A phonological study of Hokkien

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Asymmetry in translating heterolingualism: A Singapore case study

Using two plays and their translations as texts, this article explores how heterolingualism is treated in Chinese–English and English–Chinese literary translation in Singapore. It is observed that the ways in which heterolingualism is negotiated between source and target texts are asymmetric between the two translation directions. Specifically, while traces of code-switching tend to be effaced in Chinese–English translation, such traces tend to be increased in the reverse translation direction. By locating this finding within the reception contexts of the original and translated plays, and on the basis of Bakhtin's conceptualisation of linguistic varieties in discourse as social voices, it is hypothesised that the treatment of heterolingualism in literary translation is contingent on the extent to which one language lends itself to code-switching in another language, which is in turn indexical of the relative power of these languages. Textual choices in translation are thus subject to the influence of language ideological factors

Language and identity among British South Asians: a theoretical review.

Given the pervasiveness of language in social life and the implications that language use can have for one’s individual and collective identities, attempts were made to explore the theoretical and empirical advantages in connecting social psychological theories of identity and sociological/sociolinguistic approaches to language use and language choices in order to make sense of language and identity among second-generation British Asians. The current theoretical essay features a brief overview of the sociology of British Asians in the United Kingdom and a detailed consideration of dominant theories of identity in social psychology, namely, Social Identity Theory Tajfel (1982), Self-Aspects Model of Identity (Simon 2004) and Identity Process Theory (Breakwell 1986). It is considered that the latter two theories lend themselves readily to the study of language and identity. The present essay considers the substantive literature on language and identity and deconstructs notions such as ‘mother tongue’ in an attempt to demonstrate the constructedness of such terminology. It is argued that a social psychological approach to questions of language and identity among British South Asians is a valid one and that a qualitative methodological approach is particularly well-suited to the area under investigation