English linguistic component in the language of modern Ukraine

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The National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine

Анотація

АНГЛІЙСЬКИЙ ЛІНГВІСТИЧНИЙ КОМПОНЕНТ У МОВІ СУЧАСНОЇ УКРАЇНИ

Л.Л. Пилипенко

Питання мовних контактів - одне з центральних питань сучасної лінгвістики. Мови та діалекти живуть і розвиваються у суцільній і тісній взаємодії, що впливає на всі сторони та рівні взаємодіючих мов. Метою даного дослідження є аналіз взаємодії української та англійської мов у економічних та культурних умовах сучасної України, під впливом соціального становища мовної поведінки, що базується на функціональній типології мов. Оцінка місця компонента англійської мови в Україні може бути як позитивною, так і негативною, в обох випадках, однак, її характер ні в якому разі не буде мовним, а політичним. Для подальших досліджень краще слідувати описовим, а не репресивним підходом до оцінки лінгвістичних даних. Якщо це явище є систематичним, це вказує на еволюцію мови, а не на погані наміри або помилки людей, що нею користуються. Філолог може лише спостерігати та інтерпретувати ці дані.

Ключові слова. Англійська мова, креольська англійська, пиджин англійська, штучна англійська, мова для іноземців, змішана мова

Аннотация

language english economic cultural

АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКИЙ КОМПОНЕНТ В ЯЗЫКЕ СОВРЕМЕННОЙ УКРАИНЫ Пилипенко Л.Л.

Вопрос языковых контактов - один из центральных вопросов современной лингвистики. Языки и диалекты живут и развиваются в тесном взаимодействии, что влияет на все стороны и уровни взаимодействующих языков. Целью данного исследования является анализ взаимодействия украинского и английского языков в экономических и культурных условиях современной Украины, под влиянием социального положения языкового поведения, основанного на функциональной типологии языков. Оценка места компоненты английского языка в Украине может быть как положительной, так и отрицательной, в обоих случаях, однако, ее характер ни в коем случае не будет языковым, а политическим. Для дальнейших исследований лучше следовать описательным, а не репрессивным подходом к оценке лингвистических данных. Если это явление - систематическое, это указывает на эволюцию языка, а не на плохие намерения или ошибки людей, его использующих. Филолог может только наблюдать и интерпретировать эти данные.

Ключевые слова. Английский язык, креольский английский, пиджин английский, искусственный английский, язык для иностранцев, смешанный язык

Introduction

The issue of language contacts is one of the central issues in modern linguistics. Languages and dialects live and develop in continuous and close interaction that influences all sides and levels of interacting languages. The complexity of language processes in a particular society is not a reflection of the internal organization of any homogeneous system, but can be understood in terms of relations between several qualitatively different systems. The natural state of a language is transformation, not a stability.

Purpose

Therefore, the purpose this paper is to analyze the interaction of Ukrainian and English languages in the economic and cultural conditions of modern Ukraine, influenced by the social situation of language behavior, based on the functional typology of languages.

Research Overview. In [1] the basis of seven attributes for functional typology was presented:

1. standardization:

2. vitality:

3. historicity:

4. autonomy:

5. reduction:

6. mixing;

7. norms of use.

hierarchical to obtain ranks of potential social prestige.

Researchers [1-3] proposed 10 functional varieties of the English language: standard, classical, local, dialectal, Creole, pidgin, artificial, inter-language and language for foreigners, mixed language. Let us consider these functional varieties applied to the existing English language in Ukraine.

In [1-2] author views Standard English as a standardized unreduced version of the English language belonging to the collective of its native speakers, that has autonomy and, naturally, has actual and codified norms. Norms of use of this variety are characterized by a significant commonness of grammar, vocabulary, rhetoric, along with a high degree of tolerance in relation to phonological variability.

Older versions of the English language, also called Classical English, which in functional terms differ from the modern standard only in the absence of vitality, but have high status, because they were used in grand works of English literature. Until the early 2000s, the works of the "great classics" were practically the only acceptable example for students of the language faculties of Ukraine (with the exception of the largest universities, where students had minimal opportunities to communicate with living native English speakers).This fact ultimately contributed to the appearance of the mixed English, the features of which will be described below.

Local English is usually defined as the native language of a group that is under the social or political dominance of another group speaking a different language. An example is the English language in South Africa. This variety of English is absent in Ukraine, as well as Dialect English.

Creole languages in general and Creole English particularly [4], differ from dialects in terms of degree of “mixedness” and reduction of their structures, as well as mass borrowings. Creole languages arise from pidgin. Pidgin can be used in families where parents do not have a common language. If conscious efforts are not made to teach the child to their native tongues, then the pidgin will become their first language. The presence of other children with a similar language education leads to the use of pidgin outside of their homes, and its expansion to the replenishment of vocabulary and the expansion of the functional range. Creole language can gradually turn into a literary one, especially in intermediate-type societies with a high degree of social stratification. Best example of Creole language in Ukraine is “surzhik”.

Unlike Creole, pidgin does not have a language group, where it is the first language, but it has actual usage norms [4]. Given the social and political conditions for pidgin, a rapid development path is possible. It is the Pidgin English that became very popular in Ukraine.

Artificial English can be viewed as an attempt to codify 'language for foreigners'. There are also subspecies of 'artificial English', having a limited function, for example, conditional languages of air traffic controllers.

One of the interesting and poorly studied varieties of language is a variety that arises when the student for one reason or another has lost the stimulus or the possibility of further learning the language. Students or teachers (or both) decide that a sufficiently effective code for their communication has already evolved and are ready to be content with this. If this occurs at the beginning of the training, a pidgin appears, but if the petrification occurs later, the result is a mixed, but unreduced, variety. In fact, this is 'local English', which is taught and sanctioned by local custom. It should be noted that some researchers consider the recognition of such a variety of English as "false science”, however, it is no different from other varieties in terms of the presence of attributes of the ranking of potential social prestige and is of particular interest in the modern linguistic situation in Ukraine.

The mixed variety of the language correlates to the 'inter-language' at the microlevel of individual use. Both options are not standardized, both have no signs of vitality and historicity, but 'inter-language' English is characterized by lacking of actual norms of use and there is no autonomy.

English for foreigners is an idiosyncratic variety of English, used by its native bearers. Typically, the changes are reduced to a slower rate of speech, excessive emphaticity, repetition for short-term communication. This variety is formed on the basis of the hypotheses of native English speakers about the nature of the learning of the second language.

Main Part. The status of some varieties of English causes serious controversy, so the classification of [1] is used only as a convenient working tool. In the presence of social motivation [5], the functional status of the language can change very rapidly, as in the case of the conversion of Creole languages into literary ones.

Until the mid-90s, the English language in Ukraine was a rather interesting and poorly studied variety, when, for understandable social reasons, the stimulus for language proficiency among the groups studying it did not have extralinguistic support, and the opportunities for studying English by the broad masses of the population were very limited. Both pupils and teachers were content with the code, sufficiently effective for their communicative purposes, developed during the years of political isolation of Ukraine while it was part of the USSR. The result was an artificial, but slightly reduced (as opposed to pidgin) variety of English - something that can be qualified as 'good Post-Soviet English', which is similar to Franglais [6] and other mixed languages. In general, the study of English did not find a practical use, and therefore had only educational and developmental value for the majority of trainees.

However, since the Independence, interest in studying English has increased. This was due to many socio-political factors, to name a few:

- the opening of the opportunity for tourist trips and communication with foreignspeaking population of the planet without the help of a guide;

- the emergence and rapid growth of the number of joint ventures;

- the development of the Internet, previously not available to ordinary Ukrainians;

- the expansion of foreign contacts;

- Government programs to integrate English in society [8].

All this has led to the emergence of new areas of use of English in Ukraine.

The development of a network of new language schools, courses, firms, centers for accelerated English teaching, that aimed at spreading "English for communication", also contributed to the appearance of new environments for the use of English in Ukraine. The emergence of such points of training was associated with the enormous need for Ukraine to communicate with the outside world. In fact, 'artificial English' becomes very spread in Ukraine - a reduced, autonomous and highly codified version of the English language with a radically condensed lexicon (1000 units) and carefully codified textbooks that meet the goals of short-term palliative communication. In the further practice, the language code that was offered was most often turned into a satisfactory means of intergroup communication, first of all among a social group of traders called "shuttles", while undergoing "pidginization" in the real situation of interlingual contact at the micro-level of individual use [7]. This variety is not standardized, it lacks a living collective of native speakers, and pidgin norms in Ukraine, as well as all over the world, are not well known and are not realized by the speaker themselves.

It was the appearance of the pidgin in Ukraine that facilitated the mass adoption of English vocabulary with certain topics of conversation, as well as the penetration of the so called “interlayer words” into the language of the mass media.

The general principle that can be traced in statements of that time is the correlation of the used language contextual complex with one's own intention, on one hand, and the supposed or desired understanding, interpretation, conclusions of the listener, on the other. The aim of the media was to be 'hip' for young population, that was using pidgin.

In addition to the occurrence of English vocabulary in general syntax (a semantically-filled English lexical unit is inserted into the semantically empty Ukrainian syntactic structure), a very interesting movement towards multilingualism is observed in the use of English words in company names and their advertising. This use of English becomes popular very fast: the “Бест” (Best) store, the «ОКЕЙ» (Okay) advertising agency, рольставні або ролети (English root `roll'), «сайдинг фасадів» (facade siding), «сайнмейкінг» (sign making), etc, instead of existing words in Ukrainian language.

Different hybrids appear that include Ukrainian and Latin letters: ^ІРовський”, etc. The inscription in English, advertising the sold goods, can be seen in many shop windows and in other outlets. Alternatively, words taken from Ukrainian language were sometimes used in English, for example: Chemical cleaning (instead of Dry-cleaner's). Signs of this kind of English-Ukrainian "surzhik" in the area of trade show that respectability was becoming associated with the knowledge of English language. Since tourism in Ukraine was not developed to explain the appearance of such inscriptions with the desire to attract foreign buyers.

Numerous English borrowings appeared in the language of new Ukraine, due to various reasons:

- borrowing for concepts that were absent in Ukraine before independence, for example: спонсор (sponsor), брокер (broker), дистрибьютор (distributor), менеджер (manager), дилер (dealer), ріелтор (realtor). Some of these names receive additional meaning: the manager is a young seller in an expensive store that can tell about a product;

- terminological concepts for new and intensively developing areas of human knowledge are borrowed: Інтернет (the Internet), сайт (site), файл (file), провайдер (provider), чат (chat), е-мейл (е-mail), сервер (server), принтер (printer), etc. - in the field of computer technologies; менеджмент (management), маркетинг (marketing), офшор (offshore), промоушен (promotion), бренд (brand) - in the field of economics and production;

- borrowing for new items of material culture: пейджинг (paging), джакузі (Jacuzzi), лептоп (laptop), диск (disk), чізбургер (cheeseburger);

- borrowing for new musical directions: реп (rap), грандж (grunge), техно (techno), рейв ( rave);

- borrowing for old concepts in order to give them prestige: фітнес (fitness) for physical education, фітнес-клуб (Fitness Club) for regular sports center, бутік (boutique) is a small store (exclusivity and quality of goods are completely optional), etc;

- mixed type borrowing, belonging to the youth culture: флаєр (flyer) - entrance ticket with discount, фейс контроль (face control) - attendants at the disco entrance, whose purpose is not to allow drunks to the disco, etc.

The level of mastering the English language is higher for educated people, working or seeking to work in joint ventures. Among the broad popular masses, the spread of English still is next to zero, although this does not mean that their speech does not have a certain influence of English. The low level of mastering the English language among traders, that leads to the emergence of pidgin in Ukraine, now tends to spread among politicians, doctors, lawyers, economists. Those who have mastered English in his this strange variety find themselves in a privileged position in modern Ukraine: they can count on getting a job in many new emerging fields of activity of society.

The desire to master English leads to the fact that it spreads in Ukraine through the efforts of the trainees themselves. In particular, English is currently used by Ukrainianspeaking employees of joint ventures in communication with each other, and in particular in written communication with the central offices abroad. At the same time, extremely cliche business English is subjected to local processing, turning into a variety of “surzhik”. In Ukraine there is Ukrainian internet newspaper "DOU", that publishes ads for employment in English. The refresher courses are issuing 'international sample' certificates with a bilingual inscription ("Certificate of Achievement"). Two languages are used for "international sample diplomas"are issued by numerous commercial universities, institutes and academies. In general, the sphere of science, education and business, makes a step towards bilingualism. The working language of international conferences (whose participants are mostly scientists from the CIS countries) includes English and Ukrainian. Whether this is a movement toward diglossia, time will tell.

Conclusions

Therefore, assessment of varieties of English in Ukraine can be conducted in terms of 'good' or 'bad' language only related to its communicative effectiveness. For communication to be effective, the speaker should be able to outperform not only the language code, but also choose the channel through which the code is implemented, consider the linguistic context that modifies this choice, and sociolinguistic rules that support or create social relations.

In general, the assessment of the place of the English language component in Ukraine can be both positive and negative, in both cases, however, its character will by no means be linguistic, but political. For further studies it is better follow a descriptive, and not prescriptive, attitude toward linguistic data. If the phenomenon is systematic, it indicates the evolution of the language, rather than the bad intentions or mistakes of the speakers. A philologist can only observe and interpret it.

References

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