carls)5 : abba father (often a familiar form of address in Muslim families). Orig.: Hindi. akka an elder sister. Orig.: Tamil. ammooma grandmother. Orig.: Malayalam. ammu mother. Orig.: Bengali & Malayalam. appa < informal > one’s father; often a familiar form of address. Orig.: Tamil. baap (a) a father. (b) term of address; title of respect. Orig.: Hindi. baba (a) one’s father. (b) a holy man. (c) a title of respect. (d) < also combined in postposition with a name > term of endearment and form of address for a child; also used among children. (e) < not confined to male persons > an affectionate form of address for a friend. Orig.: Hindi. Bapa lit. ‘father’, a cordial form of address for an old man, often used with reference to Mahatma Gandhi. Orig.: Malay. Bapu (a) a (spiritual) father. (b) ‘father’ as a form of address. (c) a term of endearment for Mahatma Gandhi. Orig.: Gujarati. behanji (behenji) (a) a respectful term for a sister. (b) derog. a housewifely, ‘uncool’ and unfashionably clothed girl or young woman, mostly speaking Punjabi or Hindi. Orig.: Hindi (behan ‘sister’ + -ji). bhabhi a form of address for a sister-in-law (elder brother’s wife). Orig.: Hindi. bhai (a) lit. ‘brother’, ‘friend’; a friendly form of address for a personal friend or compatriot. (b) < combined in postposition to a person’s name > affectionate title or epithet for a friend or older person. (c) Cap. Sikhism a title or form of address for distinguished Sikhs. (d) < Mumbai slang > a gangster. (e) < Mumbai slang > a Mafia boss. Orig.: Hindi. bhaiy(y)a < also used as form of address to friends > a brother. Orig.: Hindi. bhayya n; lit. ‘big brother’, informal man, guy. Orig.: Hindi. chacha uncle (father’s younger brother), as a form of address also used for friends of the family. Orig.: Hindi. chachi aunt (father’s younger brother’s wife), also used as a form of address. Orig.: Hindi. chota babu hist. n; the junior master in an Indian household, i.e. the master’s younger brother. Orig.: Hindi.

component, in particular. It is far beyond the scope of this chapter to review the rich body of literature along these lines; see, e.g. Kronenfeld (2015) for an overview from a cultural-linguistic vantage point. 5 For text examples illustrating the use of these terms in Indian English, see the individual entries in Lucko, Peter & Polzenhagen (2017).

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dada (a) a paternal grandfather; an older brother; a male cousin. (b) < also used as a form of address > a respected elderly male person.(c) slang a gangster boss. Orig.: Hindi. dadi a paternal grandmother. Orig.: Hindi. didi (a) a form of address to an older sister or older female cousin. (b) any older woman respected by the speaker. (c) < often combined in postposition with the person’s name > a respectful form of address to any older woman. Orig.: Hindi. jija n; brother-in-law. Orig.: Hindi. ma (a) mother. (b) a title of respect, often for a goddess. Orig.: Hindi. mamu n; a form of endearment for mama ‘uncle’ (mother’s brother). Orig.: Hindi & Gujarati. mashi < often in postposition to a name > a maternal aunt. Orig.: Bengali. mata < often used as a respectful title or form of address in postposition to a name > mother. Orig.: Hindi. periamma mother’s elder sister or the wife of one’s father’s elder brother. Orig.: Bengali. pishi (the form of address for an) aunt. Orig.: Bengali. sa(a)la (a) brother-in-law (wife’s brother). (b) slang < a term of abuse > bastard, arsehole. Orig.: Hindi. saas mother-in-law. Orig.: Hindi. samdhi one’s son’s or daughter’s father-in-law. Orig.: Hindi < Sanskrit. This list only covers items that are widely used across India and well attested in written sources. It is, however, far from exhaustive, also in this respect. Furthermore, numerous other kinship terms from Indian languages are used with a more restricted geographical profile. The above list exemplifies several facets of culturally motivated borrowing. In particular, it features terms of respect and endearment (e.g. mamu) as well as specific metonymic and metaphoric extensions of kinship terms (e.g. baba, dada, didi). Especially the latter type illustrates a set of cultural conceptualisations that construe communities in terms of family, e.g. community members are kin, persons of respect are fathers/mothers, leaders are fathers/mothers. These conceptualisations have been studied in some detail from a cultural-linguistic perspective for several outer circle varieties, e.g. for (West) African English by Polzenhagen (2007), Wolf and Polzenhagen (2009), and for Hong Kong English by Polzenhagen and Wolf (2010). What these studies show is a much broader, more elaborate and more systematically lexicalised presence of these conceptualisations in the relevant cultural settings compared to the Western (Anglo-Saxon) context. Generally speaking, these conceptualisations are a perfect and predestined backbone of the cognitive-cultural model of community in so-called collectivist societies. It is hence not surprising that Indian English, being rooted in a context with a strong collectivist vector, shows a similar pattern. Furthermore, the list comprises loans that reflect kinship distinctions that are not readily made in and lexically supported by the English system, e.g. between maternal and paternal lineage (cf. mashi, dada, dadi). Via borrowing, these ‘gaps’

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in the English lexicon are filled. An alternative strategy taken in Indian English to convey such notions is the cultural appropriation of English lexical material to the same effect. Examples include co-brother n; a wife’s sister’s husband. cousin(-)brother n; a male cousin. Orig.: Loan rendition with brother rendering the gender-marker of many Indian languages. cousin-sister n; a female cousin. Orig.: Loan rendition with sister rendering the gender-marker of many Indian languages. Examples of this type are instances of what is referred to as contextualisation/nativisation at the lexical level in Kachruvian sociolinguistics. In fact, these traditional Kachruvian notions are extremely attractive and fruitful from a cultural-linguistic perspective (see Polzenhagen & Frey, 2017b for a discussion).

11.2.2 Prominence in Discourse One way of tracing the prominence of particular notions or domains in a group’s discourse is by corpus-linguistic means, in particular, through comparative frequency analyses. In the World-Englishes paradigm, there is a very substantial strand of corpus-based and corpus-driven research, and several studies have incorporated some of its well-established methods of quantitative data analysis for cross-cultural and cross-varietal comparison against a cultural-linguistic background (e.g. Wolf, 2003; Wolf & Polzenhagen, 2009). The methodological soundness of such a comparison evidently rests on the availability of corpora that are both reasonably representative of the respective varieties and parallel in terms of size and structure. The current state of the arts is not brilliant in this regard. While the big native varieties are well documented in large corpora, e.g. BNC for BrE and COCA for AmE, there are no equivalents in size for the outer circle varieties of English.6 However, for many of these varieties, at least one-million-word standard corpora modelled on the BROWN corpus are available, and for the present purpose, the family of BROWN corpora provides a reliable and sufficient basis.7 For Indian English, two corpora of this type exist, i.e. the earlier Kolhapur corpus and the more recent Indian sub-corpus of the ICE (ICE-India). The former comprises only written texts, the latter comes with a written and a spoken component, following 6

A large-scale corpus meant to represent varieties of English is GloWbE. However, the usefulness of this compilation is very limited. It is culled from the Internet and the actual origin of the texts is often neither transparent nor reliably associated with a specific variety. Problems abound: Websites come and go, the extension label of a site is no safe indicator of the country of origin of the contents, the date of online appearance is not conclusive as to the period of time the text was produced in, material from websites is copy-pasted to others in prolific number, etc. Those who use this corpus with due caution are well aware of the significant portion of tokens whose country labels are plainly wrong, which is fatal to sound WE research. 7 The items under investigation in the present chapter are rather frequent and the corpora generally returned an amount of tokens that is conclusive.

11 Family Matters: Cultural-Linguistic Investigations … Table 11.1 Selected English lexical items from the family domain in Kolhapur compared to LOB/FLOB. Frequency data

Kol (1978) brother(s)

223 FLOB (1991)

LOB (1961)

160

152

154

90

126

116

mother(s)

569

437

385

father(s)

408

348

343

son(s)

350

192

204

daughter(s)

169

136

130

81

40

47

uncle(s)

56

56

41

cousin(s)

26

23

35

528

441

364

2437

1951

1819

sister(s)

aunt(s), auntie(s), aunty

family, families Total

the general design of the ICE corpora. In the analysis below, I will draw from both corpora, using their nearest BrE equivalents8 as reference points. The natural counterpart to Kolhapur is a combination of LOB and FLOB, both in terms of structure and the time span covered. LOB is based on texts published in 1961, its Freiburg update FLOB covers the year 1991. The compilation of Kolhapur lies midway between the two, i.e. in 1978. For obvious reasons, the BrE reference point for the ICE-India data is ICE-GB. The software I used for the analysis was ICECUP for ICE-GB and AntConc for the other corpora. Table 11.19 shows the raw frequency data for a set of English terms from the family domain in Kolhapur compared to LOB/FLOB. The items included in the list are about 1.3 times more frequent in Kolhapur than in LOB/FLOB. This picture is fully confirmed by the data obtained from the two ICE corpora, where these items are even 1.6 times more frequent in the Indian component. The detailed breakdown is given in Table 11.2. As it is often the case, the data for some individual items, however, do not necessarily follow the general trend of their ‘relatives’. Cases in point are the items sister(s) and cousin(s) in Table 11.1: Counter to the general picture, the former has significantly fewer tokens in the Kolhapur corpus than in LOB/FLOB. The same applies to the 35 tokens for cousin(s) in LOB, which, furthermore, do not go along with the strikingly balanced distribution of most of the other items in FLOB and LOB. Such deviations from the general trend may be due to almost accidental specifics of individual texts that were included in the corpus. In rather small corpora, such specifics may bear quite heavily on the results, which underlines the need to include a

8 The choice of BrE as a reference variety rather than AmE is straightforward: Both past and present,

Indian English has much stronger ties to BrE. the corpora have almost the same size, I saw no need to calculate the normalised number of tokens relative to 1 Mio.

9 Since

224 Table 11.2 Selected English lexical items from the family domain in ICE-INDIA compared to ICE-GB. Frequency data

F. Polzenhagen ICE-INDIA brother(s)

152

55

sister(s)

128

66

mother(s)

359

179

father(s)

239

200

son(s)

211

112

daughter(s)

167

77

aunt(s), auntie(s), aunty

26

35

uncle(s)

15

12

cousin(s) family, families Total

Table 11.3 Selected alternatives to mother/father in Kolhapur compared to LOB/FLOB. Frequency data

ICE-GB

Kol Dad

20

60

35

341

293

1698

1064

FLOB

LOB

31

17

Daddy

14

18

9

Mum/Mom

32

32

16

Mummy/Mommy

25

10

7

baba

37

0

2

abba

5

0

0

ammu

8

0

0

141

91

51

Total

wide range of items in order to represent a domain in a conclusive way. Other deviations, however, may call for a cultural interpretation: The significantly lower number of tokens for sister(s) compared to the tokens obtained for brother(s) in Kolhapur, for instance, certainly reflects the strong male bias of Indian culture. Furthermore, for a comprehensive picture, one also has to take into consideration the wealth of variety-specific loan words and colloquial terms of endearment in the realm of kinship terms. Table 11.310 illustrates this point with data for some of the lexical alternatives to mother/father from Kolhapur and LOB/FLOB, and Table 11.411 from the two ICE corpora. The data from Kolhapur and LOB/FLOB (Table 11.3) strengthen the picture that emerged from Table 11.1. In ICE-GB, however, Dad, Mum and their diminutive forms are very frequent (Table 11.4). In the case of the number of tokens linked to the concept father, the inclusion of these terms even inverses the original picture 10 The

two tokens for baba in LOB come from a text dealing with the Indian context in this corpus. two tokens for abba in ICE-GB come from a text on horse racing, with Abba Lad being the name of one of the horses.

11 The

11 Family Matters: Cultural-Linguistic Investigations … Table 11.4 Selected alternatives to mother/father in ICE-INDIA compared to ICE-GB. Frequency data

225 ICE-INDIA

Dad Daddy Mum/Mom

ICE-GB

11

75

0

15

6

81

Mummy/Mommy

14

8

baba

18

0

abba

12

2

ammu

38

0

Total

99

181

in Table 11.2, with the ICE-GB having more occurrences of the relevant items in total than Kolhapur. However, this effect is levelled out when the 30 tokens of the two selected loan words for the concept father from Indian languages, i.e. baba and abba, are taken into consideration. In the case of the concept mother, the gap from Table 11.2 is reduced but still persists. All in all, the kinship terms covered by Tables 11.2 and 11.4 remain a solid 1.4 times more frequent in the Indian ICE component than in ICE-GB. In sum, the frequency data presented above clearly attest to the cultural keyness of the family domain in India.

11.3 The Role of the Family in the Marriage Issue A hallmark realm to show and compare the role and significance of the family across cultural contexts is the issue of marriage. In contemporary Western societies, partner and spouse selection is generally a process and decision confined to the two individuals concerned, a model referred to as ‘free-choice marriage’. Across the disciplines, there are numerous and partly conflicting accounts of how this model has evolved;12 however, there is consensus on its two key features, i.e. (a) the priority of individual choice over parental authority and (b) the emphasis on ‘affection’. In both respects, this model contrasts sharply with the one generally practiced in India, past and present, i.e. ‘arranged marriages’.13 A traditional arranged marriage is in full parental control: the parents initiate the search for potential partners, select a ‘suitable match’, negotiate the details with the other family and finally take the decision for concluding the marriage. A (romantic) relationship between bride and groom prior to marriage, yielding so-called ‘love marriages’, is excluded and socially not accepted. The future couple may meet when the negotiations between the parents/families were successful, with the families being present. However, an 12 My

own view is close to the account given by Goody (1983, 1996, 1998, 1999). rich literature on Indian marriage culture includes Banerjee (2009), Medora (2003), Uberoi (1993, 2006), Sharma (2005), Mody (2002), Nanda (2000), Pache Huber (2004), Seymour (1999), Grover (2011) and Hankeln (2008).

13 The

226

F. Polzenhagen

encounter of the couple prior to marriage is not an imperative in the traditional model, i.e. bride and groom may also see for the first time during the wedding ceremony. ‘Affection/love’ is not a parameter for concluding a suitable match; instead, affection/love is expected to develop, ideally at least, in the course of marital life.14 India has experienced significant changes at the societal level over the last decades, also affecting marriage culture. Although arranged marriages are still the preferred and dominant pattern,15 several accepted alternatives to the strict traditional model have emerged, in particular, among the urban middle class. What these alternative, or sub-models, share is a greater involvement of the to-be-married in the selection process and in decision-making. In so-called ‘arranged-cum-love marriages’, the search is still initiated and performed by the parents/family; however, the bride and the groom are given some time to get to know each other and they are granted the right to veto the choice of their parents/family. In a sub-model with a still greater involvement of the future couple, the search is launched and performed by the tobe-married themselves. In this so-called ‘love-cum-arranged marriage’, the partner pre-selected this way is proposed to the parents/family for approval. Finally, a very liberal mindset of the parents provided, ‘love marriages’, i.e. those with a prior history of a romantic relationship can be ‘legitimised’ post factum by parental consent. In the relevant stratum of Indian society, ‘arranged marriage’ thus has virtually become a cover term for any marriage that is approved by the parents. Superficially, these developments suggest a convergence to the Western model, in that the two above-mentioned key features of the latter get firmly established: Individual choice gains over parental control and affection is recognised as a criterion. It would, however, be short-sighted to take the Western model as the reference point. Instead, these developments are very much in keeping with the logic of the traditional pattern in the Indian context. There are at least three major reasons why brides and grooms can claim a stronger position in partner selection in the relevant stratum of Indian society: (i) they are older at the time of their marriage than in earlier generations (see Polzenhagen & Frey, 2017a for a brief discussion on shifts with respect to the age of marriage), (ii) they are highly educated and often professionally firmly established and (iii) they often have a history of mobility that removed them from their families in spatial terms. (i) and (ii) give them a far more mature status in Indian society than in earlier generations, and hence their greater control of their own marriage is fully recognised and accepted. (iii) necessitates ways of searching a suitable partner other than through the traditional means, which went along the network of the parents/family and recruited potential candidates through this network. It is important to notice, however, that though the parents’ control of the marriage issue is smaller in the contemporary sub-models sketched above, their consent is still the decisive factor for a socially accepted marriage. So-called ‘love marriages’, i.e. those concluded without parental approval, are still regarded as a severe damage to 14 In Polzenhagen and Frey (2017a, 2017b), this is analysed in terms of culture-specific elaborations of the general conceptualisation relationships are journeys. In the Western model, marriage is a rather late point on this metaphoric journey, while in the Indian context it is its starting point. 15 According to Uberoi (2006: 24), 90% favour this model over ‘love marriages’.

11 Family Matters: Cultural-Linguistic Investigations …

227

Fig. 11.1 Explicit authorship in the Indian corpus (n = 245 of 600 ads)

parents/family (n=29) self (n=216)

a family’s reputation. For the couple, such a marriage generally results in a social stigmatisation that is extremely difficult to bear—economically, functionally and emotionally—in a society thoroughly based on family ties and the related social networks.

11.3.1 Family as a Decision-Maker In the corpus of Indian matrimonials (Frey, 2015),16 the most obvious indicator of parental control of the marriage issue is certainly the category ‘authorship’. Three subcategories can be distinguished here: either (a) the author is not made explicit (not specified), (b) the self is presented as the author or (c) the parents/family of the self. However, the third subcategory is not present in the matrimonials taken from The Statesman. Generally speaking, the term ‘authorship’ has to be understood in the sense of ‘who is presented as seeking contact’ in the case of the Indian ads, since many of the matrimonials pass through marriage bureaus and are devised by them for the client. The majority of the ads, including those from The Statesman with only two categories, fall within category (a): In 355 of the matrimonials (i.e. 59%), authorship is not specified or vaguely framed. Of the remaining 245, the self is given as the author in 216 ads, while 29 are presented explicitly as being authored by the parents/family. The distribution of the latter two categories, i.e. those where authorship is made explicit, is represented in Fig. 11.1.

16 The

body of literature on the text type, or genre, ‘matrimonial/contact advertisements’, from a Western perspective, includes Coupland (1996), Koestner and Wheeler (1988), Bruthiaux (1994), Stolt (1976), Vestergaard and Schrøder (1995), Raevskij (1997), Riemann (1999), Nair (1992), Gottburgsen (1995) and Cocks (2010). Bruthiaux (1996) is the standard reference on characteristics of the so-called ‘classified advertisements’, to which matrimonial/contact adverts belong. Matrimonials in India are analysed, e.g. in Choudhury et al. (1995), Das (1980), Jha and Adelman (2009), Kaur (2002), Majumdar (2004, 2009), Murty and Rao (1984), Pandey (2004), Ramakrishnan (2012), Seth and Patnayakuni (2009), Titzmann (2014), Frey (2015), Polzenhagen and Frey (2017a, 2017b).

228

F. Polzenhagen

The very fact that there are these three options reflects the different marriage patterns sketched above that are available to the middle class in contemporary India. When the family/parents are presented as initiating the search (category (c) above), a fairly traditional type of ‘arranged marriage’ can be expected. In turn, the option ‘self’ (category (b)) can be taken to indicate a greater involvement of the bride/groom in the entire selection process. When the author is not specified (category (a)), it is open to interpretation: Potentially, the advertiser avoids public positioning on this issue. The standard formula used in such adverts is ‘(suitable) match for’, often abbreviated as SM4. Representative examples from the corpus include (1) SM for Skh/Sidd 35/5’3” Cultured Div girl No issue wkg as Lecturer M.A, B.Ed, pers MBA. (from: The Milli Gazette) (2) MATCH FOR Thrissur Iyer boy/29/178/Telecom Executive Pooradam Haritham Sudhajathakam in Delhi,own flat. (from: The Hindu) In other matrimonials of this category, the specification of the author is avoided by giving a mere description of the ‘self’, e.g. (3) CHRISTIAN BOY, 28/178cms, BE {CS}, MBA {IIM}, Project Manager, “TCS “.17 (from: The Hindu) (4) EZHAVA GIRL, Moolam, 25/152, Alappuzha, BTech S/W Engg MNC. (from: The Hindu) Representative examples of category (b), i.e. ‘self’ presented as the author, include (5) TRICHUR NAIR girl divorced (within a week) 29/165 Chothi PG (Microbiology/PMIR) employed in Chennai seeks well qua[l]ified/employed boy.18 (from: The Hindu) (6) BEAUTIFUL MENON girl MBA 27/168 Makam working as Business Manager in an IT firm in Bangalore seeks alliance from parents of suitable Nair boys.19 (from: The Hindu) (7) NAIR 37, Visakham Sr.Exec innocent divorcee seeks good issueless boy.20 (from: The Hindu) Category (c), i.e. ‘family/parents’ as explicit authors, is exemplified by the following adverts in the corpus: (8)

(9)

DELHI based Shk/Syd Parents of Patna seeks Suitable Bride of status family for son 28/57” Post Doc. Research Scholer in USA. Father Srr. CI-I Officer Retd. (from: The Milli Gazette) Renowned very well Distinguished Industrialist Pathan Family based in Western U.P. seeks Alliance (Pretty Girl) from Cultured and Established Family, Naturally Beautiful, Convent Educated below 24yrs for 25yrs 5’10”/40 LPA Business boy. (from: The Milli Gazette)

17 CS = computer science; IIM = Indian Institute of Management; TCS = Tata Consultancy Services. 18 PG = postgraduate; PMIR = Personnel Management and Industrial Relations. 19 Menon = an upper caste within the Nair community; MBA = Master of Business Administration. 20 Visakham = a particular star important for horoscope matching.

11 Family Matters: Cultural-Linguistic Investigations …

229

(10) DEL based sunni parents invites match for their Teacher daughter 26/5’3” MA, B.Ed Aligarh. M.Phil. (from: The Milli Gazette) (11) AFFLUENT CHENNAI Based V/High Rich Rowather Bness Family seeks for his graduate daughter v.fair 23/165 from Profnals/Business Abroad/India T/M very high rich family. (from: The Hindu) (12) R.C. A.D Parents Seek Alliance for their daughter B.E Civil Engg 27/154 cm Working in Professional Consultancies Chennai. (from: The Hindu) (13) CSI CHRISTIAN parents seek a God fearing bride for their son 33/170, Manager-Projects in Hewlett-Packard London, earning GBP 45,000 p.a., BE & studying MBA in General Management. (from: The Hindu) (14) PARENTS OF Nair girl, slim and beautiful […] seek alliance from parents of Nair boys, smart professionals […]. (from: The Hindu). In a fully parallel fashion, there are three categories with respect to the addressee: either the matrimonials are explicitly directed to the ‘parents/family’ of the potential partner, or they directly address the potential partner, or the addressee is not specified at all. Virtually all possible constellations between the three categories of authorship and the three categories of addressee can be found in the corpus. ‘Parents/family’ addressing ‘parents/family’, for instance, is exemplified by advert (14). Matrimonial (6) illustrates the case where ‘self’ addresses ‘parents/family’. (3) and (4), in turn, specify neither author nor addressee. With only 29 of the 600 Indian matrimonials, the share of those that make authorship by the ‘parents/family’ explicit may seem rather small. However, as the above discussion should have shown, the other categories also entail parental control to varying but significant degrees of strength. Matrimonials whose framing suggests no involvement of the parents/family are extremely rare, and they come from advertisers whose profile or world view is obviously at odds with the traditional patterns and criteria. The following ad may serve as an example of this type: (15) CAST [sic!] NO Bar 28 MSc Ph.D. Lecturer Intercast Attr. Girl seek any Boy. (from: The Hindu) Furthermore, one has to bear in mind that the readership of the newspapers in the corpus is by no means representative of Indian society at large. The corpus only provides a glimpse of modern, mainly urban, Indian middle class. Among the vast majority of the Indian population, a far stronger adherence to the traditional patterns prevails. A comparative look at the BrE reference corpus produces the expected picture. In the adverts from The Times (London), a parallel distinction for both authorship and addressee does not exist: The self is the author and the addressee is always the potential partner.

230

F. Polzenhagen

11.3.2 Family as a Criterion in Matchmaking The present section looks at family/parents as a criterion for partner selection, again on the basis of the corpus of contact adverts. The relevant indicators highlighted here are (i) the presence or absence of information on parents and other family members in the self and partner descriptions, (ii) the evocation of family background as a marker of social status and (iii) explicit statements on the expected family model. The British ads contain various indicators of social status, e.g. gentleman, Oxbridge type, ex public schoolboy and solvent. However, status is not indicated on the basis of one’s family background. The item family occurs only three times, in the following contexts: (16) Slim built man, 38, 6’2, enjoys travel, the arts, music, dining in/out, seeing friends and family, weekends away, WLTM his soulmate. (from: The Times (London)) (17) Mature, sincere, friendly gentleman, country lover but equally fond of London, WLTM sincere, professional lady for LTR and possibly family. (from: The Times (London)) (18) Feminine, warm, friendly female, 30, seeks chivalrous gentleman, 35–50, for lovely times, hopefully leading to a traditional family life in the future. (from: The Times (London)) There is no mention of parents, brothers or sisters in the self- and partner descriptions. Instead, one advert refers prominently to the self’s dog: (19) One man and his dog searching for an intelligent and up together soulmate for frolics in the sun leading to a LTR. (from: The Times (London)) The situation is drastically different in the Indian corpus, with respect to all of the three indicators mentioned above. Regarding status, the evocation of family background serves as a prime marker. Rather than looking at the data from all of the four Indian newspapers, I will zoom in on those from one of them, the Times of India, for a more detailed account. 35 of the matrimonials in the Times of India (23%) contain explicit status-related information on family background; gender differences in this respect do not show in the data. Several terms are used to this effect, the most frequent ones being status family (13x), reputed family (5x) and decent family (4x). Some ads state them explicitly in the profiles of both the self and the partner, e.g. (20) SUNNI MNC Engr boy fair 23/5’10” MNC Delhi based Status family. Seeks b’ful fair English speaking cultrd girl from status family. (from: The Times of India) In the vast majority of the ads, however, these specifications are only given either in the descriptions of the self or of the partner. Here, the authors rely on the tacit understanding that the partners have to come from a similar family background, which is a central ingredient of the cultural key notion of a ‘suitable match’. That is, when such a specification is given in the self-description, there is no need to repeat

11 Family Matters: Cultural-Linguistic Investigations …

231

it in the partner description, or vice versa (for a discussion of this point against the background of E.T. Hall’s 1976 distinction between ‘low-context’ and ‘high-context’ cultures, see Polzenhagen & Frey 2017a). In the Indian cultural context, the family concept blends directly into the concept of community, notably through the highly complex caste system in this country. By virtue of their family background, individuals are firmly anchored in the respective occupational, regional, social, socio-ethnic, ethnic or religious groups and sub-groups that structure much of the Indian society.21 In the traditional system, these groups are characterised by strong group endogamy, i.e. coming from the same caste is an imperative for a suitable match. Although the caste system has lost some of its rigidity in contemporary India, it continues to be crucial to an individual’s identity, status and options. This shows very clearly in the corpus of Indian matrimonials: In 539 of the 600 adverts, the community the self belongs to is given, and 238 contain such specification in the partner description. Especially for brides/grooms from upper castes (e.g. Brahmin), caste endogamy is often stated as an absolute criterion, e.g. (21) E.B., BRAHMIN, 29/5’-9”, B.Com., MBA, FCA (Computer), own business, Director, Rs. 1(L) p.m., fair, handsome, father businessman, 3 sisters married, 1 brother, own house, well to do, Kashyap (within 25 yrs.), good looking, fair, homely, minimum Graduate, 5’-3”, East Bengal, Brahmin bride wanted.22 (from: The Statesman) However, for the social strata represented by the corpus of Indian matrimonials, caste endogamy is not an imperative anymore for a suitable match. Instead, other, albeit related, criteria are highlighted in a significant portion of the ads, first and foremost common professional background and status, either in addition to traditional caste or in place of it. Examples include (22) E.B. KAYASTHA, B.Com. with Accounts Hons., knows Computer, Tally & Stitching, does tuition, 31 + /5’-0”, parents present, own house, beautiful educated. Grooms required within 38 yrs., W.B. or outside, Govt. Service/Private/Bank/Established businessman, income not less than Rs. 3 (L) PA. (from: The Statesman) (23) SM4 Sunni Syed Girl 30/5’-2” Wkg in K. V. 22000 P.M. Only Govt. Servant need apply.23 (from: The Milli Gazette) Some matrimonials explicitly stress common middle-class background as the major criterion: 21 Caste is a cover term for a highly complex social structure for which the Indians used the terms varna (the four Hindu hereditary classes Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya and S(h)udra) and jati (the countless occupational, regional, social, socio-ethnic, ethnic or religious groups that are characterised by group endogamy). Caste is a pan-Indian phenomenon in that the latter structures are not restricted to the Hindus. They can be found, for instance, in other religious communities such as Muslims and Christians and also among the so-called Untouchables, i.e. those Hindu groups that are outside the four varnas. (Cf. Lucko, Peter & Polzenhagen, 2017: sub caste). 22 B.Com. = Bachelor of Commerce; FCA = fellow chartered accountant; Rs. = rupees; L = Lakh (100,000); p.m. = per month. 23 SM4 (in this context) = suitable match for; K. V. = Kendriya Vidyalaya.

232

F. Polzenhagen

(24) SUNNI_SYED 32/5’9” Fair, H’some, Graduate, Well Settled Business in south Delhi. Seeks Fair, Slim, Edu. & Homely Girl from Middle Class Family. (from: The Milli Gazette) Again, it is important to notice that this development is in keeping with the logic of the traditional model rather than a break with it: The caste criterion is all about ‘being of the same kind’. The ‘new’ selection criteria follow this spirit, defining ‘same kind’ in terms related or alternative to the traditional notion of caste. Regarding the second indicator, i.e. the presence of information on parents and other family members in the self and partner descriptions, the Indian ads also show a profile very different from the British ones. While in the ads from The Times (London) no such information is given, the Indian matrimonials contain numerous instances of this kind. The data from The Statesman may serve as an example. In the self-descriptions, 88 of the matrimonials in this newspaper (ca. 59%) state that the self’s parents are present, 6 indicate that the mother and/or father of the self is deceased. The status/profession of the father is mentioned in 54 of the matrimonials. Half of the ads (74) specify whether the self has brothers/sisters (44) or is the only child (30). Several of the former provide details on the marital or professional status of the siblings. Two Indian ads looking for a bride make explicit that a partner with brothers or sisters is sought, once as an imperative (1 brother or 1 sister (must)) and once in terms of should (should have brothers/sisters). In none of these respects, gender differences can be detected in our data. The detailed breakdown is given in Table 11.5. The expression parents present links to the notion of the ‘joint family’ and hence to the third indicator mentioned above, i.e. explicit statements on the expected family model. The ‘joint family’ is the dominant co-habitation pattern in India (see Polzenhagen & Frey, 2017a for details), and in the traditional model, the bride is expected to join the household of the groom’s parents. If the expectations differ from this model, this needs to be made explicit, e.g. (25) W.B. KAYASTHA, B.A. 36/5’-0”, mother present, own house, homely, beautiful. Established businessman or service holder grooms required within 42 yrs. (willing to stay in bride’s residence). (from: The Statesman) Table 11.5 Specifications on family members in self-descriptions (data from The Statesman subcorpus) Bride wanted (n = 75)

Groom wanted (n = 75)

Total (n = 150)

42

46

88

4

2

6

profession/status of father

26

28

54

only child

12

18

30

brothers/sisters

23

21

44

parents/mother/father present parent(s) deceased

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Table 11.6 Some items related to the family model (data from The Statesman sub-corpus) homely (partner description)

Bride wanted (n = 75)

Groom wanted (n = 75)

31

0

homely (self-description)

0

8

well-behaved (self-description)

0

5

well-behaved (partner description)

1

2

A highly frequent indicator of the family model expected by the author is the item homely (cf. Table 11.6). In the ads taken from The Statesman alone, it occurs in 31 of the 75 matrimonials seeking a bride, which makes it one of the most prominent elements of the partner descriptions in this sub-corpus. Representative examples include (26) E.B., KAYASTHA, 32/5’-4”, Madhyamik, Arts & Handcraft, working in First Flight Courier, parents deceased, handsome, good income, bride required within 25 yrs., homely or service holder, Kayastha, Brahmin, Baidya. (from: The Statesman) (27) E.B., MAHISHYA, 28 + /5’-7”, BE (Computers), working in MNC at Salt Lake, Rs. 27,000, modhgolya, fair, handsome, father Doctor (private practitioner), 1 sister student, parents present own house, well to do. (Bride within 25 yrs.) minimum Graduate, homely/working, cultured family, W.B. Mahishya wanted. (from: The Statesman) (28) W.B. BRAHMIN, 38/5’-11”, Madhyamik, established, businessman, Rs. 25,000, Bharadwaj, mother present, one brother, one sister, own house, wellto-do. Within 32 yrs., fair, W.B. Brahmin, pretty, homely brides wanted. (from: The Statesman) In the self-descriptions of brides, it occurs eight times in this sub-corpus, e.g. (29) AGARWAL Girl, P.G., homely, smart, slim, 5’-4”, convent-educated, required good-looking, Agarwal, IAS, IPS. Please write with biodata. (from: The Statesman) (30) E.B. KAYASTHA, Madhyamik pass, Computer, 26 +/5’-3”, parents present, own house, beautiful, homely, well-behaved; Educated established grooms required within 35 yrs. both EB/WB, Service holder, Businessman, divorcee with good family background. (from: The Statesman) Homely communicates a conglomerate of notions. It is generally to be read as being opposed to ‘working’ (cf. (26), (27)) or refers to ‘working at home’. However, it also evokes a traditional mindset with respect to family values and household structure, especially when it comes in communion with further indicators along these lines. A fairly frequent one among these indicators is the item wellbehaved (cf. Table 11.6), with eight tokens in The Statesman, five of them occurring in selfdescriptions of the bride (e.g. (30)). Other items include demandless [sic!] as in (31) and without proudness, adjustable in (32):

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(31) SADGOPE, Ghosh, Modhgulyo Gothra, handsome, W.B., H.S. pass, own jewellery shop, high income, own house. Within 30 yrs., homely, W.B. except E.B. brides wanted, demandless, contact immediately, early marriage. (from: The Statesman) (32) W.B. JADAV, Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, interested in sports, working in Toster Wheeler (I) Pvt. Ltd., Salary: Rs. 40,000, 32 yrs./5’-9½, own house, parents present, smart, handsome, goodlooking. Within 29 yrs. fair, soft spoken, educated and without proudness, working, small family, good looking, adjustable, School Teacher Preff. brides wanted. Contact immediately.

11.4 Synthesis and Conclusions In the Western model of free-choice marriage, the cultural institution of marriage is a unity of two parts, i.e. the two partners involved. This cultural elaboration of the unity metaphor and its linguistic expression have been studied quite extensively from a cognitive-linguistic perspective, in particular, through the work by Kövecses (e.g. 1991, 2005) and Quinn (e.g. 1978). In the logic of this model, one partner is, as Kövecses (1991: 82) puts it, ‘only a “half” that must be complemented by its matching “other half” to achieve the status of a functioning unit; one half alone is dysfunctional’. The bond between the two partners is love. ideal love, in this model, rests on the belief that there is only one real love, i.e. ‘every “half” can only be complemented by a single “other half”’ that is hence ‘irreplaceable’ (Kövecses, 1991: 82). The BrE corpus of contact adverts provides ample evidence of this conceptual model. Its most obvious expression includes the item soulmate (8x) to refer to the partner looked for, and related items, e.g. (33) Youthful, slim, caring, loyal lady, enjoys travel, reading, walking, socialising and yachting, seeking a soulmate with similar interests, to treat life’s path together. (from: The Times (London)) (34) Common sense male, up to 75 years old only, required by warm smart, intelligent, attractive woman, are you my counterpart? (from: The Times (London)) The unity metaphor is also central to the Indian model, the key notion of a ‘suitable match’ being its most straightforward expression. What is matched and has to match, however, is the background of the two individuals involved, i.e. the unity constituted by marriage comprises the family of the partners. There are obvious ‘practical’ reasons for the strong involvement of the family in partner selection, given that the ‘joint family’ is the dominant habitation pattern and given that the bride is generally expected to join the household of the groom’s parents/family (cf. Sect. 3 and Polzenhagen & Frey, 2017a, 2017b), the latter have a strong interest in the ‘compatibility’ of the bride with the household (cf. items such as demandless, adjustable, homely in the partner descriptions).

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However, such practical concerns are secondary to the imperatives and mechanisms of the relevant dominant cultural model of the self, the family and community. In this model, the concept of the self goes beyond the notion of an individual and comprises the individual’s family, which in turn blends into the concept of community. To put it into a simple formula: individual matters are family matters and family matters are community matters. That is, the family functions as a joint that links the individual to its community. Given this function, it comes as no surprise that the family concept assumes a salience in discourse in the Indian setting that it does not show in contexts that follow a strong individualist vector, e.g. mainstream Anglo-Saxon culture. The present chapter provided an account of various linguistic manifestations of the Indian model. Using concepts and methods from Cultural Linguistics and variationist sociolinguistics, I analysed such manifestations in the lexicon of Indian English, in terms of frequency of relevant items in discourse and with respect to one particular text type, or genre, i.e. matrimonial adverts. As I hope to have shown, the comparative investigation into outer circle varieties of the same language (e.g. English) is a very fruitful enterprise from a Cultural-Linguistics perspective, since these varieties have contextualised to their respective cultural setting in a clearly traceable way and reflect the respective cultural conceptualisations of their speakers. Furthermore, such an investigation provides a rich meeting ground with established strands in sociolinguistics, and the exploration of this meeting ground promises theoretical and methodological inspirations both for Cultural-Linguistics and the World-Englishes paradigm.

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Polzenhagen, F., & Frey, S. (2017a). Are marriages made in heaven? A cultural-linguistic case study on Indian-English matrimonials. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), Advances in Cultural Linguistics (pp. 573–605). Berlin: Springer. Polzenhagen, F., & Frey, S. (2017b). Indian-English matrimonial adverts: Notes on the contextualisation of a text type. International Journal of Language and Culture, 4(2), 170–196. Polzenhagen, F., & Wolf, H.-G. (2010). Investigating culture from a linguistic perspective: An exemplification with Hong Kong English. ZAA [Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik], 58(3), 281–301. Polzenhagen, F., & Wolf, H.-G. (2017). World Englishes and cognitive linguistics. In M. Filppula, J. Klemola, & D. Sharma (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of world Englishes (pp. 147–172). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pavlenko, A. (2014). The bilingual mind: And what it tells us about language and thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Quinn, N. (1987). Convergent evidence for a cultural model of American marriage. In D. Holland & N. Quinn (Eds.), Cultural models in language and thought (pp. 173–192). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Raevskij, M. V. (1997). Die Zeitungsannonce: eine Textsorte oder ein Textsortenkonglomerat? Zum Stellenwert des lexikologischen Kriteriums bei der Lösung texttaxonomischer Probleme. In F. Simmler (Ed.), Textsorten und Textsortentraditionen (pp. 23–39). Bern: Peter Lang. Ramakrishnan, S. (2012). ‘Wheatish’ grooms and ‘innocent’ divorcées: Commodifying attributes in the discourse of Indian matrimonials. Discourse & Society, 23(4), 432–449. Riemann, V. (1999). Kontaktanzeigen im Wandel der Zeit. Opladen/Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag. Seth, N., & Patnayakuni, R. (2009). Online matrimonial sites and the transformation of arranged marriage in India. In C. Romm-Livermore & K. Setzekorn (Eds.), Social networking communities and e-dating services: Concepts and implications (pp. 329–352). Hershey: Information Science Reference. Seymour, S. C. (1999). Women, family, and child care in India: A world in transition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sharifian, F. (2011). Cultural conceptualisations and language: Theoretical framework and applications. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Sharifian, F. (Ed.). (2015a). The Routledge handbook of language and culture. London: Routledge. Sharifian, F. (2015b). Cultural Linguistics and world Englishes. World Englishes 34(4). Sharifian, F. (Ed.). (2017a). Advances in Cultural Linguistics. Berlin: Springer. Sharifian, F. (Ed.). (2017b). Cultural Linguistics: Cultural conceptualisations and language. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Sharma, U. (Ed.). (2005). Marriage in Indian society: From tradition to modernity. (Vol. I). New Delhi: Mittal Publications. Stolt, B. (1976). “Hier bin ich – wo bist Du?”, Heiratsanzeigen und ihr Echo. Analysiert aus sprachlicher und stilistischer Sicht. Mit einer soziologischen Untersuchung von Jan Trost. Kronberg/Ts.: Scriptor. Titzmann, F.-M. (2014). Der indische Online-Heiratsmarkt. Medienpraktiken und Frauenbilder im Wandel. Berlin: Frank & Timme. Uberoi, P. (Ed.). (1993). Family, kinship, and marriage in India. New York: Oxford University Press. Uberoi, P. (2006). Freedom and destiny: Gender, family, and popular culture in India. New York: Oxford University Press. Vestergaard, T., & Schrøder, K. (1995). The language of advertising. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Wierzbicka, A. (1997). Understanding cultures through their key words: English, Russian, Polish, German, and Japanese. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wolf, H.-G. (2003). The contextualization of common core terms in West African English: Evidence from computer corpora. In: P. Lucko, L. Peter & H.-G. Wolf (Eds.), Studies in African varieties of English (pp. 3–20). Berlin/Frankfurt (Main): Peter Lang.

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Chapter 12

Cultural Conceptualisations of Yoga in American and Indian English: A Corpus-Based Study Ray C. H. Leung

Abstract As a trendy present-day pastime in the West, yoga can be traced back to ancient India. This study focuses on how yoga is construed in two different varieties of contemporary English, namely, American English and Indian English. The data come from the 387-million-word United States section and the 96-million-word Indian section of the Corpus of Global Web-Based English (GloWbE). Supplemented with corpus-linguistic techniques (i.e. concordancing and collocational patterns of the lexical item yoga), the framework of Cultural Linguistics (Sharifian 2015: 473– 492; Sharifian 2017b: 1–28) is employed for analysis. The findings demonstrate remarkable differences in the conceptualisations of yoga between the two World Englishes. For instance, yoga in Indian English tends to abound with words of Sanskrit origin such as guru, Patanjali and sutras as well as lexical items associated with religion like God and bible, thereby instantiating the conceptualisations yoga as tradition and yoga as religion. Yoga as an uncountable noun in Standard English is given the plural suffix (viz. yogas) in Indian English to reflect the various subcategories of yoga. On the other hand, collocates of yoga in American English like pants, mat, Pilates and studio underpin the conceptualisations yoga as sport and yoga as commodity/business. Furthermore, the conceptualisation yoga teaching as a profession (as evident in the co-occurrence of yoga, instructor/teacher and certified/registered) is much more prevalent in American English. It is concluded that although the word yoga exists in both varieties of English, yoga as a cultural schema varies noticeably across the two speech communities. By examining World Englishes with Cultural Linguistics, the current research offers concrete linguistic evidence on the socio-cultural transformation of yoga as it was popularised in America. Simultaneously, the study shows how English has enriched the way the Indian society encodes its cultural conceptualisations. Keywords Cultural Linguistics · Conceptualisations · Yoga · Indian English · American English · World Englishes

R. C. H. Leung (B) University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_12

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12.1 Introduction Over the last few decades yoga has expanded swiftly around the world. With its origin in India, yoga is now virtually a globalised activity being practiced on various continents (Singleton, 2016: 173). It was reported in 2016 that there were 36.7 million practitioners of yoga in the United States (Yoga Journal & Yoga Alliance, 2016). The introduction of yoga to the United States can be attributed to Swami Vivekananda in 1893 during the World Conference on Religions in Chicago (Pandurangi, Keshavan, Ganapathy, & Gangadhar, 2017: 17). In the beginning, yoga was a philosophically oriented set of practices intended for people who pursued spiritual growth and it was regarded as the sphere of Hinduism. Amidst the surge in popularity, many variants of modern yoga practice have been made available, resulting in different perceptions of what yoga really is (Strauss, 2005: 5). In academia, yoga has been discussed mainly by scholars of philosophy, religion, sociology and health-related disciplines (e.g. Berry, 1996; Konecki, 2015; McCall, 2007; Raveh, 2016; Sherman, Rogers, & Jakicic, 2017). There seems to be a paucity of work from language experts. The globalisation of yoga, the diversity of yoga practices and the scarcity of relevant publications from linguists provide the backdrop against which the present research is initiated. In this study, emphasis will be placed on the conceptualisations of yoga in two varieties of English—American English (or more precisely US American English) and Indian English. The current research is engaging in the sense that it explores how an international language encodes a globalised activity. To this end, the approach of Cultural Linguistics (Sharifian, 2015, 2017a, 2017b) will be used. I will offer more details about Cultural Linguistics in Sect. 2.2. To put it in a nutshell, Cultural Linguistics deals with the interdependence between language, culture and conceptualisations (Sharifian, 2017a: 2). Before proceeding to the next section, I would like to quickly look at the sociocultural forces by which the United States and India operate. Since the American Revolution, the United States has evolved into a capitalist state (Post, 2011). The rise of capitalism went hand in hand with commercialisation and consumerism, which accelerated after the First World War and eventually led to the development of mass culture (Kammen, 1999: 55). While the United States turned into a world power and the need to distinguish itself from socialist and communist countries increased, the idea of ‘American Exceptionalism’ has become widespread (Sheumaker & Wajda, 2008: XV). As for India, almost 80% of its population are Hindus (The World Factbook, 2017). As stated by Klostermaier (2007: 1), Hinduism, which originated in prehistoric times, is the oldest existing major tradition in the world. Hinduism cannot be separated from the Sanskrit language because Hindu thought has been conveyed by means of Sanskrit and the vocabulary of Sanskrit has been the building blocks of Hinduism (Sanskrit Religions Institute, 2014). Derived from Sanskrit, the word yoga denotes the practice of different disciplines through which a follower ‘yokes’ his or

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her soul to God. Thus, yoga receives a considerable level of respect in Hindu texts (Narayanan, 2010: 61). Since this study is grounded in the principles of Cultural Linguistics, it is helpful to keep in mind such socio-cultural background information throughout the analysis.

12.2 Theoretical Background 12.2.1 World Englishes Nowadays, the status of English as a global language is incontestable. According to the figures from Ethnologue, there are around 1.12 billion speakers of English worldwide. Among them, 378 million are native speakers and 744 million are nonnative speakers (Simons & Fennig, 2018). As summarised by Seargeant (2012: 57– 58), three main factors contributed to the spread of English: (i) the expansion of the British Empire during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; (ii) the Industrial Revolution and scientific development in Britain which made English a means of acquiring knowledge and (iii) the political and economic influence of the United States in the twentieth century. American English is the variety of English spoken by the majority of the population in the United States. In 2016, it was estimated that first-language speakers of American English amounted to 261 million (Simons & Fennig, 2018). Because of the British settlers on the east coast in the seventeenth century, American English originally came from Britain but has changed over time to satisfy the speakers’ needs (Amberg & Vause, 2009: 23). Indian English is the variety of English spoken by people in India, most of whom are non-native speakers of English. It was reported that there are approximately 125 million users of Indian English (Masani, 2012). In India, English has an important position and is used primarily in the domains of administration, law, education, science and business communication (Sailaja, 2009: 5). The ubiquity of English has generated a high level of interest in ‘World Englishes’. Basically ‘World Englishes’ is an academic notion and different interpretations of it have been put forward. As Wolf and Polzenhagen noted, the concept of World Englishes may simply encompass the varieties of English used by second-language speakers in former British colonies (e.g. India and Nigeria). Owing to the global popularisation of English, World Englishes may also cover those ‘emerging varieties’ in territories which were not part of the British Empire like Japan. Understandably, World Englishes can even include varieties of English spoken in dominant Englishspeaking countries such as Australia, Britain and the United States (2009: 2–3). The aforesaid interpretations of World Englishes are reminiscent of the ‘Three Concentric Circles’ promoted by Kachru (1985). Kachru’s model has been extremely influential in the discussion of World Englishes (Low & Pakir, 2018). Kachru (1985:

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12–13) postulated that the spread of English can be conceptualised as three concentric circles named the ‘inner circle’, the ‘outer circle’ and the ‘expanding circle’. The ‘inner circle’ consists of the regions in which English is the first language; the ‘outer circle’ comprises the regions which experienced lengthy colonisation by ‘inner circle’ speakers and the ‘expanding circle’ includes the remaining regions where English is not associated with colonisation but with globalisation. As per Kachru’s (1985) nomenclature, the two varieties of English which are examined in the present research (viz. American English and Indian English) belong to the ‘inner circle’ and the ‘outer circle’, respectively. Notwithstanding some criticisms (e.g. over-simplification, lack of attention to intra-regional language variations, etc.), the model of the ‘Three Concentric Circles’ constitutes a convenient basis for the study of contemporary English in the world (Seargeant, 2012: 153).

12.2.2 Cultural Linguistics This study will adhere to the framework of Cultural Linguistics developed by Sharifian (2015, 2017a, 2017b). Capitalising on other disciplines such as cognitive psychology and anthropology, Cultural Linguistics concerns the characteristics of human languages which reflect ‘culturally constructed conceptualisations of the whole range of human experience’ (Sharifian, 2017b: 1). According to Sharifian (2017a: 3), cultural conceptualisations are part of ‘cultural cognition’ that comes into existence due to social communication between members of a speech community across space and time. Cultural cognition is not equally ‘distributed’ among speakers, as they demonstrate discrepancy in their access to the cultural cognition of their speech community. It is believed that language and many other facets of daily lives like art, music, customs and emotion can ‘instantiate’ cultural conceptualisations (2017a: 6). The analytical framework of Cultural Linguistics bears some resemblance to conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) (for details of CMT, see Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). However, proponents of Cultural Linguistics go beyond CMT and make use of three major analytical tools when studying cultural conceptualisations. These three tools are ‘cultural schema’, ‘cultural category’ and ‘cultural metaphor’ (Sharifian, 2015: 477). As its name suggests, ‘cultural metaphor’ corresponds to what CMT posits, i.e. mapping between two conceptual domains like anger as fire in the expression ‘her face flamed with anger’. ‘Cultural schemas’ are comparable to a number of concepts found in the cognitive sciences such as ‘mental model’, ‘frame’, ‘script’, etc. (Sharifian, 2017a: 11). For instance, baby shower as a cultural schema covers all aspects of the event including the participants, procedures, outfits and objects. Cultural schemas of this nature are labelled ‘event schemas’. Alongside ‘event schemas’, Sharifian stipulated other types of schemas which are applicable to Cultural Linguistics. These are ‘role schemas’ (i.e. knowledge about the various features connected to specific roles in a community), ‘image schemas’ (i.e.

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mental abstractions associated with particular physical or social encounters), ‘proposition schemas’ (i.e. knowledge which governs thought and behaviour) and ‘emotion schemas’ (i.e. information linked to feelings and appraisal) (2011: 8–11). ‘Cultural categories’ materialise in the lexical items we use to classify elements of experience (Sharifian, 2017a: 15). For example, food as a cultural category may include chicken feet in China or kangaroos in Australia. As a convention prescribed by Sharifian (2017a: 15), cultural schemas, cultural categories and cultural metaphors are all indicated in small capitals.

12.2.3 Corpus Linguistics Corpus linguists employ computer-assisted techniques to investigate huge amounts of naturally occurring language data. A text collection which is subject to analysis is called a corpus. By taking advantage of computer technology (mostly through specialised software packages), researchers conduct searches of a corpus so that words, phrases or other discourse patterns can be rapidly identified, listed, categorised and calculated (Stubbs & Halbe, 2012: 1377). Although the use of corpora to study linguistic phenomena may date back to an earlier time period, corpus linguistics started to become an established research field in the 1990s with the advancement of computing tools and the increase in the availability of desktop computers (McCarthy & O’Keeffe, 2010: 4–5). Researchers can engage in many linguistic inquiries with corpus software packages. I will discuss three of them that are of great relevance to the present research— concordances, collocation and clusters. A concordance is also known as ‘key word in context (KWIC)’ and is a list of all the examples of a designated search item in a corpus which are displayed with the co-text of the search item. Concordances allow scholars to perform further quantitative and/or qualitative analysis of language issues related to the search items. Collocation refers to the phenomenon that certain words appear habitually in the company of one another. An example is the co-occurrence of happy and birthday. In this case, happy and birthday are collocates. There are statistical methods that determine whether the co-occurrence is statistically significant or happens only by chance. A cluster consists of two or more words in sequence. For instance, the expression ‘prime minister’ is a two-word cluster while ‘chief financial executive’ is a three-word cluster (Baker, Hardie & McEnery, 2006: 34–42). Corpora can be divided into two main types, namely, general corpora and specialised corpora (Cheng, 2012: 32). The size of a general corpus is big. With millions of words from a comprehensive selection of texts, a general corpus is thought to be representative of the overall usage of a language variety. A classic example is the 100-million-word British National Corpus (BNC). On the other hand, a specialised corpus is used to explore features of language use in a particular genre or register. For instance, a researcher interested in journalistic discourse practice would gather newspaper texts for analysis. The British Academic Spoken English corpus, which

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contains transcripts of seminars and lectures, is an example of a specialised corpus (2012: 33). Corpus linguistics is often combined with research on World Englishes. To mention but a few, Budohoska (2012), de Klerk (2006) and Wolf (2003) studied African English varieties; Deterding (2007) and Wong (2017) focused on English spoken in Asia; American and British English were investigated by Beeching (2016) and Rudanko and Luodes (2005). All these scholars incorporated corpus-linguistic methods into their analysis. As Biber, Reppen and Friginal (2010: 548) opined, corpus linguistics facilitates empirical examination of language use and variations, leading to findings which are highly valid and generalizable. In fact, Sharifian (2017a: 47) recognised corpus-linguistic techniques as one of the research methods for analysis in Cultural Linguistics.

12.2.4 Relevant Prior Empirical Studies Numerous researchers have explicitly applied the framework of Cultural Linguistics to the study of World Englishes. Some of them are Dabbagh (2017), Peters (2017) and Wolf and Chan (2016). Dabbagh (2017) analysed English and Persian proverbs pertinent to time with the intention to find out similarities and differences in cultural conceptualisations. Dictionaries and a database were consulted and cross-culturally comparable proverbs in the two languages were chosen for close scrutiny. Regarding cultural metaphors, Dabbagh (2017: 584–586) noted that although time can be construed as inanimate objects in both languages, differences in conceptualisations are present (e.g. time as gold in Persian versus time as money in English). Nonetheless, when time is represented as human beings, the two languages show some convergence. Both the Persian and the English proverbs reveal the Conceptualisations time as a teacher and time as a physician (Dabbagh, 2017: 586). Dabbagh (2017: 592) maintained that studying proverbs from the perspective of Cultural Linguistics can enrich the field of paremiology as previous researchers focused only on the semantic, syntactic or functional aspects of proverbs. Peters (2017) examined the conceptualisations of fairies and banshees in Irish English. The word banshee, which means ‘fairy woman’, was borrowed from IrishGaelic, the language spoken by the majority of the Irish population before the nineteenth century (2017: 137). The data which Peters (2017) collected were mainly from the Irish sub-corpus of the International Corpus of English (ICE-IRL) and the Corpus of Galway City Spoken English. The British sub-corpus of the ICE was used for the purpose of comparison. The lexical items fairy/fairies and banshee(s) appear significantly more often in the ICE-IRL, suggesting the uniqueness of fairies and banshees in the Irish culture. To widen the scope for discovering conceptualisation patterns, Peters (2017: 139) looked at the collocates of fairy/fairies and found that music is a strong collocate, which reflects the importance of music among

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Irish English speakers. It was argued that collocational analysis can help researchers identify additional cultural domains which are worth investigating. In the work of Wolf and Chan (2016), the Hong Kong sub-corpus of the ICE (ICE-HK) was compared with the British sub-corpus (ICE-GB) in order to unearth the cultural conceptualisations of ghosts in Hong Kong. The lexical item ghost(s) occurs much more frequently in the ICE-HK (28 tokens) than in the ICE-GB (only 6 tokens). Given the similar size of the two sub-corpora, Wolf and Chan concluded that ghost(s) is a ‘cultural keyword’ in Hong Kong English (Wolf and Chan 2016: 253– 254). With concordance lines from the ICE-HK and extracts from other sources, the two scholars demonstrated what is embedded in the cultural category ghost within Hong Kong contexts. First and foremost, a connection between ghost and ancestor was identified. Also, there is a tendency to personify ghosts (viz. the Conceptualisation ghosts are humans). Apart from the linguistic realisation of ghost, Wolf and Chan (2016: 258–260) provided further evidence on how ghost governs the behaviour of Hong Kong English speakers.

12.3 Data and Methodology The data which I collected for this study are from the Corpus of Global Web-Based English (GloWbE) (Davies, 2013). GloWbE is accessible online and is made up of 1.9 billion words of text taken from nearly 350 000 websites in 20 territories where English has a crucial social, cultural and/or political function. Via the online interface, users of GloWbE can make corpus-related searches including frequency counts of specific words, retrieval of concordance lines and identification of collocates. The corpus may be consulted in its entirety, or individual territories (known as ‘sections’ in GloWbE) can be selected for analysis. In the present research, the United States section and the Indian section were chosen. The former contains 387 million words while the latter consists of 96 million words (Davies, 2013). For ease of reference in the rest of this paper, these two sections will be referred to as the American corpus and the Indian corpus. The use of GloWbE for researching the conceptualisations of yoga in America and India is justifiable. As explicated by Davies and Fuchs (2015: 2–3), the strength of GloWbE over other existing corpora is its size, and GloWbE is large enough to enable researchers to even undertake thorough studies on low-frequency language phenomena. As Davies (2013) pointed out, smaller corpora do not offer sufficient data to support collocational analysis, for instance. Also, having incorporated 20 varieties of English, GloWbE is a suitable resource for the study of World Englishes. Ooi (2018: 166) acknowledged that GloWbE is the biggest and most current corpus which represents the paradigm of World Englishes. Moreover, GloWbE was compiled in accordance with sound procedures which ensure the correct identification of websites by territory and a balance between formal and informal use of language (Davies & Fuchs, 2015: 4). Hence, it is believed that the findings yielded in this study are reliable.

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The word yoga was employed as the search term (also called the node). It occurs 5040 times in the American corpus while 8131 tokens of yoga exist in the Indian corpus. Subsequently, two collocation lists, with one for each corpus, were generated. The collocation span was determined to be at five words on either side of the node. This is considered the best fit because spans which are longer are prone to identifying words that are loosely related to the node while shorter spans may risk having inadequate words for analysis (Baker, Gabrielatos, & McEnery, 2013: 36). As for the statistical test of significance, the mutual information (MI) value was used because it is the only option available in GloWbE. One problem arising from the MI value is that lexical words which occur very rarely are identified as collocates (Xiao & McEnery, 2006: 105). To mitigate this adverse effect, I adjusted the settings of the online interface so that lexical items whose MI value reaches a minimum of three would be arranged in descending order of raw frequency. Thus, the collocates found at the top of the two collocation lists should occur frequently enough for in-depth analysis. After the collocation lists had been obtained, I decided to concentrate on the top 15 collocates of each corpus (see Sect. 12.4 for more information) and carried out qualitative analysis of the concordance lines with reference to the analytical framework of Cultural Linguistics proposed by Sharifian (2015, 2017a, 2017b). On some occasions it was necessary to retrieve the original websites for more co-text of the collocates. This step was expedited by the hyperlinks displayed alongside the concordance lines.

12.4 Findings and Discussion With the exclusion of ‘self-collocation’ (i.e. yoga being a collocate of itself), the top 15 collocates of yoga in the two corpora are listed in Table 12.1. While the two corpora share some of the top collocates—practice, meditation, teacher and exercise(s)—there are noticeable differences in the collocational environment of the node yoga between American English and Indian English. One important observation which can be made from Table 12.1 is that in the Indian corpus, yoga often co-occurs with lexical items derived from Sanskrit, indicating a strong association between yoga and Hinduism. In fact, 11 of the most frequent collocates (karma, hatha, raja, bhakti, guru, Patanjali, sahaja, jnana, sutras, Ramdev and kundalini) belong to this group. More than half of these 11 collocates denote the various forms of yoga practice. This can be evidenced by the following example taken from the corpus:

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Table 12.1 Top 15 collocates of yoga in the two corpora Rank

Corpus of global web-based English (United States)

Corpus of global web-based English (India)

Collocate

Joint frequency

Collocatea

Joint frequency

1

Practice

254

5.36

Practice

572

5.53

2

Class

251

4.63

Meditation

330

6.15

3

Meditation

188

8.36

Karma

279

7.13

4

Teacher

179

5.55

Hatha

276

10.17

5

Classes

175

6.01

Raja

237

6.72

6

Pants

132

7.17

Bhakti

201

7.75

7

Studio

115

6.27

Guru

175

4.5

8

Instructor

106

7.92

Patanjali

166

8.73

9

Practicing

86

7.01

Sahaja

165

9.27

10

Pilates

82

10.71

Jnana

159

8.59

11

Teaching

61

4.01

Sutras

128

8.18

12

Teachers

60

3.78

Exercises

128

5.66

13

Exercise

56

4.17

Teacher

123

4.43

14

Training

54

3.34

Ramdev

120

7.21

15

Mat

52

7.69

Kundalini

115

7.41

a Literal

MI score

MI score

translation of Sanskrit-originated collocates is provided in the appendix

(1) “The four main spiritual paths for God-realisation are Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga and Jnana Yoga. Karma Yoga is suitable for a man of active temperament, Bhakti Yoga for a man of devotional temperament, Raja Yoga for a man of mystic temperament, and Jnana Yoga for a man of rational and philosophical temperament, or a man of enquiry. Mantra Yoga, Laya Yoga or Kundalini Yoga, Lambika Yoga and Hatha Yoga, are other Yogas.” (Source: http://www.dlshq.org/download/hinduismbk.htm)

First of all, yoga is likened to religion via the expression ‘God-realisation’. Example 1 reveals the underlying cultural conceptualisation of yoga—yoga as religion (or more specifically, practicing yoga as practicing religion). The collocates karma, bhakti, raja, jnana, kundalini and hatha are located on the immediate left of yoga, thereby forming compound nouns which represent the different subcategories of yoga. These subcategories are equated with paths (viz. the conceptualisation different types of yoga as different paths). As suggested by Sharifian (2017a: 13), the ‘image schema’ path is common in Western thought, especially with respect to the conceptualisations of religion. I will come back to the salience of religion in the conceptualisations of yoga in Indian English in some of the ensuing examples. It is worth noting that the noun yoga, which is uncountable in Standard English, is given the plural suffix to capture the subcategories of yoga.

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Table 12.2 Tokens of yogas in GloWbE

Country/territory

Frequency

Country/territory

Frequency

United States

4

Singapore

3

Canada

2

Malaysia

9 0

Great Britain

2

Philippines

Ireland

4

Hong Kong

6

Australia

6

South Africa

5 0

7

Nigeria

India

New Zealand

82

Ghana

0

Sri Lanka

17

Kenya

0

Pakistan

2

Tanzania

0

Bangladesh

1

Jamaica

0

A check on the use of the lexical item yogas was performed throughout GloWbE and the results are reproduced in Table 12.2. It was found that instances of yogas in the Indian corpus (N = 82) significantly outnumber those in the American corpus (N = 4). Indeed yoga as a plural noun seems to be a distinct feature of Indian English among the 20 varieties of English included in GloWbE. The lexical item guru is defined in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2014: 819) as ‘a Hindu religious teacher or leader’. The word can also be applied informally to refer to a person who is knowledgeable about a particular topic and provides others with advice. As Goldberg and Singleton (2014: 4) stated, yoga learners in India traditionally had to go through initial training supervised by a guru before they were able to learn sophisticated yoga techniques. In the Indian corpus, the co-occurrence of guru and yoga is mostly in the form of the two-word cluster ‘yoga guru’ (N = 154). Given the aforementioned definition of guru as ‘a Hindu religious teacher or leader’, one can see the inherently close relationship between religion and yoga within the Indian community. The usage of a term which denotes authoritative religious figures is extended to include someone who teaches yoga, thereby further confirming the conceptualisation yoga as religion. When examining the concordance lines, I noticed that another collocate Ramdev tends to appear in the vicinity of yoga guru (N = 90). One example is (2) “In March 2010 Baba Ramdev, the yoga guru, launched Bharat Swabhiman. He called it a

non-political

movement

against

corruption

and

black-money.”

(Source:

http://www.mediacrooks.com/2012/08/team-anna-genies-back-in-bottle.html)

Ramdev is a prominent figure in modern yoga who is actively involved in Indian politics (Polgreen, 2010). He once started a hunger strike as part of his anti-corruption campaign, which drew many supporters. Apart from the connection between yoga and politics in the Indian society, Example 2 underpins the ‘proposition schema’ yoga practitioners have high moral standards through the behaviour

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of a renowned yoga leader as it is widely assumed that anti-corruption is morally desirable. While the expression ‘yoga guru’ is used specifically to identify Ramdev in Example 2, Examples 3 and 4 show how the word guru emerges as a generic cultural category. (3) “One

who

is

able

to

teach

the

Divine

Yoga,

is

the

Guru.”

(Source:

http://www.dlshq.org/download/kundalini.htm) (4) “In yoga, a guru is a master of the spiritual path, with experience both in the process and in the realizations it brings. Ideally, he has attained the final goal in Yoga, which is spiritual Enlightenment.” (Source: http://www.spiceflair.com/a-guru-of-the-21st-century)

A person who practices yoga can be categorised as a guru only if he or she has a certain level of attainment. Like Example 1, the word divine in Example 3 establishes a linkage between religion and yoga. Example 4 demonstrates once again the path image. Together with the word goal, this instantiates the cross-domain mapping between journey and yoga—hence the cultural metaphor yoga as journey. Despite not being reported in Table 12.1, the lexical item path is a frequent collocate of yoga in the Indian corpus (N = 109; MI score = 3.75) whereas there is no collocational relation between path and yoga in the American corpus. Example 5 comes from the Indian corpus. (5) “And last, but not least, once again Lord gives us the lofty parable of the virgins with the lamps. It is not a parable which is remembered by all, but it has got a great significance, especially to us, seekers, who are trying to tread the path of Yoga” (Source: http://www.dlshq.org/download/jesus_teach.htm)

The cultural metaphor yoga as journey is realised here by the phrase ‘tread the path of Yoga’. More precisely, the conceptualisation practicing yoga as travelling can be formulated. Example 5 also contains religiously loaded words such as Lord and parable. ‘The virgins with the lamps’ is a fable which lays stress on compliance with God’s instructions. In this parable, the virgins are invited to a feast where they will meet the bridegroom and they all have to carry an oil lamp. Those who come without sufficient oil for their lamp are eventually barred from entering the venue (Witherington, 1984: 41–44). As noted in Example 5, this Christian cautionary tale should be kept in mind by individuals who pursue ‘the path of Yoga’. This testifies to the practice of conceptualising yoga by means of religion. Nearly all the co-occurrences of sahaja and yoga are instances of the expression sahaja yoga (N = 164). The word sahaja is of Sanskrit origin and means ‘spontaneous’. Similar to the other subcategories of yoga discussed earlier, sahaja yoga is a form of yoga practice developed in 1970 (Dharma, 2013). The following example was extracted from the corpus and displays the co-occurrence of sahaja and yoga.

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(6) “Before I started sahaja yoga the doctors kept giving me stronger and stronger pain killers until I was like a zombie, I stopped taking them and went to alternative methods of pain control including smoking large amounts of marijuana, although some of these had a small effect on how I coped with the pain none of them worked at curing the problem, only sahaja yoga

has

done

this,

and

I no

longer

need

any pain

control.”

(Source:

http://www.freemeditation.com/meditation-basics/meditation-tips-for-beginners)

In Example 6, yoga is conceptualised as a medical treatment which is superior to other ways of controlling pain. The phrase ‘sahaja yoga has done this’ assigns grammatical as well as semantic agency to yoga. From a stylistic perspective, this discursive strategy has the effect of portraying yoga as a powerful activity. Under the lens of Cultural Linguistics, the act of personifying yoga can be attributed to the cultural metaphor yoga as a living being. The medicinal benefits of yoga are more visible in the concordance lines of the collocate therapy. Although it is not one of the top 15 collocates described in Table 12.1, 37 co-occurrences of yoga and therapy can be identified from the Indian corpus. (7) “Thus, Yoga is an excellent therapy for healing injured and sore back muscles, speeding time to recover from an injury and preventing re injury. It also reduces the risk of disability

due

to

back

pain.”

(Source:

https://www.medindia.net/yoga-

lifestyle/yogandbackpain-print.htm) (8) “Yoga therapy has been very effective as a cure for spondylitis.” (Source: http://literature.awgp.org/akhandjyoti/2008/Mar_Apr/v1.8)

Without doubt both Examples 7 and 8 highlight the effectiveness of yoga when it comes to prevention and treatment of illnesses. The words healing and cure are typical of medical discourse. It can be inferred from the data that the conceptualisation yoga as medicine is embedded within the Indian speech community. When the word sutras co-occurs with yoga in the Indian corpus, the other collocate Patanjali tends to crop up in proximity. The literal meaning of sutras is ‘threads’ and a sutra signifies an aphorism (Feuerstein, 2007). Around 150 CE a scholar named Patanjali wrote the manual of classical yoga called Yoga Sutras, in which 195 aphorisms can be found (Rosen, 2014). An example of the co-occurrence of yoga, sutras and Patanjali from the corpus is (9) “The Bible of yoga, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, devotes barely three short sutras (out of 195) to physical postures.” (Source: http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/living/notas-old-as-you-think)

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In the example, Yoga Sutras written by Patanjali is construed as ‘the Bible of yoga’. Such ‘semantic equivalence’ is entrenched in the appositional syntactic structure (Jeffries, 2010: 59). Given the basic meaning of the word bible, the example indicates again the conceptualisation yoga as religion. What is interesting is that cultural categories associated with Christianity (bible in the present example and the parable of the virgins with the lamps in Example 5 above) are used in Indian English to represent yoga. This shows how English as an international language has helped to enrich the Indian conceptualisations of yoga. As far as the American corpus is concerned, there are markedly fewer instances where sutras and yoga co-occur (N = 17). The word Patanjali is not even identified as a collocate of yoga. Since Patanjali is considered an eminent character in Indian tradition owing to his contribution to yoga, it can be argued that the tradition schema for Indians encompasses yoga. The conceptualisations yoga as religion and yoga as part of tradition in the Indian society are clearly manifested in the following excerpt: (10)

“Yoga is an integral part of the Hindu religion. There is a saying: ‘There is no Yoga

without Hinduism and no Hinduism without Yoga.’ The country of origin of Yoga is undoubtedly India, where for many hundreds of years it has been a part of man’s activities directed

towards

higher

spiritual

achievements.”

(Source:

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Yoga_and_Hindu_Philosophy.htm)

Example 10 comes from the concordance line of yoga and Hinduism. With 48 cooccurrences, Hinduism is identified by GloWbE as one of the collocates of yoga in the Indian corpus. This is in stark contrast to the American corpus where Hinduism and yoga have no collocational relationship. In the extract, a direct link between yoga and Hinduism is created. Through the phrase ‘for many hundreds of years’, the age-old practice of yoga in India is also emphasised. The American corpus exhibits collocational patterns which diverge from the ones in its Indian counterpart. Rather than religion, tradition, journey, medicine or morality, the frequently occurring items class(es), pants, studio, instructor, Pilates, training and mat associate yoga with something else. Let me first discuss the two lexical items pants and mat. Relevant examples from the corpus are

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(11) not

“Of course, not all of them wear Lululemon workout gear—in fact a lot of them might even

be

able

to

afford

$95

or

so

for

yoga

pants.”

(Source:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2012/04/15/a-working-mom-defends-thelululemon-stay-at-home-mother/#4c73d25851e4) (12)

“Athletic pants are not allowed—period. No sweats, no yoga pants, no exercise or

basketball shorts.” (Source: http://www.kateelizabethconner.com) (13)

“I really enjoy your exercise routines, and have adapted them to work out at home. I

have a jumping rope, I have dumbbells, a fitness ball, yoga mat. And a heavy boxing bag that my hubby needs to set up in the garage.” (Source: http://www.truthaboutabs.com)

In the excerpts, the lexical items pants and mat function as the head of the compound nouns ‘yoga pants’ and ‘yoga mat’, respectively. Semantically they can be classified as gear for yoga. One commonality across the three examples is that the compound nouns surface in the context of sport (‘workout gear’, ‘athletic pants’ and ‘exercise routines’). In Examples 11 and 12, yoga pants exemplify what the writers perceive as sportswear. In Example 13, a yoga mat is regarded as one of the objects needed for physical exercise. It can be concluded that yoga is generally subsumed under the sport schema by the Americans. This can be captured by the conceptualisation yoga as sport. Additionally, there is trace of yoga being associated with commodities in Example 11, where the price of yoga pants is stated. At a broader level, the example reveals the commercialisation of yoga (viz. the underlying conceptualisation yoga as business). With stores in different countries, Lululemon is a Canadian company which specialises in selling athletic wear and yoga-related items (Lululemon Athletica, n.d.). Apparently, capitalism plays a role in the conceptualisations of yoga within the American community. The conceptualisation yoga as commodity/business can be uncovered from the concordance lines of studio and yoga as well. Examples are (14)

“I have been teaching yoga for three years now and opened my first yoga studio two

years ago.” (Source: https://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/11/well-hello-rock-bottom-ihave-been-expecting-you-judd-albring) (15)

“‘The cheapest yoga studio in my area is 30 minutes away,’ says Perez.” (Source:

https://www.bankrate.com/finance/frugal/spending-more-trying-to-save.aspx)

Since studio is not a frequent collocate of yoga in the Indian corpus, it can be said that the salience of the expression ‘yoga studio’ in the American corpus conveys the American worldview vis-à-vis the usual setting in which yoga is taught or learnt. Same as a company, a yoga studio can be set up (as portrayed in Example 14). In Example 15, a yoga studio is evaluated with reference to charge. Here yoga is clearly treated as merchandise.

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The conceptualisation yoga as sport is reinforced through the co-occurrence of Pilates and yoga. Pilates is a method of fitness training first advocated in 1945 in the West (Pilates & Miller, 2000). Compared to yoga, Pilates is a much more recent invention. In Example 16, Pilates is listed together with yoga and t’ai chi as co-hyponyms of ‘alternative fitness workouts’. In other words, sport as an American cultural category consists of yoga. (16)

“A dynamic group of alternative fitness workouts like yoga, Pilates, and Tai chi are

now

in

health

clubs,

gyms

and

on

home

videos.”

(Source:

https://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=262)

While yoga is depicted as a subcategory of sport, the concordance lines of class(es) and yoga suggest that yoga itself has a number of subcategories. These subcategories are unlike the ones discovered from the Indian corpus as they do not carry Sanskrit-connoted labels. Three examples are (17)

“I’ve met some wonderful women since the birth of my baby but they aren’t quite yet

the confidants I’ve been looking for. I met them through a pre-natal yoga class that then had a mama/baby yoga class.” (Source: https://ask.metafilter.com/205697/how-to-form-agroup-of-girlfriends-at-age-30) (18)

“I needed to transport them to and from home and school while teaching a kids yoga

class.

The

problem?

It

never

fit

in

my

car

properly.”

(Source:

http://lisacohen.typepad.com) (19)

“If you’ve been loving our Paddle Yoga classes, and you want to work on the water,

come join us.” (Source: http://blisspaddleyoga.com)

In Examples 17 and 18, subcategories of yoga are formed on the basis of the target participants’ physiological status (i.e. expectant mothers and children). On the other hand, the subcategory of yoga pertaining to Example 19 stems from the unconventional way of practicing yoga on a paddle board in water. A tie between yoga and tradition, which is obvious in the Indian corpus, can hardly be detected. Another aspect of yoga in the American culture (yoga teaching as a profession) is realised by the frequently occurring items instructor and training, as the following examples illustrate:

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(20)

“I’ve thought about (if I can get good enough at it…) becoming a certified instructor

in yoga or something because it would be so nice for people to have instructors who respect them and their limitations.” (Source: https://kateharding.net/2008/08/19/why-people-hatethe-gym) (21)

“When I was in Costa Rica for my yoga teacher training, there was a particularly steep

and slippery section of the jungle path we walked every day.” (Source: https://simplicityinstages.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/my-struggle-with-insomnia-or-howive-re-framed-my-thoughts-to-create-personal-change/)

In Example 20, the word certified pre-modifies instructor. It is relatively common for certified to appear in the surroundings of instructor when it co-occurs with yoga (N = 10). As my analysis will show later, the lexical item teacher (a synonym of instructor) is also apt to attract certified when collocating with yoga in the American corpus. Echoing the role of a guru presented earlier, being a certified instructor entails possessing a required qualification which can be gained through yoga teacher training such as the kind specified in Example 21. As reported at the beginning of this section, the word yoga in the two corpora has a few common collocates, namely, practice, meditation, teacher and exercise(s). In both corpora, practice is constantly found in the expressions ‘yoga practice’, ‘practice of yoga’ and ‘(to) practice yoga’. This finding is unsurprising because practice is a natural match for yoga in the English lexicon when one talks about the action of ‘doing’ yoga. In this case, the speakers’ cultural worldview is inconsequential. Similarly, the collocate exercise(s) is utilised in the two corpora to denote the activity of practicing yoga. The co-occurrence of meditation and yoga in the corpora signals a close connection between yoga and meditation in the two cultures. Examples are (22)

Indian Corpus: “Practice of yoga and meditation helps you to calm down and control

your anger.” (Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121028/ttlife1.htm) (23)

American Corpus: “May I suggest starting to practice yoga and meditation on a daily

basis, even if only for a half-hour? You may think you don’t have time for it but it can be arranged.” (Source: https://sparktoro.com/blog/there-is-no-worklife-balance)

Examples 22 and 23 embody the ‘proposition schema’ yoga and meditation should be practiced together. In both excerpts, the association between yoga and meditation is operationalised by means of the conjunction and. As can be seen from Table 12.3, there is a reasonable amount of the three-word cluster ‘yoga and meditation’/‘meditation and yoga’ in the two corpora. Although teacher is a common collocate of yoga in both American and Indian English, there is a notable difference between the two varieties. As briefly mentioned

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Table 12.3 Tokens of the three-word cluster ‘yoga and meditation’/‘meditation and yoga’ in the two corpora Corpus of global web-based English (United States)

Corpus of global web-based English (India)

‘Yoga and meditation’

54

90

‘Meditation and yoga’

15

32

Total

69

122

above, teacher has a propensity to co-occur with certified (N = 13) when being a collocate of yoga in the American corpus. Another lexical word which tends to be seen in the neighbourhood of teacher is registered (N = 11). Once again, this reflects the conceptualisation yoga teaching as a profession, as represented in Examples 24 and 25. (24)

“She is a certified yoga teacher, a graduate of the School for Body-Mind Centering

(BMC) (1999) as well as the William Esper Studio (Meisner acting) (2007), of which the play

between

is

essential

to

her

current

practices.”

(Source:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37343276/and-lose-the-name-of-action) (25)

“Not to pat myself on the back, but I’m a registered yoga teacher. I teach people how

to breathe.” (Source: https://www.copyblogger.com/grammar-writing-mistakes)

In the Indian corpus, the word certified occurs only three times in the concordance lines of teacher and yoga. Instances of registered are not identified at all. It can therefore be interpreted that the conceptualisation yoga teaching as a profession prevails only among the American culture. Before this section ends, I would like to single out a cultural metaphor for discussion. This cultural metaphor yoga as a living thing is instantiated by the collocate limbs. Although the co-occurrences of yoga and limbs in both corpora are not high enough to render limbs one of the top 15 collocates, the collocational relationship between them is statistically significant (Indian corpus: N = 24, MI score = 5.26; American corpus: N = 15, MI score = 5.95). (26)

Indian Corpus: “It should not be imagined that meditation is an easy affair. It is a

penultimate stage of the eight limbs of yoga, culminating in divine absorption.” (Source: https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/brief/brief_4.html) (27)

American Corpus: “When looking at yoga from a fitness point of view, the limbs of

yoga

focus

on

unifying

http://www.empowher.com)

the

mind,

body

and

breathing.”

(Source:

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In the two extracts, the expression ‘limbs of yoga’ is employed to represent different aspects of yoga practice, one of which is meditation as stated in Example 26. Since the literal meaning of limb is either ‘a large branch of a tree’ or ‘an arm/leg’, the cross-domain mapping between living thing and yoga is established. In spite of this shared cultural metaphor, the two examples corroborate the cross-cultural differences in the conceptualisations of yoga described earlier. In the example from the Indian corpus, the word divine recurs and is suggestive of the conceptualisation yoga as religion. On the other hand, the phrase ‘from a fitness point of view’ in the example from the American corpus overtly indicates the conceptualisation yoga as sport, which has been found prevalent among the Americans.

12.5 Conclusion In this study of World Englishes, yoga was chosen to be the target of investigation. With Cultural Linguistics as the overarching framework, a comparative corpusbased analysis of how yoga is conceptualised in American and Indian English was completed. The data were gathered from the corresponding sections of the Corpus of Global Web-Based English (GloWbE). For the analysis, attention was devoted to the top 15 collocates of the term yoga. Concordance lines were inspected so as to find out discernible patterns in the American and Indian cultural conceptualisations. The results have revealed that each variety of English has its unique collocates of yoga. The concordance lines of these collocates instantiate specific cultural conceptualisations. Many of the collocates identified from the Indian corpus are of Sanskrit origin. For instance, Patanjali ‘the author of the classical yoga text entitled Yoga Sutras’ hints at the intimate relationship between yoga and Indian tradition. The conceptualisation yoga as tradition in the Indian community is also witnessed by the use of Sanskrit-originated collocates as labels for the subcategories of yoga like karma yoga, raja yoga, jnana yoga, etc. As stated in Sect. 12.1, Sanskrit cannot be detached from Hinduism and Hinduism is the oldest surviving major tradition in the world. The conceptualisation yoga as religion is evident as well in Indian English, as reflected on a number of occasions such as the use of bible to represent Yoga Sutras. Although the path image is claimed to be a Western pattern of thought (Sharifian, 2017a: 13), it is repeatedly employed in Indian English to conceptualised yoga, which testifies to the conceptualisation yoga as journey (or practicing yoga as travelling). On the other hand, the collocates found in the American corpus (e.g. pants, mat and studio) point to the impact of the American capitalistic lifestyle on the construal of yoga (i.e. yoga as commodity/business). The collocate Pilates shows that yoga is a subcategory of sport. Besides, the concordance lines of instructor/teacher and yoga are indicative of the conceptualisation yoga teaching as a profession within the American population. The current research has three main implications. First, it produces insights into the literature of World Englishes. In this case, I compared and contrasted how yoga—which is native to India and was introduced to America—is discursively

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construed in Indian English (an ‘outer circle’ variety) and American English (an ‘inner circle’ variety). One interesting finding about Indian English is the adoption of the anglicised plural inflection as in the word yogas (rather than the Sanskrit way of marking plurality) to encapsulate the different subcategories of yoga. Another noteworthy observation is that the use of English provides speakers of Indian English with the opportunity to incorporate Western cultural categories including bible and the parable of the virgins with the lamps into their conceptualisations of yoga. Second, this study confirms the value of Cultural Linguistics in exploring the relationship between language and culture, especially in relation to World Englishes. Cultural Linguistics offers analytical tools which can be applied by researchers to logically and systematically survey cultural conceptualisations embedded in discourse. With Cultural Linguistics, this study highlights how yoga, termed a ‘major “cultural export”’ (Strauss, 2005: 5), has undergone transformations in the host society. Despite the presence of the word yoga in both Indian and American English, Cultural Linguistics enables us to find out that yoga as a cultural schema differs greatly across the two speech communities. Due to its analytical power, scholars interested in language and culture regardless of their academic specialisation are expected to benefit from Cultural Linguistics. Third, by analysing collocations and concordance lines, the present research demonstrates how corpus linguistics can be a research method that aids the investigation of cultural conceptualisations. There is no doubt that the nature of the data in this study has led to an ‘etic perspective’ on the conceptualisations of yoga. In response to this issue, I would say that the current research paves the way for additional scholarly work on the conceptualisations of yoga. Like Sharifian (2011: 13) recommended, ‘“insider” interpretations of discourse’ (viz. an ‘emic perspective’) sometimes have to be sought when cultural conceptualisations are examined. This can be a direction for future research.

Appendix See Table 12.4

258 Table 12.4 Literal translation of Sanskrit-originated collocates in the Indian corpus (Source Feuerstein 2007)

R. C. H. Leung Collocate

Translation

Karma

Action

Hatha

Forceful

Raja

Royal

Bhakti

Devotion/love

Guru

Teacher

Patanjali

Name of the person who compiled Yoga Sutras

Sahaja

Together born

Jnana

Knowledge/wisdom

Sutras

Threads

Ramdev

Name of a well-known figure in modern yoga

Kundalini

Coiled power

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Chapter 13

Expressive and Reserved Cultural Linguistic Schemas: British and American Pride Clusters Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and Paul A. Wilson

Abstract This chapter focuses on a comparison between cultural schemas and models (Sharifian, 2017) and Emotion Event scenarios (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and Wilson 2013: 425–436) in British and American English conceptualisations of pride and related cluster members. These two cultures are stereotypically considered to be examples of reserved as opposed to expressive cultures, respectively. The main objective of the present study is to examine to what extent the stereotypical convictions concerning the amount of reserve and expressivity attributed to British and American individuals can be verified in terms of the expressiveness of the emotion of pride in both cultures. The methodology applied is rooted in a multiple research tradition. It involves the GRID questionnaire that is based on the cognitive, behavioural and linguistic properties of emotion terms on the one hand and a Cultural Linguistics analysis of concordances and collocations from large amounts of language data generated from the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of American English (COCA) as well as the most current data of British and American media-based monitor materials, on the other. The analysis provides ample evidence supporting the distinction between the relative salience of expressivity and reservation in pride in American versus British English cultures, respectively. Keywords American · British · Cultural Linguistics · Cultural schema · Emotion · Pride

B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk State University of Applied Sciences in Konin, Konin, Poland e-mail: [email protected] P. A. Wilson (B) University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_13

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13.1 Introduction The landing of the Pilgrim Fathers on the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock in 1620 marks a significant moment in the journey of the English language—the birth of the new American variant of English. It was inevitable that it was not possible to withstand the influence that the new land would have on what can be considered as the development of a new world English at that time, especially as English was not the first language of many immigrants during the Colonial period (Davies, 2005). With the denigration of King’s English in favour of the people’s American English by the second American president, John Adams, the severing of political ties between America and Britain that came with the Declaration of Independence in 1776 could also be deemed to have had linguistic ramifications. Additionally, American English was influenced by the language of immigrants that came to America from many different corners of the world after it had gained its independence (Davies, 2005). An account of the differences between British and American pride also requires an assessment of the potential cultural differences. Some of the main differences between Britain and America in this regard have been respectively identified as: dry and indirect versus loud and obvious humour; more pessimistic and down to earth versus positive and idealistic attitudes; less religiosity versus more religiosity (Myers, 2017—https://www.toptenz.net/10-differences-brits-americans.php). Public stereotypes (Lippmann, 1922) attribute a more extrovert, expressive style and energetic manifestation of feelings to Americans than to the British, who are widely considered to be relatively more reserved. Although some researchers (National Stereotypes and International Understanding, 1951) propose that national stereotypes are based not on “an inductive collection of data, but on hearsay, rumour, anecdotes— in short, on evidence which is insufficient to justify the generalization” (Klineber, 1951: 505), they can be useful for “their essentialist reductions and projections and their metonymical qualities” (Sierp & Karner, 2017: 1) and “to get a “flash” impression, if not of the climate of international opinion, at least of the prevailing weather” (National Stereotypes, 1951: 498). The main objective of the present study is to examine to what extent the anecdotal, stereotypical knowledge concerning the amount of reserve and expressivity attributed to British and American speakers can be verified in terms of expressiveness of the emotion of pride in both cultures. As, to our knowledge, there has not been any previous research directly addressing this topic, our study should be viewed as an initial attempt to bring this stereotypical belief to the realm of academic scrutiny.

13.2 Cultural Linguistics Cognitive Linguistics and Cultural Linguistics are comparable from the perspective that meaning is identified as conceptualisation. While Cultural Linguistics is underscored by the primary tenets of Cognitive Linguistics, it is further based on

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Langacker’s (2014) view that cognition is embodied and grounded in culture. Positioning the distinction between British English pride and American English pride in the present study in the framework of Cultural Linguistics permits an analysis pertaining to the relationship between cultural cognition, cultural conceptualisations and language (Sharifian, 2015). As suggested by Sharifian (2015: 476), “cultural cognition embraces the cultural knowledge that emerges from the interactions between members of a cultural group across time and space.” Language is the resource by which cultural cognition is preserved and conveyed. Sharifian (2015) additionally demonstrates that an additional element of the analytical framework that Cultural Linguistics seeks to provide is cultural conceptualisations, which encompass ‘cultural categories’, ‘cultural metaphors’ and ‘cultural schemas’, each of which is interrelated with language. To elaborate more fully, whereas cultural categories are culturally fashioned objects, events and experiences, cultural metaphors are culturally constructed conceptual metaphors. Although cultural schemas, the more sophisticated of which are labelled cultural models, concern the cognitions that originate conjointly in a cultural group and foster the conveyance of cultural connotations, they are not “equally imprinted in the mind of every individual member, but are rather shared in varying degrees between the members of a cultural group” (Sharifian, 2007:34).

13.3 Emotions and Emotion Event Scenarios Emotions are experienced in the context of an Emotion Event scenario and arise as a consequence of a Stimulus or Cause which affect the relevant event scenario and some more complex causes can trigger more complex reactions (Wilson & LewandowskaTomaszczyk, 2017). Based on previous studies (e.g., Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk & Wilson, 2013; Wilson, Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, & Njiya, 2013), we adopt a model of emotions that is based on partly overlapping cluster members of similar feelings, which are underscored by the processes of conceptual integration (Turner & Fauconnier, 1995:183), rather than on sets of single compartmentalised emotions. Emotion clusters rely on the material from close conceptual domains, which are based on a form of family resemblance (joy, happiness) that exploit partial synonymity as well as hyponymy and meronymy links among emotion terms such as those between sadness—sorrow—grief . Emotion clusters have the same appraisal value, positive or negative evaluation (e.g., anger and hate or compassion and empathy). The values of such properties are not considered discrete as they are rather graded with blurred edges and boundaries.

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13.4 Pride Pride is frequently considered as a self -conscious emotion that has the adaptive role of averting rejection by promoting one’s approval and social status within a group (Leary, Tambor, Terdal, & Downs, 1995). The conveyance of pride increases one’s self-esteem and indicates that one deserves positive judgement and increased standing (Tracy & Robins, 2008). Despite possessing these characteristics that are in accordance with the conventional identification of pride as a self -conscious emotion, it has more recently asserted that pride should be classified as a basic emotion1 in terms of distinct, universal nonverbal expression that is identified across cultures by children and adults (Tracy & Robins, 2008; Tracy, Robins & Lagattuta, 2005). More recent studies have questioned the traditional viewpoint of pride as a solitary emotion. Tracy and Robins (2004) assert that there are two separate elements of pride—authentic pride, which is the more constructive prosocial form that is characterised by increased self-esteem and status noted above, and a hubristic form of pride that has been linked more with narcism, which can cause hostility in addition to disputes in interpersonal relationships (Bushman & Baumeister, 1998; Paulhus, Robins, Trzesniewski, & Tracy, 2004), and has a negative relationship with self-esteem but is positively related to shame-proneness (Tracy, Cheng, Robins, & Trzesniewski, 2009). Additionally, it has been demonstrated that whereas authentic pride is characterised by low anxiety, depression, aggression and hostility as well as more satisfaction in one’s relationships and in life in general, hubristic pride is more connected with hostility, aggression and anxiety (Tracy et al., 2009; Orth, Robins, & Soto, 2010). These two varieties of pride were observed in a series of seven correlational and experimental studies by Tracy and Robins (2007). The results of this analysis involving listing words associated with pride showed that whereas the authentic pride cluster was characterised by prosocial elements and accomplishment, the hubristic pride cluster was linked with conceit, arrogance and ego. It was further demonstrated that when individuals attend to the semantic elements of pride-related words and their own pride feelings, they make a distinction between authentic and hubristic pride, with the former encountered when accomplishment is ascribed to intrinsic, unstable, controllable causes such as the belief that an instance of triumph is due to effort and practice, and the latter when success is viewed as a result of intrinsic, global, stable, uncontrollable causes such as the conviction that a specific personal achievement is based on one’s own personal traits. These differences illustrate the importance of assessing the possible independent outcomes of authentic and hubristic pride in cross-cultural and cross-linguistic research.

1 There

are six basic emotions—anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise—that are identified as such on the basis of their distinct nonverbal expressions that are recognised universally (Tracy & Robins 2008).

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13.5 Pride in British Versus American English A comparison of pride in British and American English requires an understanding that, due to similarities in language and certain cultural conceptualisations, the underlying influences pertaining to any difference shown are likely to differ from the typical cross-cultural and cross-linguistic results demonstrated for variants of this emotion, such as individualism—collectivism (Hofstede, 1980).2 Specifically, the similarity between British and American English on the basis of their high level of individualism (scores of 89 and 91, respectively, on individualism-collectivism (Geert Hofstede Country Comparison)) and a common root language dictates the need to consider other underlying reasons for any possible differences in pride. Apart from our main focus on reservation versus expression that was outlined above, other possible influences in this respect include politeness, degree of national pride, religion, conservatism and machismo.

13.5.1 Reservation Versus Expression The British are often more reserved in conduct than we. Don’t Be a Show Off. The British dislike bragging and showing off (Anorak, 2012).

Despite these offers of advice provided in a handbook for American servicemen and women while on duty in Britain in World War II, to our knowledge there has not been any empirical evidence corroborating the salience of reserve in British emotional expression compared with Americans. Nevertheless, Khor and Marsh (2007) refer to the criticism in the British media to tears of joy and pride in various sporting victory celebrations. Similarly, with respect to British child-rearing practices, Gannon (2004) observes that “precociousness, equated with showing off or boasting, meets with disapproval” (p. 227). Additionally, many newspaper and online articles offer supporting comments regarding this cultural difference, with a number focusing on pride. The lack of appreciation for bragging and boasting by the British is widely reported (e.g., British Culture—https://culturalatlas.sbs.com. au/british-culture/british-culture-core-concepts). Rosenfeld (2015) explains that “it is still widely considered vulgar in Britain to boast about one’s accomplishments— even to mention them”, and furthermore that “an American might brag about his or her tennis serve, but a talented British tennis player might say he or she is “not bad” at the game” (http://www.bravotv.com/the-daily-dish/10-things-americans-do2 It

is beyond the scope of the present chapter to provide detailed information on individualism— collectivism (for a more detailed account, see, for example, Wilson & Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, 2017). However, we underscore the Cultural Linguistics viewpoint that the two components of this dimension are not homogenous polar opposites, which is also inherent in Hofstede’s country comparisons as demonstrated in terms of the scales that have numerical values ranging from 0 to 100.

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that-may-accidentally-offend-brits). This is further underscored by the statement that “the British do not like boasting … and rarely take credit when they have done something well” (Caroline: https://www.esa-ltd.co.uk/blog/dos-donts-business-soc ialising-british/). Stressing the roots of American self-promotion, Schneiderman (1997) states that “from the beginning of the Republic, vanity and pride, as well as bragging and boosterism, have been the norm in America … because they pay, as they have throughout our history.” (https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/11/opinion/ l-in-america-boasting-has-proud-history-576719.html).

13.5.2 Politeness Pride expression features are correlated with and interpreted in terms of the type of politeness culture models represented by the UK and USA. The USA is considered to be characterised rather by what Brown and Levinson (1987) name ‘positive politeness cultures’, in which there is a fuller expression on one’s emotions, contrary to the British ‘negative politeness culture’, which involves more refraining from the imposition of one’s own judgements on the interactant. Compared to other positivepoliteness cultures, American politeness is even more of a ‘backslapping’, smaller social-distance type.

13.5.3 National Pride It is initially important to note that national pride, or the pride that one has for one’s motherland, is not a unitary concept across different cultures. Hjerm (1998) divides national pride into political and natio-cultural pride, with the former including such variables as pride in the effectiveness of the democratic process, the social security system, economic success, equality in the treatment of different groups, and the latter, for example, focusing on pride in scientific, artistic and sporting achievements and history. Whether one focuses on national pride in a general sense, or on political or natio-cultural pride, evidence suggests that national pride in the US is greater than that in Britain. This was demonstrated in the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) that investigated general national pride and domain-specific pride, which comprised both political pride (the way democracy works, political influence in the world, economic achievements, fair and equal treatment of all groups in society and social security system) and natio-cultural pride (scientific and cultural achievements, sporting achievements, achievements in the arts and literature and history) as well as pride in the armed forces, in 21 countries including America and Britain in 1995/6 and 2003/04 (Smith & Kim, 2006). Compared with the United States, which achieved 2nd place in 1995–06 and 1st place in 2003–04 on general national pride, Britain was 14th in both of these periods. A similar result showed that the United States also

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ranked higher than Britain on the domain-specific national pride variables: the United States ranked 2nd in 1995–06 and 1st in 2003–04, compared with the British ranking of 8th for both of these periods. Similar higher rankings of America over Britain have been shown by Evans and Kelly (2002) on pride in science and technology, the arts and literature, sporting achievements and economic achievements. More recently, a survey by De Groot (2013) (qtd. in De Groot, 2016) showed that compared with 65% of Americans, only 35% of British people feel ‘very proud’ of their nationality. Despite some reports of fluctuations in British and American national pride (e.g., Tilley & Heath, 2007), it appears that there is substantial stability in the data over recent years showing that American national pride is greater than that of the British.

13.5.4 Religion Britain and America differ significantly in terms of religious belief. For example, Ray (2003) observes that relatively more Americans state that religion is either very important (60%) or fairly important (23%) in their lives compared with corresponding figures of very important (17%) and fairly important (30%) for the British (https://news.gallup.com/poll/9016/worlds-apart-religion-canada-britain-us. aspx). A Gallup International survey (2015) further showed that in comparison with the percentage American declarations in terms of whether they are “a religious person” (56%), “not a religious person” (33%) or “a convicted atheist” (6%), the figures for British respondents were 30%, 53% and 13%, respectively. A more in-depth assessment reveals specific values associated with this relatively greater religiosity in America. Specifically, it is the Christian right (aka religious right), whose main core of evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics (Schweber, 2012) are supported by mainstream Protestants, Jews and Mormons (Deckman, 2004; Smith & Burr, 2007), which promotes conservative values. In this respect, Dowland (2015) argues that family values are at the heart of the conservative Christian right values of Christian schools and opposition to feminism, abortion and gay rights. Viewing religion in America in terms of political affiliation, the Republicans are more religious than Democrats and also have more support from the Christian right. Cafferty (2011) reports on a Gallup Poll showing that in comparison with Republicans who state they attend church weekly (40%), nearly weekly or monthly (21%) or rarely (38%), the corresponding figures for Democrats are 27%, 20% and 52%. Singer (2017; updated in 2020) states that in contrast with the Republican party (GOP), which is 73% white Christian, there are fewer than 33% of white Christian Democrats. Highlighting a symbiotic relationship between the Christian right and the Republican party, Braml (2011) explains how the two are dependent on each other. It is, therefore, not surprising to note that conservative values are central to Republican values. As Zelizer (2004: 704) states,

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GOP strategists built the Republican party in the South by mobilizing evangelical Christian voters around such social and cultural flashpoints as abortion, gun control, school prayer and gay rights. The Christian Right established a core constituency for the Republican party, including nearly two-fifths of core Republican voters in the South.

With respect to the present chapter, it is interesting to note that Shapiro (2018) reports on a recent Gallup poll showing that only 32% of Democrats state that they are “extremely proud” of their national identity in comparison with 74% of republicans.

13.5.5 Conservatism Rather than being restricted to the Christian right and the Republican party, Micklethwait and Wooldridge (2004) argue that in general terms America is fundamentally more conservative than other Western nations. Returning to Hofstede’s (1980) cultural dimensions, it appears that such conservatism is possibly based on the low score of the United States on long-term orientation. Specifically, compared with the intermediate score of 51 for Britain on this dimension, America scores 26, suggesting a greater focus on norms and traditions (Geert Hofstede Country Comparison). As Hofstede observes, this might explain Americans’ conservative beliefs regarding social issues such as euthanasia, drug use, gun ownership and abortion.

13.5.6 Machismo Machismo is a set of principles governing the more negative and more positive behaviour of Latino males. Whereas the more negative elements include violence, alcoholism, rudeness, intimidation, as well as a sexist, chauvinistic and seductive attitude towards women, the more positive features involve family protection, honour, dignity, responsibility, wisdom, a sense of spirituality and a hard work ethic (Arciniega, Anderson, Tovar-Blank, & Tracey, 2008). The salience of pride in machismo means that machismo is directly relevant to the focus of the present chapter. In this respect, Mirandé (1988) showed that 35% of Latino men in their survey reported machismo to be central to pride and honour. This is consistent with the definition of machismo as “strong or aggressive masculine pride” (English Oxford Living Dictionaries, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/machismo). One might expect to find a relatively greater element of machismo in American English vis-à-vis British English due to the increasingly large size of the Latino population in the USA. According to the US census figures in 2016, it is estimated that there are 55 million Latino people living in the USA (17% of the population) (Hispanics in the US fast facts—https://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/20/us/hispanics-inthe-u-s-/index.html). Although there is little academic evidence of a possible Latino influence on mainstream American culture, it has been observed that machismo is not

13 Expressive and Reserved Cultural Linguistic Schemas …

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restricted to the American Latino population: “… machos are everywhere, and American culture certainly has its share of personalities which embody the best elements of machismo. From former hip hop singers to gun-toting ladies (yes, they can be that tough too), from politicians to business leaders, machos are found all across the U.S.” (Machismo in the U.S., not just a Latino thing anymore—https://www.huffingto npost.com/2012/05/25/machismo-usa-latino_n_1540125.html) (see ’me too’ movement and discussions at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/us/toxic-masculinity. html). Vacano (2016) similarly notes the presence of machismo in President Trump: “[p]opulism, authoritarianism, personalism, machismo, racialism, and caudillismo— or strongman rule—have been historically seen as ills almost inherent to Latin American political culture. With the election of Donald Trump, we can now see that the U.S. is indeed part of the Americas as a whole and shares in those pathologies” (Opinion: Trump embraces caudillo politics: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/opiniontrump-embraces-caudillo-politics-latin-america-shuns-it-n686861).

13.6 GRID Data Analysis The comparison of pride in British and American English was achieved with the use of the GRID methodology. The following sections describe the analyses performed on the valence, power, arousal and novelty dimensions, as well as features pertaining to expression, frequency of experience and social acceptance.

13.6.1 Research Methodology and Materials The GRID instrument (Fontaine, Scherer, & Soriano, 2013) employs a system of dimensions and components, which bring about insight into the nature of emotion prototypical structures. It comprises a Web-based questionnaire in which 24 prototypical emotion terms are evaluated on 144 emotion features. These features represent activity in all six of the major components of emotion (Ellsworth & Scherer, 2003; Niedenthal, Krauth-Gruber, & Ric, 2006), and the methodology is, therefore, componential in its approach. These components comprise appraisals of events (31 features), bodily reactions (18 features), motor expressions—facial, vocal or gestural (26 features), action tendencies (40 features), subjective feelings (22 features) and emotion regulation (4 features). Participants are asked to rate the likelihood of the presence of the emotion features when an individual who speaks their language employs the emotion terms when describing an emotional experience. In addition to its componential approach, the GRID methodology offers a dimensional perspective, whereby the emotion domain is represented by a small number of underlying dimensions, which are central to the GRID analyses performed on British English and American English pride (see below). The valence dimension is characterised by appraisals of intrinsic pleasure and goal conduciveness. Power

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includes appraisals of control, with the feelings of power and weakness being particularly salient. The arousal dimension is mainly characterised by sympathetic arousal (e.g., rapid heartbeat and readiness for action). The fourth dimension is represented by novelty. On this dimension appraisals of novelty and unpredictability are compared with expectedness or familiarity.

13.6.1.1

Procedure

British English and American English participants completed the GRID instrument in a controlled Web study (Reips, 2002), in which each participant was presented with the pride emotion term and asked to rate it in terms of the 144 emotion features. Each of the 144 emotion features was presented separately. Participants rated the likelihood that each of the 144 emotion features can be inferred when a person from their cultural group uses the emotion term ‘pride’ to describe an emotional experience. A 9-point scale was employed that ranged from extremely unlikely (1) to extremely likely (9)—the numbers 2–8 were placed at equidistant intervals between the two ends of the scale, with 5 ‘neither unlikely, nor likely’ in the middle and participants typed their ratings on the keyboard. It was clearly stated that the participants needed to rate the likelihood of occurrence of each of the features when somebody who speaks their language describes an emotional experience associated with pride.

13.6.1.2

Participants

The mean ages and gender ratios of the participants were as follows: British English pride (31 British English-speaking participants; mean age 23.1 years, 18 females); American English pride (32 American English-speaking participants; mean age 18.6 years, 26 females).

13.6.2 Results To determine the dimensional structure of the American and British English data in the present study, principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation was performed on the combined dataset of these two languages. There were 201 British English participants (124 females) with a mean age of 21.5 years, and 182 American participants (129 females) with a mean age of 18.5 years. The PCA produced four dimensions: The first dimension (valence) accounted for 53.3% of the variance, the second dimension (power) for 16.7%, the third dimension (arousal) for 9.1% and the last dimension (novelty) for 4.5%. Although analyses were performed comparing British English pride with American English pride on all four dimensions, the results are only reported for power as the results for valence, arousal and

13 Expressive and Reserved Cultural Linguistic Schemas … Table 13.1 GRID features that characterise the power dimension

271

Low power

High power

Felt submissive

Wanted to tackle the situation

Wanted to hand over the initiative to somebody else

Had an assertive voice

Wanted to do nothing

Wanted to control the situation

Fell silent

Wanted to take initiative her/himself

Decreased the volume of voice

Wanted to act, whatever action it might be

Wanted to make up for what Had a loud voice she or he had done Felt weak limbs

Spoke faster

Closed her or his eyes

Had an urge to be active

Spoke slower

Wanted to move

Lacked the motivation to do anything

Moved against people or things

Had a lump in throat Will be changed in a lasting way

novelty did not reach significance (see Table 13.1 for the GRID features pertaining to low versus high power). Additional analyses were performed on a comparison between British English pride and American English pride on the basis of GRID features relating to more expression (wanted to be in the centre of attention, increased the volume of voice, wanted to show off, wanted to be seen, showed the emotion to others more than he/she felt it) versus less expression (decreased the volume of voice, fell silent, showed emotion to others less than felt it, hid emotion from others by smiling). British English pride and American English pride were also compared on how frequently experienced and to what extent is it socially accepted GRID features.

13.6.2.1

Power

The means of the low power and the high power features were determined for each participant. A 2 × 2 ANOVA was performed on these means that had one betweensubjects variable (language group: British English pride vs. American English pride). There was also one within-subjects variable (power: low power features vs. high power features—see Table 13.1). There was no significant effect of language group, F (1, 61) = 2.5, p > 0.05. There was a main effect of power, F (1, 61) = 178.2, p < 0.001. It can be seen in Fig. 13.1 that high power features of pride were rated higher than the low power features, showing on the whole that pride is associated with high power in both British and

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Fig. 13.1 Means of British and American English pride on the power dimension

American English. There was also a significant interaction between language group and power, F (1, 61) = 12.21, p > 0.01. Contrasts were performed to break down this interaction. There was a significant difference between low and high power features for British English pride, F (1, 61) = 47.81, p < 0.001. It can be seen in Fig. 13.1 that the high power features were rated higher than low power features for British English pride (means of 5.98 and 4.3, respectively). Likewise, there was a significant difference between low and high power features for American English pride, F (1, 61) = 144.13, p < 0.001. Fig. 13.1 shows that high power features were rated higher than low power features for American English pride (means of 6.84 and 3.98, respectively). There was also a significant difference between British English and American pride on the high power features, F (1, 61) = 14.76, p < 0.01. It can be seen in Fig. 13.1 that American pride had higher ratings on the high power features than British English pride (means of 6.84 and 5.98, respectively). By contrast, Fig. 13.1 shows there was no significant difference between British English and American pride on the low power features, F (1, 61) = 1.63, p > 0.05. To summarise, these results show that although high power is salient in both British English and American English pride, the higher rating of American English pride on high power features means that it is characterised by higher power than British English pride.

13.6.2.2

Expression Features

The means for more expression and less expression were determined for each participant. A 2 × 2 ANOVA was performed on these means that had one within-subjects variable (expression: less expression vs. more expression) and one between-subjects variable (language group: British English pride vs. American English pride).

13 Expressive and Reserved Cultural Linguistic Schemas …

273

Fig. 13.2 Means of British and American English pride on expression features

There was no significant effect of language group, F (1, 61) = 0.46, p > 0.05. There was a main effect of expression, F (1, 61) = 140.75, p < 0.001. It can be seen in Fig. 13.2 that more expression features of pride were rated higher than the less expression features, showing on the whole that pride is characterised by more expression in both British and American English. There was also a significant interaction between language group and expression, F (1, 61) = 13.7, p < 0.001. Contrasts were performed to break down this interaction. There was a significant difference between less expression and more expression features for British English pride, F (1, 61) = 32.8, p < 0.001. It can be seen in Fig. 13.2 that the more expression features were rated higher the than the less expression features for British English pride (means of 6.65 and 4.77, respectively). Likewise, there was a significant difference between less expression and more expression features for American English pride, F (1, 61) = 123.1, p < 0.001. Figure 13.2 shows that that the more expression features were rated higher the than the less expression features for American English pride (means of 7.65 and 4. 07, respectively). There was also a significant difference between British English and American English pride on the more expression features, F (1, 61) = 13.76, p < 0.001. It can be seen in Fig. 13.2 that American English pride is relatively more associated with experiences of more expression features than British English pride (means of 7.65 and 6.65, respectively). By contrast, there was no significant difference between British English and American English pride on the less expression features, F (1, 61) = 3.89, p > 0.05. To summarise, these results show that although more expression is salient in both British English and American English pride, the higher rating of American English pride on more expression features means that it is characterised by a higher degree of expression than British English pride.

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B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and P. A. Wilson

Frequency of Experience and Social Acceptance

Independent t-tests were performed on the ratings of British English pride and American English pride on how frequently experienced and to what extent is it socially accepted GRID features. There was a significant difference between British English pride and American English pride on how frequently experienced, t(61) = −2.87, p < 0.01. Figure 13.3 shows that pride is relatively more likely to occur in American English than British English (means of 7.22 and 5.9, respectively). Similarly, there was a significant difference between British English pride and American English pride on to what extent is it socially accepted, t(52.7) = −3.95, p < 0.001. Figure 13.4 shows that pride is relatively more likely to be socially accepted in American English than British English (means of 7.69 and 5.87, respectively). Fig. 13.3 Means of British and American English pride on frequency of experience features

Fig. 13.4 Means of British and American English pride on socially accepted features

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275

13.6.3 Conclusions The GRID results provide important information regarding the cultural schemas of pride in British English and American English. The higher power of American English pride compared with British English pride demonstrates that the former is characterised relatively more by feelings of power and dominance as well as active engagement, and hence points to the greater salience of the expression of pride in American English compared with a more reserved variant of this emotion in British English. The results further showed that American English pride was characterised by more expression features than British English pride. The results on frequency of experience and social acceptance are consistent with this. If the expression is more salient in American English pride, this emotion is more likely to be experienced more frequently. It also possibly suggests that as such expression does not appear to have been restricted by societal pressure, it is relatively more socially accepted.

13.7 Corpus Data Analysis The previous sections identified some overlaps as well as differences between British and American English pride by means of the questionnaire-based GRID instrument. The present part will offer a cognitive interpretation of qualitative and quantitative language corpus data (Geeraerts, Grondelaers, & Bakema, 1994). We consulted two large sources, covering authentic spoken and written language materials from different genres and styles: Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)3 and the British National Corpus (BNC) (http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/). As additional tools, English and American monitor media corpora are used (monitorcorpus.com). We apply Cultural Linguistics tools (Sharifian, 2017) and also resort to some instruments of Cognitive Linguistics (Lakoff, 1987; Langacker, 1987, 1991) to analyse the internal structure of the concepts investigated in the present chapter. Word co-occurrence measures (viz., collocations) generated from the corpora are demonstrated to be particularly useful to determine word senses and their relative physical and semantic distance. This gives us additional information on the qualitative similarities and differences between British and American English usage of relevant emotion terms in this respect. Collocations may be considered verbal signals indicating the salient properties in the construal and expression of these emotions and foreground the differing role of the salience of particular properties in British and American English. The differences between the two English varieties are observed both in written and spoken materials, although each of the modes involves the processes of emotion construal achieved by distinct means. Written data typically provide a more detailed verbal specification of the contextual surrounding, while spoken interactions portray additional, contextual bodily signals and utterance prosodies, as well as emotional interjections, repetitions, meaning intensifiers 3 Mark

Davies’ webpage http://www.americancorpus.org/.

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and reducers that shape and in some cases condition particular emotional meanings (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, P˛ezik, Wilson, & Tomaszczyk, 2015; LewandowskaTomaszczyk & Wilson, 2016). In the present study, both spoken and written materials are used to research the emotions of the pride cluster in British and American English. The research method focus in this section places special emphasis on top collocational patterns in the two varieties, which, as we assume, can be regarded as portraying building blocks of the cultural models of emotion meanings. The collocations examined in the sections to follow are of three types: Adjectival/Adverbial, Nominal and Verbal. The tables included present lists structured according to their frequencies of occurrence. In most of the cases, the statistical measures such as chi-square (and Mutual Information—MI—in some instances) are given to show their significance level. Some of the collocations are further developed and enriched by (sets of) concordance examples to identify subtler cross-linguistic differences at a more detailed level of the analysis.

13.7.1 American English: Types and Objects of Pride Top American pride collocates include the Adjectives national, gay, civic, ethnic, cultural, wounded, racial, professional and refer to a number of fairly clearly delineated types of event scenarios. The most frequent stimuli of US pride are nation, community, heritage and tradition, which conforms to the high position of the Adjective national in the collocate frequency list. A Nominal collocate frequency list of the Adjective proud indicates precisely identical sources of pride in American English. The top Nominal collocates of proud in American English are owner, heritage, accomplishment(s), tradition, possessor. The concept peacock, which follows, is obviously a source domain of the conventional simile proud as a peacock. The concordance examples generated from COCA more precisely reveal sources of pride in American English, which dominate all other stimuli. The top stimuli involve topics related to the speakers’ own American nation, heritage and leadership: (1) the tears of reunion! With what unanimity we combined the feeling of national pride with love for the sovereign! (2) “USA, USA.” It’s almost that kind of feeling, a pride, a defiance of saying, we will not be on our knees. (3) Americans usually take pride in being Number One. A frequent source of national pride are sports achievements in the American data (4), which is also supported by the materials from the monitor corpora (Sect. 13.7.4.1). (4) and it clearly makes Linda Krohn as proud as any Olympic medal would. A combined frequency list of top pride collocates presents a survey of the causes and sources of pride, dominated by those involving national pride of their own history, achievements, etc. (see sample in Table 13.2).

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277

Table 13.2 A combined list of top pride collocates generated from COCA Symbols: FREQ— frequency; ALL occurrences; %; MI—Mutual Information COLLOCATE

FREQ

ALL

%

1

TAKE

797

411261

0.23

MI 3.28

2

GREAT

518

266832

0.21

3.18

3

SENSE

471

133106

0.35

5.34

4

TOOK

458

217647

0.21

4.59

5

NATIONAL

396

231369

0.17

4.29

It is significant that in the Adjective/Adverb collocate list of top frequencies, some of which are presented as a sample in Table 13.2, the prevailing modifier category includes intensifying concepts with a positive valence such as very, extremely, incredibly, tremendously. The adjectival collocates which are negatively charged modifiers, indicating a negative valence of hubristic pride, such as stubborn, ashamed, arrogant, boastful, are lower in the list. Out of the Verbal collocates of pride, the most characteristic metaphorical concept is the form swallow (pride). The utterance context reveals the clustering of this type of pride, possibly considered hubristic pride by the same event interactants, with a number of other negative concepts such as shame, embarrassment, humility or guilt and anger: (5) The real challenge was the required fundraising. I had to swallow my pride and practice humility when I contacted friends for donations. (6) Embarrassed by his petulance that morning and not eager to swallow his pride, Wyatt tried to hide his excitement. (7) Yeah, I had to swallow my pride and go back and say, coach, I apologize. (8) Having no way to catch up, that citizen can only swallow his pride and direct his anger toward authority. The metaphorical collocation of swallowing pride uncovers also certain (stereo)typical types of behaviour whose social acceptance fluctuates (e.g., compromise can be considered more acceptable, while machismo—considerably less). (9) So you sort of have to swallow your pride or your machismo, whatever. (10) that Dombey must swallow his masculine pride and learn to live with women. The presence of machismo pride in American English data can be taken to be a characteristic property of this culture—not surfacing in the British English data. As outlined above, the salience of the machismo pattern in American English might be related to the sizable presence of Latino culture in the USA. On the other hand, it might point to the stereotypically strong, masculine, pioneer-immersed frontier culture of America. There are also interesting differences in the treatment of lexical combinations related to the collocation family pride. The co-occurring forms indicate pride scenarios present in 127 cases of proud father, 110 instances of proud parents, 57— of proud mother, 31—of proud family and 17—of proud dad (proud mom/mum or proud mommy/mummy are not recorded). Both in American and British English data

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such family pride collocations are used predominantly in connection with families and parents of another person or other people rather than those of one’s own. Reference to a relationship between family and tradition has a high incidence of use in COCA (30312), with long, oral, American, Christian, Western, Catholic as the top collocates, and the combination proud tradition as 30th in the list. Consistent with the evidence of greater religiosity of American society presented above, religion surfaces as a strong cultural element in the American English data. This is combined in some cases with family tradition, a property which, as we have also noted earlier, might be related to a more conservative character of American society, and which is additionally envisaged in Hofstede’s (1980) longer term orientation of American culture when juxtaposed to the British one. In their discussions of the problem of tradition, some authors refer to opinions that family tradition is a source of American identity (see Bronner 1998: 28). The pragmatic element of following in the parents’ footsteps in the choice of profession is one of such characteristic properties of American family tradition as identified in the corpus data: (11) he bowed to a family tradition and became a barrister.

13.7.2 British English The Nominal collocates of British English proud are interestingly similar in both varieties, particularly due to the presence of the common collocates owner and possessor, showing a relation between Hofstede’s (1980) high individualism, characteristic for both cultures and the value of individual property. The dominance of the family pride model (Dad, parent, Mum, father, mother), sports Achievement (record, race) and tradition/history in the British English data also overlap to a large extent with that in the American English data. However, differences can also be regarded as revealing. In this respect, the negative valence of proud/pride in British English, which is signalled with the second highest frequency of the item boast, is weaker in the American data (73rd position on the COCA collocation frequency list). This might be regarded as a signal of a more reserved attitude of the British toward the verbal and behavioural expression of pride, particularly when shown too overtly, which might be considered impolite by invading other people’s personal space (Wilson & Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, 2017). Instances of the various causes of British English pride are revealed in the concordance examples generated from the BNC and discussed below. Family Pride Similar to American COCA data, collocations involving experiencers of family pride such as proud dad/proud father/proud mother/proud parents are predominantly used when talking about somebody else (12). The combination proud mum/mummy is not recorded, possibly due to the direct vocative character of the forms mum/mummy both in American and British English.

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279

(12) The Queen is a proud mother, but sometimes she feels Charles is too outspoken. There are also cases of achievement with reference to sports, work and military service in the British materials: Sports (13) Jimbo took enormous pride in his tennis game. (14) Prince Charles has been deer stalking since he was a child and takes great pride in a clean kill. Achievement at Work (15) The attentive English-speaking crew that takes pride in providing impeccable service. Military Service Achievement (16) For myself and the family we take great pride in his military service and his awards for bravery. Other causes and stimuli of pride in British contexts are of varied types: women take pride in their appearance, all can take pride in their property and work (e.g., shop), be proud of planning for every eventuality or of their place, take pride in culinary art, feeling everything deeply, bringing up their families, in surviving, driving, wearing the jumper, having reached advanced years, supporting the Declaration, in being stubbornly traditional or “achieving the unique, smooth rich creamy taste” in cooking. Britain is a higher context culture than America. The concepts of higher versus lower context cultures were first introduced by the anthropologist Hall (1989 [1976]). In a higher context culture, language carries more implicit meanings than what is actually said.4 In lower context cultures, messages are more explicit and expressive with less implied beyond the words used. In both cases references to family life and tradition are present; however, talks with other people about closely private matters is much less common in British than American contexts. More is implied than said in British discourse when juxtaposed to the American one. References to family pride and family tradition in British data are at a more general level of reference than in the American materials we investigated. The modifying (Adjectival/Adverbial) collocates of proud indicate some US– UK similarities and differences. Although the positive intensifying character of the British modifiers (Table 13.4) is similar to that of those extracted from the COCA list, their semantic intensity is weaker in the pride-foregrounding function when contrasted with the COCA-generated proud collocate list (Table 13.3). However, in both languages the collocates comprise a high frequency of combinations identifying fairness in justification for being proud. 4 The

distinction between higher and lower context cultures is not an all-or-nothing matter. It is gradual and subject to a rather uneven distribution across varying social relations and contexts (e.g., Adamsky, 2010).

280 Table 13.3 Modifier proud collocates (COCA)

B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk and P. A. Wilson Frequency

MI

Collocate

5024

2.90

very

284

3.13

extremely

146

3.23

incredibly

87

2.57

loud

72

4.86

fiercely

66

3.49

damn

64

6.75

justifiably

63

4.91

immensely

42

5.72

justly

37

5.25

mighty

35

3.78

enormously

30

3.01

rightly

26

2.56

awfully

23

3.89

rightfully

23

3.91

damned

20

2.73

intensely

The place and position of the pride Adjectival collocate national in British English is worth emphasising. As one of the first two most frequent modifiers preceding pride in both languages, the adjective national is not used to indicate self-referential Experiencer, which is the case in American English. Rather, it refers to a vast majority of cases to the pride experienced by somebody else than the speaker him/herself (Scottish, Celtic—Table 13.4). Furthermore, its valence is also compromised, which is evident by the presence of the accompanying modifiers such as foolish. The list of the adjectival collocates of pride (Table 13.4) corresponds to the meanings of the collocates of the British concept of tradition (Table 13.5), in which, similar to the American data, religious tradition dominates, followed by much longer preChristian British tradition of Celtic Britain with her bards, elves, etc. followed by the Reformation of the Anglican character as well as more contemporary scholarly tradition indicators (Keynesian, Hegelian). The collocation family tradition in the BNC has a higher frequency of use (58) than in the COCA. The sources of the tradition are also more varied, from dynastic marriages, through joining the foreign service, or the military—Navy or Army—to, similar to the COCA data, family tradition in following parents’ profession.

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Table 13.4 Adjectival pride collocates (BNC) #

Collocate

POS (%)

A

TTEST

1

great

AJ

64.0

6.61

2

national

AJ

61.0

6.58

3

civic

AJ

26.0

5.04

4

hurt

AJ

20.0

4.43

5

wounded

AJ

18.0

4.21

6

Scottish

AJ

19.0

3.78

7

injured

AJ

13.0

3.54

8

fierce

AJ

10.0

3.03

9

Celtic

AJ

9.0

2.91

10

personal

AJ

16.0

2.88

11

professional

AJ

12.0

2.70

12

justifiable

AJ

7.0

2.61

13

racial

AJ

7.0

2.50

AJ

7.0

2.48

The symbols used in the collocation tables express Part of Speech (POS), absolute frequency (A) and TTest. See P˛ezik (2014)

13.7.3 Proud as—Similes Figurative language, particularly metaphor, metonymy and corresponding similes can be considered a reliable source of the derivation of cultural conceptualisations characteristic of particular communities. The present section presents and discusses the similes involving proud as generated from the COCA and the BNC, respectively. In both cases the similes employ sources, typically humans, whose position is higher than that of the speaker—such as king/queen, or animals considered superior in their kind—lions, eagles, or other animals proverbially showing their (hubristic) pride such as peacocks (proud of their magnificent tails) or roosters (proud of their posture and colours). Another reason is that the rooster ‘reigns’ over its hens, which makes him the highest in the hierarchy. It is interesting that in those latter cases, universal across a number of languages and cultures, the human erect, proud posture is metaphorically mapped (Goossens, 2002) on the bird’s posture. Unconventional pride metaphors and metonymies are not frequent in our data.

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Table 13.5 Tradition collocates #

Collocate

POS (%)

A

TTEST

1

religious

AJ

111.0

9.69

2

cultural

AJ

91.0

8.61

3

oral

AJ

65.0

7.70

4

long

AJ

133.0

7.59

5

Christian

AJ

67.0

7.16

6

literary

AJ

45.0

6.03

7

philosophical

AJ

24.0

4.54

8

ancient

AJ

32.0

4.48

9

intellectual

AJ

24.0

4.21

50

Anglo-Saxon

AJ

6.0

2.16

51

Celtic

AJ

7.0

2.16

Anglican

AJ

5.0

1.90

Gothic

AJ

6.0

1.79

…

… 73 … 79 … 83

elvish

AJ

3.0

1.72

84

bardic

AJ

3.0

1.71

85

regnal

AJ

3.0

1.69

86

Keynesian

AJ

4.0

1.69

87

scholarly

AJ

4.0

1.68

88

Hegelian

AJ

3.0

1.65

89

scholastic

AJ

3.0

1.65

13.7.3.1

COCA

Some of the proud similes are fully or highly conventionalised (proud as a peacock/lion/rooster/ eagle/ king/queen/(Greek) god/new ear of corn5 ): (17) A hundred and fifty graduates, proud as peacocks and unaccustomed to fine wines, could scarcely fail to provide a fight. (18) remembered his first sight of Arioch’s eyes. A lion’s eyes… Proud as a lion, too. And as lazy, sometimes.

5 It

may be worth noting that a comparison between pride and a new ear of corn is not universal across languages (e.g., absent in Polish), while most of the other similes listed in (17(–)24) can be more universally considered fairly conventional. The simile in (22), taking new father as a source concept, is fully motivated, though may not be conventionally present in all cultures.

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(19) Ashlyn to the hospital to see Meredith and the baby. Freddy had been as proud as a goddamned rooster. (20) On the rock, poised and proud as an emblematic bird on the shield of an Emperor, is a beautiful grey [eagle]. (21) The priests are as rich and proud as kings themselves. They challenge the Pharaoh’s authority every day. (22) Gil crossed his arms and beamed, as proud as a new father—sure, he had a stake in the place. (23) He had never known a woman like her, as elegant and proud as a queen when they were with the ton. (24) I was seventeen years of age, as fresh and proud as a new ear of corn and as green. Wearing varnished boots… Pride considered unjustified by the speaker can be marked by means of the as if construction: (25) ”This is good clean water. I boil it myself.” He looked proud as if he had made the water. A hubristic sense of pride is clearly identified by its co-occurrence with the clustering concept of fierceness, which is attributed to ‘anyone alive’, and, more idiosyncratic, evil, wickedness: (26) You are as fierce and proud as anyone alive, yet to claim your full power you must become wicked. 13.7.3.2

BNC

The British English cultural conceptualisations of pride uncovered by similes are congruent to a large extent with those in American English, both with reference to speakers themselves, to other males and females as well as in the process of producing metaphorical similes to objects (27). (27) the barn which, despite having lost its roof in a fire, survives as proud as many medieval castles and abbeys. While royalty and possibly noblemen are considered proud in both British and American cultures, the attribution of pride to Scotsmen, angels and (regimental) stallions, is identified only in the British data. Some of the most characteristic concordances in this category also concern the British positive opinion below issued with reference to America and American pride, which is both recorded in the BNC but also expressed by Americans priding themselves as observed in the COCA material: (28) There are few nations as proud as America, because few have instilled in its population the pride and glory of being a citizen of as great a nation as this (BNC).

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(29) And it’s—look there’s such energy now downtown. And we’re very proud as New Yorkers. We should be proud as Americans of our resiliency (COCA). While the COCA example is rather a hubristic pride (boasting) type, the British one is more ambiguous and less expressive. Although indicating ‘the pride and glory’ and ‘the big nation’, the speaker’s judgement is not unambiguous between positive and negative evaluation. There are relatively more proud as instances in American than in British English. The similes also more frequently refer to the speakers’ own (American) achievements, which supports the thesis that America has a more expressive (positive) politeness culture when contrasted with the more reserved British style.

13.7.4 Monitor Corpus Data The monitor corpora used in the present study (www.monitorcorpus.com) include data from daily media coverage of the UK and US press, TV and the Internet. Since the sources are identified with each of the concordance lines, it is possible to juxtapose the information generated currently from the British media with that from American sources. On the one hand, the current monitor data confirm the conclusions drawn from the BNC and COCA materials discussed above and, on the other, they also portray a current state of affairs, which reveals deep internal social and political divisions between British and American societies.

13.7.4.1

US Monitor Corpus Data

The dominance of the american national pride model, mixed with local patriotism, is striking in the data as, for example, in: (30) We are part of the United States and want to show a little bit of pride in it. news9.com 30/5/2017.6 However, further materials reveal a clash in the model. National pride, the leading source of pride in the USA, is also found to be ridiculed and rejected more often than before in some of the most current media, particularly in the context of Donald Trump’s presidency: (31) Hampshire have devoured Trump’s hour-long offerings of economic populism and unrepentant nationalism, all wrapped in promises to “win, win, win” and “make you so proud of this country again”. nbcfw.com 5/3/2016. Other sources of pride such as, for example, sport, particularly baseball, (American) football and athletics, prove to be strong in all the consulted materials. The role 6 The information following each of the monitor corpus examples (30–34) refers to the media source

and the date.

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285

of sport as a source of pride is observed to be equally significant in the USA and Britain, although in American culture it does give way to pride related to national history and American achievements. Some of the pride stimuli identified in the COCA corpus seem quite idiosyncratic from the perspective of British culture as, for example, the speed at which one shoots people dead: (32) A man who killed seven people in South Caroline told investigators after he was arrested that they would be proud of how he shot four people dead in a motorcycle shop in 30 s. news9.com 10/6/2017. 13.7.4.2

British Monitor Corpus Data

The current data from the British sources of the monitor corpus portray a picture generally similar to that of the BNC. Children are typically parents’ pride. Tradition is important for both US and British culture but its content is not identical. Traditionally what is considered good manners, which imply a rather less emotional attitude in verbal interaction both within family tradition and in public contexts, is a more important component of British culture as envisaged in the monitor corpus data. (33) We know the pride and tradition they bring to the table. […]. Continuing one of the oldest traditions, the family’s wooden Christmas sleigh—even older than the tree at 130—has been given pride of place outside the property. chronicle live.co.uk 8/12/2016. Sport, on the other hand, is a source of everyday pride in both cultures as is observed in the consulted media texts. Although less expressive in their judgements, the British data also involve a fairly critical outlook of the present British government, Brexit and contemporary politics. The social divide is similar in essence to that observed in the American context— although manifested in different issues—Brexit in the British case. The present social and political divide is equally strong in the British and American contexts, although it is expressed in a more covert style in British discourse: (34) […accusations…] the government’s negotiations had become an “embarrassment” after the talks appeared to break down over the question of Northern Ireland’s border. https://stv.tv/news/uk/5/12/2017. Embarrassment can be considered as an emotion that is to some extent the opposite of pride. Not only are the British not proud of their government in this case but, on the contrary, they were “embarrassed”. The style of the expression of this attitude is context-rich, implicit and fairly reserved.

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Table 13.6 Four highest proud collocates (combined), COCA COLLOCATE

FREQ

ALL

%

MI

1

I'M

3785

539516

0.70

4.33

2

VERY

2619

585480

0.45

3.68

3

AM

1279

149442

0.86

4.61

4

EXTREMELY

147

27660

0.53

3.93

13.7.5 Expressive Features of Language: Language in Other Emotions The survey of spoken data in the American COCA and the BNC provides some evidence concerning the higher level of expressiveness of American culture. Not only do American English users apply pride expressions more often and more intensely in discourse but other discourse strategies indicate their higher emotional expressiveness. First of all, although both Britain and the USA are considered individualistic, there are clear differences between them as indicated above concerning the role and function of context in their communication styles. Whereas the USA is a lower context culture, relying more on explicit verbal communication, Britain is a higher context culture as can be concluded from the analysis of the interactional data. Also, the relatively greater positive politeness of Americans vis-à-vis the British, which was noted above, is shown to employ different quantitative and qualitative characteristics of mitigating discourse strategies and moves. One of them is the use of the first person I’m very/extremely proud and I am proud, generated as the most frequent collocations in American discourse (COCA Table 13.6). Furthermore, out of a number of verbal expressive markers of emotions, identified by Argaman (2010), the use of Intensifiers such as never, the most, very, extremely, really is higher in American English, while Reducers [less, quite, a bit] are observed to be more frequent in British than in American English. The incidence of Repetitions and Synonyms is notably more prevalent in American discourse (e.g., (35)).

13.7.5.1

COCA

Chains of emotion cluster members and overt emotion words not only concerning pride characterise American spoken language of the colloquial variety as opposed to a more reserved, negative politeness way of expression, characteristic of British English. (35) COURIC: And I just think you must be pinching yourself, thinking every day ‘How did—how did this happen, and I’m the luckiest guy around.’ Is that how you feel? Mr-KINNEAR: A lot of pinching. A lot of pinching, Katie. Yeah. No, I do. I feel incredibly fortunate. I mean, I really have had some amazing good fortune. And as I’ve kind of gone through the broadcasting, I was very

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happy doing that and got incredibly lucky when Sydney Pollak gave a break with “Sabrina.” So I just—I don’t really quite know how to reckon it. But I’m extremely happy and excited to be at the place that I am now. The phrase I’m so happy appears in COCA 3013 times, while the frequency of I love x is particularly high in American English, reaching 37199 uses, and includes both nominals, gerunds and infinitives which refer to animate and inanimate objects, activities, properties and events as, for example, in I love my children/eccentric Johnny Depp/everybody/the cast/this movie/your dress/Cleveland/South Carolina/TGV/his bravery/to hear my child call me Mommy/to fish and snorkel/ watching the Brazil national team play. The expressive phrase I love you is also particularly frequently noted outside of the romantic context, used as an expressive signal of friendship and family attachment, as, for example, in a closing turn in telephone conversations: (36) good night. I’m going to bed right now. So I love you and I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Bye. 13.7.5.2

BNC

Compared with American English, we observe relatively fewer instances of the emotion expression so happy (265) in British English. At the same time, there is a higher frequency of use of this phrase in British data with reference to other experiencers than the speakers themselves, and it is used also more frequently with negation: (37) he had been quoted [to be] amused and content to joke about being nothing more than a flower bearer, but he was not so happy when it became a regular occurrence. The BNC record of I love x reaches 446 utterances, such as (38) I love the way she does that, she goes so stupid! (39) I love that! (40) I love it! The pattern involves such uses as I love the music/salmon/the cheesecake/gammon I do! The list of British spoken concordances with the phrase I love x includes only a few instances of I love you, which is congruent with the fact that corpus data collecting is typically a public activity, not conducive to private (romantic) discourse. American English speakers, apparently not only those recorded in our materials, on the other hand, are likely to consider this utterance more public and use it in a higher range of contexts. This can be considered indicative of the process of the conventionalisation of I love you as a familiar leave-taking formula in its expressive function. To conclude the survey of expressive speech markers in British and American English, the usage of the adverbial rather in the context of emotion expression is

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Table 13.7 Sample of rather concordances (BNC)

compared between American and British speakers. The use of rather in spoken COCA is less frequent than in spoken BNC (Table 13.7). Furthermore, the reserved nature of spoken British English is also signalled by the presence of rather in emotion-related contexts (enjoy, like, love), which is less frequent in American spoken discourse.

13.8 Conclusions The results of the studies present confirmatory evidence with regard to the communication differences between British and American cultures. The findings from the two methodologies overlap to a large extent in terms of expression juxtaposed to reservation, both due to the basic differences in American positive versus British negative politeness cultures as well as partly divergent traditional values. The high position of national pride is differently distributed across the two discourse cultures—own nation-centred in American English and a stronger emphasis on the national pride of others in British culture. The two cultures also diverge with respect to the place and position of religion. A more conservative American profile with a stronger ambiguity avoidance system values religious tradition more than the British. This might also condition a more explicit presence of machismo culture, virtually absent in the British style. Tradition in British culture is strongly linked to observing good manners, which is manifested by avoidance of emotionality and more reserved interaction. The analyses conducted on the GRID data show interesting differences between British and American pride that centre on features pertaining to expression versus reservation. Specifically, it was demonstrated that American pride is conceptualised by relatively more expression compared with the more salient element of reservation that characterises British pride. The finding that American pride is characterised by significantly higher power than British pride is consistent with this when one

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considers that the power dimension includes feelings of power versus weakness and appraisals of interpersonal dominance versus submission. The results on frequency of experience and social acceptance of American versus British pride are also in accordance with the relative salience of expressivity and reservation of this emotion in the two cultures. To be more precise, if pride is more expressed in American culture it is likely to be relatively more experienced. Furthermore, such expression suggests that pride, rather than being inhibited by societal pressure, encounters more social acceptance in this culture. From a Cultural Linguistics viewpoint, the more salient cultural schemas of pride in British versus American culture are those that are characterised more by reservation versus expression, respectively. The dominance of discourse emphasising national pride is striking in American corpus data. The use of richer and stronger lexis in the low-context culture, in which verbosity is observed in terms of the use of more frequent intensive modifiers, a lower frequency of hesitation markers (such as e.g., rather), a higher number of repetitions, immersed in a positive politeness style, which emphasises expressiveness, are the properties that differentiate the American style from the British one. In British English excessive expression of pride can be considered hubristic, which exhibits its more negative perception in this culture. Schemas of national pride and their manifestation in language are frequent in both cultures; however, pride is mainly attributed to descriptions of others in the British data. Although family pride and tradition are equally important in American and British English, they are more generalised and have a less individualised character in the British data, in which they refer rather to manners and observing traditional customs and tradition. The results further show that both British and American cultures are similar in terms of pride that is rooted in sport. Sports and sports achievements are clearly part and parcel of national pride in both nations. However, in discourse, less intense expressiveness markers and more reserve are observed in British English with regard to any act of pride, which is combined with the British negative politeness ways of more frequent withdrawal of imposing their opinions on the interactant and a less unambiguous and a richer context communication style, observed even in presentday, conflict-inducing political arguments. The language materials in British English pride metaphors and similes display significantly more frequent reference to older traditional British cultural symbols of historical significance, while the top-down Cultural Linguistics frame of reference, that is cultural models (Sharifian, 2017: 26), in American English are instantiated by the shared conceptualisations foregrounding the US significance and leading role of the country in the contemporary world. Acknowledgements We acknowledge the contribution of Yu Njiya in collecting the American data for our GRID analysis.

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Chapter 14

The Interplay of Blended Languages and Blended Cultures in Memes: Cultural Conceptualisations Used by Serbian Speakers of English Diana Prodanovi´c Stanki´c Abstract This chapter argues that cultural conceptualisations used by Serbian speakers of English may offer a deeper insight into the concept of English as an International Language (EIL). As in the case with other languages, EIL has been glocalised among the speakers of the Serbian language resulting in a whole range of profound effects that can be noticed both on the level of language and culture. In order to tap into the cultural conceptualisations underlying this specific language use, multimodal humorous discourse will be analysed, specifically internet memes. The analysis of interlingual examples shall offer a wider perspective on the blending of cultural conceptualisations and the preferred patterns of creating humour within a particular speech community. In the first part, the major implications of the glocalisations of English among speakers of Serbian will be outlined and in the second part, the focus will be on blending of cultural schemas, categories and metaphors. Keywords World Englishes · Serbian · Cultural conceptualisations · Multimodal humorous discourse · Interlingual wordplay · Memes

14.1 Introduction The Serbian language belongs to the Slavic language group of the Indo-European languages, and as such it has significant linguistic differences in comparison to English. Nowadays, it is (in)disputably considered a separate language from Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin, although all of these languages were regarded as one language, Serbo-Croatian, prior to the civil war and the breakup of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, spoken in the Southeast Balkans. Without going into this highly political dispute in reference to the differences between the specific languages that were created after the war, it must be pointed out that all of these languages, or in this case, Serbian specifically, have fallen prey to the influences of English, following the global phenomenon of integrating English into different spheres of language D. P. Stanki´c (B) University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_14

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use. Even though English is not an official language in Serbia, it is spoken by a great number of people and has a special role in everyday communication, which is an indicator of its “genuinely global status” Crystal (2003, p. 3). Following the concentric circle model developed by Kachru (1985), which groups countries into three circles in reference to the types of spread, patterns of acquisition and the function of English in each of them, Serbia would be placed within the expanding circle of countries. Namely, English has never had an administrative status among speakers of Serbian, but rather the status of a foreign language taught as an obligatory subject at all levels of education. It has been written extensively about many implications of this influence of English on various languages, as well as the processes that led to this influence (cf. Kachru 1985, 1997; Kachru et al. 2006; Görlach 2002; Crystal 2003, 2006; Jenkins 2007; Seidlhofer 2006, 2009, 2011; Sharifian 2009a), however, in this chapter the focus will be on the effects of the influence of English on cultural conceptualisations of speakers of Serbian. This chapter looks at the glocalisation of English in a speech community that has developed their own variety of English and blended a whole range of cultural conceptualisations, which can be seen in multimodal humorous discourse and interlingual wordplay as depicted in internet memes. Following Sharifian’s (2010, p. 137) use of the term glocalisation, this term will be used in this chapter to denote the process of appropriating and localising English in the given speech community. As Sharifian (2010, p. 137) explains, glocalisation originally referred to “the modification of a global product to meet local needs and norms to make it more marketable”, yet in this case, it can be said that there is a whole range of different contexts in which English can be applied, used or modified to co-exist with other languages and cater for specific needs and functions of its non-native speakers. The specific context in this case is the global Internet culture, or, to be precise, Internet memes, which will be defined at this point as units of information, ideas or mental representations, cultural instructions that are self-replicating and contagious (Taecharungroj et al. 2014, p. 152). Needless to say, English as an International Language (EIL) of computer-mediated communication is more often than not the language that is used in humour produced and shared on the Internet via Internet memes. Still, in her overview of the history of memes, Börzsei (2013, p. 172) states that in the new millennia, online memes are becoming more and more localised, introducing local languages and local topics or to add to this list: local cultural concepts. Online meme culture has also been glocalised, allowing people to talk about their local topics and some universal themes reflecting global culture with all of its elements. In order to tap into this complex phenomenon, an interdisciplinary approach will be adopted in this chapter, based on Cultural Linguistics (Palmer 1996; Sharifian 2011, 2017) and Humour Studies (Attardo 1994, 2001 Coulson 2001, 2003), so as to shed more light on the cultural conceptualisations used by Serbian speakers of English, as reflected in the Internet memes they share. In addition to this, the idea is to determine the role of EIL in the whole process. In the first part of the chapter, a brief overview of the most relevant previous studies and theoretical constructs will be given, then the methodology of this study

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will be further explained and finally, the results of the analysis will be discussed and some concluding remarks suggested.

14.2 A Cultural Linguistic Perspective on the Glocalisation of English in the Serbian Context Trying to describe the long-term effects of globalisation in the domain of language structure and use, Crystal (2006, p. 394) states that English has achieved a genuine world presence in the past three decades, receiving a special status in every country. Regardless of the term used: world, international or global English, or English as a lingua franca (ELF) (cf. Crystal 2003; McArthur 2004; Schneider 2007, 2011; Jenkins 2015 for subtle differences in these terms), there is hardly any linguistic community in the world that has not adopted English or used it for their specific needs. In line with Modiano (2009, pp. 60–61) and Jenkins (2015, p. 10), in this chapter the term English as a lingua franca (ELF) will be used because it best reflects the specific communicative situations of non-native speakers of English in this context, who use English more as a contact language among themselves than with the native speakers of it. For them, using ELF is “the communicative medium of choice” (Seidlhofer 2011, p. 7). Serbia is no exception in terms of the global influences of English. For the sake of classification, within the highly influential Kachru (1997) three-circle model, Serbia would be placed in the expanding circle of countries, since English has never had an administrative status among the speakers of Serbian, but rather the status of a foreign language taught as an obligatory subject at all levels of education. The sociolinguistic reality of the global spread of English has led to changes in the theoretical models that account for these influences both on the diachronic and synchronic plane (cf. Schneider 2007, 2011). Regarding the particular situation in Serbia, it has been written extensively about the influence of English on Serbian, on the lexical and semantic level (Pani´c-Kavgi´c 2006; Filipovi´c 2006; Pr´ci´c 2011; Mili´c 2013), or the pragmatic one (Miši´c-Ili´c and Lopici´c 2011; Kavgi´c 2013; Miši´c-Ili´c 2014, 2017). On top of that, Pr´ci´c (2014a, b) rightly argues that English is “the nativised foreign language (ENFL) in Serbia” with specific features that characterise its peculiar form and use. The initial research into World Englishes was mostly aimed at modelling the plurality of Englishes as well as at accounting for the peculiarities in terms of typically linguistic features; however, shifting the focus to Cognitive and Cultural Linguistics highlighted the interplay of language and culture and the expression of culturally motivated needs in English by different language communities. In their cognitive sociolinguistic approach to World Englishes, Wolf and Polzenhagen (2009, p. 2) point out the fact that “the common denominator of the World Englishes paradigm is a high heterogeneity of theoretical perspectives”. Starting from the premise that languages and their varieties mirror the cultural context of the speech community that

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speaks that language, they have highlighted the importance of cultural background knowledge and underlying cultural conceptualisations for the interpretation of lexical domains in World Englishes (Wolf and Polzenhagen 2009, p. 28). This premise is also investigated and further elaborated in Sharifian 2008; Polzenhagen and Wolf 2007; Wolf and Chan 2016. Drawing on the theoretical and analytical framework of Cultural Linguistics, the basic tenet in this study will be the assumption that culture-based conceptualisations underlying languages or language varieties need to be examined in studying any language variation since they are systematic and provide a better insight into the very nature of these variations. Sharifian (2015, p. 475) defines cultural conceptualisations as conceptual structures that include cultural schemas, cultural categories and conceptual metaphors. The insistence on the cultural aspect in this case extends the meaning attributed to these concepts in cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology in the sense that it stresses not just the individual level of cognition, but also the level of the cognition of the whole cultural group. As such, cultural conceptualisations do not have to be uniformly distributed across members of a cultural group, but rather they represent “networks of distributed presentations across the minds in cultural groups” (Sharifian 2011, 2017, p. 6). While cultural schemas capture beliefs, norms, rules and expectations of behaviour in a particular group as well as values pertaining to various aspects of experience, cultural categories are culturally constructed conceptual categories in the cognitive psychological and cognitive linguistic sense (Sharifian 2017, p. 7) as they are reflected in the lexicon of a language. Cultural metaphors represent crossdomain mappings grounded in cultural tradition, worldview or a belief system and they enable the conceptualisation of some abstract domains by the means of more concrete ones (Kövecses 2006, p. 116). Being cultural and not just conceptual in the cognitive linguistic sense, cultural metaphors imply culture-specific meaning and use that may vary across different languages and cultures (cf. Musolff 2017, p. 326). Cultural Linguistic theoretical framework provides a different perspective and a new insight into the study of World Englishes because it shifts the attention from the traditional and predominant territorial conception of World Englishes paradigm to the global and virtual space in which different cultural groups may and do share the same or similar conceptualisations despite different origin and background. Mair (2013, p. 270) also points out that the model used to account for different varieties based on the territory is becoming meaningless in the global world. Needless to say, computer-mediated communication and the Internet promote the creation of global cultural conceptualisations or blending of those that come into contact. This linguistic representation of cultural conceptualisations need not be unidirectional, quite the opposite: the varieties of English may adopt lexemes or pragmatic principles that are culture specific to the given community or vice versa. For example, Kirkpatrick (2014) maintains that the exploration of the ways in which World Englishes capture cultural norms and concepts is indispensable for intercultural communication. Similarly, Sharifian (2009a, p. 244) argues that EIL is a language of various cultural conceptualisations that can be communicated by the means of it. Language in this case has a dual role as it is closely related to the very development of cultural conceptualisations since by the means of it the language

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community constructs or reconstructs meanings and at the same time it mirrors the very cultural conceptualisations (cf. Sharifian 2003, 2017; Wolf and Polzenhagen 2009; Polzenhagen and Frey 2017). According to Sharifian (2016, p. 3), the glocalisation of English within various speech communities resulted in a new hybrid meeting space for cultural conceptualisations that are undergoing different kinds of changes. In the first place, English is used to express those cultural conceptualisations that were not before associated with English, which led to the development of new varieties of English. Secondly, AngloAmerican concepts and cultural conceptualisations have been spread and imported by other languages and cultures and finally, cultural conceptualisations are blended. This blending of cultural conceptualisations can be viewed in terms of Fauconnier and Turner’s (2002) Conceptual Blending Theory, as different cultural conceptualisations including, cultural categories, schemas and metaphors, originally associated with two distinct cultures/languages get into the generic space in which they are deconstructed and reconstructed into a new emergent output space, more often than not, involving compressions (Fauconnier and Turner 2002, pp. 312–325). These compressions can be easily detected in multimodal discourse that involves the visual aspect, as, for example, in the case of humorous memes, which represent complex multilayered combinations of image and text that stand for the blended or original cultural conceptualisations of the given speech community. Of course, the question remains as to how communication can be effective if the interlocutors share the same language (ELF) but have different cultural conceptualisations? This question is even more pertinent to the topic of humorous discourse, as it is known (Barcelona 2003; Antonopoulou 2004; Bell 2007; Prodanovi´c Stanki´c 2017) that humour is heavily dependent on both the given language and the cultural context and the intended humorous effect can be easily lost if the interlocutors are unable to rely on the shared cultural conceptualisations or knowledge of the language as a system. Before answering this question, a brief overview of the concepts relevant to humorous communication will be presented.

14.2.1 Humour and Cultural Conceptualisations: Internet Memes Even though the linguistic interest for humour is relatively new, humour is part and parcel of everyday use of language in any speech community in the world and represents an important part of their cultural heritage. In that sense, verbal humour can reveal a lot about the creative uses of playing with different levels of language structure or cultural scripts and extralinguistic context related to it. When it comes to linguistic research into verbal humour, the most relevant formal theories of humour vary from those purely semantic (Raskin 1985) or semantic and pragmatic (Attardo 1994, 2001), to more recent cognitive studies (Coulson 2001, 2003; Giora 2003; Wu 2005). Clearly, this complex phenomenon requires an interdisciplinary approach

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if we want to get a better insight both in the production and in comprehension of humour. It is very difficult to define humour for the very reasons mentioned above. Definitions of humour depend on the perspective and the analytical approach adopted to the study of this multifaceted and complex phenomenon. For the purpose of this chapter, Attardo’s (1994, p. 96) definition of verbal humour will be used: every kind of humour involves a certain degree of incongruity that has to be resolved in an unexpected way. If it is resolved by the means of a language, then the result is verbal humour, and if it is resolved by the means of a picture, situation, movement or an image, then the result is non-verbal humour (Norrick 2003, p. 402). Within linguistic theories of humour, it is argued that “all humour involves a semantic-pragmatic process activated by a (fragment of a) text and a violation of Grice’s Maxims and CP” (Attardo 2003, p. 1287). Nevertheless, in the present era, the Internet has become a major actor in the production and distribution of humour (Shifman 2014, p. 187) and multimodal humour is, as it seems, one of the most preferred forms of humour, as it allows playing with different semiotic modes. Stöckl (2004, p. 9) defines multimodal as referring to “communicative artefacts and processes which combine various sign systems (modes) and whose production and reception calls upon the communicators to semantically and formally interrelate all sign repertoires present.” Multimodal humour implies that the intended humorous effect is created using at least two semiotic modes, visual and verbal. Humorous Internet memes are a case in point in this respect: “an Internet meme is a piece of culture, typically a joke, which gains influence through online transmission” (Davison 2009, p. 122), integrating the visual part with or without any verbal message. Yus (2016, 2019, p. 106) argues that in the same way as we have explicit interpretations (explicatures) and implicit interpretations (implicatures) of verbal utterances, visual content also leads to visual explicatures and visual implicatures. Different parts of a meme may be foregrounded and made more salient than other parts, which, in effect, depends on the intention of the (anonymous) creator of a meme. As Yoon has it (2016, p. 97) not all Internet memes are humorous or intended to be funny, yet humour is a key component in many (Knobel and Lankshear 2006b). At the same time, humour is often used as a means to generate social commentary, because memes can reach people in no time, and ultimately, get attention from the public and raise awareness on a social practice or event (Knobel and Lankshear 2006b). Memes are extremely popular in the virtual space and in particular among the users of social networks as they can be easily created by anonymous users and used to distribute cultural information. Laineste and Voolaid (2017, p. 27) also use the terms cultural item and cultural text to denote memes, which they call “folkloric objects on the internet”. Grundlingh (2018) argues that memes can be regarded as speech acts as the Internet users create them for different purposes. Etymologically, the term meme is derived from the Ancient Greek word m¯ım¯ema which means ‘something imitated’. According to Davison (2009, p. 121), it was coined in 1976 by Dawkins (1989) who used it in reference to the distinction between genes and nongenetic behaviour. Shifman (2014, p. 4) develops this concept arguing

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that memes “diffuse from person to person, but shape and reflect general social mindsets”. Shifman (2014, pp. 122–123) also states that Internet memes can be either “forms of persuasion or political advocacy,” “grassroots action,” or “modes of expression and public discussion”. In this chapter, a meme will be regarded as a cultural item that underlies a specific cultural conceptualisation of the speech community that shares it in order to achieve a specific perlocutionary effect, i.e. to make the recipient laugh. Undoubtedly, this would turn out to be a futile feat if the recipients did not understand the language and the cultural context to which the meme refers. In other words, both the sender and the recipient need to be aware of the cultural scripts and schemas shared by the speakers of the given language, as each language community has its own preferred way of saying things (Kecskes 2015, p. 114) or joking (Antonopoulou 2004, p. 224). Yus (2011, p. 24) argues that the fact that we belong to a specific speech community entails creating and storing certain archetypical assumptions that represent a mutual cognitive environment that exists among the members of the given speech community. This also presents great potential for the generation of community stereotypes, which are, as it has been shown (Raskin 1985; Davies 2004, 2017) always proved to be a fertile source of humour. Within the framework of Cultural Linguistics framework, Sharifian (2011, 2017) points out that language is firmly grounded in a group-level cognition that emerges from the interactions between the members of a cultural group and that is exactly why humour that is not purely language based cannot function without the knowledge of cultural conceptualisations that are underlying it (Prodanovi´c Stanki´c 2017, p. 34). In essence, memes are conceptual blends in Fauconnier and Turner’s (2002) sense. It needs to be added that the mental spaces that get into this complex network need to contain cultural cognition and cultural conceptualisations. They are always aimed at (heterogeneous) groups of people, as cultural cognition appears to be a form of distributed cognition, in the sense that the cognitive structures whose interactions lead to emergent properties are heterogeneously distributed across the minds of the members in a cultural group, across time and space (Sharifian 2009b, p. 165). Due to its structure and the references to cultural concepts unknown to all recipients, not everything in a meme can be recognised by everyone as having a potential to create the intended humorous effect. However, the members of a given speech community who share the same language and cultural cognition and are able to identify the topical references will more often than not perceive the (subconscious) process of ‘unpacking the blend’ as a sort of a cognitive and linguistic challenge (even more so if wordplay is included) and for that reason funny. The number of likes or the popularity of a given meme can indeed may serve as an indicator that the author(s) of a meme have attained the intended effect.

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14.3 Methodology and Data Collection In the first stage, Google, a well-recognised online search engine, was used to allocate relevant sites that post memes using the search term ‘funny Serbian memes’. In addition to this, data for the study was collected by the means of social networks such as Facebook, since social networks are the most typical way of sharing memes in Serbia. The database used for this analysis was limited to 100 items, as this number seemed to be sufficient for getting an insight into the research questions. Some other similar studies in this field (Yoon 2016; Laineste and Voolaid 2017; Yus 2019) were based on approximately the same scope. This was a qualitative study. Only image macro memes were taken into consideration, that is to say, memes that contained an image and text, either at the top or/and at the bottom of the meme. Several criteria for selection were used in order to limit the number of items for the analysis; hence the following items were included in the analysis: (1) the meme encodes a recognisable element of cultural conceptualisation, well known among the speakers of Serbian, which was measured by a group of native speakers of Serbian and a group of native speakers of English. The cultural elements which a group of five native speakers of Serbian annotated as culture specific were then sent to a group of native speakers of English not living in Serbia, who annotated these elements either as familiar or unfamiliar. (2) the meme is transmitted online (e.g., popular Serbian websites dedicated to humour, social network sites such as Facebook, online discussion forums, chat spaces); (3) the meme combines both English and Serbian or refers to these two languages and/or cultures respectively by the means of the text or the image; (4) the meme was selected checking the numbers of likes and shares, which was determined by the number of likes, shares or comments, depending on the site; the memes that got most likes or were shared more than some others were considered to be highest-rated; (5) the meme is intended to be humorous. In this context humorous intention is regarded as a pragmatic feature and it denotes the aim of the author of the meme, in this case, to produce the given perlocutionary effect. Since the memes are created anonymously, in most cases, it is very difficult to determine the exact intention of the author. In addition to this, those who share the memes have their own pragmatic intentions (cf. Yus 2011), which may or may not coincide with the intention of the author of the meme. For the purpose of this study, Tsakona’s (2009) extension of Attardo’s (2001) Knowledge Resources (KR) that are described in the General Theory of Verbal Humour was used to determine the humorous intention, since it was assumed that if someone had created something to be humorous, his/her intention was to make other people laugh. Still, it should be noted that humour may have many different functions in a society, many of which are not funny as they deride and hurt other people (cf. Yoon 2016).

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Attardo’s (2001) first two KRs stand for Script Opposition and Logical Mechanism, which define humour as a result of some incongruity. Even though the definitions of the six KRs theory were questioned by some (Ritchie 2004; Hempelmann 2004; Morreall 2011), KRs represent easily applicable set of criteria to select instances of humour. Tsakona’s (2009) extended these criteria so as include both the visual and verbal aspect as a unique semiotic sign that may be used to express incongruity and resolution of it in order to create the humorous effect. In the second stage, the selected corpus of 100 memes was analysed applying the analytical framework of Cultural Linguistics (Sharifian 2017). Specifically, the concepts of cultural schemas, cultural categories and cultural metaphors were used to determine the way the meme, as a multimodal unit of analysis, reflects cultural conceptualisations of Serbian speakers of English. For the sake of analysis, these concepts will also be used in the process of categorising the data into three categories, even though in many cases the boundaries between them are fuzzy.

14.4 Results and Discussion In line with previous research on Internet memes and Internet culture (cf. Börzsei 2013; Shifman 2014; Nissenbaum and Shifman 2015; Yoon 2016; Laineste and Voolaid 2017; Grundlingh 2018; Yus 2019) the findings of this study show that memes are extremely popular, easily shared, remixed and recreated in different ways to amuse, make laugh, but also to criticise and inform by using humour. To this end, Laineste and Voolaid (2017: 44) stress the fact that memes have to be ‘playfully serious’ in order to become popular. Most of the memes in this corpus were created as a kind of a humorous and critical response to the affairs and problems in Serbian society, or some popular topics discussed in the media, including world politics, celebrities and similar. Judging by the data, the favourite topics among the Internet users in Serbia are politics and politicians, religion, celebrities, national stereotypes and sex. These topics are closely related to the prototypical humorous scripts that Raskin (1985) described in reference to typical joke scenarios: stupidity, ethnicity and sex. For example, following the trend of using the line of a popular song as a caption in an image macro, in order to play with the meaning of the lyrics of that song and the visual element that is changed in each meme, different kinds of incongruities can be activated, as in the memes given below (Figs. 14.1 and 14.2). These memes were created following the global trend: using the line of the song released in 2015, ‘This could be us’ performed by Rae Sremmurd, a famous USA hip hop band, and in this case, using culture-specific images. Sometimes the last part of the caption is changed, as in the example in Fig. 14.1, granting that the recipients already have enough contextual clues to relate the text to the familiar song. In memes in Figs. 14.1 and 14.2, the line is taken from the song that was a global hit, and in essence, it is about missed opportunities and things that this couple failed to do together, due to different reasons. At some points, the narrative structure in the song

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Fig. 14.1 This could be us but you’re not Serbian (Image adopted from https://www.memes monkey.com/topic/Serbian) Fig. 14.2 The infamous Yugoslav President and his wife (Image adopted from https://esmemes.com/i/thiscould-be-us-but-you-playin10824360)

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gets chaotic and unstructured as the narrator/singer mentions that he has taken drugs, so some of the references are quite absurd. Regarded as s a list of things the couple failed to do together, this song represents a generic model which can be used as a script filled in with specific details, foregrounded with the use of the modal verb could. In addition to this, the absurd elements represent fertile ground for creating incongruous mental spaces which result in humour in the final conceptual blend. In Fig. 14.1, culture-specific details that fill in the ‘slots’ of this generic hypothetical script are related to the orthodox wedding ceremony, in which, at one point, the bride and the groom get a blessing from the priest and get to wear crowns which symbolise eternity and Adam and Eve. The whole ceremony is very elaborate and special, and, as any religious ritual, performed according to some strict rules. The marital relationship is conceptualised as a unity of parts (cf. Polzenhagen and Frey 2017, pp. 598), which implies that both parts are ideally of the same racial, ethnic and religious background, as this is part of extended family’s expectations and tradition in the cultural cognition of Serbian speakers. The meme in Fig. 14.2 illustrates the late President of Serbia, Slobodan Miloševi´c (who was the President from 1989 to 1997), and his wife Mira Markovi´c. As much as he was a controversial and popular leader, his wife had a specific role in that period as a kind of grey eminence. In the first place, they were leaders and members of two political parties, socialist and hard-core communist. It was claimed that he was under the influence of her ideas and wishes, which, in the end, resulted in some political decisions that led to his downfall and extradition to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to stand trial for charges of war crimes. In the public, they presented their images of professional and career-oriented people who cared more about the well-being of people in Serbia then their own, even though many financial scandals and frauds were associated either with them or with their children. All of these elements of knowledge are part of separate mental spaces that are projected in the final blend, which juxtaposes all the historical events and facts to the laid-back attitude of the people in the image. In addition to that, it is implied that the powerful first lady of her time ‘just played’ and in that way affected the course of subsequent events. To illustrate and explain the interplay of the global and Anglo-American culture on the one hand and the local on the other, examples classified into three broad categories will be used, which are not clear cut, as it will be elaborated below, since memes as cognitive and cultural blends almost always integrate different aspects of cultural conceptualisations.

14.4.1 Cultural Schemas Making fun of traditional and Christian values is a very frequent topic of the memes that were analysed for the purpose of this qualitative case study. Serbia has been a Christian country since the ninth century: the dominant confession is Eastern Orthodoxy though around ten percent of the inhabitants belong to the Catholic and Protestant Church or they are Muslims. After WW2 and during the communist regime, most

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Fig. 14.3 Bringing home the Christmas tree (Image adopted from https://vukajlija.com/)

inhabitants declared themselves as atheists and had a kind of folkloric attitude to the Church. After the civil war in the 90s, and the founding of the national state, national political parties as well as the supporters of the monarchy started promoting traditional values. The traditions and the event schema related to celebrating Christmas are well known to the majority of the speech community: the Serbian Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar according to which Christmas is celebrated on 7 January. The prototypical Christmas tree that was brought into the house on Christmas Eve is/used to be a branch of oak, not an evergreen conifer as in the Anglo-American tradition, and usually the head of the family would get up early in the morning, go out, select the most beautiful branch and bring it home. The branch would be later burnt on a bonfire and according to the popular belief, the more fire sparks it produced, the better the year would be for the whole family. Of course, due to the global influence of television and media, in the past decades, especially in the urban environments, people decorate a Christmas tree in the West-European style at the beginning of the Advent season, although the Advent season as such is not part of the event schema related to celebrating Christmas in the Eastern Orthodox Church. - devi´ - c,1 the last heirFigure 14.3 depicts the Crown Prince, Alexander II Karador presumptive to the defunct throne of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In public, the - devi´ - c is currently the claimant to the abolished throne of the II Karador precursor Kingdom of Serbia. His father left Serbia at the beginning of WW2; after the war, the country changed from monarchy to federal republic. The Crown Prince returned to Serbia in 2000, hoping to re-create a constitutional monarchy in Serbia with the help of some political parties and the Serbian Orthodox Church.

1 Alexander

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Crown Prince is famous for his broken Serbian, although he prides himself on being a proponent of the Serbian national identity and traditional values. This is probably the most salient element of knowledge that is foregrounded for speakers of Serbian, since his lack of fluency in Serbian metonymically stands for his lack of devotion and commitment to Serbia, of course, according to popular belief. The text that is given below the picture is actually a hybrid mixture of broken Serbian and English (“Everything will be fine/[good] (misspelt as ‘gud’ following the spelling rules in Serbian) I am going to cut down a Christmas tree (in Serbian Badnjak, which is also spelt as to resemble the English word ‘bad’). This meme embodies a blended interlingual linguistic expression and the visual element that evoke the emergent blend. The emergent blend contains both the local and the global cultural schemes that are known to the speakers of Serbian and juxtaposes them in order to create the intended humorous effect. In a similar vein, the anonymous author(s) of the meme given in Fig. 14.4, make(s) fun of the global trend imported into Serbia to celebrate Valentine’s Day and Halloween, which was unheard of around 20 years ago. Nowadays, these holidays are part of the cultural cognition of the younger generations, who assume the given roles (give/buy presents, send cards, wear scary outfits and trick-or-treat, depending on the holiday).

Fig. 14.4 New year in Yugoslavia (Image adopted from https://EpicDemotivational.com)

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Interestingly, the cultural schema of Valentine’s Day in Serbia has been localised so as to include giving presents to everyone you love, not only the person you are romantically inclined to. Similarly, when it comes to Halloween, children who go from door to door to trick-or-treat tend to sing songs that used to be sung for Christmas, because in the Serbian Orthodox tradition, children used to dress up, go from door to door and sing specific songs to get some candy, apples, oranges and walnuts, but they did it on Christmas Eve, no one even knew what Halloween was. The meme in Fig. 14.4 shows exactly this incongruity in a humorous way, as well as the glocalisation of a cultural schema. The great majority of children who grew up in Yugoslavia in the 70s and 80s did not know anything about Halloween. At that time, during the communist and post-communist era, each child would get a present at its parents’ workplace. The quality of the photos and the costumes that Santa would wear were ridiculous from today’s perspective. In that sense, these photographs easily become a laughing stock and source of self-deprecating humour, especially for millennials and more technologically sophisticated generations. As it can be seen in the examples given above, all of these event schemas are in fact reconceptualised in Sharifian’s terms (2017, p. 9). Due to the blending of two distinct cultures, the global and the existent local are blended, and the emergent blend has some additional features that it did not have in the original form.

14.4.2 Cultural Categories In order to illustrate cultural categories, memes that are related to religion will be used for a specific reason. Namely, it is much easier to notice the modifications of categories, such as those related to the Serbian Orthodox Church, because they are generally governed and described by distinctive features, however, due to the impact of various factors, among others, global and popular culture, the public perception and conceptualisation of these categories is changing. For instance, both believers and non-believers have some common knowledge related to the hierarchical organisation of the Church or the essential attributes of the category ‘priest’ or ‘monk’. In the examples that will be given below, it can be noticed that the concepts of a cultural category and cultural schema are closely related as the schema accounts for the expected behaviour of the representative of the cultural category: in this case a monk. The meme in Fig. 14.5 features a retired bishop who was actually retired/defrocked, after he was accused of child abuse and paedophilia. This meme and a plethora of similar ones were extensively shared following the scandal that disturbed the whole society. The bishop did not stand a trial, even though it was expected, so the virtual space became an arena in which the anonymous creators of memes vented off their anger and disgust using humour to raise the awareness of people regarding this issue, as well as other issues that have been concerning the society. The caption in English in Fig. 14.5 metonymically stands for the global influences that were introduced in the Church, which the speech community perceives as

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Fig. 14.5 In a relationship (Image adopted from https://vukajlija.com/)

incongruous with the traditional organisation and the insistence of many representatives of the Church that people live strictly following traditional customs and models of behavior. In this conceptual blend, one of the input spaces includes orthodox and traditional values and expectations of behavior, which implies being absorbed in prayers and worship of God. On the other hand, there is an input space that includes the knowledge of the concept of a social network and the specific elements it entails. The incongruity in the expected behavior based on the original cultural conceptualisation and the actual, which has changed, leads to reconceptualisation of some deeply rooted beliefs. This reconceptualisation (Sharifian 2017) can also be related to specific stages of embedding Malcolm (2017) writes about. In that way, the highlighted elements of culture-specific knowledge, including the elements of knowledge related to the global culture are part of this meme. These examples can be related to Yoon’s (2016) analysis of manifestations of racism in memes that are originally intended to be funny, but which actually prompt dissemination of some socially unacceptable concepts. In order to account for examples such as these, Knobel and Lankshear (2006a, p. 86) use the concept of “counter-meming” as “the deliberate generation of a meme that aims at neutralising or eradicating potentially harmful ideas”. The meme in Fig. 14.6, depicts another interface between a network of possible and impossible worlds. The cultural schema related to the category of monks includes living in peace and harmony with God’s will and Christian values. These values are in the first place love, service to others, forgiveness, endurance, tolerance and kindness. In the meme in Fig. 14.6, these values are metonymically represented by an Orthodox monk and at the same time juxtaposed to violence, as he tries to get through a police cordon. Most of the members of the speech communities in Serbia will have the additional elements of knowledge that are related to the local context: antigovernment protests in Belgrade in October 2000 gathered thousands of people from all walks of life who were protesting again the totalitarian regime. Among the

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Fig. 14.6 Shaman level 81 (Image adopted from https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qj6Ie_ltyglm GNGc-qidnEMXJp8_aHmwtE2eNBHZACMFhyoqeMT3ru7cKUw9ffOkL5SG3Q=s109)

protesters were also some of the members of the Church, as they were also protesting against anti-constitutional activities of the regime. Besides these local and contextbased and culture-specific elements, this conceptual network includes a mental space that contains the knowledge of a globally popular video game. The caption below the picture in English in fact refers to the video game World of Warcraft, in which one can achieve a specific level. Shaman is a kind of character class that can be found in many role-playing video games and it is always used to denote a character that can enhance the combat skills and abilities of other players by using some kind of magic. In this particular meme, cross-domain conceptualisation is activated and its incongruity leads to humour. As it was already pointed out, not all of the elements that are integrated into the conceptual and cultural blend as represented by a meme are and need to be recognisable and understandable by everyone, since cultural conceptualisations and cultural models are not evenly distributed among the members of the speech community. However, activating some of these cultural models by the means of humour leads to bonding and creating some kind of a rapport among the members of a given speech community, as they can get involved in a kind of sharing their culture. As it could be noticed in these examples, humorous memes function as a means to activate cultural models: on the one hand the original and local and on the other the new and global ones. This activation is in essence a dynamic process, since the existing knowledge and cultural cognition is reconceptualised and modified to account for the new experience. At the same time, through these processes memes help people channel their anger, frustration, revolt, but also to express their ludic and creative needs.

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14.4.3 Cultural Metaphors It was already pointed out that memes are in essence conceptual blends and as such they usually imply more than one kind of a cognitive and cultural mechanism. Both of these processes are in a dialectic relationship. Humour production and comprehension intrinsically imply the individual level of cognition of the sender and the recipient, in this particular case when memes are concerned, but at the same time, most of humour in any kind of discourse is based on culture not just the language, and therefore it is inseparable from cultural cognition. In order to illustrate several cultural and conceptual metaphors at work in one blend, the meme in Fig. 14.7 will be used. The first lexeme in the caption in the meme is also a kind of a blend but in the linguistic sense. The neologism EUschwitz (in Ser. -švic) is coined using the acronym EU and the clipped last part of the name of the infamous Nazi concentration camp in Poland. The rest of the caption is in Serbian: logor sa 12 zvezdica (in Engl. ‘a 12-star concentration camp’). The overall message is quite clear: the author(s) of the meme expresse(s) a dual love–hate relationship towards the EU. The EU is something that is perceived as vibrant and colourful (hence, the blue flag in a monochrome photo) and something that those who are on the other side of the fence would like to have, as it might represent freedom. In Serbian society, the European Union is on the one hand perceived as an exclusive Western European club, for that reason it is metaphorically compared to a ‘12-star’ hotel in this meme, which is metonymically activated by the 12 gold stars in the flag. According to public opinion

Fig. 14.7 EUschwitz (Image adopted from https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPqljUeWgAAfy55?for mat=jpg&name=small)

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polls around half of the citizens would like to be members of it, hence the love-side of the relationship they have towards EU. On the other hand, Serbia is still in the process of being admitted to the EU. Those who are against joining the Union claim that this process is always conditioned by some painful choices related to the history and the cultural identity of the Serbian people; The wire fence visually highlighted in the meme stands metaphorically as a boundary for the specific category. As much as the other side of the wire represents luxury and a higher standard of living, it also may denote losing your own (national and cultural) identity and dehumanising the individual (the conceptual metaphor people are animals). This meme became popular and excessively shared at the time when Hungary built a fence to prevent immigrants from Syria and other countries from reaching the territory of the EU. Cultural metaphors activated in the appropriate context may be used to influence public opinion, the same way as humour. This becomes even more prominent by the means of blends created to have a humorous effect as people enter the public discourse in the virtual space laughing at the memes and at the same time sharing pieces of cultural products either locally or globally. For that reason, there is a critical need to reassess and explore the cultural conceptualisations that are involved in this media imagery, if an imagery is defined in terms of Palmer (1996, p. 3), who states that “language evokes imagery and requires imagination for its interpretation”. The humorous effect will be more pronounced if the recipient needs to invest a certain cognitive effort to unpack the blend. As the analysis indicates, language, or to be precise ELF, has an important role in activating and highlighting the processes of localisation and globalisation, since the use of ELF indicates either cultural cognition related to it, or it used to direct the process of meaning construction. The glocalised culture is far from being homogenous, as it is a result of hybrid blending of local and global cultural conceptualisations. However, both processes are crucial for entering a public discourse, even when it is not inter- but intracultural. In most examples, local cultural cognition is reconstructed and reshaped to embed global cultural cognition and reconceptualise some existing concepts or schemas. In the case of memes, this process is created both by the use of language and by the visual sign. The results of this analysis indicate that ELF in Serbia does not serve just to supplement the communicative need of the speech community, but it can be found either within Serbian, through borrowings and other usage imports, alongside Serbian or even instead of it, which is in line with previous research in this field (Pr´ci´c 2014a, b). Very frequently, English actually metonymically stands for the global culture or it activates this global cultural cognition known to Serbian speakers of English, or it is used to contextualise and enhance the intended humorous effect.

14.5 Concluding Remarks The purpose of this chapter was to address multimodal humour in online environment as exemplified by memes to get a better insight into the cultural conceptualisations

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used by Serbian speakers of English. As cultural artefacts of the Internet, they represent conceptual blends and a meeting point of blended cultures. Targeted at politics, political or other affairs in society, popular culture or any other topic, memes offer an insight into the cultural cognition of the speech community that shares them. Even though memes are often based on some universal scripts, they are not conceptualised in the same way in different cultures. Also, the inclusion of local cultural cognition, culture-specific categorisation of locally oriented topics is very often influenced by English as the lingua franca of computer-mediated communication and netspeak (Crystal 2006). As the findings of the study indicate, English is frequently used in memes for several reasons, but mostly to tackle highly sensitive or taboo topics, to increase the intended humorous effect or to trigger a process of reconstructing and reconceptualising the original, local cultural cognition, which results in new blended schemas that emerge. In this way, the speech community renegotiates the existing schemas and adapts to the influence of new, global ones, as was exemplified by memes that illustrate cultural categorisations or cultural metaphors. The use of two languages or just English in the Serbian context is a sure indicator of the emergent blended culture.

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Chapter 15

A Successful Business Negotiation is Resource Sharing: Investigating Brazilian and German Cultural Conceptualisations in ‘Conceptual Scripts’ Milene Mendes de Oliveira Abstract Leaning on Kachru’s World-Englishes theory, this chapter aims at showing how the analytical tool named ‘conceptual script’ fosters the qualitative analysis of cultural conceptualisations identified in speech. In order to do so, results of an investigation that looked at World Englishes in the Expanding Circle—Englishes spoken in Brazil and Germany—are presented. Data for the study was collected through interviews with German and Brazilian business people. The analysis of interviews involved the unveiling of ‘conceptual scripts’, described as conceptual traces which can be identified in a certain speech excerpt. Conceptual scripts are regarded as comprising conceptual metaphors and metonymies, conceptual blends, cultural schemas, image schemas as well as certain cognitive semantic phenomena. The study showed that conceptual realities—and not only surface-level linguistic phenomena, such as syntax and phonology—influence Englishes spoken in the Expanding Circle. The investigation also confirmed that conceptual scripts are a fruitful tool which deepens the analysis of cultural conceptualisations in that they show how conceptualisations relate to one another and how they are influenced by contextual meaning.

15.1 Introduction World-Englishes research concentrates much of its efforts on the investigation of merely linguistic aspects, such as grammar, lexicon and pronunciation. However, calls have already been made for the inclusion of conceptual research into the scope of World Englishes (e.g. Polzenhagen and Wolf 2007; Sharifian 2015; Wolf and Polzenhagen 2009; Wolf 2015). In this chapter, I argue that the analytical framework developed in the field of Cultural Linguistics (Palmer 1996; Sharifian and Palmer M. Mendes de Oliveira (B) University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_15

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2007; Sharifian 2017a; Sharifian 2017b), named ‘cultural conceptualisations’ (Sharifian 2011) allows for an investigation of culture that goes beyond the linguistic surface (i.e. structural features of language, such as morphology, syntax, lexis and phonology), as several studies have already proved (e.g. Polzenhagen and Wolf 2007; Schröder 2015; Sharifian 2011; Wolf and Polzenhagen 2009). The culturalconceptualisation framework leans strongly on emic construals, themselves linked to knowledge associated with speech communities. What distinguishes the work described in this chapter from previous work on cultural conceptualisations is the use of an analytical tool named ‘conceptual script’. The methodological procedure of generating conceptual scripts underlying speech excerpts allows the analyst to unveil the conceptual background of a certain speech event. This conceptual background is comprised of different types of cultural conceptualisations, which are regarded as related to speech-community knowledge (or ‘prior knowledge’ in Kecskes’ (2008, 2015) words) but also as connected with certain contextual characteristics of the speech event. The contextual leaning of cultural conceptualisations is regarded as deriving from the way they are linked by the speaker to other cultural conceptualisations and the way they figure in the speaker’s argumentation as a whole. In this sense, the highly embodied image schema path- goal, for instance, can be described as linked to contextual configurations that show that the ‘goal’ is often used to describe a person or a personal behaviour. In this case, in the present work, it will be labelled as path + people-oriented goal. Thus, the aim of this chapter is mainly methodological as I intend to explain what conceptual scripts are and how they can be used in the investigation of cultural conceptualisations in World Englishes. I lean on some of the results of a larger study (Mendes de Oliveira, 2020) in order to showcase how this analytical tool can be applied in investigations of language in use. The project described in Mendes de Oliveira’s, (2020) study was based on interviews in English with nine Brazilian and nine German business people. The interviews were transcribed and the cultural conceptualisations in participants’ responses were identified and analysed in depth. This chapter focuses on responses to the question ‘what is success in business negotiations?’. Two conceptual scripts (one from each group) were chosen by means of illustration. I specifically chose excerpts that show the use of several conceptualisations and illustrate their dynamic relationship with one another. This chapter is structured as follows: in Sect. 15.2, I briefly describe Kachru’s model ‘Three Circles of English’ and show how it can profit from research on conceptual differences between Englishes spoken in the Expanding Circle. In Sect. 15.3, I explain the notion of ‘conceptual scripts’ and show how they compare with other theoretical constructs found in (cognitive-) linguistic literature. In Sect. 15.4, I describe the methodological procedures adopted in my study (Mendes de Oliveira, 2020). In Sect. 15.5, I present two conceptual scripts of success in business negotiations. Finally, in Sect. 15.6, the main points of this chapter are summarised and the concluding remarks are presented.

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15.2 Investigating Conceptual Realities in the Expanding Circle World Englishes, as a field of studies, challenges the mainstream view that English refers solely to the language spoken in regions where it is acknowledged as the first language—as in the United States or Great Britain—and highlights the legitimacy of the so-called non-native varieties as well. Within the discipline, different models have been proposed that look at the landscape of the English language across the globe. Sergeant (2012) argues that the most influential of these models is Kachru’s ‘Three Circles of English’. This model features as the theoretical foundation in this chapter. Kachru proposes the existence of three circles of English, namely, the Inner, Outer and Expanding Circles (Kachru 1985). The Inner Circle consists of countries where English is spoken as a first language by the majority of the population and where English permeates practically all aspects of social life. The Outer Circle consists of countries where English was institutionalised in administration and educational systems, for instance, but is not the majority language. The Expanding Circle is composed of countries not directly related to English colonialisation but whose ties with the English language appear as a result of globalisation. Germany and Brazil can be regarded as part of the Expanding Circle. While a dominant trend within World Englishes’ research is the focus on Outer Circle varieties,1 the Expanding Circle is often investigated within the scope of another discipline, namely, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) (Seidlhofer 2001, 2004).2 However, the field of ELF assumes a different epistemological stance from the one underlying World Englishes (Mendes de Oliveira, 2020). The latter acknowledges the differences between varieties, and the former usually emphasises the successful negotiation of meaning by international interactants speaking English (for a critique of ‘successful negotiation of meaning’ as an interactional objective, see Wolf 2015: 446 ff). Because differences in cultural conceptualisations are highly important in the context of the present chapter, the World Englishes’ framework is regarded as its main theoretical foundation. Kachru (1985) states that the Outer Circle varieties are ‘norm-developing’, because the influence of other indigenous languages brings about ‘a conflict between linguistic norm and linguistic behavior’ (Kachru 1985: 17). That is, speakers take on norms of the Inner Circle, but also develop own norms in the Outer Circle Englishes. Varieties within the Expanding Circle, however, are ‘norm-dependent’, as their speakers usually refer back to Inner Circle varieties for norms. In Seargeant’s 1 See,

for instance, the English varieties presented in corpora, such as ICE and GloWbE. However, exceptions can be found (e.g. Bolton 2003; Xu 2010). 2 Seidlhofer (2009; 243), a leading ELF researcher, states that ‘though different in some respects, both [English as a Lingua Franca and World Englishes] are engaged in the same shared endeavour to understand and confront the sociolinguistic challenges of a rapidly changing world. This is why ELF merits acceptance as forming part of the wider WE research community, to which, I would suggest, it can bring fresh impulses and ideas in the continuing exploration of our common ground’.

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(2012: 151) words, ‘people learning English in countries such as Japan or Brazil are likely to use a standard British or American English as their target, and aspire to its norms of usage’. I hold that this assumption seems to hold true in many cases, especially when referring to pedagogical trends related to the teaching of English as a foreign language, but it does not ‘tell the whole story’. The understanding of the Outer Circle as norm-developing probably explains the emphasis, within the field of World Englishes, on the investigation of linguisticsurface phenomena, for instance, grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary and discourse styles (see, for instance, Mesthrie and Bhatt 2008 or Jenkins 2003). Wolf and Polzenhagen (2009), however, took a different perspective on aspects influencing varieties of Englishes and explored the cultural-conceptual level of African Englishes (Polzenhagen and Wolf 2007; Wolf and Polzenhagen 2009). More recently, Sharifian (2015) has made a call for the investigation of cultural conceptualisations within World Englishes. He argues that, in addition to the linguistic levels, cultural-conceptual variations should be taken into account when defining varieties of Englishes. Mendes de Oliveira (2020) builds on these reflections and highlights the importance of the investigation of cultural-conceptual phenomena in World-Englishes research in the context of international business negotiations. This chapter illustrates how the use of ‘conceptual scripts’ as an analytical tool can aid the World Englishes’ researcher in the investigation of cultural conceptualisations in speech excerpts.

15.3 Conceptual Scripts Cultural-linguistic and cognitive-linguistic studies on conceptualisation have mostly focused on one conceptual phenomenon at a time; mainly metaphors. While I do acknowledge the contribution of metaphor studies to deepening our understanding of cultural conceptualisations, in the present study, I support Quinn’s (1991) argument for the non-pervasiveness of metaphors3 and analyse different types of representations of cultural conceptualisations in language, which I consider to be equally valid and relevant in establishing the conceptual background underneath language in use. In the following sections, I argue that the analytical tool named ‘conceptual script’ (Mendes de Oliveira, 2020, 2017: 256 ff) can help the researcher unveil this conceptual background. Before I proceed to describe the notion of ‘conceptual script’, it is important to mention that, apart from the tools widely used for the investigation of cultural conceptualisations, such as metaphors, metonymies and cultural schemas (see Sharifian’s chapter in this volume for a description of each of those tools), I consider the cognitive semantic theoretical constructs of force dynamics (Talmy, 2000a), fictive motion (Talmy 2000b) and windowing of attention (Talmy, 2000c) to figure among

3 Although

I disagree with Quinn’s argument that metaphors might have only linguistic and expository roles.

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tools which can be used for the identification of cultural conceptualisations as well.4 Since, in this chapter, it is the phenomenon of windowing of attention that figures most prominently, a brief explanation of the concept is introduced in the following. Processes of windowing of attention can be identified within a certain event frame. Among the range of event-frame types presented by Talmy (2000c) (i.e. path, causalchain, cycle event, participant interaction and interrelationship event frames), the one that has proven most relevant to the present study is the path event frame. The path event frame leads one to conceive of a fictive path as a trajectory. The windowing of attention, according to Talmy’s framework, can be initial, medial or final. Another point of interest is linguistic information that is backgrounded, which accounts for constructions with initial, medial or final ‘gapping’. These are examples given by Talmy: The crate that was in the aircraft’s cargo bay fell – With maximal windowing over the whole of the so-conceived entire path out of the plane through the air into the ocean. With gapping over one portion of the path Medial gapping = initial + final windowing out of the plane into the ocean. Initial gapping = medial + final windowing through the air into the ocean. Final gapping = initial + medial windowing out of the airplane through the air. With windowing over one portion of the path Initial windowing = medial + final gapping out of the airplane. Medial windowing = initial + final gapping through the air. Final windowing = initial + medial gapping into the ocean. (Talmy 2000b: 266)

Referring back to the notion of a conceptual script, I define it as a holistic conceptualisation scene, composed of a set of source domains, within a speech or discourse excerpt (Mendes de Oliveira 2017; Mendes de Oliveira, 2020). The source domains in each of the conceptualisations range from image schemas (for instance, container or path- goal) to more complex concepts, such as a certain cultural schema. Cognitive semantic construals—such as the phenomenon of windowing of attention—help further specify the identified source domains. The main difference between conceptual scripts and isolated groups of cultural conceptualisations is that the former ‘tell a conceptual story’ in that they represent the conceptual and argumentative relationship between the source domains. Therefore, the generation of conceptual scripts 4I

am well aware that cognitive semantics is not committed to relativist assumptions but rather to a universalist perspective on cognitive processes. My view on this issue is that, even though the aspects described by Talmy seem to describe universal or near-universal linguistic processes, they are produced in culturally rich scenarios and gain, therefore, cultural meaning.

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during the analysis of interview excerpts was an important analytical tool for the study described in Mendes de Oliveira (2020). Similar theoretical constructs have already been presented in the literature. In the following, I show how the idea of a ‘conceptual script’ differs from some previous definitions, such as Schlank and Abelson’s characterisation of ‘script’, Musolff’s (2006) ‘metaphorical scenarios’ and Cameron et al. (2010) ‘metaphorical stories’. First of all, I should explain that my understanding of ‘script’ is to be distinguished from Schlank and Abelson’s (1977) famous formulation. The authors describe a script as ‘a predetermined, stereotyped sequence of actions that defines a well-known situation’ (Schlank and Abelson 1977: 41). In my definition, I consider conceptual scripts to be influenced by long existing cultural conceptualisations but not as a ‘predetermined’ set of actions. Instead, a ‘script’ refers to the activation5 (Müller 2009) of conceptualisations existing on the collective level in a certain speech community. The conceptualisations, identified and explained by the researcher, are put together in the form of a conceptual script. Another theoretical concept that bares similarities with conceptual scripts is Musolff’s (2006) metaphorical scenarios, defined by the linguist as a set of assumptions made by competent members of a discourse community about “typical” aspects of a source-situation, for example, its participants and their roles, the “dramatic” storylines and outcomes, and conventional evaluations of whether they count as successful or unsuccessful, normal or abnormal, permissible or illegitimate, etc. (Musolff 2006: 28).

What distinguishes metaphorical scenarios and conceptual scripts is the fact that the former seem to be more general, in the sense that a scenario can underlie various discourses. Therefore, they are more similar to the notion of an idealised cognitive model (ICM) (Lakoff 1987). By contrast, a conceptual script is an emergent conceptual ‘story’. It also happens to be influenced by one or more ICM(s); however, it is created online as speech is being produced. In this regard, it shows idiosyncratic arrangements and argumentative configurations that a metaphorical scenario does not seem to show. Cameron et al. (2010: 138–144) ‘metaphorical stories’ can also be considered similar to my definition of conceptual scripts. Cameron et al. (2010: 139) explain that a metaphorical story ‘recounts (rather than assumes), normally within a single text or discourse event, actions involving one or more participants in settings’. The analysis made of the stories told by participants takes into account the vehicle terms (which, in Cameron’s (2010) framework—the discourse dynamics framework for metaphor—refers, in some aspects, to the source domain in the conceptual metaphor theory paradigm) used by them. Apart from its exclusive focus on metaphors, the main difference in relation to my definition is that Cameron’s analytical tool applies 5 By

‘activation’, I mean a symbolic activation and not an activation of cognitive mechanisms. This activation is not necessarily conscious (in this respect, Müller (2009) argues that the meaning of ‘consciousness’ is still highly disputed in cognitive psychology; therefore, determining whether a conceptual metaphor is produced in a conscious way is not yet possible). The idea of ‘activation’ is inspired by Müller’s (2009) reflections on the topic, but I do not use the term in the context of sleeping and waking metaphors as Müller (2009) does.

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to stories only. In contrast, the scope of analysis of conceptual scripts is broader in that it considers any type of spoken production. This spoken contribution might include stories but is not restricted to them. In the interviews I conducted, the interviewees lean on narrative, exemplifications and comparisons in answering the questions posed to them. Thus, a conceptual script is a ‘conceptual footprint’ that a speaker leaves when producing utterances about a certain topic. This footprint is regarded as an activation of conceptualisations that exist in the speech community and is instantiated both in source domains and in the relations between them as shown as a result of the analysis of cultural conceptualisations. The researcher describes results in a schematic representation of the script (shown in Sect. 15.4). The analytical procedure of generating schematic representations aims at enabling easier comparisons of a set of conceptual scripts. In the next section, the methods used in my study are briefly described.

15.4 Methods The data presented in this chapter is part of a larger study (fully described in Mendes de Oliveira, 2020) for which interviews were conducted with nine Brazilian and nine German business persons who work in top- and middle-management positions in companies and organisations from different sectors (for instance, multinational conglomerates, high-technology machine engineering firms, industry-development agencies and software companies). Their duties revolve around business development, defined as ‘the tasks and processes concerning analytical preparation of potential growth opportunities, and the support and monitoring of the implementation of growth opportunities’ (Sørensen 2012: 1). Participants were recruited on the basis of convenience sampling (Dörnyei 2007: 98–99). The data used in this chapter refers to responses to the question ‘what is success in business negotiations?’ The responses account for 3,452 words in the Brazilian group (an average of 383.5 words per interviewee) and 3,266 in the German group (an average of 362.8 words per interviewee). The answers were transcribed with punctuation marks used in written language for the sake of readability. Grammatical inaccuracies in the excerpts were not corrected. For the analysis, I took into account the identification of the following phenomena: metaphors; metonymies; image schemas; blends; cultural schemas and also the cognitive semantic construals of force dynamics, fictive motion and windowing of attention (Talmy 2000a, 2000b, 2000c). The identified cultural conceptualisations were regarded as serving the basis of ‘conceptual scripts’ underlying the analysed excerpts. In terms of methodological procedures, first, cultural conceptualisations were identified in the excerpts, and later on described and classified. After that, I divided the cultural conceptualisations found according to three assessment values: positive (in which case the conceptualisation was used to refer to or in the context of positive actions, values and feelings related to the topic of success in business negotiations),

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negative (in which the conceptualisation was used to describe negative actions, values or feelings related to the aforementioned topic) and unspecified (when the assessment value could not be identified). Finally, I went back to each response given by interviewees and analysed the source domains in a qualitative fashion. This analysis culminated in the generation of ‘conceptual scripts’. In the following section, two conceptual scripts of success in business negotiations are presented.

15.5 Conceptual Scripts of Success in Business Negotiations The noun success stems from the Latin successus, etymologically linked with ‘advance’. The Latin verb succedere means ‘to come after’.6 Another early meaning is ‘to accomplish a desired end’.7 As made clear by the very etymology of the word, it is not surprising that the image schemas path and path- goal are very frequent in both the Brazilian and German interviews. The conceptual scripts described next show these and other source domains in interviewees’ responses to the question ‘what is success in business negotiations?’ The first excerpt analysed was part of an interview with B5. B5 works as a department head at a Brazilian development bank which provides long-term financing for projects that contribute to the country’s development. In the following, the response given by the interviewee is presented as well as the analysis leading up to the generation of the conceptual script in Fig. 15.1. B5: So, it’s a very good negotiation when we can deliver a very… a high quality service to the customer, something that will impact his business positively, but at the same time something that will make us… it must be profitable to be good for us as well. When we cannot be flexible enough to reach a good balance between the interests of both companies involved in the conversation, so when someone is not flexible or when a company cannot be flexible and … give up of some things in order to reach this agreement between the two companies, then it’s a bad negotiation. Actually, you don’t have a negotiation, you have someone giving the terms and that’s all. You just have to accept that. There’s no negotiation. To have a negotiation, you need to discuss and be able to be flexible and change your offerings, change some features of what you are offering, and then you negotiate.

B5 starts the response by highlighting the importance of providing good service. The metaphor underlying the expression we can deliver a high quality service to the customer is success in business negotiations is object transfer. As explained in Mendes de Oliveira (2020), the source domain object transfer can be further qualified as people-oriented object transfer (in contrast to task-oriented object transfer, as also found in the data described in Mendes de Oliveira 2020). The mentioned expression can be described as having maximal windowing of attention as it describes the whole fictive motion’s path of object transfer. The maximal windowing, thus, highlights the person orientation of object transfer, because 6 success, 7 success,

n. OED online. (accessed 10 October 2016). n. Etymonline. (accessed 10 October 2016).

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Fig. 15.1 Conceptual script of B5’s response to the interview question ‘what is success in business negotiations?’

it shows that the ‘object’ goes from a person to another. Another conceptualisation can be found in the use of the verb impact, which underlies the metaphor success in business negotiations is (positive) forceful collision. The adverb positively makes the positive assessment value clear. Another source domain recurrently used by B5 is surface structure or flexible surface structure (the adjective flexible is used four times in B5’s response). Therefore, the successful negotiator and the successful company are described as a flexible surface. Moreover, B5 relies on the metaphor success in business negotiations is balance (reach a good balance between the interests of both companies involved in the conversation). Thus, flexibility is a required configuration for reaching balance. As a matter of fact, the image schema balance is part of a conceptual blend which involves the path- goal image schema (underlying the use of the verb reach) and interests. In this sense, balance between the interests of the involved companies is a goal to be reached. Moreover, agreement in business negotiations is depicted as a goal on a path as well (reach this agreement). In these two cases, a negotiation is implicitly regarded as a path, which highlights its processual character. Finally, the expression someone giving the terms underlies the metaphor unsuccessful negotiation is object transfer. Note, however, that windowing of attention is only initial and medial (there is a final gapping), which makes it different from the metaphor success in business negotiations is people-oriented object transfer mentioned earlier (which had maximal windowing). The initial and medial windowing and final gapping point to the fact that it is only one person who is active in the process.

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The schematic representation shown above (Fig. 15.1) is aimed at helping the researcher visualise important cultural conceptualisations as well as the argumentative reasoning that supports them. In the case of cross-cultural research, easier intra-cultural and cross-cultural comparisons can be made. The next response was given by a German interviewee, G1. G1 is a product manager at a biomedical engineering firm. G1: Successful negotiations create a win-win. So both sides, after that, have the feeling that they made a good deal. And bad negotiations is everything else: win- lose; lose-win; or lose-lose. Um… When there’s something coming out that is good or beneficial for the company. And when I know that the other side made a good deal as well. So, I see that the deal itself was successful. But I also have to ensure a good relationship with the customer. For us it’s equally important. We have a high-tech product, our customers typically come back at a later stage to order more services, or generally order more products. So, for us it’s very important that we have a good relationship with the customers. So, sometimes I also have been in positions where we said: hey, we can’t help you. The customer would have… we could have convinced him to buy the product, but we felt it’s not a good match. It doesn’t deliver enough value to the customer, so, we communicated that to the customer. We didn’t sell; we had a good relationship with the customer afterwards. That at the end pays back. In terms… if the customer later on needs something, they come to you because they trust you. Or they refer other people to us because we have a trustful relationship with them.

G1 uses several resource sharing metaphors (win-win, win-lose, lose-lose, etc.).8 Moreover, the parties involved in a negotiation are described as sides. As argued in Mendes de Oliveira (2017), side underlies the image schema splitting, found to be typical among the German responses (and found to be closely connected with the cultural schema of sphere separation). Moreover, the metaphor business negotiation is container was also identified in the expression something coming out. Here, it is not the processual character of a business negotiation that is highlighted—as was the case in B5’s response above—but its structure. The negotiation interaction is conceptualised as path in I also have been in positions where…, come back, and come to you and the negotiators are conceptualised as positions on this path. The path is possibly a path inside the container (the source domain for business negotiation as explained in the previous paragraph). The conceptual script for this response is represented in Fig. 15.2. 8 In

fact, the expressions win-win, win-lose, lose-win, etc. were used in a bestseller by Stephen Covey, first published in 1989 and entitled The Seven Habits of Effective People. It seems that this was the book responsible for the popularisation of the expressions. This is how the author describes win-win: ‘Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win-win means that agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial, mutually satisfying. With a win-win solution, all parties feel good about the decision and feel committed to the action plan. Win-win sees life as a cooperative, not a competitive arena… Win-win is based on the paradigm that there is plenty for everybody, that one person’s success is not achieved at the expense or exclusion of the success of others’. This and the other definitions—namely win-lose, lose-lose, etc.—are strongly related to idea of dividing resources when people interact with one another. Note, however, that there are still tokens of ‘win’ and ‘lose’ metaphors that are related to other source domains.

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Fig. 15.2 Conceptual script of G1’s response to the interview question ‘what is success in business negotiations?’/N1 = negotiator 1; N2 = negotiator 2

As can be seen, apart from facilitating the visualisation of conceptualisations identified within a certain speech excerpt, conceptual scripts are able to show that even conceptualisations based on highly embodied image schemas (such as container or path) are often contextualised in very different ways by speakers, acquiring very idiosyncratic and context-sensitive meanings. The conceptual scripts resulting from the analyses of all Brazilian and German responses to the question ‘what is success in business negotiations?’ were crossed within each national group and the most recurring conceptualisations were presented as group-level conceptualisations of success in business negotiations, as shown in Fig. 15.3. Regarding the generation of conceptual scripts and the summary of the most recurring group-level conceptualisations, an important follow-up step was to try to connect the findings with existing anthropological and sociological literature about the German and the Brazilian cultures and societies. By doing so, I attempted to go beyond the task of establishing a list of conceptualisations and to show the motivations underlying the cultural conceptualisations. In the following, some observations on Brazilian and German cultures/societies are presented. Note, however, that these observations are very brief, because they are not the focus of this chapter. For a more encompassing description, see Mendes de Oliveira (2020). With respect to the personal orientation visible in Brazilian group-level conceptualisations, the Brazilian sociologist Holanda (1995 [1936]: 147) showed that, because of a patriarchal model of family in the Brazilian society, urbanisation took very unique characteristics that encouraged individuals to always refer to the domestic life in the

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Fig. 15.3 a Group-level conceptualisations of success in business negotiations for the Brazilian interviewees b group-level conceptualisations of success in business negotiations for the German interviewees

creation of models of social relationships, and this phenomenon includes relationships in the public sphere as well. In that way, even work relations are supposed to resemble, to a certain extent, affective family relations. By contrast, apart from conceptualisations based on task orientation, in the German group, the concept of boundary is salient. The image schema container underlies this concept. The image schema container entails not only boundary (or boundedness, see Wolf 1994: 171) but also protection or resistance to external forces (Johnson 1987: 22), structure and stability (Wolf 1994: 172). Gorski (1999: 72) explains that ‘throughout its history Germany has endured so many periods of turmoil and chaos, that it has learned to appreciate the blessings of order’.9 Along the same lines, Althaus and Mog (1992: 56) state that ‘since the Germans are prepared for the stability of their situation, they base their relations on this stability’.10 These brief notes on the Brazilian and German cultures were aimed at highlighting the fact that conceptual scripts are based on long-standing conceptualisations on the one hand, and open to contextual influences on the other. In the next section, the concluding remarks of this chapter are presented. 9 ‘Im

Verlauf seiner Geschichte indes hat Deutschland so viele Zeiten der Wirren und des Chaos erlebt, daß es die Segnungen der Ordnung schätzen gelernt hat.’. 10 ‘Da die Deutsche auf die Stabilität ihrer Verhältnisse eingerichtet sind, richten sie ihre Verhältnisse auf diese Stabilität ein.’.

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15.6 Concluding Remarks In this chapter, I attempted to define and illustrate the analytical tool named ‘conceptual script’. I argued that the generation of conceptual scripts can help the researcher identify not only cultural conceptualisations but also relationships between cultural conceptualisations as well as their contextual meaning. I illustrated the use of this analytical tool with examples taken from a larger study (Mendes de Oliveira, 2020) and showed conceptual scripts of success in business negotiations. The analyses of conceptual scripts of success in business negotiations as well as the resulting group-level conceptualisations confirm Sharifian’s (2011: 135) argument that speakers of English as an additional language ‘are likely to instantiate their cultural conceptualisations including cultural schemas in their use of English’. Looking at the matter from a World Englishes’ perspective, it is not only phonological, grammatical and pragmatic features of language that are influenced by the environment where English is used (becoming, therefore, Englishes), but cultural conceptualisations are also transferred from native languages and cultures to the localised Englishes. Acknowledgements This work was supported by CAPES—Coordenadoria de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—grant number 0705/14-4.

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Wolf, H. G., & Polzenhagen, F. (2009). Word Englishes: A cognitive sociolinguistic approach. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Wolf, H.-G. (2015). Language and culture in intercultural communication. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 445–459). Oxford/New York: Routledge. Xu, Z. (2010). Chinese English: A future power? In A. Kirkpatrick (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of world Englishes (pp. 282–298). London: Routledge.

Chapter 16

Cultural Conceptualisations of WITCHCRAFT and TRADITIONAL HEALING in Black South African English Herbalist Classifieds Arne Peters Abstract The present chapter embarks on the study of culture-specific conceptualisations in Black South African English. It is based on a purpose-built corpus of 300 non-redacted classifieds published in 48 consecutive editions of the South African Daily Sun newspaper. It carries out a collocational and conceptual analysis of titles and terms of address and respect as well as of witchcraft and traditional healing with a view to both traditional cognitive conceptualisation patterns and conceptual elements imported from Western and Eastern Africa in more recent times. This chapter illustrates how the analysis of classifieds can yield linguistic proof for a common cultural cognition of speakers of Black South African English. It exhibits shared cultural categories and schemas such as traditional healers are mediators between the spirits and the living and witchcraft is a powerful and reliable answer to all problems as well as conceptual metaphors such as learning as a journey with regard to the conceptualisation of traditional (South) African healers. This chapter delivers a case in point for the Cognitive-Sociolinguistic and Corpus-Linguistic methodological approaches to World Englishes.

16.1 Introduction This chapter presents a comprehensive Cultural Linguistic analysis of herbalist advertisements in South Africa. Based on a purpose-built corpus of 300 classifieds, it explores underlying cultural conceptualisations of witchcraft and traditional healing, providing a perspective on Black South African cultural cognition as surfacing in linguistic forms brought about by nativisation (Kachru 1965; Schneider 2007). All in all, this chapter provides a novel, usage-based approach to cultural variation in Black South African English (BSAE) by exploring the multi-faceted

A. Peters (B) University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_16

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interplay between language, culture and cognition as framed by Cognitive Sociolinguistics (see Wolf and Polzenhagen 2009) and Cultural Linguistics (in the sense of Sharifian 2015, 2017). The analysis of cultural cognition and cultural conceptualisations in this chapter relies on two main analytical frameworks, namely Corpus Linguistics and its quantitative methods that aim at uncovering salient collocation patterns (e.g. Leech and Fallon 1992; Baker 2010) as well as Linguistic Metaphor Theory and its qualitative objective of retrieving conceptual metaphors that are inherent in a given linguistic system (e.g. Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Kövecses 2005; Steen et al. 2010). From a World Englishes perspective, this chapter follows a paradigm similar to that established in studies such as Wolf (2001) on Cameroon English, Polzenhagen (2007) on West African English, Finzel and Wolf (2017) on Nigerian English and Peters (fc.) on BSAE as well as, more broadly, Malcolm and Sharifian (2007) on Aboriginal English, Lati´c and Wolf (2017) on Hong Kong English and Peters (2017) on Irish English.1 The empirical basis for the present analysis is a corpus of 300 non-redacted classifieds/small ads taken from 48 consecutive editions of the South African Daily Sun newspaper from the months of August and September 2016. The Daily Sun is a tabloid newspaper launched in 2002 in South Africa’s Gauteng province with the aim of offering an alternative to the “boring, serious, expensive, elitist, formal, difficult-to-read” newspapers already existing in the country (Viney 2008: 4). Its target readership predominantly are working and unemployed Black South Africans living in the townships/informal settlements (Viney 2008: 4), thus a population for whom English exists in an ESL or EFL context and for whom proficiency levels in the language are comparatively low. With a daily circulation of 206,804 copies in 2016 (Manson 2016) and an estimated daily readership of about 3 million readers (in analogy to PWC 2012: 176), the Daily Sun is by far the largest newspaper in South Africa.2 Given the socio-economic and ethno-cultural properties of its target readership and its aim of providing them “with stories they could relate to, issues they could identify with and information they could use and benefit from” (Viney 2008: 7), the newspaper can be regarded as a more than suitable candidate for any Cultural Linguistic analysis of underlying cultural conceptualisations in BSAE. Even though its overall content can be assumed to not be solely produced by speakers of BSAE— and by any circumstance not by basilectal speakers of the variety—it is undoubtedly directed at these, and with this it may be taken as being expressedly representative of BSAE cultural cognition. In contrast to the newspaper as such, however, the classified section of each edition is never redacted by any editorial staff,3 meaning that the language visible in the classifieds is an unfiltered representation of how the 1 For

a number of good cases in point, see, e.g. Wolf et al. (2017) as well as Callies and Onysko (2017). 2 It is followed by Isolezwe, an isiZulu-language tabloid from Durban, and Sowetan, an Englishlanguage tabloid from Johannesburg, with 103,899 and 90,165 daily readers in 2016 respectively (Manson 2016). 3 This insight was provided by a former member of the Daily Sun’s editorial staff.

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initiators of the ads make use of linguistic forms on the one hand and conceptualise certain semantic domains on the other. In the ‘Herbalists’ section of the classifieds, which is the empirical basis of the present analysis, the individual ads appear just as they were submitted to the newspaper, retaining linguistic characteristics such as, for example, spelling errors and/or variants, non-standard grammatical forms and individual idiosyncrasies as well as culture-specific (and/or domain-specific) fixed expressions and conceptualisations. The 300 ads in the SUN Classifieds Corpus with their 48,216 words thus provide an ideal basis for corpus-based enquiries into both authentic linguistic forms and, for the present analysis, their underlying cultural motivation.

16.2 Notes on Classifieds and Herbalist Advertisements 16.2.1 Definition, Content and Forms of Herbalist Advertisements In South Africa, herbalist advertisements are inserted into newspapers with the purpose of selling the services of traditional (or ‘retraditionalised’)4 healers, herbalists, sangomas, inyangas, (witch-)doctors, etc. to any reader of the newspaper desiring such services. They are printed in the ‘Classifieds’ section, together with a number of other categories directed at readers with special interests (Vestergaard and Schrøder 1985: 3), irrespective of the ethnic readership the newspaper is primarily targeted at. Just like other classifieds, herbalist advertisements are “monologic, written and not spontaneous” (Polzenhagen and Frey 2017b: 174) and aim at triggering a certain response on part of the readers (Raevskij 1997: 26). Herbalist advertisements in the Daily Sun usually appear in the second half of the newspaper or, in cases, in a special supplement inserted in the middle of the paper. They are rather numerous, with about 30 to 60 ads per edition, and they are quite diverse in length, ranging between 14 and 380 words in the corpus, with an average length of 161 words. However, there are two types of herbalist advertisements in the data, namely direct advertisements and testimonials, which exhibit somewhat different properties with a view to both content and form. (1) [phone number] BABA MDINGI ALL PROBLEMS R280 MY MUTHI IS YOUR ANSWER. I USE COMPUTER CARABASHI,BRING BACK YOUR LOST LOVER AND GET MARRIED QUICKLY, STOP YOUR LOVER FROM CHEATING ON YOU FOREVER USING MALAMBE POWDER AND CHIKONDI TO MAKE YOUR PARTNER THINK ABOUT YOU 4 Polzenhagen

(2007: 117) discusses ‘retraditionalisation’ as a massive revival of fundamental and common traditional concepts such as the kinship-based model of community and the role of the occult in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. It can be regarded as a term countering the notion of ‘modernisation’.

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ALWAYS, ENLARGEMENT ALL SIZES I USE CHITIWI OIL BABA MDINGI IS HERE TO HELP YOU, COME AND BORROW MAGIC STICK AND BECOME RICH, BOYS AND GIRLS, CHASE AWAY BAD LUCK, LUWI LANGO BOOST YOUR BUSINESS, JOB PROMOTION AND GET DOUBLE SALARY, KASAKA GET MONEY FAST, TO BELOVED AND POWERFUL RATS AND MBEWU TO BRING MONEY FOR FINANCIAL PROBLEMS. TRY AND GOOD RESULTS FROM KING KABINDE, FINSIH UNFINISHED JOBS SAME-DAY. PAY AFTER JOB IS DONE. I DO MAIL ORDER CONTACT ME ON [phone number] JOHANNESBURG Don’t be disappointed, please come and ask for help,i will solve your problem5 (_2016-08-01_ad_p22_col6_HERBALISTS_a13.txt) Direct advertisements as in (1) are usually written in a first-person singular form, i.e. one in which the author of the ad ostensibly is the provider of the service, or in a dissociated third-person singular form, i.e. one in which the service provider is being written about by an unknown and seemingly unrelated and thus “objective” descriptor. The content usually comprises (I) the name (and title/s) of the service provider, (II) contact information in form of a telephone number, a location and/or an e-mail address, (III) a description of (a) the services offered, (b) the mental, physical and/or financial ailments addressed and/or (c) the techniques/medicines applied, (IV) the price of the consultation and (V) an explicit invitation/demand to make use of the services offered. Direct advertisements account for about two-thirds of the herbalist advertisements in the data and are on average 132 words in length. Testimonials as in (2), however, while basically comprising the same content elements (I–V) as the direct advertisements, are written from a third-person perspective by a selfidentified purported beneficiary of the service provider and thus additionally include (VI) the name of the purported beneficiary/witness, (VII) the names of other alleged beneficiaries/witnesses as well as (VIII) exclamations expressing gratitude, praise and/or invocations. About one-third of the data are testimonials, with a mean length of 224 words. Of all the content elements only (I), (II) and (III) are present in all of the direct advertisements and only (I), (II), (III) and (VI) are present in all of the testimonials. The remaining content elements are used to varying degrees in only some of the classifieds. (2) WITH R150 ONLY BABA NTHENTHE MADE US RICH Its true that BABA NTHETHE is the secret to our success. My name is Mr. Johannes From Gauteng. My wife and I saw a testimony of Mrs Nomvuyo praising BABA NTHETHE for helping her become rich with only R150. We phoned BABA NTHETHE regarding the way we were struggling financially, he told us different ways how 5 The

representation of the classifieds in this chapter is mirroring all details of the original. No corrections or adjustments of any kind have been made, except for a change in line breaks in order to limit the extensiveness of the classifieds. Due to the abundance of orthographical and grammatical variation in the advertisements as well as for the sake of readability, the present chapter refrains from pointing out any such variants through the insertion of the otherwise common editorial remark ‘[sic]’.

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he can help us become rich quickly by using either lucky stick, Wallet, short boys or the rats. My wife and I choose the shortboys because we wanted the money urgently. We paid him R150 to start our job we didn’t waited long. As he promised we got the money in our house, we were so shoked to see so much money in our house for the first. After we counted the money we sent BABA NTHETHE his percentage. As we are testifying now we own some businesses here in Gauteng and also in Cape Town all because of BABA NETHETHE. To you all who are suffering dont think its the end of the word You can contact BABA NTHETHE no doubt he will change your lives by helping you to become rich just like us. And maybe tomorrow you too can testify your story here. BABA we salute you. Thank you. CALL: BABA NTHETHE on: [phone number] (_2016-08-01_te_p22_col2_HERBALISTS_a3)

16.2.2 Linguistic Properties of Herbalist Advertisements From a linguistic perspective, herbalist advertisements, both in form of direct advertisements and testimonials, have already been identified as ‘classifieds’, a phenomenon that, no matter whether discussed under the label ‘genre’, ‘register’ or ‘text type’ (see Polzenhagen and Frey 2017b: 174–175), involves “the presentation of narrowly focused information in texts produced under largely uniform spatial constraints and normally benefiting from ample planning time” (Bruthiaux 1996: 23). Linguistically, classifieds have been found to be characterised by higher degrees of linguistic simplicity and functional condensation, coming to light, for example, in less complex syntactical structures, lower frequencies of function words, higher frequencies of noun phrases, high degrees of abbreviations, formulaic language as well as a context-specific and purpose-oriented lexicon (see, e.g. Bruthiaux 1996: 23–26; Polzenhagen and Frey 2017b: 178). The success of this linguistically simplified, yet contextually condensed communication depends fully on the linguistic and cultural competences of both the producers and the receivers of the classifieds, i.e. it depends “on encoders making linguistic choices that are appropriate to the context and on decoders being aware of the encoder’s expectations in each context” (Bruthiaux 1996: 4). Herbalist advertisements clearly exhibit the linguistic properties shared by classifieds generally, such as lower frequencies of function words, higher frequencies of noun phrases, formulaic language as well as a context-specific lexicon. However, there seem to be differences between herbalist advertisements and other types of classifieds by comparison to other cultural settings on the one hand and between direct advertisements and testimonials in the South African context on the other. For example, Polzenhagen and Frey (2017a, b) analyse matrimonial advertisements in Indian English and British English, i.e. private insertions into media by individuals with the ultimate aim of establishing a contact with a view to marriage. If compared to one such ‘matrimonial’, as in example (3), herbalist advertisements as in (4) and (5) seem to be less condensed in that they are lacking abbreviations, measuring units

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and increased frequencies of punctuation, while generally exhibiting lower degrees of syntactical conglutination or ‘structural collocation’ (Bruthiaux 1996: 108). (3) W. B. BRAHMIN, 36+ / 5’-4”, B.Sc., DCA Computer, Govt. employee, Rs. 25,000, fair, handsome, Bharadwaj, own house, well-to-do, father rtd. C. G. employee. Brahmin brides required within 24 yrs., homely, Adebari, Graduate, well behaved. (taken from Polzenhagen and Frey 2017b: 178-179) (4) JOSEPH * Lost lovers, Lotto, money in your account PAY AFTER JOB IS DONE [phone number] (_2016-08-07_ad_p21_col3_HERBALISTS_a7) (5) 100% Guaranteed Herbalist BABA MUNGU Is Here with Powerful and strongest Muthi or Black Magic also we using Powerful Strong secret illuminate Spells to deal with any problems. Baba got powerful Miracle longest hand that does anything. Challenges those who tried and failed by other Doctors. Amagundwane, Khulisa, Indukup, Buyisaithandwa. Also Sidayisa Amafutha sendwana Oil. Call BABA MUNGO ON [phone number] COUNTRY WIDE My email address is: [email protected] Call me for a quotation (_2016-08-01_ad_p22_col4_HERBALISTS_a8) (6) 85 CHEVY Citation, 4dr, ps.pb, am/fm, tilt wheel. 49k miles--$1750 obo— 123-1234 (taken from Bruthiaux 1996: 109) (7) $400 BACHELOR APTS. Mid-Wilshire. All new, must see. Skylights. Art Deco bath, walk-in closets. Great view in elegantly restored 1920s building. Call … (taken from Bruthiaux 1996: 109) The same holds for the examples in (6) and (7), which come from a corpus of classifieds in American English newspapers (Bruthiaux 1996). The two ads, representing the categories of ‘secondhand autos’ and ‘apartments for rent’, resemble the matrimonial from India more than the herbalist advertisements from South Africa, with a view to both linguistic properties and length. Despite obvious differences in the degrees of ‘linguistic simplicity’ in the sense of both linguistic reductionism and functional convergence as described above, the sheer extensiveness of the South African herbalist advertisements seems to speak for somewhat different spatial constraints being at work in the South African context. For comparison: Bruthiaux (1996: 34) establishes a mean length of 20.1 words per ad in his ‘Classified Ads Register’ corpus of American English. Similarly, Polzenhagen and Frey (2017a: 26), in their corpus of Indian English matrimonials, establish a mean length of between 20 and 40 words per ad, depending on whether they appear in the Indian or the British component of the corpus and on the newspaper in which the ad is published. As established earlier,

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however, the herbalist ads in the SUN Classifieds Corpus on average are four to eight times as long, having a mean length of 161 words. Even though example (4) is by far the shortest ad in the SUN corpus, with its 14 words remaining well under the average of 132 words for direct advertisements, it does not show any degree of contraction or condensation comparable to that in (3), (6) or even (7). The same can be stated for example (5), which is syntactically more complex in retaining verb phrases and basic paratactic sentences, almost adopting a narrative tone in advertising its services. At the same time, it also features elliptical constructions and listings, properties that are shared by classifieds generally. While the inherent motivation for the linguistic differences between IndE and BrE matrimonials, AmE car and apartment ads and BSAE herbalist advertisements cannot be explored in full depth at this point, it is obvious that within the sphere of classifieds, all of the ads in the examples make use of the linguistic resources at hand to differing degrees, a fact re-linking to the question of whether all classifieds should be regarded as one ‘genre’, ‘register’ or ‘text type’ or whether each type of classified constitutes one such entity for itself (see Polzenhagen and Frey 2017b: 174–175). For an in-depth discussion of this issue, see Peters and Polzenhagen (fc.). In any case, the narrative characteristics exhibited by the direct advertisement in (5) are even more explicit in testimonials such as in (2) above. With a length of up to 380 words and an average of 224 words in the corpus, testimonials by far exceed the usual spatial constraints as dictated by the fees charged for each word or line of the ad. What is more, testimonials show all signs of ‘syntactic elaboration’ (Bruthiaux 1996: 88), including a clearly visible syntactic structure, clear boundaries between constituent phrases, increased frequencies of function words and syntactic relativisation and subordination as well as virtually no listings and abbreviations. The narrative presented in the testimonials shows a clear argumentative structure that is both causal and temporal, while including essential content elements of direct advertisements (as discussed above) that are needed in order to successfully sell the service implicitly–explicitly advertised through the testimonial. Despite their similarities in content, the linguistic elaboration as found in testimonials vis-à-vis direct herbalist advertisements is unusual, and even more so with a view to the other types of classifieds discussed above, all of which are much more classical examples for linguistic simplicity in classified advertising (in the sense of Bruthiaux 1996).

16.2.3 Cultural Knowledge and Herbalist Advertisements The discussion under 16.2.2 has shown that, from a linguistic perspective, successful communication in classified advertising is dependent on context-appropriate choices by the author of an ad in the encoding of information and an awareness on part of the reader, i.e. the decoder, of the expectations of the encoder in each context. While the location of an advertisement in the classified section of a newspaper certainly activates a cognitive framework on part of the receiver as to general expectations of

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the type of discourse at hand, the reader is required to integrate the encoded information into existing cultural models in order to successfully decode the content of the advertisement. This is why non-Black South African readers of the herbalist advertisements may find it difficult to approach this form of classified and to fully capture the content, scope and cultural relevance of the services offered. Polzenhagen and Frey (2017a, b) aptly demonstrate how this cultural relevance may be analysed utilising the Kachruvian notion of ‘contextualisation’ (Kachru 1965: 399). Along the lines of Cultural Linguistics, however, this chapter will adopt the perspective on how decoders of the herbalist advertisements are required to share in Black South African ‘cultural cognition’, i.e. a heterogeneously distributed form of enactive cultural knowledge that goes beyond the individual member of a cultural group, speech community or community of practice (see, e.g. Sharifian 2017: 3), in order to access and evaluate the information provided in the advertisements. These are rooted in underlying cultural models (e.g. Wolf and Polzenhagen 2009: 32–35) that need to be accessible for the reader in form of either active or passive cultural knowledge (Peters 2017: 144). In order to provide one form of ‘contextualisation’, the cultural models underlying herbalist classifieds will be contoured in the following.

16.3 Traditional Healers in Sub-Saharan and South Africa In sub-Saharan Africa, healers play a central role in both traditional and retraditionalised cultural contexts and they can be studied conceptually with a view to both their diachronic and synchronic cultural relevance. This relevance can hardly be doubted, considering that, according to official estimations, in sub-Saharan Africa approximately one person in a population of 500 is a traditionally trained healer,6 about three-fourths of the population make use of traditional medicine and an estimated 60–80% of South Africans consult a traditional healer before seeking the counsel or help of a primary health care practitioner (Truter 2007: 56). At the same time, Mander (1998, qtd. in Ndhlala et al. 2011: 832) estimates “that most households in South Africa spend between 4 and 6% of their annual income on traditional medicine and related services”. All of these figures document the cultural entrenchment of traditional healers and healing practices in South Africa and the underlying motivation for the advertising of the services of traditional healers in local, regional and national newspapers (as well as, for the sake of completeness, in the country’s digital media). In South Africa, just as in other parts of the continent, traditional healers go by a variety of indigenous names, depending on the cultural group that is being studied. The Zulu, for example, call their traditional performers of witchcraft isangoma ‘diviner’, inyanga ‘traditional doctor, herbalist’ and abathakathi ‘sorcerer, witch-doctor’ as well as umthandazi ‘faith healer’ or umprofiti ‘prophet’ (Truter 2007: 57–58; von Kapff 2011: 52, 64), with the latter two being conceptual blends between traditional healers drawing on ancestral spirits and Christian prophets 6 For

comparison: Only one person in a population of 40,000 is a doctor trained in “Western” medicine (Truter 2007: 56).

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drawing on divine powers. In a similar way, the Basotho speak of nkgekge/ngaka ‘diviner using bones’, ngakatjhitja ‘doctor without horns, not using bones’, dingaka ‘herbalist’, senohe/mokoma ‘psychiatrist’, monesapula/morokapula ‘rainmaker’ and moloi ‘wizard’ (Lenake 2016: 1–5).7 Each of these names comprises an inherent culture-specific set of categories and schemas, producing a network of conceptualisations that in English are usually (and rather insufficiently) subsumed under the denomination ‘traditional healers’. The variety of terms from only two of the many native South African cultural groups, however, indicate that the conceptual network around traditional healers is dense and multiplex. In an attempt at basic clarification, Richter (2003: 8) observes Traditional healers are generally divided into two categories—those that serve the role of diviner-diagnostician (or diviner-mediums) and those who are healers (or herbalists). The diviner provides a diagnosis usually through spiritual means, while the herbalist then chooses and applies relevant remedies.

Both diviner-diagnosticians and healers/herbalists, just as all types of traditional healers, are located at the interface between the physical and the spiritual world, with the diviner-diagnosticians tending to be more knowledgeable about the spiritual/supernatural world and the healers/herbalists tending to be more prudent regarding the physical/natural one. However, both generally possess spiritual powers, i.e. the capacity to perform witchcraft, and thus do not separate the two worlds from one another (Truter 2007: 57). Simply speaking, members of the community will consult a diviner-diagnostician if the cause of their ailment is still undetermined, but they will consult a healer/herbalist if their ailment has been uncovered and they are now in want of a concrete treatment or application. Accordingly, the services of all traditional healers are sought whenever there is the need for remedies of physical, mental and social ailments. They are consulted for communication with the ancestors of the family and/or the village (cf. Peters fc.), for counsel and guidance, for protection against malignant magic and demons as well as, under certain circumstances, for magical support in coming to terms with an opposer, a friend or any member of the extended community that poses a threat to any of the other members or to the community as a whole (von Kapff 2011; Lenake 2016; cf. Geschiere 1997: 50–53 for the West African context). As has been shown above, different cultural groups in (South) Africa may have various denominations for specialised healers, who will only deal with some aspects listed above and not with others. Culture-specific folk models regarding traditional healers and healing thus may vary greatly beyond Richter’s basic dichotomy as provided above. The most frequent denominations for (South) African traditional healers used in English somewhat reflect the conceptual complexity in that terms such as (traditional) healer, herbalist, diviner, (traditional) doctor, witch-doctor, witch, wizard, sorcerer, etc. mostly fail to capture the conceptual system behind sangoma, inyanga, 7I

am deeply indebted to Prof. Johan M. Lenake at North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus for generously sharing insights into Basotho culture and language as well as for providing me with excerpts from an as yet unpublished manuscript entitled ‘Basotho lore revisited’.

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ngaka, abathakathi, ngakatjhitja, dingaka, moloi, etc. At the same time, terms such as witch-doctor and witch are clearly charged with negative connotations,8 adding a problematic etic-evaluative dimension to any attempt at understanding conceptualisations and contextualisations of traditional healers in the (South) African context (see Polzenhagen 2007: 130; Lenake 2016: 5). Despite group-specific schematic differences, however, cultural conceptualisations of traditional healers in sub-Saharan and South Africa are invariably rooted in the kinship-based model of community on the one hand and tightly interwoven with the role of the spiritual/occult within this model on the other. Since comprehensive accounts on both the community model and the role of religion and spirituality have been produced (e.g. Mbiti 1990; Geschiere 1997; Wolf 2001: 275–299; Polzenhagen 2007: 117–147), the following will provide a concise working description only. According to Wolf and Polzenhagen (2007: 400), the African kinship and community model “involves a holistic cosmology”, in which the notion of kinship/community is central, comprising, on a horizontal/lateral axis, both the nuclear family, the extended family, the wider community as well as translocal, regional and/or national social units belonging to the same cultural group. The underlying conceptualisation of community is kin, however, does not only comprise socio-cultural units of the physical world, but also equally extends into the spiritual one. On this vertical axis, the ancestors of the house (the immediate family), of the village and of the cultural group as well as the gods (or God) also form a part of the community and, as top of the hierarchy, are regarded as actively intervening in the matters of the community (Lenake 2016: 1–5; Reeder 2011: 185, 190; Wolf and Polzenhagen 2007: 404). Traditional healers are located at exactly this interface between the physical and the spiritual world and serve as communicators between the community members residing in any of the two. In order to be able to effectively mediate between the physical and the spiritual, they receive the capacity to perform magic/witchcraft from the gods and/or the ancestors. Wolf and Polzenhagen (2007: 405) observe that the ‘moral matrix’ applied to the evaluation of witchcraft on part of the members of the community “is strongly derived from the values of the kinship model. Magical forces directed against the kinship order are thus perceived as negative, those that are in accordance with it as positive”. Thus, traditional healers are perceived as good if they are making use of their magical powers in order to diagnose or cure an ailment induced by witchcraft in the broadest sense, e.g. either as a punishment by the ancestors for any misconduct or by ‘evil’ members of the community, such as misguided healers, elders misdirecting their magical powers as well as witches, sorcerers and wizards9 (Polzenhagen 2007: 135–136; Geschiere 1997: 244). 8 Lenake (2016: 5) emphasises: “The term witchdoctor used for a Masotho ngaka is not only deroga-

tory, but also a misnomer. Two words with different meanings have been joint together to discredit our dingaka and the good work they are doing. The term might qualify for a moloi (wizard) whose main task is to bewitch people and make them unhappy in many years. The nkgekge does keep dangerous herbs to ward off the moloi’s onslaught.” 9 Polzenhagen (2007: 136) observes that the “common attribution of wisdom to the older generation is thus reinforced by a pronounced spiritual dimension. In the course of his or her life, a person is

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The three main aspects of the connections between the kinship-based model of community with the spiritual/occult thus are (i) the role of witchcraft with both its ‘levelling and accumulative function’10 in regulating wealth and power within the Black South African community; (ii) the central role of traditional healers as mediators, doctors and counsellors at the interface between the physical and the spiritual world and (iii) the horizontal and vertical organisation of South and sub-Saharan African socio-cultural communities, including a hierarchy of both natural and supernatural status and power. All of these aspects are relevant in the interpretation of the dense and multiplex conceptual network surrounding traditional healers in the (South) African context generally as well as in researching the above cultural models as represented in the SUN Classifieds Corpus.

16.4 Traditional Healers in the SUN Classifieds Corpus 16.4.1 Titles and Terms of Address and Respect In sub-Saharan Africa, the use of titles and terms of address and respect can be regarded as manifestation of the ‘kinship-based model of community’, as described in the previous section. Within the conceptual framework of community as family, titles and terms of address and respect are indicative of both vertical relations within one social network/community and horizontal relations within one social network as well as between several communities (Polzenhagen 2007: 125). Turner (1987: 55) establishes that these titles and terms carry “connotations of personal affection, of expected behavior, of rules of behavior, and of rites and duties”, i.e. “of affect, practice, etiquette, and obligation”, in anthropological terms. In the SUN Classifieds Corpus, these connotations and their underlying vertical relations within the traditional (and contemporary) South African communities are also present. They are addressed in form of expressions of respect from the domains of kinship/family such as (u)baba (IsiNdbele, IsiZulu ‘father; elder male’),11 (u)mama (IsiXhosa, IsiZulu ‘mother; elder female’), (u)gogo (IsiNdbele, IsiZulu, Siswati ‘grandmother; elder female’), (u)mkhulu (IsiNdbele, IsiZulu, Siswati ‘grandfather’; lit. ‘big/great one’) as well as in form of titles of social standing and respect such as chief , king (both English equivalents of, e.g. isiZulu inkosi, Sesotho kxosi ‘king, paramount chief’), doctor not only thought of as gathering experience but also, by virtue of moving closer to worldly death and thus to becoming an ancestor himself, as increasingly acquiring magical power and support.” 10 Geschiere (1997: 10) uses the terms ‘levelling’ and ‘accumulative’ in order to describe the ambivalent functions of witchcraft as potentially balancing socio-economic inequalities on the one hand and enhancing socio-economic status and power for some on the other. 11 The translations provided make reference to the primary sources of a term in the South African context, which does not imply that the term is exclusively used in the languages listed. Baba, for example, is also used in other African languages such as Swahili and Yoruba (Dalgish 1982: 15). All of the definitions and translations provided are taken from Dalgish (1982) and Steadman (2014).

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(English accommodation of terms such as isiZulu umphulukisi and Sesotho ngaka ‘doctor; healer’) and professor (as a label comprising various notions of sophistication as discussed under 16.3). Tokens of these can be found in every single classified in the corpus, both as self-references in the advertisements and as external references in the testimonials. In both cases, they seem to function as forms of contextualisation (Kachru 1965: 399) as well as both as emic legitimisation and inherent justification for the rightfulness and performability of the services offered. Titles and terms of address and respect express culture-specific vertical power relations in that they, on the one hand, refer to old age and the inherent perception of a person, in the course of their lifetime, not only “gathering experience but also […] increasingly acquiring magical power and support” (Wolf and Polzenhagen 2007: 406), positioning elder community members closer to the ancestors and, thus, more in reach of the spiritual world and its magical powers (Geschiere 1997: 244, Polzenhagen 2007: 136). Concomitantly, titles refer to perceptions of some community members having more authority due to higher degrees of ancestral transcendence and, thus, access to wisdom, spiritual/physical power and wealth (Geschiere 1997: 132–133). The conceptualisation of these community members as fathers with a capacity to lead and provide for their children is widespread (Polzenhagen 2007: 126–127) and it is among some of the cultural notions referenced to explicitly by one ad in the corpus. (8) DR ULENDO – NGIYATHWALISA UBENEMALI ENGAPHELI, ITHI BABA KUWENA. (‘Dr Ulendo – I use extra powers to make you have endless money, it calls you father’.) (_2016-08-02_ad_p1_col5_HERBALISTS_a6) There are four characteristics that make this example noteworthy: Firstly, the passage written in isiZulu is from one of the fewer ads in the corpus (thirteen in total) that contain lexical material in native South African languages such as isiZulu and isiXhosa beyond the level of individual lexical items, which generally feature prominently in the enlisting of magical plants, medicines and practices. Secondly, the passage activates the notion of vertical relations in the kinship-based model of community, with a view to both the healers possess spiritual powers and the leaders are fathers, fathers provide for their children conceptualisations. Any person possessing such an excess of money that even the money itself has to consider that person to be its chief can undoubtedly be accepted to be a powerful provider and leader, that is, a worthy father for any community. Thirdly, as part of the self-assigned name of the herbalist advertising here, the passage invokes the notion of ulendo (Swahili for ‘voyage, pilgrimage, travel’), pointing at the underlying conceptualisation of learning as a journey which is tightly interwoven with the life as a journey conceptual metaphor (e.g. Kövecses 2015: 9; cf. Kövecses 2010: 59). A title such as Dr Ulendo ‘Dr Travel’ thus references to experiences induced by both age and distance travelled, adding yet another layer in the expression of the adeptness, sophistication and power of the herbalist advertising. Fourthly, as a word rooted in the Bantu languages of Central and Eastern Africa (Dalgish 1982: 175), ulendo in the SUN Classifieds Corpus illustrates the connections between the various cultural groups of sub-Saharan Africa and the importing of some non-South African terms

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and/or concepts into South African herbalist advertisements. This is being done in order to emphasise the capability of the herbalist to perform the services offered on the one hand and to augment the notion of methodological versatility and peregrine sophistication on the other. Ndhlala et al. (2011: 834) observe that “healers from other cultures may be more appreciated than local healers and individuals from other cultures may be tapping into the ATM [African Traditional Medicine, A.P.] client base”. The underlying notion of ‘cultural hybridity’ will be addressed in the course of the discussion to follow (also see Sect. 16.4.3). The by far most salient title and term of address and respect in the SUN Classifieds Corpus is baba ‘father’, with 92 tokens accounting for about one-third of the titles used. It is followed by doctor (50), mama (34) and professor (27), each of which accounts for about 9 to 16% of the titles in the corpus. Five further items, namely mkhulu (19), chief (17), king (17), herbalist (14) and gogo (5), each account for about or less than 6% of all titles. In their entirety, these 9 items represent more than 90% of the titles and terms of address and respect in the corpus (as illustrated in Table 16.1). Other titles such as father, healer, herbalist, imamuh (Hindi ‘mother’), mister, mother, prophet, the great, titleless mononyms such as Abbibu, Abraham and Jali, as well as pseudoynms such as The Celebrity Brotherhood, have a frequency of less than five tokens per item and account for about 8% of the titles in the corpus. Despite being rather infrequent, some of these items hint at cultural hybridity in the classifieds. The status of titles such as father, mother, healer or prophet is ambivalent since they could entail various conceptualisations within the different cultural contexts on which the herbalist classifieds draw. Compare, for example, the traditional (South) African notion of a father (of a family, or community) to that of Roman Catholicism, the Black South African notion of a healer to that of Indian South Africans or the type of cultural and religious hybridity present in Christian prophets that are working to induce a shift away from ancestral belief systems to monotheistic religious models in traditional African communities. Table 16.1 Titles and terms of address and respect in the SUN Classifieds Corpus (Na ≥ 5) Item

Meaning

Source language

Na

N%

baba

father

IsiNdbele, IsiZulu

92

30.7

English

50

16.7

mother

IsiXhosa, IsiZulu

34

11.3

English

27

9.0

doctor mama professor mkhulu

IsiNdbele, IsiZulu, Siswati

19

6.3

chief

grandfather

English

17

5.7

king

English

17

5.7

English

14

4.7

5

1.7

herbalist gogo

grandmother

IsiNdbele, IsiZulu, Siswati

275/300

91.7

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As has been shown, the use of titles and terms of address and respect in South African herbalist advertisements has the function of both embedding the discourse at hand in existing community models and establishing credibility for the services offered. Both objectives are achieved through the cognitive activation of culturespecific conceptualisations associated with the titles and the subsequent resumption of some of the schematic knowledge thereof in the description of herbalist practices. However, the titles and terms of address and respect used in the SUN Classifieds Corpus deliver a good case in point for a widespread phenomenon in the herbalist advertisements, namely that of the blending of cultural models and references. Even a highly frequent title such as (u)baba, which is culturally and linguistically embedded in the South African context, is not exclusively South African, as it is also used, for example, in West Africa (Polzenhagen 2007: 127). While the notion of cultural hybridity will be addressed in 16.4.3, the following analysis and discussion will focus on conceptualisations that are inherent in both South African native cultures and BSAE.

16.4.2 Cultural Conceptualisations of WITCHCRAFT and TRADITIONAL HEALING Alongside the use of titles and terms of address and respect to express horizontal and vertical dimensions of the (South) African community concept, advertisements such as in (9) make reference to a great variety of cultural categories and underlying cultural schemas, both native and non-native to the cultural cognition of speakers of BSAE. This referencing is undertaken in order to facilitate the cognitive integration of herbalist advertisements into existing cultural models, with the ultimate aim of selling the services advertised and generating revenue. (9) BABA MALITHA And Mail Order [phone number] All Problems R200 Powerful Experienced Doctor who is back in the Country by Public Demand. My muthi is the answer. I use computer network to see your problems. Enlargement of all size.Use Mbungu Twa Oil see results. Bring back lost lover. Stop Cheating and get married quickly. Luwilango oil to make your partner think and dream about you every moment. Love Powder to get the lover of your choice. Come and borrow lucky stick, short boys, Amagudwane to het Rich. Woza Woza to boost your business. Chase away your badluck. Enemies and Tokoloshe Jail release job promotion and double your salary every month. Get Kalunga to bring money. Chipwanda to get money. Come to me for all your problems get good results. JHB / PTA Commissioner&Small Sameday Results Gauranteed Pay After Job is Done BABA MALITHA [phone number] (_2016-08-02_ad_p1_col7_HERBALISTS_a10) As illustrated by example (9), the services that are being advertised are numerous and usually comprise (i) economic-financial services, such as putting money in the

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account (224 tokens), boosting the business or company (201), being promoted or receiving a higher salary (197), winning the lotto or gambling games (132), clearing debts and loans (132), getting rich (115) or getting famous (13); (ii) love and sexuality-related services, such as bringing back lost lovers and fixing marriages (202 tokens), enlargement of body parts generally and fe/male external sexual organs in particular (wo/manhood, penis, breast, bum) (126), stopping the partner from cheating or abusing (92), getting divorced (65), getting married (57), increasing fe/male fertility (child*) and sexual stamina (bed, sex) (30) or bringing (back) good family relations (28); and (iii) magical-theurgical-ritual services, such as invoking short-boys (243), repelling evil spirits or Tokoloshes (83 tokens), disposing of or harm enemies (66), fending off bad luck (64) or communicating with the ancestors (17). All of these service offers are usually accompanied by the mention of different types of traditional medicines and active agents, either under the general label muthi (121 tokens) or in form of magic wallets (234), sticks (138) and rings (74), specific oils (169)12 and powders (66), as well as by making use of rats (102) and computer networks/calabashes13 (34), all of which feature more prominently in some ads than in others, depending on the length of the ad and the degree of detail provided.14 Despite the breadth of advertised services, it is noteworthy that the core expertise of herbalists, i.e. the act of healing illness/sickness itself, is directly addressed only marginally in the corpus (16 tokens). All of these services offered, together with the titles and terms of address and respect discussed under Sect. 16.4.1, root in and represent numerous native (South) African cultural conceptualisations as described, for example, by Wolf (2001: 275– 299), Polzenhagen (2007: 117–166) and Wolf and Polzenhagen (2007: 399–435), such as • • • • • • • • • •

kinship is community and community is kinship, fathers are leaders, community elders are persons of respect and authority, traditional healers are persons of respect and authority, persons of respect and authority are mediators between the spirits and the living, being a leader is having occult powers, ancestors are living beings, ancestors are community members, witchcraft is a means to obtain wealth, wealth is the result of witchcraft,

12 Only results for the lemma oil

are included here. Lexical items from languages other than English that may or may not refer to specific oils have been disregarded for reasons of consistency. 13 Spelling variants of this item include calabash, calabashi and karabashi and Carabashi. Whether it references to the Calabash vine found in South and West Africa or to the Calabash acceptance-test application used in computing cannot be established on the basis of the data. Both, however, may be plausible and applicable. 14 It is mainly in the descriptions of muthi where cultural hybridity becomes evident, which is why this aspect will be discussed again under Sect. 16.4.3.

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• wealth/success is a sign of witchcraft and • illness or death of a young person or healthy adult is a sign of witchcraft. Those conceptualisations addressing the causal relationship between witchcraft and wealth are especially central to the herbalist classifieds in that the promise of quick riches is omnipresent and seems to be one of the main sales pitches of the ads.15 However, the central area of contextualisation and cognitive integration within the ads lies in the description of diverse types of muthi, its envisaged impact and/or its potency and efficiency. It is in these descriptions that the herbalist classifieds show the highest degree of culture-specific reference, i.e. it is where the interlink between linguistic forms on the surface and their roots in the underlying cultural cognition is strongest. Some selected lexical items of the more salient ones will be illustrated and discussed in the following. Muthi This term derives from isiZulu umuthi ‘tree, shrub; plant’. It has been incorporated into the lexicon of South African English as a loanword to denote ‘traditional medicine’ in the broadest sense, including herbal substances and mixtures prepared and administered in traditional healing as well as magical spells and ritual incantations used in witchcraft. In fact, the term can be used to denote ‘witchcraft’ itself and refers to any treatment for real or imagined illnesses, diseases, etc. (Doke and Vilakazi 1972: 794; Dalgish 1982: 122–123; Branford and Branford 1993: 484–485; Ndhlala et al. 2011: 832; Reeder 2011: 189). With 121 tokens in the SUN Classifieds Corpus, the term can be regarded as salient. Within a search horizon of three words, muthi frequently collocates with answer within the fixed expression ‘My muthi is your/the answer’ (44 tokens) as well as with problems (8). This pattern shows a conceptualisation along the lines of problems are questions and muthi is the answer to questions, resulting in the underlying witchcraft is the answer to problems conceptualisation. Other frequent collocations of muthi in the corpus include strong* (10) and power* (8) in the left periphery and 100% (22) and guarantee* (11) in the right periphery, pointing at the reliability and the potency of both herbalist knowledge and witchcraft to be expected from the herbalist advertising their services. Hence the conceptualisation of witchcraft is a powerful and reliable answer to all problems. As indicated earlier, however, muthi denotes a vast variety of substances, mixtures, spells and incantations, which is why large shares of the herbalist advertisements can be regarded as referencing to muthi in the broader sense. (10) You will never disappoint in your life when you use my muthi. My muhti is your answer no matter how long your problem you fill pain. (_2016-0825_ad_p29_col6_HERBALISTS_a42) (11) Powerful &Experienced Doctor who is back in the Country by Public Demand. My muthi is the answer. (_2016-08-02_ad_p1_col7_HERBALISTS_a10)

15 The

promise of ‘same day’ results hereby occurs with 42 tokens in about 14% of all ads.

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(12) PROFESSOR DLAMINI & MAMA MAJOLA Swaziland Herbalist Strong & Powerful Muthi - Thank you Dlamini & Mama Majola, you are powerful. (_2016-08-19_te_p28_col5_HERBALISTS_a41) Tokoloshe This loanword in South African English derives from isiZulu utokoloshe, isiXhosa utikoloshe, Sesotho thokolosi16 to denote “a fabulous water-sprite or kelpy, supposed to haunt certain rivers, to be very fond of women, to be mischievous to people, and to be used by witches for nefarious purposes, and said to resemble a tiny, hairy dwarf” (Doke and Vilakazi 1972: 817). Tokoloshe is rumoured to entice children and “is believed capable of causing adults to commit evil deeds” (Dalgish 1982: 168–169). Interestingly, based on ethnographic research conducted among the Zulu, Berglund (1976: 280) establishes tokoloshes as an urban rather than a rural phenomenon, playing “a very important role in the minds of people”. This cognitive presence is also visible in the data, where the items tokoloshe(s) and short boy(s) (a fixed expression for tokoloshes, see below) occur with 53 tokens in 51 ads (17% of all ads) and with 243 tokens in 193 ads (64%) respectively, meaning that about 81% of the data make explicit reference to this phenomenon. Frequent collocations of tokoloshe(s) in the left periphery include enemies and (25), bad luck (15) and remove/chase/take away (14), showing that tokoloshes are overall conceptualised as something negative, undesirable and in need of riddance.17 Hence the underlying conceptualisation of tokoloshes are bad and need removal through witchcraft. This conceptualisation is substantiated by the analysis of the idiom short boys, which, as can be seen in example (14), interestingly co-occurs with tokoloshe(s) in some of the ads and which will be explained below. (13) Muthi to bring back lost lover,remove the bad luck, win Gambling and finish unfinished jobs,win money games and come out of jail. To chase away Tokoloshi, To bring good relation in family. Pay after jobs is done. (_2016-08-02_ad_p1_col8_HERBALISTS_a12) (14) Come and borrow wallet magic. Lucky stick, short boys to get rich. Get SOYA to bring money into your account and your house. *Woza-woza to boost your business. *Job promotion and double your salary every month. Get job of your choice. *Chase away bad luck, enemies and tokoloshe. *Remember your family future is in your hand. (_2016-08-02_ad_p1_col8_HERBALISTS_a11)

16 There is a variety of spelling variants, such as, e.g. tokoloshi, tikolosh(e), tokolossi(e), all of which

have been subsumed under this entry. contrast, the analysis of the right periphery does not produce any noteworthy collocational patterns. 17 In

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Short Boys and Rats As a fixed two-word unit, short boys18 is a genuine South African idiom19 (if not one found uniquely in herbalist advertisements) and makes reference to one of the many properties of tokoloshes, who have been described to be “of short stature” (Berglund 1976: 281), “in the form of a small man” (Dalgish 1982: 169). Ndhlala et al. (2011: 832–833) assess the advertising of short boys as “potentially dangerous and harmful” as they are “reportedly made from human body parts”, leading to “numerous ‘muthi-motivated’ uses of human remains in traditional medicine and ‘muthi-related’ murders”20 and, as a result, to an overall negative perception of traditional medicine. Frequent collocations of short boys in the left periphery include choose* (43), borrow/hire (32), use* (13) and get (12), while frequent right-periphery collocations include to (130), put* (73), bring* (35) and money (17), pointing at a conceptualisation of short boys as active agent chosen from a set of optional implements or devices that can be borrowed or hired with the aim of obtaining wealth. Given that short boys, just like tokoloshes, originate in the toolbox of witchcraft, it seems safe to assume that the source, effect and success of a short boy can all be ascribed to the processes of magic, hence the underlying conceptualisation of short boys are active agents in the acquisition of wealth, directed by witchcraft. The absence of lexical items of evaluation as collocations of short boys makes this fixed expression dissimilar to tokoloshes with a view to its usage patterns. Whether this difference in connotation is exhaustive cannot be fully established on the basis of the data at hand. (15) Borrow short boys and rats to put money in your account. (_2016-0807_ad_p23_col5_HERBALISTS_a42) (16) He asked me to choose among the option of choosing short boys which put money in my account he said I can choose any amount and I will pay him 10% after the job is done. (_2016-08-01_te_p24_col6_HERBALISTS_a49) As hinted at by example (15), short boys also frequently collocates with the item rat* (47 tokens) in both its left and its right periphery, making the two items almost identical in their collocational patterns, hence rats are active agents in the acquisition of wealth, directed by witchcraft. In the corpus as a whole, the item occurs both in its English form rat(s) and in isiZulu, sg. igund(w)ane, pl. amagund(w)ane, (Doke and Vilakazi 1972: 276), with 99 and 40 tokens, respectively.

18 Spelling

variants of this item include shortboys, short boys and short-boys, of which the most frequent has been chosen to represent the item in this paper. Another set of variants for this item include short girls and short women, which have 21 and 5 tokens, respectively. Since from the traditional perspective, female tokoloshes are non-existent (see, e.g. Berglund 1976: 280), these items have been included under short boys. 19 For a more detailed linguistic approach to idiomatic language, see Skandera (2003: 41–47). 20 On the notion of muthi murders and the legislative and legal challenges posed by them, see Minnaar (2003: 73–91).

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Tokoloshes, short boys and rats transpire as both culture-specific agents of witchcraft and salient concepts in South African herbalist advertisements.21 (17) Hire igundwani, ama shortboys, magic stick &wallet to magnetise money. (_2016-08-14_ad_p21_col8_HERBALISTS_a17) (18) Get rich by using Amagundwane short boys, magic stick. Ndondochandodo to put money in your account. Also have original sendawana kasenya that gives you any amount of money. (_2016-08-04_ad_p22_col2_HERBALISTS_a5) Witchcraft, Bad Luck and Evil Spirits As shown in the discussion of muthi, Tokoloshes, short boys and rats above, cognitive triggers of categories and schematisations associated with witchcraft are abundant in the herbalist advertisements. Generally speaking, witchcraft is presented as positive, given that the client-beneficiary chooses the allegedly ‘right’, i.e. the most experienced, technically skilled and powerful, provider of ‘herbalist’ services. Alongside this overall positive representation of witchcraft, however, the effective force of magic is also conceptualised negatively in the data, as has been shown in the case of the tokoloshes are bad and need removal through witchcraft conceptualisation above. Evidently, witchcraft can be conceptualised as either good or bad, depending on its underlying motivations and whether it is favourable/unfavourable for the community (see Wolf and Polzenhagen 2007: 405; Polzenhagen 2007: 135–136; Geschiere 1997: 244). Accordingly, lexical items such as bad luck (63 tokens), Tokoloshe(s) (53) and evil/unwanted/bad spirits (35) are all conceptualised as negative effects of witchcraft, which, thus, frequently collocate with lexical items expressing the notion of ‘removal’, such as chase/take away/remove (84). Whenever witchcraft (12) is addressed explicitly in the data, it saliently collocates with items such as remove (6) and protection against (5), further nourishing the underlying conceptualisations of bad luck, tokoloshes and evil spirits are evil witchcraft and evil witchcraft needs removal through good witchcraft. Interestingly, two of the ads in the corpus directly link evil witchcraft to the wrongdoing of abathakathi (isiZulu for ‘witchdoctor’), offering help in “binding your body and home for you not to be witched by abathakathi” (_2016-08-01_ad_p22_col3_HERBALISTS_a5 and, somewhat identically, _201608-01_ad_p22_col3_HERBALISTS_a6). While this direct interlink is not addressed anywhere else in the corpus, the causal link between negative witchcraft and witchdoctors such as the abathakathi in isiZulu or wizards such as the moloi in Sesotho has been well documented (see, e.g. Lenake 2016: 5; von Kapff 2011: 10; Dalgish 1982: 3; also, for the West African context, Wolf and Polzenhagen 2007: 222–223; Geschiere 1997: 50–60). (19) *Remove evil spirits *chase away bad luck and enemies (_2016-0804_ad_p23_col4_HERBALISTS_a26) 21 Other frequently occurring magical devices are ‘magic/lucky wallet’ (225 tokens), ‘lucky/magic stick’ (125), and ‘magic ring’ (66). Since all of these show to conceptualise as devices used in the acquisition of wealth, directed by witchcraft, without producing any new collocational patterns, they will not be discussed any further.

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(20) *Remove tokoloshe, witchcraft and badluck *Umuthi for everything (_2016-08-05_ad_p3_col5_HERBALISTS_a24) (21) protection against which craft. *remove bad luck and have. good luck for ever. (_2016-08-05_ad_p2_col6_HERBALISTS_a8) Woza-Woza Literally meaning ‘come-come’, this item is a compound noun derived from the imperative form of the isiZulu verb woza22 ‘Come!’ to denote ‘attraction, popular thing; attractiveness’ (Doke and Vilakazi 1972: 855–856). It has 49 tokens in the corpus and occurs predominantly with boost* and business as right-periphery collocates (38 tokens each), emphasising on the role of magic in ‘bewitching’ (cf. Polzenhagen 2007: 146) customers in order to make them abulically spend their money in the business of the beneficiary. (22) Woza Woza to boost your business. (_2016-0804_ad_p23_col1_HERBALISTS_a20) (23) woza-woza to attracts customers on your business (_2016-0807_ad_p21_col3_HERBALISTS_a6) (24) get woza woza magic for any business you have. (_2016-0801_ad_p22_col4_HERBALISTS_a9) Since the beneficiaries of the services offered in the herbalist advertisements, i.e. the readers of the Daily Sun, have been found to be mainly from lower socioeconomic status groups (see the discussion under 16.1), from their perspective, the application of witchcraft in order to seize wealthier people’s self-control to make them spend money seems permissible with regard to the levelling function of witchcraft (Geschiere 1997: 10), which secures an equal distribution of wealth among the members of the family/community. Family Direct references to family occur with 57 tokens in the corpus and they transpire to link both to the kinship-based model of community as well as the inherent notions of leading the family, providing for the family and, thus, nurturing the family/community. Frequent collocations of family comprise the possessive pronouns my/our (18 tokens) in the testimonials and your (10) in the direct advertisements as well as the notions of bringing peace, protection and happiness (15) to the family, releasing it from suffering and all struggles (8) and solving all family problems (6). All of these items emphasise on the central role of the target client of the herbalist classifieds in actively leading his/her family members (6 tokens) to peace and into a prosperous future (5). (25) I have my business, cars, house’s and my family is happy (_2016-0810_te_p15_col7_HERBALISTS_a28) 22 Again, several spelling variants exist, including woza woza, woza-woza, Woza-woza, Woza Woza,

etc. none of which seems to prevail in usage frequency.

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(26) Remember your family future is in your hand. (_2016-0802_ad_p1_col8_HERBALISTS_a11.txt) (27) Family reunion muthi -Stop fights and bringing good relationship in family. (_2016-08-01_ad_p23_col5_HERBALISTS_a31.txt) Ancestors As has been discussed above, ancestors in the (South) African context are conceptualised as being located in the supernatural world at the upper end of the social hierarchy. There are different kinds of ancestors for various socio-structural subgroups, such as the ancestors of the immediate family, the ancestors of the village and the ancestors of the cultural group per se, all of which are understood to continue existing despite them being dead and to actively participate in the day-to-day routine of the living community, hence the conceptualisations of ancestors are living beings, ancestors are community members and family is timeless (see Wolf 2001: 282–288). The communication between the members of the spiritual and the physical community is vital for all aspects of community life. This communication, however, may get disrupted, either by members of the physical community ceasing to remember, respect or worship their ancestors or by the ancestors intervening in any misconduct of the physical community in form of, for example, illness, bad luck or any other calamity, hence illness, misfortune and sin are humanity in discord with the gods and spirits (see Wolf 2001: 287). In such a case, diviner-diagnosticians and healers/herbalists are responsible for mediating between the ancestors and the rest of the community in order to restore communication and remedy any ailment or suffering inflicted, hence the conceptualisation of and persons of respect and authority mediate between the spirits and the living (see Wolf 2001: 285; cf. Peters fc.). All of the above conceptualisations regarding the ancestors are mirrored by the advertisements in the SUN Classifieds Corpus, where the herbalists advertising naturally claim to have the foremost skills to mediate between the ancestors and the rest of the community on the one hand and to ensure that the ancestors can fulfil their sustentative function as heads of the family hierarchy on the other. Overall, the lemma ancestors occurs 16 times in the corpus, comprising frequent collocations such as your (9), be given by/get from (9) and messenger of/demand of/intercede/swear to/talk to (8). Despite being low in absolute numbers, these items mirror traditional perceptions of the role of both mediators-diviners and the ancestors within the kinship-based model of community in form of the underlying traditional healers are mediators between the spirits and the living and ancestors provide for the community/family conceptualisations. (28) Dr mapanje wants you to come forward with all your problems, you ancestors will never let you suffer in your life, ask and they will help (_2016-08-04_ad_p23_col6_HERBALISTS_a30) (29) Did you see the money in your account, house or office that your ancestors gave you but you don’t have it. (_2016-08-04_ad_p22_col2_HERBALISTS_a5)

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(30) Financial problems get money quickly using your ancestors. (_2016-0807_ad_p21_col2_HERBALISTS_a3)

16.4.3 Notes on Cultural Hybridity As has been illustrated in the discussion so far, most content elements and conceptualisation patterns of the herbalist advertisements in the SUN Classifieds Corpus can be identified as South African in that they contain lexical items from both one of South Africa’s native languages and nativised BSAE. Also, they access underlying cultural conceptualisations shared by native South African and sub-Saharan African cultures. At the same time, there are also pointers to the notion of cultural hybridity in the herbalist advertisements, which come to light in three main areas: (i) in some of the titles and terms of address and respect used, (ii) in lexical items utilised in the description of muthi and (iii) in explicit references to the foreign origin and the supralocal and perambulated nature of the experiences of the herbalists advertising their services. In the discussion under Sect. 16.4.1, it was argued that titles and terms of address and respect are indicative of vertical and horizontal socio-cultural relations within or between sub-Saharan African communities and that they activate connotations of affect, practice, etiquette and obligation. Titles shared between the South African and West African contexts, such as baba, for example, thus, activate a range of cultural conceptualisations adhering to the traditional status and roles of fathers in local sub-Saharan and South African communities, including, for example, the fathers are leaders and fathers provide for their children conceptualisations. As much as these native titles activate traditional schemas, titles such as ‘Father Anton’ and ‘Mother Mary’, ‘Pastor Imuran’ and ‘Kulie the Prophet Lady’ activate nontraditional schemas, i.e. external schematisations strongly intertwined with different underlying belief systems, and actively link them to ‘traditional’ herbalist healing practices. This form of hybridisation or blending is further pursued in some of the classifieds, where explicit references are made to Christian concepts such as Holy Water (8 tokens) and God (7 tokens). All in all, however, this form of cultural hybridity is not salient in the corpus; neither is the reference to Hinduism, which occurs only in one title (Imamuh Gulu) and one recurring reference to Indian spirits (6 tokens), none of which is incorporated beyond the level of naming. While active links to Christianity and Hinduism are exceptions in the SUN Classifieds Corpus, it is in the descriptions of muthi where cultural hybridity becomes salient. Ndhlala et al. (2011: 834) argue that “healers from other cultures may be more appreciated than local healers” from South Africa, which is why large shares of the herbalist advertisements make a visible effort to stress the supralocal and exotic nature of their oils, powders, ointments and potions. Whereas the diverse cultural and linguistic origins and the occasionally opaque names of the muthi promoted render it unfeasible to discuss all lexical items here, the examples in the following will illustrate the general nature of hybridity in descriptions of muthi.

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As a traditional core area of herbalist expertise, references to natural-based muthi in form of oils (169 tokens), powders (66) and potions (3) features prominently in the corpus.23 The most frequent oils referred to, for example, are send(a)wana oil (25 tokens), luwilango/lulilango oil (18) and chamba(gu)/chambo oil (6); however, endless lists of other names for oils (and powders) are provided in the classifieds.24 Nonetheless, these three items aptly demonstrate the diverse cultural references in the South African herbalist advertisements as send(a)wana oil refers to the sandawan or elephant shrew, a mouse-like animal found in Zimbabwe (cf. Bulawayo 24 2013), Luwilango is the name of a small herb native to Southern Malawi (Morris and Msonthi 1996: 52) and Chambo is the denotation of a type of fish that is endemic to Lake Malawi and Lake Malombe (United Nations 1998: 104) in southeast Africa. Beyond the level of natural muthi, descriptions of supernatural powers and witchcraft, as discussed in detail under Sect. 16.4.2, feature items such as alima girls and kaluma boys (_2016-08-10_ad_p15_col1_HERBALISTS_a13), probably denoting ‘short boys/girls’ or ‘rat boys/girls’. Both are lexical hybrids of English and Kiswahili, a supraregional lingua franca spoken in large parts of central, eastern and southeastern Africa, pointing at cultural-conceptual influences from countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Mozambique. Thirdly, some of the ads include explicit references to the foreign origins, backgrounds or experiences of the herbalists advertising, such as in the following examples: (31) AMIM International Herbalist (_2016-08-04_te_p22_col2_HERBALISTS _a4.txt) (32) PROFESSOR DLAMINI & MAMA MAJOLA Swaziland Herbalist (_201608-19_te_p28_col5_HERBALISTS_a41) (33) BABA AGU FROM NIGERIA (_2016-08-18_ad_p23_col6_HERBALISTS _a13) (34) MAMA ASHANTI25 (_2016-08-08_te_p16_col2_HERBALISTS_a15.txt) (35) DR ULENDO (_2016-08-01_ad_p23_col8_HERBALISTS_a38.txt) (36) He’s powerful experience doctor who is back in the country by public demand (_2016-08-14_ad_p22_col2_HERBALISTS_a22) Especially the expression back in the country by public demand as in example (36) is a recurring element in the corpus (10 tokens) and, once again, underlines the importance of peregrine experiences in becoming the most sophisticated herbalist. All in all, pointers to cultural hybridity in the SUN classifieds, such as the ones illustrated 23 In some cases, herbalists classifieds also feature references to “numerous ‘muthi-motivated’ uses of human remains” (Ndhlala et al. 2011: 833), which, due to the multicultural and multilingual nature of the descriptions of muthi in the corpus, are difficult to detect and distinguish. 24 Recurring denotations for oils include ajana, amalitoli, amedi, bungutwa, chimanga, chisoni, chitaka, chitimbe, chome, dawana, ganga, indwandwa, jinn, katunga, katogo, liu, mbungutwa, roke, sauda, suka, twa, uchi, woza, zam. Names for powders include chinyamata, kakonokono, kawente, kawena, kawongo, ligando, likwanya, malambe, massamba, mussa, upile, woza woza, amongst others. 25 Making reference to the Ashanti region in Ghana.

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above, are frequent and lend themselves to a more detailed and multi-centric analysis in future.

16.5 Conclusions The picture that has emerged from the analysis of BSAE herbalist advertisements makes a multi-layered contribution to Cultural Linguistic explorations of World Englishes based on Cognitive Sociolinguistic principles. Through its corpus-driven and usage-based approach, the analysis has produced lexico-semantic evidence for both nativisation and contextualisation in BSAE. At the same time, it has dissected a number of selected lexical items, their collocations as well as underlying conceptual patterns in order to deliver evidentiary proof for culturally induced linguistic variation in one variety of English as well as for an underlying organisation of thought and meaning that can be regarded as an integral part of BSAE cultural cognition. The common cognitive ground of speakers of this variety of English in South Africa can hardly be questioned in the light of how cultural conceptualisations are being actively addressed, i.e. commercially targeted, in classified advertising. The more accurate relevant cultural models are represented in the herbalist advertisements, the more comprehensible and trustworthy these adverts are for potential customers from within the cultural group. However, the analysis has produced patterns with regard to BSAE herbalist advertising that show some degree of cognitive amalgamation of categories and schemas that are culturally diverse and have been traditionally distinguished from one another. For example, representations of diverse forms of witchcraft and muthi, such as Tokoloshes, short boys, rats and woza-woza, while being rooted in cultural models of traditional healing, have all shown to be converging schematically in one executor called ‘herbalist’. Traditional distinctions between categories such as diviner, healer, witch and wizard, thus, seem to collapse into one central figure, who, as a consequence, performs both positive and negative witchcraft, without any apparent cultural, ethical and/or moral boundaries between traditionally permissible and prohibited actions. This amalgamation process may be interpreted as an outcome of the ‘massive revival of the occult’, which is one of the many tendencies in retraditionalisation (Polzenhagen 2007: 117), with a view to both rural and urban communities in South Africa and both educated and uneducated members of society (Ndhlala et al. 2011: 831). While amalgamation and non-distinction may or may not speak for a general ‘renegotiation of cultural conceptualisations’ of witchcraft and traditional healing being in progress (cf. Sharifian 2015: 5), their presence can certainly be regarded as problematic since the evaluation of potential risks and dangers becomes impossible for the claimants of the services. Ndhlala et al. (2011: 833) point out that most of the services advertised are at least “doubtful”, but also “potentially dangerous and harmful”, as in the case of abortions, creatures made from human body parts and magic sticks. Despite largely sharing the concerns raised with a view to the economic dimensions of herbalist classifieds generally, this chapter’s main objective was to provide insights into underlying cognitive and conceptual

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patterns of BSAE herbalist advertising, utilising the analytical tools provided by Cultural Linguistics, Cognitive Sociolinguistics and Corpus Linguistics.

References Baker, P. (2010). Sociolinguistics and corpus linguistics. Edinburgh University Press. Berglund, A. I. (1976). Zulu thought-patterns and symbolism. London: Hurst & Co., Publishers. Branford, J., & Branford, W. (1993). A dictionary of South African English. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. Bruthiaux, P. (1996). The discourse of classified advertising: Exploring the nature of linguistic simplicity. Oxford University Press on Demand. Bulawayo 24 News (2013). Chitungwiza explosion caused by ‘sandawana’, traditional healer explains. https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-africa-byo-25346-article-Chitungwiza+exp losion+caused+by+. Accessed 27 June 2018. Callies, M., & Onysko, A. (2017). Metaphor variation in Englishes around the world. Cognitive Linguistic Studies, 4(1). Dalgish, G. M. (1982). A dictionary of Africanisms: contributions of sub-saharan Africa to the English language. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. Doke, C. M., & Vilakazi, B. W. (1972). Zulu-English Dictionary. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. Finzel, A., & Wolf, H.-G. (2017). Cultural conceptualizations of gender and homosexuality in BrE, IndE, and NigE. Cognitive Linguistic Studies, 4(1), 110–130. Geschiere, P. (1997). The Modernity of Witchcraft: politics and the occult in postcolonial Africa. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. Kachru, B. B. (1965). The Indianness in Indian English. Word, 21(3), 391–410. Kövecses, Z. (2005). Metaphor in culture: Universality and Variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kövecses, Z. (2010). Metaphor: A practical introduction. Oxford University Press. Kövecses, Z. (2015). Where metaphors come from: Reconsidering context in metaphor. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press. Lati´c, D., & Wolf, H.-G. (2017). A corpus-based analysis of cultural conceptualizations from the domains of family and money in Hong Kong English. International Journal of Language and Culture, 4(2), 197–214. Leech, G., & Fallon, R. (1992). Computer corpora: What do they tell us about culture? ICAME journal, 16, 29–49. Lenake, J. M. (2016). Basotho lore revisited. Unpublished manuscript. Malcolm, I. G., & Sharifian, F. (2007). Multiwords in Aboriginal English. In P. Skandera (Ed.), Phraseology and culture in English (pp. 375–398). Berlin/New York: Mouton De Gruyter. Mander, M. (1998). Marketing of indigenous medicinal plants in South Africa: a case study in KwaZulu-Natal. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. Manson, H. (2016). ABC analysis Q1 2016: The biggest-circulating newspapers in SA. http:// www.marklives.com/2016/05/abc-analysis-q1-2016-the-biggest-circulating-newspapers-in-sa/. Accessed 10 Mar 2018. Minnaar, A. (2003). Legislative and legal challenges to combating witch purging and muti murder in South Africa. In J. Hund (Ed.), Witchcraft violence and the law in South Africa (pp. 33–52). Protea Book House: Hatfield. Mbiti, J. S. (1990). African religions & philosophy. Heinemann.

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Morris, B., & Msonthi, J. D. (1996). Chewa medical botany: a study of herbalism in southern Malawi (Vol. 2). Münster: LIT Verlag. Ndhlala, A. R., Stafford, G. I., Finnie, J. F., & Van Staden, J. (2011). Commercial herbal preparations in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: The urban face of traditional medicine. South African Journal of Botany, 77(4), 830–843. Peters, A. (2017). Fairies, banshees, and the Church: Cultural conceptualisations in Irish English. International Journal of Language and Culture, 4(2), 127–148. Peters, A. (fc.). Lexical evidence for ancestral communication in Black South African English. In H.-G. Wolf, D. Latic & A. Finzel (Eds.), Cultural-linguistic explorations into spirituality, society, and sexuality. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Peters, A., & Polzenhagen, F. (fc.) Genres and text-types from a cross-varietal and cognitive-cultural perspective: A case study on the contextualisation of classified adverts. In M. Callies & M. Degani (Eds.), Metaphor in language and culture in world englishes. London: Bloomsbury. Polzenhagen, F. (2007). Cultural conceptualisations in West African English: A cognitive-linguistic approach. Frankfurt A.M.: Lang. Polzenhagen, F., & Frey, S. (2017a). Are marriages made in heaven? A Cultural-Linguistic case study on Indian-English matrimonials. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), Advances in Cultural Linguistics (pp. 573–605). New York, NY: Springer. Polzenhagen, F., & Frey, S. (2017b). Matrimonial adverts in Indian English. International Journal of Language and Culture, 4(2), 170–196. PricewaterhouseCoopers. (2012). South African entertainment and media outlook: 2012–2016. Sunninghill: PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. Raevskij, M. V. (1997). Die Zeitungsannonce: eine Textsorte oder ein Textsortenkonglomerat? Zum Stellenwert des lexikologischen Kriteriums bei der Lösung texttaxonomischer Probleme. Textsorten und Textsortentraditionen, 23–39. Reeder, M. (2011). A Sangoma’s story: The calling of Elliot Ndlovu. Johannesburg: Penguin. Richter, M. (2003). Traditional medicines and traditional healers in South Africa. Treatment action campaign and AIDS law project, 17, 4–29. Schneider, E. W. (2007). Postcolonial English: Varieties around the world. Cambridge University Press. Sharifian, F. (2015). Cultural Linguistics and world Englishes. World Englishes, 34(4), 515–532. Sharifian, F. (2017). Cultural Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Skandera, P. (2003). Drawing a map of Africa: Idiom in Kenyan English. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. Steadman, I. (2014). South African multilingual dictionary. Cape Town: Pharos. Steen, G. J., Dorst, A. G., Herrmann, J. B., Kaal, A. A., & Krennmayr, T. (2010). Metaphor in usage. Cognitive Linguistics, 21(4), 765–796. Truter, I. (2007). African traditional healers: Cultural and religious beliefs intertwined in a holistic way. South African Pharmaceutical Journal, 74(8), 56–60. Turner, M. (1987). Death is the mother of beauty: Mind, metaphor, criticism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. United Nations. (1998). Fisheries management in south-east Lake Malawi, the Upper Shire River, and Lake Malombe, with particular reference to Chambo. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Vestergaard, T., & Schrøder, K. (1985). The language of advertising. UK: Basil Blackwell Publisher Ltd. Viney, D. (2008). The Daily Sun: investigating the role of the tabloid newspaper in the new South Africa. Doctoral dissertation, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Von Kapff, U. (2011). The Zulu: An A–Z of culture and traditions. Cape Town: Struik Travel & Heritage. Wolf, H.-G. (2001). English in Cameroon. Berlin: de Gruyter.

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Wolf, H.-G., & Polzenhagen, F. (2007). Fixed expressions as manifestations of cultural conceptualizations: Examples from African varieties of English. Topics in English Linguistics, 54, 399–435. Wolf, H.-G., & Polzenhagen, F. (2009). World Englishes: A cognitive sociolinguistic approach. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Wolf, H.-G., Polzenhagen, F., & Peters, A. (2017). Cultural linguistic contributions to world Englishes. International Journal of Language and Culture, 4(2).

Chapter 17

Culture-Specific Conceptualisations of Corruption in African English: Linguistic Analyses and Pragmatic Applications Frank Polzenhagen and Hans-Georg Wolf Abstract This chapter provides a Cultural Linguistic analysis of African English expressions from the domains of political leadership, wealth and corruption, with a special emphasis on the latter. Cultural Linguistics, surveyed in Sect. 17.2, is combined with corpus-linguistic methods. Section 17.3 discusses cultural conceptualisations central to the African community model, and thus provides the background for the focal analysis of linguistic expressions of corruption in Sect. 17.4. These expressions are found to be induced by a set of underlying conceptual metaphors, which in turn reflect salient cultural practices like gift-giving, negotiating and favouritism. These metaphors are euphemistic; they are drawn upon in the conceptualisation of corruption in order to hide the illicit nature of corrupt practices. In our analysis, special attention is paid to food-related and gift metaphors. Section 17.5 outlines some consequences of the Cultural Linguistic approach for the study of the pragmatics of intercultural communication. We argue for the strengthening of a semantic/hermeneutic component, which takes differences in culture-specific conceptualisations into account.

This chapter was first published as Polzenhagen and Wolf (2007), in the collective volume Applied Cultural Linguistics, edited by Farzad Sharifian and Gary B. Palmer. We wish to thank John Benjamins Publishing Company for the kind permission to include an updated reprint of this paper in the present volume. Some small editorial changes and amendments have been made. Unfortunately, some of the online sources cited here are no longer available online, but were saved by the authors. We are much indebted to Gary Palmer for his numerous comments on the earlier version of this chapter. Some of the ideas expressed and examples referred to here are discussed in Polzenhagen and Wolf (2007) from the angle of multi-word units in varieties of English. For a comprehensive treatment, see Wolf and Polzenhagen (2009). F. Polzenhagen University of Koblenz-Landau, Landau, Germany e-mail: [email protected] H.-G. Wolf (B) Department of English and American Studies, The University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, 14469 Potsdam, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. Sadeghpour and F. Sharifian (eds.), Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, Cultural Linguistics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4696-9_17

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17.1 Introduction With this chapter, we wish to contribute to the newly emerging Cultural Linguistics approach. A thorough theoretical basis of this paradigm was first laid out by Palmer (1996). It was further developed by Sharifian (e.g. 2003, 2011, 2017) and has become a research program in its own right, related, but independent of the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. Although the need for considering cultural aspects has been continuously argued for in Cognitive Linguistics (see, e.g. Lakoff, 1987; Langacker, 1994; Dirven, Wolf, & Polzenhagen, 2007), it is only more recently that we witness a growing scholarly interest among cognitive linguists in the sociocultural dimension of language. This trend is, for instance, most noticeable in the attempts towards the development of a cognitive sociolinguistics, e.g. by Geeraerts (2003), Kristiansen (2003), Kristiansen and Dirven (2008), and in the prominence cultural issues have recently been given in applied Cognitive Linguistics (see Pütz, Niemeier, & Dirven, 2001a, 2001b; see also Geeraerts & Grondelaers, 1995). Moreover, we notice a renewed pronounced interest among cognitive linguists in the universalism-relativism issue (see, e.g. the papers in Pütz & Verspoor, 2000 and Niemeier & Dirven, 2000). In other words, there are thus numerous points of contact between Cultural Linguistics and focal trends within Cognitive Linguistics in general. Our project applies the methods of Cognitive Linguistics to the study of outer circle varieties of English (or world Englishes), with a focus on African English.1 Several studies compare conceptualisations cross-linguistically (see, e.g. Kövecses, 2002: Chaps. 12 and 13; Polzenhagen & Wolf, 2017 for an overview), with Dirven’s (1994) book on Dutch and Afrikaans being the first comprehensive attempt to apply cognitive analysis to varieties of a single language that are rooted in markedly different cultural environments. Some precursory studies to this chapter are Wolf and Simo Bobda (2001) (see Palmer, 2003 for a discussion), Wolf (2001, 2003), Polzenhagen and Wolf (2002), and Polzenhagen (2007). Given that English is the language that is most widely used in intercultural encounters and that, on a daily, worldwide basis, conversations that involve speakers of English as an additional language outnumber those that take place between native speakers of English, the application of Cultural Linguistics methods to world Englishes is of immediate relevance to the field of intercultural communication (see Wolf & Polzenhagen, 2006 for discussion). In this chapter, we investigate African English expressions from the domains of political leadership, wealth and corruption. First, however, we briefly outline the analytical concepts and the methodology we employ in our chapter.

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17.2 Analytical Concepts and Methods 17.2.1 Conceptual Metaphor, Cultural Models and Cultural Schemas In our analysis, we draw on three related theoretical concepts: Conceptual Metaphor, Cultural Model, and Cultural Schema. We take the notion of conceptual metaphor, including its elaboration within the framework of Blending Theory (e.g. Fauconnier, 1997), to be well-known and well-established and do not review its basic conception (see, e.g. Kövecses, 2002 for an overview). Our use of the other two notions, however, requires some brief discussion. The concept of “cultural model” was developed in the Cognitive Anthropology of the 1980s (e.g. Holland & Quinn, 1987; then D’Andrade & Strauss, 1992; Strauss & Quinn, 1997; see Palmer, 1996 and Dirven et al., 2007 for an overview). In this tradition, cultural models, or “cultural cognitive models”, as it has been called by Morgan (2001), are seen as “cognitive schemas that are intersubjectively shared by a social group” (D’Andrade, 1987: 112). Since its early days, the notion of cultural models has been closely tied to that of conceptual metaphor, and their exact relation is still a matter of debate (see, e.g. articles in Gibbs & Steen, 1999). Linguists often regard metaphor as being constitutive of these models (e.g. Kövecses, 1999), but anthropologists more often argue for the “cultural postulates” view, i.e. that the numerous metaphors within the model are derived from non-metaphoric proposition-schemas (Quinn, 1987, 1991, 1997); see Palmer (1996: 104ff.) for a discussion of this issue. Leaning towards a comprehensive view, we take cultural models to be more encompassing than metaphorical networks, in that they are complex systems, including metaphoric, metonymic, as well as nonmetaphoric conceptualisations in a socio-cultural group. Broadly speaking, we thus follow the theoretical framework proposed by Sharifian (2003), who uses the cover term “cultural conceptualisation” for such schematic representations. In this chapter, we describe one particular cultural model in a specific setting: the kinship-based African community model. Any approach to cultural models faces well-known philosophical and methodological problems. Cultural models may differ in different settings, and there is no third or “neutral” model against which they can be compared (cf. Hutton, 2001). This yields, at least theoretically, two possible perspectives: the perspective of an “outside observer”, which in fact inevitably takes the observer’s conceptualisations as its reference point, and the “culturalist perspective”, which attempts to capture the other culture from “within”, i.e. from “the actor’s point of view” (in anthropology, this is referred to as the “emic” approach). In reality, however, the two perspectives cannot be neatly separated. This tension is also evident in the application of our analytical tools. It is, for instance, sometimes hard to decide whether a particular expression in a non-Western variety of English has a metaphorical or a non-metaphorical conceptual basis (also see the brief comparative discussion of the extension of kinship terms in Western and African varieties of English given in Sect. 17.5.). We, therefore, prefer to sometimes speak of “conceptualisations” instead of “metaphor” in the framework of

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the African cultural model of community. The indeterminacy of the relation between cultural model, metaphor and metonymy is, however, not a theoretical weakness; on the contrary, sometimes it is theoretically necessary to leave open the question of whether a particular conceptualisation is metaphoric or non-metaphoric if one does not want to fall into the trap of taking one’s own (in our case, Western) understanding as the exclusive vantage point for making judgements on the metaphoricity of a particular conceptualisation. As the discussion of conceptualisations of corruption in African English will show, the decision to call a particular conceptualisation metaphoric or metonymic may even have far-reaching socio-cultural implications. A theoretical concept closely related to the cultural model is that of “cultural schema”. For some, cultural model and cultural (or cognitive) schema may even be synonyms (see D’Andrade, 1987). Drawing from connectionism, cognitive anthropologists have defined schemas as “networks of strongly connected cognitive elements that represent the generic concept stored in memory” (Strauss & Quinn, 1997: 6). Cultural schemas are then viewed as idealised patterns of interrelated cultural knowledge, enabling individuals to interpret cultural experiences. This evidently poses the question where these cultural conceptualisations are to be located. The cognitivist position would hold that, ultimately, “individual minds are the primary locus of linguistic and cultural knowledge” (Langacker, 1994: 26) and from this perspective cultural schemas are largely subsumed under the general notion of “cognitive models”.2 The counter-position sees systems of cultural conceptualisations as “folk models”, a view which is based on the assumption that a community’s cultural wisdom resides in the community’s collective mind rather than in the minds of the individual members (see Keesing, 1987: 370 for criticism of this label, and Gibbs, 1999 and Borofsky, 1994 for further discussion). The concept of “cultural model” is intended to transcend this problem in that it can accommodate the notion of “distributed representation”, which allows for uneven and partially shared distributions of cultural schemas across community members (see Sharifian, 2003). We use the term “cultural schema” in a maximally narrow sense. We apply it to representations that display a low degree of complexity and a high degree of abstractness. This use will become more apparent in our discussion of specific expressions of corruption and their underlying conceptualisations. There we refer, inter alia, to the gift-giving schema. It represents a basic socio-cultural experience. It is minimally complex in that it comprises no more than the act of giving and the associated roles, i.e. a giver, a receiver and a gift. It is maximally abstract in that nothing is specified beyond these roles and the mere act of giving. This schema is involved in various cultural practices and the conceptual representations thereof, which we refer to as “cultural scenarios” (this usage is consistent with Palmer’s, 1996 definition of scenarios). For example, gift-giving is part of the Christmas scenario, of a birthday scenario, a name-giving scenario, a visiting scenario, a wedding scenario. These scenarios are schematic, too, in that they do not pertain to specific actual events but rather contain and provide the structure common to a particular type of events. However, they are less abstract, as the participant roles and the occasion of the giftgiving are further specified. In a visiting scenario, for instance, the gift-giver role coincides with that of the host or guest. And such scenarios are more complex, as they

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involve knowledge of typical sequences of particular activities and typical settings. As the above examples illustrate, scenarios are highly culture-specific (compare, for instance, the Catholic christening scenario to traditional name-giving ceremonies in the West African context). Again, our approach is largely in line with Sharifian’s (2003) framework, which proposes the general label “event schema” for such conceptualisations.

17.2.2 Empirical Basis Our approach is strongly corpus-based. The corpora are employed for two purposes: Firstly, we use them as a source of text examples that illustrate the conceptualisations we identify. Secondly, we use them comparatively to elicit what Wierzbicka (1997: 16–17) calls “cultural keywords”, i.e. “focal points around which entire cultural domains are organized.” The latter use is based on the assumption that one should expect lexis and the frequency of particular lexical items to reflect such focal points in a given culture. Both lexis and frequency should reveal and be consistent with the underlying cultural conceptualisations. The first and main African English corpus we use for this study is the Corpus of English in Cameroon (CEC), which was compiled as part of the ICE project (see Tiomajou, 1995; cf. International Corpus of English, 2002).3 Beside the CEC, we mainly draw from a thematic text data base (WCL) compiled by one of the authors. WCL comprises authentic African English written material obtained from internet sources and is thematically restricted to the domains we investigate. It is used as a source of text examples only. For the comparative frequency analysis, we use the CEC and a combined version of two standard corpora of Western varieties of English, FLOB (British English) and FROWN (American English). These three corpora lend themselves to a comparative analysis, as they all follow the basic corpus-design principles of the earlier BROWN corpus of American English, in that they comprise, in a largely parallel way, written texts from different text types, and in that they have about the same size. They are thus representative of the respective varieties: The CEC then stands pars pro toto for West African English and the combined FLOBFROWN for Western varieties of English. In the section dealing with consequences of diverging cultural conceptualisations in the context of intercultural encounters (Sect. 17.5), we will further illustrate our arguments with data from a small-scale questionnaire survey we conducted among university students in Germany and Cameroon.4 This survey was meant to test our corpus findings and their interpretation by yet another empirical means. Against this theoretical background, we first provide a brief analysis of the kinshipbased African community, as a cultural model. An understanding of the community model is indispensable for the analysis of the focal topic of this chapter, which is the conceptualisation of corruption in African varieties of English.

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17.3 The Kinship-Based African Community Model 17.3.1 General Considerations The kinship model of society is an extension of the family concept. Schatzberg (1986: 10) has correctly pointed out that the African concept differs from the Western notion of ‘family’. For example, while lineage and in-law relationships do play a central role, family in the African context is not restricted to such relations. Traditionally, the concept of kinship embraces the entire local community. Factors like age and specific duties, in particular those of protection and nurture, are crucial components of the concept. The kinship-based nature of the African community model has often been noticed in the literature (see, e.g. Alo, 1989; Mbiti, 1990; Musopole, 1994; Wolf, 2001 for more references). As Weekes-Vagliani (1976) has aptly put it: In Africa, the notions of family and society are closely intertwined. The boundaries of family are defined by the social exchanges as much as by the biological ties between people, and the term covers far more than the strict nuclear unit of two parents and their children. (Weekes-Vagliani, 1976: 15)

Likewise, its most evident linguistic manifestation in the extension or generalisation of kinship terms is well-known. Simo Bobda (1997), for instance, makes the following observation for Cameroonian English (see Wolf, 2001: 212–214 for a more detailed discussion), which is valid for African English in general: The terms father, mother, son, daughter, brother, and sister designate referents ranging from relatives in the Western sense to members of the same race, through close and distant relatives, people of the same village, tribe, country, continent, etc. (Simo Bobda, 1997: 228f.)

The underlying kinship model has generally been described as a horizontal network that stretches laterally and embraces everybody who is perceived to belong to a particular social group (Mbiti, 1990: 102). As stated above, the model’s original and immediate reference point and prototype is the traditional local community. One may rightly argue that, in contemporary Africa, the local village is no more the dominant mode of community and that it is no longer an intact social space (cf. Bastian, 1993; Chabal & Daloz, 1999: 75; Geschiere, 1995, for discussion). However, the idealised community persists and modern social life continues to be judged and modelled in terms of the kinship-based community system. In other words, the structures and moral principles of the idealised kinship community are mapped onto the spheres of modern life. As van Binsbergen (2000, online) observes: Rural populations in Africa struggled, through numerous forms of organisational, ideological and productive innovation combining local practices with outside borrowings, to reconstruct a new sense of community in an attempt to revitalise, complement or replace the collapsing village community […]. [Rural Africans] have sought to re-formulate the notion of the viable, intact village community in new terms and with new outside inspiration and outside pressure. (Van Binsbergen, 2000, online)

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These are, essentially, metonymic and metaphoric processes. Most importantly, in these processes the elements are transformed, appropriated and receive new meanings. As van Binsbergen (2000, online) puts it, “modern life is the kinship order virtualised”. On the conceptual level, the process of extension of the family concept to the local community and beyond may be captured by the metonymies community for kinship and kinship for community, respectively, which entail the conceptualisations community members are kin and leaders are fathers. In the African context, this model is at work with respect to any “modern” community and social group. For example, it is applied to urban communities, where the mayor becomes a father figure, and to the state itself, where the head of state is conceptualised and portrayed as a father. This is manifest in the specific use of kinship terms, as in example 1. The reference group is the Anglophone community in Cameroon. (1) You see, brother, it’s difficult to hide the truth. At the time when our radio sycophants were still shouting that the best thing to happen, is to continue eating shit in the uneasy marriage. Our son in Garoua, Nsuh Martin, cried out that frogs in the choir house were still referring to him as a slave from Southern Cameroons (“L’anglo la”). (WCL: 82)

Example 2 is from a Cameroonian newspaper and refers to a political party, the CPDM: (2) the Santa CPDM is planning a mass decamping because none of their sons was appointed into the new government. (Ntoi, 1998: 8)

Example 3 refers to the Igbo, an ethnic group in Nigeria: (3) In as much as the Igbo nation is trying to unite with itself and with its South-South brothers because the Igbo people know that they cannot do without neighbouring brothers, non-Igbo brothers and non-brothers believe they cannot do without us. There must be a kind of marriage or rethinking between these two brothers. (WCL: 72)

Example 4 shows that nations (i.e. Cameroon and Nigeria) can be kin: (4) That the two countries were brotherly nations, with the same ancestors. (The Mail. Cameroon. Sept. 5: 2)

Example 5 illustrates the well-known father of the nation metaphor, which is, of course, part of the overall kinship for community conceptualisation: (5) On the head of state’s contribution to the division, he said ‘it may not be as perfect as people may have wanted but people should know that the means are limited and that the president of the republic is the father of all divisions in the country.’ (WCL: 83)

The kinship for community conceptualisation constitutes the backbone of the entire model. It is, however, linked to numerous further cultural conceptualisations, which constitute the model as a whole. These may also be transferred from the original local context to its various extensions. Two aspects are of utmost importance here. Firstly, the kinship-based model has a pronounced spiritual dimension. Stretching vertically, it includes, first of all, the realm of the ancestors, who are believed to actively participate in the community affairs as shown by example 6:

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(6) To all our ancestor spirits … and all other dear departed souls, both big and small: We give you thanks and praises for the sacrifices you made for our well-being. We are here today, because you were here. We ask that you all continue to guard and guide us. We ask that you help us and direct us as we follow that divine path to our individual destinies. (WCL: 124)

The ancestors are closely associated to higher gods, as shown in 7 and 8: (7) I greet you in the names of the Most High God, the Lesser Gods and The Ancestors. (WCL: 55) (8) Ancestors and gods keep a watchful eye on the living. (CEC)

This includes the closely related view that people, in the course of their lives, increasingly acquire spiritual power, which makes the elders mediators between the living, the dead and the gods, as shown in 9: (9) The elders consulting their ancestors to beg them to allow peace to return to the troubled children. (Luangala, 1991: 49)

Beyond this vertical extension to the spiritual world, the kinship-based community model includes, at almost all its levels, the notion of the magical, or, more specifically, witchcraft. Again, the local community and family context is the original locus. Here, witchcraft is a well-known and omnipresent influence, and, most importantly, a highly ambivalent one. It may manifest as a destructive force, as everything “that falls outside the kinship order, is not regulated by that order, [and] challenges, rejects, destroys that order” (van Binsbergen, 2000, online: 3.7.). Witchcraft is, as Geschiere (1997) put it, the “dark side of kinship”, which we find expressed in example 10: (10) The pity of witchcraft is the destruction of parental or kin relationship, the strength of rural African societies that is also the area of witchcraft operation. (WCL: 77)

But magical forces may also be applied in order to protect the kinship order, i.e. in what Geschiere (1997: 95ff.) calls their “levelling” function. “Levelling” refers to the balancing function, which falls, first of all, in the province of the witch-doctor. Thus, witchcraft may also exert a positive force, which stabilises the kinship system. The spiritual dimension of the kinship model and the role of witchcraft are discussed in more detail in Wolf (2001, 2004) and Wolf and Polzenhagen (e.g. 2009). There, we provide evidence of mappings of witchcraft expressed in the idiom of family and village to almost all spheres of modern social life. In the present chapter, we focus on the second central dimension, which revolves around the notions of ‘nurture’ and ‘care’. This dimension is crucial to the conceptualisation of corruption, as will be discussed in detail below. Again, the specific African application of kinship terms may be taken as a starting point. Kin terms connote expected behaviours; they come with scenarios attached. As Mark Turner puts it in a general consideration of kinship labels: A given term, though applicable to perhaps many people, carries connotations of personal affection, of expected behavior, of rules of behavior, and of rites and duties, or, as an anthropologist might say, of affect, practice, etiquette, and obligation. (Turner n.d.: 26)

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In the African context, such obligations and expectations are pervasively realised as kin-based reciprocal nurture patterns. As we have seen, leaders in a social community are conceptualised as fathers. In the logic of the nurture pattern, the father receives and distributes community resources. Yet in turn, it is his duty to nurture and protect. What it boils down to is a reciprocity of eating and feeding (cf. Schatzberg, 1986: 14f.). To put it in terms of conceptual metaphors: leadership is eating and leadership is feeding; specifically, feeding one’s kin, that is, one’s community and adherents. The salience of this pattern is fully in evidence in the sphere of modern African politics, as expressed in Bayart’s (1993) notion of the ‘politics of the belly’. For a particularly clear manifestation of the eating metaphor note that one Nigerian party adopted the slogan “I Chop You Chop Party” (cf. Schatzberg, 2001: 40), with chop being the Pidgin English word for ‘to eat’. The following corpus example provides a further illustration of the nurture aspect: (11) But nothing can be as insane as that because the success of his Presidency does not depend on how badly he dishes the Igbos […] (WCL: 113)

The strong patrimonial and clientelistic structures, which are pervasive in African politics, may be seen as an immediate manifestation of the eating-and-feeding schema: […] African governments have been built around patronage networks whereby followers are rewarded for their support in the form of public jobs and resources. Politicians and bureaucrats have used the public sector to generate the benefits needed to fashion patron-client linkages of support. (Tangri, 1999: 137)

This system rests, by and large, on the availability and distribution of resources along vertical structures. Its impact on political decision-making is considerable. According to Chabal and Daloz (1999) to succeed as a ‘Big Man’ demands resources; and the more extensive the network, the greater the need for the means of distribution. The legitimacy of the African political elites, such as it is, derives from their ability to nourish the clientele on which their power rests. It is therefore imperative for them to exploit governmental resources for patrimonial purposes. (Chabal & Daloz, 1999: 15)

This strong patrimonial aspect of the African state certainly differs from the idealised Western model. Leaning on Max Weber, Chabal and Daloz (1999: 5ff., 27f.) hold that the modern Western state is first of all characterised by a significant emancipation from society. By contrast, they argue, this emancipation and institutionalisation of the state has never been thoroughly established in Black Africa.5 Thus the African state has remained, to some degree, an empty shell, with politics being made to a large extent along the lines of the kinship model. The two modes of politics are often incompatible and conflicting, as they rest on different necessities and considerations. They operate in different registers. As van Binsbergen (2000, online) states: The single most important defining feature of the state is not its monopoly of violence, but its radical rejection of the kinship order.

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This problematisation is reflected in the following corpus examples 12 to 15: (12) In reality, it is the leader himself who thus has become the greatest subversive element against the state. His greedy, gossipy, sycophant aids are his great accomplices in subverting the state. (CEC) (13) When the Senate President goes back to Ebonyi, the Igbos will ask him how many of his Igbo brothers did he manage to install as heads of prominent Senate Committees. He will find that surrounding himself with his schoolmates as aides has nothing to do with adequate representation of his tribe. (WCL: 73) (14) Elections itself is [sic] a mystery, just imagine being in a voting booth and deciding within some few minutes who is to rule you, haven’t earlier being subjected to multiple images by multiple candidates, most of whom say the same thing (s), some doing no more than appealing to your tribal sentiments and nakedly over exaggerating what they can deliver to your community. (WCL: 47) (15) Opportunistic Tom Kamara argued that the Standard Bearer of the LPP, Dr. TogbaNah Tipoteh is a cheap man who does not like to give money to his partisans. Kamara said that Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is his choice for the Presidency because according to Kamara, Ellen is connected with the United Nations and has lot of money and that she can easily dash the funds to her partisans for their personal use. (Corpus Liberia)

When we refer to patrimonial structures and clientelism against the background of the kinship-based community model, we certainly do not imply that they are exclusively African phenomena nor that they are a manifestation of some primordial traditional African culture. Items like Big Man may suggest ancient cultural roots; however, the impact and the specific make-up of clientelistic networks are, to a considerable degree, the product of colonialism and the period of decolonisation. This crucial point is discussed by Szeftel (1998: 235ff.). These networks were readily available, Szeftel (1998: 236) argues, as a result of the structure of colonial administration with its decentralised despotism of native authorities, and they were activated after independence for achieving and ensuring political power. Clientelism thus “provides a mechanism for mobilizing support and controlling the electorate in a political economy in which socially and economically excluded rural producers and urban migrants predominate” (Szeftel, 1998: 237). The African kinship-based community model and its ingredients, like patrimonialism and clientelism, are continuously shaped by the specific socio-political and economic environment. They are highly dynamic. In this section, we have given a brief outline of the African kinship-based community model, with a special emphasis on the eating-and-feeding pattern in the political sphere. Section 17.4.2. will show that the reciprocal duties and expectancies built into this model are crucial in the conceptualisation of corruption. Given that these duties and expectancies are pervasively encoded in eating-related metaphors, and given that eating metaphors are omnipresent in the discourse of African corruption, we need to elaborate on this point before turning to the discussion of the corruption issue itself. In the following section, we analyse the domains of leadership and enrichment as parallel and connected domains in a network of eating conceptualisations.

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17.3.2 The LEADERSHIP IS EATING Network Metaphorical conceptualisations involving food, hunger and eating as source domains are, of course, by no means limited to African English. A full range of general eating metaphors can be observed across cultures and languages. For our purpose, the following ones can be highlighted (cf. Lakoff, 1993, online; see Wolf & Polzenhagen, 2009: 69–72, for more details): – strong desires are hunger – resources are food – achieving a purpose is eating These metaphors are interrelated, and, together with the conceptualisation important is big, they form a network of general eating metaphors. Strictly speaking, the metaphor important is big is not an eating metaphor, as it may have source domains other than that of eating. In the logic of the network, however, being big is having eaten and being big is having food, which links up to and integrates the metaphor important is big. The general metaphor important is big is most directly expressed in the meaning of the lexical item big itself: It is a recurrent pattern across languages that the word for ‘big’ also has the meaning ‘significant’, with the metaphor in question being responsible for this polysemy (for examples from various languages see, e.g. Grady, 1999: 80).6 A particular West African English expression generated by this metaphor is the well-known item Big Men, in the political context as in 16: (16) their customers range from bureaucrats to Presidents, the Small Man to the Big Man. (WCL: 29)

In cases like Big Men, the integration of important is big into the eatingmetaphor network is fully evident. important is big interacts with the metaphor achieving a purpose is eating where being fat indicates success and being lean indicates failure. This is closely related to the conceptual metaphor leadership is eating identified above against the background of the African community model. There, we already provided evidence of the pervasiveness of eating-related conceptualisations in the African political context. Examples 17 to 20 are particularly striking: (17) They have taken food off his plate. (Said in Cameroon when a government official is dropped, Waliggo n.d., online: 12) (18) They have given him plenty to eat. (Said in Cameroon when a new government official is appointed, Waliggo n.d., online: 12) (19) I eat and let others eat also. / I chop you chop. (Popular Nigerian adage in reference to political power; Waliggo n.d., online: 12; Schatzberg, 2001: 40) (20) Maybe, they were born to rule, chop life. (WCL: 124) (21) All over the world, government is not bad, government is about service. It is the desire to serve. But here, you will hear people say ‘Ah, he don go chop money!’ (WCL: 90)

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Fig. 17.1 Nigerian cartoon (taken from Medubi, 2003: 174)*. *The caption reads I beg God, make I no go chop and quench, which means Please God, I hope I don’t die from eating (Medubi, 2003: 174)

(22) So like the noises of the Party when all the first promise had been eaten up and it had become a place where fat men found things to swell themselves up some more. (Armah, 1988: 95)

The eating metaphors also appear in visual media.7 The Nigerian cartoon in Fig. 17.1 provides an illustration of this point. It alludes to the decamping of some 100 APP members in Osun State to the PDP, the ruling party of president Obasanjo, in 2001. Note that all the elements of the conceptual network outlined above are present here. Political power is represented by access to food, by the ability to feed and by physical size, as the result of eating. Lack of power is depicted by small size and lack of food. Political aspiration is represented as the desire to eat (go chop, as the caption reads). The pervasive nature of this imagery is confirmed by the following observation made by Matory (1993) on tabloid comics in Nigeria: Detractors of the postcolonial “big men” allege that these nonroyal businessmen and politicians have women with pots behind them – implicitly witches – guiding their greedy acquisition and providing the mystical means of their enemies’ undoing. In tabloid comics, their diurnal personae are enormously fat women who stand alongside overfed men in flowing agbada gowns. The Alagbada – “Wearers of Agbada” – are the stereotypic embezzlers of government funds and receivers of kickbacks. (Matory, 1993: 79)

Here, we again meet the strong association between the domains of political leadership, wealth and witchcraft, conceptualised in terms of eating-related metaphors. For a linguistic expression of this link, also consider example 23:

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RESOURCES ARE FOOD

STRONG DESIRES ARE HUNGER

COMMUNITY MEMBERS / OPPONENTS ARE FOOD

ACHIEVING A PURPOSE IS EATING

373

POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS ARE HUNGER

LEADERSHIP IS EATING

IMPORTANT IS BIG

BEING A LEADER IS BEING BIG

Fig. 17.2 leadership is eating: conceptual network

(23) […] to challenge the bewitching of our impoverished populations by selfish dictators and politicians who suck the blood off the social and economic fabric for their own ends. (WCL: 77)

Thus, within this model, not only material resources but also community members and political opponents are regarded as food. This is most literally the case in the practice of ritual killing, as evidenced by examples 24 and 25: (24) Human sacrifice and cannibalism are very real here, but not expected to emerge as the next fast food franchise concept. It is believed by some that eating an opponent’s still-beating heart gives them strength. (Corpus Liberia) (25) Human hearts were reportedly being removed and eaten by candidates for various offices to enhance their chances of winning elections. (Anderson, 1998, online)

We thus propose the following schematic representation of the conceptual network identified and exemplified above (Fig. 17.2).

17.3.3 The ENRICHMENT IS EATING Network A parallel model can be constructed for the conceptualisation of wealth and enrichment in African English. The conceptualisation of enrichment in terms of eating is immediately motivated by similar topology in the two input domains. Figure 17.3 presents some of these similarities. The specification of the eating-related conceptual network to the wealth domain yields the structure represented in Fig. 17.4. The metaphoric network sketched in Fig. 17.4 can also be found in non-African varieties of English. Even a rough search in standard corpora of Western varieties of English will produce linguistic expressions of the same metaphors. However, we

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EATING

ENRICHMENT

Drive: Hunger Goal: Physical strength / wealth Physical survival Individual pleasure Means: Consuming food

Drive: Greed Goal: Material wealth Economic survival Individual luxury Means: Consuming money

Fig. 17.3 Topology of eating and enrichment compared

RESOURCES ARE FOOD

STRONG DESIRES ARE HUNGER

MONEY IS FOOD

ACHIEVING A PURPOSE IS EATING

IMPORTANT IS BIG

GREED IS HUNGER

ENRICHMENT IS EATING

BEING RICH IS BEING BIG

Fig. 17.4 enrichment is eating: conceptual network

notice a higher salience in African English, as evidenced by a higher comparative frequency in our corpora (see Table 17.1 ). We take this to be a reflection of the eatingand-feeding pattern at the heart of the African community model. Eating metaphors highlight precisely this aspect of the model. Furthermore, beyond mere frequency, there is a whole range of specific African English linguistic expressions that are generated by these metaphors. Here are some African English examples from various sources that illustrate eating metaphors in the domain of enrichment: money is food (26) he would not only eat the national cake, but also huge mouthfuls of national chin chin! [Chin chin is a staple Nigerian dish] (WCL: 69) (27) Also, look at the 2001 budget in which the southwest got a very disproportionate share of the national cake where they bake none. In all these, the idea is to let Yorubas get as much as possible before the eventual break-up Afenifere is engineering. What goes to the Niger Delta where the national cake comes from? (WCL: 110)

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(28) President Obasanjo knows he has unwittingly provoked the intensity of the economic liberation struggle in the Niger-Delta. He has disconnected that by his actions or inactions, politics or impolitic, he has infuriated the owners of the cake to veer from just asking for a big share of the cake to saying I want to share my cake myself. And that is why Mr. President has of late been desperately trying to counter and stop the escalating demands for resource control. (WCL: 102)

greed is hunger/thirst (29) money thirsty women and girls (CEC) money drinkers (Corpus Ghana)

The metaphor greed is hunger/thirst is metonymically extended to body parts involved in taking in food, yielding greed is a body part involved in taking in food (30) She never chop money belle full. [Nigerian Pidgin English] (Adimora-Ezeigbo, 1999: 29) (also see example 36 and mouthful in example 26) (31) How can anyone be so daft enough to think that just by putting down $20,000,000, you can double it in just 1 week. Get real guys! and please shorten your long throats. (WCL: 88)

enrichment is eating (32) How many million promises can fill a bucket when you eat money the way locusts eat tons of green. (CEC) (33) The song by the night soil men which goes thus “– cow dichop [sic] for place whey them tie him8 –” which clearly explains that embezelment [sic] is common among the mayors, “my brother frog chop –” shows that Francophones should eat all what we have in our coffers, “Frog” refers to Francophones. (CEC) (34) There is the case of those who use the second one perjoratively [sic] saying “selfreliant development means one should feed fat from the resources put at his disposal and which are meant to be used for the general good”. (CEC) (35) “This national coffers koraa, where is it?” “As for you, the thing is empty and you are cross-examining me about it. They’ve chopped everything in it.” “But when you look at them, especially their mouths, nothing indicates they can chop so much money in so short a time o.” (WCL: 147) (36) For I do honestly believe that in the fat-dripping, gummy, eat-and-let-eat regime just ended – a regime which inspired the common saying that a man could only be sure of what he had put in his gut or, in language evermore suited to the times: ‘you chop, me self I chop, palaver finish’; […] (Achebe, 1988: 149) (37) No, my brother, I won’t spoil anybody’s good fortune. When Eddy’s father married me I was not half her age. As soon as her mother recovers let her come and eat Nanga’s wealth. (Achebe, 1988: 88)

being rich is being big (38) Big Men, Big Women (various sources)

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(39) [Nigerian Pidgin English] Fine big woman wey dress like dis. She never chop money bele full. (Adimora-Ezeigbo, 1999: 29) (40) [Nigerian Pidgin English] Few people dey fat with big money, and the rest dey hungry (WCL: 124)

Largely similar observations can be made for francophone West Africa. The corresponding French items, manger (equivalent to to eat) and bouffer (equivalent to to chop) display the same pattern as observed for the English items (cf. Olivier de Sardan, 1999: 27f.). Numerous expressions evoke the bribe is food metaphor, as a special instance of money/resources are food. Consider the West African English expressions in 41, all of which can be used to mean ‘bribe’ (Wolf & Polzenhagen, 2009: 95)9 : (41) kola soya chop money mimbo beer money cold water

‘cola nut’ fried beef skewers’ (Cameroon) to chop (PE word for ‘to eat’) ‘alcoholic beverage obtained from the raffia palm tree’ (Cameroon) ‘the 20 Naira banknote’ ‘bribe paid to traffic policemen’ (Nigeria)

Examples 42–45 illustrate the conceptual metaphors bribe is food and bribing is feeding: (42) Corrupt citizens dish out heavy bribes and the government prosecution team mellows in its responsibility. (WCL: 41) (43) An unqualified contractor is allowed to bid on a project - in exchange for a little kola and a little dash. (WCL: 128) (44) It is said that one cannot have any service rendered him in any of the public offices in Sierra Leone without a government functionary demanding the usual “cold water”. (WCL: 40) (45) Were they not, sort of, justified in supposing that the loans were some gifts to be taken as chop money?” (WCL: 95)

These and other specifically African English expressions and their underlying conceptualisations are discussed in more detail in the following sections, after some general considerations on the issue of corruption.

17.4 Conceptualisations of Corruption in African English 17.4.1 General Considerations on the Corruption Issue Irrespective of political system, corruption is one of the most pressing concerns in sub-Saharan countries.10 No direct correlation holds between the degree of corruption and a country’s transition to Western-style democracy: Corruption affects dictatorships as much as relatively “democratic” multi-party systems (Olivier de Sardan, 1999: 33f.). It is perceived as an every-day experience and a major social issue by the

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ordinary African (cf. Olivier de Sardan, 1999: 28f.). It has become a prominent topic in African media and in contemporary African politics, especially during election time.11 The pervasiveness of the problem is reflected in statistics such as those provided by the Berlin-based NGO “Transparency International” (TI). Annually, TI publishes a so-called Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for meanwhile 180 countries. Among the “top 40” (from below, i.e., the countries perceived to be most corrupt), countries from sub-Saharan Africa feature prominently, namely the following ones: Kenya, Mauritania, Guinea, Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon, Mozambique, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Chad, Eritrea, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, South Sudan, Somalia (TI 2018, online). These are also the perceptions that dominate the portrait given in the media and on which most treatments of the corruption issue lean. However, as Szeftel (2000a) argued, statistics like these should be read with caution. The index does not rate the actual degree of corruption but the perceived degree of corruption. A closer look at the CPI sources reveals that the perspective that lies behind the perceptions is mostly Western. The data are based on information furnished by bodies like the World Bank, Bertelsmann Stiftung and The World Economic Forum (but also, inter alia, the African Development Bank, to be fair). The informants are managers, political analysts, economists and other academics, journalists, and expatriates. The index reflects the Western view of what counts as corrupt and what not (cf. Szeftel, 2000a: 291ff. for a detailed discussion). Corruption is difficult to measure, as corrupt practices are rarely performed openly. Furthermore, there is scant agreement over what counts as corruption. Watertight criteria are lacking and corrupt practices are too vast a field to give an “exact” definition (see, e.g. Kyora, 1998 and Szeftel, 2000a on that issue). Thus statistics such as those that enter the CPI are controversial. Nevertheless, corruption is indeed rampant in sub-Saharan Africa if we take the term to mean practices regarded as illegitimate by a wide spectrum of Africans. One needs to distinguish between what is illegal and what is actually perceived as illegitimate in a particular cultural environment (cf. the detailed discussion by Szeftel, 2000a). These two perspectives do not necessarily coincide in the African or in any other context. Certainly, there are clear cases of corruption, in terms of the law and in terms of public perception. However, there are numerous practices that are widely regarded as illegitimate but are not, strictly speaking, illegal. Conversely, unlawful practices are not necessarily viewed as illegitimate. There is a fuzzy boundary between bribery and thanking in some material form for services rendered (cf. Olivier de Sardan, 1999: 35). Certain practices are only perceived as illegitimate by those who are placed at a disadvantage and not by those who benefit. From a cross-cultural perspective, further incongruence arises, on both dimensions. Legal regulations governing corruption differ from country to country,12 and the same holds true for public perceptions. Thus, we see the need of a culturalist approach. Such differences, however, usually concern only the periphery of the problem or what is called ‘petty corruption’. In the centre, there is no disagreement. It is wrong, for instance, to claim that large-scale corruption in African politics is the result of and licensed by cultural traditions and values. Likewise, it is wrong to assume that

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African politicians and bureaucrats lack the notion of what is corrupt and what is not (Szeftel, 1998: 236). In African varieties of English, the significance of the corruption issue is reflected in the vast stock of lexical items and expressions that denote corrupt practices, including the examples given in Sect. 17.3.3. Following Wierzbicka (1997: 1), we assume a “very close link between the life of a society and the lexicon of the language”, in that the presence of a vast vocabulary in a certain domain is taken to be an indicator of a culture’s preoccupation with the topic. That corruption and related items are indeed cultural keywords, is supported by a comparative analysis of our corpora. Items from these domains are significantly more frequent in our African English corpus (the CEC) than in the combined FLOB/FROWN reference corpus (British and American English). Table 17.1 shows the results of our comparative analysis. It was restricted to common core items, for methodological reasons, Table 17.1 Comparative frequency of lexical items from the domains of food, money, exploitation and corruption* Word

CEC

FLOB/FROWN

Keyness

p-value

food

531

461

230.2

0.000000

wealth

97

100

30.7

0.000000

money

365

683

9.8

0.001730

fund

358

388

101.8

0.000000

cash

129

103

63.6

0.000000

20

3

32.1

0.000000

remuneration payment pay greed exploit

97

75

50.1

0.000000

520

416

255.7

0.000000

30

20

18.7

0.000015

95

67

55.4

0.000000

125

136

153.2

0.000000

38

22

27.7

0.000000

fraudulent

9

5

6.8

0.008901

embezzlement

5

1

7.2

0.007096

corrupt

53

32

37.0

0.000000

corruption

53

47

22.2

0.000002

bribe

17

10

12.2

0.000477

gift

78

101

13.9

0.000188

8

4

6.7

0.009607

exploitation fraud

gratuity

*In WordSmith, the computer program we used to exploit the corpora, “a word is said to be ‘key’ if a) it occurs in the text at least as many times as the user has specified as a Minimum Frequency b) its frequency in the text when compared with its frequency in a reference corpus is such that the statistical probability as computed by an appropriate procedure is smaller than or equal to a p value specified by the user” (Scott & Oxford University Press, 1998: help menu)

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and includes the domains of wealth, money, exploitation and food, which are closely related to the corruption issue. The undeniable salience and omnipresence of the corruption problem led some scholars, both African and non-African, to seek cultural explanations. Corrupt practices are seen as embedded in and even licensed by traditional African cultural logics. In their extreme version, such assumptions would amount to saying that corruption is inherent in African culture. We take no such position and we categorically reject such claims. In particular, we reject any causal deterministic link between the cultural practices (e.g. gift giving, negotiating and bargaining) we discuss below and corruption. Our intention is to identify cultural schemas, in the sense introduced in Sect. 17.2.1, that play a role in the conceptualisation of corruption. Metaphoric and metonymic conceptualisations make no ontological claims, i.e. they do not define the substance of their targets. Consider a well-known example from conceptual metaphor literature, the conceptualisation of time. One deeply entrenched conceptualisation of time, especially in the Western cultural context, is that of an object moving through space (see, e.g. Lakoff & Johnson, 1980: Chap. 9; Kövecses, 2002: 33– 34). This metaphoric conceptualisation underlies numerous linguistic expressions, e.g. X-mas is coming; the day passed; as time goes by. Yet few would conclude that we actually believe that time is an object. One has to keep metaphor separate from non-metaphoric ontological inferences. From a culturalist perspective, a number of well-known African cultural logics have been related to the corruption issue, most prominently the logics of gift-giving and of favouritism (cf. Olivier de Sardan, 1999; Szeftel, 2000a: 295). The latter is, of course, an expression of the strong patrimonialism described in Sect. 17.3.1. Olivier de Sardan (1999) adds further cultural logics, more specifically the following: – the logic of solidarity networks – the logic of bargaining and negotiating – and the logic of predatory authority. There is nothing exotic nor exclusively African about these cultural logics, and there is no need to call upon some primordial African pre-colonial culture. Rather, they are based on universal patterns of human interaction and are thus present, to varying degrees, in any cultural setting. However, these practices have greater prominence in African culture than they do in Western culture. Furthermore, culture is not static. Current practices represent an amalgamation of traditional cultural elements with elements inherited from the colonial period as well as others produced during the independence era (cf. Olivier de Sardan, 1999: 26). We have argued that the entire complex of corruption and related issues has to be considered from the “actors’ point of view”, as Olivier de Sardan (1999: 25) puts it. Corruption can only be defined from “within”. Consider, for example, favouritism and clientelism. Patrimonial practices are licensed by the eating-and-feeding requirements of the kinship model. They are thus not necessarily perceived as illegitimate in the African context and have to be clearly distinguished from corruption in the African conception, irrespective of the judgement of an outside observer. As Geschiere (1995, online) noted, context is important:

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To put it in simple terms: a high-placed civil servant will find it exceedingly difficult to refuse a poor kinsman from the village a favour since he plans to retire to the village and to be buried there. What Westerners will call corruption can be seen also as the penetration of the norms of the “economy of affection” into the heart of the state. (Geschiere, 1995, online)

Geschiere’s observation is confirmed by example 46: (46) But it has to be emphasized that while my Nigerian brother is right about what corruption is, it is important to distinguish corruption from that which entails the illegal sale of special favour to political patronage, which occurs when public decision makers use their legal margins of discretion to confer favours on their friends and followers without receiving material benefits in return. (WCL: 51)

This is not to be taken as a legitimisation of all clientelistic practices in the African context, as the following statement by the former Nigerian president Obasanjo shows: It has been suggested that society has a way of corrupting the public office holder because of the excessive demands and expectations that are placed on the resources of the individual and because of the African concept of the big chief , the public office holder is expected to have an infinite resource or access to a sufficiently large resource base from which he is expected to dish out freely to all and sundry if only to assist his kith and kin to escape throes of poverty. Again such an argument is only an escape route by corrupt public officers. (Obasanjo cit. in Waliggo n.d., online: 9)

This statement makes it explicit that corruption in the form of individual accumulation of wealth by public officials falls outside the moral order of the kinship system.13 Examples 47–48 illustrate that corruption may, in fact, be seen as a violation of the kinship-based community model: (47) They took bribes from their less fortunate brothers. (CEC) (48) This excessive concentration of power at the national level has become the breeding ground for the corrupt fat cats bent on enriching themselves at the expense of the poor peasants whose resource rich lands are being exploited and confiscated by the government without due compensation. (WCL: 106)

Similar observations can be made with respect to the other cultural logics listed above. Regarding corruption as a manifestation of the cultural logic of gift-giving, for instance, obscures the values underlying this logic: Others are wont to argue that the African culture of appreciation and hospitality encourages corrupt practices. Again I shudder at how an integral aspect of our culture could be taken as the basis for rationalizing an otherwise despicable behaviour. In the African concept of appreciation and hospitality, the gift is usually a token. It is not demanded, the value is usually in the spirit rather than in the material world. It is usually done in the open and never in secret. Where it is excessive, it becomes an embarrassment and is returned. If anything, corruption has perverted and destroyed this aspect of culture. (Obasanjo cit. in Waliggo n.d., online: 9)

That corruption is indeed perceived as a violation of the community model is also evidenced by the dominant metaphors in the African anti-corruption discourse. Tellingly, disease metaphors prevail.14 In his inaugural speech, the former Nigerian president Obasanjo, for instance, states the following:

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(49) No society can achieve anything near its full potential if it allows corruption to become the full-blown cancer it has become in Nigeria. (WCL: 61)

Examples 50–54 provide further illustration of the corruption is a disease metaphor: (50) This kind and level of compromise by our paid so-called government officials at the passport offices all over the country is deleterious to the health and stability of the country. (WCL: 59) (51) The Pandemic of Bribery in Nigeria (WCL: 59) (52) Once you cure corruption in Nigeria, the economy would improve automatically. (WCL: 69) (53) Corruption is contagious and tends to spread from the top. (WCL: 70) (54) Anybody who has been to Sierra Leone will tell you this without batting an eyelid. If there is anything that typifies life in this war-wracked nation, it is the endemic plague that has crippled many West African nations – corruption and kleptocracy. (WCL: 40)

The second salient metaphor is corruption is an eater, as in examples 55–58: (55) This long overdue seemingly tall order is readily welcomed wholeheartedly by Nigerians who yearn for a leadership that gives priority to the eradication of corruption which has eaten deep into the fabric of national life. (WCL: 69) (56) Corruption has indeed eaten deeply into the economic fabric of this nation to the extent that those things once considered taboos are now being praised and envied. (WCL: 92) (57) Violence and fear in the streets and homes abound, and corruption is eating away at our society’s moral fibre. (WCL: 64) (58) CORRUPTION is slowly eating away the heart of Zimbawean [sic] society. (Electronic Mail & Guardian, 1997, online)

Both metaphors show up in communion in example 59: (59) President Obasanjo himself had talked tough when he came into office. He had vowed to stamp out the cankerworm called corruption from the civil service. (WCL: 69)

17.4.2 Expressions of Corruption in African English In the preceding section, we argued explicitly against seeing corrupt practices as licensed by African cultural patterns and logics. This does not conflict with our observation that these cultural practices play a crucial role in the conceptualisation of corruption. We take the cultural logics listed above to be rooted in cultural schemas, and we basically argue that these schemas are metaphorically mapped on the concept of corruption. Here, the distinction between metonymy and metaphor is crucial: According to the established view in Cognitive Linguistics, metonymy is a conceptual link within a semantic domain. In metaphor, by contrast, elements and structures from one domain are mapped onto another one, i.e. two distinct domains are involved. Capturing the conceptualisations of corruption as metaphoric rather than metonymic

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intrinsically makes the domain of corruption distinct from those of gift-giving, negotiating, etc. Assuming a metonymic relationship, however, would ultimately imply that corrupt practices are merely a straightforward extension of the respective cultural practices, e.g. that a bribe is but a special instance of a gift. Seeing the conceptual link as metaphoric, as we propose, has no such implication. The salience and entrenchment of this metaphoric mapping in the conceptualisation of corruption is manifest in specific African English expressions. In the following, such expressions are systematically analysed against the background of their underlying conceptualisations.

17.4.2.1

Gift-Giving Metaphors

Consider first the logic of gift-giving. Gift-giving, of course, has its social functions and place in any culture and is not in itself specific to the African context. However, the specific forms it takes and its overall significance differ. In African cultures, gift-giving is an integral part of numerous and various cultural practices and social interactions. On the side of the giver, it is first of all a moral obligation; on the side of the receiver, it is expected.15 Such cultural practices include the following (cf. Olivier de Sardan, 1999: 38ff. for discussion): – gifts offered to local authorities, as a sign of respect – gifts offered on the occasion of ceremonies like marriage, name-giving, baptism and enthroning – gifts offered to a visitor or host – gifts offered to the bearer of good news – gifts offered to a witness of an important transaction – gifts offered in return for useful services, sometimes given in advance – gifts brought from the market or from travels. This list could be extended. Often these cultural practices are traditionally linked to specific gifts, e.g. certain types of food like kola (see below) and plantain. However, as Olivier de Sardan (1999: 39) observed, gift-giving nowadays usually involves money. There has been a general monetarisation of everyday African life. Gift-giving practices are ritualised “cultural scenarios”. We find ample linguistic evidence in African English that these cultural scenarios and their underlying schema of gift-giving are evoked in the conceptualisation of corruption, i.e. that bribery is indeed conceptualised in terms of gift-giving. This mapping is facilitated by the monetarisation of modern African life. The metaphor a bribe is a gift shows up, inter alia, in examples 60–61: (60) Were they not, sort of, justified in supposing that the loans were some gifts to be taken as chop money?” (WCL: 95) (61) He therefore tells the Chief of Manawhoneybee village that his “… name can only go on the radio if [he] brought something;” and of course, the chief gives him money (kola). (CEC)

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The metaphor also appears in expressions like small thing and a little something (meaning ‘a bribe). Here, the source domain is that of small gifts brought home from a travel or the market.16 The most prominent manifestation of the metaphor a bribe is a gift is, however, the well-known fixed expression to give kola (meaning ‘to bribe’) as in 62 and 63: (62) They say a man expects to accept kola from him for services rendered. (Mazrui 1986, online) (63) An unqualified contractor is allowed to bid on a project – in exchange for a little kola and a little dash. (WCL: 128)

Kola (‘cola nut’) is a traditional food gift presented to guests, especially persons of authority. The practice is common throughout West Africa. Example 64, from a literary source, illustrates the practice: (64) Presently she returned with kola nut and wine cups […] By the time Edoro came to the obi, the men had gone through the ritual of breaking the kola nut and eating it. (Adimora-Ezeigbo, 1999: 12)

In the meaning of ‘bribe’, kola is predominantly used in the administrative context, as illustrated in 65: (65) When he opens the office door there is a loud, pleased laughter inside, and a voice with a vague familiarity says, ‘No. This is only your kola. Take it as kola.’ (Armah, 1988: 107)

Kola evokes the nurture schema in addition to the gift-giving schema. The combination yields the more specific metaphor a bribe is a food gift. Figure 17.5 shows the conceptual processes we assume in the metaphoric mapping.

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cultural schemas GIFT-GIVING schema NURTURE schema

involved in

cultural scenarios WELCOMING

scenario

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BRIBING IS FEEDING BRIBING IS GIFT-GIVING A BRIBE IS A FOOD GIFT

instantiated by

cultural practices ritual of cola-nut breaking

M A P P I N G

LINGUISTIC EXPRESSION

to give / to take kola

Fig. 17.5 Cognitive processes involved in a bribe is a food gift

The involvement of the nurture schema may be seen as encouraged by the salient conceptual link between the domains of money and food discussed in Sect. 17.3.3. There, examples of the transfer from lexical items from the food domain to that of corruption were given (e.g. soya, mimbo). These examples bear a strong metonymic element, too. For instance, soya (‘fried beef skewers’), is a Cameroon meal that would normally be offered to a person invited to a restaurant. To have eaten soya, meaning ‘to have accepted a bribe’ then metonymically relates to the prototypical scene in which a person is invited to discuss an illicit favour or transaction. The metaphor a bribe is a food gift also finds expression in a non-linguistic, non-verbal variant as in 66: (66) The policeman who had spoken raised his right hand and in a slow gesture pointed to his teeth. The man had seen this gesture before, several times. Usually, its makers would add the words, ‘Even kola nuts say “thanks”.’ […] the driver gave his folder, together with the bribe in it, to the policeman. (Armah, 1988: 182)

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This adds strength to the argument that metaphor is indeed a conceptual phenomenon rather than a purely linguistic one, as already illustrated by the discussion of the Nigerian cartoon in Sect. 17.3.2.

17.4.2.2

The Negotiating and Bargaining Metaphors

Negotiating and bargaining metaphors derive from market culture, where negotiating prices is a crucial element of the selling scene. Negotiating and bargaining cannot, however, be reduced to the context of commercial transactions (Olivier de Sardan, 1999: 36f.). They are equally at work in other realms of social life. Examples include the negotiation of marriage, beyond the mere determination of a bride price, and the negotiation of compensations under the various types of law.17 Furthermore, there is a strong tradition of ‘brokerage’, i.e. transactions and negotiations are transferred to and handled by a hired mediator, who is paid for his services (cf. Olivier de Sardan, 1999: 37f.). One may thus speak of a negotiation schema, which is involved in various cultural scenarios. Again, this is mapped onto the domain of corruption. In West African English, for instance, bribing is negotiating is manifest in the specific use of the common core English item to settle (meaning ‘to bribe’) as in 67–70: (67) And with the natives pacified, civilised and rid of ignorance, superstition, malaria and paganism, and their leaders duly “settled”, every body [sic] was happy! (WCL: 125) (68) Some of the road blocks a prospective traveler would encounter unwilling to ‘settle’ with the corrupt officials is the familiar line from the officials such as, “we are out of passport forms”, or “come back tomorrow”. (WCL: 59) (69) As a consequence of this kind of practice, anyone with a criminal record or a foreign national can easily obtain Nigerian passport [sic] without adequate clearance provided the individual is quite willing to ‘settle’. (WCL: 59) (70) Critics insisted that Alamieyeseigha gave over N15 million as bribe to judges to influence the case in his favour. “Even service chiefs were settled,” the petitioners wrote. (WCL: 137)

17.4.2.3

The Predatory-Authority Metaphor

The previous set of examples illustrates the strong interaction of the logic of negotiating with the logic of predatory authority. One may seek for origins of the latter in pre-colonial times, for instance, in the tributes required by warlords. However, as Olivier de Sardan (1999: 42) argues, the omnipresence of this logic needs to be attributed to the colonial-period administration, which brought the all-powerful commandants, administrative chiefs appointed by the colonial government, and their local indigenous auxiliaries. Local elites, leaders, bureaucrats and executive forces of the post-colonial time continue to operate along these lines.

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This socio-cultural schema, we argue, is mapped on the corruption issue, yielding the conceptualisation a bribe is a tribute to predatory authority. Linguistically, this conceptualisation finds expression in items like ten percent (Nigeria), commission and bail, all of them meaning ‘a bribe’, primarily in the context of administration, as in examples 71–72: (71) It has gotten so bad that his secretary spends much of her time sending out dunning letters to contractors who were awarded contracts but haven’t handed over the requisite ten percent bribe to the Boss. (WCL: 128) (72) Recently, Tell, a respected weekly came out with a report indicating that journalists are even commissioned with fat pay to write editorial opinions. (WCL: 130)

The conceptual metaphor a bribe is a tribute to predatory authority is frequently linked to the negotiation schema. The receiver is often a mediator.

17.4.2.4

The Solidarity Metaphor

Finally, we turn to the logic of solidarity networks. What is meant here is the entire system of bonds an individual may draw and call upon due to his or her anchoring in various social groups. Solidarity networks are thus a component of the kinship-based community model. They include an obligation of mutual assistance. As Olivier de Sardan (1999) put it: One cannot refuse a service, a favour, a bit of string pulling or compliance to a relative, neighbour, party comrade or friend. Nor ought one to refuse the same to someone who is ‘sent’ by any of the above. The circle of individuals to whom one feels obliged to render services is thus astonishingly wide. (Olivier de Sardan, 1999: 40)

Solidarity networks have materialised in the vast system of NGOs and local development associations. They appear in the numerous associations of better-off urban dwellers which support development projects in their rural communities of origin (see Geschiere, 1995 for discussion). Further examples include local community banks and other forms of local capital accumulation and distribution. These solidarity networks practice mutual assistance to compensate for dysfunctional state supply and the general scarcity of resources. Again, we find linguistic evidence that this logic is drawn upon in the conceptualisation of corruption. The resulting metaphor a bribe is a solidarity surcharge is, for instance, manifest in the Ghanaian English item extra soli, e.g. (73) There is no doubt that this announcement asking all the ex-officials to return the extra soli they took to the government chest is going to cause severe wahala [Pidgin English for ‘trouble’] in many houses. (WCL: 147) (74) In Ghana it [a bribe] is called “Soli” meaning ‘solidarity’ (WCL: 130)

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The various African English expressions of corruption analysed in this and the preceding sections thus turn out to be manifestations of the African cultural model of community. The underlying cognitive process, we argued, is a metaphorical mapping, i.e. the domain of corruption is structured in terms of conceptualisations derived from the community model. The function is evidently euphemistic. The underlying metaphors ‘hide’ the illicit nature of the phenomenon by conceptualising it as a gift, as negotiating or a tribute to authority. The culture-specific conceptualisations we have discussed in this article are immediately relevant to the pragmatics of cross-cultural communication. In the following, we will briefly demonstrate how our findings come to bear on two concrete instances of cross-cultural contact.

17.5 Pragmatic Applications Our first example concerns the kinship for community metonymy. One of the authors of this chapter acted as a supervisor for a Cameroonian Ph.D.-student, who signed his emails to him with “your son”. The Ph.D.-student apparently extended the logics of the African model of community to the academic community, conceptualising a supervisor as father. For somebody who is not familiar with this model, the signature “your son” would be utterly strange, if not offending. Though, given our Western background, we may still find this signature irritating (since it reminds us of the obligations of nurture and care, which, for us, are mostly confined to the realm of the immediate biological family), we can at least, because of our knowledge of the cultural model involved, make sense of “your son” and explain it as a particular linguistic realisation of the kinship for community metonymy. The interesting point here is not that some kind of miscommunication occurred which could easily be fixed (by simply exchanging “your son” with the name, for instance) but rather that the language used by one of the participants revealed something of his underlying conceptual system. Significantly, the same Cameroonian refers to the other author of this chapter, his immediate collaborator, as brother, which reveals that the entire local academic community is conceptualised in terms of the kinship-based model. Here, a brief comparative look at Western varieties of English is in order. Metonymic and metaphoric extensions of kinship terms are, of course, traceable in these varieties, too, as the following corpus example, also from the academic context, illustrates: (75) The father of sociology, Adam Ferguson. (FLOB)

In Western varieties, however, such extension is limited to particular kinship terms only; it is not the entire system which is transferred18 : We may call Freud the father of psychoanalysis and Ferguson the father of sociology, but psychoanalysts or social scientists of the respective disciplines would not address each other as brothers or sisters. These conceptualisations are ‘isolated’ and what they highlight is the origin of a paradigm rather than embeddedness in a community. Thus, the rooting in a fullyfledged model of community as in the African context is virtually absent (see Wolf

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& Polzenhagen, 2007: 416–17, for a more detailed discussion). Furthermore, they do not entail the notions ‘nurture’ and ‘care’, which are highly salient elements of the African model. In other words, the conceptual networks activated by kinship terms differ in a number of crucial respects across cultural contexts. Since we deem this point to be highly important, we will provide further evidence for it with findings from the questionnaire survey we conducted among German and Cameroonian university students. The part of the questionnaire we refer to set out to comparatively investigate the conceptual networks linked to the family concept in the two groups of informants (see the appendix for the format of this part of the questionnaire). Specifically, the presence and salience of links between the family concept and a set of related concepts were tested. The informants were presented with 17 keywords and asked to indicate seven of them that they associate most with family. The rationale was to determine which concepts are, relative to others, salient in the networks. A selection of the results is presented in Fig. 17.6. The markedly higher salience of items from the broader community domain in the Cameroonian group (i.e. friends, ancestors, society, country) fully supports our general analysis of the African community model. These differences show up even more clearly in the data from the section in which the informants were asked to judge the degree of strength they perceive for the link between family and the 17 individual keywords. Consider, as an illustration, the results for the perceived strength of the link between family and country (Fig. 17.7). For our present concern with pragmatic issues, the differences in salience of conceptual links, captured in the figures just presented, coupled with differences in

Fig. 17.6 Concepts associated with family (selection)

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Fig. 17.7 Perceived link between family and country

conceptualisations themselves, as in the case of kinship terms extensions, are central to the construction of meaning in intercultural communication. Inevitable, they will shade into each intercultural conversation in which related topics are discussed, as they are part of the conceptual background against which the interactants interpret linguistic material (see Wolf & Polzenhagen, 2006). Our second example takes a macroscopic perspective and concerns, more narrowly, the issue of corruption and the potential conflicts it yields in intercultural economic relations. Western enterprises that are engaged in regions where gratification practices are wide-spread and where financial “favours” are expected in business transactions are faced with the problem of how to position themselves with respect to these local realities. Possible positions range between two extremes. The first would result from a strict relativist vantage point and would speak for the full adaptation to the local practices. Ethical considerations, e.g. on the debatable moral implications of corruption, are bypassed in favour of the tolerance principle and, after all, of economic interests. The other extreme position would claim ethic primacy and universal validity of the Western understanding of corruption and would insist on the strict application of the Western norms. When pursued successfully, this universalist approach, in fact, may be seen as a form of cultural imperialism. When the local balance of power, however, does not permit to push through this position, there is no other alternative than breaking off interaction and withdrawing from the country. From a pragmatic perspective, neither of the two extreme positions is felicitous. In the philosophically oriented literature on the subject (see, e.g. the articles in Steinmann & Scherer, 1998a), proposals are made, from both vantage points, that seek to console a context-sensitive approach with ethical and discursive standards and with economic interests. Bausch (1998), for instance, discusses corrupt practices against the background of universal ethic principles. Kyora (1998) and Steinmann

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and Scherer (1998b) take a culturalist perspective. The authors provide fictitious case studies illustrating the two vantage points and their outcomes with respect to the corruption issue. Important for our concern is that linguistic considerations occupy a prominent place in the discussion represented by the articles in Steinmann and Scherer (1998a). This is due to the fact that possible solutions for intercultural conflicts strongly depend on successful communication between the interactants. Here, the dominant emphasis, from both vantage points, is on rules of linguistic behaviour and discourse. The aim of these approaches is to define and develop discourse strategies and conditions that ensure the effective functioning of crosscultural interaction. Böhler (1998) is a universalistically oriented application of this paradigm to intercultural economic interaction, also beyond the specific problem of corruption. Wohlrapp (1998), with a culturalist commitment, stresses the impact of cultural differences on the process and the structure of communication. In linguistic pragmatics, we find a parallel dominant emphasis on rules and functioning of verbal interaction. This perspective guides the familiar studies on ‘face’ and ‘politeness’ (e.g. Brown & Levinson, 1998; Scollon & Scollon, 2004: Chap. 3), on variation in the exercise of speech acts or formulaic routines, on variation in the organisation of discourse (e.g. Scollon & Scollon, 2004: Chap. 5), on small talk, on terms of address and respect; for an overview and a critical discussion, see, e.g. Clyne (1994: 3–4, 1998: 246–249) and Blommaert (1991). In the context of intercultural communication, this yields a focus on the ‘how’ of verbal encounters between cultures. What is bracketed by this paradigm, however, is another possible linguistic perspective on intercultural communication, namely the question in which way different cultural conceptualisations of the interactants bear on cross-cultural discourse (see Wolf & Polzenhagen, 2006, 2009 and Wolf, 2015 for a critical reflection and examples of functionalist shortcomings). This alternative perspective is strongly in line with the culturalist vantage point. An overview of how it can be approached against a cognitive-linguistic background is given by Yu (2007), with special attention to the L2 learning context, and is discussed in more detail by Wolf and Polzenhagen (2006). This focus is meaning-oriented and foregrounds the aspect of understanding rather than that of mere effective functioning. So far, however, this possible linguistic perspective is poorly explored, at least with regard to applied issues. With respect to the corruption problem, it may contribute to an informed cross-cultural interaction in several ways. As we hope to have shown, a cognitive-linguistic analysis may first of all identify and explicate the interactants’ cultural conceptualisations and may thus raise awareness of the cultural models involved. This concerns the other’s model as much as, in a self-reflective process, one’s own model, of which one is rarely conscious. Furthermore, it may help to negotiate some consensus on which practices transgress the respective boundaries of the legitimate and are thus to be rejected. Here, the analysis of underlying cultural models makes explicit that there are sources of legitimacy other than those sanctioned by a particular culture. One does not have to share these sources, but they may still be acceptable or at least need to be considered and respected. Finally, the linguistic analysis of cultural models may add substance to the discussion which instances of

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gratification are indeed backed by cultural practices (e.g. by the logic of gift-giving to establish and maintain relationships and by the logic of obligations towards one’s kin) and which instances unduly claim cultural rooting in order to hide individual interests and enrichment. Our view of the possible application of Cultural Linguistics to the study of intercultural communication is thus inspired by the key tenet of critical approaches to language. The linguistic analysis may contribute to a greater awareness of how phenomena are conceptualised and, consequently, to a more informed consideration of socio-cultural realities. Speaking above of consensus, however, is not arguing for a homogenous presumably universal ‘third model’. Rather, it is to be read as exploring and defining the scope of action and interaction within and between the two models involved.

17.6 Conclusions The Cultural Linguistics approach may be fruitfully applied to the study of lexical and conceptual peculiarities of language varieties. This approach allows for the transition from a mere descriptive treatment of a variety’s lexicon to an explanatory account based on the underlying cognitive processes. When analysed against the background of cultural models, the specific meaning, salience and the systematic interrelatedness of lexical items within a domain may be captured and compared across varieties. In this chapter, this has been shown in an exemplary way for African English. Cultural conceptualisations integrate loan words (e.g. mimbo; soya); they trigger semantic extensions of common core English items (e.g. to settle; to commission); and they yield variety-specific fixed expressions (e.g. to eat money; to give kola). From a pragmatic perspective, cultural conceptualisations have far-reaching implications for cross-cultural communication. The application of Cultural Linguistic methods to the study of world Englishes allows one to examine the expression of culture in the world’s foremost lingua franca. It is possible to break through the restrictions inherent in functionalist intercultural pragmatic theory, which deliberately excludes the semantic dimension of cross-cultural communication. Cultural Linguistics can contribute to a better understanding of the cultural background of groups of speakers in question, an aspect which is neglected by the focus on mere effective communicative functioning. This potential can add to an informed way of dealing with intercultural conflicts. Notes 1.

For our purpose, the term ‘African English’ refers to the second language varieties of English spoken in Africa, and includes Liberian English, which, for some of its speakers, is a first language variety. General information on the classification of the varieties of English can be found, for instance, in Quirk (1995).

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One could also argue for the opposite. Since culture is the general phenomenon, then individual schemas may be subsumed by cultural themes (Gary Palmer, personal comment). Work on the corpus stopped shortly before its completion. Thus, there are only “unofficial” copies of it. The one we use was given to one of the authors by Josef Schmied, TU Chemnitz, who is a member of the ICE project, and whose kindness we acknowledge here. We collected 39 questionnaires from Cameroonian students at the University of Yaoundé and 19 from German students at Humboldt University Berlin. The survey also includes 39 questionnaires from Cantonese students at The University of Hong Kong. Wolf and Polzenhagen (2006) gives details on the format of the questionnaire and a comparative analysis of some of the German and Hong Kong data. We wish to thank Samuel Atechi (University of Yaoundé) for conducting our survey in Cameroon. For the situation in the colonial state, see Comaroff (2002). In the African context, this finds further expression in specific terms of address and respect, e.g. bwana mkubwa (< Swahili ‘big man’) to address an extremely important person (Dalgish, 1982) and Makhulu (< Swahili -kuu ‘big’) a term of respect in South Africa (Dalgish, 1982). Yoruba, too, has a parallel item (Adegbija, 2003: 47). Note that this is evidence of Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) key claim that metaphor is a conceptual device rather than a merely linguistic phenomenon. Meaning ‘the cow eats where they tie it’. Cp. francophone Cameroon: gombo (‘okra’, Camfranglais ‘feast’), l’eau (‘water’), bière (‘beer’). For more food-related terms for ‘bribe’ in the French of Cameroon as well as in Cameroon English and Nigerian English, see Meutem Kamtchueng (2017). On the issue of corruption in Africa, see, e.g. Szeftel (1998, 2000a, 2000b), Chabal and Daloz (1999), Bayart, Ellis, and Hibou (1999), Olivier de Sardan (1999), Ayee (2002), Waliggo (n.d., online). See, for example, its prominent position among the topics of the inaugural speech by the former Nigerian President Obasanjo (http://www.ngex.com/nigeria/govt/president/obasanjoinaugspeech.htm). The legal regulations of Western countries concerning corruption generally operate under a double standard in that corrupt practices abroad are not considered. The United States is an exception here, because its 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act sanctions corruption abroad, specifically the bribing of the public service (Kyora, 1998: 351; Szeftel, 1998: 230). As one African scholar notes with respect to traditional African values: “The corrupt and selfish accumulators of wealth were isolated as anti-people, witches and sorcerers.” (Waliggo n.d., online: 12). We do not claim that disease metaphors of corruption are specifically West African. They are, of course, equally salient in Western varieties of English. To provide just one example: Using the same disease metaphor as Obasanjo, the

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15.

16.

17.

18.

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then World Bank president James Wolfensohn spoke of the ‘cancer of corruption’ in Africa (cit.in Szeftel, 2000a: 288). More generally, disease metaphors apply to all kinds of social evils. Importantly, not giving the expected gift is not only considered as a sign of bad manners or avarice, but also carries the risk of attracting misfortune (cf. Olivier de Sardan, 1999: 39). Olivier de Sardan (1999: 38f.) provides parallel examples from Songhay-zarma (Nilo-Saharan languages spoken in Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria). The item Kalem dene, for instance, (‘the quill of the pen’) which is the traditional preliminary gift given to the marabout, is now applied to a bribe given to a bureaucrat. Again, a particular entrenched cultural practice serves as the source domain of this transfer. Note that African countries have inherited several such types of law: forms of common law from the pre-colonial period, indigenous law, colonial law, and post-independence national law (cf. Olivier de Sardan, 1999: 37). These forms of law coexist and can be appealed to according to need. The application of the full range of kinship terms is confined, in the Western context, to some specific, in particular religious, communities.

Appendix Section on Family from the Questionnaire Survey

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