Incorporating Multilingualism in the Development of the English ...

is well known, but other languages have brought a significant number of varieties of words, meanings and evennew phonemes. After reviewing multilingualism of the English language, the essay introduces three recentapproaches reflecting diachronic studies: language contact, corpus, and word formation rules. Finally, the essayintroduces teaching materials that help students understand how English had contact with other languages andborrowed various linguistic particulars from them. The materials include exercises and field work tasks on newvarieties of the second person plural pronoun, new reporting verbs, and the powerful word formation rules. Thefirst-hand experience of observing synchronic varieties and diachronic changes helps students acquire reasoningskills to explain special linguistic phenomena and realize the importance of the actual context.Being a faculty member who teaches the historyof the English language, I often encounter withsomewhat negative comments from my students aswell as from my colleagues such as, “The study ofthe history of the English language is now outdated,”“The synchronic approach first proposed by deSaussure more than a hundred years ago and adoptedby modern linguists is superior to the diachronicapproach,” and “Studying historical linguistics islike staying in the dark part of the library surroundedby old books and dusty dictionaries.” Despitethese stereotypical ideas, I believe that having theknowledge on multilingualism and language contactthat English has been experiencing is beneficialto EFL students. This essay suggests how Englishteachers may be able to incorporate multilingualismthat the English language has had from its birth andhow such materials can help students understand thecomplex structure of the English language and itshybrid nature due to the contact with other languages.Being affected by the contact with differentlanguages at different times, English has continuedand is still continuing to adopt foreign elements.The influence of Scandinavian languages, Latin,and French is well known, but other languages havebrought about a significant number of new words,new meanings and even new phonemes. Brintonand Arnovick summarize the percentages of theetymological sources of the English lexicon asfollows:Table 1: The proportion of native and foreign elements in the English word stockSOED(80,096 words)ALD(27,241 words)GSL(3,984 words)West Germanic 22.20% 27.43% 47.08%French 28.37% 35.89% 38.00%Latin 28.29% 22.05% 9.59%Greek 5.32% 1.59% 0.25%Other Romance 1.86% 1.60% 0.20%Celtic 0.34% 0.25% –SOED (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary); ALD (Advanced Learners’ Dictionary); GSL(General Service List)(Brinton & Arnovick, p.298)Even in the daily vocabulary, more than half ofthe English vocabulary comes from foreign sources.Now English is adapted in various regions andused as a dominant communication tool around the140Educational Studies 52International Christian University

globe. Buck in an article entitled, “Why? and how?:Teaching the history of the English language in ournew millennium,” asserts that “the history of theEnglish language is actually an interdisciplinaryfield rather than one that is narrowly defined.”Görlach offers a concise explanation on the historicaldevelopment of the English language as follows:In a historical perspective, individual periodsoffer themselves for investigations of differentsubsystems of a language-for instance, OE[Old English] for the functions of inflectionsand ME [Middle English] for its gradual loss,the massive borrowing from many languagesand the consequences of this process, as wellas regional, social and stylistic diversity andmultilingualism. (2001, p. 47)The multilingual nature has made the languageintricately complex, but English teachers havetended to avoid explaining such aspects in theirclassrooms. This essay is a proposal based on theactual classroom experiences on how to incorporatesuch knowledge and issues of ownership (Higgins)for effective teaching and learning.The first section outlines the multilingualismthat the English language has experienced since itsbeginning. Section Two reviews current approachesto language contact and language change. Thefinal section introduces several teaching materialsthat help students understand how innovative thelanguage has been and still is. Incorporating thehybrid nature of the English language in actualteaching materials will be meaningful to EFLstudents if the materials enhance their learning of thehistorical development and changes that are currentlyoccurring.the language has a relatively short history comparedto other European languages. The following is asummary from Russell’s book:Because of its situation on the western fringesof Europe, Britain has always been a last resortfor peoples escaping from wars and famines onthe Continent itself. Wave after wave of Celtictribes colonized the country in prehistoric times.. . When the Germanic Angles, Saxons, andJutes arrived in about 450 AD, they soon cameto dominate the Celts. . . . After the NormanConquest in 1066, the Normans brought intheir vocabulary, controlling the government,the legal system, the army, and the church, andlaying the foundations of the class divisions thathave plagues English society ever since. Thus,modern English is made up of three types ofvocabulary:Anglo-Saxon words that are familiar,immediate, and therefore warm in tone;French borrowings that are more formal andpolite;More esoteric and learned Latin loan words,that seem weightier, solemn, and more remote. (Russell, pp. 78-85)In Figure 1 Görlach depicts this multilingualsituation and the radical functional expansion forEnglish in the course of some 1300 years of itshistory. As immediately seen, English dialects havealways served for daily life, but for law documents,literature, and scholarly texts, Latin and French, andlater Standard English have been dominant.2. Recent approaches in English linguisticsto language contact and language change1. Multilingualism in the development ofthe English languageEnglish originated as a Germanic dialect broughtinto Britannia in the fifth century. This means thatThe three relatively new approaches in Englishlinguistics related to historical development areincorporating language contact and language change,using corpus-based approaches, and analyzingpowerful word-formation rules.Educational Studies 52International Christian University141

Figure 1: The functional distribution of English in various domains from 700 to 1800(Görlach 2001, p.48)Approach 1. Incorporating language changeand language contactSmith states, “No living language is unchanging.”All languages are under the influence of otherlanguages that they have contact with. When newwords and expressions are borrowed or created basedon foreign elements, the new ones and the old onesexist side by side for a certain period. Codificationand standardization, namely whether new forms willbecome part of the common language, depend onvarious factors.Crystal in his model of the English languagedemonstrates that every language has social,regional, temporal, and personal variations (Crystal,p. 3). Knowing not only its structure but alsoits use, Crystal asserts, is essential for thoroughunderstanding of any language. The strong interestin sociolinguistics and pragmatics nowadaysindicates that the amalgamation of synchronic anddiachronic phenomena will be beneficial especiallybecause language use is considered important inlinguistics today (Smith, pp.8-10). Analogy andreanalysis are good sources of information abouthow people formulate and utilize rules. Analogyand reanalysis are known to frequently occur in thechildren’s language acquisition process as well as inthe foreigners’ language learning process. Childrengrowing in the English-speaking environmentproduce expressions like “We goed to the pool andswimmed,” and “The cat catched the mouses,” whichare typical examples of analogy. An example ofreanalysis is the word “pea” as in “sweetpea.” TheFrench loan word “pease [pi:z],” though singularas it is, was borrowed into Middle English, and thefinal [z] sound was interpreted as the plural suffix,resulting in the new singular form, “pea.” The oldnursery rhymes retain the original singular form with–se at its end:Pease porridge hot,Pease porridge cold,Pease porridge in a potNine days old.My students often make such errows in which theyexceedingly apply linguistic rules. Typical examplesinclude:The light in the darkness must seems to be a symbol142Educational Studies 52International Christian University

of hope but lighting systems are disappear now.Illumination makes accidents reduce.Nowadays another problem has been happenedin Japan, that is, young generation does notknow about the nuclear bombs in Hiroshimaand Nagasaki.Though France do nuclear tests, we cannot blamethat because China do nuclear tests secretly.These erroneous expressions are sometimes funnyand may seem minor errors that can be quicklycorrected, but they are persistent despite the patientadvice from the instructors’ side. In academic andprofessional writing and speaking, these errors maytrigger unexpected negative reactions from the readeror the hearer. Knowing historical reasons on howEnglish works will help students be more careful oferrors that they are likely to make.Approach 2. Corpus approachesThe corpus approach using a huge data base triesto describe, but not to prescribe or proscribe, rulesand principles that are operating behind the actualwritten or spoken language. Interesting observationsare emerging as seen in Leech, Rayson, and Wilson’sbook entitled, Word Frequencies in Written andSpoken English. Dictionaries are now based onthe corpus information, often indicating semanticand stylistic peculiarities. Grammar books are noexception. A comprehensive grammar of the Englishlanguage by Randolph Quirk, et al. publishedin 1985 is still considered the authority, but TheLongman grammar of spoken and written Englishedited by Biber et al. by the same publisher reflectsfrequencies and tendencies found in the corpora. Theeditors explain as follows:The Longman grammar of spoken and writtenEnglish (LGSWE) describes the actual useof grammatical features in different varietiesof English: mainly conversation, fiction,newspaper language, and academic prose. (p. 4)The LGSWE adopts a corpus-based approach,which means that the grammatical descriptionsare based on the patterns of structure anduse found in a large collection of spokenand written texts, stored electronically, andsearchable by computer.Its descriptions show that structure and useare not independent aspects of the Englishlanguage; analysis of both is required tounderstand how English grammar reallyfunctions in the day-to-day communicativeactivities of speakers and writers. (p. 4)The corpora of ESL/EFL student production are nowavailable on the internet for teachers and students tolearn what tendencies non-native speakers show andwhat kind of errors they are likely to make.Approach 3. Powerful word-formationThe English language has been expanding itsvocabulary by its powerful and extensive wordformation rules. Many types are known and variousterms have been proposed in linguistic studies.The four major rules are affixation, compounding,conversion, and clipping:Affixation by attaching prefixes and suffixes:beautiful (French beauté + Anglo-Saxon ful)Compounding by combining two words:Christmas (Christ + mass), holidayConversion by changing the grammatical function:He authored three books. It’s iffy.Clipping by using part of a word:ad from advertisement, bus from autobus, flufrom influenzaRecent English linguistics books by Ballard(2001), Plag et al. (2007) and by Russell (2001)acknowledge the potential of English creativity andoffer a detailed explanation or a separate chapterabout it. Hickey’s article in 2006 entitled, “Productivelexical processes in present-day English” summarizesthe examples of exciting new words. I chose fiveitems from his long list because they are examples ofthe four rules that I have just mentioned:Educational Studies 52International Christian University143

Productive affixes:Flatwise London is a disaster.morish (something you like more of)Analogical formations:outro < introvegiburger < hamburgerBlends and clippings:guestimate < guess + estimatedeccaff < decaffeinatedCompound adjectives:The building was part-financed by an EU grant.If you are time-rich and cash-poor, . . .New words by class shift:I’ll text her when I get home.They are now holidaying in France.The dress she had on was very last season.These examples are the result of a dynamic movein lexical change. They demonstrate how peoplerecognize the patterns, abstract from what they hearand read, and readily apply the patterns in theirlanguage.3. How to incorporate the hybrid naturein EFL teaching materialsHaving these approaches in mind, I share teachingmaterials that I use in class: a field work on the secondperson plural pronoun, an interview research on newreporting verbs such as “go” and “be like,” and newvocabulary via various word formation rules.Material 1: New second person plural pronounsEnglish is different from other Europeanlanguages in its loss of the second person singularpronoun. Modern French uses “tu” forms whileModern German uses “du” forms. As in Table 2,Modern English does not distinguish the singularand plural forms except for reflexive forms. InOld English and Middle English, as in Table 3, thesecond person pronouns used to be differentiatedaccording to the number:Table 2: Personal Pronouns and Corresponding Possessive and Reflexive Formspersonpersonalnominativepronounaccusativepossessivedeterminerpronounreflexivepronoun1 st singular pluralIwemeusmyourmineoursmyselfourselves2 nd singular pluralyouyouyouyouyouryouryoursyoursyourselfyourselves3 rd singular pluralhesheittheyhimheritthemhisheritstheirhishers-theirshimselfherselfitselfthemselves(Biber et al., p.328)Table 3: Archaic system of pronounsSINGULAR(th-forms)PLURAL(y-forms)SUBJECTIVE OBJECTIVE REFLEXIVE POSSESSIVEthou /ðaU/ thee /ði:/ thyself thy thineye /ji:/ you/ (ye) yourselves your yours(Quark et al., p.345)144Educational Studies 52International Christian University

After examining these paradigms and consideringpossible benefits and problems of this loss, I assigna field research to students. (Refer to Appendix 1.)Students have to find a native speaker of English andconduct an oral interview with him or her asking thethree questions that appear on the worksheet. Afterthe interview students write a report on what theyhave observed during the interview and summarizetheir thoughts on the new plural forms. When theycome back to class with their field research results, Ishare the information that has already been publishedin academic books. In Table 4, Gramley presentseight explicit plural forms along with the informationabout their places of use and level of usage:Table 4: Explicit 2 nd person plural pronounsPronoun Where used Level of usage1. all you (aa-yu) Eastern Caribbean decreolized Creole2. una/unu Caribbean, West Africa basilect Creole3. y’all American South colloquial4. yiz Scotland, N. Ireland dialect5. you guys general, esp. America colloquial6. youse ones Scotland, N. Ireland dialect7. yous (e) Scotland, Ireland, NY, NZ colloquial8. you’uns Scotland, N. Ireland dialect(Gramley, p. 262)Students have a group discussion on why Englishdose not go back to the thou/you system but insteadis expanding the plural form by creating new forms.In the session that follows this discussion session, Idistribute the summary of all students’ findings (Referto Appendix 2.) and then have students discuss howdiverse and complex these plural forms can be.These activities help students realize the inner powerthat is innovative even in the pronoun paradigm.Material 2: New reporting verbs, “go” and “be like”The second teaching material I use in my courseis another field research on new reporting verbs.According to the LGSWE, new reporting verbs suchas “go” and “be like” are becoming common incasual speech including text and email messages.The following are several examples, quoted firstfrom Stenstrom, Andersen, and Hasund, second fromthe British National Corpus, and filally from theLGSWE:Then we told him. He goes to me, Danielle Ilike your shoes. I go I like your long greasyhair. His hair’s down to here now innit?(Stenstrom, Anderson, and Hasund)And he goes you don’t have to tell me and hegoes get off the fucking train. (BNC)She goes if you won’t, I will! (BNC)He goes, “Some day I might have a kid and.” I’m like “No!” (AmE) (Biber et al.)And I’m like, “You were there, why didn’t youhelp” . He was all “Well I wanted tostay out of it.” (AmE) (Biber et al.)As indicated in Table 5, the frequency of “go” ishigher than that of “say.”Educational Studies 52International Christian University145

Table 5: Overall distribution of Go versus SAYgo goes going went GO say says saying said SAYquotations 152 918 222 103 1395 183 82 60 423 748percentage 7 73 16 22 27 15 33 19 36 25overall freq. 2104 1249 1373 479 5205 1198 251 323 1170 2942(Stenstrom, Anderson, & Hasund, p. 118)Students interview English speakers and gatherinformation on the usage and stylistic implicationsof these new reporting verbs. The interview arousesstudents’ interest in new meaning of the words, goand like, that are familiar to them. They also haveto investigate if grammar books and dictionariesoffer explanations on this new usage of “go” and “belike.” They eventually find that there are not manythat have clear explanations, and they also becomeaware of the unique feature of the grammar bookby Biber et al. in reflecting current tendencies incasual speech. Students share their findings in classand through these activities become more consciousabout the semantic and syntactic changes thatEnglish is undergoing right now.Topic 3: Powerful word formationThe third material has students find newvocabulary created by common word formationmethods such as affixation, compounding,conversion, and clipping. Searching throughnewspapers, magazines, and web-pages, studentswill know that new fashionable words are actuallybased on traditional rules and recognize howinnovative the English language can be. These arethree examples that my students collected:“I dow.” (diamond company ad)“Ichirific” (“Ichiro” + “terrific”)“iPod, therefore, I Am” (iPod ad)From every language that it encountered, Englishborrowed words and grammatical paradigms, andeven phonemes. Some words such as take, people,joy, peace, and tea are difficult to be identifiedas loan words: take from a Scandinavian dialect,people, joy, and peace from French, and tea fromChinese. Lexical doublets/triplets are another specialfeature of the teeming vocabulary of the Englishlanguage. The following are from Crystal’s examplesof doublets and triplets:ox/beef pig/pork motherhood/maternityhide/conceal love/charity rise/mount/ascend wish/desirewedding/marriage freedom/liberty room/chamberthankful/grateful/appreciate/gratitudeIn search of new vocabulary, my students areasked to look into different types of texts such asacademic texts, commercial texts, digital texts, etc.Their findings always include the exciting use ofword formation rules (Refer to Appendix 3.). Thefollowing are a few more examples:affixationuncomfortableness, preview, microwaveablecompounding karaoke-pub, pod-castconversion Let’s google it.The tires are bill-gating. They britneyed.clippingmook (“magazine” + “book”), netizon (“net” + “citizon”)combination Mcjob I emailed him.146Educational Studies 52International Christian University

English is indeed a hybrid language that has alwaysbeen in the multilingual situation, and unlikespeakers of other European languages such asFrench or German, English speakers have beenflexible or even eager in using innovative wordsand expressions. English can be one of the mostmixed languages in the world. The Oxford EnglishDictionary contains all the words that have appearedin print, and the vocabulary size of the secondedition in 1989 is more than 615,000 words. Thisis extremely larger than the German vocabulary,which is estimated about 185,000, and the Frenchone, which is estimated about 100,000. As to therelationship between native words and foreignborrowings, the OED classifies its vocabulary intofour categories (Preface xxvi):Naturals: native wordsDenizens: words fully naturalized as touse, but not as to form, inflexion, orpronunciation, e.g. aide-de-campAliens: foreign objects, no native equivalents,e.g. shah, targumCasuals: foreign word of the same class not inhabitual use, temporaryCrystal explains, “Most English vocabulary arisesby making new lexemes out of old ones-either byMiddle EnglishCole: Is that thy child?Alice: Yea, hir name is Ann.Cole: A good and holy name.Alice: Soon she will be three years of age.Cole: Will she speke to me?Alice: Yea, she speketh wonder loude.1650-1750Cole: Is that thy child?Alice: Yea, her name is Ann.Cole: A good and holy name.Alice: Soon she will be three years of age.Cole: Will she speak to me?Alice: Yea, she speaks wonderfully loud.adding an affix to previously existing forms, alteringtheir word class, or combining them to producecompounds. . . . Alongside the Anglo-Saxon rootin kingly, we have the French root in royally andthe Latin root in regally” (Crystal, p. 128). Thispowerful word formation is expanding the Englishvocabulary not only within English-speakingcountries but also all over the world now.4. ConclusionThe first-hand experience of observing synchronicvarieties and diachronic changes significantly helpstudents acquire reasoning skills to explain speciallinguistic phenomena regardless of whether Englishis their first language or not. Multilingualism andlanguage contact have always had significantinfluence on the English language, and this influenceis in all linguistic phases: pronunciation, grammar,meaning, vocabulary, and the writing system.[či:ld], [ta:ke], [hu:s], and [bo:k] underwent adramatic sound change called the great vowel shiftand became fixed as [čaIld], [teIk], [haUs], and[bUk] respectively. Here is a conversation plot inMiddle English and Modern English. The phonetictranscription follws each line:Is θat θi čildyε hIr namə Is anə god and h lI naməcsonə še wIl be θre yerIzwIl še spεke to mecv aĵəyε še spεkeθ wUndər ludəIz ðæt ðəI čəIldye hər nem Iz ænə gUd ænd holI nemsun ši wIl bi θri yIrz əv eĵwIl ši spik tu miye ši spiks wəndərfUlI laUdEducational Studies 52International Christian University147

As to the syntax too, English has undergonesignificant changes. According to Mitchell andRobinson, “Old English is the period of fullinflexions, Middle English the period of leveledinflexions, and Modern English the period of noinflexions. This statement points to the vital truththat Modern English depends on word-order andprepositions to make distinctions which in aninflected language are made by the case endings” (p.61). English does not now recognize grammaticalgender while other European languages still maintainit. The materials I have introduced in this article helpstudents understand linguistic variations, principlesunderlying variety evolution, actual patterns innatural contexts, and constraints on linguistic choice.The interaction between diachrony and synchronyin the classroom also help students model theEnglish grammar in multilingual context, observethe ongoing changes, and identify the major factorsthat work in such situations. Students, thus, will beconvinced why it is important to study the languagein relation to synchronic and diachronic varietiesand consider the actual context in which variouschanges occur. This awareness helps them realizechanges that are occurring in the environment inwhich the students themselves are placed. Romainein her article entitled, “English: From village toglobal village,” asserts, “I feel there has never beena more exciting time to be a historian of the Englishlanguage once linguistic history is conceived of inthe broad sense . . . as a chronicle of changing usersand uses. Much more waits to be done.”Select BibliographyBallard, K. (2001). The frameworks of English.Basingstoke: Palgrave.Biber, D, et al. (1999). The Longman grammar ofspoken and written English. Harlow: Longman.Brinton, L. J., & Arnovick, L. K. The English language:A linguistic history. Oxford & New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 2006.British National Corpus. Retrieved July 10, 2008,fromhttp://othmer.icu.ac.jp:2425/~sakura04/cgibin/login1uvlib.cgiBuck, R. A. (2003). Why? and how?: Teaching thehistory of the English language in our newmillennium. English Today, 73, 44–49.Crystal, D. (2003). The Cambridge encyclopedia ofthe English language. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.Dialogue: Conservative and advanced speakers. TheGreat Vowel Shift. Retrieved July 10, 2008,from http://alpha.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs/dialogue.htmFennell, B. (2003). A history of English: Asociolinguistic approach. Oxford: Blackwell.Freeborn, D. (1995). A course book in Englishgrammar: Standard English and the dialects.Basingstoke: Palgrave.Freeborn, D. (1998). From Old English to StandardEnglish: A course book in language variationacross time. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Görlach, M. (1995). New studies in the history ofEnglish. Heidelberg: Universitatsverlag C.Winter.Görlach, M. (2001). A history of text types: Acomponential analysis. In H–J. Diller & M.Görlach (Eds.), Towards a history of English asa history of genres (pp. 47–88). Heidelberg:Universitätsverlag C Winter.Görlach, M. (2004). Text types and the history ofEnglish. Berlin & New York. Mouton de Gruyter.Gramley, S. (2001). The vocabulary of world English.London: Arnold.Gramley, S. & Pätzold, K–M. (2004). A survey ofmodern English. London: Routledge.Greenbaum, S., & Nelson, G. (2002). An introductionto English grammar. Harlow: Longman.Hicky, R. (2006). Productive lexical processes inpresent-day English. In .C. Mair & R. Heuberger(Eds.), Corpora and the history of English(pp. 153–168). Heidelberg: UniversitätverlagWinter.Higgins, C. “Ownership”of English in the outer circle:An alternative to the NS-NSS dichotomy.TESOL Quarterly, 37, 615–644.Hogg, R., & Denison, D. (2006). A history of theEnglish language. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.Hopper, P., & Traugott, E. (1994). Grammatilicazation.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Krug, M. (2000). Emerging English modals: A corpusbasedstudy of grammaticalization. Berlin:Mouton de Gruyter.Leech, G., Rayson, P., & Wilson, A. (2001). Wordfrequencies in written and spoken English:148Educational Studies 52International Christian University

Based on the British national corpus. Harlow:Longman.Mitchell, B., & Robinson, F. C. (2001). A guide to OldEnglish. Oxford: Blackwell.Nagle, S. (1995). The English double modals: internalor external change? In J. Fisiak (Ed.), Linguisticchange under contact conditions (pp. 207–215). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Plag, I, et al. (2007). Introduction to Englishlinguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Quirk, R., et al. (1985). A comprehensive grammar ofthe English language. London: Longman.Romaine, S. 1992. Afterword: English: from village toglobal village. In T. Machan & C. Scott (Eds.),English in its social contexts (pp. 253–60).Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.Russell, S. (2001). Grammar, structure, and style:A practical guide to advanced level Englishlanguage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Scott, C. & Machan, T. (1992). Introduction:Sociolinguistics, language change, and thehistory of English. In T. Machan & C. Scott(Eds.), English in its social contexts (pp. 3–27).Oxford University Press.Simpson, J. A., & Weiner, E. S. C. (1989). TheOxford English Dictionary. 2 nd edition. Oxford:Clarendon Press.Smith, J. (1996). An historical study of English:Function, form and change. London: Routledge.Stenström, A-B., Andersen, C., & Hasund, I. (2002).Trends in teenage talk: Corpus compilation,analysis and findings . Amsterdam: JohnBenjamins.Van Gelderen, E. (2006). A history of the Englishlanguage. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Van Kemenade, A., & Bettelou, L. (2006). Thehandbook of the history of English. Oxford:Blackwell.Educational Studies 52International Christian University149

Appendix 1: Fieldwork worksheet on new second person plural pronounsField Research on “You Plural”ID#NameI. Find an L1 speaker of English and ask if he or she knows a pronoun to denote the second person plural.The standard English does not have a pronoun system to differentiate the following two situations:How are you (single person)? I’m just fine.How are you (more than two persons)? We’re just fine.Ask your informant the following questions and write down as much as information he or she gives you.1. Do you know any word to differentiate “you singular” and “you plural”?2. In what contexts is the word used? In a certain dialect? In a certain region? By a certain group ofpeople?3. Have you heard any other expressions even though you yourself do not use them?information about the informanthome countrysexoccupationmother tongueageeducationII. Now state on a separate sheet what you thought during and after the interview.150Educational Studies 52International Christian University

Appendix 2: Fieldwork summary of “you-plural” collected by the history ofthe English language I class, Tokyo, October 2008i) forms of singular youthou, thee, thy, thineShakespeare; Bible; religious; learned in language class in US;deliberately used; Europe 500 years agoyouhi-yama’amsirto be more politeladyto girl by an old man; politepeopleeverybodyyou sweety/darling/ladyyafriendlyyindude“Hey, brother.”to male friends“Yo, bro.”to male friends[Just use “you” to a single person.]ii) you + plural nounyou guysyou girlsyou mobyou peopleyou audienceyou folksyou bezziesyou studentsyou menAmerican slang; Southern US; can be used anywhere; informal; withmates; both to boys and girls; not academic; frequently used; USespecially Mid-West; less formal; small group; friends; gender problemsbut some say “no problem”; impolite; too casual; family; used by youngpeople; for everyone; available for mixed group; spoken; not formal;for male/male and female group; for four people and more; by generalpeople; to friends; not in UK; casual but not necessarily informal; leastformal; in classroomwith mates; spoken; not formal; sounds outdatedAustralian aborigineimpolite; in upset mood like “You people are stupid!”; used by manypeople and regions; mostly in speech but not written; formal; impolite;Italian mafia; at work; sounds weird; not polite; to strangers; making funof people; used by womenfrequently used; Southern US;used by teacherSouthern USEducational Studies 52International Christian University151

you fellows Southern USyou sweetiesyou honey bunsto family and loversyou honeysto family and loversyou babesat beachiii) forms of plural youyousyouseyinsyou and yoursyou and youyayoyousyeyouzyasyourselvesyourselfjust youyou uns< you guys; North-East US;lower class from Italy or Greece; American; Tennessee; less educated;AustraliaPittsburgh, PA; users of this form are called ‘yinzers’: somewhere aroundPennsylvania; western VirginiaMid-West USused by rap musiciansonly used by Scots; ScottishScottish; Xmas songNew York IrishPennsylvania, < you guysused only in USiv) you + numberyou allyou’ally’all (you + all)you two/threesome of youall of youyou’llStandard in New Jersey; American; Southern US; casual; can be usedanywhere; not to teachers; used by teacher; Texas; Alabama; impolite;North America; speech; for everyone; spoken; not formal; at work;formal; by general people; casual but not necessarily informalSouthern USSouthern US; stereotype of Southern US; American; Texas; slang; lessformal; common in US but not so in UK; impolite; North America; onlyin Southern US; joke; South East US; used in California; distinguishpeople from south; used by hicks; white people in southern US use butAsians do not; countryside; used by young peoplecan be used anywhere; when specifying “two” people; getting attentiona bit formal; spoken; not formala bit formal; spoken; not formal; politeSouthern US152Educational Studies 52International Christian University

you lotsyou lotyou bunchyour groupyour familytalking down someone; very informal; used by young peoplevery informal; used by young peopleused by teacherv) combination of two methodsyou’s guysyouse guysyous guysyou everyoneyous allrare; impolite;Bronx, NY; rare; slang; NY City; joke; not appropriate; gangster; mafia;Brooklyn, NYNorth East UScommon in US; formalvi) use of first person pluralwe“How are we (all) today?”vii) singular form as pluralevery one of youeverybodyeveryoneused by teacher; formalused as pluralgroup discussion; family; friends; not completely formal; to students inclass; in formal context; in classroomviii) noun onlyoneguyspeoplemiss/missesmistergirls/boysmen/womenfellas (fellers?)my fellowschickshoesfolk(s)dudedudesmateUKcasual; to a group which includes male; in classroomteacher to students especially when teacher gets angry “People, be quiet!”just for group of girls/boys; casual; used by teachercasualmen to mento fellow students; politician in speech contextfrom boys to girlsto friendsa little bit formal; for everybody; to strangers to be friendly; casual; tofriendsteenagers onlyCalifornia; Southern California; king of slang; young people untilgraduating university; impoliteAustralia?Educational Studies 52International Christian University153

good day mates Australialadiesserious situationboys and girlspretty girlsfriendsgoshslangjeezold fashionbastardsbratsbxxxesto show friendshipfxxxersto show friendshipmother fxxxersto show friendshipposseamong friendscrewamong friendsgainamong friendssquadamong friendsgangsamong friends; to friends, Canadahowdy partnersold timehomy/homiesneighbors, Canadahommieblack American to friends; black American to look down peopleidiotno article or adjective needed for plural meaningfoolno article or adjective needed for plural meaningladies and gentlemen speech context; formalprofessorsteachersbillions, millions, trillions big number of peopleix) non-verbal method (=words are not used)“by situation”“by gestures”“by context”“by eye contact”“by body language”Comments:“Never thought about you-plural forms”“Why ask such strange questions?”154Educational Studies 52International Christian University

Informant DataMale 63 10s 14Female 44 20s 70Unknown 4 30s 7Total 111 40s 450s 360s 1Unknown 12Total 111US 67 Japan 16 Unkonwn 1UK 13 US/Korea 1Australia 6 Japan/Taiwan 1Canada 5 Cuba 1 Total 111GOOD JOB, EVERY ONE OF YOU!Educational Studies 52International Christian University155

Appendix 3: New vocabulary via affixation, compounding, conversion, clippingcollected by History of the English Language I Class, Tokyo, November 2007Oh, Ichirific! [in a baseball game broadcast program]They britneyed. (from a magazine Marie Claire) [Britney Spears had a marriage ceremony with her old boyfriend within three minutes.]crisps in UK=potato chips in USI’ll go and debunny. (Bridet Jones’s Diary) [Bridet is wearing a bunny-girl costume for a party.]edge-of-your-seat excitement, a larger-than-life cinematic adventure (imax theater ad)blog (web page constantly revised) [from Web + log] thus, blogger, bloggingZoo-venior Shops (Toronto Zoo)audio-animatoronics (Disneyland attraction)microwaveable (on food keepers and food packages)The Must-Have Music Player (iPod advertisement)iPod, therefore, i Am. (iPod advertisement)pizza-licious (new flavor of Pringles potato chips)That’s not Thanksgivingy.typical Christmassy stufflook-at-me lips (from a magazine Seventeen)must-haves (from a magazine Seventeen)I dow. (ad of Dow diamond in Newsweek) [The bride and the bridegroom say “I do” during the marriageceremony.]a waitressing job, a macjob (a job that does not pay much)lookatmeography (ad of Nikon in a magazine InStyle) [look at me + photography]President Bush declared the Philippines a non-NATOally.The infection was billgating healthy cells.After skating through the mud my wheels were totally billgated.Don’t you honey me. (in a movie) [A woman is addressed “honey” by a man.]The river snakes through the city.Iraqification (article in Washington Post)156Educational Studies 52International Christian University