马来西亚英语言语社区（th）的社会分层：吉隆坡三家百货商场的研究（英文）

The Social Stratification of（th）in the Malaysian English Speech Community:A Studyof Three Department Stores in Kuala Lumpur

本文主要探讨马来西亚英语言语社区中(th)变项的变异情况。本研究选择了马来西亚吉隆坡市的三家百货公司,并依据声望将其排序,运用快速匿名调查法分别于三家百货公司收集了(th)变项在自然语体与谨慎语体下的发音。研究结果发现,马来西亚英语(th)变项具有明显的社会分层与语体分层,其中声望中等的百货公司中的被调查者表现出矫枉过正的趋向,而这可能是由其所属群体具有较高的社会流动性导致的。此外,本研究基于马来西亚英语(th)变项的层化现象,运用言语社区理论鉴定了马来西亚英语言语社区,而(th)变项的分化使用则可视为其社区成员共有的语言使用规范之一。最后,本研究发现调查者的不同言语社区成员身份会对社区内部与跨社区的言语活动产生显著影响。当马来西亚英语言语社区成员担任调查者时,(th)变项的标准变式出现频率更高;而(th)变项的语体转移程度也受到调查者身份的影响,尤其是声望最高和最低的百货公司。同时本研究亦观察到随着调查者身份的改变,被调查者在手势语、马来语、标准变式、间接回答等六种语境提示上的使用情况存在差异。综上,本文揭示了马来西亚英语(th)变项的社会分层特征与马来西亚的社会结构之间的对应情况,以及(th)变项的层化与语境提示在社区内部和跨社区言语活动中的使用差异对马来西亚英语言语社区成员身份的标示机制。

The study investigated the linguistic variable(th)in the Malaysian English(MalE)speech community.Rapid and anonymous surveys were carried out to obtain the(th)pronunciations in casual style and careful style at three department stores ranked by prestige,which are located at Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia.The results showed that overall there was social stratification and stylistic stratification of(th)in MalE represented by clear and consistent differential use of(th),in which the informants at the middle-ranked department store appeared to show the hypercorrection tendency possibly due to the higher degree of mobility of their social group.In addition,the MalE speech community was verified with the differential use of(th)based on the theory of speech community proposed by Xu(2004),which constituted one of the shared norms of the MalE speech community.Finally,it is argued that the interviewer's identity had a significant influence on the speech activities occurring within and across speech communities,due to which more occurrences of the standard form []were elicited by an internal interviewer and the degree of style-shifting was also affected,especially in the highest-and the lowest-ranked department stores.It was further observed that the use of contextual cues varied in six main categories according to the interviewer's identity including finger gestures,finger-pointing,use of the standard form [],use of Malay,indirect responses,and change of word.In conclusion,the study reveals how the Malaysian society is structured along with the social and stylistic stratification of(th)in MalE,and how membership of the MalE speech community is marked by the differential use of(th)and a variety of contextual cues within and across speech communities.