Deconstructing Creole

Deconstructing Creole PDF Author: Umberto Ansaldo
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027229854
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Get Book Here

Book Description
Deconstructing Creole is a collection of studies aimed at critically assessing the idea of creole languages as a homogeneous structural type with shared and peculiar patterns of genesis. Following up on the critical discussion of notions of 'creole exceptionalism' as historical and ideological constructs, this volume tests the basic assumptions that underlie current attempts to present 'creole structure' as a special type, from typological as well as sociohistorical perspectives. The sum of the findings presented here suggests that careful empirical investigation of input varieties and contact environments can explain the structural output without recourse to an exceptional genesis scenario. Echoing calls to dissolve the notion of 'creolization' as a special diachronic process, this volume proposes that theoretically grounded approaches to the notions of simplicity, complexity, transmission, etc. do not warrant considering so-called 'creole' languages as a special synchronic type.

A Grammar of Modern Baba Malay

A Grammar of Modern Baba Malay PDF Author: Nala H. Lee
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110745151
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 559

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book documents modern Baba Malay, a critically endangered Austronesian-based contact language with a Sinitic substrate. Formed via intermarriage between Hokkien-speaking male traders and indigenous women in the Malay Peninsula, the language has less than 1,000 speakers in Singapore and less than 1,000 speakers in Malacca, Malaysia. This volume fills a gap for reference grammars of contact languages in general. Reference grammars written on contact languages are rare, and much rarer is a reference grammar written about a critically endangered Austronesian-based contact language. The reference grammar, which aims to be useful to linguists and general readers interested in Baba Malay, describes the language’s sociohistorical background, its circumstances of endangerment, and provides information regarding the phonology, parts of speech, and syntax of Baba Malay as spoken in Singapore. A chapter that differentiates this variety from that spoken in Malacca is also included. The grammar demonstrates that the nature of Baba Malay is highly systematic, and not altogether simple, providing structural information for those who are interested in the typology of contact languages.

Reframing Singapore

Reframing Singapore PDF Author: Derek Thiam Soon Heng
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
ISBN: 9089640940
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Get Book Here

Book Description
Over the past two decades, Singapore has advanced rapidly towards becoming a both a global city-state and a key nodal point in the international economic sphere. These developments have caused us to reassess how we understand this changing nation, including its history, population, and geography, as well as its transregional and transnational experiences with the external world. This collection spans several disciplines in the humanities and social sciences and draws on various theoretical approaches and methodologies in order to produce a more refined understanding of Singapore and to reconceptialize the challenges faced by the country and its peoples.

The Baba of Melaka

The Baba of Melaka PDF Author: Tan Chee-Beng
Publisher: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre
ISBN: 9672464762
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 214

Get Book Here

Book Description
“. . . The fullest and most comprehensive ethnography of the Baba community in Malaysia. . . . The author is a meticulous ethnographer, and provides three chapters of richly detailed information on Baba kinship and marriage practices, ancestor worship, Chinese folk religion and festivals and a variety of Baba social patterns and organizations. . . . This is certainly a necessary and pleasurable reading materials for scholars of Malaysia, and for those interested in ethnicity more generally.” Professor Judith Nagata, Pacific Affairs 62(2), 1989. Based on a long-term ethnographic study, the new edition of this book provides a comprehensive description of Baba culture and identity in Melaka, Malaysia. Tan Chee-Beng’s landmark study analyses the term Baba, the development of Baba society, their distribution in Melaka and overt features of identity, the Baba Malay dialect, customs and religion, kinship and social interactions – all of which tie in to changes in Baba identity. By discussing cultural change and ethnic identification of a Chinese Peranakan community in Malaysia, the reader can gain a more complete understanding of this unique minority group within a minority in a rapidly changing Malaysian context.

Contact Languages

Contact Languages PDF Author: Umberto Ansaldo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139483145
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 277

Get Book Here

Book Description
Why do groups of speakers in certain times and places come up with new varieties of languages? What are the social settings that determine whether a mixed language, a pidgin or a Creole will develop, and how can we understand the ways in which different languages contribute to the new grammar? Through the study of Malay contact varieties such as Baba Malay, Cocos Malay and Sri Lanka Malay, as well as the Asian Portuguese vernacular of Macau, and China Coast Pidgin, this book explores the social and structural dynamics that underlie the fascinating phenomenon of the creation of new, or restructured, grammars. It emphasizes the importance and interplay of historical documentation, socio-cultural observation and linguistic analysis in the study of contact languages, offering an evolutionary framework for the study of contact language formation - including pidgins and Creoles - in which historical, socio-cultural and typological observations come together.

Simplicity and Typological Effects in the Emergence of New Englishes

Simplicity and Typological Effects in the Emergence of New Englishes PDF Author: Thomas Brunner
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110521806
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Get Book Here

Book Description
The book is based on a detailed corpus-based investigation of the structure of noun phrases (NPs) in Singaporean English and Kenyan English with the aim of detecting, on the one hand, typological effects from substrate languages and, on the other hand, simplification patterns known to play a role in such varieties.

World Yearbook of Education

World Yearbook of Education PDF Author: Jacquetta Megarry
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780415392976
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 414

Get Book Here

Book Description
First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

A General History Of The Chinese In Singapore

A General History Of The Chinese In Singapore PDF Author: Chong Guan Kwa
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9813277653
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1002

Get Book Here

Book Description
A General History of the Chinese in Singapore documents over 700 years of Chinese history in Singapore, from Chinese presence in the region through the millennium-old Hokkien trading world to the waves of mass migration that came after the establishment of a British settlement, and through to the development and birth of the nation. Across 38 chapters and parts, readers are taken through the complex historical mosaic of Overseas Chinese social, economic and political activity in Singapore and the region, such as the development of maritime junk trade, plantation industries, and coolie labour, the role of different bangs, clan associations and secret societies as well as Chinese leaders, the diverging political allegiances including Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary activities and the National Salvation Movement leading up to the Second World War, the transplanting of traditional Chinese religions, the changing identity of the Overseas Chinese, and the developments in language and education policies, publishing, arts, and more.With 'Pride in our Past, Legacy for our Future' as its key objective, this volume aims to preserve the Singapore Chinese story, history and heritage for future generations, as well as keep our cultures and traditions alive. Therefore, the book aims to serve as a comprehensive guide for Singaporeans, new immigrants and foreigners to have an epitome of the Singapore society. This publication is supported by the National Heritage Board's Heritage Project Grant.Related Link(s)

Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Sciences

Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Sciences PDF Author: Ford Lumban Gaol
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1315687631
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Get Book Here

Book Description
The human aspect plays an important role in the social sciences. The behavior of people has become a vital area of focus in the social sciences as well. Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Sciences contains papers that were originally presented at the 3rd International Congress on Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Science 2014 (ICIBSoS 2014),

Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society

Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society PDF Author: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Federated Malay States
Languages : en
Pages : 90

Get Book Here

Book Description
List of members in some numbers.

Variation Rolls the Dice

Variation Rolls the Dice PDF Author: Enoch O. Aboh
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027259046
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 346

Get Book Here

Book Description
Variation Rolls the Dice: A worldwide collage in honour of Salikoko S. Mufwene aims to celebrate Mufwene’s ground-breaking contribution to linguistics in the past four decades. The title also encapsulates his approach to language as both systemic and socio-cultural practices, and the role of variation in determining particular evolutionary trajectories in specific linguistic ecologies. The book therefore focuses on variation within and across languages, within and across speakers, and how this fundamental aspect of human behavior can affect language structure in time and space. Mufwene has been instrumental in putting creole languages on the map of General Linguistics and connecting their analysis to issues of language acquisition, multilingualism, language contact, language evolution, and language typology. Thanks to the diversity of topics and the wide-ranging theoretical persuasions of the contributors, this volume aims at a large readership including both scholars and advanced students interested in cutting-edge research in the aforementioned domains.