Some Syntactic Innovations in New Literatures in English

International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 Some Syntactic Innovations in New Literatures in English Pairote Bennui Western Languages Program, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Thaksin University, PO Box 90000, Muang, Songkhla, Thailand Tel: 66-074-317-600 ext.1400 Received: June 20, 2013 doi:10.5296/ijl.v5i5.3875 E-mail: [email protected] Accepted: July 23, 2013 Published: October 28, 2013 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/ijl.v5i5.3875 Abstract New literatures in English mirror the identity of non-native writers who are eager to weave linguistic and thematic elements in English in divergence to the so-called Anglo English literature so that their nationality appearing in the characterization and various literary devices would contribute to the uniqueness of new varieties of English. This paper pays attention to an innovative facet of such linguistic components, particularly regarding syntax, which are manifested in the discipline of World Englishes. It aims to present particular types of syntactic innovations used in literary texts in English produced by Asian, African and Caribbean authors whose mother tongue is not English, through a range of previous studies. It appears that those authors mainly point out six types of syntactic creativity - literal translation, overgeneralization, omission, reduction, restructuring and progressive verb forms - to highlight their writings which reflect localization of the English language. Keywords: Syntactic innovations, New literatures in English, New varieties of English 208 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 1. Introduction Any verbal and written expressions in English by non-native users which infringe Standard English structure, namely native-English norm, are often considered as different notions – mistakes, errors, deviations, and non-Standard English. This statement seems to be true if the discipline of interlanguage studies, especially regarding error and contrastive analysis, is to be examined. However, if the World Englishes approach is taken for this judgment, such a statement needs to be revised. That is, non-Anglo speakers and writers aim to convey particular forms of deviations influenced by their vernacular features in order to manifest their local identity in English and to present their ability in creative nativization and linguistic innovation. In this regard, certain linguistic forms in English – pronunciation, words, sentences, and discourse styles – in spoken and written texts produced by non-native users which embody a range of variation from Standard English are to be examined by the concept of innovation. Linguistic innovation is a significant notion for constructing outstanding features of the English language in a non-Anglo context. It is defined by a number of prominent scholars of World Englishes. First of all, Kachru (1983: 45-46; 325) provides a distinction between the terms ‘mistake’ and ‘deviation’ to conceptualize the term ‘innovation’. A mistake seems not to be accepted by a native speaker because it violates the linguistic norm of the English language, it cannot be determined in relation to the socio-cultural context of a non-native variety, and it is not an outcome of the productive processes used in nativization of English. On the one hand, a deviation encompasses the following three characteristics: (i) the result of the new ‘un-English’ linguistic and cultural scenario where the English language is used, (ii) an effect of the productive processes that emphasize the typical variety-specific features, and (iii) a systematic element emerging within a variety, not an error. Hence, an innovation is an allowable deviation from the native English norms. In this respect, innovations are evident in the use of English in different channels – personal interactions, media, register ranges, and non-native English literature, etc. Kachru (1983: 46-47) provides four levels of examples of innovations in South Asian English and African English. Phonologically, there are substitution of the retroflex consonant series for the English alveolar series and the use of syllable-timed rhythm in place of the stress-timed rhythm of English. Grammatically, there appears to be using progressive verbs for static verbs like ‘I am hearing’, and forming interrogatives without changing the position of subject and auxiliary items (e.g., What you would like to eat?). Morphologically, there are caste mark, police wala, and bodom head, etc. Textually, different texts mark the distinctive stylistic feature of Nigerianness and Indianness. Similarly, Pandharipande (1987: 155-156) seems to accept Kachru’s (1983) concept of innovations. She divides deviation into two kinds – intentional and unintentional. The former is referred to the way non-native users consciously use deviation to serve as certain functions in nativized varieties of English. For instance, creative writers and journalists intend to use lexical, grammatical and stylistic deviant patterns as a linguistic tool to create an appropriate extra-linguistic effect on readers. This kind is called meaningful deviation or creativity or innovations. Meanwhile, the latter deviation emerges when non-native English users have neither control nor consciousness of linguistic structure in their ordinary speech. This kind is 209 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 considered a mistake. Different from Kachru (1983), she exemplifies innovations at only the syntactic and lexical levels. For instance, an Indian English writer namely Nassim Ezekiel makes stative verbs ‘progressive verbs’ for promoting Indian English in his writing – “You are all knowing, friends”. Meanwhile, Raja Rao uses the long embedded clauses and loan translation (e.g., temple courtyard and holy jug) in his novels. Likewise, Bamgbose (1998: 2-4) states that “an innovation is seen as an acceptable variant while an error is simply a mistake or uneducated usage. If innovations are seen as errors, a non-native variety can never receive any recognition.” This definition of an innovation is parallel to those given by Kachru (1983) and Pandharipande (1987). In other words, Bamgbose (1998) argues for an existence of an innovation as an emerging linguistic feature of new Englishes. He presents five internal measures of innovations to support the notion of linguistic innovations in World Englishes; these measures represent as factors for differentiating innovations from errors. Firstly, the demographic factor refers to numbers of users of new Englishes with regard to three levels of competence – basilectal (users of uneducated forms), mesolectal (users who mix non-standard and standard forms), and acrolectal (standard users) varieties. If certain grammatical forms in Nigerian English, for example, ‘I cannot be able to go’ and ‘You are suppose to know better’ are used by the greater number of users of the acrolectal variety, such forms will have the higher chance to be accepted as innovations. Secondly, the geographical factor involves the spread of an innovation. This can be seen in a country in which regional varieties of English based on different first-language varieties contribute to a construction of a national variety. For example, Indian English consists of Hindi English, Marathi English, Kashmiri English and Telugu English, etc. If an innovation from each regional variety has greater spread, it will have a higher acceptance as a standard form. Thirdly, the codification factor is related to the way an innovation enters a standardized written form – grammar books, lexis and pronunciation dictionaries or any type of reference manual. Once an innovation is incorporated into the dictionary as correct and acceptable usage, it will be recognized as a regular form. Fourthly, the authoritative factor concerns an acceptance of the use of an innovation by writers, teachers, media practitioners, examination bodies, publishing houses, and influential opinion leaders. Once an innovation has been used by a large number of those authorized persons, it will reach more recognition. Lastly, the acceptability factor is the final test of an approval of an innovation in relation to the normal processes of language change in a society. If an innovation is accepted by reputable authorities for use, it will be codified and become a part of a non-native variety of English. Kachru (1983) and Pandharipande (1987) are similar in that they point out linguistic characteristics of an innovation with reference to a non-native variety of English whereas Bamgbose (1998) goes beyond such features by imposing criteria for justifying the actual recognition of an innovation. However, the three scholars’ concepts meet at a description of lexical and grammatical features of an innovation as well as an acceptance of creative writing (or new literatures in English or non-native English literature) as a key source of an innovation. The two levels of linguistic innovations in literary texts produced by non-Anglo authors, especially those who use English as a first or second language, lead to a 210 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 concentration of this paper. Creative writers are likely to possess the creative license to use lexical and syntactic (or phonological and stylistic) innovations as a linguistic device to develop characters, themes, settings, as well as figurative language in order to interest the readers. Such a device is based on both natural speech in accordance with ordinary speakers’ everyday English use and fictional speech which increase the literary color and flavor. Nevertheless, this paper concentrates on a syntactic innovation, not a lexical one, because it emphasizes an interface between ‘informal or colloquial expressions’ and ‘standard English grammar’ embedded in dialogues and narratives in new literatures in English. That is, an appearance of those expressions in such literature results in more obvious form of language used for communication among the characters. In the meantime, a lexical innovation is also commonly used in this literature, but it is comprised of a few layers of structural connection for marking the colloquial expressions due to the limitation of linguistic units. In other words, such expressions are apparent in more syntactic innovations than lexical ones. As a result, this paper draws attention to the roles syntactic components of expressions in creative writing play for highlighting the construction of informal or colloquial utterances. It aims to explore certain types of syntactic innovations created by non-native literary writers of English in different regions of non-Anglophone culture – Asia, Africa and the Caribbean – through a variety of former studies and examples in order to portray a stylistic phenomenon in World Englishes. Before certain kinds of syntactic innovations in new literatures in English are revealed, the notion of ‘new literatures in English’ needs to be conceptualized. This term is sometimes called ‘new English literatures’. Both, however, are the same which refers to literary works written in English by authors of ex-British and American colonies. This literature emerges due to the settlement and spread of the English language from England to Third-World nations in which a historical, ethnic, religious, political, and linguistic composition has dissimilarities and is implanted by an Anglo-Saxon setting (Thumboo, 1990). This definition is relative to that of the terms ‘commonwealth literature’ and ‘post-colonial literature’. These two terms are indeed the same in that the former which was institutionalized in the 1960s was replaced by the latter that was pointed out in 1980s. The two provide stories on colonial and postcolonial ways of life and use English as a medium even though post-colonial literatures were also found in French. Similarly, new literatures in English also carry thematic aspects on the socio-cultural development of a new nation after the colonization. However, the use of the term ‘postcolonial literature’ is popular among British and American scholars while the term ‘new literatures in English’ is preferred in continental Europe. This difference does not display a clear-cut definition. In fact, historical and political parameters are the prominent factor constructed as the postcolonial theory used for studying ‘post-colonial literature’, so trends of studies for this literature lie in more literary criticism than stylistics (Skinner, 1998; King, 1980). On the other hand, new literatures in English seem to be used in the discipline of World Englishes in which literary and linguistic styles are created as a reflection of new varieties of English. For instance, Lowry (1992: 283) states that “the new English literatures are essentially a linguistic legacy of the British colonial period”. She also claims that traditionally students of English studies were confined to a study of native English literature and culture; however, literary and linguistic scholars discovered a new dimension of English 211 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 literature in its stylistic innovations in relation to their national culture and identity two decades ago. This is evident that the notion of new literatures in English is important in this paper. 2. Some Types of Syntactic Innovations in New Literatures in English Some types of syntactic innovations appear in different new varieties of English according to morphological and syntactic interfaces. Indeed, it was found from early studies that non-native writers of English principally utilize six types of grammatical innovations to increase the remarkableness of their literary works and to enrich their linguistic identity of new Englishes – literal translation, overgeneralization, omission, reduction, restructuring, and progressive verb forms. These types are to be enumerated below. 2.1 Literal Translation Literal translation is an effect of the writer’s L1 influence as found in phases, clauses and sentences directly translated into English. In this aspect, the writer’s translation of local idioms and proverbs in English is not included as these expressions contain underlying meaning and socio-cultural connotation. Therefore, this type focuses on only denotative sense of expressions used in the writer’s L1 conversation and everyday speech translated in English. First of all, Gabriel Okara’s the Voice (1964) provides three main aspects of literal translation in English from Yoruba as follows (Schmied, 1991: 125-126): (i) A frequent use of object-before-verb inversions, for instance, “So, in the end, Okolo said he must to his village return, if he could ” (p.90) and “But this time he would the masses ask and not Izongo and his Elders” (p.90); (ii) Pre-nominal positions of modifying phrases, for example, “a fear-and-surprised-mixed voice” (p.66); and (iii) An idiosyncratic clause-final be such as “I could have been a big rich man be” (p.105). Indeed, the correct translated sentences should be “he must return to his village”, “he would ask the masses”, “a fearful and surprising mixed voice”, and “I could have been a very rich man”. However, such refined expressions do not contribute to a portrayal of Nigerian English. Hence, Okara left the incorrect translated expressions to present Nigerian English grammar. Similarly, Amos Tutuola creates a formal translation from Yoruba in his novel Feather Woman of the Jungle (1962) such as “I wonder greatly”, “this night”, and “After I thought it over again my fear was expelled”. The first sentence is incomplete, and it is purely idiosyncratic because it is not the result of interference from Yuroba. Like the rest of the sentences, this sentence is also featured as Tutuola’s interlanguage (Banjo, 1996: 134). If Tutuola correctly translated those expressions as “I greatly wonder”, “tonight”, and “After I thought it was over again, my fear was expelled”, the readers would not be aware of Nigerian English grammar. In the same vein, Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God (1964) also portrays some English expressions literally translated from Yoruba such as “Ezeulu’s neighbor, Anosi, who was 212 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 passing by branched in…(p.44)”. Indeed, the expression ‘by branched’ should be referred to ‘called or stopped by’ (Bamiro, 1991: 13-14). Nevertheless, this correct expression was not used by Achebe who realizes the importance of Nigerian English. Similar to Nigerian English writing, the following Singaporean English poem in a Poet’s Corner section in The Sunday Times is influenced by the poet’s Chinese dialect structure: “Me no money Me no care Me go marry A millionaire” This poem is a direct translation via its rhyme and rhythm (Platt and Singh, 1984: 45). The poet intends to compose incorrect expressions for this verse. In other words, the correct expressions can be as follows: “I have no money Nobody cares about me I am going to get married To become a millionaire” The above modified version of the poem neither depicts the Chinese influence of Singapore English literary discourse nor catches the reader’s interest in language use, so the literal translation version implies more innovations. In the same token, the following extract from a Singapore English novel titled ‘Son of Singapore’ by Tan Kok Seng presents an outstanding syntactic innovation of the writer’s vernacular influence: “And turning to Ah Nam himself, she said, ‘Remember next time, little boy, have ears, but have no mouth. And don’t show heavenly courage. Understand?” The expression “little boys have ears but no mouth’ is a direct translation from Teochew, a major dialect of Singaporeans (Saravanan, 1979: 15). This novelist does not correctly use such an expression as “a little boy has ears but does not have his mouth” as it does not enhance the uniqueness of Singapore English grammar. Similarly, a prize-winning Hong Kong English poet named Arthur Leung Sai-cheung utilizes syntax of Cantonese, a main dialect of Hong Kong people, in the poem ‘What the Pig Mama Says’. The poet attempts to use English expressions that mimic Cantonese sentences or the so-called literal translation as seen in the following examples (Ho Yee Lin, 2010: 432): (i) ‘not took my boy’ (‘m ho law ngor gor jai’); (ii) ‘Mine only girl Yenyen too sad to see/her little brother went’ (‘ngo gor duk lui Yenyen ho m hoi sum kin dou kui sai lo jou’); and (iii) ‘They not understood’ (‘kui dei m ming’). This poet does not want to express those sentences in correct English which are not characteristic of Hong Kong English grammar which has been used by many local people. 213 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 Likewise, Indian English poems The Professor and Soap by Nissim Ezekiel contain some complex noun phrases which are translated from the poet’s L1 such as “opposite house’s backside” and “ordinary washing myself purposes”, respectively (Gargesh, 2006: 365). Those phrases are not found in British or American English and other non-native varieties of English, thus they seem to reflect a range of Indian English grammar. Similar to the above African and Asian writers, a Filipino poet Isabela Banzon Mooney directly translates particular expressions from Tagalog into English in the poem ‘DH Sunday, Hong Kong’ (2001) as follows (Tope, 2009: 273): [….] I also buy – but cheap only, hoy – Pasalubong for my family. I’m not ashame to be pinoy, I want so little to enjoy. (p.66) Banzon attempts to transliterate the sentence ‘I also buy – but cheap only, hoy’ from the Tagalog one, namely ‘Buminili rin ako, pero mumurahin lang’ in order to anchor this English to the syntax of Philippine languages, resulting in the remarkableness of Philippine English. Overall, direct translation used in Nigerian, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indian and Philippine English literatures presented here covers aspects of verbs, nouns, adverbs, phrases, clauses, and sentences in relation to word-ordering in Yoruba, Chinese Toechew and Cantonese, Hindi, and Tagalog sentence patterns. 2.2 Overgeneralization The issue ‘overgeneralization’ emerges when ESL/EFL users are more concerned with achieving communication than grammatical accuracy. This first strategy of simplified grammar features refers to an overuse of rules and exceptions of Standard English language forms such as countable and uncountable nouns, prepositions, word order, and subject-verb agreements (Wong, 1983: 127-131; Cesarano, 2000: 54-55). Salient examples are based on Malaysian English literature. In a short story Haunting the Tiger (1990), K.S. Maniam adds an inflection into an uncountable noun to form the plural or a ‘countable noun’ – “before we became peoples?” (p.8) (Sercombe, 1997: 73). This is convergent to what a famous Malaysian English writer Lloyd Fernando conveys in his 22 Malaysian Stories (1968) – “It had come to her ears, in hushed undertones, that her son was ‘a sort of Communist’. What a terrible knowledge that was!” (p. 25). The word ‘knowledge’ which is an uncountable noun is created as a countable noun (Wong and Yong, 1983: 9). Furthermore, in the story ‘Haunting the Tiger’, Maniam also creates an expression with a redundant preposition – ‘out of from the skin’ (p.2) (Sercombe, 1997: 74). Moreover, this writer’s The Return (1993) conveys the issue of word order – “Go quickly to bed. The Ayah is angry with you” (p.68). Note that the adverb ‘quickly’ should be placed at the beginning of a sentence or clause. Additionally, in his novel The Third Child (1981), this grammar point also appears as in the sentence “…That woman has really the magic to come all the way…” (p.163). The underlined form should be ‘really has’ with regard to Standard English 214 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 (Cesarano, 2000: 57). If Maniam and Fernando used the correct forms of English in those expressions, that is, “before we became people”, “terrible knowledge’ “out of the skin”, “Quickly go to bed”, and “That woman really has the magic…”, their linguistic structure would not represent Malaysian English. Likewise, the expression in Philippine English “Only I love you, I only love you, I love you only” is influenced by Tagalog structure in which words can be put in any order. However, this sentence causes a semantic variation in Standard English. This issue is in a story Dead Stars (1925) by Pazz-Marquez-Bernitez; the verb ‘live’ appears long before its subjects ‘loves’ as in the following (Cruz, 2002: 21-24): “An immense sadness as of loss invaded his spirit, a vast homesickness for some immutable refuge of the heart far away where faded gardens bloom again, and where live on in unchanging freshness, the dear, dead loves of vanished youth.” This incorrect word order is considered an innovation although it infringes Standard English structure. Similarly, an Indian English poet named Nissim Ezekiel provides the wrong word order in his poem, namely The Railway Clerk (1989) as in the following examples: “how long this can go on?” and “where you are going?” This shows that the poet intentionally uses the non-inversion of auxiliaries ‘can’ and ‘are’ in those interrogatives. This is unacceptable in Standard English interrogatives. Nonetheless, they are commonly used by Indian English speakers. As a result, when they appear in the poetic text, they function as a contribution to Indian English grammar (Pushpinder, 1994: 30). Another aspect of overgeneralization is the misuse of words in sentences. This is evident in the following extract from a Singapore English poem under the poetry ‘Void Decks and Other Empty Places’ (1996) by Collin Cheng: […] a Walkman built for two In this poetic text, the word ‘made’ must replace the word ‘built’ in Standard English and Standard Singapore English. However, the poet considers the importance of Singapore colloquial English in which the word ‘built’ is often used in this structure rather than the word ‘made’ (Talib, 2003: 151). This lexical misuse affects the morphological-grammatical component of such a Singapore English poem; however, this overgeneralization is regarded as an innovation. The use of this word seems not odd if it is compared to that in a Nigerian English novel The Brave African Huntress (1958) by Amos Tutuola in which a strange adverb ‘funningly’ is created. This is evident in the following extract: “…the mischievous Anjantala, when he breaks out of the rolling gourd, throws stones at the Huntress and the old man and laughs at them funningly”. This word is made from the rare intransitive verb ‘to fun’ which means ‘to act in fun; to make fun; joke; fool” (Collins, 1974: 165). This innovative adverb is not found in other varieties of English, thus it seems to stress Nigerian English grammar. In terms of verb-tense, a Caribbean English short story The Baker’s Story (1964) by V.S. Naipaul conveys an overuse of tense verbs in the following excerpt: 215 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 “Well, one day when I deliver some bread in this chale-au-pain to a family, there was a woman, … I say this in a sort of way that she wouldn’t know… The thing is, when you go in for a thing like that, … when they doing one little thing that they are bound to get catch. So, and I was surprise like hell, …” It appears that Naipaul uses present tense verbs where past tense verbs are required, that is, “I deliver some bread” and “I say this” – in place of past participles – “they are bound to get catch” and “I was surprise” (Wannasin, 2002: 45-46). These expressions should be refined as “I delivered some bread”, “I said this”, “they were bound”, and “I was surprised” if the writer points out Standard English verb-tense. However, he ignores this rule as he wants to accentuate the identity of the non-native English narrator in this story. Based on those studies in Malaysian, Philippine, Indian, Singapore, African and Caribbean English literatures, overgeneralization includes aspects in misuse and overuse of nouns, prepositions, verbs, adverbs and tenses constructed in speech patterns by the characters. 2.3 Omission Omission is another simplified grammar feature in which main components in sentences are absent such as the copula be, subject and object pronouns, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, determiners, infinitives, as well as marking of plural nouns and present-past tense verbs (subject-verb concord) (Wong, 1983: 131-134; Low & Brown, 2005: 90-107). Firstly, the verbs ‘is’ and ‘are’ are dropped in the following subsequent expressions from a Malaysian English short story Ibrahim Something by Lee Kok Liang – “Our friend Ibrahim, he ^ in bad mood today” and “Yes, you men ^ fortunate…” (Saravanan, 1979: 39-41). Likewise, a Singapore English novel ‘The Space of City Trees’ (2000) by Arthur Yap shows a lack of the copula – “2 mothers (are) in a hdb playground” (Talib, 1996, as cited in Talib, 2003: 150). In this regard, ‘expletives’ - the patterns of ‘there is/are’ and ‘it is’ - are also included in the missing copula. This is seen in Malaysian English colloquial expressions: “(There is) No need to trouble him now”, “(There are) Too many people in the room at that time”, and “(It is) Raining very heavily then” (Wong, 1983: 132). In literary texts, only the deletion of ‘there is/are’ is obvious in a Singapore English novel “Rice Bowl” (1984) by Su-Chen Christine Lim and “The Adventures of Holden Heng” (1986) by Robert Yeo respectively – “Then (there is) also corruption, people eat money” (p.172) and “Tonight (there are) only me and you” (p.32) (Wong, 1992: 253). These examples depict the way Malaysian and Singaporean people often drop the copula when using English. Secondly, a Singapore English play ‘Beauty World’ provides ‘null subjects’ or a sentence without subject pronouns such as “(You) cannot see we are busy” and “(She) just joined us today” (Low & Brown, 2005: 183). Furthermore, an object pronoun ‘it’ is deleted in a Malaysian English short story ‘Everything’s Arranged’ by Siew Yue Killingley – “She knows your writing and won’t open^” (Azirah, 2002: 86-87). Thirdly, the auxiliary ‘do’ in an interrogative is omitted in a Malaysian English novel The Return - “What (do) you want, Ayah” (p.33) (Cesarano, 2000: 58). Likewise, the modal ‘does’ is missing in the story ‘Everything’s Arranged’- “What (does) he say?” (Saravanan, 216 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 1979: 46). Similarly, this strategy appears in an Indian English poem The Patriot (1989) by Ezekiel (Gargesh, 2006: 366): “You want one glass lassi?” In fact, this question lacks the auxiliary ‘do’. This feature also partially emerges in a comic novel by Naipaul, The Mystic Masseur (1957), in which West Indian English dialect is syntactically and lexically used. For instance, the sentence ‘Why you want it for?’ shows that the writer omits the auxiliary ‘do’ but adds the preposition ‘for’ at the end of the question (Ramchand, 1969:1 as cited in Killam, 1976: 212-213). Likewise, Rushdies’ novel ‘The Satanic Verses’ (1988) conveys the structure of Babu English, a basilectal variety of Indian English through the expression “What you waiting? Some Goddess from heaven? Greta Garbo, Gracekali, who?” (p.25). The author deletes the auxiliary ‘are’ and the preposition ‘for’ here. Hence, the Standard English expression ‘What are you waiting for?’ is replaced by the Indian English syntax ‘What you waiting?’ (Langland, 1996: 20). These two examples imply that the auxiliary ‘are’ is deleted by both Naipaul and Rushdie. However, the preposition ‘for’ is inserted by the former but it is omitted by the latter. At this point, the absence of only a preposition is obvious in particular new literature in English. For instance, a Malaysian English short story The Man Who Ate Himself by Prabhaharan Rajendralack displays an omission of the preposition ‘on/upon’ in the sentence ‘she bestowed ^ him” (p.135) (Sercombe, 1997: 72-73). Fourthly, the deletion of determiners, infinitives and the morpheme ‘s’ for a plural noun are subsequently evident in an expression from a Nigerian English play The Road (1965) by Wole Soyingka – “I take (a/the/this) uniform (to) impress all future employer(s)” (p.152) (Cosser, 1991: 51-52). Besides, a proper determiner ‘any’ for the Nigerian English expression “other money” is dropped in Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952). Indeed, this noun phrase should be “any other currency” (Goke-Pariola, 1987: 131). In this regard, many writers of new Englishes ignore the use of articles. For instance, a famous Indian English author Salman Rushdie attempts to omit an article ‘a’ in his novel Midnight’s Children (1981) as in the following examples: “My number two cousin,” Lifafa Das says, “is ^ bone-setter” (p.83) and “I am ^ great actress” (p.235) (Gane, 1999: 132). Similarly, Trinbagonian English novels embody the missing articles. A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) by Naipaul contains two sentences with the deleted articles ‘a’ and ‘the’ respectively – “You have the money, you want to buy ^ house” (p.11) and “Mother and ^ biggest son on either side” (p.33). Likewise, The Lonely Londoners (1956) by Sam Selvon shows the omission of the article ‘the’ in the following expression – “…to tell ^ truth most of the felllers who coming now are real hustlers” (p.24) (Bamiro, 1997: 209). Finally, non-marking of past tense is found in Little Ironies – Stories of Singapore, “Last Saturday, Madam, no joking, on one day alone I make nearly one hundred and fifty dollars” (p.77). Moreover, the omission of verbs in the present tense for third person singular is seen in the novel Rice Bowl - “…If supervisor like you and you give him sex,…” (p.172) (Wong, 1992: 229-232). This grammatical style is inevitably used by an Afro-Jamaican English writer Patricia Powell in her novel Me Dying Trial (1993). The following instances indicate that she consciously creates her narrative without marking the past-simple tense: “…Gwennie hang onto the railing, her bag with the potato pudding she bake overnight clutch tight under her arm” (p.1). The verbs ‘hang’ and ‘bake’ here should be changed into ‘hung’ and ‘baked’. 217 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 This shows that the writer emphasizes the patois register of English used by the African-Jamaican protagonist (Mclaren, 2009: 105). In terms of non-marking of present-tense, this issue similarly emerges in a Pakistani English novel The Crow Eaters (1978) by Babsi Sidwa. This writing exhibits the way a character speaks colloquial English as a Pakistani speaker of English does. This is evident in the following: “...Water bite you? You sit, you drink tea-cup every two-two minutes. Mind, demon of laziness make your bottom fat…” (p.317) Indeed, the verbs ‘bite’ and ‘make’ are not marked by the present tense – ‘bites’ and ‘makes’. This omission is a genuine feature of Pakistani English as lower-class people in this country often drop the suffix ‘s’ for marking the tense while speaking in English (Rahman, 1990: 8) Overall, it seems that omission easily occurs in new literatures in English as it covers many grammatical aspects of spoken and written English by non-native users. That is to say, non-Anglo people often miss the main grammatical components of their expressions in English. 2.4 Reduction Reduction resembles omission as certain grammatical elements are missing for simplified expressions. Reduction requires more radical processes of simplification than omission. While omission is confined to a drop of main grammatical segments regarding ‘sentence types’, reduction involves the creation of a newer and much shorter sentence form in relation to ‘tense system’ with the existing meaning. This concept of reduction is illustrated in the following Malaysian English colloquial expressions which have reduced a more complex system of standard formal English into more simplified ones: (i) the use of question tags ‘isn’t it’ and ‘is it’ without much reference to the duality of the preceding sentence – “She used to live here, isn’t it?” and “You want a lift, is it?”; (ii) the simple uninfected form of the verb in the present perfect tense is replaced by the adverb ‘already’ – “My father already pass away” (My father has passed away); and (iii) the modal auxiliary system of standard formal English, namely ‘can’ and ‘must’, is reduced with different functions and a reversion of modality and subject in either interrogatives or affirmatives - “You can drive ah?” (Can you drive a car?) (ability), “Cannot be she sick all this time” (She cannot be sick all this time) (improbability), “Must be he miss the bus” (He must miss the bus) (necessity), and “Must show respect to our parents” (You have to show respect to our parents) (obligation) (Platt &Weber, 1980; De Silva, 1981, as cited in Wong, 1983: 135-138). The first and second angles of reduction are observed in Singapore English fiction. The use of ‘already’ as a completive aspect marker is seen in the novel Rice Bowl, for example, “See lah my belt so tight already…” (p. 177). Indeed, the underlined adverb is used to replace the full present perfect sentence “my belt has been so tight”. Furthermore, the Singapore and Malaysian English popular question tags ‘is it’ and ‘isn’t’ appear in the novels The Adventures of Holden Heng and Rice Bowl respectively - “William Holden is the actor, is it?” (p.6) and “If we want to help someone we have to start at the level of his needs first isn’t it?” 218 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 (p.33) (Wong, 1992: 234-239). Note that the form ‘is it?’ in the first sentence is reduced from the correct one ‘isn’t he?’ and the form ‘isn’t it?’ in the second sentence is reduced from ‘don’t we?’ Cesarano (2000: 61-64) found two areas of reduction in K.S. Maniam’s novels. Firstly, the present perfect is reduced into the present simple form but it is not replaced by the adverb ‘already’ such as “I notice you spend some time with Lee Shin,” he said (In A Far Country, p. 55). In fact, the verb ‘notice’ is reduced from ‘have noticed (that)’. Additionally, the auxiliary verbs ‘can’ and ‘must’ can be observed in the following dialogue from The Return: “I can go to prison again! Where’s that iron rod?” Ratnam bellowed. (p.72) “I’ve gone to jail for beating up a man. I can go again.” Ratnam threatened. The modal ‘can’ here conveys ‘willingness’ and the phrase ‘to prison’ is deleted. Another example derived from In A Far Country is shown below. “I don’t want to be involved,” I said, “but I’ve no choice.” “Yes, must oblige one’s superiors,” he said. (p.55) The modal ‘must’ here denotes ‘compulsion’ and the subject ‘you’ is dropped. Unlike Wong (1992) and Cesarano (2000), Platt and Singh (1984: 47-48) display a reduced form beyond the present perfect tense in a Singapore English poem Song of a Young Malaysian (1973) by Es Tiang Hong below. “Not say I don’t appreciate poetry But you speak of poetry which have no rhyme Not like the ones I sometimes quote…” The expression ‘Not say’ is a reduced form of “It’s not to say” due to a creative poetic strategy. This shows that an infinitive phrase ‘to say’ is dropped from the full sentence. Similarly, a short story ‘Everything’s Arranged’ carries instances of verbal phrase reduction in Malaysian English. In the sentence “This time you think you can write or not?”, the phrase ‘this time’ is reduced from ‘during this period of time’. Besides, the expression “If not, all the young people think of is girl friends, boy friends, what for?” shows that ‘what for’ is reduced from ‘what is the use of it?’ (Saravanan, 1979: 37-38). Throughout those studies, Singapore and Malaysian English literatures contain reduction in aspects of present perfect tense, question tags, auxiliary, and phrases. 2.5 Restructuring Restructuring, the final simplifying strategy, is used to change more complicated structures into easier ones. This alteration requires the substitution process; a new grammatical form with its remaining semantic element is created to replace a complex expression. An example of restructuring appears in an active sentence in colloquial Malaysian English - “You cut your hair, ah” – that is reorganized from its passive one “You had your hair cut?” Another lies in certain sentences in which indefinite subjects like “people, they, someone or everybody” play the vital role - “People say Malaysians very friendly” that is restructured from its Standard 219 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 English passive one “It is said that Malaysians are very friendly people”. The third aspect of restructuring is that a speaker/writer wants to stress the direct object, so it is placed at the beginning of the sentence and followed by its subject and main verb - “TV I don’t usually watch” (Wong, 1983: 142-147). Interestingly, the pre-posing of the direct object is also found in a Malaysian English play Ratnamuni by K.S. Maniam via the character Muniandy’s broken English – “... ‘Ma-la-ya’ I was hearing all the time. My son I have now” (p.1), “These two things (money and pride) he uses on the boy” (p.10), and “Who is this I want to discover” (p.14) (Cesarano, 2000: 66-67). These examples from a literary text pinpoint the objects as ‘the prime focus’ in Malaysian English expressions. Likewise, Gabriel Okara conveys word-order variation in English through the pattern of Object-Subject-Verb in a Nigerian English novel The Voice (1964) as in the following examples – “The old car, he sold” and “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire”. This is because he wants to restructure the English language in parallel with his vernacular, namely Ijo (Scott, 1990: 84). Only Malaysian and Nigerian English literatures convey the issue of restructuring; a few new literary writers of English point out this simplifying strategy. 2.6 Progressive Verb Forms The use of progressive verb forms in literary texts conveys the character’s continuous actions in past and present-time situations. ‘Past progressive form’ is evident in Amos Tutuola’s The Wanderer in the Bush of Ghosts – “he started to run as fast as he could along this road toward the enemies unnoticed and he was still looking at me as he was running away” (Collins, 1974: 163). The correct forms in this context should be ‘he still looked at me’ and ‘he ran away’ according to Standard English. Other examples are taken from his novel The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1953) as in the following: (i) This palm-wine tapster was tapping one hundred and fifty kegs of palm-wine every morning… after that he would go and tap another 75 kegs which I would be drinking till morning… (p.7); and (ii) So my friends were uncountable by that time and they were drinking palm-wine with me from morning till a late hour in the night… (p.2). The above past progressive is used in Yoruba for recording over-extended past activities which ended at the point of narration (Goke-Pariola, 1987: 130-132). Note that the right grammatical patterns of the two examples should be “This palm-wine tapster tapped… which I would drink…” and “…they drank palm-wine…” if the notion of new Englishes is not considered. Nevertheless, the writer intends to violate the standard rule of past continuous tense in order to actively depict the protagonists and situations. Similar to Nigerian English literature, a Trinbagonian novel A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) by V.S. Naipaul provides a sentence with a ‘past progressive’ verb – “I see that she was liking me too” (p.92) (Bamiro, 1997: 211). Moreover, ‘present progressive form’ is found as a South African Indian English dialect in a comic, post-modernist novel The Wedding (2001) by Imraan Coovadia – “And he is still wishing to marry me” and “Do not be forgetting us, eh” (Mesthrie, 2005: 322). This 220 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 form similarly arises in a Zimbabwean novel Harvest of Thorns (1989) by Shimmer Chinodya - “This woman is needing help, Bass” (p.30) and “I think he’s wanting to go to Border, Baas” (p.116) (Bamiro, 1997: 137). This pattern is the same in Indian English grammar as found in an Indian English novel Jasmine (1989) by Bharati Mukherjee. That is, the verb ‘want’ cannot be followed by the progressive form ‘ing’. However, this Indian writer breaks this rule as seen in the following expressions (Nelson, 1992: 273): “Masterji is wanting you to work in a bank. You can be steno… He is wanting you to learn more English and also shorthand. You are wanting position of steno in the State Bank?” (pp.50-51) Such a verb in the above sentences in Indian English and South African Indian English should be written as ‘wants’ but this correct verb does not exhibit local varieties of syntactic English. From these examples, such past and present progressive forms are caused by the writers’ L1 interference, and they should be used as ‘past and present simple forms’. However, the use of progressive forms has made more apparent depiction of the characterization in this literature than the use of simple forms. Throughout the studies, progressive verb forms are of two types – variation of past continuous tenses and invention of dynamic verbs from stative verbs. 3. Conclusion The above six types of syntactic innovations embedded in new literatures in English by multinational and multicultural writers represent a range of daily expressions used for communicative functions by speakers of English as a second language. These speakers aim to simplify with the basis of their first language interference what native English speakers have structured as the grammar rule of the language. This becomes an issue pointed out by those writers who are proud of their nativization of the English language rooted in their culture during the colonization so that their ideology and non-nativeness can be explicitly constructed in the postcolonial era. Indeed, some of the innovations found in this paper are merely examples with more types to be further explored. It could be said that such existing types yield what three key scholars namely Kachru (1983), Pandharipande (1987) and Bamgbose (1998) imply towards an extent of the linguistic innovation in World Englishes. According to Kachru (1983), such types can be considered as the outcome of an intercourse between English and a variety of indigenous languages which occurs as a typical linguistic feature of non-native speakers in their countries. In other words, those non-Anglo people usually use such syntactic innovation types whenever they communicate in English. Furthermore, two types exemplified by Kachru (1983) – the creation of stative verbs for their progressive function and the use of overgeneralization – are found in a number of new literatures in English in this paper. In relation to Pandharipande (1987), the six types are regarded as meaningful deviation because they are recreated as an extra-linguistic strategy to capture the local and international readership and to reinforce their indigenousness in English. Evidently, what this scholar provides to support her conceptualization appears in this paper, that is, the dynamic use of the stative verbs. With regard to Bamgbose (1998), the six types are partially convergent to the demographic factor of innovation. They are taken from 221 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2013, Vol. 5, No. 5 colloquial expressions or the basilectal variety of English used by a wide range of speakers. Moreover, those syntactic innovations found seem to fit the geographical parameter as they are characteristic of different regional varieties of English, for instance, Chinese Cantonese and Teocheow of Hong Kong English and Singapore English respectively as well as Yoruba and Ijo of Nigerian English. Additionally, such innovations receive a full recognition due to the evidence as the published literary works. 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A descriptive analysis of the varieties of Singapore English as recreated by Singapore writers of fiction (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database. (UMI No.747443091) Copyright Disclaimer Copyright reserved by the author(s). This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). 224 www.macrothink.org/ijl