A Syntactic Analysis of Singaporean English Used in the Movie ‘I Not Stupid’
| Main Author: | Thio Budi Utomo; Mahasiswa |
|---|---|
| Format: | PeerReviewed |
| Bahasa: | eng |
| Terbitan: |
, 2016
|
| Online Access: |
http://karya-ilmiah.um.ac.id/index.php/sastra-inggris/article/view/48851 |
Daftar Isi:
- ABSTRACT Utomo, T.B. 2016. A Syntactic Analysis of Singaporean English Used in the Movie ‘I Not Stupid’. Thesis, English Department, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang. Advisors: (I) Aulia Apriana, S.S., M.Pd.; (II) Prof. Drs. A. Effendi Kadarisman, M.A., Ph.D.Key Words: syntactic analysis, Singaporean English, the movie I Not StupidSingaporean English (Singlish) is one dialectal variant of English spoken in Singapore. As cited from Platt (1982) in the era of British-establishment, all of the components of society were usually from Britain and they spread English. English in Singapore has taken up many loan words and sentence structures from Malay and Mandarin to form Singaporean English. Thus after its transformation, Singaporean English has been spoken by Singaporeans in daily communication. This study aims at presenting a syntactic analysis and finding out how the syntactic features characterize Singaporean English as measured against Standard English. The findings of this study are conducted to show the readers the sorts of syntactic analysis used in the movie or television program. This study is also conducted to give an explanation on how the findings are investigated. Then, it is expected that this research is going to be useful for movie viewers, syntax practitioners, and future researchers. The research design used in this study is descriptive qualitative approach. The source of the data of Singaporean English is the movie I Not Stupid because this movie use Singaporean English for conversation. Then, the movie and the movie subtitle were taken from the internet. The movie script was transcribed by the researcher. The primary instrument is the researcher and the supporting instruments are computer, internet access, and field notes.Results of this study show that there are 5 Singlish-specific patterns of syntactic structures. They are discourse particles (53.95%), copula and auxiliary deletion (21.05%), subject NP deletion (14.47%), question-tag regularization (5.26%), and simplified alternative questions (5.26%). Singaporean English mainly uses Malay and Mandarin particles such as ah, lah, hor, and meh. Copula and auxiliary deletion is ommiting the form of be (am, is, are, was, and were) in some conditions when Singaporeans speak. When they are engaged in a conversation, Singaporeans may get rid of NP subject. Then, question-tag regularization shows up as is it when asking questions. The last pattern is simplified alternative questions which simplify the second choice of the questions to not and it could be similar to yes-no questions. From the findings and discussions, the researcher concludes that Singaporean English is not a deviation (a dialectal variant with errors) because it has its own rules. Thus, it is suggested to movie viewers that they should pay attention the language used toward the movies being watched. It is suggested to syntax practitioners to study about the varieties of English. It is also expected for the future researchers that the results of the study will inspire them to explore more data and use other sources of data.