Hiyas sa Kadayawan, Beautiful English and Identities

Hiyas sa Kadayawan, Beautiful English and Identities Shiela Java-Guinal Ateneo de Manila University/ Ateneo de Davao University, Philippines : This paper explores the patterns of meanings that are found in the Question and Answer (Q and A) segment of a local beauty pageant, Hiyas sa Kadayawan, of which the contestants are representatives from Muslim and Lumad tribes of Davao City. Using the analytical approaches of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), the paper aims to uncover recurring patterns and meanings in the contestants’ answers, including the implied attitudes and positions held by the contestants. The findings reveal that what comprises ‘beautiful language’ is the ability to articulate value positions in a manner that verbalizes a positive, conforming attitude. However, while celebrating diversity, the pageant glosses over cultural differences subsuming the contestants in a universalizing community. : Beautiful English, beauty pageants, identities, Systemic Functional Linguistics Introduction A n indispensable Filipino badge of pride and honor, beauty pageants have captured the interest of many researchers and scholars, particularly from the fields of anthropology and sociology. Many of these studies focus on discourses on culture and gender relations. Emily Sotudeh (2016), for example, explores how beauty is tied up with culture and power while Vianne Delfinado (2018) examines the ideals of feminine beauty and the relation of beauty pageants with gender discourses. Very few, however, have approached beauty pageants from a linguistic perspective that focuses on the actual discourse or speech. TAMBARA 35, No.2 (2018): 27-46 — 27 — © 2018 Ateneo de Davao University Tambara 35 (December 2018) This paper endeavors to fill this gap by investigating a local beauty pageant called the Hiyas sa Kadayawan. Organized by the local government of Davao, the pageant consists of female contestants representing the Lumad and Muslim tribes of the city. This local pageant departs from mainstream beauty contests in the choice of its contestants, who are all ethnic members of an indigenous tribe. It is also unique as it does not follow the criteria for judging used by mainstream beauty pageants such as the Binibining Pilipinas which includes beauty of face and figure, as well as poise and personality. Hiyas sa Kadayawan, on the other hand, highlights the cultural and advocacy skills of the contestants. Nevertheless, despite its noble objectives, this local pageant still conforms to the status quo in that the contestants, while being proficient in their mother tongues, are required to speak about themselves, their tribes and cultures, using the English language. This makes the Hiyas sa Kadayawan, a linguistic and social event that reflect the attitudes and the positions of the contestants as members of a multilingual and a multicultural community. Using the Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) approach, this paper analyzes the utterances of the contestants inorder to uncover recurring patterns, explore meanings, attitudes, and positions embedded in these utterances as construed by their different linguistic choices. Hiyas sa Kadayawan The Hiyas sa Kadayawan is an annual pageant in Davao City held every August during the Kadayawan Festival to celebrate the bountiful harvest of the city. Ten years in the running, the pageant contestants are selected from the eleven recognized ethnolinguistic tribes of Davao City namely: Ata Manuvu, Ka’agan, K’lata (or Jangan), Maguindanao, Maranao, Matigsalog, Ovu Manuvu, Sama, Tagabawa, Tausug and the Iranuns. Unlike other beauty pageants, the Hiyas sa Kadayawan is different as it is not simply concerned with physical beauty (Capistrano 2015). Instead, it is meant to give recognition and appreciation to the indigenous peoples of Davao who, although its first inhabitants, are now the minority. As — 28 — Java-Guinal – Hiyas sa Kadayawan, Beautiful English and Identities such, one of the most important characteristics of the contestant is that she should have adopted the values, skills and attitude of the tribe she represents in view of preserving her culture. Each ethnolinguistic group is given the prerogative to choose its own official representative who will best represent them. An unmarried female, she is considered as the “Hiyas Finalist” or “Hiyas sa Kaliwatan” of the group who has to attend the rehearsals, pictorials, guest appearances, and performances. The approval of the Hiyas Finalists’ representation is obtained through a written endorsement signed or thumb marked by the community’s council of elders and/or deputy mayor. The Hiyas sa Kadayawan contestants are judged in two phases—closed door interview (65 percent) and Q and A during the pageant (35 percent). The judges—composed of representatives from government agencies, schools, and people who know about Davao’s history and culture—evaluate the contestants according to the following criteria: a) culture, arts and history proficiency (25 percent), which tests the participants’ knowledge, recognition and understanding of the shared history, language, traditions and practices of the indigenous community they represent; b) cultural skill (25 percent), which refers to the participants’ competence of acquired indigenous knowledge expressed through cultural performance; c) advocacy and spokesperson qualities (25 percent), which refer to the participants’ active participation in the issues of their communities.. [including their] communication skills; and d) leadership attributes (25 percent) which refer to the ability to influence others in thought and deeds towards achieving desired goals (Hiyas sa Kadayawan Committee 2014). Just like other mainstream pageants, the Hiyas sa Kadayawan uses English during the Q and A. However, the type of questioning used is not the typical yes-no, WH-questions. The pageant elicits ideas and answers from — 29 — Tambara 35 (December 2018) the contestants by showing them different images and landmarks related to Davao City, after which they say anything they wish about the image without the pressure of time limit. Method This paper uses the recorded audio-video Q and A of Hiyas sa Kadayawan 2012 pageant as its subject for analysis, which is available on Youtube.com. The audio-video is transcribed by hand. According to Paul Baker (2006), generally, written data are much easier to gather than spoken data because portions of spoken texts are sometimes not clear, dialogues among participants sometimes overlap, and the audio or video file must be rewound many times so the person who transcribed can keep with the speed of speaking. With these circumstances, the recorded audio-video of the pageant is downloaded and then is uploaded to Transcribe.com, an online software used to transcribe data, which has delay features that slow down dialogues, allowing the typist to keep up with the spoken pace. This paper only uses the transcribed texts, the product of transcription minus the paralinguistic elements previously mentioned. The linguistic analysis of the utterances is done through the SFL approach, which involves a systematic analysis of linguistic choices, their context, the linguistic options and the meaning—making processes in the texts. The paper focuses specifically on a method within SFL, the Appraisal framework, which is used in investigating social relationships. The system of appraisal (Martin and White 2005) consists of three sub-systems—Attitude, Graduation, and Engagement—and this paper only investigates Attitude. Attitude, the system of meanings that evaluates feelings, incorporates three semantic regions: affect (expressing feelings of the appraiser), judgment (judging people’s character or behavior) and appreciation (evaluating the worth of things). To analyze the units below the clauses (or sentence in traditional grammar) that are found in the transcribed texts, the nominal group analysis is applied. To analyze the system that comprises the whole clause, the analysis of transitivity is used. Lastly, to analyze interpersonal meanings, appraisal is used. — 30 — Java-Guinal – Hiyas sa Kadayawan, Beautiful English and Identities Results and Discussion The dominant qualifiers Out of the seven functions under the nominal group, qualifiers (words that describe) dominate with thirty-five clauses and twenty-six prepositional phrases. The table below shows samples of a clause and a prepositional phrase that function as qualifiers. The types of clauses and prepositional phrases in the corpus vary although they serve a similar function, which is to describe the object presented to the contestants. A Good Leader to the young people of their culture Deictic Epithet Thing Qualifier det adjective Noun Prepositional Phrase That Maiden wearing their costumes Deictic Thing Qualifier Det Noun Clause Seven out of the ten contestants employ the most number of qualifiers. These are contestant numbers two, four, five, six, eight, nine and ten who use a maximum of eight to seven qualifiers in their answers. Contestant number two, who is crowned as Hiyas sa Kadayawan, employs eight qualifiers. Contestant numbers ten and four, who are declared the first and second runners up, both use seven qualifiers. The frequency of qualifiers found in the answers of the top three winners means that the use of more qualifiers somehow matters in choosing the winners of the pageant. These qualifiers expand the ideas presented by the contestants in discussing the image projected for them. Qualifiers usually occur at the end due to the textual management of ‘flow of information’ within the nominal group (Martin et al. 2010). They extend the clause making it appear lengthy and intricate. The use of phrases and clauses as a grammatical device is a way of packing information by modifying and expanding what is being discussed and described by the contestants. There — 31 — Tambara 35 (December 2018) is an abundance of pre-modifiers (epithets and classifiers) or post-modifiers (qualifiers) in English grammar because they provide more meanings for the Thing (word being described). In this pageant, it is the post modifier that dominates the genre of pageant answers where contestants provide more than one qualifier to describe a single thing. Lily Fillmore and Charles Fillmore (2012, 68) assert that “[e]laboration of nouns is extremely frequent in informational and expository prose, but is relatively rare in spoken language.” The opposite occurs in the spoken answers of the Hiyas sa Kadayawan contestants. The contestants’ answers are spoken yet use plenty of qualifiers to elaborate their answers through phrases and clauses embedded in the clause as post-modifiers. The employment of lengthy post-modifiers in the form of phrases and clauses of the contestants indicate that they elaborate on their answers intensively inorder to appear ‘knowledgeable’ of the image presented to them. The contestants also appeared prepared regarding the facts about the images. This may mean that they were informed about the images beforehand yet they were asked to pick only one among the different images during the Q and A. Since answers might have been prepared beforehand, they could have committed to their memory the possible details and used these to elaborate their answers. This reflects the lack of depth and substantial arguments in their answers despite their lengthy discussions. The answers revolve around trivial descriptions and factual elaborations only but the pros, cons and critical issues related to the images are not discussed. The nominal groups below show how a particular contestant uses seven qualifiers to describe a picture shown to her. The city hall of Davao More than just a landmark; the home of our local government unit; with 182 barangays; three legislative districts; that the local government unit of Davao City A head by the national government in many ways — 32 — Java-Guinal – Hiyas sa Kadayawan, Beautiful English and Identities As shown in these examples, the preponderance of qualifiers to expand a single picture creates an image of being articulate and knowledgeable about the topic. However, this is not only done through qualifiers. The nominal analysis also shows that following qualifiers in number is deictic (forty-three) and thing (forty-four). This however is expected since qualifiers need a thing to modify and a deictic needs a thing to contextualize. The dominant relational clause The findings of the transitivity analyses show that the most number of processes used by the contestants is relational with forty-four out of sixty-one processes. Below are extracts from the answers where the words “shows” and “symbolize” are repeatedly used by all of the contestants. That that picture symbolize the culture Token Relational Value It is the home of our local government unit with 182 barangays and three legislative districts Token Relational Value Cir: Accompaniment That picture shows one of the active volcano highest mountain in the Philippines at 9,692 feet Token Relational Cir: Matter Value It also symbolizes the beauty of our beloved Davao City Token Relational Value There are two principal relational clause types (Martin 2010)—attribution and identification. Attributive clause includes a carrier and an attribute while the identifying involves a token and value. The results show that identification is consistently used in the answers of the contestants. Identification is the categorizing of symbolization. It dwells on the abstraction of relating things symbolically. The use of identification as relational processes by the contestants — 33 — Tambara 35 (December 2018) indicates that all their answers are at first literal but later on evolve into something symbolical as their answers progress. Also, there are typical kinds of meaning relations that involve token and value roles (Martin et al. 2010, 105) Since pinpointing token and value is the main goal in recognizing identification, it must be clearly understood that token and value may take different roles depending on the context and situation. Based on the results, the recurring word “show” takes “expression” as a token and “content” as a value. This means that the projected images are first identified literally by the contestants through their common name, scientific name, statistical facts, etc. This according to Geoff Thompson (2014), is the role of token and value where value is more generalized and token is more specific. Secondly, the contestants expand their answers by going beyond the literal discussions through figurative representations and meanings of the images shown to them. The relational process that dominates this corpus presents two parts regarding their answers, that is, “something is being said to be something else” (Haliday 1994). It means that the contestants try to establish a relationship between two separate entities: The object provided for them to discuss and the significance of the object beyond its practicality and materiality. The setting up of this relationship is the role of relational process. Initially, the contestants mention the objects, which are labeled as the token that usually appears as literal descriptions or names. After which value is given which appears as symbolical discussion or general information about the images. This is where the contestants express personal observations and opinions on how the images have become significant symbols of Davao City and its people. The symbolisms they all use imply the inclusion of everyone who resides in Davao yet at the same time the exclusion of those who are not. It also entails that these symbolisms are universal, which may mean that all answers are considerably correct as long as they adhere to the universal symbolism that everybody agrees with. Hence, the contestants’ answers tend to please everyone and encourage everyone to agree. Value in this context then is the generalization of the symbolisms that Davao community shares, realized — 34 — Java-Guinal – Hiyas sa Kadayawan, Beautiful English and Identities in the answers of the contestants, and assessed by the judges on whether they agree or disagree with the commonly shared symbolisms. The length, therefore, does not necessarily equate to content. And the deviation from the commonly shared symbolism seems unacceptable. These claims correspond to the results of the appraisal analyses found in the succeeding discussion. Remarkably, there are other repeating clauses. These clauses mean the same, however, the contestants express them in different ways. The clause “That is all” is used four times by four different contestants and the clause “that would be all” is used thrice also by different contestants while another variant of it where the connector “and” is added and used twice (“And that would be all”). That Is All Token Relational Value This recurrence of similar clauses in varying structures suggests that the contestants tend to follow a particular framework of closing their answers, like a default system that they cannot avoid. They may have taken this clause after the traditions of other pageants where the expression is expected. These produce stock expressions, which later on have lost their essential meaning and effect due to repetition. The proliferation of such expressions in pageants entails that portions of the answers given by the contestants are hardly thought of. It means that they only tend to repeat what had been used in the past. They do not create genuine expressions that would make them stand out from the rest. Instead, they cling to pageant traditions, copy the same format of answering, and rephrase or just pepper it with ideas related to the theme or to what has been asked. But the proliferation of stock expressions in the answers of the contestants may not be their fault. This may be due to the traditions and practices that are involved in the genre of beauty pageants passed on to them by their trainers during the pre-pageant. One contestant avoids using the clause by greeting the audience using another clichéd festival greeting: “Malipayong pagsaulog sa Kadayawan — 35 — Tambara 35 (December 2018) Madayaw Dabaw” (Happy celebration of Kadayawan Beautiful Davao.) It is an attempt to be different from the rest yet at the same time still sounding relevant. However, this clause still clings to the cliché of using a festival greeting that every event host, political leader or guest has used over the years in addressing a gathering of audience every Kadayawan festival. This is yet again another adherence to what the society expects the contestant are supposed to do. This leads to the supposition that the contestants, even in closing and ending their answers, still adhere to the traditions of pageants where expressions like these are commonly exploited. These clichéd clauses precede another overused expression that appeared in all of the contestants’ answers as the closing statement. Additionally, there is an occurrence of another repeated expression that is found in most of the answers of the contestants. Consistently, all the contestants end their answers by expressing gratitude toward the audience and the organizers or to the chance of being heard or for the opportunity of being able to speak—the possible reasons could be endless. (I) thank you. Expression In all of the instances that the expression is used the speaker is ellipsed. The target “you” of the word “thank” generally addresses the audience present during the pageant. This expression can be heard across contexts and situations and is a staple closing or introducing element of any spoken speech. This is not a unique feature of this pageant as answers in many other pageants follow the norms of any spoken speech where “thank you” is automatically included. Its presence in almost all spoken instances reaches a point of staleness where it loses its value and sincerity. Similarly, the clause has lost its impact and effectiveness by becoming a stock answer. Again, this expression is commonly found in the genre of beauty pageant Q and A segments. This second clichéd expression found in all the answers of the contestants mean that their answers follow a particular pattern. This pattern appears — 36 — Java-Guinal – Hiyas sa Kadayawan, Beautiful English and Identities in all answers and may also appear in other types of pageants other than Hiyas sa Kadayawan. This implies that Q and A in pageants is not a test of wit and of intelligence. It is all about the creation of beautiful and pleasing clauses in the answers yet following the same framework of answering by beginning and ending them similarly. It further entails that in order for clauses to sound and appear beautiful and pleasing to the audience, greetings and words of gratitude are included in the answers. These greetings may not carry essential and critical contents yet they set contexts of good dispositions and positive perceptions. The dominant positive appraisal Affect, a category under the subsystem attitude of the appraisal framework, refers to the feelings of people (Martin and Rose 2007) which vary in two general ways: Good or bad. Therefore affect is categorized as either positive or negative. The appraisal analyses of the answers by the pageant contestants, particularly affect, is 100 percent positive, which means that not one contestant expresses any negative feelings toward their objects of discussions. For instance, contestant number three appraises Davao City positively by using the word “beloved” to express her feelings of love for the city. This indicates the contestant’s happiness and satisfaction while living in the city. This happiness can be traced back to the recognition of the tribes by the city council, cementing their peaceful and happy coexistence in the city. Appraiser Appraised Affect Contestant 3 Davao City Beloved (+) Contestant number two, on the other hand, appraises herself by using the positive affects ‘honored’ and ‘dignified’. The word ‘honored’ is commonly used by speakers when they are given the chance to speak in special events, therefore it is expected that the term may come out in the answer. However, semantically, the second word “dignified” is erroneously used in the context — 37 — Tambara 35 (December 2018) to describe her feelings. Contextually, it is wrongly used in the answer to refer to her emotion towards herself. This may mean that the contestant is either confused on what to say along with the term ‘honored’ or lacks the ability in putting her ideas effectively in clauses. Appraiser Appraised Affect Contestant 2 I Honored (+) Dignified (+) Nevertheless, despite the obvious semantic error in the contestant’s answer, this did not hinder the contestant from winning the pageant. Grammar and meaning in Hiyas sa Kadayawan pageant is not entirely the bases for choosing the winner. Judges of pageants, like the Hiyas sa Kadayawan, may not be necessarily conscious of spotting grammar or meaning errors as long as the contestant can confidently deliver her answer in accordance to the judges’ expectations. The judges may have been considerate knowing that the candidates are representing the tribal minorities of the city. Although one criterion of the pageant is the candidates’ capacity to express themselves in English, what is more important is for them to share to everyone their culture and traditions. So, it seems tolerable for contestants to commit linguistic errors as shown precisely in declaring as winner contestant number two. Another category, judgment—the judging of people’s character—is also analyzed. Like affect, judgment is either negative or positive. If affect tends to be very personal, judgment on the other hand “differ between personal judgments of admiration or criticism and moral judgments of praise and condemnation” (Martin and Rose 2007, 32). Generally, the answers of the contestants are highly positive. First, moral judgments of praise are found in their answers. In the example below, contestant one positively appraises “maiden”—the projected image for her to discuss. Contestant one judges the maiden’s moral character as respectful. She mentions that the wearing of the traditional dress of the maiden shows her respect to the tribe. Also, contestant five appraises the — 38 — Java-Guinal – Hiyas sa Kadayawan, Beautiful English and Identities “Philippine eagle” as “honorable” while comparing it to the trait of her own Bagobo Klata tribe. More likely a human than animal trait, “honorable” is perhaps attributed to the eagle’s being highly monogamous. Appraiser Appraised Judgment Contestant 1 Maiden Respectful Contestant 5 Philippine Eagle/ Bagobo Klata Honorable Second, the contestants’ answers also show personal judgments of admiration. Contestant five continues to appraise the Philippine eagle and her tribe Bagobo Klata as “great and brave.” It is another effort from a member of a minority to advocate for recognition of her tribe. Appraiser Appraised Judgment Contestant 5 Philippine Eagle / Bagobo Klata Great, Brave Although some judgments in the answers of the contestants appear as initially negative, when analyzed more closely, these words entail positive meanings. Below are some of the examples. Appraiser Appraised Judgment Contestant 9 Culture and tradition Differences Contestant 10 Festival Diverse Cultural and heritage Diverse Contestant nine appraises “culture and tradition” by identifying them with “differences.” Contestant ten appraises “festival, culture and heritage” by judging them as “diverse.” Their literal meanings often have negative associations—say, conflict and misunderstanding. However, in the contexts of the contestants’ answers, these terms only describe what is obviously different and diverse. These implies that despite the obvious differences and diverse culture, they gather as one community to celebrate a festival where each one is recognized fairly and equally. — 39 — Tambara 35 (December 2018) Lastly, appreciation is the last type of attitude that shows values given to things. As with affect and judgments, appreciation can be positive or negative (Martin and Rose 2007, 37). In the Q and A, the contestants are shown images which they then describe. The appreciation of the contestants is generally positive. To illustrate, contestant one appraises “culture, leader and people” by describing culture as alive, the leader as good, and the people as young. She gives only positive values to the different aspects of the society based on one image. Appraiser Appraised Appreciation Contestant 1 Culture Alive Leader Good People Young Although appreciation in the answers are said to be generally positive, there is one instance when an image is valued negatively. However, the negative valuation is made inorder to highlight the positive side. The image of durian is negatively valued for its unpleasant physical appearance and smell. But, these are only used to highlight the positive and most important aspect of the fruit— its extraordinary and heavenly taste. As a whole, the valuation is still positive. Appraiser Appraised Appreciation Contestant eight Durian Looks like hell, smells like hell, tastes like heaven In sum, the appraisal of the attitude on the answers of the pageant contestants is highly positive. Not one among the ten contestants has negative affect, judgment and appreciation. The images shown to the contestants which are the bases of their discussions are emblems and landmarks of Davao City. This means that anything associated to and with Davao City is highly regarded by the contestants. All of these imply that a beauty pageant is one among the many stage productions that only values positive comments and ideas, so that negative — 40 — Java-Guinal – Hiyas sa Kadayawan, Beautiful English and Identities appraisal can cause defeat. This practice is reflective of the primary goal of stage shows—that is, to please the audience. Interestingly, the judges expect only positive answers from the contestants as well. Otherwise, they will rate the contestants’ answers unfavorably. This is a cycle that no contestant has dared to break for doing so surely guarantees not winning the coveted title. The Hiyas sa Kadayawan is a concrete example of this reality. The recurring of positive appraisals indicates that the contestants are not encouraged to become critical of the issues related to the image or question. They only have to adhere and conform to what the society dictates, so that they would have better chances of winning. Also, the positive appraisals reflect how members of the minorities are overly conscious of not offending anyone. Honesty about the issues related to the topics is barred inorder to avoid conflict. The positive appraisal could be part of the efforts of the different tribes in the city to continually coexist despite the difficult realities that they face. Patterning of answers The recurring sets of texts within the answers of the Hiyas sa Kadayawan pageant contestants create a cohering structure with obligatory and optional elements similar to Micheal Halliday and Ruqaiya Hassan’s (1985) Generic Structure Potential (GSP) of “service encounters.” The pattern below is inspired by GSP but does not take GSP as its entire basis since the pattern in ‘service encounters’ is entirely different from the patterns found in beauty pageants. Also, the bracket symbols are given distinct meanings by the researcher and do not follow the original symbols of GSP. However, the caret (^) symbol means the same, indicating sequence. (greeting)^[process{token}^(circumstance)^{value}]^{closing}^(greeting)^{gratitude} (optional)^[occurs {may occur}^(optional)^{may occur}]^{occurs}^(optional)^{occurs} ^ Indicates sequence ( ) Optional, may not be used by all contestants { } May occur yet may be replaced with other types [ ] Occurs yet may be replaced with other kinds — 41 — Tambara 35 (December 2018) The pattern identified above recurs generally in all the answers of the contestants. Pageant answers tend to begin with an optional greeting, employ an obligatory process which is commonly dominated by relational type thus ‘token-circumstance-value’ order may occur repeatedly within the answer. Then, the contestants close their answers with the obligatory closing clause, followed by an optional greeting and the obligatory gratitude. Other types of pageants with their different methods of Q and A may generate different structures as genres generally differ and vary. This pattern recurs in the answers of Hiyas sa Kadayawan pageant contestants. The answers of the contestants are merely repetitions despite the differences in the images shown to them. Their answers appear structurally the same and the contents are merely generalized, expanded descriptions. Further Implications Lack of critical thinking The pattern in the manner of answering by the contestants implies that each conforms to a culture of answering that has been practiced over the years and that no one has dared violate such a tradition. Likewise, the highly positive appraisal of attitudes is indicative of conformity. The positive appraisals satisfy and please everyone in the audience who witness the pageant including the judges. The contestants remain positive in responding to the images shown to them, which reflect their positive feelings, judgment and appreciation. Not one among the ten contestants expresses otherwise. Each contestant takes a safe choice of answering by avoiding critical answers, which involves discussions of negative realities. The evasion from discussing negative realities shows that answers in pageants are not well thought of, and are only lengthy sugarcoated clauses. There may be somehow reflections in their answers but such reflections always take the positive and safe choices. The contestants are seemingly afraid to be misjudged as partisans the moment they take critical sides of the image or issues related to the image. They seem to take the stance of ideal women— — 42 — Java-Guinal – Hiyas sa Kadayawan, Beautiful English and Identities beautiful inside through their kind and positive thoughts and beautiful outside through their lengthy, intelligent-sounding answers. Laura Lehmann, crowned as Miss World Philippines 2017 during an interview on the criticisms of beauty pageants says that “[i]t’s more of teaching women to be confident in themselves, and to have a mind, have a voice, to be confident to speak out what they really have to say.” This implies that contestants are encouraged to speak their thoughts and voices on certain issues raised to them during the Q and A. This means that there has to be a place for critical thinking in beauty pageants. David Willingham (2007, 8), a psychologist, argues that critical thinking is “seeing both sides of an issue, being open to new evidence that disconfirms your ideas, reasoning dispassionately, demanding that claims be backed by evidence, deducing and inferring conclusions from available facts, solving problems, and so forth.” Anchoring on this definition, the answers of the contestants do not display critical thinking. The contestants only see one side, which is the positive side of the objects presented to them. Based on the appraisal analyses of their answers, three out of ten contestants express affect by disclosing their feelings and emotions in their answers but none of the contestants have provided any evidence to support their claims. They merely play around with symbolisms to expound their answers. However, part of the reason for this lack of critical view of the contestants can be attributed to the fact that the images shown during the Q and A are Davao City’s landmarks representing its culture and heritage. So, it is highly expected that contestants tend to limit the content of their answers only with good, beautiful and positive ideas. Use of English Meanwhile, the contestants are expected to be able to translate their answers from their mother tongue into English. They must be able to express their thoughts effectively and beautifully in English so that the judges—who do not speak the contestant’s native language—will be able to understand — 43 — Tambara 35 (December 2018) them. However, this means that those who cannot speak effective and beautiful English would have the least chances of winning. In the Philippines, English is the language of prestige and social mobility (Tupas 2008) such that it dominates schools as a medium of instruction. When there were reports of deterioration in English competence, parents called for the renewal of teaching in English (Gonzales 2008, 22). Indeed, English is given more importance compared to other known languages across the country. Beauty pageants most particularly the Hiyas sa Kadayawan are no exception to this. In the latter, the contestants representing their tribes are made to prove their competence in the use of English as a medium of communication in the Q and A. They have to impress everyone, particularly the judges, with answers expressed in good English. Words have to be enunciated properly and sentences have to be grammatically correct. As such, contestants who can deliver responses and answers in English crafted more beautifully have greater chances of winning. Furthermore, the contestants’ answers must be captivating and convincing, that is, volume, speaking rate, pitch, as well as hesitations and pauses are applied to suggest confidence in their answers. These are the universal traditions of using English effectively and beautifully to which the contestants try to conform, albeit unsuccessfully. Conclusion The Functional Grammar analyses of the answers of the contestants show that qualifiers embedded in clauses which functions as post-modifiers dominate the nominal results. These qualifiers are the value generated in the token-value results of transitivity analysis. Token and value are subsumed under relational processes which overshadows other types of processes. Furthermore, a recurring expression in the closing clauses of the contestants is found when they say “Thank you.” The dominant phrasal and clause qualifiers in nominal are also the prevailing token-value relationship in relational process of transitivity analyses. Moreover, the appraisal of the contestants’ attitude in their answers reveals only positive attitude. The contestants give — 44 — Java-Guinal – Hiyas sa Kadayawan, Beautiful English and Identities only positive affect, judgment and appreciation of the images and symbols that are related to Davao City. Considering these results, one can argue that power is awarded to English as the contestants’ lingua franca. More power is bestowed upon contestants who could deliver responses and answers in English crafted more lengthily and therefore, beautifully. Answering in beautiful English is no way similar to answering critically. Ideally, effective and beautiful English must carry critical content. However, the latter seems neglected unintentionally in the pageants’ Q and A where thinking critically is not a requisite to win. Conformity becomes the trend. Conforming to what the society—audience, judges, and organizers—expects, to what the society thinks is good, ideal and beautiful, qualifies any contestant to win. Hence, the beautiful English controls the hegemony of pageants. Somehow the concept of Hiyas sa Kadayawan as a pageant aims to challenge the dominant “Christian” concept of beauty and to give recognition and appreciation for the unique identities of the Davao tribes and their women. Unfortunately, the pageant failed to achieve this goal especially when the contestants succumb to the notion that beautiful women must be articulate, speak only kind and positive thoughts, and use good English despite their limitations. The contestants in the end succumb to the existing standards of acceptance and respectability. They brave the standards of the hegemony in order to be recognized and “included” in the community. References ABS-CBN. 31 March 2014. How candidates of Bb. Pilipinas 2014 were judged. Accessed 13 November 2016, from http://news.abs-cbn.com/focus/03/31/14/how-candidates-bbpilipinas2014-were-judged. Baker, Paul. 2006. Using corpora in discourse analysis. London: Continuum. Biber, Douglas and Gray, Bethany. 2010. Challenging stereotypes about academic writing: Complexity, elaboration, explicitness. Journal of English for Academic Purposes Vol. 9 Issue 1: 2-20. Capistrano, Z. 30 July 2015. Hiyas ng Kadayawan is not a beauty contest – Davao councilor.” Davao Today. http://davaotoday.com/main/arts-culture/hiyas-ngkadayawan-is-not-a-beautycontest-davao-councilor/. — 45 — Tambara 35 (December 2018) Delfinado, Vianne. 2018. 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