The lexical features of english used in travel brochures in vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THỊ THU HƯƠNG

THE LEXICAL FEATURES OF ENGLISH USED IN
TRAVEL BROCHURES IN VIETNAM
(Đặc điểm của từ vựng Tiếng Anh được sử dụng trong
các quảng cáo du lịch ở Việt Nam)

MASTER’S THESIS PROGRAM I

Major: English Linguistics
Code: 8220201.01

Hanoi - 2019


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THỊ THU HƯƠNG

THE LEXICAL FEATURES OF ENGLISH USED IN
TRAVEL BROCHURES IN VIETNAM
(Đặc điểm của từ vựng Tiếng Anh được sử dụng trong
các quảng cáo du lịch ở Việt Nam)

MASTER’S THESIS PROGRAM I

Major: English Linguistics
Code: 8220201.01
Supervisor: Dr. Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm

Hanoi - 2019


DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this thesis has been composed by myself and it has not been
submitted, in whole or in part, for any other degree or professional qualification.
This study is my own work, except where stated otherwise by references.
Signature

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study would have been impossible without the kind assistance of many people
to whom I would like to express my appreciation and sincere thanks.
I owe a great debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm, who
constantly provided me with invaluable recommendations, prompt feedback and
meticulous attention. Her great understanding and unfailing encouragement inspire
me to complete the research in a diligent manner.
I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the lecturers of the Post Graduate
Department for their tremendous help and for conveying comprehensive knowledge
to me and my classmates during the past two years.
Finally, special thanks are due to my family, friends and colleagues for their

boundless love and firm support.

ii


ABSTRACT

Considering the increasing popularity of Viet Nam as an attractive travel destination
in the world, numerous promotional materials have been created by incorporating
words and images to entice potential foreign customers to come to Viet Nam. The
present study is conducted in order to reveal the lexical features of English used in
travel brochures written by Vietnamese to manifest and demonstrate the persuasive
promotional function of the tourism discourse. It is also necessary to consider
Vietnamese English in these brochures as a variety of English in the Expanding
Circle. The data in this study include nine travel brochures and were analysed
quantitatively and qualitatively. The results of this study suggest that there are four
out of five analyzed lexical features of travel brochures in Viet Nam occurring
frequently, namely lexical borrowing, descriptive adjectives, modal verbs and
personal pronouns. Nativized word formation processes were not detected in these
travel brochures.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................. vi

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................. vii
LISTS OF FIGURES ............................................................................................ viii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................1
1.1.

Rationale .......................................................................................................1

1.2.

Aims of the study .........................................................................................1

1.3.

Research questions ......................................................................................2

1.4.

Scope of the study ........................................................................................2

1.5.

Significance of the study..............................................................................2

1.6.

Organization of the thesis ...........................................................................2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................3
2.1. English as a global language ..........................................................................3
2.2.

World Englishes today ................................................................................5

2.3.

Different models of World Englishes .........................................................7

2.3.1.

A dualistic view of the status of English .............................................7

2.3.2.

A trinalistic view of the status of English ...........................................8

2.3.3.

A monist view on the status of English ...............................................9

2.4.

Varieties of English in Southeast Asia .....................................................10

2.4.1.

Phonological features ..........................................................................11

2.4.2.

Syntactic features ................................................................................12

2.4.3.

Discoursal features ..............................................................................13

2.4.4.

Lexical features ...................................................................................13

2.5.

English for tourism ....................................................................................14

2.6.

Travel brochures as a special kind of genre ............................................16

2.7.

Theoretical framework..............................................................................17

2.7.1.

Lexical borrowing ...............................................................................17
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2.7.2.

Nativized word formation processes .................................................19

2.7.3.

Descriptive adjectives .........................................................................22

2.7.4.

Modal verbs .........................................................................................24

2.7.5.

Personal pronouns ..............................................................................25

2.8.

Review of previous studies ........................................................................26

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .........................................................................30
3.1.

Data corpus ................................................................................................30

3.2.

Data collection ............................................................................................30

3.3.

Data analytical framework .......................................................................31

3.4.

Data analyzing procedure .........................................................................32

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ...................................................34
4.1.

Lexical borrowing ......................................................................................34

4.1.1.

Transliteration ....................................................................................34

4.1.2.

Loan translation ..................................................................................36

4.1.3.

Loan blend (hybrids) ..........................................................................38

4.2.

Nativized word formation processes ........................................................38

4.3.

Descriptive adjectives ................................................................................38

4.3.1.

Miscellaneous descriptive (MD) ........................................................39

4.3.2.

Evaluative/ emotive (EE) ....................................................................41

4.3.3. Adjectives which describe the size, quantity and extent (SQE), time
descriptors (T), color descriptors (C) and location descriptors (L) .............44
4.3.4.

Superlatives .........................................................................................45

4.4.

Modal verbs ................................................................................................46

4.5.

Personal pronouns .....................................................................................47

4.6.

Others .........................................................................................................49

4.7.

Discussion ...................................................................................................50

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ...............................................................................52

5.1.

Recapitulation ............................................................................................52

5.2.

Limitations of the study ............................................................................53

5.3.

Recommendations for further studies .....................................................53

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ASEAN

Association of South East Asian Nations

C

Color

EE

Evaluative/ emotive

EFL

English as a foreign language

ESL

English as a second language

L

Location

MD

Miscellaneous descriptive

RP

Received Pronunciation

SQE

Size/ quantity/ extent

T

Time

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1. The Corpus of nine travel brochures ........................................................30
Table 3.2. Analytical framework ..............................................................................31
Table 4.1. Examples of transliteration in Vietnamese travel brochures ...................35
Table 4.2. Examples of loan translation in travel brochures .....................................38
Table 4.3. Descriptive adjectives used in the travel brochures .................................39
Table 4.4. Twenty most frequent MD group descriptors ..........................................41
Table 4.5. Twenty most frequent EE group descriptors ...........................................43
Table 4.6. Ego- targeting adjectives/ no. of instances per 100 words ......................44
Table 4.7. The number of modal verbs “will” and “can” in each brochure ..............46

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LISTS OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1. The Life Cycle of Non- Native Englishes ................................................6
Figure 2.2. Kachru‟s Concentric Cirles ......................................................................8
Figure 2.3. The English Umbrella ...............................................................................9
Figure 4.1. Descriptive adjectives used in the travel brochures ...............................40
Figure 4.2. Personal pronouns “you”, “we” and their corresponding .......................48

viii


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1.

Rationale

Tourism industry is now one of the biggest industries in the world and travelling is
always in great demand. There is a growing tendency for people to travel abroad
and Vietnam is a favourite destination for foreigners. As a result, the necessity of
propagandizing Vietnam tourist destinations arises. Travelers require accurate
information about the destinations and they are not able to test- drive a destination
before purchase; therefore, one of the most effective ways of propagation is using
travel brochures written in English. It is clear that English language plays an
integral role as the powerful tool for communication in global community, for
understanding and exchanging ideas among people all over the world. In tourism
industry, English is used as a means to communicate, negotiate and execute
transactions with tourists by tourism employees.
Dann (1996, p.2) found that tourism is an “act of promotion with a discourse of its
own”; indeed, “the language of tourism attempts to persuade, lure, woo and seduce
millions of human beings, and, in doing so, convert them from potential into actual
clients”. The language of tourism becomes an important tool in the image creation
process; consequently, an understanding of this language is crucial. According to
Fluck (1885) domination of specialized professional vocabulary is one of the
features of the language used in tourism. A lot of studies have been conducted on
the language and the discourse of tourism texts; however, little has been done on the
linguistic features of brochures written by people in Expanding Circle countries like
Viet Nam. As such, this study attempts to analyse the lexical features of English
used in travel brochures in Viet Nam.
1.2.

Aims of the study

The aim of this paper is to gain insight into the English lexical features of travel
brochures written in Viet Nam, since there has been no previous research on this

topic. The study is conducted to investigate the lexical aspects of travel brochures as

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a promotional text and in the context of Viet Nam, a non- native English speaking
country in Southeast Asia.
1.3.

Research questions

The study seeks to address the following research question:
What are the lexical features of English used in travel brochures in Vietnam as a
global language perspective?
1.4.

Scope of the study

This study focuses on the prominent English lexical features in travel brochures in
Vietnam. The corpus of this paper was limited to nine travel brochures collected
from the internet and printed brochures written by Vietnamese.
1.5.

Significance of the study

This study will be of benefit as the findings on lexical features can be applied as a
model for the writers of the genre to create effective travel brochures. This study
will also be useful for further studies examining other aspects of travel brochures
and those examining English lexis of other genres.
1.6.

Organization of the thesis

This paper has been divided into five chapters.
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: states the rationale for the study, the aims and
purposes, the research question, the significance, the scope and the structure of the
research.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW: provides definitions of key concepts
and lays the theoretical background for the study.
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLODY: describes the selection of subjects, data
collection, data analytical framework and data analysis procedure.
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS: present, analyse, synthesize and
discuss the findings obtained from the collected data.
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION: summarizes the main issues discussed throughout
the paper, points out limitations of the study and makes suggestions for further
research. This part is followed by the References and Appendix.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. English as a global language
In his book English as a Global English, Crystal (1997) asserts that “A language
achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized
in every country” (p.2). Indeed, English is spreading throughout the world to the
unprecedented extent that it is labelled „English as a global language‟. Ferguson
(1982, in Kachru 1992, p.xv) claims that there has never before a single language
which has spread [as a lingua franca] over most of the world, as English has done
this century […]. The spread of English is as significant in its way as is the modern

use of computers. Kachru (1992, p.67) also highlights “the unique international
position of English, which is certainly unparalleled in the history of the world. For
the first time a natural language has attained the status of an international
(universal) language, especially for cross- cultural communication. The English
language is given a global status, firstly because of varying degrees of English
usage across the globe: English is spoken by large numbers of people as a mother
tongue (like in the USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South
Africa, several Caribbean countries and a sprinkling of other territories); English
has been made the official language of many countries (e.g. Ghana, Nigeria, India,
Singapore and Vanuatu), to be used as medium of communication in such domains
as government, the law courts, the media, and the educational system; and English
has been made a priority in many countries‟ foreign- language teaching (e.g. China,
Russia, Germany, Spain, Egypt, Brazil). These developments, says Crystal (1997),
coupled with economic developments on a global scale, new communications
technologies, the explosion in international marketing and advertising and mass
entertainment, have also supported the continued expansion of English as a global
lingua franca.
In 1991, Rushdie reported that „the English language ceased to be the sole
possession of the English some time ago‟. Crystal (1997) also claims in his book

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„English as a global language‟ that when even the largest English- speaking nation,
the USA, turns out to have only about 20 percent of the world‟s English speakers, it
is plain that no one can now claim sole ownership. The language now belongs to
those who use it as their first language, and to those who use it as an additional
language, whether in its standard form or in its localized forms. Because of the
spread of English on a world scale, an inevitable consequence is the emergence of
new varieties of English in different territories where the language has taken root.

These varieties are often termed „new Englishes‟ since the 1960s. Halliday,
McIntosh and Strevens wrote in 1964 that „English is no longer the possession of
the British or even of the Americans, but … exists in an increasingly large number
of different varieties. But the most important development of all is seen in the
emergence of varieties that are identified with and are specific to particular
countries from among the former British colonies. In West Africa, in the West
Indies, and in Pakistan and India … it is no longer accepted by the majority that the
English of England, with RP as its accent, are the only possible models of English
to be set before the young.‟ (Halliday, McIntosh, & Strevens 1964: 293). Kachru
and Smith (1985:210) explains that „Englishes‟ symbolizes the functional and
formal variation in the language, and its international acculturation. Patil (2006)
explains that “when English migrates to foreign countries, it diffuses and
internationalizes, acculturates and indigenizes, and adapts and diversifies. The new
users absorb, re-orient, appropriate and transform it. They liberate it to embody the
energies of their respective sensibilities”.
New varieties of English retain some cultural and linguistic characteristics of the
“Standard English” (Kachru, 1992) but additionally represent and include many
aspects of the culture and language of the country in which the new English
functions. Kachru (1992) claims that New Englishes carry “repertoires of
sociocultural identities”. Varieties of Englishes firstly include the Englishes of
countries of the inner circle like Australian English, New Zealand English,
Canadian English, South African English, Caribbean English, and, within Britain,

4


Irish, Scots, and Welsh English. Varieties among the countries of the outer circle
have also grown in distinctiveness in recent decades like South Asian English,
including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. There are also varieties of
Englishes in the former British colonies in West Africa and East Africa. Other

emerging varieties have been noted in the Caribbean and in parts of Southeast Asia,
such as Singapore. This paper aims at analyzing the features of English in Vietnam,
a country in Southeast Asia.
2.2.

World Englishes today

According to Kachru (1992), the term “World Englishes” symbolizes the functional
and formal variations, divergent sociolinguistic contexts, ranges and varieties of
English in creativity, and various types of acculturation in parts of the Western and
non-Western world. This concept emphasizes “WE-ness,” and not the dichotomy
between us and them (the native and non-native users).
When English enters a new sociocultural setting and comes into contact with other
languages, “nativization” and “Englishization” (Kachru, 1992) occur. These two
faces of English focus on the reciprocal effects of language context: the effect on
English in a localized context (nativization), and the effect on local languages in the
same situation (Englishization).
Englishization refers to the manifest influences of English on other languages in a
given repertoire; levels of languages from pronunciation through literary genres
may be affected in discernible ways (Kachru, 2011). For instance, Kachru (2006)
pointed out that Englishization can extend to the level of grammar, as in the
adoption of impersonal constructions in Indian languages; or the use of passive
constructions with a “by” equivalent in Korean, both of which have been traced to
English.
According to Saghal (1991), nativization, also termed “indigenization” by Moag
(1982, p.235), is the process of transferring a local language to a new cultural
environment. Honna (2003) (cited in Patel, 2006) explains that when English
migrates to foreign language, it diffuses and internationalizes, acculturates and

5

indigenizes, and adapts and diversifies, resulting in localized or nativized items. The
adaptation of English in particular social- cultural settings leads to qualifying
descriptors such as “Indian English”, “Singaporean English”, “Philippine English”,
“Hong Kong English”, and many other descriptors around the world. The greatest
degree of nativization takes place at the lexical level. In the new cultural setting,
English confronts many new realia closely intertwined into the regional cultures and
English may lack suitable equivalents to express or represent them. As a result,
English accepts and receives the words used by the natives. Crystal (2003) claims
that nativisation at the lexical level in New Englishes is realised through various
creative processes such as borrowing, semantic shift, affixation, compounding,
clipping, abbreviation, blending and hybrid compounding.
There are many stages in the nativizing process. Moag (1982) proposed the lifecycle of non- native varieties with five stages: transportation, indigenization,
expansion in use and function, institutionalization, and restriction of use and
function. The first four processes are considered significant constituents of the life
cycle and the fifth one does not apply in all cases.

Figure 2.1. The Life Cycle of Non- Native Englishes (Kachru, 1992)
The first phase “transportation” refers to the arrival of English in a place it has not
been used before. At the second phase of “indigenization”, the new variety of
English starts to adopt local culture and becomes distinct from the parent imported
6


variety, and from other indigenized varieties elsewhere. Kachru (1977) has used
“nativization” in much the same sense. In the initial phase of indigenization process,
English- speaking newcomers come into contact with items of the local material and
nonmaterial culture for which there are no equivalents in their home environment or
language (Kachru, 1992), which results in lexical borrowing. The second phase of

indigenization process comes when members of the local colonial elite begin to use
English for communication among themselves (Kachru, 1992). The third stage
“Expansion in Use and Function” marks the increase in the use of local variety with
the broadening of its function to new domains, particularly education, the media,
and government services. According to Kachru (1992), this process sees the role of
English shift from that of a foreign to a second language. In the fourth stage, the
nativized variety is institutionalized. Several factors play an important role in the
process of institutionalization. In the final stage, there will be restriction of the use
and function of English by state regulated policies, resulting in a decline in its usage
within the country.
2.3.

Different models of World Englishes

The study of the varieties of English has been the subject of much debate, research
and publication. Different linguists have proposed several models to classify the
World Englishes, mainly including “New Englishes”, “Three Concentric Circles of
English”, “English Umbrella”, “World English”, and “English as International
language”. Chen (2011) proposes three groups of classifying the classifying
varieties of Englishes: dualism, trinalism and monism.
2.3.1. A dualistic view of the status of English
According to Chen (2011), in this dualistic view, Englishes are divided into two
kinds: original English and new Englishes. The new Englishes refer to the English
varieties in non- English speaking countries as many English varieties have
emerged in these countries and gained legal existence. Platt, Weber and Ho (1984:
2-3) hold that a New English necessary fulfills the following criteria: (1) It has
developed through the education system. (2) It has developed in an area where a

7

native variety of English was not the language spoken by most of the population. (3)
It is used for a range of functions among those who speak or write it in the region
where it is used. (4) It has become localized and nativized by adopting some
language features of the native language, such as sounds, intonation patterns,
sentence structures, words and expressions.
2.3.2. A trinalistic view of the status of English
The three-circle Model of World Englishes proposed by Kachru in 1985 includes
the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle and the Expanding Circle. These circles represent
“the type of spread, the forms of acquisition and the functional spheres in which
English is used across civilizations and linguistic communication” (Kachru, 1985,
p.12).

Figure 2.2. Kachru’s Concentric Cirles (Crystal, 2003)
The Inner Circle refers to the traditional bases of English, wherein English is the
native language or the mother tongue, like the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and
New Zealand. The assortments of English in the Inner Circle are said to be „normproviding‟, which means that English language norms are developed in these
countries – English is the first language there.

8


Most of the states in the Outer Circle are former settlements of the UK or the USA
(mainly New Commonwealth countries), such as Malaysia, Singapore, India,
Ghana, Kenya and others. English plays an important “second language” role in a
multilingual setting and has become a part in the nation‟s institutions. The English
used in the Outer Circle is considered as „norm-developing‟.
Countries included in the Expanding Circle use English as a foreign language or
lingua franca for international communication and English assumes no historical or
governmental role. The territories in the Expanding Circle include China, Japan,

Greece and Poland. These countries do not have a history of colonization by
members of the inner circle, nor have they given English any special administrative
status. The English used in this circle is regarded as „norm- dependent‟ because it
relies on the standards set by native speakers in the Inner Circle.
2.3.3. A monist view on the status of English

Figure 2.3. The English Umbrella (Yoneoka, 2001)
Yoneoka (2001) proposed “The English Umbrella: Model of a Multicultural
Language System” based on the image of an umbrella. The central stem or core (1)
represents a basic “easy” English – a basic lexicon and syntax and a generalized set
of phonemes. At the tips of the umbrella (2) located the English varieties, including
native varieties like British or Australian, ESL like Singaporean or Indian English,
and myriad EFL varieties. The tips of the umbrella connect to the centralized core
via the spokes (3), which serve as the communication network and support systems.

9


Upon the spokes lies the fabric covering (4) which is the background socio- cultural
systems and the top is an idealized “standard” English (5). According to Chen
(2011), advantages of the umbrella model over the concentric circles are that it is
egalitarian and generic – for its division of core elements in all Englishes, flexible
and dynamic – for its concern on the sociocultural system and communications
network.
Kachru‟s Three- circle Model of World Englishes is widely regarded as the most
useful and influential approach to describe the diffusion of English. Therefore, this
paper employs the Kachru‟s Three-circle Model to analyze the features of English
used in Viet Nam in relation to the varieties of English in Southeast Asia.
2.4.

Varieties of English in Southeast Asia

The new Englishes in Southeast Asia emerged from their respective colonial
histories. Because of their typologically different background languages and
different colonial pasts, English in Southeast Asian arena is at different stages of
development and hence forms of Englishes are located at different points on a lifecycle (Bolton 2002a: 19; Llamzon 1986). Following Kachru‟s three-circle Model,
Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei can be classified as “outer circle”
countries where English is used as a second language. Whereas, countries where
English is a foreign language, namely, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar,
Laos and Cambodia, fall into “expanding circle” countries.
Southeast Asian includes eleven multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilinguistic
countries, ten countries of which are members of ASEAN, except for Timor-Leste.
Although English is the second language in some countries (in Singapore, Malaysia,
Brunei, and the Philippines), and the foreign language in the remaining countries,
English is attaining the status of the most prominent language in the region and
plays a major role in many spheres of life, in “our cultures, our languages, our
interactional patterns, our discourse, our economies and indeed in our politics”
(Kachru, 1997: 91). In ASEAN, English became a de facto lingua franca of ASEAN

10


countries (Krasnick, 1995). The position of English as the sole working language of
ASEAN was officially sanctioned in 2009 with the signing of the ASEAN Charter.
Article 34 „Working Language of the ASEAN‟ reads: “The working language of
ASEAN shall be English”. Thus, a good command of English deems necessary to
compete with the labor force of other ASEAN countries and to get free mobility in
the ASEAN countries. Furthermore, Ministries of Education throughout ASEAN
has made English a compulsory subject in the national curricula of many countries.
When English is used in environments different from its origin, it adjusts and

changes to suit its new environments. The New Englishes in Southeast Asia is not
an exception. English in Southeast Asian has developed to the extent that a number
of local varieties have evolved and the New Englishes in Southeast Asia exhibit
their own linguistic characteristics. The characteristics of Southeast Asian English
have been revealed in various publications such as those by Bautista (1997b),
Crewe (1977), Gonzalez (1983), Llamzon (1969), Platt and Weber (1980), Said and
Ng (2000), Tay (1993b), and Tongue (1979). A brief account of some phonological,
lexical, syntactic and discoursal features of Southeast Asian Englishes is presented
below.
2.4.1. Phonological features
Southeast Asian varieties of English share several striking phonological features.
One of the most noticeable one is the tendency to use syllable- timing caused, by
the avoidance of reduced vowels (Kirkpatrick, 2008). In this case, the syllables take
approximately equal amount of time to pronounce whether it is stressed or not,
which results in the absence of schwa. Kirkpatrick (2008) attributes this to the fact
that many of the speakers‟ first languages have a tendency to syllable timing. On the
contrary, in native English, syllables are audibly lengthened or shortened based on
stress (stress- timed language). Illustration in which people use full vowels in
unstressed syllables could be seen in the example below.
(1) They OFficially announced the winner.
(2) I first came TO Thailand two years ago.

11


Another outstanding feature of Southeast Asian phonology is the shift in stress
placement. Pronouns are regularly stressed and heavy end stress is also common.
For example:
(3) HE has been to Myanmar twice.
(4) Many people speak ENGLISH.

Others phonological features shared by Southeast Asian include the substitution of
stops /t, d/ for certain fricatives /θ, ð/ (thin  /tin/; then  /den/), the simplification
of consonant clusters in final position, the replacement of monophthongs for
diphthongs (“make” is pronounced with /e/), the lack of length contrast and
tenseness contrast in vowels (bit/ beat are pronounced in the same way: /bit/).
2.4.2. Syntactic features
The shared syntactic features of Southeast Asian Englishes first can be seen in the
non- marking of third person present simple and past tense forms. Southeast Asian
tend to leave out the tense markers and adverbs may be used to signal the time
reference. For instance, in the sentence “I talk to her yesterday”, the adverb
“yesterday” is used to mark past tense instead of the tense marker “-ed”. Kirkpatrick
(2008) also added the relative lack of the use of complex tense forms such as Past
Perfect or Past continuous.
The distinction between count and non- count nouns in Southeast Asian Englishes is
not as institutionalized as in Inner-Circle Englishes. Some forms such as furnitures,
equipments, luggages, a research or one evidence can be frequently found. In these
examples, non- countable nouns are used as if they were countable.
The copula construction may be left out in the progressive as in “he dancing”, in the
passive construction as in “she hurt”, as a linking verb as in “I hungry”. This is
because many Southeast Asian languages do not have a copula construction
comparable to “she is beautiful” or “she is a doctor”.
Some other features may be specific to each variety of English in Southeast Asia.
For example, McArthur (1998) and Schneider (2003/2004) have pointed out the
following syntactic features of Malaysian English: missing noun inflectional

12


endings (mostly the plural -s and sometimes the genitive -s); missing sentence
constituents (object, subject, auxiliary verb, copula, preposition) giving the

impression of phrasal “telegraphic” speech; variant complementation patterns
following verbs; wrong concord in noun phrases; innovations in phrasal verbs; and
the use of reflexive pronouns to form emphatic pronouns.
2.4.3. Discoursal features
One striking feature in the analysis of discourse features of Southeast Asian English
is the use of the pragmatic particles “la(h), leh, hor, etc”, especially in Singaporean
and Malaysian English. These particles have no semantic content in isolation. They
are used at the end of the sentences in informal contexts to express interactional
meaning. Take „lah‟ in Singaporean English for example, „lah‟ is used to change a
verb into a command or to soften its tone, particularly when usage of the verb may
seem impolite.
In Southeast Asian multilingual communities, the use of code- mixing and codeswitching is common. In Malaysia, code- switching may be used among
accomplished bilinguals for rhetorical and accommodation purposes. However,
among speakers who are not highly competent in English, code- switching is used
as a repair strategy. In the Philippines, code- switching can be extensively used in
daily life conversations, in motion pictures, television, daily newspapers or weekly
magazines. The following example shows the mixing of Malay and English: She
wanted to beli some barang- barang “She wanted to buy some things”.
2.4.4. Lexical features
Kachru, Yamuna, and Cecil (2006) argue that the most obvious features in
Southeast Asian varieties are the loan words and the loan translation. Haugen
(1970) puts them under the term lexical borrowing, which includes loan words, loan
translation and loan blend. Loan words are different for each society and culture
because of the differences in the realia or referents in the culture, e.g., kinship titles,
local food terms, indigenous values. For example, some loan words in Singaporean
English include “abang” (elder brother, male cousin), “hanram” (prohibited) or

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“tang hoon” (rice flour, any kind of powder). Loan translation is a form of
borrowing from one language to another whereby the semantic components of a
given term are literally translated into their equivalents in the borrowing language.
For example, in Philippine English “for a long time” is the loan translation of “since
before yet”, or “I‟m teasing you” is the loan translation of “joke only”. Loan blend
(or hybrids) is also common in Southeast Asian varieties. In this case, a compound
is formed of words from different languages. For example, “buco juice” (the juice
of a young coconut) or “pulot boy” (a tennis ball boy) can be found in Philippine
English.
In 2015, Nor, Zamri and Awab published a paper in which they examine the lexical
features of Malaysian English and recognized the following aspects: local language
referents, semantic expansion and word formation processes. Firstly, the local terms
have been assimilated into the spoken as well as written English in the country.
Second, semantic expansion of words like “cut” carries both the original meaning of
“slicing” and the meanings of “overtake” and “reduce” in Malaysian English. And
word formation processes in Malaysian English include affixation of local lexis
using English suffixes such as the English plural –s inflection or the progressive –
ing marker; compounding which involves the creation of compounds from existing
English words such as “shophouses” (a row of shops usually with accommodation
on the top floor); reduplication such as “weird- weird” and “walk-walk”; repetition
like “You go in first la, you go in first la”; and conversion which involves a lexical
item converting its word class to another, as in “Want any song, I can song for you”.
In general, some prominent lexical features of Southeast Asian English include loan
words, loan translation, hybrids, semantic expansion, and some word formation
processes.
2.5.

English for tourism

Language is a “highly organized and encoded system employs many devices to

express, indicate, exchange messages and information, represent and so forth”
(Garner and Hancock 2014: 465). The language of tourism attempts to seduce

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millions of people into becoming tourists and subsequently to control their attitudes
and behaviour. Tourists, in turn, contribute further to this language through the
communication of their experiences. Lam (2007) considers tourism English as a
special register of English that is different from general English and that serves
some specific purposes such as to catch reader‟s attention, inform and attract. As a
principal marketing tool, tourism brochures are found to be loaded with language
and images to maximize their persuasive power. Weightman (1987) believes that
the language of travel brochures becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as the tour
brochure directs expectations, influences perceptions and thereby provides a
preconceived landscape for the tourist to discover. Bhatia (1993) also argues that
texts in promotional genres including travel brochures tend to share certain
linguistic features in much the same way as advertisements. A well- known study
by Leech (1966) reveals the following aspects of advertising language. Firstly, the
modal verbs “will” and “can” are common words in advertising language. Secondly,
the most common generic sentence type for advertisements is the imperative which
is used to suggest or invite someone to do something. Thirdly, another characteristic
of advertising language is the use of the first and second personal pronouns. Lastly,
adjectives occur frequently in advertisements and tend to be the most striking
component of advertising language. However, the imperative which belongs to
syntactic features will not be analysed in this paper.
Concerning tourism context, there is a large volume of published studies describing
the English language of travel brochures. Iborra and Garrido (2001) and
Boonchayaanant (2003), scrutinized the modal verbs and reported that the modal
verbs “will” and “can” in tourist texts convey the same meaning as those in

advertisements. Researchers also agree that personal pronouns in tourism texts have
similar function as those in advertisements. Boonchayaanant (2003) and Iborra and
Garrido (2001) suggest that the pronouns “you”, “your”, “we” and “our” are
generally used in tourism texts. With regard to the use of adjectives, Pakkinen
(2005) agrees that one of the prominent language features of promotional texts is

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