Discourse Particles in Malaysian English

Abstract

Regional varieties of language, often a result of language contact, possess various characteristics, such as borrowed words, and often structures, sounds, and meanings transferred from one or more languages. The variety of English used in informal contexts in Malaysia known as Malaysian English contains localized features resulting from contact with languages spoken by the local indigenous populations as well as the Chinese and Indian diaspora in this Southeast Asian nation. A prominent feature of Malaysian English is the presence of discourse particles (such as lah, meh, and lor) that are not found in the standardized form of English and that are often unintelligible to people unfamiliar with them. Using communication on Facebook by Chinese Malaysian young adults as data representing real-life, informal talk in a computer-mediated environment, this article examines the multiple functions of Malaysian English discourse particles and proposes a framework for interpreting their meanings when used in communication. tay et al.

Utterance-final particles in Klang Valley Malay

“…It is not without difficulties to represent them accurately in writing, as their intonation is crucial to understand their pragmatic features of usage. Nevertheless, the ubiquity of such particles in informal online communication attests to the fact that native speakers face little difficulty in correctly interpreting their meaning in context (Li et al 2016). Linguists, on the other hand, have a harder job in doing so; "In many grammars these aspects do not receive much attention, because in the study of discourse particles and focus marking, informants' intuitions and judgements are not very useful.…”

“…UFPs have been studied in the following Malay varieties: West Malaysian Malay (Koh 1990: 77-86;Goddard 1994Goddard , 2001, Sabah Malay (Hoogervorst 2011: 68-73), Manado Malay (Stoel 2005), Jakartan Indonesian (Ikranagara 1975;Sneddon 2006), and Indonesian (Wouk 1998(Wouk , 1999(Wouk , 2001Sari 2008Sari , 2011. UFPs in the English of Malaysia and Singapore have been examined by Platt and Mian (1989), Gupta (1992), and Li et al (2016. As is the case cross-linguistically, most UFPs highlighted in these studies are monosyllabic unbound morphemes that exhibit distinct intonational patterns.…”

Variasi Linguistik di Greater KL (Linguistic Variation in Greater KL)

“…Partikel ah fungsinya mirip dengan -lah, yang telah menjadi kebiasaan dalam kalangan penutur pijin Melayu-Cina, yang dianggap sebagai gangguan (interference) daripada bahasa ibunda (Choi Kim Yok & Chong Siew Ling, 2008;Tay, Chan, Yap & Wong, 2016& Paramasiwam, 2017.…”

Variation in the expression of stance across varieties of English

“…Thus, both areas in which English is mostly L1 and areas where it is mostly a second language show rather variable frequencies, but the lowest are in web texts from Africa and Asia. These merely quantitative differences could be due to several reasons, first and foremost the different degrees of idiomaticisation (see relevant contributions in Skaffari, Peikola, Carroll, Hiltunen, & Wårvik, ) of the expression in different discourse communities, as well as the well‐known competition with discourse markers in other languages (Ouafeu, ; Tay, Chan, Yap, & Wong, ) – whether this corresponds to different ranges of uses and functions will be explored in the next sections.…”