A Bourdieuvian Analysis of the Use of Singlish by Youths in Singapore.

Abstract

By drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's work on culture and society, one of the aims of this thesis is to explore the process by which the correlation between socioeconomic class and the use of Singlish in different contexts may arise. This involves examining how languages are treated as commodities, and how users attempt to capitalise on the benefits accruing to various languages. In addition, I also investigate if status has an impact on the pragmatic roles of Singlish in speech. For instance, when used by certain speakers in particular contexts, the use of Singlish may be perceived as a politeness strategy. Finally, I consider if the structural differences found in Singlish (Alsagoff 2007) can also be accounted for by Bourdieuvian theory; accordingly, I propose the notion of Singlishes, where a range of varieties exists on a Singlish speech continuum.