Zachary Lim

8^th May 2013

HONORS 212 E/SLAV 425

Linguistic Commentary #2

Cross-linguistic Choices: Addressing Singaporean Chinese Children

Few will deny that names play in important part in defining one’s identity. In Singapore, most people have two names; an English one and one in another language. This reflects the cultural complexity of the Singaporean identity. For this paper, I focus on the names of Singaporean Chinese names and will use Natural Semantic Metalanguage to examine the semantics behind the various ways of addressing someone. Members of other ethnic groups in Singapore no doubt have their own set of semantic meanings behind names, but the linguistic differences make it difficult to examine all the languages spoken in Singapore, so I will stick to Singaporean Chinese names.

When schools changed their primary language of instruction to English in the 1970s, most parents started to give their children English names. In fact, Singapore even changed the format of identification cards to include a space for that second name. Thus, most of the people in my generation have two different names. As a result, there are also many more ways to address someone, and I will examine a few such examples.

As most people have English names, the diminutives in the list proposed by Anna Wierzbicka (Wierzbicka, 1992, p. 230-231) are very much applicable. However, Chinese names also come with a set possible diminutives, thus expanding the list. For example, my Chinese name is lin shi’kai (林世凯) where the family name is the first character and the given name is the last two characters. A common diminutive would be to take the second character of the given name, in my case kai, and pair it with ah (阿) or xiao (小), resulting in ah kai or xiao kai. While ah does not have a stand-alone meaning (it is mostly used phonetically), when used this way it demonstrates affection for the subject. On the other hand, xiao means small, so it clearly acts as a diminutive when paired with the last character of a name. It is also common (or more common in fact) to call young boys and girls ah boy and ah ger (girl) respectively. In this case, the ah (阿) is from Chinese, but boy and ger are both derived from English; these terms are used not just by the Chinese, but also the other ethnic groups. This also demonstrates the cross-linguistic nature of Singapore. Below are the explications I propose for the above mentioned diminutives:

A. Use of ah together with the last character of the Chinese name (e.g. ah kai)

(a) I want to speak to you the way people speak

to people whom they know well

(b) (I think you did/are doing something bad)

B. Use of xiao together with the last character of the Chinese name (e.g. xiao kai)

(a) I want to speak to you the way people speak

to children whom they know well

C. ah boy/ah ger

(a) I want to speak to you the way people speak

to children whom they know well

(b) I think you are small

Components (b) of explication A and (c) of explication C are put in parentheses because it applies only to English-speaking families. In Chinese speaking families, it is completely normal to use either the ah diminutive without that connotation as they would not use the English diminutives. In order to make that connotation, it is said with more stress on the word after ah (the last character or boy/ger) and another ah at the end. The diminutive xiao is often described to be equivalent to the ah diminutive, but this is not true as adults would never be addressed with xiao given the “small” connotation. Conversely, adults such as my father might be referred to by their parents with the ah diminutive. Thus, explication B uses the term “children” while explication A uses people. As for the ah boy/ah ger diminutive, it is similar to xiao in that as a grown person would not be addressed with it. The difference is that the restriction for xiao is more physical (height, size, etc.), while the restriction in ah boy/ah ger pertains to the societal idea of a mature adult. Singaporean boys usually cease to be ah boys after their military service as can be seen from the title of a movie, Ah Boys to Men, that follows a group of boys as they progress through their military training.

In English-speaking households such as my own, it is not the norm for me to be addressed by my Chinese name. Having said that, there are definitely are instances in which someone uses my Chinese name, and there is always a reason behind doing so. The full Chinese name (e.g. lin shi’kai) is often used when an authoritative figure such as a parent intends to rebuke the subject using Chinese morals. This is fairly common as the Chinese language has a wide range of idioms that can be employed to perpetuate traditional morals with great efficiency. One such type of construction is the cheng’yu (成语), or four-word idioms. According to the idiom dictionaries published by the Ministry of Education in China, there are as many as 48,000. There are also many other types of constructions such as su’yu (俗語), slightly longer adages, and xie’hou’yu (歇后语), two-part sayings. Thus, it is not surprising that people switch to Chinese when rebuking others. The Chinese given name (e.g. shi’kai) and last name (e.g. lin) are hardly used separately in English-speaking homes, so I will not discuss them here. Here is an explication I propose for the Chinese full name:

D. Use of Chinese Full Name (e.g. lin shi’kai)

(a) I want to speak to you the way people speak

to people who did/are doing something bad

(b) I think you did/are doing something bad

I think these words are very good

I think these words have been true for a long time

I think these words are true now

(d) I want you to do things like these words say because these words are very good

In component (a), I chose to write “people who did/are doing something bad” rather than “bad people” because the Chinese people traditionally believe that people are born good and thus the rebuke is targeted at the actions of a person rather than the person himself. Component (c) demonstrates the faith the speaker has in the Chinese idioms and phrases that will follow. Finally, component (d) addresses the correctional objective of the rebuke.

One usually knows that he/she is in trouble when he hears his/her full name. For example, I know something is wrong when my mother calls me Zachary Lim. However, combining both English and Chinese names result in authoritative figures having an even stronger form of address to employ. I will try to explicate both the full English name and the full English and Chinese name below:

E. Use of English Full Name (e.g. Zachary Lim)

(a) I want to speak to you the way people speak

to people who did/are doing something bad

(b) I think you did/are doing something bad

I think these words are good

I think these words are true now

(d) I want you to do things like these words say because these words are good

F. Use of Full English and Chinese Full Name (e.g. Zachary Lim shi’kai)

(a) I want to speak to you the way people speak

to people who did/are doing something very bad

(b) I think you did/are doing something very bad

I think these words are (very) good

(I think these words have been true for a long time)

I think these words are true now

(d) I want you to do things like these words say because these words are (very) good

Using the English full name (explication E) is similar to using the Chinese full name (explication D), but the speaker lacks the faith expressed in component (c) of the explication D. However, the speaker still thinks that the following rebuke will be good and that they are true. The difference between the usage of the full English and Chinese name (explication F) and that of the monolingual full names (explications D & E) is demonstrated in components (a) and (b) of explication F where the “something” is very bad. As for (c) and (d) of explication F, there are parentheses as the rebuke following the full English and Chinese name can be either Chinese or English (the descriptions in the parentheses pertain to the Chinese rebuke).

While there are other cross-linguistic combinations, these examples illustrate that the multi-linguistic aspect of Singaporeans pervades everyday interactions and ultimately their identities.

Appendix

Summary of Explications:

A. Use of ah together with the last character of the Chinese name (e.g. ah kai)

(a) I want to speak to you the way people speak

to people whom they know well

(b) (I think you did/are doing something bad)

B. Use of xiao together with the last character of the Chinese name (e.g. xiao kai)

(a) I want to speak to you the way people speak

to children whom they know well

C. ah boy/ah ger

(a) I want to speak to you the way people speak

to children whom they know well

(b) I think you are small

D. Use of Chinese Full Name (e.g. lin shi’kai)

(a) I want to speak to you the way people speak

to people who did/are doing something bad

(b) I think you did/are doing something bad

I think these words are very good

I think these words have been true for a long time

I think these words are true now

(d) I want you to do things like these words say because these words are very good

E. Use of English Full Name (e.g. Zachary Lim)

(a) I want to speak to you the way people speak

to people who did/are doing something bad

(b) I think you did/are doing something bad

I think these words are good

I think these words are true now

(d) I want you to do things like these words say because these words are good

F. Use of Full English and Chinese Full Name (e.g. Zachary Lim shi’kai)

(a) I want to speak to you the way people speak

to people who did/are doing something very bad

(b) I think you did/are doing something very bad

I think these words are (very) good

(I think these words have been true for a long time)

I think these words are true now

(d) I want you to do things like these words say because these words are (very) good

References

Wierzbicka, A. (1992). Semantics, culture, and cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific configurations (pp. 230-231). Oxford: Oxford University Press.