探讨新加坡建筑工匠的用语情况 : 以马来西亚华族工匠为分析对象 = A STUDY ON THE LANGUAGE USE BY MALAYSIAN CHINESE CONSTRUCTION WORKERS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

There have always been a large number of Malaysian Chinese workers in the construction industry of Singapore. As such, they were able to develop their own unique language that is an amalgamation of Mandarin, Chinese dialects and a small tinge of other languages like English and Malay. However, there exists a language barrier between these Chinese workers and the young Chinese architects of Singapore. Hence this paper aims to address this phenomenon by reviewing the different reasons for the causes of this divide. The paper starts off by summarising how the language policies under the ruling government resulted in a situation whereby English becomes the language with the highest social status whereas if one were to speak only in Mandarin and Chinese dialect, one would be looked down upon due to the negative conotations that one could have lacked proper education. Next, the paper shows how impactful the Malaysian Chinese workers' language could be given that they make up more than half of the country's foreign work permit holders. This would signify that a learning of their language is practically useful since they make up such a big portion of our construction industry. In the third chapter, the paper explores the inner workings of the construction industry, giving insights to the work-flow processes, the industry climate etc. From this, this paper was able to conclude that the architect and the workers are of opposite spectrum in the same relationship. The architect being english speaking and holding a high position job that emphasizes on the usage of his intelligience is viewed as being superior to the worker who is speaking a language that is of a lower class. Furthermore, the worker is working as a laborer, exchanging sweat for money. This can be easily viewed as the fact that the worker lacked the intelligience to accomplish what the architect had done. In this chapter, a close study of the construction language of the Malaysian Chinese workers in Singapore was done and a conclusion was given that it would not be easy solving the language barrier between the architect and the workers due to a difference in social class, difference in education background and due to the nature of the construction language making it almost impossible to pick up easily. In the last chapter, the paper explores the phenomenon of language switching carried out by the Malaysian workers and concluded that they were using the language to reflect their closeness to their target. By extension, the language becomes a mark of closeness with the workers due to the fact that it is a reflection of their heritage. Hence, this paper ends by concluding that the language is not merely a product of convenience but a unique symbol of identity of the Malaysian Chinese workers working in Singapore and has been passed down for ages, and, would be passed on for ages to come.