We investigate the use of question tags in Trinidadian English. Using a variationist pragmatics approach and spoken material from the Trinidad and Tobago component of the International Corpus of English, we describe the distribution and pragmatic functions of variant and invariant tags across four text types. Variant question tags are rare in Trinidadian English, but a range of invariant question tags is present in the corpus. Tags serve a number of pragmatic functions, and can serve multiple functions simultaneously. Text type is a strong factor influencing the frequency of tag forms and functions, with tags associated with the local creole mainly found in informal text types.
In the anglophone Caribbean, tendencies of endonormative reorientation have been observed in the development of local standards of English. Situated in the school context, this study adds a language attitude perspective on the question of whether and to what extent an endonormative standard of English is emerging in the island of Trinidad. In an accent rating study, 803 secondary students were asked to evaluate the accents of Trinidadian, other anglophone Caribbean, American, and British teachers and to identify their countries of origin. The results indicate that the respondents’ norm orientation is multidimensional and includes exo- and endonormative influences: first, there is a general coexistence of different standards since no standard serves as a superordinate norm. Second, there is no clear-cut distinction between exo- and endonormative accents, but fine-grained differences in the ratings: British and American voices received slightly higher ratings than local ones, but an American-influenced Trinidadian voice was also highly appreciated. These findings provide some new perspectives for evolutionary models of World Englishes and new insights for the discussion of standards in Trinidad, the wider anglophone Caribbean, and other small postcolonial speech communities where different local and global norms interact.
Singing is a very dynamic and innovative mode of communication through which artists often express themselves with a set of various voices. Today, pop music circulates across national boundaries and English is the main medium of communication in transnational pop culture. In this special context different varieties of English meet at a high density. Rihanna's single Work is an example of this prevalent multivocality in pop music culture. Her language performance attracted public attention of various sorts as she audibly incorporates several Caribbean English Creole (CEC) features. While some critics describe her lyrics as ‘gibberish’ (cf. Noelliste, 2016), others acknowledge her performance as a ‘reclamation of her Barbadian heritage’ (Gibsone, 2016). The example of Rihanna shows that singers can be transporters of English varieties: she is a Caribbean artist who started a successful career in the US, and whose music today has global reach. Singers, like Rihanna, are thus mobile, transnational linguistic agents. On the one hand, she physically travels the world playing concerts to her audiences. On the other, her persona, music, videos, and further media commodities are part of the global ‘mediascape’ (Appadurai, 1996). In other words, her products easily spread across the globe and are reproduced, transcending national and social boundaries. New technologies (e.g. smart phones, tablets) and applications (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) facilitate as well as accelerate the transnational dissemination of media resources. Moreover, singers show that the linguistic (and cultural) resources as such are mobile. Different language influences are formed into individual linguistic repertoires. Singers often playfully employ certain features to highlight parts of their identity or locate themselves in a particular music genre.
In Jamaica, in the process of endonormative stabilization, new norms for Standard English speech emerge in a competition between local, British, and American influences. Language attitude research can provide an important perspective on this process from the users’ point of view. This study addresses the issue of competing English norms in Jamaican radio newscasting by studying both newscasters’ language use and the language attitudes of Jamaican university students as the audience. The analysis of language use demonstrates that Jamaican English is the strongest force in the three-way norm competition. The students’ language attitudes toward the linguistic diversity of Jamaican newscasts are multivalent: Jamaican Creole is disfavored in newscasts, and there is overt recognition and support for the national standard variety, while more covertly there is linguistic deference toward exonormative influences. A folk-linguistic assessment shows that the foreign influences have been integrated into the Jamaican students’ notion of Standard English in the context of newscasts. These results provide a Jamaican perspective on the complexity and context sensitivity of endonormative stabilization processes in today’s globalized world.
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