POST-COLONIAL LITERATURE- VALORIZATION OF LOCAL IDENTITIES: LOCALIZED NORMS OF SPEECH ACTS AND CODE-SWITCHING�

PROF. MAYA KHEMLANI DAVID,

ASIA EUROPE INSTITUTE,

UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA, KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA.

ABSTRACT

In this study my aim is to link literature (post-colonial) with other variables like cultural norms and speech acts, localized Englishes, and code switching. Many countries, such as Malaysia, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh were European colonies till the mid of the twentieth century. During the colonial era, colonial structures and values were imposed on the countries and this resulted in degradation of local identities, languages, norms and values. However, with the beginning of the post-colonial era, these countries attained their independence and many post-colonial writers in such countries started questioning colonial legacy in their literary works. Writers, such as Homi K. Bhabha, Gyatri Spivak, and others influenced the post-colonial thought that sought to valorize local identities, and this study seeks to investigate such a valorization process. Examples taken from post-colonial writers’ literary works will be analyzed focusing on the trend of valorization. Valorization is a process of giving value or merit to a person, thing or an idea. However, in this study, my focus is on how post-colonial writers in Pakistan, India, and Singapore give value and merit to local identities as seen in specific speech acts, varieties of English, norms and other socio-cultural or sociolinguistic practices in their novels. Moreover, I will argue how such valorization contests colonial structures and norms. Purposive sampling technique have been used to collect data from post-colonial writers’ literary works. Thematic analysis of the data will be conducted to report findings.

Keywords: Englishes, localized, post-colonial, values, valorization.

1. INTRODUCTION

• Bhabha (1994) states that literature can play an important role in the question of identity.
• Edward Said (1994) explains that human beings make their own culture and ethnic identities.
• Even though one may write in the English language due to the global hegemony of the English language many post-colonial writers inject their own cultures and languages in literary works written in dominant English.

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• Postcolonial writers take the language of their colonizer (English for example) and “turn it on its head”.
• A writer from Malaysia, for example, may write a novel in English, but may use many lexical items from the many languages like Malay, Chinese and Tamil used in Malaysia and also use local expressions for example, exclamation markers like “Aiyaoh” instead of ‘Oh dear!” It is still English, but it's a different kind of English.
• It can then be said that the language of the one-time colonizers has been colonised by local writers.
• The quest for their own voice has resulted in a distinctiveness in the Englishes used as manifest in the many indigenous words and expressions used and reflects their identity as non-white writers of the English language.
• I first provide examples of such localization of English in the literary works of well- known writers then move on to focus on localized speech acts as seen in literary works.

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2. PREVIOUS RESEARCH

• Rushdie (1995) himself states that, ‘one of the major roots of Midnight’s Children lies in the oral narrative’. Rushdie’s (1995) novels have an eclectic mix of prose styles, which echo the rhythm and slang of English as it is colloquially spoken in India.
• Familiar English words get combined in new and unusual ways, and long, unbroken sentences run on freely, sometimes spanning a page or more.
• The inspiration Rushdie draws from both ancient and contemporary Indian culture is also notable in his fiction. Elements taken from traditional Indian mythology and religion thread themselves through the novel.

• A writer from Malaysia, for example, may write a novel in English, but may use a number of lexical items from the many languages used in Malaysia and also use local phrases and terms.
• It's still English, but it's a different kind of English. It can then be said that the language of the one-time colonizers has been contested by local writers.
• The quest for their own voice has resulted in a distinctiveness in the Englishes used as manifest in the many indigenous words and expressions used and reflects their identity.

• Moving on to The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy words are joined together without punctuation, as seen in the description of the 'Orange drink Lemon drink man‘’.
• This subversion of the usual rules of syntax and grammar shows the role of language in colonialism.
• Roy also employs a disjointed, non-sequential narrative style that echoes the process of memory. (see  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_of_Small_Things)  By corrupting standard use of English (the colonial language of India) Roy is rebelling against colonial influence.

3. SOURCES OF DATA FOR THIS RESEARCH

• The Pakistani English novels used in this research are Durrani’s My Feudal Lord (1991) and Mohsin Hamid’s (2008), The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
• In addition, two novels, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (Roy, 2017) and The God of Small Things (Roy, 1997) written by an Indian writer, Arundhati Roy, were selected for this research.
• These novels were written in English and reflect sociocultural norms of Pakistan and India. Excerpts taken from these novels were purposively selected to analyse how local sociocultural norms influence speech acts.
• Other novels by writers like Rushdie, Christine Lim, are also analyzed to provide examples of local varieties of English.

FINDINGS

Localized Speech Acts

• A. Localized Speech Acts of Request
• In the post-colonial period, localized speech acts have developed to perform different verbal and non-verbal functions of communication.
• Teachers can create self-pride and develop cross-cultural competence among their students by identifying and exemplifying how different cultural norms operationalize in the speech acts used in local (Pakistani) English novels. Speech acts of request used by Pakistanis in the English they use have been given below.

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• Speech Act of request
• 1. ‘…But please be loyal to somebody. I’d like to see some sense of loyalty in you, for somebody, anybody, even another woman’. (Pg: 108 My Feudal Lord)
• 2. ‘I don’t think…I should. I’m living in Pakistan. Please think of my family. Please understand’.(P. 130 My Feudal Lord)
• 3. ‘Tehmina has been very unhappy with you, but she has struggled and stood by you throughout your days of ordeal. Today, I’m asking you for a favour. Please be good to her. Be a good husband. She must never be unhappy again. Tis is my last request to you. It is my last request to anybody on this earth.’ (P. 226 My Feudal Lord).
• 4. Please do not worry yourself; you are a guest here and this —it is only a tiny amount— is on me. You wish to pay half?
• Absolutely not; besides, here we pay all or we pay none. (P. 72 The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Hamid)

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ANALYSIS

• Examples given above reflect how sociocultural norms influence the use of speech acts of request in Pakistan’s context.
• In example 1, expressions, such as ‘but please…’, shows a positive politeness strategy of making a request, while ‘I would like to…’ is an indirect way of making requests. In the former, a wife shows a friendly attitude towards her parting husband, suggesting that he be good and loyal to a woman he meets or marries later.
• Such a contextual situation involving positive, polite requests may not be practiced in other cultural settings. The latter example is an indirect request made by the wife from her husband asking him to value and practice loyalty.
• Such values (loyalty) are given priority in Pakistani culture, and these can be seen in the speech act of request used by a woman in example 1.

• Some Pakistani speakers may use a negative politeness strategy in their requests to show deference or disagreement with another person.
• The speaker says, ‘I don’t think…I should’ which shows that the speaker disagrees to do what the other person requested. However, the act of disagreement has been expressed using a negative politeness strategy.
• Such request has been denied because it is not possible for the speaker who must comply with Pakistani cultural norms, and in response, the speaker makes a positive, polite request using the word, ‘please’ twice.
• The speaker is conscious about his family and Pakistani sociocultural norms, and thus he diffuses his interlocutor’s request with another request.

• Example 3 contains different ways speech acts of request are used in Pakistani literature and culture.
• First, ‘please be good to her’ is a positive, polite strategy of making a request.
• Second, ‘be a good husband’ is a direct, imperative request.
• Third, ‘she must never be unhappy again’ is a non-conventional indirect request.
• All these requests pertain to the ethical code of being a good, caring husband typical of Pakistani society.

• Also, a Pakistani speaker in example 4 makes a non-conventional indirect request to his American guest that the Pakistani will pay the bill for food/drink, and this speech act shows the norm of hospitality prevalent in Pakistani society.
• Teachers can use such examples from novels to teach their students how norms and speech acts can vary from one cultural context to another, developing students’ cross-cultural competence.

LOCALIZED SPEECH ACTS OF APOLOGIZING

• According to Abbas, Anjum, and Pasha (nd), Pakistanis usually prefer using positive politeness strategies in their speech acts of apology. However, this can vary from one person/context to another. How Pakistanis apologize is presented here.
• 1. I cried out to God for forgiveness as I gathered together the bits of consecrated paper. (P. 229 My Feudal Lord)
• 2. ‘I can’t live without you,’ he proclaimed, ‘I was mad to lose you. I’ve not forgotten your support, your patience. Don’t punish me so severely. Give me one last chance.’ (P.242 My Feudal Lord)
• 3. I can’t… but still you should go. Try to be happy, okay? I am sorry about everything. Please take care of yourself. (P. 61 The Reluctant Fundamentalist)
• 4. She said: I am sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. (P.72 The Reluctant Fundamentalist)
• He said: That is quite all right…I hope I was not a pest.” ‘never’, she said. (P48 The Reluctant Fundamentalist)

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ANALYSIS

• The speech acts of apology can also vary in different languages and cultures. Example 1 in the previous slide shows how a Pakistani woman uses a speech act of apology.
• This speech act of apology shows her religious belief because she is seeking God’s forgiveness by crying. She cries because her husband has torn a saint’s picture and because she believes, much like many Pakistani Muslims, that crying and weeping can be answered by God more quickly. This speech act of apology is an instance of negative politeness strategy because she disagrees with her husband’s act of tearing down the picture, and such an act torments her.
• In contrast, example 2 in the previous slide manifests a positive politeness strategy because the husband accepts his wrongs and apologises to his wife.

• The speech act of apology shows that a person has accepted his/her mistake and is sorry for what happened.
• Example 3 shows how a Pakistani accepts his/her mistakes and shows that he/she is sorry.
• The other person accepts the apology and leaves.

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• In example 4, an American woman says sorry to a Pakistani man for being late, while the Pakistani diffuses the speech act of apology and offers his own apology that he must have been a pest for her.
• Though the American also diffuses her act of apology, it is a much shorter reply than the Pakistani’s reply.
• Such nature of replies and speech acts of apology demonstrates how sociocultural norms impact the way people speak or write.

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OTHER FINDINGS

• Use of Code Mixes
• In one of Rushdie’s many books we find local expressions like Goondas (page 86), Beta (page 18), Shaitan (page 19), Tamasha (page 19), Arre baba (page 19), Everybody is doing chamchagiri to the bosses (page 135), Dramabazi (page 166), Pallu (page 168), Lena dena (page 186).
• Old clothes for the raddiwalla to cart away (page 211), Bai (page 226), Kaajal and sindhoor in the parting of my hair (pg 238), Pucca Bombay product (page 244), (Rushdie, Penguin New Delhi 1996).

• And in Suchen,,Christine-Lim”s Fistful-of-colours;SNP-EDITIONS,,Singapore, 2003 there is an interesting use of Malay and Hokkien code mixes as the characters are of different ethnicities and levels of education we also note the use of pidgin English by those not proficient in standard Code mixing
• “Get out ! Tolong ah! Out!”
• Tolong is the Malay word for Help�Ah exclamation for please.

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• Other local words
• Kopi-money means money under the counter�Kopi (Malay word) ��Aiyah - local exclamation.
• In addition there are cultural innuendos and the exclamation markers are of Chinese origin in the code mixed discourse.
• And on Page,89 we note a variety of Singlish (localized variety of English) �“but M.r Tan, ah! My licence , ah?�“ What about my licence?” 
• Page 228 spoken by an angry Chinese father to his adult son�Eg of curse / angry words�“”F…your mother! You son of a bloody sow! May the Thunder God strike you! Accursed dog! May lightening strike you dead!”

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SYNTAX

• Syntax- shortened sentences P. 14�Right or not?�(Am I right?”��P.17 syntax of Singlish�“Last time where got such paintings?”
• Reduplication-page-82�Then they mutter- mutter among themselves��

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CONCLUSION

• This paper provides examples of literary fiction where colonial discourse is contested linguistically by use of localized speech acts, code mixes in different local languages, and by choice of topic/ themes.
• In short, by the hybridity of the varieties of English used and other literary devices a voice is claimed by the one- time colonised writers. In this way they claim their identity and have created a variety of the English language and contested the writings of colonial writers.

REFERENCES

• References
• Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture. Psychology Press.
• David, M. K., Dumanig, F. P., & Ali, A. (2022). Creating Self-Pride and Cross-Cultural Communicative Competence among Pakistani and Indian Speakers of English through Speech Acts. In Current Trends in Applied Linguistics Research and Implementation (1st ed.). Disigma, Kalochori, Thessaloniki, Greece.
• Durrani, T. (1991). My feudal lord.
• Hamid, M. (2008). The reluctant fundamentalist. Mariner Books.
• Lim, S. C. (2017). Fistful of colours.
• Roy, A. (1997). The god of small things. Penguin Books India.
• Roy, A. (2017). The ministry of utmost happiness. Penguin.
• Rushdie, S. (1995). Midnight's children: Introduction by Anita Desai. Everyman's Library.
• Said, E. W. (1994). Culture and imperialism. National Geographic Books.