PHLIN 1 Ra

ISSN 0048-3796
PHILIPPINE JOURNAL OF
LINGUISTICS
VOLUME 46 DECEMBER 2015

PUBLISHED BY THE LINGUISTIC SOCIETY OF THE PHILIPPINES
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PHILIPPINE JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS
Aims and Scope Board of Editorial Consultants
The Philippine Journal of Linguistics, the official Maria Lourdes S. Bautista

scholarly journal of the Linguistic Society of the De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines
Philippines, is an international peer-reviewed
journal of research in linguistics. Published once a Kingsley Bolton
year in December, it aims to serve as Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
a forum for original studies in descriptive,
comparative, historical, and areal linguistics. Maya Khemlani David
University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Although its primary interest is in linguistic theory,
it also publishes papers on the application of theory
Andy Kirkpatrick
to language teaching, sociolinguistics,
Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia
psycholinguistics, anthropological linguistics, and
the like. Papers on applied linguistics should, Hsiu-chuan Liao
however, be chiefly concerned with the principles National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
that underlie specific techniques rather than the
mechanical aspects of such techniques. Articles are Curtis McFarland
published in English, although papers written in Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
Filipino, the national language of the Philippines,
will occasionally appear. Since the Lingusitic Randy J. Lapolla
Society of the Philippines is composed of members Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
whose paramout interest is the Philippine
languages, papers on these and related languages Andrew Moody
are given priority in publication. This does not University of Macau, Macao SAR, China
mean, however, that the Journal will limit its scope
to the Austronesian language family. Studies on any Ricardo Ma. Nolasco
aspect of language structure are welcome. University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City
Issue Editors J. Stephen Quakenbush

SIL International
Alejandro S. Bernardo
Lawrence A. Reid
Judith Ma. Angelica S. Claustro
Marilu R. Madrunio University of Hawai’i, Honolulu
Veronico N. Tarrayo
Masayoshi Shibatani
Camilla J. Vizconde
Rice University, Texas, USA
University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
Copy Editor
Veronico N. Tarrayo
Philippine Journal of Linguistics
Volume 46
CONTENTS
ARTICLES PAGE
Linguistic Analysis of Trading Agreements: 1
Insights for Plain Writing in Philippine Contracts
Pia Patricia P. Tenedero
Morphological and Lexical Variations of Isnag, Isneg Yapayao, 14

and Itneg Tingguian as Spoken in Ilocos Norte
Agnes Catalan-Francisco
Modal Must in Philippine Editorials: A Corpus-based Study 39

Rodrigo Concepcion Morales
Linguistic Politeness of the World: Strategies Used by Organizers 50

of Youth International Conferences in Writing Rejection Letters
Kereen Ria C. Genteroy and Veronico N. Tarrayo
A Contrastive Rhetoric Analysis of Job Application Letters 68

in Philippine English and American English
John Paul O. Dela Rosa, Rachelle B. Lintao, and
Maria Grace D.Dela Cruz
Miete or Mitte? A Preliminary Study of Vowel Length Contrasts 89

in Filipino Learners of German as a Foreign Language
Frances Antoinette C. Cruz
Linguistic Analysis of Trading Agreements: Insights

for Plain Writing in Philippine Contracts

University of Santo Tomas
Manila, Philippines
Email: [email protected]
Abstract
A Philippine bill has been put forward with the view to simplify legal documents, a timely initiative in
the advent of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, which portends heightened importance of business
contracts. In consonance with the global effort to apply plain writing, this paper examines four linguistic features
of five online trading agreements. Using corpus stylistics and informed by principles of pragmatics and
readability, the analysis confirms that the examined trading agreements possess the traditional legal form
characterized by the use of impersonal noun references; modal verbs, particularly shall; legal archaisms; and
long sentences. While the Plain Writing for Public Service Act of 2013 is pending ratification, it appears that
stock broker companies in the Philippines have already begun with their efforts to simplify their consumer
contracts. Benchmarking on USA Plain English Laws, the study also proposes some guidelines to make trading
agreements objectively comprehensible to nonspecialist users.
Keywords: Plain writing, linguistic features of contracts
1. Introduction An online trading agreement is an example of a

legal document that is often described as complex and
The imminent implementation of the ASEAN unintelligible, particularly to a lay person with no formal
Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 presents potential training in the language of law (Holt & Johnson, 2010).
prospects for economic growth among its member The complexity of such a document is attributed to the
countries. To realize its vision of full integration into the linguistic features that characterize its form and
global economy, one of its priority initiatives is structure. Coulthard and Johnson (2010) listed 12
developing electronic transactions through e-ASEAN linguistic features of contracts, including binomial
(The ASEAN Secretariat, 2014). This report portends the expressions, cohesion, complex prepositions, impersonal
expansion of Information and Communication noun phrase, legal archaisms, modality, negation,
Technology (ICT) in relation to ASEAN market nominalization, passive constructions, sentence length,
integration, which broadly encompasses online trading in and specialized legal lexis. Tiersma (2012) identifies
securities, an investment activity that has been opened to these features as impediments to effective
the Philippine market, albeit less pervasive in communication of important legal and financial
comparison with the stock market activity of other information to nonexpert users or nonlawyers.
nations (Dayag, Lagamayo, Lim, Miranda, & Syson, To address this linguistic barrier, concerned
2014). Such projection suggests the increased legislators turn to the Plain English movement that
importance of online trading agreements as legal started in 1979 as an effort to minimize, if not remove,
financial contracts that legitimize trading of securities legalese and bureaucratic language (Stoop & Churr,
via the Internet by individual investors. Consequently, 2013). Leading this initiative, the United States of
making such contracts more reader-friendly to America has enacted the Plain Writing Act of 2010, also
consumers becomes an urgent matter compelling law known as United States Public Law 111-274, which
practitioners to apply standards of Plain English to cater mandates federal agencies to produce legal documents
to clients of different levels of literacy. that are “clear, concise, well-organized, and
1
follow other best practices appropriate to the subject or 1989, as cited in Pitler & Nenkova, 2008; Zakaluk &
field and intended audience” (U.S. Securities and Samuels, 1988 as cited in Rajapakse & Rameezdeen,
Exchange Commission, 2014, n.p.). This law has served 2007). Notwithstanding these restrictions, numerical
as the benchmark for other countries that likewise descriptions of text features provide an opportunity to
acknowledge the merits of using words economically to evaluate text comprehensibility in an objective manner.
communicate critical information. In New Zealand, In consonance with the prevailing effort to
companies that strictly adhere to Plain English standards simplify legal documents, this paper examines four
are recognized in the WriteMark Plain English Awards linguistic features of online trading agreements in the
(Dickens, 2014). Hong Kong, United Kingdom, and Philippines where, similar to Chauhaan’s (2013)
Australia have also come up with guidelines for creating observation in India, English appears to be the main
clear product disclosure and initiatives to enhance the language of law, particularly in written discourse even
general financial literacy of investors (Godwin, 2009). if it is “not the language of the common man” (p.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, Senator Grace Poe 333). Specifically, the study attempts to answer the
authored the Plain Writing for Public Service Act of following questions:
2013, a bill that is largely based on the U.S. Plain 1. What are the lexical and syntactic traits of the
Writing Act of 2010 in recognition of its benefits to the selected online trading agreements in terms of
public (Poe, 2013). While the bill is still pending impersonal references, modal verbs, legal
ratification, the Philippines is already recognized as one archaisms, and sentence length?
of the nearly 800 member countries of the Plain 2. What indications, if any, of plain writing
Language Association International, an organization that standards are manifested in the corpus?
actively endorses the use of plain language, particularly 3. What language guidelines can be recommended
in the context of legal discourse (Plain Language to make the contracts more comprehensible to
Association International, 2009). nonlawyer investors?
Assessing the readability of texts has been a
research interest since the 1920s when readability
formulas were first developed to quantify elements of 2. Method
writing such as average number of syllables in words
and average number of words in sentences to determine This study applied corpus stylistics in analyzing
how easily the text can be comprehended (Rajapakse & four linguistic features of five online securities trading
Rameezdeen, 2007). Advancement in computerized agreements. Corpus stylistics studies the relative
grammar and style-checking software programs and web frequency of particular linguistic items and uses
tools has helped popularize readability formulas, quantitative data to draw conclusions about the language
including Flesch Reading Ease Scores (FRES) and features that characterize a particular text type and the
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level; all of which measure possible influences on readers’ perceptions (Carter,
surface features of the text and typically assign school 2010; Craig, 2004). The linguistic features examined
grade level based on the perceived text difficulty. The were selected based on the framework of Coulthard and
Flesch benchmark considers ‘65’ as “the Plain English Johnson (2010). The original inventory of 12 linguistic
Score”; this means a text that can be comprehended by features was narrowed down to four—impersonal and
8th and 9th graders is the norm for plain writing standards personal references, modal verbs, legal archaisms, and
(Ross & Scott, 1996, as cited in Rajapakse & sentence length. These four surface features of contracts
Rameezdeen, 2007). However, a critical limitation of were selected on the basis of their quantifiability using
these formulas is their inability to account for qualitative word count tools that are readily accessible on the
considerations, such as the reader’s prior knowledge of Internet. As such, the procedure can easily be replicated
and interest in the subject matter of the material. as a simple test of readability, albeit nonconclusive. The
Researchers agree that these factors contribute decision to include three lexical features (pronoun use,
significantly to the assessment of the comprehensibility modality, legal archaisms) and one syntactic feature
of the text since the final assessment rests on the (sentence length) was also anchored on Pitler and
intended audience (Schriver, Nenkova’s (2008) assertion that combining lexical,
2
Table 1. Corpora source
Corpus Online Stock Broker Website

1 AB Capital Securities, Inc. http://www.abcapitalsecurities.com.ph/
2 Abacus Securities Corporation http://www.abacusonline.com.ph/
3 Accord Capital Equities Corporation http://www.philstocks.ph/
4 Col Financial (formerly CitiSecurities, Inc.) http://www.colfinancial.com/
5 First Metro Securities Brokerage Corporation http://www.firstmetrosec.com.ph/
syntactic, and discourse features strengthens the 3. Results and Discussion

predictability of how readable a given text is.
The chosen lexical and syntactic features were To address the research questions, the selected
quantified using www.wordcounttools.com, a web tool lexical and syntactic traits of the corpora are described.
that reports word count statistics, including average In general, the predominant styles noted indicate the
sentence length and keyword density of the top 500 initiative of stock broker companies in the country to
frequently used words in the corpus. Manual tagging and apply plain writing standards albeit the absence of a
the “Find” function of Microsoft Word were also used to Philippine law sanctioning its practice. Benchmarking on
determine the frequency of noun-phrase impersonal the identified PELs, the discussion also proposes some
references, legal archaic expressions, and the pronoun I guidelines to make legal documents, such as OSTA,
in the corpora. These supplementary methods were more easily comprehensible to nonspecialist users.
applied to address the limitation of the selected web tool,
which does not report frequency percentage of phrases 3.1 Lexical and Syntactic Features of OSTAs
and one-letter words.
The corpus for this research consisted of five 3.1.1 Terms of Reference
online securities trading agreements (OSTA), also
known as online trading service agreement, available Coulthard and Johnson (2010) explained that the
online through the official websites of online stock use of impersonal third-person references in legal
brokers in the Philippines. Table 1 provides the documents makes the message appear more general and
information about the corpora source. creates “social distance between sender and receiver”
There are 10 recognized online stock broker (p.11). As can be seen in Table 2, all the corpora used
companies in the Philippines (Canaoay, 2013). impersonal noun-phrase references, the most common of
However, only the five mentioned provide ready which is “this Agreement,” referring to the online
access to their OSTA; the other companies withhold securities trading agreement, used at least 12 times in
the said document to non-investors. each corpus. Another notable recurrence is the use of
The frequency data were then examined in light of “online trading facility” to refer to the service offered by
pragmatic considerations, such as levels of formality and the company. This phrase was evident in three out of
speech acts, to shed light on the functional significance of five corpora with nearly equivalent frequencies. It is also
the formal features of the corpora. To assess the indications observed that “the broker” is used alternately with an
of plain writing in the samples and to provide insights on acronym of the company name such as ASC, ACEC,
the possible contract drafting style guidelines, three Plain COL, and FMSBC. Hence, the nonuse of a company-
English Laws (PELs) in the United States of America were name acronym explains the extensive use of “the broker”
used as references, particularly the 1980 Connecticut Plain in the first corpus.
Language Law, the 1993 Pennsylvania Plain Language These observations suggest that the samples
Consumer Contract Act, and the 1998 Washington Plain generally adhere to the traditional legal standard for writing
English Handbook. contracts, which insists on the use of an objective,
impersonal, and detached tone, characteristic of formal
levels of communication. Perhaps, such a style more
3
Table 2. Impersonal references in selected online trading agreements
Noun Reference Corpus 1 Corpus 2 Corpus 3 Corpus 4 Corpus 5

Account Owner/s - 10 - - -
ASEC - - 64 - -
ASC - 168 - - -
Client - - - 84 -
COL - - - 94 -
FMSBC - - - - 6
Online Trading Facility 15 16 - - 15
the Broker 81 1 - - 4
the OSTA - - - 24 -
the Agreement 12 25 22 17 15
Trade Settlement Account - - - - 11
Online Trading Service - - - - 5
effectively sends the message that contracts are Tiersma (1999) and Zaharia (2009) cited
matters of high import. While this pragmatic function precision to rationalize the avoidance of pronoun use in
aptly justifies the use of impersonal references, such constructions. Also, not using pronouns gives the
repetition of these nouns or noun phrases within a document a more authoritative quality. While pronouns
sentence can make comprehension challenging for are helpful cohesive devices, they may be misused
nonlawyer users. Consider the given extracts: leading to ambiguous reference and sexist language. The
problem of vague reference is said to be especially true
ACEC may terminate my/our account for with the use of third-person personal pronouns (Zaharia,
violations of the Agreement of this 2009) such as he/she, it, its, they, them, their. These
Agreement, other Agreement as indicated in reasons support the continued use of impersonal
the Philstocks.ph Website, or any grounds references in contracts as noted in the corpora.
prescribed by the PSE, SEC or any applicable
law. (Extract from corpus 3) 3.1.2 Modality
The risk attendant to the use of the Online Modal verbs are another characteristic feature of
Trading Facility shall be for my account in contracts (Coulthard & Johnson, 2010; Stygall, 2010).
as much [sic] as the use of the Online The word-density figures shown in Table 3 confirm this
Trading Facility is electronically [sic] and as shall, may, and will are uniformly used in the five
system generated. (Extract from corpus 5) corpora. Shall is particularly used more frequently than
the other modal verbs with the exception of corpus 3,
where will reflects a higher frequency. The tendency to
Table 3. Modal verb use in selected online trading agreements
Modal verb Corpus 1 Corpus 2 Corpus 3 Corpus 4 Corpus 5

Shall 33 (0.9%) 88 (1.7%) 3 (0.1%) 58 (2.1%) 72 (1.3%)
May 16 (0.4%) 42 (0.8%) 20 (0.9%) 19 (0.7%) 42 (0.8%)
Will 32 (0t9%) 22 (0.4%) 40 (1.7%) 4 (0.1%) 37 (0.6%)
Can 5 (0.1%) 3 (0.0%) 1 (0.0%) - 4 (0.0%)
Must 5 (01% - 1 (0.0%) 2 (0.0%) -
4
favor the use of shall may be attributed to the force it there was a gradual shift from French and Latin to
gives a statement, which helps to emphasize the English. Accordingly, legal documents originally in
nature of contracts as binding legal agreements. French or Latin were translated into English. However,
Kakzhanova (2013) explained that while shall, when the lawyers and clerks could not find exact English
may, will, as well as must, are all categorized as “forcing equivalents for technical expressions, they resorted to
modals” or those that compel a person to realize an borrowing. This explains why, despite the abolition of
action, they vary in the force of their compulsion. Shall Law French and Law Latin in legal proceedings in 1731,
is considered most forceful as it suggests strong the influence of these two languages persisted in the
determination and obligation for an action to be done. It form of antiquated expressions in legal documents
is a language feature of directives, which are statements (Tiersma, 2012). Examples include archaic morphology
that leave the addressee no other option but to follow (e.g., sayeth, withnesseth), native expressions beginning
(Trosborg, 1991). with here and there (e.g., therein, hereunder, thereof,
thereto), and other verbs (e.g., darraign), nouns (e.g.,
3.1.3 Legal Archaisms surrejoinder), adjectives (e.g., aforesaid), and
prepositions (e.g., pursuant to, prior to, anterior to) that
In addition to avoidance of personal pronouns are considered legalisms or lawyerisms (Stanojevic,
and excessive use of shall, another distinctive style in 2011). To avoid linguistic lapses, lawyers and clerks
legal contracts is the preponderance of jargon and have opted to preserve such phrasing in legal documents,
technical terms. Included in this specialized language are which are subject to rigorous scrutiny. This practice,
archaisms, which are “upper-register language” that which originated in England, was subsequently adopted
originated from Law Latin and Law French as by the American legal system and its colonies (Tiersma,
exemplified by such words as de facto (meaning, “in 1999), including the Philippines. It is, therefore, not
fact”) and in casu (meaning, “in the present case”) surprising to find a number of archaisms in the examined
(Mattila, 2012). When the Anglo-Saxons rose to power, local corpora, as reflected in Table 4.
Table 4. Legal archaisms in selected online trading agreements
Archaism Corpus 1 Corpus 2 Corpus 3 Corpus 4 Corpus 5

foregoing 2 3 - 1 2
hereafter 2 2 1 - 2
hereby 9 27 1 13 14
herein 2 9 1 3 4
hereof 6 4 - - 3
hereto 1 1 - - -
hereunder - 4 - 1 1
hereunto - - - 1 -
prior to 5 2 4 2 6
pursuant to 1 4 - - 2
thereafter - 1 - - -
thereby 1 2 - 1 1
therein 1 1 - 1 2
thereof 2 15 2 4 5
thereon - 2 - 1 1
thereto 2 4 2 4 2
thereunder - 2 - - -
whereof - - - 1 -
5
As can be seen, the most commonly used and/or which ASC may directly or indirectly do
archaic expressions are the adverbs hereby and thereof, or cause to be done in accordance with the
used 64 and 28 times, respectively, across the five powers herein conferred all of which are hereby
corpora. Other common but less frequently used deemed ratified by me in all respects for this
expressions are herein, prior to, and thereto. A marked purpose. ASC shall be entitled to rely on any
contrast is observable between corpus 2 and 3 with the instruments, notices and communications which
former having the most number of archaisms (83 in it believes to have originated from me and I
total) and the latter, the least (11 in total). Tiersma shall be bound thereby.
(1999) contends that using archaic words, as in the case
of the corpora, does not contribute to the precision of the While all five corpora contain at least one
language of the contract. He further attributes the considerably long sentence, the given extract from
insistence of its use to monetary incentives on the part of corpus 2 stands out with 183 words. If the Flesch
lawyers, whose services are availed to assist in the standard, which gives a zero rating to a text that has an
interpretation of this specialized language. average of more than 37 words per sentence, is used to
assess the sample statement, the text is easily
3.1.4 Sentence Length categorized as postgraduate level or “very difficult to
read” (Ross & Scott, 1996, as cited in Rajapakse &
Moving beyond lexical features, Trosborg (1991) Rameezdeen, 2007). But considering the exact average
maintains that syntactic qualities of legal documents present sentence length ratings of the corpora shown in Table
considerable difficulties in comprehending legal English. 5, it may be assumed that all five corpora have
One fundamental syntactic feature is sentence length, which relatively acceptable readability levels, albeit varying
is easily associated with sentence complexity. In in degree of comprehensibility.
comparison with other technical writings, legal discourse is It appears that corpus 3, registering the smallest
notable for lengthy and complex sentence structures, such average sentence length, is the most readable sample in
as the extract below. the group. However, this case seems more an exception
rather than the norm as three other corpora show ratings
For the purpose of selling, buying or performing higher than 22 words per sentence. This noted trend
other acts as stated herein, I hereby irrevocably suggests that the examined legal documents generally
appoint and constitute ASC, its officers, subscribe to the traditional form of contracts, which are
employees or successors-in-interest and/or noted for protracted constructions.
assigns, as well as any sub-agent, broker,
attorney-in-fact it may appoint for that purpose, 3.2 Indications of Plain Writing
as my true and lawful attorney with full power
and authority to buy or sell, lend or borrow 3.2.1 Terms of Reference
securities, or otherwise act for any of my
account(s) whether carried individually or While the use of impersonal noun references is
jointly with others, to agree upon the price of rather expected in trading agreements, it is interesting to
said securities, execute bills of sale, receipts, find first and second personal pronouns in nearly all of
assignments of all my rights, title and interest to the corpora, with the exception of corpus 4. Table 6
the purchaser(s) thereof or such other shows that first-person plural pronouns (we, us, our) are
instruments in writing or documents as may be the most commonly used in all four corpora. This is
necessary and to deliver or accept delivery of followed by first-person singular pronouns (I, me, my,
the corresponding stock certificates myself), which are evident in three samples. Meanwhile,
Table 5. Average sentence length in selected online trading agreements
Average Sentence Corpus 1 Corpus 2 Corpus 3 Corpus 4 Corpus 5

Length 24.1 22.4 11 18.7 22.8
6
Table 6. Personal references in selected online trading agreements
Pronouns Corpus 1 Corpus 2 Corpus 3 Corpus 4 Corpus 5

I - 110 54 - 139
me - 43 19 - 60
my - 94 55 - 125
myself - 3 - - -
we 2 - 56 - -
us 3 5 20 - 3
our 5 2 52 - 4
you 98 - - - 120
your 74 - - - -
yours 1 - - - -
they 2 - 1 - -
them 1 2 - - -
their 7 4 - 2 5
it 9 19 2 4 20
its 16 33 10 16 2
the use of second-person pronouns (you, your, yours) The linguistic merits of using personal pronouns
is less frequent and is noted only in corpus 1 and 5. in contracts are also acknowledged by the 1980
Comparing the density and variety of personal Connecticut Plain Language Law, the 1993 Pennsylvania
references in the samples examined shows that corpus 5 Plain Language Consumer Contract Act, and the 1998
registers the most number of personal pronouns ranging Washington Plain English Handbook. The Connecticut
from first-person plural and singular to second-person statute stipulates that [contracts] “must use personal
references. Such lexical richness, which is apparent in pronouns, the actual or shortened names of the parties to
this corpus as far as terms of reference is concerned, the contract, or both, when referring to those parties”
seems unusual but implies an effort among stock broker (Stoop & Churr, 2013, p.538). Similarly, the
companies in the Philippines to produce more readable Pennsylvania Act specifies that, “when the contract
contracts that comply with Plain English standards. refers to the parties to the contract,” the reference should
To claim that the samples that used first and use “personal pronouns, the actual or shortened names of
second personal pronouns are more readable than those the parties, the terms ‘seller’ and ‘buyer’ or the terms
that did not is supported by the contention that pronoun ‘lender’ and ‘borrower’” (Grim, Biehn, & Tatcher, 2008,
use “is perceived as more desirable than the use of para. 6). These recommendations are justified
definite noun phrase” (Gordon et al., 1993; Krahmer comprehensively by the Office of Investor Education
& Theune, 2002, as cited in Pitler & Nenkova, 2008, p. and Assistance of the U.S. Securities and Exchange
188). Readability studies argue that using pronouns Commission (1998), stating that the use of personal
contributes to text coherence and facilitates the reader’s pronouns “dramatically improves” the clarity of the
prediction of idea connectedness (Elsner & Charniak, document, thereby, aiding in comprehension. Personal
2008; Nenkova & McKeown, 2003; Siddharthan, 2003, references clearly state the provisions that apply to the
as cited in Pitler & Nenkova, 2008). In effect, personal reader investor and to the stock broker company, allow
references in a traditionally complex formal document the company to converse with the reader in a more
make the text less intimidating. Conversely, using straightforward manner, and help keep sentences shorter.
multiple noun-phrase constructions “requires readers to Contrary to lawyers’ perception that pronouns tend to
remember more items” (Pitler & Nenkova, 2008, p. 190), cause ambiguous and sexist references, the Washington
thereby, making the text more challenging to read. handbook claims that using
7
this part of speech may, in fact, help avoid antiquated language:

abstractions through the use of concrete and familiar
vocabulary and prevent the “he or she” dilemma (3) The contract should not use technical
through the use of first- and second-person pronouns, legal terms, other than commonly
which are not gender-specific. understood legal terms, such as “mortgage,”
“warranty” and “security interest.”
3.2.2 Modality
(4) The contract should not use Latin and
On the matter of verb modality in contracts, the foreign words or any other word
PELs do not prescribe specific verbs for use in the terms whenever its use requires reliance upon an
of agreement. The general recommendation is simply to obsolete meaning. (n.p.)
use simple and active verb forms (Stoop & Churr, 2013).
Using this guideline as reference requires a close Based on the frequency data presented in
examination of the voice of the modal-verb phrases. A Table 4, Table 7 below shows the total number of
cursory review reveals the use of active voice in some legal archaisms noted in each corpus.
modal-verb constructions, as shown in the extracts. The minimal use of legal archaisms noted in
corpus 3 insinuates some awareness on the part of
You shall explicitly agree to be bound by the contract drafters of the need to use words that more
bylaws, constitution …. (Extract from corpus 1) people can easily understand. Meanwhile, the other
OSTAs need further effort to reduce legal archaisms
I may terminate my Online Account by…. in the contract phrasing.
(Extract from corpus 2)
3.2.4 Sentence Length
Client shall use COL’s service only in
accordance with…. (Extract from corpus 4) On the matter of sentence length, Stoop and
Churr (2013) mention two specific guidelines from the
I shall notify you within…. (Extract from Connecticut statute: “(a) the average number of words
corpus 5) per sentence must be fewer than 22; and (b) no sentence
in the contract may exceed 50 words” (p. 538).
These active form samples, however, do not Revisiting the values in Table 5 reveals that
signify the absence of passive constructions. Although corpus 1, 5, and 2 fail the first objective test. Having
not quantified in this research, passive modal-verb average sentence lengths of 24.1, 22.8, and 22.4,
phrases are also noted in the corpora, indicating only a respectively, they clearly exceed the prescribed 22-word
partial effort on the part of OSTA drafters to apply limit. Only corpus 3 and 4 satisfy the standard, with the
plain writing norms. former registering the most manageable sentence length
with an average of 11 words per sentence. As illustrated
3.2.3 Legal Archaisms by corpus 3, it is feasible for OSTAs to present terms of
agreement in shorter, easier-to-comprehend sentences.
To address the problem of ambiguity because The second guideline requires a more
of the use of archaic expressions, the Connecticut PEL comprehensive sentence-level scrutiny of the text to
advises the use of “everyday words.” Likewise, the ensure that every statement contains less than 50
Pennsylvania PEL provides two specific guidelines to words. Using the Word Count function in Microsoft
encourage the use of more familiar as opposed to Word, a cursory review of the samples shows that all
Table 7. Total legal archaisms in selected online trading agreements
Corpus 1 Corpus 2 Corpus 3 Corpus 4 Corpus 5

34 83 11 33 45
8
five corpora contain at least one sentence violating the 3.3.2 Modality
50-word limit. Hence, there is less evident indication
of plain-writing initiative in this aspect of contract While the active form is applicable in modal-
sentence construction. verb constructions, the PELs’ recommendation to “use
simple verbs” appears challenging because the
3.3 Suggested Plain English Guidelines multimodality of the commonly used verbs shall and
will may make the verbs more complex than simple.
3.3.1 Terms of Reference Consider the given extracts:
Benchmarking on the American statutes, I hereby agree that this Agreement and all
Philippine OSTAs may benefit from more extensive use of the terms thereof shall be binding upon
personal pronouns. Doing so may help make the contract my heirs, executors, administrators,
more reader-friendly and help avoid needless repetition of personal representatives and assigns.
impersonal noun references, which can also be addressed (Extract from corpus 2)
by using synonyms. Applying these recommendations may All the terms thereof will be binding upon
yield clearer revisions, as follows: my/our heirs, executors, administrators,
personal representatives and assigns.
ACEC may terminate my/our account for (Extract from corpus 3)
violations of this Agreement and other
legal arrangements as indicated in the The extracts show different ways of stating the
Philstocks.ph Website, or any grounds contract clause for succession in case of the account
prescribed by the PSE, SEC or any owner’s death. It is evident that corpus 3 used will
applicable law. (Revision of extract from whereas corpus 2, as well as the other corpora, used
corpus 3) shall. Perhaps, the intent behind this lexical deviation is
to simplify the language of the contract. However, some
The risk attendant to the use of the Online readers may associate futurity rather than modality with
Trading Facility shall be for my account the use of will. If thus construed, the action implies a
inasmuch as its use is electronic and temporal rather than directive force; that is, the provision
system-generated. (Revision of extract is understood to be a consequential action that
from corpus 5) automatically transpires rather than one that is
consciously followed by the investor. This illustration
On the related matter of point of view or the supports Kakzhanova’s (2013) assertion that using either
perspective used in presenting the provisions of the shall or will may potentially confuse readers since these
contract, corpus 2, 3, and 5 used first-person verbs could serve as “pure indicators of tense, pure
references (I, me, my, we) while corpus 1 opted for the indicators of modality, or both at once” (p. 2534). Reid
second-person perspective (you, your). As to which (2015) also observes this inconsistency in the
point of view is more effective depends largely on the designation of words of obligation and further suggests
desired tone. Using the first-person point of view caution in the use of shall.
makes the contract more personalized, emphasizing To avoid this confusion, Tiersma’s (1999)
the active accountability of the investor for entering suggestion to use must or is (be verb) in place of shall
the said agreement. In contrast, the second-person may be considered. Unlike shall, the modality of must
view underscores the imperative nature of the is more definitive, expressing purely obligation or
contract. Stock broker companies may decide between necessity. While Trosborg (1991) observed that must
the two options and apply the corresponding point of is notably absent or rare in legal texts, it remains an
view consistently in the contract. alternative for more lucid contracts. In some cases, the
modals and be verbs may even be omitted as the main
verb seems to already capture the essence of the
specified action. In any case, the assertion
9
of the obligation to strictly abide by all the terms of

agreement is already stated in the introduction (also Extract Revision
It is hereby further agreed It is further agreed that the
called commencement) and reiterated in the closing that the terms and conditions terms and conditions printed
section (also called testimonium) of the contracts. If the printed on this Agreement on this Agreement form part
suggested verb modifications are applied, statements form part thereof as fully as of it as fully as if they were
if they were stated at length stated at length over your
become shorter, more direct, and clearer, as illustrated: over your signature(s) hereto signature(s) affixed to this
affixed and they are therefore document and they are
All the terms thereof are binding upon unconditionally agreed to. therefore unconditionally
my/our heirs, executors, administrators, (Extract from corpus 1) agreed to.
personal representatives and assigns.
(Revision of extract from corpus 3)
3.3.4 Sentence Length
Using more precise modal verbs or avoiding
them altogether helps satisfy the given guideline. The guidelines stipulated in the Connecticut
Anchoring on the PELs, the comprehensibility of the PEL may serve as a helpful objective benchmark to
examined contracts may be enhanced through a provide concrete controls in the length of sentences in
careful review of the documents’ modality and contracts. This will evidently require rewriting
subsequent revisions guided by the pragmatic function statements for conciseness. While such a revision may
of modal verbs. result in longer documents because of the necessity to
cover all legal considerations, it will ultimately serve
3.3.3 Legal Archaisms the purpose of contracts, which is for the parties to the
agreement to have a common understanding of the
The suggested remedy to the vagueness of terms of the contract. Without such “meeting of the
archaisms is the substitution of shorter, more common minds,” the courts reserve the right to render such
words. The replacements listed below are based on the contract “unconscionable” or invalid (Scheibal, 1986,
suggestions of Stanojevic (2011) and Zaharia (2009), p. 59).
and definitions from the 2014 Merriam-Webster In brief, this study suggests the use of first and
second personal pronouns, must instead of will or shall
Dictionary.
to express obligation, shorter and more common words
in place of legal archaisms, and an average of 22 words
Archaism Replacement Archaism Replacement
foregoing previous pursuant to under/ in per sentence. Aside from the USA PELs that originated
accordance these guidelines, the test of plain English in Canada
with conducted by Masson and Waldron (1994, as cited in
hereafter after/ afterwards thereafter afterwards Cambell, 1999) and a similar comprehension study in
hereby here/ (omit the thereby so/ thus New Zealand by Cambell (1999) provide empirical
word) evidence that applying these plain-language conventions
herein here/ in this therein there make the documents more comprehensible. Proof of this
Agreement is the number of “propositions or idea units correctly
hereof of this thereof of that/ of it recalled and paraphrased” by nonlawyer readers (p. 340).
hereto to this document thereon on that The author has not encountered research disproving
hereunder here/ under that thereto to that/ to it these findings, although some studies question if simply
hereunto to this thereunder under that
following these prescriptions already satisfies the
requirement for plain English writing (Candlin, Bahtia,
prior to before whereof with/ by which
& Jensen, 2002; Loughran
When these replacements are applied, the & McDonald, 2014; Scheibal, 1986). Whether it is
resultant statements may appear less intimidating to better to give general or specific guidelines for PELs
nonspecialist readers of the contract, as illustrated: remains debatable and is perhaps a matter for the
better judgment of state legislators.
10
Clearly, terms of reference, modality, legal necessary legal content requires testing. The results of
archaisms, and sentence length are only a few of the such an examination may inform the Philippine’s
readability measures considered in assessing the position on the issue of specific versus general statutes
comprehensibility of contracts to potential investors with for the application of plain English. Another related
limited knowledge of legal language. While not all- issue is concerned with how compliance with the PEL
inclusive, the analysis provides insight into the current will be ensured. Who will be responsible for checking
status of Philippine contracts, particularly OSTAs, and that all legal contracts follow the policy stipulations?
possible directions for the implementation of plain What sanctions will be served for noncompliance? These
writing standards in the country. questions must be considered in drafting the
implementing rules and regulations of the Philippine bill.
While the present study offers some preliminary
4. Conclusion and Recommendations conclusions regarding the use of plain English in
contracts, other important limitations are evident. The
Overall, the study confirmed that the examined prescriptive approach is easily subject to questions of
trading agreements possess traditional legal form practicality, generalizability, and effectiveness. Is it
characterized by the use of impersonal noun references; necessary and feasible to rewrite all OSTAs to apply the
modal verbs, particularly shall; legal archaisms; and long given guidelines? Are these suggestions acceptable to all
sentences. While the Plain Writing for Public Service legal and nonlegal stakeholders? Will these revisions in
Act of 2013 is pending ratification, it appears that some the OSTAs guarantee easier understanding of the legal
stock broker companies in the Philippines have already documents by Filipino nonlawyers? These questions,
begun with their efforts to simplify their consumer which are beyond the scope of this research, are
contracts. This initiative is evidenced by the use of first- opportunities for further investigation.
and second-person pronouns, the use of active voice in In addition, the findings of this study may be
modal-verb phrases, the minimal use of legal archaisms, further enriched by a stylistic and descriptive evaluation
and the ideal average sentence length of 11 words. of other lexical and syntactic features of contracts,
Benchmarking on the related stipulations in the including word lists, prepositional phrases, negation,
Connecticut and Pennsylvania PELs and the U.S. nominalization, passive constructions, and clause
Securities and Exchange Commission Plain English embeddings. To account for the aspects of readability
Handbook, the following guidelines are, thus, that cannot be measured mathematically, qualitative
recommended as measurable bases for plain writing in assessments of the readability of OSTAs through focus
Philippine contracts: group testing can be done. This approach can help
explore the nonquantifiable factors that determine the
1. Use first and second personal pronouns and readability of a document such as reader vocabulary,
the shortened names of the parties to the level of interest, and prior knowledge.
contract when referring to those parties.
2. Use must to express obligation. An alternative
is to remove the modal verb and use a be verb References
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4. Limit the average sentence length to 22 Cambell, N. (1999). How New Zealand customers
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Acknowledgments: The author wishes to thank Prof.

Marilu R. Madrunio, Ph.D. and the anonymous peer
reviewers of PJL for their informative and constructive
comments that substantially helped in the development
of this article.
13
Morphological and Lexical Variations of Isnag, Isneg Yapayao, and Itneg

Tingguian as Spoken in Ilocos Norte
Cavite State University
Indang, Cavite, Philippines
Abstract
This study looked into the morphological and lexical variations of Isnag, Isneg Yapayao, and Itneg
Tingguian as spoken in Ilocos Norte in terms of nouns, pronouns and deixis, verbs, adjectives, and negation and
interrogatives. These three language varieties that coexist with Ilocano, the lingua franca of Ilocos regions, are
spoken in ten municipalities in Ilocos Norte, particularly in three major areas where indigenous communities are
located, namely, Carasi, Dumalneg, and Nueva Era. Such an analysis was done to initially describe the
morphological and lexical variations of languages spoken by the three groups of indigenous people (IP) of Ilocos
Norte, and to help provide the Province, particularly the National Commission on Indigenous People-Ilocos
Norte Provincial Office (NCIP-INPO), a reference material for future studies on the linguistic profile of the IP.
Data were gathered through a 158-item lexical test among 90 participants, with 30 each from the three IP groups.
Responses were analyzed following Dita’s (2011) structural analysis of Ibanag nominal markers and Ruffolo’s
(2004) morphophonemic analysis of Ibaloy. Based on the morphological and lexical analysis made, reduplication
pattern (CV and CVC) is commonly used to denote plurality of nouns across the three language varieties. While
ISA uses daya as a plural marker, ITE uses adu a and dia. While ISA and ISE are lexically different from each
other in terms of the use of gender-specific nouns, ITE is lexically closer to Ilocano. All personal pronouns
across the three languages differ. While ITE possessives follow the same morphological process as ISE, the latter
was found to be somewhat similar with Ilocano possessives. All of the deictic demonstratives were encoded
entirely differently across the three languages. ISA, ISE, and ITE inflect their lexical verbs by reduplication,
phonemic substitution, and affixation. The three language varieties have monomorphemic as well as derived
adjectives just like their Ilocano counterparts. Most quantification terms and interrogatives were found to be
varied across the three languages. Among the language varieties, ISA was found to be morphologically and
lexically different from ISE and ITE.
Keywords: Morphological features, lexical variations, Philippine language
1. Introduction varieties, namely, Itneg Tingguian, Isneg Yapayao, and

Isnag. As per 2012 IP community census, a total
In the Philippines where there are 192 living population of 10,609 Itneg tribe members, including
languages, which make up 2.70 percent of the 1,221 leaders and/or elders, was noted (National Commission
living Austronesian languages in the world, 181 are on Indigenous Peoples-Ilocos Norte Provincial Office,
classified as indigenous, and 11 immigrant (Ethnologue 2013). Some of them are legitimate residents of the
– Languages of the World, 2012). Northern Philippines, municipalities of Bangui, Dingras, Marcos, Pagudpud,
particularly the Ilocos regions, has its regional lingua Solsona, Vintar, Carasi, Dumalneg, Adams, and Nueva
franca, which is Ilocano, and a number of minority Era (The Tingguian Ethno-history, 2012; NCIP-INPO,
languages worth-documenting. Such minority languages 2013). Although articles have been published locally and
include the Itneg language, which, according to De los nationally on the sociolinguistic mapping of these
Reyes and De los Reyes (1987), is spoken by the Itneg indigenous groups, an initial morphological and lexical
people who reside in Luzon. Based on different accounts description of the aforementioned language varieties is
on Itneg as an indigenous group in Ilocos Norte, it can be essential to the NCIP-INPO and the province of Ilocos
inferred that Itneg people speak three language Norte as a whole for profiling and documentation
14
purposes. The findings of this study, therefore, could themes, or locatives in a sentence. Ruffolo (2004), on the
serve as a springboard to further documentation of other hand, described selected aspects of the grammar of
these indigenous communities in Ilocos Norte and to Ibaloy, a member of the Northern Philippines subgroup
map out their language profile. of Austronesian languages spoken on the island of Luzon
in the Philippines. In her study, the phonological and
1.1 Review of Related Literature morphological processes involved in Ibaloy were given
attention. Based on the results, it was found that several
In northern Philippines, several ethnolinguistic morpho-phonemic processes apply to words when they
groups have inhabited the Cordillera region for more take part in particular word-derivational processes.
than five centuries. They have developed independent Ibaloy has an elaborate derivational system. Nouns
communities, which are politically and economically typically occur underived as monomorphemic words.
autonomous from each other (Prill-Brett, 2007). These Verbs are typically derived with a system of affixes.
major ethnolinguistic groups are distinguished as Isneg Different categories of verbs and nouns are identified on
and/or Isnag of Apayao, Itneg Tingguian of Abra and morpho-syntactic criteria. Using Ruffolo’s approach to
Ilocos Sur, Kalinga, Bontok, Ifugao, Kankana-ey, and describing the Ibaloy language in terms of its morpho-
Ibaloy. However, the Itneg Tingguian, Isneg Yapayao, phonemic features and incorporating Dita’s (2011)
and Isnag in Ilocos Norte have not been included in the lexical description of Ibanag, the present study focused
list of major ethnolinguistic groups in Northern only on the major processes involved in the
Philippines as seen in Figure 1. morphological and lexical features of Itneg, Isneg, and
As reflected in the ethnolinguistic map of Isnag, and eventually compared these features from one
Northern Philippines, indigenous communities can be language to another.
found within the borders of Kalinga (Isnag), Apayao
(Isnag), Abra (Itneg), and Ilocos Sur (Inlaod Itneg).
However, based on the map, Isneg Yapayao, the
language spoken by those IP in Dumalneg, is not among
those language families in Northern Luzon. It is clear,
therefore, that not all indigenous communities speaking
minority languages located in Ilocos Norte have been
recognized by Ethnologue (2012). In the accounts of
Valera (2010), out of approximately 12 million
indigenous Filipino citizens, a little more than one
million of them and a total of 110 ethnolinguistic groups
including the Isneg Yapayao, the Itneg Tingguian, and
the Isnag, are located in the Ilocos region. This puts the
three IP communities out of record, which eventually led
the present study to investigate their language focusing
primarily on its morphological and lexical properties.
In the study of Dita (2011) on the morphological
characteristics of nouns in Ibanag, it was found that nouns
contain various derivational affixes. The derived nouns
consist of the following: abstract, locative, comitative,
reciprocal, ownership, origin, instigator, and designation.
Morphosyntactically, nouns in Ibanag refer to names of
persons, places, animals, things, events, or ideas, which can
be pluralized through reduplication process or through the
particle ira. It was also found that these items can be
prefixed, suffixed, circumfixed, or infixed to form other Figure 1. The ethnolinguistic map of Northern
categories of nouns that can function as agents, patients, Philippines (Ethnologue, 2012)
15
1.2 Statement of the Problem participants, responses were subjected to analysis. At

least two raters or evaluators were identified from
This study was conducted to describe the each tribe through the help of NCIP-INPO for the
morphological and lexical variations of Isnag, Isneg validation of the responses.
Yapayao, and Itneg Tingguian in terms of:
1.2.1 Nouns 2.2 Sources of Data
1.2.2 Pronouns and Deixis
1.2.3 Verbs To establish ease of access to the target
1.2.4 Adjectives participants, the NCIP-INPO identified respective tribe
1.2.5 Negation and Interrogatives leaders and council of elders from each group who served
as the preliminary source of data for the semi-structured
1.3 Framework for Analysis interviews and initial surveys. However, members of each
tribe of different age groups regardless of title or position in
Since the researcher’s primary aim is to look the tribe were purposively identified as participants in the
into the morphological and lexical variations of the lexical test. Hence, the participants from each of the three
three language varities as spoken in the province of IP communities were chosen based on three age groups: (1)
Ilocos Norte, only the major processes involved in the Young-aged group (30 years old and below), (2) Middle-
morphological and lexical features of the language aged group (31-59 years old), and
were described using, in part, Dita’s (2011) structural (3) Old-aged group (60 years old and above). Such age
analysis of Ibanag nominals and Ruffolo’s (2004) grouping was done to achieve a full representation of the
lexical description of Ibaloy as framework. However, tribe members and to have a comparison of the responses
only grammatical items such as nouns, pronouns and across generations. At the initial stage of the study, it
deixis, verbs, adjectives, negation, and interrogatives was decided upon by the researcher that each age group
were included for analysis. This limitation aims to should be composed of ten (10) representatives, or a total
provide initial data for further description of the three of 30 participants from each of the three research sites,
language varieties in question. thereby, having a total of 90 respondents. However,
because of nonavailability of demographic details of the
tribe members, adjustments in the number of respondents
2. Method for each age group were made (see Table 1).
The lexical test is designed in such a way that the
2.1 Research Design Tagalog/Filipino and Ilocano versions of the wordlist are
given. Items included in the test on nouns were those basic
The quantitative-qualitative approach was sight words, as well as flora and fauna present in the
utilized in this study. Through a pilot-tested 158-item research communities such as dahon (leaf), ilog (river),
lexical test (see Appendix A) focusing on nouns, kalabaw (carabao), kamote (sweet potatoes), among others.
pronouns and deixis, verbs, adjectives, negation, and Thirty (30) items were given in this particular portion of the
interrogatives, and informal interview with the lexical test, focusing on the singular and
Table 1. Distribution of participants per IP community
AGE GROUP
IP
Young-aged (30 years Midde-aged (31- Old-aged (60 years
COMMUNITY TOTAL
and below) 59 years) and above)
Isnag 16 12 2 30
Isneg Yapayao 7 18 5 30
Itneg Tingguian 12 14 4 30
TOTAL 35 44 11 90
16
plural forms of the items given. This was followed by items 2.3 Data-gathering Procedure
focusing on the gender of nouns (16), body parts (16),
reciprocal nouns (5), comitative nouns (5), instigator nouns Indigenous Peoples or Indigenous Cultural
(5), and locative verb + -an nouns (5), for a total of 82 Communities, such as those situated in Ilocos Norte, are
items. The rest of the items were on pronouns and deixis, governed by the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA)
verbs, adjectives, negation, and interrogatives. All recognizing the fact that these communities have developed
respondents from each tribe took the lexical test in written independent communities, which are politically and
form where they were expected to give the ISA, ISE, or ITE economically autonomous from each other (Prill-Brett,
equivalents of the listed words. Two raters from each tribe 2007). Previsit and ocular inspection of the research sites
were then tapped for the validation of the responses. were done upon issuance of the Free, Prior,
Table 2. Number of nouns in Isnag
TAGALOG (TAG) ILOCANO (ILO) ISNAG (ISA)

SINGULAR PLURAL SINGULAR PLURAL SINGULAR PLURAL
1. bulaklak mga bulaklak sabong sabsabong sabong sabsabong
2. dahon mga dahon bulong bulbulong adun ad-adun
3. ilog mga ilog karayan dagiti karayan apayaw ap-apayaw
4. bundok mga bundok bantay banbantay bantay banbantay
5. puno mga puno kayo kaykayo ayo ay-ayo
6. sanga mga sanga sanga sansanga panga pang-panga
7. gulay mga gulay nateng natnateng inalpan in-inalpan
8. ugat mga ugat urat ur-urat ugat ug-ugat
9. lupa mga lupa daga dagdaga lusa lus-lusa
10. ulap mga ulap ulep ul-ulep angap ang-angap
11. kamote mga kamote kamutig kamkamutig amosi am-amosi
12. saging mga saging saba sabsaba dupat dupdupatan
13. sanga mga sanga sanga sangsanga panga pangpanga
14. bagyo mga bagyo bagyo dagti bagyo annag an-annag
15. bigas mga bigas bagas bagbagas baggat bagbaggat
16. kalabaw mga kalabaw nuang nunuang nuang daya nuang
17. kabayo mga kabayo kabalyo kabkabalyo kabalyo daya kabalyo
18. manok mga manok manok manmanok ano an-ano
19. langgam mga langgam kuton kutkuton uton ut-uton
20. ibon mga ibon tumaytayab dagti tumaytayab ano an-ano
21. kambing mga kambing kalding kalkalding kalding kalkalding
22. aso mga aso aso as-aso ato at-ato
23. baboy mga baboy baboy babbaboy aboy ab-aboy
24. isda mga isda ikan ik-ikan begal beg-begal
25. hipon mga hipon udang ud-udang lasi las-lasi
26. bayawak mga bayawak banyas banbanyas banyas banbanyas
27. ahas mga ahas uleg ul-uleg ba-lat babalat
28. usa mga usa ugsa uugsa ukta uk-ukta
29. paru-paro mga paru-paro kulibangbang kulkulibangbang kulibangbang kulkulibangbang
30. pugad mga pugad umok um-umok umo um-umo
17
and Informed Consent (FPIC). Through the help of the acted as the host throughout the data-gathering stage and
NCIP-INPO, the researcher sought permit to conduct the was responsible in convening the participants. It was
study from respective municipal mayors and Department indeed a great opportunity to have tapped the NCIP-
of Interior and Local Government (DILG) officers. INPO staff as facilitators because some of them are
The lexical test was conducted with the help of speakers of Isnag, Isneg Yapayao, or Itneg Tingguian. In
the Community Development Officer who acted as the fact, two of them served as raters or evaluators in the
facilitator, assigned staff of the NCIP-INPO, and in written lexical test. An informal interview after the
coordination with the DILG officer from each of the written test was randomly conducted for the validation
three municipalities. Each of the three communities has and clarification of responses.
its own leader, locally known as the “panglakayen” who
Table 3. Number of nouns in Isneg Yapayao
TAGALOG (TAG) ILOCANO (ILO) ISNEG YAPAYAO (ISE)

1. bulaklak mga bulaklak sabong sabsabong sabong sabsabong
2. dahon mga dahon bulong bulbulong dun duddudon
3. ilog mga ilog karayan dagiti karayan wangwang wangwangwang
4. bundok mga bundok bantay banbantay bantay banbantay
5. puno mga puno kayo kaykayo kayo kaykayo
6. sanga mga sanga sanga sangsanga sanga sangsanga
7. gulay mga gulay nateng natnateng tagalimpa tagtagalimpa
8. ugat mga ugat urat ur-urat ugat ug-ugat
9. lupa mga lupa daga dagdaga lutak lutlutak
10. ulap mga ulap ulep ul-ulep ulap ul-ulap
11. kamote mga kamote kamutig kamkamutig kamutig kamkamutig
12. saging mga saging saba sabsaba bagat bagbagat
13. sanga mga sanga sanga sangsanga sanga sangsanga
14. bagyo mga bagyo bagyo dagiti bagyo bagiw bagbagiw
15. bigas mga bigas bagas bagbagas baggas bagbaggas
16. kalabaw mga kalabaw nuang nunuang nuang nunuang
17. kabayo mga kabayo kabalyo kabkabalyo kabalyo kabkabalyo
18. manok mga manok manok manmanok manok manmanok
19. langgam mga langgam kuton kutkuton kuton kutkuton
20. ibon mga ibon tumaytayab dagiti tumaytayab ballit balballit
21. kambing mga kambing kalding kalkalding kalding kakalding
22. aso mga aso aso as-aso aso as-aso
23. baboy mga baboy baboy babbaboy baboy babbaboy
24. isda mga isda ikan ik-ikan ikan ik-ikan
25. hipon mga hipon udang ud-udang lagdaw laglagdaw
26. bayawak mga bayawak banyas banbanyas banyas banbanyas
27. ahas mga ahas uleg ul-uleg baklat bakbaklat
28. usa mga usa ugsa uugsa ugsa ug-ugsa
30. pugad mga pugad umok um-umok umok um-umok
18
3. Results and Discussion reduplication (Dita, 2011; Ruffolo, 2004). Tables 2, 3,

and 4 contain the list of nouns in Tagalog and Ilocano
3.1 Nouns with their Isnag (ISA), Isneg Yapayao (ISE), and
Itneg Tingguian (ITE) equivalents.
3.1.1 Number of Nouns Rubino’s (1997) findings on how Ilocanos
encode plurality of nominals show that the most
It can be worth noting that most Philippine common process is through reduplication and the use of
languages, including Ibanag and Ibaloy which are the determiner dagiti. Dita’s (2011) analysis on Ibanag
both Cordilleran languages, encode plurality of nouns nominal markers revealed that the use of the plural
by the use of a determiner before a head noun and marker ira and reduplication are the two processes of
Table 4. Number of nouns in Itneg Tingguian
TAGALOG (TAG) ILOCANO (ILO) ITNEG TINGGUIAN (ITE)

1. bulaklak mga bulaklak sabong sabsabong ballad adu a ballad
2. dahon mga dahon bulong bulbulong addon adu a addon
3. ilog mga ilog karayan dagiti karayan wangag dia wangag
4. bundok mga bundok bantay banbantay binaer dia binaer
5. puno mga puno kayo kaykayo kayo kaykayo
6. sanga mga sanga sanga sangsanga panga dia panga
7. gulay mga gulay nateng natnateng sisida dia sisida
8. ugat mga ugat urat ur-urat ugat dia ugat
9. lupa mga lupa daga dagdaga ginet dia ginet
10. ulap mga ulap ulep ul-ulep angep dia angep
11. kamote mga kamote kamutig kamkamutig ketla dia ketla
12. saging mga saging saba sabsaba bagat dia bagat
13. sanga mga sanga sanga sangsanga panga pangpanga
14. bagyo mga bagyo bagyo dagiti bagyo anneg dia anneg
15. bigas mga bigas bagas bagbagas baggas adu a baggas
16. kalabaw mga kalabaw nuang nunuang nuang adu a nuang
17. kabayo mga kabayo kabalyo kabkabalyo kabayo kabkabayo
18. manok mga manok manok manmanok anok an-anok
19. langgam mga langgam kuton kutkuton ubo dia ubo
20. ibon mga ibon tumaytayab dagiti tumaytayab sibot sibsibot
21. kambing mga kambing kalding kalkalding kalding dia kalding
22. aso mga aso aso as-aso aso as-aso
23. baboy mga baboy baboy babbaboy aboy ab-aboy
24. isda mga isda ikan ik-ikan begal begbegal
25. hipon mga hipon udang ud-udang lagdaw laglagdaw
26. bayawak mga bayawak banyas banbanyas siley silsiley
27. ahas mga ahas uleg ul-uleg baklat bakbaklat
28. usa mga usa ugsa uugsa ugsa ug-ugsa
30. pugad mga pugad umok um-umok sukbot suksukbot
19
noun pluralization in Ibanag. In the list in Table 2, it is during an informal interview that they use daya only
evident that reduplication is commonly used to denote when they refer to more than one bigger form of animal.
plurality of nouns in Isnag (ISA), as in: Lexically, only six or 20 percent of the 30 words
have the same Ilocano equivalent. This only shows that
(1) Sabong - Sabsabong Isnag is lexically different from Ilocano, which is the
‘flower’ - ‘flowers’ lingua franca in Ilocos Norte. The use of reduplication to
(2) Adun - Ad-adun indicate plurality in Isnag, in a way, conforms to
‘leaf’ - ‘leaves’ findings on the plural markers used in Ilocano and
Cordilleran languages such as Ibanag and Ibaloy. The
Further, when the first syllable of the noun has a plural marker, daya, however, needs further
consonant (C) and a vowel (V), then the CV investigation as to its extent and context of use, which
reduplication pattern is formed, as can be seen in (2). If the present study failed to look into. Having its own
the first syllable with (CV) is followed by a (C), then the lexical equivalents, Isnag may possibly grow as a
CVC reduplication pattern is formed as in (1). Another language spoken by the IP communities in Ilocos Norte
way on how plurality is encoded in Isnag is the use of a despite its close encounter with Ilocano.
determiner (DET) which is daya, as used in: Isneg Yapayao (ISE), on the one hand, has the
same way of encoding plurality in nominals, that is,
(3) Nuang - Daya nuang reduplication pattern, both CV and CVC, as seen in
‘carabao’ - ‘carabaos’ the following examples:
(4) Kabalyo - Daya kabalyo
‘horse’ - ‘horses’ (5) Ugat - Ug-ugat
‘root’ - ‘roots’
It was not explained further, however, by the (6) Tagalimpa - Tagtagalimpa
respondents why daya as a determiner was used only for ‘vegetable’ - ‘vegetables’
nuang and kabalyo to denote plurality. One of them narrated
Table 5. Gender of nouns across L1 communities
ITEM TAGALOG ILOCANO ISNAG ISNEG YAPAYAO ITNEG

NO. TINGGUIAN
1 tatay/ama/itay tatang/ama/tata ama ama ama
2 kuya manong parsut/agi manong kaka
3 uncle/tito/tiyo uncle/uliteg ulitag uncle/ulitag ulteg
4 lolo apo lakay/lolo/lolong akay kakay apo
5 binata baro bagbago bago bagbago
6 bayaw bayaw/kayong tayug bayaw/kayong kayong
7 hipag ipag ipag kayong ipag
8 tiya/tita/auntie auntie/ikit ikit ikit ikit
9 ate manang parsut/agi manang manang/kaka
10 lola lola/lila/apo baket ako apo apo baket
11 dalaga balasang balbalasang balasang balbalasang
12 nanay/inay/ina nanang/nana/ina ina ina ina
13 babae babai babay babay babey
14 lalaki/lalake lalaki lalahi lalaki lalake
15 inahin upa gaggana upa gagunak
16 tandang kawitan awitan kawitan kawitan
20
The use of the determiner dagiti in Ilocano from ISE and ITE, having seven (7) out of 30 lexical
plurals, however, was not evident in ISE. In terms of items that are totally different, i.e., ayo (‘tree’), dupat
lexicon, 18 or 60 percent of the 30 words are the same (‘banana’), baggat (‘rice’), ato (‘dog’), lasi (‘shrimp’),
with Ilocano, both singular and plural. This shows that balat (‘snake’), and ukta (‘deer’). ISE and ITE had the
ISE is closer to Ilocano language in terms of lexicon same lexicon for the said nouns. ISE and ITE had only
compared to ISA. Isneg Yapayao, unlike Isnag, seems four (4) items differently labelled from each other and
susceptible to gradual assimilation into the Ilocano that of ISA. There were four instances, however, when
language. This could be brought about by these three languages encoded items similarly like ugat
intermarriage and high incidence of migration of ISE (‘root’), kalding (‘goat’), nuang (‘carabao’), and
speakers to nearby Ilocano communities to pursue kulibangbang (‘butterfly’). Eleven (11) items or 37
education and to look for jobs. The town of percent of the total number of words were encoded
Dumalneg, where ISE speakers are located, is differently among the three languages. This implies that
relatively more accessible than the town of Carasi ISA, ISE, and ITE have different labels for the basic
where ISA communities could be found. sight words listed. More so, these three language variants
Itneg Tingguian also follows the reduplication pose different levels of variations vis-a-vis the Ilocano
patterns, CV and CVC, in forming the plurals of language because of geographical location and
nouns. It is interesting to note, however, that there are accessibility, and perhaps the instrumental value of these
two determiners used to encode plurality. These are IP languages. This aspect of the three languages in
adu a and dia, as used in the following examples: question, however, needs further scrutiny.
(7) Ballad - Adu a ballad 3.1.2 Gender of Nouns

‘flower’ - ‘flowers’
(8) Baggas - Adu a baggas Gender-specific nouns in Philippine
‘rice’ - ‘much rice’ languages, especially Tagalog, are borrowed from
(9) Sisida - Dia sisida Spanish. Masculine gender nouns usually end with o
‘vegetable’ - ‘vegetables’ (e.g., hijo, tito), while feminine gender ones end with
(10) Ubo - Dia ubo a (e.g., hija, tita). However, there are also kinship
‘ant’ - ‘ants’ terms and titles that have local counterparts.
It is common among the three languages that
Notice that the determiners adu a and dia are Tatay or Ama (‘father’) and Ina (‘mother’) are also
used before a count noun and a mass noun. In a called Ama and Ina, respectively. However, the
conversation with one of the respondents, it was revealed difference lies in the phonological aspect of the words
that they use these determiners interchangeably and in no ama and ina. For Tagalog speakers, the primary stress
particular type of noun for that matter. When it comes to lies on the second syllable. But for ISA, ISE, and ITE,
lexicon, only 20 percent (6 out 30 words) had the same the primary stress falls on the first syllable. Except the
Ilocano equivalent. Again, this shows that ITE is terms ama, ikit, and ina, all other terms have their
lexically different from the Ilocano language. Nueva Era, ISA, ISE, and ITE equivalents. Even among these
compared to Dumalneg and Carasi, is biggest in terms of three languages, gender-specific nouns are encoded
population size. Eight of its barangays are occupied by differently, as in the following examples:
ITE speakers alongside Ilocano communities. Its
vulnerability as an exclusive language of the ITE tribes (11) ISA - Parsut/Agi
seems higher compared to Isnag. Having the plural ISE - Manong
markers, adu a (a plural marker variant of adu of the ITE - Kaka
Ilocanos) and dia, could somehow make the Itneg ‘older brother’
Tingguian different from Isnag and Isneg Yapayao. (12) ISA - Gaggana
ISE - Upa
Comparing these three languages, ISA turned ITE - Gaguna
out to be morphologically and lexically different ‘hen’
21
Table 6. Body parts and their ISA, ISE, and ITE equivalent

NO. TINGGUIAN
1 mata mata kilkilab mata mata
2 mukha rupa muhat bagong rupa
3 kamay ima ima ima ima
4 talampakan dapan taha dapan dapan
5 kilay kiday iday kiday kiday
6 paa saka dapan saka saka
7 ilong agong igong igong agong
8 baywang siket bihat awak awang
9 tuhod tumeng utod buwal tumang
10 likod bukot addag salli ukod
11 daliri ramay kamay ramay kurimeng
12 bituka bagis sinay bituka simay
13 balakang patong ubat purot patong
14 ugat urat ugat ugat ugat
15 nunal siding siding siding siding
16 tenga lapayag talinga talinga tenga
There are those words, however, that are encoded closer to Ilocano. Interestingly, ISA had the same
almost similarly, with slight difference in phonemes, as in: feminine-masculine term for kuya (‘older brother’)
and ate (‘older sister’), i.e., parsut/agi. Out of 16
(13) ISA - Babay gender-specific terms, five (5) of them were found to
ISE - Babay be lexically different (e.g., kuya ‘older brother’, lolo
ITE - Babey ‘grandfather’, lola ‘grandmother’, lalaki ‘male’, and
‘female’, ‘girl’ inahin ‘hen’). Based on the findings, Itneg Tingguian,
(14) ISA - Lalahi which is spoken alongside Ilocano, is most lexically
ISE - Lalaki akin to Ilocano. This could be attributed to the
ITE - Lalake community set-up of the ITE speakers; that is, based
‘male’, ‘boy’ on first-hand observation during the data-gathering,
ITE households do not occupy a barangay exclusively
From the wordlist in Table 5, ISA and ISE are for them. Thus, assimilation of the Ilocano kinship
lexically different from each other in terms of the use terms and gender-specific titles may take place.
of gender-specific nouns, while ITE is lexically
Table 7. Reciprocal nouns in ISA, ISE, and ITE

NO. TINGGUIAN
1 mag-asawa agasawa magatawa agasawa agakbang
2 magpinsan agkasinsin makpinsan agkapinsan agpinsan
3 magkapatid agkabsat magwagi agwagi agkabsat
4 magkapitbahay agkarruba makkelyan agkelyan agkarruba
5 magkaedad agkataeb magkadagon agkataab agkaarpad
22
3.1.3 Body Parts (15) Magatawa

Mag- atawa
In terms of body parts, ITE had the most PREF RW
number of items similarly encoded with Ilocano, having ‘couple’, ‘husband and wife’
62.5 percent of the total wordlist, while ISA had the (16) Makkelyan
most number of items (87.5 percent) differently encoded Mak- kelyan
from Ilocano. This only means that ISA is lexically PREF RW
exclusive from a more dominant language, Ilocano. Such ‘neighbors’
observation may clarify Jocano’s (1988, as cited in
Kobari, 2005) finding that the role of language among For ISE and ITE, the prefix ag- is added to
indigenous ethnic communities in Mindanao is that it is the root word, similar to that of the noun reciprocals
the only distinguishing element in ethnic cultures, in Ilocano. Interestingly, resulting reciprocal nouns
particularly those who occupy adjacent and contiguous across three languages were encoded differently, as
territories. Like the Isnag-speaking community in Carasi, shown in the following examples:
they want to maintain their language as their distinction
from nearby communities in Ilocos Norte. (17) ISA - Magatawa
Further, it was noted that ISA had the most ISE - Agasawa
number (25%) of terms for body parts different from ISE ITE - Agakbang
and ITE; ISE did not show any instance where its terms ‘couple’/‘husband and wife’
for body parts are different from at least one of the other (18) ISA - Magkadagon
two languages. Out of 16, there were seven (44%) terms ISE - Agkataab ITE
encoded differently among the three languages. These - Agkaarpad
were mukha (‘face), baywang (‘waist’), tuhod (‘knee’), ‘of the same age’
likod (‘back’), daliri (‘finger’), bituka (‘intestine’), and
balakang (‘thigh’). This means that the three languages Again, this shows that each language has its own
have their own terms for body parts. lexical term despite similarities in derivational process.
3.1.4 Reciprocal Nouns 3.1.5 Comitative Nouns
Only five (5) reciprocal nouns were included Comitative nouns are those that refer to persons
in the wordlist; however, the result was sufficient to in which something is accomplished with their existence
draw implications in terms of the morphological and or company. In Tagalog and Ilocano, this is formed by
lexical features of ISA, ISE, and ITE. In ISA, the adding the prefix ka- to the root word. Given the word,
prefix (PREF) mag- and mak- are added to the root kasama, the prefix ka- is attached to sama to mean
word (RW) to form reciprocal nouns, as in: ‘company’. Comitative nouns can show associations
such as spatial relations, membership, origin, activity,
occupation, among others.
Table 8. Comitative nouns in ISA, ISE, and ITE

NO. TINGGUIAN
1 kamag-anak kabagian magkabagian kabagian aggayyam
2 kaklase kaklasi magkaiskol kaklasi agkaeskwelaan
3 kapitbahay karruba akelyan kelyan karruba
4 kapatid kabsat agi agi kabsat
5 kausap kasasao kasarsarita kasasao kapatpatang
23
Table 9. Instigator nouns in ISA, ISE, and ITE

NO. TINGGUIAN
1 tagawalis parawalis paraaged parasagad tagakaged
2 tagaluto paraluto tagapoton paraapoy tagauto
3 tagahugas parainnaw tagaugat paralisaw tagalisaw
4 tagalinis paradalus tagaaner paradalus tagadalus
5 tagalaba paralaba tagalaba parapas-ak tagalaba
For ISA, there are two ways on how to form (19) Aggayyam
comitative nouns. One is by adding the prefix (PREF) Ag- gayyam
mag- and the infix (INF) ka- to the root word, as PREF RW
shown in the example below: ‘relatives’
(17) Magkabagian This finding only shows that ISA has the most
Mag- kabagian distinctive way of forming comitative nouns compared
PREF INF RW to ISE and ITE, and Ilocano as well. Again, this could
‘relatives’ be explained by the fact that the town of Carasi is
secluded from other municipalities where ISA
Another way is by adding the prefix ka- to the speakers get more in tact and solid because of fewer
root word, as shown in this example: incidences of intermarriage, emigration, and
migration. As revealed by one of the key informants
(18) Kasarsarita during the informal interview, ISA women prefer to
Ka- sarsarita marry men from their own tribe, particularly those
PREF RW whose cultural beliefs are the same with theirs.
‘someone you speak with’
3.1.6 Instigator Nouns
Still another way is by having the entire word
encoded differently, as in Agi (‘sibling’) and Akelyan Instigator nouns in Ilocano and Ibanag are formed
(‘neighbor’). by adding the base word to the prefix para- and the prefix
For ISE and ITE, the prefix ka- is also added taga- for Tagalog. In an instigator noun, someone is
to the root word to form comitative nouns. There are designated or employed to perform the action encoded by
likewise terms encoded differently from their Ilocano the base word (Dita, 2011). At times, however, as a native
counterparts. However, for ITE, the prefix ag- is used, speaker of Ilocano, the researcher may use para-and taga-
as shown in this example: as prefixes for instigator nouns interchangeably without
changing the meaning of the resulting word. Such
Table 10. Locative pag- -an nouns in ISA, ISE, and ITE
ITEM TAGALOG ILOCANO ISNAG ISNEG YAPAYAO ITNEG TINGGUIAN

NO.
1 lutuan paglutuan pagisaangan paglutwan paglutuan
2 hugasan paginnawan pagugatan paglisawan paglisawan
3 higaan pagiddaan pagiddaan pagiddaan pagiddaan
4 tulugan pagturugan patudugan pagtudugan pagtudugan
5 liguan pagdigusan pagdigutan pagdigusan pagdigusan
24
observation was found true to ISA, as in: (22) TAG - Lutuan

Luto + -an
(20) Para- aged RW SUF
PREF ‘to sweep’ ‘place for cooking’
‘sweeper’
(21) Taga- poton For ISA, ISE, and ITE, the prefix pag- and the
PREF ‘to cook’ suffix -an were commonly used to form locative
‘cook’ nouns, as shown the following examples:
For ISE, the prefix para- is exclusively used to (23) ISA - Pagisaangan
form instigator nouns, while ITE uses taga-. Once more, Pag- isaang - an
ISA was found lexically different from ISE and ITE. PREF ‘cook’ SUF
‘place for cooking’
3.1.7 Locative pag- -an Nouns
(24) ISE - Paglutwan
Locative nouns in Ibanag, according to Dita Pag- luto -an
(2011), are morphologically derived by adding the PREF ‘cook’ SUF
base word to the suffix -an and other various prefixes. ‘place for cooking’
These affixes when attached to the base word would
refer to a place associated by the action encoded by (25) ITE - Paglutuan
the base word. In Tagalog, these are called locative Pag- luto -an
verb +-an nouns. An example of this would be: PREF ‘cook’ SUF
‘place for cooking’
Table 11. Personal pronouns in ISA, ISE, and ITE

NO. TINGGUIAN
1 ako siak iya yakan iyak
2 kami dakami dahami dakami dikkami
3 ikaw sika ihaw ikaw ikow
4 kayo dakayo dahayo dakayo dikayo
5 sila isuda baggida aggidu igida
6 siya isuna baggina agginu igina
Table 12. Possessive pronouns in ISA, ISE, and ITE
ITEM TAGALOG ILOCANO ISNAG ISNEG YAPAYAO ITNEG TINGGUIAN

NO.
1 akin/ko bagik/kukuak uwa bagik/kuak kuak
2 iyo bagim/kukuam uwam bagim/kuam kuam
3 kanila bagida/kukuada uwada bagidu/kuadu kukuada
4 inyo bagiyo uwano bagiyo/kuayo kuano
5 amin bagimi uwami bagimi kuami
6 kanya bagina uwana kuanu kukuanayan
25
Table 13. Deictic demonstratives in ISA, ISE, and ITE

NO. TINGGUIAN
1 ito daytoy todi id odi/idi
2 mga ito dagitoy todayo didiya didi
3 iyan dayta heyan yan oyan
4 mga iyan dagita todayan dayan odian
5 iyon daydiay hetoni kuyo ditoni
6 mga iyon dagidiay hedayan kuyudo ditonida
7 dito ditoy iddi id/diya idi
8 diyan dita itonni yan noyan
9 doon idiay antonni tonyu annan/itoney
Notice that since ISE and ITE have the root (27) Pagletratuan Pag-
word luto, which ends with a vowel sound for ‘cook,’ letrato -an
ISE replaces /o/ with /w/ when adding the suffix -an, PREF ‘picture’ SUF
while ITE changes the phoneme /o/ with /u/. In an ‘a place for taking pictures’
interview with some ISE respondents, they confirmed
that they practice the same in other locative nouns. For Lexically, ISA differed in two (2) items from
ITE, this is also evident in their sample text, “A Guide ISE and ITE. However, there was only one lexical item
to Conversational Tingguian Dialect,” where the where the three languages differed from one another.
suffix -an is added to root words that end with a vowel
/o/, as seen in the following examples: 3.2 Pronouns and Deixis
(26) Magustuak This section of the lexical test focuses on

Ma- gusto -ak personal and possessive pronouns as well as deictic
PREF ‘like’ GEN.1s demonstratives. The personal pronouns given here are
Ma- ‘like’ ‘I’ limited to independent pronominal forms: first,
‘I like’ second, and third person, and singular, dual, and
plural number, which are mostly used as topics and,
thus, occur in a pre-predicate position (Ruffolo, 2004).
Table 14. Lexical verbs in ISA, ISE, and ITE

NO. TINGGUIAN
1 kakain mangan magnabaw mangan mangan
2 kumain nangan nagnabaw nangan nangan/nanganin
3 kumakain mangmangan madama magnabaw mangmangan mangan tidon
4 kumain nang kumain nangnangan tada nga magnabaw nangnangan mangan kayo ngas
5 maligo ka na. agdiguskan. magdigot angin. agdigus ken. weka agdigusin.
6 naliligo ka na? agdigdigus kan? magdigdigot a? agdigdigus ken? maweka agdigusin?
7 naligo ka na? nagdiguskan? nagdigot angin? nagdigus ken? nagdiguskan?
8 punta ka dito. umayka ditoy. umangka annod. umayku kaid. umbet ka idi.
9 pumunta ka dito? immayka ditoy? umangkanto annod? immayku kaid? inumbet ka idi?
26
Personal pronouns mainly encode information about here named “distal”. These entities are usually located
case, number, and person. As many authors claim, all further away than the medial ones and are usually not
Philippine languages have three number distinctions: visible. Table 13 summarizes the deictic
singular, dual, and plural. Possessives also include first, demonstratives in ISA, ISE, and ITE.
second, and third cases, while deictic demonstratives Items 1 to 6 are nominative deictic determiners
include proximal, medial, and distal forms. with their singular and plural forms. Items 7 to 9 are
deictic forms reflecting the three degrees of distance.
3.2.1 Personal Pronouns Interestingly, all of these deictic demonstratives are
encoded entirely different across three languages.
All personal pronouns across the three languages For ISA, todi (‘this’), todayo (‘these’), and
differ. ISA and ITE slightly differ in the phoneme /k/ for todayan (‘those’, medial distance) contain a common
the first person singular (1S), i.e., iya and iyak (‘I’). For the morpheme /to/ representing nominative deictic
first person plural (1P), ISA and ISE slightly differ in the determiners. Hetoni (‘that’, distal form) and hedayan
phoneme /k/ and /h/ as in dahami and dakami (‘we’), (‘those’, distal) are singular and plural, respectively.
respectively. The phoneme /h/ in ihaw (2S) for ISA makes Deictic forms itonni (‘there’, medial) and antonni
it different from ikaw and ikow for ISE and ITE, (‘there’, distal) contain the morpheme /tonni/.
respectively. The rest of the personal pronouns are encoded For ISE, id can be used to mean ‘this’ and
differently for ISA, ISE, and ITE. ‘here’; yan for both ‘that’ and ‘there’ for medial
distance. Dayan is used to demonstrate ‘those’ for
3.2.2 Possessive Pronouns medial distance, while kuyo (‘that’, distal form) and
kuyudo (‘those’, distal form). It seems that
It can be seen in Table 12 that ISA possessives morphologically, ISE is more complex compared to ISA.
basically derive from the morpheme /uwa/ and undergo For ITE, the phonemes /o/ and /i/ are common
cliticization processes. ISE, on the other hand, is among the nominative deictic determiners (e.g. odi/idi
somewhat similar with Ilocano possessives, except with ‘this’, oyan ‘that’, odian ‘those’, medial, idi ‘here’).
kuano (3S, ‘his/hers’). ISE possessives derive from the Overall, these three languages have their own
morpheme /kua/ and /bagi/, which in Ilocano literally set of deictic expressions used.
stands for ‘possession’. ITE possessives follow the same
morphological process as ISE, only that the former 3.3 Verbs
undergoes reduplication as in kukua (‘possession’), a
term that can be used interchangeably with kua in Verb is the name given to a particular class of
Ilocano. This is exemplified in kukuada (3P, ‘theirs’) and words sharing certain grammatical and semantic
kukuanayan (3S, ‘his or hers’). Generally, ISA is characteristics. Since no two languages are
lexically different from ISE and ITE. grammatically identical, verbs as a class must differ
from language to language, but they have enough
3.2.3 Deixis common grammatical features across languages to merit
such shared features (Allerton, 2006). In Philippine
This part analyzes deictics according to their languages, some authors have attempted analyzing the
morphological features and their meanings. valency and tense/aspect as well as the transitivity
Morphologically, deictic demonstratives are all complex features of verbal clauses in Ilocano (Rubino,1997),
forms. According to Ruffolo (2004), Ibaloy distinguishes Ibaloy (Ruffolo, 2004), and Subanon (Daguman, 2004)
three deictic forms reflecting three separate degrees of to name a few. These studies, however, highlighted
distance. The first is used to refer to entities located near different features of the said languages. In this study, the
the speaker, termed as “proximal”. The second refers to researcher primarily focused on the lexical features
entities located near the addressee or not too far away, of each of the three languages. Adopting Ruffolo’s
here named “medial”. These entities are usually visible. (2004) verb categorization where Ibaloy main verb
The third refers to entities located away from both the clauses are classified according to the transitivity of
speaker and the addressee, their head, only the inflection of the lexical or main
27
verb kain (‘eat’) used in the future (FUT) aspect, past complete sentence, as revealed by the respondents.
(P) tense, and present progressive (PresP) across the For item number 4, the continuative aspect of kain
three languages was considered for analysis (see (‘eat’), which is kumain nang kumain (‘ate again and
items 1, 2, 3, and 4 in Table 14). Meanwhile, the verb again’), is analyzed. Here, ISE uses the CVCC
ligo (‘take a bath’) was analyzed focusing on how it is reduplication of nangan (‘ate’) as in nangnangan (‘ate
used in sentence types (see items 5, 6, and 7), and punta again and again’). ISA and ITE used the aspectual
(‘come’) in items 8 and 9, respectively. Sentence types auxiliary, tada nga and kayo ngas, respectively.
here refer to either imperative or interrogative. Still, the Again, such construction is applicable only to lexical
purpose of limiting down to imperative and interrogative constructions or short responses.
types is to complement the observation made in the For item 5, an imperative is given where the
inflection of the lexical verb in items 1 to 3. main verb used is ligo (‘take a bath’). Still, the prefix
For the lexical verb kain (‘eat’), ISA encoded it mag- in ISA imperative is used to show that the action
differently as nabaw, while ISE and ITE had the same has to be done by the receiver in the future. This
root as pangan. In terms of aspect, ISA uses the prefix conforms to the use of the prefix mag- in ISA lexical
mag- to signal future action, while ISE and ITE terms to show future action. ISE and ITE, on the other
substituted the phoneme /p/ from the root word pangan hand, uses the prefix ag- to begin their imperatives, as in
with the phoneme /m/ to denote futurity. To show past agdigos (‘take a bath’). Such construction, however, can
action, ISA substituted the prefix mag- with nag- ; ISE also be used in lexical constructions or short responses,
and ITE both changed the phoneme /p/ of the root word e.g., aggapas (‘to harvest’), agsala (‘to dance’).
pangan to /n/, as in nangan (‘ate’). The three languages, Similarly, the prefix nag- is used to denote past actions
however, have different ways in forming their present when used in interrogatives, as in ISA nagdigot angin,
progressive. ISA, in this particular aspect, uses an ISE nagdigus ken, and ITE nagdiguskan, to mean ‘Have
aspectual auxiliary, which can carry either an you taken a bath?’ The same observation on the lexical
imperfective, continuative, or progressive aspect. construction for item 1 applies to imperatives as can be
The aspectual auxiliary, according to Ruffolo seen in item 8. Another lexical construction for ISE and
(2004), attracts any second-order constituent part of the ITE is a phoneme substitution to show past actions. The
main or lexical verb. In this case, ISA uses the aspectual following examples explain this:
auxiliary, madama (‘currently’ or ‘presently’) preceding
the main verb magnabaw (‘eating’). ISE, on the other (28) ISE - /U/mayku - /I/mmayku
hand, uses the CVCC reduplication of mangan (‘to eat’) FUT=ku - P=ku ‘to
to come up with a progressive verb mangmangan come’ - ‘came’
(‘currently eating’). ITE uses an aspectual auxiliary, but ITE - Umbet - Inumbet
this comes after the main verb as in mangan (‘eating’) FUT - P
and tidon (‘presently’) to mean mangan tidon ‘to come’ - ‘came’
(‘’presently eating’). However, this can only be true to
lexical constructions and not when used in a
Table 15. Dimension adjectives in ISA, ISE, and ITE
ITEM TAGALOG ILOCANO ISNAG ISNEG YAPAYAO ITNEG GLOSS

NO. TINGGUIAN
1 malaki dakkel dahal dakkal dakkel ‘big’
2 maiksi ababa ababba appasi bebbet ‘short’
3 mahaba atiddog adaddo annadu deddo ‘long’
4 malapad akaba nawagnad akaba lempad ‘wide’
5 masikip nailet nagilat nailat nagilet ‘narrow’
6 malalim nauneg adallam alinam nalungog ‘deep’
28
Table 16. Comparative adjectives in ISA, ISE, and ITE

NO. TINGGUIAN
1 mas malaki dakdakkel daddahal dakdakkal dakdakkel ‘bigger’
2 mas maiksi ab-ababa ab-ababba ap-apassi bebbebbet ‘shorter’
3 mas mahaba at-atiddog ad-adaddo an-annadu deddeddo ‘longer’
4 mas malapad ak-akaba nawagwagnad ak-akaba lemlempad ‘wider’
5 mas masikip nail-ilet nagilgilat nail-ilat nagilgilet ‘narrower’
6 mas malalim naun-uneg ad-adallam al-alinam nalunglungog ‘deeper’
In general, ISA, ISE, and ITE inflect their Additionally, only a few of these Ilocano adjectives
lexical verbs by reduplication, phonemic substitution, are monomorphemic, including adjectival concepts
and affixation. Lexically, these three languages, and color terms, and physical attributes as well.
especially ISA, are encoded differently in terms of For an English lexicon to be labelled as an
verbs. adjective, it must meet a set of criteria; that is, it can
occur both in the NP and VP position; it can occur in
3.4 Adjectives attributive function; it can be pre-modified by the
intensifier ‘very’; and it can take a comparative and
This section analyzes one of the open word class superlative form (Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik,
categories, the adjectives. In an article published by Liao 1985). Given the following categories of adjectives, I
(2004), he asserted that seemingly adjective items in focused my discussion on the morphological features of
Philippine languages are stative verbs for the very reason dimension adjectives, comparative adjectives,
that these words share a characteristic of verbs, which is superlative adjectives, and quantifying adjectives in ISA,
affixation. Ruffolo (2004) likewise argues that Ibaloy does ISE, and ITE using four (items 1 to 4) monomorphemic
not have adjectives; it has only stative verbs. However, and two (items 5 and 6) derived (prefix na-) Ilocano
modifiers in Ibaloy, for Ruffolo (2004), are in the form of a adjectives, as shown in Table 15.
relative clause since Ibaloy is a head-initial (or right-
branching) language. In a noun phrase, modifiers typically 3.4.1 Dimension Adjectives
follow the noun they modify. In a clause, verbal
complements, adjuncts, and modifiers of the predicate Based on the entries in Table 15, only ITE has
typically occur after the predicate. But then, Rubino (1997) an Ilocano borrowed word for ‘big’ dakkel although ISA
strongly claims that there is a separate lexical class of and ISE are slightly phonologically different from ITE
adjectives in Ilocano, having functions as predicate or (i.e., ISA - dahal; ISE - dakkal). It is also observed from
modifiers to nouns, nouns, and verbs. the given examples that the three languages have
Table 17. Superlative adjectives in ISA, ISE, and ITE

NO. TINGGUIAN
1 pinakamalaki kadakkelan daddaddahal kadaklan kadakkelan ‘biggest’
2 pinakamaiksi kaababaan ab-abab-ba kaapasian kabebbetan ‘shortest’
3 pinakamahaba kaatiddugan ad-adaddo kaanudnan kadadduan ‘longest’
4 pinakamalapad kaakabaan nawagwagnad kaakabaan kalempyadan ‘widest’
5 pinakamasikip kaiiletan nagilgilat kailatan kagigiletan ‘narrowest’
6 pinakamalalim kauunegan ad-adadallam kaalinaman kalulungugan ‘deepest’
29
Table 18. Quantification terms in ISA, ISE, and ITE

NO. TINGGUIAN
1 isa maysa isa isa isa ‘one’
2 dalawa dua dua dua dua ‘two’
3 tatlo tallo tallo tallo tallo ‘three’
4 apat uppat appat appat appat ‘four’
5 lima lima lima lima lima ‘five’
6 anim innem annam annam annem ‘six’
7 pito pito pitto pito pito ‘seven’
8 walo walo walo walo walo ‘eight’
9 siyam siyam siyam siyam siyam ‘nine’
10 sampu sangapulo sangapulo pullo/sangapulo pulo ‘ten’
11 sandaan sangagasut isa gasut siyen/sangagasut sangagasot ‘one hundred’
12 sanlibo sangribu sangaribu sangaribu sangaribu ‘one thousand’
13 una umuna mon-una muna nuna ‘first’
14 ikalawa maikadua mehadua mekadua maikadua ‘second’
15 wala awan awan awan awan ‘there is no/none’
16 meron adda atan asan uwad ‘there is’
monomorphemic as well as derived adjectives just 3.4.2 Comparative Adjectives

like their ILO counterparts. Lexically, the three
languages are encoded differently. However, slight The comparative degree of Ilocano adjectives
phonemic variation was found in some words, as in: is formed through reduplication. This process is done
when the stem has a closed syllable (CVC or CV);
(29) ISA - Nagilat that is, if the first syllable of the stem is open (CV),
- Na=gilat then the first consonant of the second syllable is
- PREF=‘narrowness’ borrowed in the reduplication (Rubino, 1997). If the
- ‘narrow’ second syllable begins with a vowel, then a hyphen is
necessary in the reduplication process. This feature is
(30) ISE - Nailat illustrated in the given examples in Table 16.
- Na=ilat It can be clearly seen in the table that
- PREF=‘narrowness’ reduplication process to form the comparative degree
- ‘narrow’ of the ISA, ISE, and ITE adjectives takes place. Even
with adjectives with the prefix na-, the closed syllable
(31) ITE - Nagilet of the stem is reduplicated.
- Na=gilet
- PREF=‘narrowness’ 3.4.3 Superlative Adjectives
- ‘narrow’
In Ilocano, the superlative degree of
Just like Ilocano-derived adjectives, ISA, ISE, adjectives is formed by adding the prefix ka- and the
and ITE use the prefix na- with root words to form suffix -an to the root word.
dimension adjectives. ISA is notably different in terms of the
derivational process in forming the superlative degree
compared to ISE and ITE. While ISE and ITE attach the
30
Table 19. Negation and interrogatives in ISA, ISE, and ITE

NO. TINGGUIAN
1 hindi haan/saan akkan dini akkan/beken ‘no’
2 wala na awanen awannin awanin awanin ‘no more’
3 ano ania ingkana anto agana ‘what’
4 sino sinnu ingkaano nain agankadyan ‘who’
5 kailan tun anu/kaanu anungayna kanangway nungey ‘when’
6 saan ayanna awagiyana didiyan no awak idi ‘where’
7 paano kasanu/innudtoy pahanyan kanya kumaanna ‘how’
8 bakit apay tanya ape ape ‘why’
9 magkano sagmamanu pigayan manu sagpipiga ‘how much’
10 ilan manu piga manu piga ‘how many’
11 alin ayanna awana andi giyanna ‘which’
12 kanino sinnu akinbagi/ inka mahinwa akinkukua kaid/ agan makinkua idi “whose’
akinbagi kinbagi kaid
prefix ka- and the suffix -an to the root word, ISA uses numerals that express quantity. Ordinals express time,
intensive reduplication of the closed syllable (CVC or order, or rank. Existentials are particles that express
CV) of the stem, as shown in the example given below: both existential and possessive constructions. For the
Ilocanos, the positive existential adda (‘there is’)
(32) ISA - Daddaddahal shows absolute possession and current possession.
- Dad=dad=dahal Awan (‘there is no’) is its negative counterpart.
- CVC=CVC=’big’ In terms of cardinals, eight (67%) out of 12
- ‘biggest’ were found lexically the same across the three
languages. For ordinals, they were almost the same,
Similarly, it was observed that in the case of except for a slight phonemic variation, as in:
derived adjectives with the prefix na-, the comparative
and superlative degrees in ISA are morphologically (33) ISA - Mehadua
the same. Both ISE and ITE adjectives form their - Me/h/a=dua
superlative degrees by attaching the prefix ka- and the - PREF=’two’
suffix -an to the root word, a morphological process ISE - Mekadua
similar to ILO superlative adjectives. - Me/k/a=dua
Ibanag, however, not having adjectives as a - PREF=‘two’
lexical class, uses the circumfix ka- -an/ka- -an/ to ITE - Maikadua
derive superlative nouns from any root containing a - Ma/i/k/a=dua
gradable component. This circumfix indicates the - PREF=’two’
prominence of this gradable element in the derived
noun. However, the intensity of its presence can be It can be observed that ITE has the same
varied through reduplication. morphological components with those of ILO. The
negative existential awan (‘there is no’) is used across
3.4.4 Quantification Terms the three languages, while the positive existential
adda (‘there is’) is encoded differently. Generally,
Quantification terms included here are ISA, ISE, and ITE are lexically akin to ILO in terms
cardinals (items 1 to 12), ordinals (items 11 and 12), of quantification. This somehow reflects the extent of
and existentials (items 13 and 14). Cardinals are the pragmatic and economic use of such quantification
31
terms of the three IP communities. The slight negativeness of Awan (‘None’) at the time of speaking.
phonemic variations of the three language varieties Its derivation is shown in the following example:
and their close similarity with those of the Ilocano
counterparts indicate that such terms could have been (34) ILO - Awanen
influenced by economic interaction with the host - Awan=(e)n
community language, which is Ilocano. - NEG=now
3.5 Negation and Interrogatives In an interview conducted among selected

respondents and as observed during the survey, most
Rubino (1997) looked into predications in of them produce the /e/ sound as either /i/ or /Ə/. This
Ilocano classified into affirmative and negative types. possibly explains the morphological composition of
Particularly, Rubino (1997) dealt with negation of Awanin/Awannin. Such observation, however, is
existentials and negation of responses. Here, only the inconclusive and needs to be studied further. In the
negative responses (items 1 and 2), hindi (‘no’) and case of interrogatives, all terms used across the three
wala na (‘no more’) were asked for their ISA, ISE, languages are encoded differently. This may be
and ITE counterparts. Items 3 to 12 are interrogatives. explained by the fact that since these tribes speak their
According to Ruffolo (2004), Ibaloy has several first language at home, they also ascribe to these
words for unknown quantities, entities, or times in words their local accent and, thus, adds to the
either interrogative or indefinite contexts. They morphological variations of these words.
include the following: Overall, it can be inferred that while Isnag
appears to be more lexically different from Ilocano
than Itneg Tingguian and Isneg Yapayao, factors other
sipa/sipa/‘who, whom’ than those partly mentioned by the researcher that
towa/towa/‘where’ could have influenced such lexical variations of the
ngan(=to)/Nan(=to)/‘what, which(=3/gen)’ three languages may be explored.
ngaran(=to)/Nadan(=to)/‘what, which(=3/
gen)’
to=y/to=j/‘what=nom’ 4. Conclusion
sa’no/saPno/‘how’
kasa’no/kasapno/‘how’ The morphological and lexical analysis of the
piga/piga/‘how many, how much’ Ianguages spoken by these IP communities indicates that
pigan(=to)/pigan(=to)/‘when(=3/gen)’ reduplication pattern, just like in Ilocano and other
ngantoy/Nantoj/‘why’ Cordilleran languages, seems to denote plurality of
apay=nga/Papaj=Na/‘why=lk’ nouns in Isnag, Isneg Yapayao, and Itneg Tingguian.
With such limited number of lexical items analyzed,
Clearly, this class of interrogatives crosses lexical borrowing is also evident in these three
word class boundaries. Such indefiniteness of these languages, which is a common feature in most Philippine
interrogatives also appears in ILO where some are languages. Further, similarities in word-formation
used according to pragmatic context (Rubino, 1997). processes are fairly evident in each of the three
Unlike Ibaloy and ILO, TAG has definite languages. The seclusion of the Isnag community may
interrogatives assigned to English question words. have helped its language lexically exclusive from
Looking at Table 19, it can be gleaned that ISA Ilocano, while the inclusivity of the Itneg Tingguians
and ITE use Akkan (‘No’) for a negative response, while opens itself to a much higher incidence of lexical
ISE uses Dini. All three languages, however, use almost borrowing from Ilocano. Affixation, reduplication, and
the same form for Awanin (‘No more’), which is a slight phonemic substitution are the three major lexical
phonological modification of its ILO counterpart, formation processes involved in Isnag, Isneg, and Itneg
Awanen. In ILO, Awanen, as a negative response, is Tingguian languages. For quite a few number of lexical
often used to intensify the absence of or items analyzed, it may be inconclusive that these three
32
minority languages are morphologically diverse and http://kaitnogan.blogspot.com/2010/04/itneg-

lexically different from one another. people-of-northern-luzon.html
References
Allerton, P. (2006). Plural languages, plural cultures.

Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Daguman, J.S. (2004). A grammar of Northern Subanen
(Unpublished doctoral dissertation). La Trobe
University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
De los Reyes, A.J., & De los Reyes, A.M. (Eds.). (1987).
Igorot: A people who daily touch the earth and the
sky. Baguio City: Cordillera Schools Group.
Dita, S.N. (2011). Ibanag nominal marking system.
In S.N. Dita (Ed.), Issues and trends in Applied
Linguistics in the Philippines: A decade in
retrospect (pp. 152-165). Manila, the Philippines:
Vibal Publishing.
Ethnologue – Languages of the World. (2012).
Retrieved February 4, 2013 from http://www.sil.
org/ethnologue
Kobari, Y. (2005). The current status of the Butuanon
language and its speakers in Northern Mindanao:
Findings on ethnic identity, language attitude,
language ability, language use, and language
change (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). De La
Salle University, Manila.
Liao, H.C. (2004). Transitivity and ergativity in
Formosan and Philippine languages (Unpublished
doctoral dissertation). University of Hawaii.
Prill-Brett, J. (2007). Contested domains: The
Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) and legal
pluralism in the northern Philippines. A paper
presented at the 7th International Philippine Studies
Conference, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J.
(1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English
language. New York: Longman Group Limited.
Rubino, C. (1997). A reference grammar of Ilocano
(Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of
California, Santa Barbara.
Ruffolo, R. (2004). Topics in the morpho-syntax of
Ibaloy Northern Philippines (Unpublished doctoral
dissertation). Australian National University.
The Tingguian Ethno-history. (2012). Retrieved
February 4, 2013 from www.INORTE.org.
Valera, F. (2010). The Itneg people of Northern Luzon,
Philippines. Retrieved February 4, 2013 from
33
Appendix A. Lexical Test
Name (Optional): ______________________ Age:___ Gender: _________

Location/Municipality: __________________ Tribe: _________________
Directions: Complete the table by giving the Isnag/Isneg Yapayao/Itneg Tingguian equivalent of the
following words and expressions:
1. NOUNS
1.1 Number of Nouns
TAGALOG (TAG) ILOCANO (ILO) Isnag/Isneg Yapayao/Itneg Tingguian

1. bulaklak mga bulaklak sabong sabsabong
2. dahon mga dahon bulong bulbulong
3. ilog mga ilog karayan dagiti karayan
4. bundok mga bundok bantay banbantay
5. puno mga puno kayo kaykayo
6. sanga mga sanga sanga sangsanga
7. gulay mga gulay nateng natnateng
8. ugat mga ugat urat ur-urat
9. lupa mga lupa daga dagdaga
10. ulap mga ulap ulep ul-ulep
11. kamote mga kamote kamutig kamkamutig
12. saging mga saging saba sabsaba
13. sanga mga sanga sanga sangsanga
14. bagyo mga bagyo bagyo dagiti bagyo
15. bigas mga bigas bagas bagbagas
16. kalabaw mga kalabaw nuang nunuang
17. kabayo mga kabayo kabalyo kabkabalyo
18. manok mga manok manok manmanok
19. langgam mga langgam kuton kutkuton
20. ibon mga ibon tumaytayab dagiti tumaytayab
21. kambing mga kambing kalding kalkalding
22. aso mga aso aso as-aso
23. baboy mga baboy baboy babbaboy
24. isda mga isda ikan ik-ikan
25. hipon mga hipon udang ud-udang
26. bayawak mga bayawak banyas banbanyas
27. ahas mga ahas uleg ul-uleg
28. usa mga usa ugsa uugsa
29. paru-paro mga paru-paro kulibangbang kulkulibangbang
30. pugad mga pugad umok um-umok
34
1.2 Gender of Nouns
TAGALOG ILOCANO Isnag/Isneg Yapayao/Itneg Tingguian

tatang/ama/tata tatay/ama/itay
manong kuya
uncle/uliteg uncle/tito/tiyo
apo lakay/lolo/lolong lolo
baro binata
bayaw/kayong bayaw
ipag hipag
auntie/ikit tiya/tita/auntie
manang ate
lola/lila lola
balasang dalaga
nanang/nana/ina nanay/inay/ina
babai babae
lalaki lalaki/lalake
upa inahin
kawitan tandang
1.3 Body Parts
ILOCANO TAGALOG Isnag/Isneg Yapayao/Itneg Tingguian

mata mata
rupa mukha
ima kamay
dapan talampakan
kiday kilay
saka paa
agong ilong
siket baywang
tumeng tuhod
bukot likod
ramay daliri
bagis bituka
patong balakang
urat ugat
siding nunal
lapayag tenga
1.4 Reciprocal Nouns

agasawa mag-asawa
agkasinsin magpinsan
agkabsat magkapatid
agkarruba magkapitbahay
agkataeb magkaedad
35
1.5 Comitative Nouns

kabagian kamag-anak
kaklasi kaklase
karruba kapitbahay
kabsat kapatid
kasasao kausap
1.6 Instigator Nouns

parawalis tagawalis
paraluto tagaluto
parainnaw tagahugas
paradalus tagalinis
paralaba tagalaba
1.7 Locative Verb + -an Nouns

paglutuan lutuan
paginnawan hugasan
pagiddaan higaan
pagturugan tulugan
pagdigusan liguan
2. PRONOUNS AND
DEIXIS 2.1 Personal Pronouns

siak ako
dakami kami
sika ikaw
dakayo kayo
isuda sila
isuna siya
2.2 Possessives

bagik/kukuak akin
bagim/kukuam iyo
bagida/kukuada kanila
bagiyo inyo
bagimi amin
bagina kanya
36
2.3 Deixis

daytoy ito
dagitoy mga ito
dayta iyan
dagita mga iyan
daydiay iyon
dagidiay mga iyon
ditoy dito
dita diyan
idiay doon
3. VERBS
ILOCANO TAGALOG Isnag/Isneg Yapayao/Itneg Tingguian)

mangan kakain
nangan kumain
mangmangan kumakain
nangnangan kumain nang kumain
agdiguskan. maligo ka na.
agdigdigus kan? naliligo ka na?
nagdiguskan? naligo ka na?
umayka ditoy. punta ka dito.
immayka ditoy? pumunta ka dito?
4. ADJECTIVES
4.1 Dimension Adjectives

dakkel malaki
ababa maiksi
atiddog mahaba
akaba malapad
nailet masikip
nauneg malalim
4.2 Comparative Adjectives

dakdakkel mas malaki
ab-ababa mas maiksi
at-atiddog mas mahaba
ak-akaba mas malapad
nail-ilet mas masikip
naun-uneg mas malalim
37
4.3 Superlative Adjectives

kadakkelan pinakamalaki
kaababaan pinakamaiksi
kaatiddugan pinakamahaba
kaakabaan pinakamalapad
kaiiletan pinakamasikip
kauunegan pinakamalalim
4.4 Quantifying Adjectives

maysa isa
dua dalawa
tallo tatlo
uppat apat
lima lima
innem anim
pito pito
walo walo
siyam siyam
sangapulo sampu
umuna una
maikadua ikalawa
awan wala
adda meron
sangagasut sandaan
sangaribu sanlibo
5. NEGATION AND INTERROGATIVES

haan/saan hindi
awanen wala na
ania ano
sinnu sino
tun anu kailan
ayanna saan
kasanu paano
apay bakit
sagmamanu magkano
manu ilan
ayanna alin
sinnu akinbagi kanino
38
Modal Must in Philippine Editorials: A Corpus-based Study

University of Santo Tomas Graduate School, Manila, Philippines Parañaque Science
High School, Parañaque City, Philippines Bernardo College, Las Piñas City, Philippines
Abstract
The present study examines the semantic functions and the dominant verb-phrase structure of the
modal must under the category of printed written texts of persuasive writing in press editorials found in the
Philippine component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-PHI) compiled by Bautista, Lising, and
Dayag (1999). Moreover, the study aims to determine whether the modal must conforms to or deviates
from the standard modal usage in American English. A total of 36 texts were analyzed for the study with
approximately less than 32,000 words. The findings revealed that the dominant verb-phrase structure of the
modal must is must + base form of the verb, which is favored by Filipino press editorial writers because of
the seemingly overtly authoritative tone of the modal must. Overall, the results of the present study further
confirm Gustilo’s (2011) findings that the modal must in Philippine editorials maintains its conformity to
the standard modal usage in American English. Based on the study results, a number of pedagogical
implications are provided for ESL/EFL instruction and for future research.
Keywords: Modal must, Philippine English, semanticity, editorials, standard usage in English language
1. Introduction Certainty,
Billings must be in Montana.
The system of modality in English language has (p. 46)
been an interesting linguistic topic for a number of
applied linguists (e.g., Abdul-Fattah, 2011; Coates & Toolan (2009) posited his supposition as
Leech, 1980; Collins, 2009; Gustilo, 2011; Hernández- regards the aforementioned sentences:
Guerra, 2013; Jacobsson, 2008; Nkemleke, 2005) in
terms of its possible deviations found in varieties of …[T]hose sentences are not actually
English. In fact, many users of the English language tend ungrammatical, and their oddness does
to use modal verbs to mean the following five not simply rest in the sentences
parameters of systemic linguistics as proposed by themselves but points back to some
Halliday (2004, as cited in Toolan, 2009): oddness in their speakers. This is the
essence of modality: to be revealing of the
Probability, speaker’s attitudes and judgments. (p. 47)
Billings might be in
Montana.; Obligation, Furthermore, Maclin (2001) expounds that
Billings should be in “modals show many meanings that are shown by the
Montana.; Willingness, subjective or another mood in many other languages” (p.
Billings would be in Montana if it 192). On the one hand, modals do not commonly seem to
were given the choice.; exhibit a happenstance; on the other, “they show thoughts
Usuality, about actions” (p. 192). This particular assumption is
Billings is usually in Montana.; and, demonstrated by employing the functions presented below;
39
thus, the following sentences carrying the modals may, Nkemleke (2005) explains the distinction
should, and must may take different semantic implications: between epistemic and root modality:
Permission … [Epistemic modality] imputes a state

[1] May we cook? of belief to the speaker/writer regarding
Advisability the truth of some proposition x, such that
[2] Should we cook? a statement of epistemic ‘necessity’, for
Necessity example, takes the form: ‘circumstances
[3] Must we cook? constrain the speaker to believe that x’ …
(Maclin, 2001, p. 192) [whereas the latter (root modality)
considers x which refers not to a
In [1], the questioners may sound indecisive proposition, but to a phenomenon (an
whether or not they will cook in the future, although the event, state, or set of events), the
implication is that they want to cook, and if the answer to occurrence of which is influenced by
this inquiry is “yes,” then, they probably will cook. In [2], some other phenomenon. Therefore the
the questioners are likely offering an opinion whether form of a statement of root ‘necessity’ can
cooking is a good idea or not for that matter. Lastly, in [3], be generalized as follows: ‘circumstances
the implication of the modal must is that the questioners do constrain the occurrence of x’. (p. 50)
not likely want to cook, and if the answer to this inquiry is
“no,” they probably will not cook. Nkemleke (2005) further illustrates this
In his paper, “Modality and the English assumption:
modals,” Palmer (1990) noted that modality is concerned
with opinions and attitudes of speakers. In fact, modality Epistemic meaning
and modal verbs are differentiated as the former refers to x may y’ = ‘it is possible that x [will] y’ =
the formal properties of a certain class of words, while ‘perhaps x [will] y’.
the later refer to the meaning of those words. In addition, ‘x must y’ = ‘x must necessarily y’ = ’it
he elucidated two types of modality and their definitions. must be that y’.
The first is epistemic modality, which is concerned with Root meaning
the speaker’s judgment of the truth of the proposition ‘x can y’ = ‘x may y’ = ‘it is possible for
embedded in the statement. Furthermore, Halliday x to y’.
(1970) provided a comprehensive definition of epistemic ‘x must y’ = ‘it is necessary for x to y’.
modality as the “speaker’s assessment of probability and (p. 50)
predictability” (p. 349), thereby, externally declaring the
speaker’s attitude embedded in the content of his To exemplify the abovementioned identity
utterance. equation, below are sentences to represent the
epistemic and root meanings.
[4] John must be home.
Epistemic meaning
In [4], the speaker is telling the truth of the ‘x may y’ = ‘it is possible that x [will] y’ = ‘perhaps x
proposition that John is certainly coming home in an [will] y’.
indefinite time. He may see her.
The second, in contrast, is deontic modality, It is possible that he sees her perhaps if he will take a
which is characterized by Palmer (1990) as “influencing day off.
actions, states, or events” (p. 6). Further, this definition
is attributed to the performing acts as in: ‘x must y’ = ‘x must necessarily y’ = ’it must be that y’.
He must see her.
[5] John may go home now. It is necessary that he sees her because he needs to
borrow a book from her.
40
Root meaning employed in this study. These two semantic functions

‘x can y’ = ‘x may y’ = ‘it is possible for x to y’. of the modal must, i.e., (1) obligation/compulsion/
She can cook. advisability/strong necessity and (2) logical deduction,
If she sees an opportunity to cook tonight she may are illustrated in the following statements:
cook. Thus, it is possible for her to cook if she arrives
home early. [8] I must go to class today.
[9] Mary isn’t in the class today. She must be
‘x must y’ = ‘it is necessary for x to y’. sick.
He must submit his research paper tomorrow.
It is necessary for him to submit his research paper In [8], the speaker expresses obligation or
otherwise he will obtain an incomplete grade. compulsion. The speaker is strongly necessitated to go
to school in order to attend his or her classes. Logical
It should be noted that the said identity deduction, on the other hand, is expressed in [9]; thus,
equation has limitations; however, it shows the the speaker is assuming that Mary is sick. This
“categorical nature of the epistemic/root distinction” assumption logically leads the speaker to the context
(Nkemleke, 2005, p. 50). Possibility and necessity are that Mary will not absent herself from the class unless
demonstrated as semantic labels occurring in both illness is given as an excuse for her absence.
epistemic and root paraphrases. Gustilo (2011) conducted an investigation on
Coates and Leech (1980) described the contrast modals in Philippine English newspapers. She
between ‘permission’/‘obligation’ and explored the semantic functions and syntactic patterns
‘possibility’/‘necessity’ in terms of a cline of restriction: of modal auxiliaries. Specifically, one of her findings
revealed that the modal must is predominantly
At one end of the scale the nature of the attached to the construct of obligation or compulsion.
determining or constraining More importantly, the modal must appeared “to
circumstances is unrestricted, while at the conform to the norms of the dominant native English
other end they belong to a restricted world varieties” (Gustilo, 2011, p. 104; Ki, 2011).
of man-made freedoms and obligations. It Jacobsson’s (2008) analysis of the modal
is here that a paraphrase such as ‘x is necessity of must in particular revealed a distinction
permitted to y’ becomes more appropriate from the quasi-auxiliary have to, i.e., must carries “a
than ‘it is possible for x to y’. (p. 7) connotation of binding duty, strong moral obligation,
inescapable necessity, strong desire, or perverse
For instance, constraint” (pp. 308-309). In addition, the internal as
in [10] and the external necessity or obligation as
[6] I am permitted to go home. exemplified in [11] expounded the semanticity of
must and have to.
is more appropriate than
[10] I must go now.
[7] It is possible for me to go home.
[11] I have to go now.
In [6], the possibility of the speaker to go
home is unrestricted, whereas in [7] the restriction of In [10], the obligation comes from the speaker
going home is controlled by the circumstance. himself, whereas in [11], the obligation comes from
Abdul-Fattah (2011) further explained the use some external sources given these sample contexts, I
of the modal must, which expresses present have to go now because it is likely to rain or I have to go
obligation, future obligation, external obligation, now, for I have to attend my in-laws 50th wedding
prohibition, and logical judgment at pre-present. anniversary. To further emphasize this assumption,
Conversely, Azar (2002) proposed a simple Palmer (1974) in his book, The English Verb, suggested
model of modal meanings, which is the paradigm that the modal must and quasi-auxiliary have to be
41
called “discourse-oriented” verbs because “the that typically derives from internally-driven factors”
obligation is imposed by the speaker or, in question, (Collins, 2009, p. 288) as in [14].
the hearer, while with have to the obligation comes
from some external source or from no source in [14] <ICE-SIN:S1A-004#21:1:A>
particular” (p. 38). In a more recent study, Abdul- You must do reservist this this that aiyoh.
Fattah (2011) highlighted the “discourse- Now I think I must really think first of
orientedness” of modal must and quasi-auxiliary have migrating you know.
to because they denote strong desire, obligation, and
necessity, thereby, “exhibiting a performative function In addition, Jacobsson (2008) concluded that
and referring to the present time only” (El-Hassan, “it is convenient to make a distinction between
1990, p. 158, as cited in Abdul-Fattah, 2011). obligative must (root) and conclusive must
In relation to this, Collins (2009) presents (epistemic). While the obligative must has been
relevant concepts regarding modals and quasi-modals steadily losing ground, especially in American
in light of the emergence of World Englishes. English, conclusive must is very much alive” (p. 310).
Analyzing the modals used by American, British, and Newson (2008, as cited in Nartey & Yankson,
Australian English users from norm-providing 2014) posited that the modal must is “a strong deontic
countries in the inner circle corroborated by Kachru modal auxiliary verb, for it is used in a manifesto to
(1985), Collins revealed the semantically-related express (strong) obligation and/or compulsion and
modal counterparts of quasi-modals. In particular, the logical necessity” (p. 27).
modal must is the closest counterpart of quasi-modal
have to, whose primary meaning is strong deontic [15] Our education policy must address the
necessity. On the contrary, the quasi-modal have to deficiencies in our human resource.
and the modal must are different; the former is
commonly believed to be more objective − “the In [15], the strong deontic expression of the
source of the obligation being external to the speaker” modal must is likely felt, for its proposition forcefully
as in [12], and the latter is assumed to be more obliges the hearer to address the deficiencies in the
subjective − “the speaker typically being the source of immediate future. Also, the speaker impliedly
the obligation” as in [13] (Collins, 2009, p. 287). expresses the failure of the implementers of the
education policy to address the probable problems in
[12] “<ICE-HK:S1A-0063303:1:A> the educational system.
And you have to find some phrases similar In 1966, Hoffman differentiated systematic
to the meaning or of some terms. And then meanings of modals between social interactional
you have to fill in the blanks, and when this (root) and logical probability (epistemic) through the
paper is over you have about ten minutes following exemplifications:
ten minutes’re and uhm people will just go
crazily to the bathroom. [16] You may leave the room. (social
interactional)
[13] <ICE-IND:S1A-017#32:1:1>
Safety safety is first than everything else [17] It may rain tomorrow. (logical probability)
comes next yeah. You must be facing it
but whether it is your place or not”. According to Inchaurralde Besga (2012, p. 1)
(Collins, 2009, p. 288) “root modality,” on the one hand, “deals with obligation,
permission, ability etc.,” showing attitudes that apply to
Furthermore, according to Collins (2009), the the world of things and social interaction; on the other,
use of the modal must is less attractive and less “epistemic modality deals with probability, possibility,
objective because of its overtly authoritative tone. certainty, etc.,” showing assessments of potentiality that
Another meaning of the modal must found in the relate to the world of knowledge and reasoning.
study is the dynamic must, which “expresses a need In [16], the speaker may be of sufficient
42
authority to give the permission to leave. Likewise, it 2. Method

can be inferred that the possible context is formal, which
probably dictates the speaker to use the modal may The present study utilized the Philippine
instead of can for that matter; thereby, determining the component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-
social situation allows the speaker to choose the PHI) compiled by Bautista, Lising, and Dayag (1999),
appropriate modal for any social interaction. On the particularly the corpora under Persuasive Writing, Press
contrary, in [17], Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman Editorials with text category and numbered texts as
(1983) explicate that the “knowledge of the social shown inside the parentheses (W2E-001 to W2E-010).
situation would have little or no effect on the modal The complete and total number of texts found in ICE-
selected. The speaker is intending to put across that low PHI was only 36 with approximately 31,578 words.
probability of precipitation; therefore, the speaker would Moreover, the data for semantic functions were adapted
likely use the modal may regardless of whom the from the study of Gustilo (2011). Azar’s (2002)
speaker’s listener was or where the interaction took theoretical linguistic schema was likewise used in the
place” (p. 83). present study with regard to the functional semanticity of
The present study is anchored on the the modal must: obligation/compulsion/advisability/
theoretical linguistic framework proposed by Azar strong necessity and logical deduction. The researcher
(2002) concerning the two semantic functions of the manually analyzed the functions of the modal must
modal must: obligation/compulsion/advisability/ found in the 36 editorial texts based on the linguistic
strong necessity and logical deduction. The interesting framework of the study. Further, sentences served as the
nature of the modal must prompted the researcher to units of analysis in the study. Also, WordSmith Tools
conduct a study that would shed light on the linguistic was employed as far as the occurrences of the modal
framework of the functional semanticity of the modal must were concerned.
must as suggested by Azar (2002), which is employed
in editorial texts found in the Philippine component of
the International Corpus of English (ICE-PHI). 3. Results and Discussion
Several studies and constructs on the modal
must have been carried out (e.g., Collins, 2009; Gustilo, Table 1 presents the frequency and percentage
2011; Jacobsson, 2008; Nartey & Yankson, 2014; distributions of verb-phrase structures of the modal
Nkemleke, 2005); however, less attention has been given must in the ICE-PHI Press Editorial texts.
to the functional semanticity of the modal must found in As shown in the table, the verb-phrase
editorial texts. The present study aims to ascertain the structure must + base form of the verb obtained the
semantic functions of the modal must and its conformity highest frequency among other verb-phrase structures.
to or deviation from the standard usage in the English This finding suggests that a number of Filipino press
language. Specifically, the present study sought answers editorial writers may have chosen to write simple
to the following questions: sentence structures in the active voice as shown in
[18] and [19]:
1.What are the dominant verb-phrase
structures of the modal must in the ICE-PHI [18] <ICE-PHI:W2E-005#72:4>
corpus press editorial texts? But having said that, we also must urge
2.What semantic functions attached to the authorities to exercise extreme caution in
modal must were identified in the ICE-PHI enforcing the law.
corpus press editorial texts?
3.Are there distinctive features found in the [19] <ICE-PHI:W2E-001#98:3>
use of the modal must in the said press When you are the president, you <it>
editorials that do not conform to the must </it> know you cannot meddle in
standard modal usage in English? the affairs of a constitutionally mandated
body.
43
Table 1. Frequency of Verb-phrase Structures of Modal Must in the ICE-Phi Press Editorial Texts
Modal Structure Sample Text and Root Data Frequency Percentage

must + be We don’t know about his paper, but this one never let up 4 11.11%
on its warning that a progress so rapid as that touted by the
administration must be a sham. 
<ICE-PHI:W2E-010#40:1>
must + base form of the Faced with a currency crisis, we must brace ourselves for 17 47.22%
verb the daunting task of finding elusive solutions pertaining to
two things about which nobody has any certain ideas: our
present problems and the real state of our country.
<ICE-PHI:W2E-010#27:1>
must + be + past participle Somehow, the cost of war must be counted in pesos and 12 33.33%
centavos, because the same taxpayers ‘ money used in
fighting a war can very well be used to securing the peace
that Filipinos want. 
<ICE-PHI:W2E-008#62:4>
must + have + been + past Congressmen, including the whistle blowers, are certainly 1 2.78%
participle aware of this constitutional requisite and they must have
already been alerted to the fact that whatever provisions were
included in the Omnibus Power Bill on second reading would
be no different when the third reading comes about. 
<ICE-PHI:W2E-009#88:3>
must + be + SEN. Benigno Ninoy and Aquino Jr. must be turning in 1 2.78%
present participle his grave as the nation commemorated his 14th death
anniversary yesterday.
<ICE-PHI:W2E-006#38:2>
must + have + Singapore’s prime minister must have already anticipated 1 2.78%
past participle the relatively trouble-free reception.
<ICE-PHI:W2E-003#42:3>
Total 36 100%
In [18], the subject pronoun we is probably intruding in a person’s affairs would probably make
given emphasis in the said statement rather than the one morally decadent. In addition, the modal must in
object of the verb urge. It can be inferred that the [18] carries the obligation, which is imposed by the
speaker is likely expressing compulsion to the readers speaker himself, lending support to Palmer’s (1974)
and the urge to appeal to authorities to whom he should assumption with regard to the modal must as a
not be considered an intruder. This finding exercises discourse-oriented grammatical element.
extreme caution in enforcing the law. In addition, in On the contrary, another interesting finding is
[19], the speaker pronounces the use of the pronoun you the use of the verb-phrase structure must + be + past
as the subject of the statement, possibly pressing the participle, favored by the Filipino press editorial
president not to interfere or get involved in the affairs. writers with less than 34%. For instance,
This supports Collin’s (2009) claim that the modal must
carries an overtly authoritative tone as implied in the [20] <ICE-PHI:W2E-002#52:2>
appearing intentions of the speakers in [18] and If <indig> Lakas </indig> kicks out
[19]. Moreover, this result confirms Jacobsson’s (2008) Ramiro, then it must be prepared to expel
finding that the modal necessity of must upholds the most of its members.
connotation of a strong moral obligation as particularly
seen in [18], apparently imposing a duty to the readers Since the verb in the said structure is passivized
although all of them would impossibly become the (must be prepared) in the main clause of [20], then the
president of the Philippines. It may also imply that absence of the subject (other political parties in that
44
context) may mean demotion of its significance, as in possesses a complement adjective, aware, which is the
[21] (sentence in active voice) and in [22] (complete subjective complement of the noun, Congressmen. On
transformation from active to passive voice): the other, the second main clause possesses a pronoun
subject, they, in the subjective case, which serves as an
[21] Other political parties must prepare antecedent of the subject in the first main clause:
the Congress to expel most of its members.
and they must have already been alerted to
[22] The Congress must be prepared to the fact that whatever provisions were
expel most of its members by other included in the Omnibus Power Bill on
political parties. second reading would be no different when
the third reading comes about. 
The noun phrase (the Congress) movement has
not been realized in [22]; instead the editorial writer Moreover, the inconsistent use of the voice is
seemed to have chosen the pronoun I in the subjective apparent since the verb phrase in the second clause of the
case as in [20] and dropped by other political parties as a compound sentence is passivized, must have already
less significant agent in the passive voice as in [22]. been alerted in the absence of the agent; the assumed
Then, the probable knowledge of social situation would subject of the second clause, if the verb is not passivized,
have a little effect on the selected modal must, thus, serve as the one who alerted the congressmen as regards
seemingly giving that particular Filipino press editorial the provisions included in the first and second reading of
writer the power to challenge other political parties to the Omnibus Power Bill. In contrast, the editorial writer
possibly expel most of its members in the Congress. may have likely been consistent because of the use of the
Therefore, this finding supports the assumption of Celce- antecedent as a way to be coherent to the first clause of
Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983) on the epistemic the compound sentence in the compound-complex
(logical probability) meaning of the modal must. structure of [23]. In addition, the use of the modal must
A verb-phrase structure with the modal must in [23] apparently asserts compulsion, which is an
hardly favored by the editorial writers is must + have obligatory function of the one who strongly alerted the
+ been + past participle, which had one of the lowest congressmen regarding the provisions included in the
percentages in Table 1. In fact, only one text first and second reading in the Omnibus Power Bill. In
representative was found in the ICE-PHI as in [23]. this case, this particular result lends support to Collin’s
(2009) assumption concerning the overtly authoritative
[23] <ICE-PHI:W2E-009#88:3> tone of the modal must. On the contrary, such a result
Congressmen, including the whistle does not seem to support Jacobsson’s (2008) claim that
blowers, are certainly aware of this the obligative must has been gradually receding in
constitutional requisite and they must standard American English. Then this specific finding
have already been alerted to the fact that may prove that the status of the obligative must in
whatever provisions were included in the Philippine English article is favored by press editorial
Omnibus Power Bill on second reading writers.
would be no different when the third Table 2 illustrates the frequency and
reading comes about. percentage distributions of the semantic functions of
the modal must in the ICE-PHI Press Editorial texts. It
On the one hand, [23] is a compound-complex should be noted that the data in Table 2 were adapted
sentence in which the first main clause in the compound from Gustillo’s (2011) study on modal auxiliaries in
sentence in the compound-complex structure, Philippine English newspapers.
“Congressmen, including the whistle

blowers, are certainly aware of this
constitutional requisite,”
45
Table 2. Frequency of Semantic Functions of the Modal others who may have the same informed opinion as
Must in the ICE-PHI Press Editorial Texts his. This specific finding maintains Jacobsson (2008)
and Collin’s (2009) assumption on compulsion as one
Modal Functions Frequency Percentage of the functions of the modal must.
Logical Necessity 5 13.9% On the contrary, in [25], the modal must
Obligation/Complusion/ 31 86.1% carries the construct of logical necessity because the
Advisability prior clause, Congressmen, including the whistle
Total 36 100% blowers, are certainly aware of this constitutional
*adapted from Gustilo (2011) requisite, has given the second clause with the modal
must a reasonable basis why congressmen should have
As shown in Table 2, the semantic function of been alerted as regards the provisions included in the
obligation/compulsion/advisability, which is first and second reading of the Omnibus Power Bill.
exemplified in [24], is most favored by Filipino press The present study did not find any distinctive
editorial writers. On the other hand, an example of the features of the modal must; as a result, the modal must
semantic function of logical necessity, which is hardly in editorial texts found in the text category of printed
favored by the said editorial writers, is given in [25]. written texts of persuasive writing did not yield
deviation from the standard modal usage in English.
[24] < ICE-PHI:W2E-005#67:4> Likewise, the results of the present study further
The group takes another tack, saying that the confirm the findings of Gustilo (2011) claiming that
constitutional mandate (Article II-Section 15) “most of the modal auxiliaries conform to the norms
requiring the State to protect and promote the of the dominant native English varieties” (p. 104).
right of health of the people and instill health One interesting finding of the present study is
consciousness among them, must include the the employment of the obligative must, which is favored
duty to warn the people of products, places by Filipino press editorial writers. Conversely, Jacobsson
and conditions that may be injurious to their (2008) claimed that the obligative must is progressively
health. losing ground in American English as contrasted with
the conclusive must likely preferred by American
[25] <ICE-PHI:W2E-009#88:3> writers, thereby, suggesting that the obligative must is
Congressmen, including the whistle widely accepted in Philippine English, which is an outer-
blowers, are certainly aware of this circle English variety. However, this result remains
constitutional requisite and they must inconclusive until further empirical investigations are
have already been alerted to the fact that conducted to support such a claim.
whatever provisions were included in the
Omnibus Power Bill on second reading
would be no different when the third 4. Conclusion
reading comes about.
The present study attempted to determine the
In [24], the modal must has semantically taken semantic functions of the modal must and to identify its
the function of compulsion, for it likely obliges an entity conformity to or deviation from the standard usage in the
or a body that will assume a probable duty to warn the English language. Gustilo’s (2011) findings were further
people not to take products detrimental to one’s health. confirmed by the results of the present study,
This result would likewise stem from internal necessity substantiating that the modal must found in press
(Jacobsson, 2008) that typically derives from internally- editorials conforms to the modal usage provided by
driven factors (Collins, 2009). Since [24] is drawn from dominant English varieties. Secondly, there is a
a written press editorial, the press editorial writer may progressive usage of the obligative modal must in
have expressed his own informed opinion regarding the Philippine English, whereas the said usage steadily
issue; thus, his judgment possibly comes from his own declines in American English (Jacobsson, 2008). As far
familiarity with the issue and not from as the verb-phrase structure of the modal must found
46
in press editorials in the ICE-PHI is concerned, the “language and writing as cultural phenomena” (Kachru,
structure, must + base form of the verb, is commonly 2001, as cited in Madrunio, 2008). For instance, citing
employed among the six others as revealed in the Jacobsson’s (2008) claim that the obligative must is less
corpus. This finding implies that the verb-phrase preferred by American editorial writers (who belong to
structure, must + base form of the verb, suggests an the inner circle) but is favored by Filipino editorial
overtly authoritative tone (Collins, 2009). Collins writers (who are from the outer circle) could be a good
further emphasizes that such a claim makes “the example of Kachru’s assumption. Likewise, introducing
speaker typically being the source of the obligation” the concept of English varieties would allow students to
(p. 287). demonstrate understanding of the levels of
English as a Second Language (ESL) and communication: “intelligibility,” which refers to the
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers should level of sounds; “comprehensibility,” the meaning of
make their students aware that virtually, all modals utterances; and “interpretability,” the purpose as well as
have semantic functions; therefore, as suggested by the intent of the utterances (Smith & Nelson, 1985, p.
Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983), “students 11). Having acquired such knowledge about varieties of
should be provided some guidance in working with English may motivate the teachers to address the
the system operating within each of these functions of linguistic needs of their students. Moreover, Madrunio
the modal auxiliaries” (p. 83). (2009) suggested that “raising awareness among students
One useful activity for logical modals in on the different types of Englishes would make students
particular is to make inferences about current states or better appreciate why they speak and write English the
situations. In this activity, students should be provided way they do, especially when they are exposed to people
with a modal paradigm, which serves as their guide. coming from different cultures” (p. 18).
Teaching students to write dialogues using Pedagogical implications for English
different modal auxiliaries could be an enjoyable language curricula have been brought to the fore
activity for ESL/EFL students. Some possible topics because of the notion of World Englishes. At present,
for this kind of activity are as follows: English teachers would be expected to be more
tolerant of their students as regards the expected
• You were stuck in traffic for two hours. outputs they produce. As averred by Madrunio (2009):
•You heard a loud dance music coming from
the staff room. … the end goal of the World Englishes
• No students came to class. paradigm is for the Filipino to be more
•When you walked in, all the students started aware of this development and to feel
laughing. pride in the educated Philippine English
variety, and for all users of English to
The findings of the present study may significantly accept the characteristics and features of
lead Filipino ESL/EFL teachers to explicitly inform their Philippine English as an evolving branch
students about the functions of the modal must in editorial of the language. (p.18)
texts written by Filipino journalists. Firstly, this linguistic
assumption may help the teachers gradually eliminate their In addition, it is noteworthy for English
prejudice on the supremacy of Englishes in the inner circle, language and literature teachers to explicitly teach their
American and British Englishes in particular. One useful students the distinct features of Philippine English and
way is to discuss with them in a seminar or in-service compare them with the norms of American English and
training the concentric circles proposed by Kachru (1985) any other varieties. In doing so, the students could learn
and the significance of the Kachruvian paradigm; thus, this how to shift their use of specific varieties of English
may help them be cognizant of the globally progressive when communicating in local and foreign contexts. In
emergence of World Englishes. Furthermore, if an English literature, the teachers must also inform their students
language teacher is informed as regards contrastive about different writing styles that are culturally
rhetoric, he or she would apparently consider the notion of conditioned. This may assist the students to write with
more liberty and to consider the context and audience
47
when writing. Celce-Murcia, M., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1983). The

As regards the implications of the present study grammar book: An ESL/EFL teacher’s course.
for future research, the modal must may be compared Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers, Inc.
and contrasted employing varieties of English in the Coates, J., & Leech, G. (1980). The meanings of the
outer and expanding circles to determine if other English modals in modern British and American English.
varieties conform to or deviate from the standard modal York Papers in Linguistics, 8, 23-24.
usage in the inner circle. Potentially, instructional Collins, P. (2009). Modals and quasi-modals in World
writing texts found in the Asian ICE may be used in a Englishes. World Englishes, 28(3), 281-292.
study on auxiliary verbs. The said corpus is probably an Gustilo, L. (2011). Modal auxiliaries in Philippine
unexplored category under printed texts. Moreover, English newspapers: A corpus-based analysis.
another feasible intercultural and comparative study on Philippine ESL Journal, 6, 81-109.
the modal must can deal with a particular literary genre Halliday, M. (1970). Functional diversity in language as
written by Asian men and/or women. Examining the seen from a consideration of modality and mood in
occurrences of modal auxiliaries in literary genres could English. Foundations of Language, 6, 322-361.
be one noteworthy study, which can employ stylistics Hernández-Guerra, C. (2013). Textual, intertextual
within the tradition of linguistics, since such a topic and rhetorical features in political discourse: The
seems to have received little attention among stylistics case of President Obama in Europe. Revista de
researchers. One insight that could be gained from this Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas, 8, 59-65.
stylistic exploration is that the researchers may analyze Hoffman, T.R. (1966). Past tense replacement and the
how modal auxiliaries project different functions and English modal auxiliary system. Harvard
meanings or interpretations in sentences found in literary Computation Laboratory Report NFS-17.
genres. Lastly, other researchers may be interested to Cambridge, MA: Harvard.
investigate the modal must and any other auxiliary verbs Inchaurralde Besga, C. (2012). Modals and modality
found in research article introductions and any other in English. Retrieved from http://fyl.unizar.es/
subgenres of research articles written by Filipino or other MISCELANEA/MISCELANEA.html
Asian academic writers. Jacobsson, B. (2008). Modality and the modals of
Although the findings drawn from the present necessity must and have to. English Studies,
study may provide partial explanations about the 60(3), 296-312.
semantic functions of the modal must found in text Kachru, B. (Ed.). (1985). Standards, codification and
category of printed written texts of persuasive writing, sociolinguistic realm: The English language in
press editorials found in the ICE-PHI in particular, the outer circle. Cambridge: Cambridge
future studies should be conducted to substantiate the University Press.
linguistic assumption of the modal must in Philippine Ki, K. (2011). The modal of obligation and necessity
editorials, thereby, further intellectualizing the MUST in Hong Kong English (Unpublished
Philippine English variety. thesis). Retrieved from http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/
lin/new/doc/ma_papers/malin/Kung%20Wan%20
Ki_2010-11.pdf
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handbook of English as a Second Language.
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of Modern Languages and Literature, 3(1), 39-63. English instruction. Manila Bulletin.
Azar, B.S. (2002). Understanding and using English Madrunio, M. (2009, October 18). Philippine English
grammar (3rd ed.). New York: Longman. in the classroom. Manila Bulletin, pp. 11, 18.
Bautista, M.L., Lising, J.L., & Dayag, D. (1999). Nartey, M., & Yankson, E. (2014). A semantic
International Corpus of English: The Philippine investigation into the use of modal auxiliary verbs
corpus. Manila, Philippines: De La Salle in the manifesto of a Ghanaian political party.
University-Manila. International Journal of Humanities and Social
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Nkemleke, D. (2005). Must and should in Cameroon
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Longman.
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(2nd ed.). London: Longman Group Ltd.
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intelligibility of English: Directions and resources.
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Toolan, M. (2009). Assessing students’ writing: Just
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Language teaching and integrational linguistics
(pp. 171-188). Retrieved from Routledge e-Book.
49
Linguistic Politeness of the World: Strategies Used by Organizers of Youth

International Conferences in Writing Rejection Letters
Kereen Ria C. Genteroy & Veronico N. Tarrayo

Manila, Philippines
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Abstract
The study explores the politeness strategies deployed in rejection letters from youth international
conferences. It aims to identify the politeness marker(s) that characterize a specific politeness strategy.
Furthermore, this paper attempts to describe the general macrostructure of the said rejection letters by
analyzing the strategic positioning of politeness strategies in these letters. Thirty (30) rejection letters
written by organizers of youth international conferences served as the corpus of the study. By utilizing
Brown and Levinson’s or B&L’s (1987) Politeness Theory Model and Baresova’s (2008) framework, the
researchers examined these letters of rejection and identified the politeness strategies employed in writing
them. The findings revealed that being optimistic and noticing or attending to the hearer are the two most
commonly used politeness strategies in rejection letters from youth international conferences. These
strategies are often marked by optimistic phrases (i.e., presuming an applicant’s willingness to cooperate
and a positive outcome), and thank-you phrases (i.e., expressing gratitude upon interest in the conference).
Moreover, the results suggest that the general macrostructure of the rejection letters follows the proposed
refusal sequence that includes (1) preparation for rejection, (2) actual rejection, and (3) remedy. This paper
affirms the applicability of B&L’s politeness theory in writing rejection letters for youth international
conferences, while also describing the linguistic features of politeness.
Keywords: Politeness strategies, rejection letters from youth international conferences, letter writing
1. Introduction to accommodate the noncompliant nature of the act. In

other words, rejection implies the use of different
In the recent years, refusal or rejection is politeness strategies to lessen its negative impact.
among those speech acts that have received a great As a linguistic phenomenon, politeness has
deal of inquiry (Aliakbari & Changizi, 2012; Delen been explored in several studies because of its
& Tavil, 2010; Felix-Brasdefer, 2006; Gass & Houck, relevant theoretical and practical issues (Baresova,
1999; Morkus, 2014) aside from requests, apologies, and 2008; Cutrone, 2011; Gagne, 2010; Gonzales, 2002;
compliments. Refusal or rejection is a speech act by Hammouda, 2013; Janssen & Janssen, 2010;
which a speaker “denies to engage in an action proposed Kitamura, 2000; Pishghadam & Navari, 2012).
by the interlocutor” (Chen Ye & Zhang, 1995, as cited in Baresova (2008) describes politeness as a naturally
Gass & Houck, 1999, p. 2). Rather than an act initiated occurring phenomenon, especially within a stretch of
by the speaker, it is simply a response to a former act a discourse or an utterance. Pragmatically, politeness
initiated by another interlocutor. By its very nature, functions as a sociocultural manifestation that lessens
“rejection is one of the most offensive speech acts, and if and prevents risks associated with communication
not done politely, is quite likely to negatively impact the conflict (Lakoff, 1973, as cited in Hammouda, 2013).
hearer’s self-image” (Baresova, 2008, p. 11, emphasis According to Gonzales (2002), politeness
added). For this reason, Gass and Houck (1999) note that demonstrates a special way of taking into account
refusals or rejections are often done in a manner that another person’s feelings. Indeed, in the
involves not only a negotiation for a favorable outcome communication process where meaning is negotiated,
but also face-saving schemes politeness is expressed with respect to one’s feelings.
50
Interestingly, it appears innate to people to 1.1 Politeness Phenomenon: A Theoretical

use politeness systems when communicating. While Overview
each culture has its own perception of politeness, it
also possesses a distinct form of expressing it, which In the field of pragmatic linguistics, proponents,
is usually embedded in a language. As Pishghadam like Lakoff (1973) and Leech (1983), have attempted to
and Navari (2012) suggested, based on the specific define politeness by theorizing and providing some
sets of politeness strategies used in discourse, cultures specific rules in maintaining a conversation. On the one
can be differentiated from one another. While it is also hand, Lakoff (1973) formulated maxims which, he
true that several studies have been conducted focusing assumed, guide people in an exchange or utterance. His
on politeness strategies in refusals, it appears that three maxims state the things that ought and not ought to
none has been done yet on rejection letters in youth be done while conversing: (1) do not impose, (2) give
international conferences. options, and (3) make the receiver feel good. These rules
Since recent global advancements, particularly propound formality, deference, and camaraderie, which
in the bilateral relations of many countries, these youth result in a better relationship among members of a
international conferences have become prevalent and society. On the other, Leech’s (1983) ideas focused on
have served as channels in preparing youths for the the “goal-oriented speech situation in which a speaker
upcoming international integration. Thus, youth uses language to produce a particular effect in the mind
international conferences are a timely and relevant of a hearer” (as cited in Pishghadam & Navari, 2012, p.
subject matter that requires attention from researchers. 162). Like Lakoff, Leech (1983, as cited in Svennevig,
Despite the fact that the organizers of these conferences 1999) also formulated his politeness principle (PP),
are a conglomeration of different and distinct cultures, which says that “people should minimize (all things
the politeness that these groups of writers embody being equal) the expression of impolite beliefs,” and
remains untheorized. Hence, the study would like to “maximize (other things being equal) the expression of
contribute to a better understanding of this cultural polite beliefs” (p. 39).
phenomenon in a global scale. However, among the several politeness models
In this case, the researcher decided to explore proposed, that of Brown and Levinson’s (1987) has
the writing culture underlying the rejection letters received the greatest attention because of its proposed
from youth international conferences and investigate concept of universality. This politeness model consists of
the nuances of such letters, with emphasis on their use a fundamental theory concerning the nature of politeness
of politeness strategies. and how it functions in interaction, and a list of
The importance of politeness conveys a politeness strategies, drawing on examples mainly from
potential effect it may cause to a listener or reader. three languages (i.e., English, Tzeltal, and Tamil)
With a heightened chance of offending the hearer, (Cutrone, 2011). The basic principle of the model is that
much caution or politeness is applied. In this light, the during interaction, all interlocutors maintain two types of
primary objective of this study is to examine the face: the positive face and the negative face. Brown and
politeness strategies the representatives or organizers Levinson (1987) define positive face as the positive and
utilize in writing rejection letters for youth consistent image people have of themselves and their
international conferences. Specifically, it seeks desire for approval. On the other hand, negative face is
answers to the following questions: “the basic claim to territories, personal preserves, and
1.What politeness strategies are employed in rights to non-distraction” (Kitamura, 2000, p. 1).
rejection letters written by organizers of youth
international conferences? Brown and Levinson’s (1987, as cited in
2.What politeness markers characterize such Wagner, 2004) politeness theory is anchored on the
politeness strategies? premise that several speech acts are intrinsically
3. What is the macrostructure of these rejection letters threatening to the face. Speech acts, which are generally
with respect to textual organization (i.e., how opposing the face wants or the public self-image of a
politeness strategies are strategically organized)? speaker (S) or an addressee (A), are identified by Brown
and Levinson as face-threatening acts (FTAs).
51
This occurs in social interactions in which the face of compliment, self-humiliations, and confessions, while
the S or the A is being threatened, such as when one some of the FTAs threatening to the speaker’s negative
makes a request, disagrees, gives a piece of advice, and face include expressing gratitude, accepting a thank
the like. The potential severity of an FTA is determined you, apologizing or offering, and making promises
by these factors: the social distance (D) of the S and (Brown & Levinson, as cited in Wagner, 2004).
the A; the relative power (P) of the S and the A; and “In compliance with the idea that everyone
the absolute ranking (R) of imposition in a particular tries to keep his face in the duration of social interaction
culture (Cutrone, 2011). as much as possible, it can be expected that all those
Brown and Levinson (1987) expound on the involved in interactions try to reduce face-threatening
idea of FTAs by classifying them according to two acts (FTAs)” (Pishghadam & Navari, 2012, p. 162). In
parameters: (1) “whose face is being threatened (the this light, the speaker, in order to execute the required
speaker’s or the addressee’s),” and (2) “which type of action, has to select a manner by which he or she would
face is being threatened” (the positive or the negative like to address the FTA.
face) (p. 65). Acts threatening to an addressee’s positive As shown in Figure 1, Brown and Levinson
face include those in which a speaker demonstrates that (1987) explain that an FTA can be performed either
he or she does not approve of or support the addressee’s on record or off record (emphasis added). On record
positive face or self-image (e.g., complaints, criticisms, strategy can either be bold and literal (without redressive
accusations, mentions of taboo topics, interruptions). action), or it may be expressed in a friendly (positive
Acts that threaten an addressee’s negative face, on politeness) and respectful (negative politeness)
the other hand, involve instances when the addressee language (Baresova, 2008). By utilizing the notion
is pressured to accept or to reject a future act of the of face, politeness is characterized into two distinct
speaker (e.g., offers, promises) or when the addressee categories: positive politeness and negative politeness.
has a reason to believe that his or her goods are desired Positive politeness is expressed by satisfying the positive
by the speaker. Examples of FTAs to the speaker’s face in two ways: (1) indicating similarities among
positive face can include apologies, acceptance of a interlocutors, or (2) expressing an appreciation of the
Do the FTA
on record
without redressive action, baldly
with redressive action
positive poiteness
negative politeness
off record
Don’t do the FTA
Figure 1. Possible strategies to deliver an FTA (Brown & Levinson, 1987, p. 69)
52
interlocutor’s self-image. Negative politeness can also Delen and Tavil (2010) collaborated to
be expressed in two ways: (1) saving the interlocutor’s investigate whether Turkish learners of English use
face (either negative or positive) by mitigating face strategies when performing three speech acts, namely,
threatening acts (FTAs), or (2) satisfying the negative requests, refusals, and complaints. On the use of
face by indicating respect for the addressee’s right not strategies when making requests, the subjects were
to be imposed on. In short, politeness strategies are aware that factors such as social distance (D) and social
employed not only to minimize FTAs but also to status/power (P), along with indirectness in making
satisfy the interlocutors’ face regardless of whether an request, contribute to the execution of the act. As for
FTA occurs or not (Kitamura, 2000). In addition, refusal strategies, the subjects used a variety of indirect
politeness strategies are utilized to maintain harmony strategies to lessen the potential damaging effect of
and undamaged face (Gilks, 2010). refusals since they are considered offensive acts by
nature. Lastly, the analysis of complaint strategies
1.2 Literature Review showed that despite clarity in the performance of the act,
the subjects were less sensitive as compared with their
Over the years, several studies have explored the performance in requests and refusals. The results suggest
universal relationship of speech acts and politeness that in different speech acts, a corresponding strategy is
strategies. The succeeding paragraphs provide a employed by a performer to express himself or herself
comprehensive literature on refusal as a speech act and clearly.
as a politeness strategy. Furthermore, these studies were On a cross-cultural level, Baresova (2008)
gathered to emphasize or display the intimate linking of analyzed Japanese and American employment rejection
refusal as a speech act and mitigating devices or letters and discovered that “while members of the same
politeness strategies, which help minimize an FTA that is culture have an understanding of what politeness
considered a potential threat to the receiver. strategies to employ and expect in a particular situation,
Aliakbari and Changizi (2012) discovered an application of the same means in cross-cultural
several refusal strategies employed by Persian and communication may result in pragmatic failure” (p.115).
Kurdish speakers, and how these strategies are elicited The results revealed that patterns of particular speech
with respect to interlocutors’ status. The results revealed acts differ from culture to culture as a result of different
that ‘direct refusal,’ ‘regret,’ ‘excuse and reason,’ ‘wish,’ norms and values. Thus, American and Japanese
and ‘postponement’ were the most frequently used perceptions of politeness provided empirical evidence
semantic formulas to express refusal. Likewise, requests that a speech act executed under comparable social
were mostly refused by an ‘excuse/reason’ accompanied constraints may, in two different cultures, elicit varied
by a statement of ‘regret’ when a person is refusing politeness strategies.
someone of higher status. On the contrary, ‘direct Another study conducted by Kerbrat-Orecchioni
refusal’ is employed when a person is refusing someone (2011, as cited in Hammouda, 2013) in French, which
of lower status. These findings can contribute to the utilized Brown and Levinson’s politeness model,
overall understanding of refusal as a speech act and to expounded the idea of FTA. Kerbrat-Orecchioni argued
reduce miscommunication in general. that viewing politeness solely as an aid to mitigate ‘face-
Felix-Bradsdefer’s (2006) study examined the threatening acts’ is misleading because politeness is
linguistic strategies and perceptions of politeness more than just repairing threats. It also includes ‘anti-
among male university students during refusal threats,’ which push people to work to save face and
interactions in three politeness systems: solidarity, enhance it. Consequently, she proposes what she calls
deference, and hierarchy. The analysis led to the ‘face-flattering acts’ (or FFA, also ‘face-enhancing or
conclusion that factors such as power (P) and distance face-giving) as a counterpoint to FTA. Whereas FTAs
(D) play a crucial role in determining the appropriate are softened (through politeness strategies), FFAs are
degree of politeness in Mexican society. Moreover, reinforced (also with the use of politeness strategies)
these speakers’ negotiation of face (face-saving act) is (Hammouda, 2013).
indirectly achieved through constant attempts of (re) In the Philippine context, Correo (2014)
negotiating a successful resolution politely. studied the politeness strategies deployed by Filipinos
53
in asynchronous computer-mediated communication 1.3.1.1 Positive Politeness Strategies

(CMC). Results affirmed Walther’s (1992, as cited in
Correo, 2014) Social Information Processing Theory, Brown and Levinson (1987) enumerated
which proposed that individuals deploy not only strategies that exemplify positive politeness. These
discursive strategies but politeness strategies as well strategies have three subclassifications: (a) claiming a
to maintain the equilibrium between functional and common ground, (b) conveying that the speaker and
interpersonal use of language in computer-mediated the addressee are cooperators, and (c) fulfilling the
discourses. Also, the findings highlight the hearer’s wants.
applicability of Brown and Levinson’s politeness Under the first subclassification, that is,
theory in the Philippine context with emphasis on claiming a common ground, the strategies include (1)
CMC. The study argues that Filipinos are highly noticing, attending to hearer (his interests, wants, needs,
concerned about their relationships with people not goods); (2) exaggerating (interest, approval, sympathy
only in their face-to-face encounters but also in CMC. with hearer); (3) intensifying interest to hearer; (4) using
In the same endeavor of examining cross- in-group identity markers; (5) seeking agreement;
cultural differences in the writers’ use of politeness (6) avoiding disagreement; (7) presupposing/ raising/
strategies, Gonzales’s (2002) study on politeness in asserting a common ground; and (8) joking.
letters to the editor in Philippine English, American The second set of positive politeness
English, and Singaporean English affirmed the strategies intends to convey that the speaker and the
importance of applying politeness theory not only in hearer are cooperators. These strategies include (1)
spoken interaction but also in written communication. asserting or presupposing speaker’s knowledge of and
The results revealed that writers of letters to the editor concern for hearer’s wants (i.e., cooperative
design their own FTAs and counterbalance them by communication); (2) offering a promise; (3) being
equally producing politeness strategies. The study also optimistic; (4) including both speaker and hearer in
attested to the effects cultural influences have on a the activity; (5) giving (or asking for) reasons; and (6)
writer’s use of politeness strategies. For Singaporean assuming or asserting reciprocity.
writers, it is their use of standard form of reference; The last subclassification of positive politeness
for Americans, the direct opposition to the other strategies that aims to fulfill the hearer’s wants includes
writer’s opinion; and for Filipinos, the high tendency only one strategy, which is to directly give gifts to the
to use politeness markers and politeness strategies. hearer (e.g., goods, sympathy, understanding,
cooperation). In this manner, the speaker anticipates the
1.3 Theoretical Framework hearer’s wants (whether tangible or intangible), shows
support toward their fulfillment, and/or makes efforts to
1.3.1 Politeness Strategies satisfy, particularly the desire for goodwill. Something
of this nature is often found at the end of rejection letters
Politeness strategies, according to Baresova (Baresova, 2008).
(2008), are based on a speaker’s volition rather than
the prescribed norms. These are schemes employed 1.3.1.2 Negative Politeness Strategies
out of volition with respect to politeness. In this light,
a speaker may choose from a wider range of means to Negative politeness is essentially based on
express politeness. avoiding or minimizing an imposition. It redresses the
Brown and Levinson (1987) developed a imposition using apologies, deference, and various
detailed list of politeness strategies that provided an kinds of hedges, impersonalizing, and any other
extensive framework of linguistic means of expressing devices (Baresova, 2008).
politeness. This framework would serve as the Similarly, Brown and Levinson (1987) also
theoretical underpinning of the study and would be provided an exhaustive list of strategies conforming to
utilized to analyze the corpus (see 2.2 Procedure). negative politeness. These strategies include (1) being
conventionally indirect, (2) questioning/hedging, (3)
being pessimistic, (4) minimizing the imposition, (5)
54
giving deference, (6) apologizing, (7) impersonalizing 1.3.2 Baresova’s Refusal Sequence
speaker and hearer, (8) stating the FTA as a general
rule (e.g., shoes are for outside), (9) nominalizing, As purported by Baresova (2008), the refusal
and (10) going on record as incurring a debt, or as not sequence of rejection letters often contains three basic
indebting hearer. parts (see Figure 2.): (1) a preparation for the rejection,
(2) the actual rejection, (3) and some remedy. The
1.3.1.3 Off-record Strategies preparation and remedy phases function as supportive
moves. Moreover, the rejection itself may also include
This type of politeness strategies, unlike positive some supportive moves to soften its impact.
and negative politeness strategies, is very indirect in nature The preparation phase can be divided into two
and could elicit several interpretations. Neither the speaker parts, neither of which is obligatory: (1) an opening,
nor the hearer can be held responsible for the intended which usually includes an expression of gratitude or
meaning; thus, context usually determines the intended acknowledgment of receiving the application; and (2)
interpretation (Baresova, 2008). Brown and Levinson a transition, which is usually in the same sentence as
(1987) classify off-record strategies according to what the rejection or immediately precedes it.
Gricean maxims (i.e., Relevance, Quantity, Quality, and
Manner) these strategies violate. It should be noted though “opening”
that in his notion of Cooperative Principle (CP), Grice
“preparation”
(1989 [1975]) argues that these maxims help in
communicational cooperation, for such a theory posits that
talk exchanges “are, to some degree at least, cooperative “transition” “rejection”
efforts” (p. 26).
Brown and Levinson (1987, pp. 213-217)
expound on these off-record strategies that violate the
Gricean maxims. The first set of strategies violates the “remedy”
Maxim of Relevance. The strategies include these:
(1) “give hints,” (2) “give association clues,” and (3) Figure 2. Refusal sequence in rejection letters
“presuppose” with implied criticism (e.g., I had to clean
the house again today – implying that the speaker should The rejection remedies, taking various forms
not have done it). The next set of strategies is a violation from apology to compensation, were analyzed in
of the Maxim of Quantity: (1) “understate,” terms of Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies
(2) “overstate,” and (3) “use tautologies.” Another set of to emphasize cultural distinction in the overall
strategies which are done by stating something that is not conveyance of the rejection.
accurate, thus, forcing the hearer to find the true meaning of These two models, Baresova’s (2008) refusal
an utterance, is a violation of the Maxim of Quality. These sequence and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness
acts include: (1) “use contradictions,” (2) “be ironic,’ (3) theory model, were used as tools for the analysis of
“use metaphors,” and (4) “use rhetorical questions.” the corpus.
Finally, the last set of off-record strategies violates the
Maxim of Manner. These strategies are used to make
meanings indefinite when they could threaten the hearer’s 2. Method
face. These include: (1) “be ambiguous”; (2) “be vague”;
(3) “over-generalize”; (4) “displace H” or hearer (e.g., “We 2.1 Study Corpus
have received many qualified applicants and cannot employ
them all.”; i.e., “We cannot employ you.”); and (5) “be Thirty (30) rejection letters written by organizers of
incomplete, use ellipsis.” youth international conferences were gathered and used
for this study. The rejection letters collected were written
in the year 2014. The organizers who wrote these letters
belong to youth-oriented groups that are
55
either nongovernment-affiliated (NGOs), or national since they study and work in a university. Hence, the
and international councils governed by ASEAN and said data were collected from university students.
United Nations Alliance, which use English as their
primary language in official work communications and 2.2 Procedure
business correspondence. This criterion was specifically
established in order to filter out other letters written in The analysis conducted for this research
different languages. first attempted to identify the politeness strategies
The researchers acquired these letters from and politeness markers found in rejection letters for
different university students who received them after youth international conferences. It also endeavored to
being rejected by youth international conferences they give an overview of the textual organization of these
applied for. These youth international conferences letters through examining the moves underlying the
were mostly about leadership-skills building and rejection letters. In this light, each letter was analyzed
cultural-awareness campaigns. One of their primary at the speech act level (i.e., every utterance that has a
requirements for application is age, which may range performative function in the letter), which functions as
from 18 to 30 years old. Thus, the researchers chose the unit of analysis in this study.
to collate the data from university students, primarily
because they represent the age group the data of the 2.2.1 Unit of Analysis
present study would want to explore. In addition,
another salient requirement when applying for youth Speech act level as a unit of analysis in Brown and
international conferences is educational background. Levinson’s (1987) framework follows Austin’s (1975)
With the premise that education is a prerequisite to doctrine of performative and constative utterances.
join the conferences, the researchers opted to select The speech acts under the performative function are
university students as the resource of data since they identified as illocutionary acts, which are either: (1) the
qualified for the aforementioned criteria. Moreover, performance of which one must make to some other
it was ideal and more convenient (for data-gathering person as a clarification that the act is performed, or (2)
purposes) for the researchers to select these people the performance of which involves the production of what
Dear applicant,
*PF1 Thank you for applying to the XXXXXXXXXX.
PF2 We are privileged to have the opportunity to review applications from highly qualified individuals such as
yourself.
PF3 This made the task of the Selection Committee in choosing successful candidates an extremely difficult one.
PF4 We deeply regret that, despite your impressive application, we are unable to offer you a slot in this program.
PF5 We sincerely hope that you will continue to show interest in our future international programs.
PF6 We wish you success in all your future endeavors.
Best regards,
International Programs Secretariat

XXXXXXXXXX
*PF = Performative Function
Figure 3. Sample rejection letter from a youth international conference
56
Austin (1975, p. 23) calls “conventional consequences” event in letters. Baresova’s (2008) Refusal Sequence
(e.g., rights, commitments, or obligations). Model states that there are three moves underlying the
Figure 3 shows a sample of an analyzed structure of rejection letters. These moves include a
rejection letter. preparation stage, which is often composed of an
After determining the Performative Functions opening and transition, a rejection stage, and a remedy
in all the letters, they were classified according to how phase. Again, using Figure 3, the moves identified in
they served as politeness strategies: Positive the sample rejection letter are as follows:
Politeness (PP), Negative Politeness (NP), and Off-
Record (OR). The categorization was further guided Preparation stage:
by the extensive list of politeness strategies developed
by Brown and Levinson (1987). Using Figure 3 as an 1. PF1 Thank you for applying to the
example, the classification is as follows: XXXXXXXXXX. (opening)
2. PF2 We are privileged to have the
Positive politeness: opportunity to review applications from
highly qualified individuals such as
1. PF1 Thank you for applying to the yourself. (transition1)
XXXXXXXXXX. (notice, attend to 3. PF3 This made the task of the Selection
hearer) Committee in choosing successful
2. PF2 We are privileged to have the candidates an extremely difficult one.
opportunity to review applications from (transition2)
highly qualified individuals such as
yourself. (exaggerating) Rejection stage:
3. PF5 We sincerely hope that you will
continue to show interest in our future 1. PF4 We deeply regret that, despite your
international programs. (avoiding impressive application, we are unable to
disagreement, i.e., highlighting positive offer you a slot in this program.
aspect of a negative item)
4. PF6 We wish you success in all your Remedy stage:
future endeavors. (fulfilling hearer’s
wants, i.e., anticipation of hearer’s wants) 1. PF5 We sincerely hope that you will
continue to show interest in our future
Off-record: international programs. (positive politeness)
2. PF6 We wish you success in all your
1. PF2 We are privileged to have the future endeavors. (positive politeness)
opportunity to review applications from
highly qualified individuals such as The analysis of the data was performed by the
yourself. (overstating) researchers and verified by two intercoders who are
2. PF3 This made the task of the Selection knowledgeable in the field of study. The intercoders
Committee in choosing successful were both English college instructors with master’s
candidates an extremely difficult one. degrees, also in English. They independently verified
(giving association clues) the researcher’s analysis through reanalyzing the same
data until they all arrived at a consensus with the
2.2.2 Macro-structure of Rejection Letters results and interpretation of the entire data.
The next phase of analysis was to give an

estimation of the textual organization of the rejection 3. Results and Discussion
letters. For this section, the performative functions
were referred to as moves that dictate the next turn or In this section, the politeness strategies
57
identified in the rejection letters from youth Among all the politeness strategies observed,
international conferences are presented and analyzed. the strategy “be optimistic,” a positive politeness
In addition, the politeness markers that characterize strategy, accumulated the highest frequency (25 or
such strategies are discussed here. Lastly, a rough 14.97%), which is somehow expected because it
estimation of the textual organization of rejection exhibits the innate opposite attitude toward rejection,
letters from youth international conferences would be which is negative in nature. In this light, the data seem
proposed based on the findings of the study. to suggest that the writer/sender of the rejection letter
First, the rejection letters were analyzed according is fully aware of the negative impact the action may
to Brown and Levinson’s (1987) framework on politeness cause the addressee. Being optimistic, then, minimizes
strategies. A total of 26 politeness strategies was found, of this impact, and attempts for negotiation of face in the
which ten (10) were classified under the positive politeness writer’s part. Pilegaard (1997, as cited in Jansen
strategies. The results revealed that positive politeness & Jansen, 2010) affirms a similar finding when he
strategies were deployed the most after tallying a total of found that positive politeness strategies (alone or in
113 occurrences in 30 samples, averaging four to five per combination) make up 41.2% of the strategies employed
rejection letter. Tables 1, 2, and 3 provide a comprehensive in the letters in which business partners negotiate an
list of all the politeness strategies identified in the sample order, the type of letter in his corpus where refusals are
rejection letters. expected to occur most frequently. Similarly, Felix-
Table 1. Positive politeness strategies in rejection letters
Politeness Strategies Frequency Percentage

Positive Politeness Notice, attend to hearer 23 13.77%
Exaggerate 21 12.57%
Intensify interest to hearer 2 1.20%
Avoid disagreement 3 1.79%
Assert common ground 1 0.60%
Assert or presuppose speaker’s knowledge of and concern for hearer’s 5 3%
wants
Offer, promise 17 10.18%
Be optimistic 25 14.97%
Include both speaker and hearer in the activity 1 0.60%
Give gifts to hearer 15 8.98%
Total 113 67.66%
Table 2. Negative politeness strategies in rejection letters

Negative Politeness Be conventionally indirect 2 1.20%
Hedge 5 3%
Impersonalize S or H 1 0.60%
State FTA as a general rule 3 1.79%
Apologize 2 1.20%
Be pessimistic 1 0.60%
Nominalize 2 1.20%
Go on record as incurring a debt, or as not indebting H 1 0.60%
Total 17 10.19%
58
Table 3. Off-record strategies in rejection letters

Off-record Give association clues 8 4.79%
Presuppose 1 0.60%
Understate 3 1.79%
Overstate 17 10.18%
Be vague 1 0.60%
Over-generalize 1 0.60%
Displace H 6 3.59%
Total 37 22.15%
Bradsdefer’s (2006) study concluded that there is an the addressee of the letter.
initiative from the writer’s part to provide a resolution It is also noteworthy that negative politeness
to save both the speaker’s and the hearer’s faces. strategies, which tallied only 17 occurrences, are
The following examples show how positive infrequent in these rejection letters. The findings seem
politeness strategy “be optimistic” is deployed in to agree with Brown and Levinson‘s (1987)
rejection letters: explanation that while negative politeness is the most
conventionalized set of linguistic strategies for FTA
1. …so we hope you continue following redress, it is only an aspect of expressing politeness. In
our social media platforms to stay general, negative politeness maintains the respect for
updated. social distance, an aspect that is highly considered
2. …we would love to have you when enacting FTA (Cutrone, 2011). However, the
participate in the youth session. You outnumbering presence of positive politeness
can register here… strategies suggests that writers are not only concerned
3. …we hope you will consider continuing about delivering the FTA but also at establishing and
your journey with us through the . . . enhancing the relationship between them and the
4. We would welcome your application addressees as a way of compensation.
to our . . . next year. Next, an attempt to describe the macro-
5. Looking forward to seeing you there! structure of rejection letters from international youth
conferences was made. In this respect, Baresova’s
In these listed excerpts, all attempted to foster a (2008) model on refusal sequence was utilized to
mutual cooperation between the writer and the receiver identify the moves underlying these letters. The
of the rejection letter, which is indicative of “be findings in Table 4 show that rejection letters include
optimistic” strategy because they (the writers) readily a preparation stage, composed of an opening and a
presumed the addressees’ willingness to cooperate, while transition part, a rejection stage, and a remedy stage.
equally expecting a positive outcome. By doing so, the
speaker confirms that he is interested in the hearer and Table 4. Frequency of moves in the refusal sequence
wants a good relationship with him, so that this
cooperative context and situation can compensate for the Moves in Frequency Average
Refusal Move per
damage done by the FTA (Jansen & Jansen, 2010). In a
Sequence Letter
sense, this particular strategy could also be another way
Preparation Opening 41 1.37
to implicitly request favors from the addressee.
Transistion 44 1.47
Moreover, the analysis of these excerpts may lead to a
Rejection 30 1
conclusion that the “be optimistic” strategy is often
marked by phrases indicating hope and optimism toward Remedy 136 4.53
cooperation between the writer and Total 251 8.37
59
Table 4 registers 41 and 44 occurrences of 6. Dear Applicant,

opening and transition parts in rejection letters, Thank you for your application to the . . .
averaging 1.37 and 1.47 respectively, per letter. This 7. Dear applicant,
means that writers prefer to have an opening and a On behalf of the . . . organising team,
transition when writing or constructing their letters. we would like to thank you again for
Moreover, this reveals important information with regard your interest and your application for
to the construction of rejection letters because it implies the . . .
that the writers do not proceed with rejecting the 8. Dear applicant,
applicant right away, but they provide a background or Thank you very much for applying to . . .
explanation behind the action. In addition, in both 9. Dear applicant to the Youth event at the
opening and transition parts of the rejection letters, . . . in Bali, Indonesia.
redressive schemes or politeness strategies were already Thank you for your interest in the . . .
utilized. The opening part usually contained the writer’s in Bali and for taking the time to
gratitude for the applicant’s interest in the program or submit an application.
conference, while the transition part elicited several 10. Dear (name of applicant),
techniques or politeness strategies before proceeding Thank you for your interest in . . .
with the actual rejection. Tables 5 and 6 summarize the
politeness strategies deployed in the opening and Table 6. Politeness strategies at the transition sequence
transition parts of the rejection letters.
Politeness Frequency Percentage
Table 5. Politeness strategies at the opening sequence Strategies
Positive Exaggerating 8 18.18%
politeness Intensify interest 3 6.82%
Frequency Percentage
to hearer
Positive Notice, attend to 23 76.67%
Politeness hearer Noticing, 1 2.27%
attending to
Exaggerate 2 6.67%
hearer
Others Greetings, follow- 5 16.66 Negative Being 1 2.27%
up on the result of
politeness pessimistic
application, and
etc. Overstating 9 20.45%
Total 30 100% Off-record Giving 6 13.65%
association clues
Based on Table 5, “notice, attend to hearer” is Understating 1 2.27%
the most frequently used strategy in the opening Over-generalize 1 2.27%
sequence of rejection letters from youth international Displace H 1 2.27%
conferences, with 23 or 76.67% instances. This also Others Without 13 29.55%
means that writers deploy mostly positive politeness politeness
strategies at the beginning of their letters. The analysis strategies
of data shows that the “notice, attend to hearer” Total 44 100%
strategy is often introduced by a thank-you phrase,
which according to Baresova (2008) is the most In the transition sequence of the preparation
common introductory statement or formulaic stage in rejection letters, most writers prefer not to use
expression used to express appreciation. politeness strategies. It is evidently seen in the data,
Here are some notable instances when thank- which revealed 13 instances when the writers do not
you phrases were utilized in the “opening” sequence use politeness strategy in this particular sequence. In
of the rejection letters. most cases, these transitions are short phrases as
exhibited in the following examples:
60
11. After reviewing your application… positive politeness strategy. These two strategies are
12. After careful consideration closely related because they both overtly accentuate facts
throughout the selection process… and qualities. However, they differ in their subject foci.
13. After a careful review of your On the one hand, exaggerating directly enhances the
application according to our criterias value of the addressee’s face, or anything that is directly
[sic]… related to him or her (i.e., qualities, stature, and the like);
14. The selection team considered all on the other, overstating is a strategy that enigmatically
applications and after screening increases situations or a state of anything that has no
through all forms… relation at all with the addressee.
These are examples of “overstating” used in
There are also notable instances where a the transition sequence of rejection letters:
transition comes in the form of a word or two such as:
19. We received an enormous amount of
15. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept interest in the session, with over 770
all of them due to our limited resources. applications for our 12 youth
16. However, upon deliberation, we regret facilitator and pitcher spots.
to inform you that you did not make it
through this year’s . . . applications. In this example, the italicized words
17. Unfortunately, . . . organizing committee ‘enormous’ and ‘over’ indicate the off the record
regrets to inform you that we are unable strategy “overstating” because they exaggerate the
to offer you admission to . . . facts in order to divert the reader’s focus from the
18. Due to limited resources, it is with actual scenario, which is rejection. It introduces a
regret that we inform you that your separate case, which aims to justify the decision of the
team was not chosen as this year’s panel. Note, too, this example:
case challenge winner.
20. A large number of scholarship
The italicized words signal the transition of applications were submitted from all
the letter from a positive (appreciation) to a negative over the region for this important
(rejection) tone of the writer. This transitional phrase congress.
follows shortly after the thank-you statement. While
thank-you statements are generally positive in nature, In example 20, ‘large’ was used as an
it is noteworthy that Baresova (2008) believes that it overstatement to the number of applications the
is a good starting point to announce bad news. Hence, committee received for the congress. Like the
the appearance of these words (i.e., unfortunately, previous example, it provides an explanation or
however, and due to) in the transition sequence of the justification for the decision before actually disclosing
rejection letter aids the shift of the positive the result, that is, to help minimize the impending
atmosphere, which was first established in the threat of refusal or rejection. Baresova (2008) purports
beginning of the letter, to a negative one. Moreover, that this particular strategy (i.e., mentioning of the
the analysis identified that these words are examples number of applicants) signals or hints a rejection and,
of transitional devices, which are used to express two therefore, minimizes an impending threat.
contrasting ideas (Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Meanwhile, these are examples of
Svartvik, 1985). In this case, the appearance of these exaggerating, a positive politeness strategy, used in
transitional devices seems to imply that the addressee the transition sequence of rejection letters:
is about to receive a bad news or about to be rejected.
Consequently, the transition sequences that used 21. We have received more than 2,400
politeness strategies showed that “overstating,” an off applications from promising students
the record strategy, is the most deployed politeness across all 51 . . . member countries
strategy, followed by “exaggerating,” which is a and the Selection Committee has
61
considered and carefully reviewed Table 7. Rejection pattern at the rejection stage
each application.
Rejection Frequency Percentage
In this example, the italicized word ‘promising’ Pattern
indicates exaggeration as a politeness strategy. The word With 12 40%
politeness
suggests exaggeration of the qualities of the students or
strategies
applicants. It was placed in order to minimize the FTA of
Others Without 17 56.67%
rejection by juxtaposing a praise or approval of the politeness
student’s qualification. Examine, too, this example: strategies
Indirect rejection 1 3.33%
22. The mentor recruiting process was by Total 30 100%
no means highly competitive due to
the participation of various Both extracts 23 and 24 demonstrate rejection of
outstanding applicants. the applicant. However, notice that the first example
made use of “unable to offer admission,” which directly
The word ‘outstanding’ is an exaggeration referred to the slot or place the applicant is trying to
trying to divert the reader’s attention from the actual apply for, as compared to the second example that used
rejection. It minimizes the FTA imposition by approving “put on the waitlist,” which could elicit several
the traits or qualifications of the applicants. The writer meanings. This type of rejection is indirect as it did not
went as far as calling these applicants ‘outstanding’ to specify the exact result of the applicant’s request.
emphasize their approval. Such words (i.e., promising, Meanwhile, this employment of direct
outstanding) are examples of emphatic expressions, refusals may be attributed to the relationship of the
which according to Brown and Levinson (1987) do not writer and the addressee, in which power relation
only redress FTA but also draw the speaker and the plays an important role in delivering FTA (Felix-
hearer closer and enhance their relationship. Bradsdefer, 2006; Morkus, 2014). Aliakbari and
The next stage in the refusal sequence Changizi (2012) stressed that direct refusals are most
purported by Baresova (2008) is the actual rejection. frequent in cases where the one being rejected is of
This part contains the FTA, which are either directly lower status than the person who will do the rejection.
stated or imbedded through the statement. In some In this study, the writers of the rejection letters are
cases, politeness schemes are employed side-by-side found to be of higher ranks (e.g., director, head of
the rejection in order to reduce its damaging effect. commission), while the applicants are mere students.
Table 7 summarizes the rejection patterns found at the Correspondingly, direct refusals were mostly
rejection stage of the letter. employed, too. In addition, the results revealed that
The data seem to imply that writers of regret phrases mark the actual rejection in letters.
rejection letters from youth international conferences These phrases observed in the samples are as follows:
prefer to be direct or bold (i.e., stating rejection
without redressive or politeness schemes) when 23. We deeply regret that, despite your
rejecting an applicant. Note these two examples: impressive application, we are unable
to offer you a slot in this program.
23. Unfortunately, . . . organizing 24. … we are regretfully unable to offer
committee regrets to inform you that you a place at our conference.
we are unable to offer you admission 25. We regret to inform you today that we
to . . . are not able to provide you a place in
24. We have finished scouring through this year’s . . .
over six hundred applications, and we 26. …we regret to inform you that you
would like to inform you that you have NOT been selected for the
have been put on the waitlist. scholarship award.
62
27. We regret to inform you that the Also, one predominant observation in the
selection did not fall on you this time. analysis of the data is the use of the pronoun ‘we’ to
identify the party who will do the rejection. Some of
Regret phrases, in a sense, function as formal these writers who employ the pronoun ‘we’ in writing
and polite means of refusing or rejecting an applicant. the body of the rejection letters sign at the end with
They are considered formulaic expressions embedded their respective names and positions. Therefore, there
in the rejection sequence, functioning as supporting is a mismatch with the referencing present in these
moves to the FTA. They do not exactly minimize letters. However, instead of looking at it as an error,
imposition but help soften the impact of FTAs, for the researcher looked into further factors contributing
such phrases may convey the writer’s sympathy with to such behavior. It was discovered that for writers
the addressee. utilizing ‘we’ in letter writing, cultural background
The last stage in the refusal sequence is the contributes as an important element in constructing
remedy which, according to Baresova (2008), serves as a statements. Since the data collected were written by
supporting move in rejection letters (aside from the organizers who present themselves as a team, which
opening and transition parts). In the 30 samples gathered, are mostly considered collectivistic in culture (Felix-
all were identified to have the remedy sequence in their Brasdefer, 2006; Morkus, 2014), this type of writing
rejection letters, tallying about 136 instances and mostly transpired. Meanwhile, Hyland (2002), in a
averaging 4.53 per letter. This part comes right after the similar endeavor, believes that the use of ‘we’ in his
rejection, and it contains the most number of politeness study are attempts to avoid the personal responsibility
strategies compared to the preparation and rejection that subjectivity entails, therefore, avoiding conflicts
sequences since it redresses the damage the actual and instead saving face value.
rejection created. (See Table 1 for reference.)
In summary, the proposed macrostructure of the
rejection letters from youth international conferences 4. Conclusion
includes a preparation stage that is composed of a thank-
you statement and a transitional device, which would This work explored the politeness strategies and
signal the shift to the rejection stage. The rejection macro-structure organization of rejection letters from
follows a pattern of a direct refusal, without employing youth international conferences. The analysis revealed
politeness strategies, followed by the remedy stage, several mechanisms underlying the rejection, requiring
which takes different kinds of politeness strategies. employment of different politeness strategies. Despite a
Figure 4 summarizes the proposed macrostructure of the myriad of politeness strategies available, the writers of
rejection letter based on the findings of the study. the rejection letters seem to favor positive politeness
among others (i.e, negative politeness and off-record),
Thank-you statements primarily to accommodate and enhance the relationship
Preparation between them (the writers) and the receivers as a way to
compensate for the damage done by the rejection.
Transitional device The utilization of these strategies can be
explained in light of the values and perceptions
Direct Refusal underlying the data’s writing culture. The corpora
used for this study were written by organizers of
international conferences, who have varying cultural
Remedy (Politeness orientations. What seems to be common among these
Strategies) writers is their use of English as a standard medium to
communicate. Baresova (2008) in her cross-cultural
Figure 4. Macro-structure of rejection letters study of rejection letters written by Americans and
from youth international conferences Japanese, claimed that positive politeness are mostly
employed in American’s standard letter writing. This
finding may possibly account for the predominant use of
63
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Appendix A.
Sample Rejection Letters Written by Organizers of Youth International Conferences
Dear Applicant,
Thank you for your application to the . . .
Due to the exceptionally high standard of applications, we regret to inform you that your application has not been
successful on this occasion. The . . . is highly competitive and there are many good candidates to whom it is
unfortunately not possible to offer a slot. We are unable to provide individual feedback due to the large number of
applications we received.
However, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for applying to the . . . and to wish you the best of
luck in your future endeavors.
If you wish to apply for other . . ., please sign up for alerts by liking and following our Facebook and Twitter Pages.
Best Wishes,
XXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXX
Regrets message to nonselected participants and potential alternates
Dear applicant to the . . . in Bali, Indonesia.
Thank you for your interest in the . . . in Bali and for taking the time to submit an application.
During the past weeks, the Selection Committee composed of youth, . . . and Indonesian representatives reviewed
nearly 3,000 applications received for the . . . in Bali. They did so while focusing on the criteria outlined in the call
for applications. Earlier today, members of this committee made a final decision on the 100 youth to be invited to
Bali for this event. The final decision took into consideration the scores for each application as well as regional and
gender balance.
Unfortunately, your application was not retained. This result is not a reflection of your profile but rather of how
high the number of application was compared to the number of places available.
However, please note that should the selected participants withdraw from the event, the Selection Committee will
go back to the pool of applicants and select alternative candidates.
Once again, we thank you for your interest in the . . . in Bali and for taking the time to apply.
Best regards,
XXXXXXXXX
66
Kereen Ria C. Genteroy and Veronico N. Tarrayo
Dear Applicant,
We highly appreciate your interest in . . . taking place in Istanbul, Turkey.
After a careful review of your application according to our criterias, we are sorry to inform you that your
application will not be going forward to the next round of evaluation.
Please note that the selection process was very competitive and only a limited number of participants were chosen.
As we received over 3400 applications, we regret that we are unable to provide individual feedback and further
communication with candidates.
However, we welcome you to join our first day sessions are going to be held in Istanbul Congress Center on the
24th of October, which is open to all.
We hope you understand the delay in delivering our reply, as we took time to thoroughly review each application.
We appreciate your patience and understanding and wish you success in your future endeavors.
We would like to invite you to access further information on our current and upcoming activities, some of which
might be of interest to you. Future events are posted on our website, which can be accessed at:
XXXXXXXXX
It would be a pleasure to welcome you in any of our future programmes.
Again, you are welcome to join our first day’s session which is going to be held in Istanbul Congress Center on the
24th of October.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXX
67
A Contrastive Rhetoric Analysis of Job Application Letters

John Paul O. Dela Rosa

Dapdap High School – DepEd Tarlac, Philippines
Rachelle B. Lintao
1

Manila, Philippines
Maria Grace D. Dela Cruz

Philippine Normal University
Manila, Philippines
1Corresponding author: [email protected]
Abstract
This study investigates the physical elements, surface features, readability, rhetorical moves, and
politeness strategies employed in job application letters written by Filipino and American teacher-applicants
using the lens of contrastive rhetoric analysis. The study analyzed 30 authentic Filipino and American job
application letters written from 2001 to 2015, which comprised the entire corpora, using Upton and Connor’s
(2001) Coding Scheme and Brown and Levison’s (1987) politeness strategies as frameworks for analysis. The
results revealed that the Philippine corpus does not strictly observe the needed physical elements in a job
application letter, while the American corpus has consistently adhered to all the required elements. In terms of
the surface features of the corpora, Filipino teachers include less words and shorter sentences that are more
lexically dense. Meanwhile, American teachers write more words and longer sentences that are less lexically
dense. As regards the corpora’s readability, measures of lexical density revealed that American job application
letters are more intelligible than those of the Filipinos. However, both of the corpora fall under acceptable ranges
of readability based on the Gunning-Fog index. In terms of the rhetorical moves, Filipino teachers follow a more
personalized and unconventional way of presenting details in their application letters, while American teachers
are more structured and tend to conform to standards in representing each move in their letters. Finally, the
preferences of both Filipino and American teachers for politeness strategies show no apparent difference.
Filipinos observe direct and nonstandard ways of expressing respect to their addressees. On the other hand,
American teachers generally prefer positive politeness strategies and are more indirect, formal, and conventional
in expressing congenial statements in their letters. Based on the results, implications for establishing an ESP
writing class for teachers are provided.
Keywords: Contrastive analysis, genre-based writing, job application letters, move analysis, ESP
1. Introduction contrastive analysis, error analysis, and relevant

investigations on the influence of L1 to L2 learning.
The critical argument of Kaplan (1966), which In her historical review of CR, Connor (2002)
posits that every culture ushers in distinctive patterns of affirms CR’s development toward a context-sensitive
thinking that significantly influence the organizational research approach that includes studying the social
structure of writing, is one of the earliest in Contrastive context, local situatedness, writing process as well as
Rhetoric (CR). As a field in applied linguistics, CR has written products themselves, and history and social
paved ways for rhetoric studies that highlighted structures of a particular culture. From being delimited
68
John Paul O. Dela Rosa, Rachelle B. Lintao,
& Maria Grace D. Dela Cruz
to L1 and L2 learners’ writing, CR studies have 1.1 Job Application Cover Letters
advanced into integrating authentic writing samples or
discipline-specific corpus with multidimensional Writing a cover letter has been a household
analytical frameworks for cross-cultural linguistic requirement for one to land on a desired job. It is typical
analyses. These include studying rhetorical or moves- for an applicant to take advantage of the utility of a job
analysis theories governing various writings in application letter to be considered for almost any
professional and academic contexts. Hence, the need position. In the United States, 91% of executives who
for genre-based analysis originated. joined in an online survey agreed that cover letters are
The regularities in texts in terms of shared valuable when evaluating job candidates (Half, 2012).
communicative purposes within discourse communities Also, 71% of the managers, who participated in the said
are embodied in genre analysis, which gives light to survey, affirmed that they anticipate receiving cover
various research concerning structures and conventions letters even when applicants submit their resumes online.
of written outputs from different professional and In general, the application letter can supplement and
academic contexts. In presenting the definition of a enrich the information present in the rest of the
genre in relation to English for Specific Purposes (ESP), application (Hope College, 2002). Thus, writing a good
Swales (1990) underscores that a genre shapes the job application letter may be a crucial factor whether the
schematic structure of the discourse and influences and application will be accepted or not.
constrains the choice of content and style. His study of In Western culture, the main function of a job
genres in terms of rhetorical moves has sought to application letter is to provide a self-appraisal that
operationalize a text into particular segments, which includes strategies such as enhancing qualifications and
originated from the educational objective of supporting experiences of the applicant and demonstrating such an
the teaching of academic writing and reading for interest in a specific position (Li, 2011). Among
nonnative speakers of English (Benjamins, 2010). countries in Asia, styles and conventions toward writing
Recent studies in CR have centered on texts for an application letter are different. In fact, in Taiwan,
specific genres such as research articles, editorials, grant application letters are not an essential component for job
proposals, theses, and texts for professional purposes application documents in business communities. In
(Lintao & Erfe, 2012). Such new directions in CR another study of cross-cultural variations in job
consider texts not merely as static products but as application letters among people in South Asia, Bhatia
functional parts of dynamic cultural contexts (Connor, (1993) found that application letters from South Asian
1990). Moreover, recent research in academic and countries do not reflect similar promotional features as
professional writing across cultures forms part of the those from Western countries. On a relative note,
domains of investigation in contrastive studies. Connor, Davis, and De Rycker (1995) concluded in their
Contrastive studies on professional and academic study of job application letters across cultures that the
writings conducted in milieus outside the Anglo- Flemish group resembled Bhatia’s (1993) South Asian
American context recommend that CR be pursued group, which is to say that they do not use the cover
according to varying aims and methods within different letter as a sales instrument for self-promotion. As a part
institutions and universities and in EFL situations and parcel of professional discourse, similarities and
(Enkvist, 1997). Hence, several research that highlight differences between or among cover letters written by
CR relevant to academic and professional settings have native and nonnative speakers of English could be
been undertaken in Europe, Middle East, and Asia. functionally explored.
In reviewing current literature, English One of the schemes developed for such an
writing based on a task for real-world purposes poses investigation is genre analysis in writing application
interests among CR researchers. Consequently, genre- letters to help applicants realize forms, conventions,
based investigations on business letter writing have and effective communicative writing to the hiring
penetrated the research scene. One of them is committee. Although there are hundreds of websites
specifically connected to writing cover letters for a job providing applicants with samples and guidelines, a
application. genre analysis based on linguistic approaches is still
needed to help applicants understand how to achieve
69
the communicative purposes of the application letter basis of the model of schematic structure, the “moves”
through move structures, linguistic features, and and “steps” of letters were specified, and finally, the
pragmatics (Hsaio, 2004). Researchers within and politeness strategies used in the letters were analyzed.
outside the inner circle of World Englishes have The findings showed that Iranian business letter-
apparently arrived at these differences and similarities writers mostly focused on the surface linguistic
in rhetorical features of job application letters. aspects of the English language while the pragmatic
The study of Upton and Connor (2001) aspects of language, such as using politeness
identified cross-cultural differences that may influence strategies, were ignored in their letter writing. This
effectiveness of the application letters written by significantly links to the inevitability of capitalizing
American and European undergraduate students by on the use of both the linguistic and the pragmatic
analyzing a corpus covering a ten-year period. They features when analyzing business letters.
concluded that letters written in early years showed Li (2011) analyzed the English cover letters
greater differences in style between cultural groups as written by Taiwanese and Canadian Hospitality
compared with letters written in later years. They further Management majors for their internship applications.
observed that the style of application letters has become Using a move-based analysis, the researcher found out
more homogenized in the global business environment that there are significant differences in length, lexical
(Li, 2011). Their study, thus, resulted in the investigation density, and descriptions of desire for applying for the
on the use of politeness strategies in letter writing. job; providing arguments in benefits for the company;
Maier (1992) conducted a study on cross- and politeness expressions between Taiwanese and
cultural job application letter analyses and found out that Canadian students’ cover letters. The study’s
native speakers use more positive polite strategies, such implications for the teaching of English for Specific
as being indirect in deferring to the reader. Upton and Purposes (ESP) among students applying for
Connor (2001) also reported that American and non- internships may give light to the strategy of
American applicants operate politeness strategies considering discourse features of letters to guide
differently in cover letters but do not follow particular student-applicants toward getting the jobs they desire.
patterns. As mentioned in the study of Li (2011), the In the Philippines, would-be employees have to
differences might be attributed to cultural variations in be acquainted with the basics of job application letter
the audience’s expectation and interpretation of reader- writing. In a country where jobs are outnumbered by the
writer relationships and the writer’s concepts of how number of applicants, standing out from the rest through
politeness is expressed. As such, the variations in writing the aid of a cover letter must be considered. One of the
job application letters do not only encompass form, professions that breed a lot of applicants every year in
content, and style but politeness strategies as well. the country is teaching. Based on the report of the
Several years after the emergence of important Education Department, public schools in the Philippines
studies on cover letter writing as a genre, many will need 81,000 teachers for the commencement of its
researchers endeavored to widen its scope by including Senior High School Program in 2016. This means that
other elements and venturing on other genres within the more teachers will be filling in teaching positions among
context of business correspondence. Few of these studies public schools that offer basic education. What would
focused on rhetorical moves applied among application make them more employable is their readiness to
essays for graduate school, contrastive rhetoric analysis produce effective job application letters. Since
of business letters written by native and nonnative Philippine English traditionally follows the standard
speakers, and contrastive studies dealing with internship American English, it is also crucial to study the way
application letters involving students subjected to Filipino teachers write their job application letters as
extensive English language instruction. founded on the conventions used by the Americans.
In 2006, Arvani conducted a discourse analysis Since the use of English has been part of almost all
of business letters written by native English speaking proceedings in the Philippines such as those in the
and nonnative Iranian communicators. Using Halliday’s academe and the business world, it is a permissible truth
(1985) notion of lexical density, the number of lexical that Americans have influenced the way Filipinos think
and grammatical words was computed. Then, on the and write (Famy, 2004). Hence,
70
in writing cover letters, one could also see traces of and American teacher-applicants?
American elements among the writings of Filipinos in How do they distinctly employ such
the said genre. Their comparability is, therefore, geared moves?; and
toward a specific professional purpose for teachers. 4. What politeness strategies are used in
A move analysis on job application letters both Filipino and American teachers’
written by both American and Filipino teachers is, job application letters? Is there a
thus, relevant to this study. Although several difference between the preferences for
contrastive studies have already revealed differences politeness strategies of the Filipinos
in rhetorical moves in cover letters across cultures, no and Americans?
study has been conducted to investigate the structure
and, more importantly, the moves used by both 1.3 Frameworks of the Study
Filipino and American teachers as they draft their
application letters for a teaching position. The 1.3.1 Upton and Connor’s Coding Scheme
linguistic features that determine complexity and
readability of a text, including the positive and Coding schemes are ways of categorizing
negative politeness strategies that could possibly be behavior so that one can code what is observed in terms
entrenched in the corpora of cover letters used in the of how often a type of behavior appears. This is a coding
study, may also provide a concrete picture of the scheme for corpus of application letters based on the
cultural and rhetorical differences between Americans concept of Swalesian (Swales, 1990) genre moves
and Filipinos despite adhering to the same standards categorized by the communicative purpose of individual
in using English for written communication. rhetorical units. Upton and Connor’s (2001) seven-move
Ultimately, this paper would shed light as to how coding scheme made two modifications on the scheme
teachers could improve the way they write business originally developed by Connor, Davis, and De Rycker
correspondence such as job application letters, (1995). The moves “describe the functions (or
particularly addressing their writing needs and helping communicative intentions) which particular portions of
them meet the criteria of effective cover letter writing. the text realize in relationship to the overall task of
applying for… an overseas internship” (Connor, Davis,
1.2 Objectives of the Study & De Rycker, as cited in Upton & Connor, 2001, p.
463.). These two move alterations from the original were
This contrastive rhetoric study focuses on job an extension of Move 4 (originally, “Indicate desire for
application letters written by Filipino and American an interview.”) and addition of a seventh move
teacher-applicants by comparing their physical elements, (“Reference attached resume.”) from the initial total of
surface structures, readability features, rhetorical moves, six . Upton and Connor further clarify that the moves are
and politeness strategies. Specifically, it sought answers obligatory or essential.
to the following questions: This coding scheme is, thus, adapted in this
1. What physical elements of an study, for it focuses on the rhetorical moves applied in
application letter are present in the writing job application letters. Although the present
corpora of Filipino and American study deals with cover letters of teachers, this framework
teachers’ job application letters? How is still applicable since it encompasses features equally
do the two differ in terms of their observed in application letters written for a teaching
physical elements?; position. However, to make the coding scheme befitting
2. What are the similarities and differences with the objectives of the study, some words were
between the job application letters of modified and were aligned with terms common for a job
Filipino and American teacher-applicants application letter for teaching.
in terms of the letters’ surface features
and readability?;
3. What are the rhetorical moves found in
the job application letters of Filipino
71
Table 1. Upton and Connor’s coding scheme (2001, p. 318) the speaker and the addressee see themselves as
equals (Li, 2011). According to Upton and Connor
1 Identify the source of information (Explain how and where (2001), the directness of the speaker and the use of
you learned of the position). optimism are identified as positive politeness.
2 Apply for the position (State desire for consideration).
3 Provide argument, including supporting information, for
the job application. 2. Method
a. Implicit argument based on neutral evidence or
information about background and experience.
2.1 Study Corpus
b. Argument based on what would be good for the
hiring company.
c. Argument based on what would be good for the
The data analyzed in this study include two
applicant. sets of job application letters written by Filipino and
4 Indicate desire for an interview or a desire for further American teachers. The first set includes 15 letters of
contact, or specify means of further communication/how application written in English by Filipino teachers
to be contacted. applying in public and private elementary and
5 Express politeness (pleasantries) or appreciation at the end secondary schools in the Philippines. The job
of the letter. application letters were submitted to school heads of
6 Offer to provide more information. their respective institutions from 2000-2014. On the
7 Reference attached resume. other hand, 15 samples of job application letters were
downloaded from different websites of American
1.3.2 Politeness Strategies universities, which showcase sample authentic cover
letters of teachers applying for a teaching position in
In writing a cover letter, the need to be modest both public and private elementary and high schools
and teachable on the part of applicants must be across the United States. The job application letters
expressed. Hence, the use of politeness strategies helps written by Americans were composed from 2003-
the applicants on how to maintain a balance between 2015. The difference in the years when the cover
advertising themselves and presenting themselves as letters were written was assumed to have no relative
respectful and teachable. Lakoff’s (1973) classic paper impact on the results since similar structures and
describes the sociocultural function of politeness as patterns were observed from the two sets of corpora.
helping people to alleviate and avoid the risks associated The comparability of the job application letters
with interaction conflict. Politeness makes the written by both Filipino and American teachers links
interaction less abrasive and hurtful as a result of using with the varieties of World Englishes across the globe as
indirectness, softeners, or mitigators. presented by Y. Kachru (1997). The Philippines is
Politeness strategies are classified into positive associated with the outer circle where English is learned
and negative politeness. Positive politeness strategies as a second language. On the other hand, the United
include directness and being optimistic, while negative States belongs to the inner circle along with United
politeness strategies focus on the use of modals and Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand −
formulaic expressions. Negative politeness strategies are countries where English is used as a first language.
intended to reinforce the speakers’ respect for the
addressees, showing that the speakers acknowledge the 2.2 Procedure
addressees’ independence and freedom of action (Brown
& Levison, 1987). Such politeness strategies are The elements present in each group of job
connected with the use of modals and formulaic application letters were identified as represented
expressions. On the other hand, positive politeness through the number of occurrences or frequencies.
strategies are employed to emphasize the shared goals Quantitative analyses of the physical elements and
and common ground between the speaker and the surface features of the letters, such as the total word
addressee. The strategies are most effective when both count, number of sentences, average sentence length,
number of paragraphs and hard words, and
72
lexical densities including their readability levels, were readability of the sample job application letters are based
computed using an online text analyzer from on the said features. The lexical density of a text tries to
UsingEnglish.com, a website that provides free text measure the proportion of the content (lexical) words
content analysis and accurate statistics. On the other over the total words. Texts with a lower density are more
hand, to analyze the genre moves of the job application easily understood. Lexically dense texts have a lexical
letters, Upton and Connor’s (2001) Coding Scheme for density of around 60-70%, and those that are not have a
Learner Application Letter was adapted as framework lower lexical density measure of around 40-50%.
for analysis. All the sample letters were encoded and Similarly, the Gunning-Fog index aims to identify the
converted to computer files. The help of an intercoder readability of a text. It gives the number of years of
who is a Ph.D. in Linguistics degree holder and has been education that a reader hypothetically needs to
teaching language courses in a state university for 23 understand the paragraph or text. The index formula
years was, therefore, sought in order to ensure the implies that short sentences written in plain English
reliability of the study results. Careful identification and achieve a better score than long sentences written in
categorization of the moves used in the job application complicated language. For instance, the New York Times
letters written by Filipinos and Americans seeking for has an average Fog index of 11-12 and the Time
teaching jobs were then employed. Consequently, the Magazine about 11. Typically, technical documentation
politeness strategies (Brown & Levison, 1987) used in has a Fog index between 10 and 15, and professional
Moves 4 and 5 of the Filipino and American cover letters prose almost never exceeds 18 (UsingEnglish.com).
were likewise discussed and compared. Meanwhile, the politeness strategies employed
In analyzing how the respondents employed the in both corpora of Filipino and American job application
moves in Upton and Connor’s scheme in writing their letters were analyzed based on the use of formulaic
application letters, a move is considered obligatory if its expressions and modal auxiliaries that may reveal
percentage of occurrences is 60% above. Thus, it is positive and negative pleasantries. These elements show
qualified as obligatory if it appears at least once in nine speech acts, express concern for others, and minimize
(9) out of the 15 job application letters evaluated. On the threats to self-esteem (Nordquist, 2009).
other hand, a move is considered optional if its
percentage of occurrences is below 60% − that is,
equivalent to 0-8 times of appearance among the 15 job 3. Results and Discussion
application letters under study.
A job application letter fulfills a
2.3 Data Analysis communicative purpose that links the applicant with
his or her prospective employer. Hence, the physical,
The text analyzer used in the study examines linguistic, and pragmatic features of a cover letter
text content and gives statistics about a text including have to be considered to ensure the letter’s
word count, unique words, number of sentences, communicability. The following results and
average words per sentence, lexical density, and the discussion reveal the comparability that exists
Gunning-Fog readability index. The study used an between the ways Filipino and American teachers use
online text analyzer to determine the physical features the distinct features of their cover letters such as how
of sample job application letters produced by Filipinos they observe the parts of a business letter, the number
and Americans and to identify each letter’s readability of content and hard words that lead to their letters’
based on how lexically dense each sample is and on readability, and the inclusion of politeness strategies
the number of hard words crucial for computing for as a pragmatic element in cover letter writing.
the Gunning-Fog readability index. The text analyzer
is a free program from UsingEnglish.com. 3.1 Physical Elements Included in Filipino and
The said text analyzer determined the physical American Teachers’ Job Application Letters
features of the corpora of letters as to the total number
of words, sentences, paragraphs, and hard words One of the basics in writing a job application
collectively. The measures of lexical density and letter is the knowledge of its essential parts. The
73
Writing Center @ University of Wisconsin–Madison pertinent documents. On the other hand, the corpus of
(2014) notes that the use of conventional business American teachers’ application letters shows that all the
correspondence form in cover letter writing is highly essential parts of a business letter are strictly followed.
needed, and knowledge of the structure of an effective The inconsistency in the observance of the said
job application letter would favor an applicant in any essential elements among the samples of letters from
job or work desired. Filipino teacher-applicants may be attributed to their
According to the Northern Michigan University lack of training and awareness of technical writing
(2011), a business letter is a formal letter with six parts. conventions. As reported by Thomas (2011), ESL
These include the heading, which contains the return learners tend to commit errors when structuring formal
address with the date on the last line; the recipient’s letters and curriculum vitae. This was seconded by
address containing the address of the one the letter is Sanders (2011) when he reported that a lot of applicants
sent; the salutation or the greeting; the body of the letter, forget to include a cover letter whenever they go through
which serves as the letter’s meat; the complimentary finding a job. In the Philippines, a resume is more
close, which is a short and a polite remark that ends the popular than a cover letter. This may be due to the
letter; the signature line; and the enclosures, written if reason that Filipino applicants do not see the need to
there is any enclosed or attached document such as a write an application letter as compared with the
resume. These elements are then deemed to be perceived importance of a resume. Moreover, among
obligatory in business correspondence that include job Americans and those whose native language is English,
application letters. Table 2 presents the important adhering to standards is extremely important. This was
elements found in the corpora of job application letters proved in the study of Li (2011) when he found out that
written by Filipino and American teachers. the samples of Canadian internship letters contain all the
elements of a cover letter. The same observation was
Table 2. Physical comparison of the elements ascertained among the internship letters of Taiwanese
contained in Filipino and American teachers’ job
students who have had at least seven years of formal
application letters
instruction in English and who were exchange students
in Canada. Some of them, however, failed to provide
Filipino American
Teachers’ Job Teachers’ Job
correct information of other elements such as those
Application Application relative to the recipients’ and the salutation.
Letters Letters
Heading 5 15 3.2 Surface Features and Readability of Filipino
Recipient's Address 12 15 and American Teachers’ Job Application
Salutation 14 15
Letters
Body 15 15
The differences in words, sentences, and
Complimentary Close 14 15
paragraph structures between the two corpora of
Signature 15 15
Filipino and American job application letters were
Enclosures 9 15 also analyzed. Table 3 shows the total length and
lexical densities of each corpus of job application
Apparent differences can be seen on the way letters written by Filipinos and Americans,
Filipino and American teacher-applicants follow respectively, that led to the identification of their
conventions in application letter writing such as the corresponding extents of readability.
observance of necessary elements of a letter. Among the Based on the surface-level analysis of the two
corpus of Filipino teachers’ application letters, only five corpora of job application letters written by Filipino
(5) out of 15 included a heading; 12 included the and American teachers, the corpus from American
recipient’s address; 14 have salutation; all of them have teacher-applicants use of more words (4,003) and
body of the letter; 14 have complimentary close; all have sentences (193) than those of the Filipino teachers’ job
signature line; and nine (9) from the letter samples application letters, which have a total of 2,871 and 167
provide an enclosures or attachments referring to other sentences. In terms of the average length of
74
sentences, American job application letters have the variance goes with the number of words that
21.09, while those written by Filipinos have 17.12. complete one full sentence. In the case of the American
This posits that American teachers write more lengthy job application letters, the longest sentence consists of 63
sentences in their cover letters whereas Filipino words as compared with the longest sentence among the
teachers write shorter ones. Conversely, the American Filipino job application letters, which has a total of 51
job application letters encompass more paragraphs words. This discrepancy is consistent with the results
(68) than those of the Filipinos’ (65). The following from the studies of Li (2011) and Arvani (2006) as they
extracts from the corpora of job application letters contrastively analyzed internship letters written by native
further show the aforesaid variability: speakers and Taiwanese students and business letters
produced by American and Iranian students, respectively.
(FTAP #12) I may not be a graduate of an It was also found out that native speakers tend to write
Education course, but I am certain that the longer sentences in business correspondence letters than
Professional Education subjects that I took and foreign language and second language speakers of
the trainings and seminars I attended relative to English.
technical skills development had equipped me
Determining the readability levels of the samples
with enough knowledge and skills to teach
of job application letters of teachers was also covered in
Technology and Livelihood Education and
Technical-Vocational subjects. (51 words) this study. Pikulski (2002) defines “readability” as the
level of ease or difficulty with which a text material can
(ATAP #11) Over the past five years, I have be understood by a particular reader who is reading that
had the wonderful opportunity to instruct a text for a specific purpose. In this regard, readability or
diverse group of middle school students, and as comprehensibility has to be achieved by the cover letter
a result, I have developed highly effective in order to be considered by the hiring company or the
teaching techniques and instructional methods, hiring school if the applicant is seeking for a teaching
which have allowed me to educate all styles of position. In this study, two readability tests were
learners, and foster a fun and engaging learning
employed on the contents of the bodies of both Filipino
environment that effectively teaches art
and American job application letters. The first one was
appreciation, promotes creativity, and
through calculating the letters’ lexical densities, and the
encourages growing independence. (63 words)
second was done by measuring their Gunning-Fog
Table 3. Comparative summary of the surface indices or the average of the number of words per
features and readability of Filipino and American sentence pertaining to the readability of a text.
teachers’ job application letters Based on the calculations done through an online
text analyzer, the corpus of Filipino job application
Filipino American letters written by teacher-applicants has an overall lexical
Teachers’ Job Teachers’ Job density and Fog index of 62.31% and 12.55, respectively.
Application Application
On the other hand, the corpus of American job
Letters Letters
Total Word Count 2,871 4,003
application letters of teachers received a lexical density
of 60.95% and a Fog Index of 15.14. The results show
Number of Sentences 167 193
that in terms of the first readability test, samples of
Average Sentence Length 17.12 21.09
Filipino job application letters are more lexically dense
Number of Paragraphs 68 65
than those written by Americans. As regards the
Hard Words 25.24 (14.27%) 45.2 (16.75%) readability measured by the Gunning-Fog index, the
Lexical Density 62.31% 60.95% American job application letters have higher index than
Fog Index 12.55 15.14 those written by Filipinos. These reveal that based on the
lexical density test, readability is more apparent in the
The two extracts confirm the difference between samples of application letters from American teachers.
the lengths of sentences written in both Filipino and This could be attributed to the number of content or
American job application letters of teachers. Although lexical items (i.e., nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs)
both employed compound-complex sentence structures, embedded in the Filipino teachers’ cover
75
letters that made them more difficult to read. On the has been giving to its students and teachers
basis of the Fog index, both corpora of job application respectively. As a would-be educator, it will
letters satisfy the range of index for technical texts or be a great privilege for me to have my first
documents. However, the higher index attributed to teaching experience in your school and be
the corpus of American job application letters one of its competent teachers. I am not yet a
underscores the use of more hard words (i.e., words seasoned teacher, but my passion towards
having three or more syllables), which is a primary the craft and my aim to imbue to my future
factor in computing for the Fog index. The following students what real-life education is make
extracts intend to further illustrate the readability of me one. (9 hard words)
both Filipino and American cover letters in terms of
the use of content words and hard words: (ATAP #11) The enclosed resume will
highlight my career accomplishments and
• On the number of content (lexical) words in demonstrate my solid, creative,
every paragraph instructional and leadership capabilities.
Over the past five years, I have had the
(FTAP #9) My application as Mathematics wonderful opportunity to instruct a diverse
teacher in this prestigious school has been group of middle school students, and as a
initiated by DOST Region III. I finished my result, I have developed highly effective
Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education teaching techniques and instructional
major in Mathematics in 2013 as magna methods, which have allowed me to educate
cum laude and DOST-SEI scholar. My LET all styles of learners, and foster a fun and
rating is 87.80%. I finished my Master’s engaging learning environment that
degree in Education major in Mathematics effectively teaches art appreciation,
and currently enrolled in my Doctor of promotes creativity, and encourages
Education degree major in Mathematics. I growing independence. (21 hard words)
also ranked first in the recently conducted
hiring for teacher 1 positions in the Schools The extracts from Filipino and American job
Division of Tarlac City. (44 content words) application letters show the strong preferences of
Filipino teacher-applicants on the use of content or
(ATAP #6) It is with great anticipation that lexical words as instituted from the total 44 content
I am applying for the position of elementary words found in the extracted paragraph of one of the
teacher’s assistant currently posted on sample Filipino application letters. The said number
Southbay’s website. My education and of words is higher as compared with the 36 content
experience make me an excellent candidate words from the extracted paragraph of an American
for this position and my dream of becoming application letter. Conversely, American teacher-
a third grade teacher makes me extremely applicants tend to include more hard words than those
excited about the opportunity to learn more written by Filipino teacher-applicants. This is justified
and gain additional experience by by the total number of hard words embedded in each
participating in the district’s new summer of the two extracted paragraphs from the two corpora,
learning program. (36 content words) that is, nine (9) from the sample Filipino job
application letters and 21 from that of the Americans.
• On the number of hard words (words with In the study of Li (2011), Canadian students
three or more syllables) in every paragraph tend to write more lexically dense internship letters than
Taiwanese students. Such a result is associated with the
(FTAP #3) I am hearing a lot of good current study since a comparison was made on the basis
feedbacks from my sister and other teachers of job application letters written by nonnative speakers
about the quality “life” education and of English (Filipinos) and native speakers of the said
training that Tarlac Montessori School language (Americans). In a comparative study of Salazar
76
(2008), it was found that when writing argumentative 3.3 Move Analysis of Filipino and American
essays, Filipinos and Spanish students prefer the use of Teachers’ Job Application Letters
lexical verbs and adverbs than their counterpart
American students. The modality on the use of lexical To analyze the move structures of the corpora of
words in writing is more apparent among ESL learners job application letters used in this study, the coding
such as Filipinos and Spanish students. The use of hard scheme for application letters developed by Upton and
words or words that exceed more than two syllables is in Connor (2001) was adapted. The moves described are as
contrast with the aim of making writing outputs achieve follows: Move 1 – Identify the source of information
clarity, simplicity, and parsimony, which are specifically (Explain how and where you learned of the position);
encouraged by several American authors (Oppenheimer, Move 2 – Apply for the position (State desire for
2005). Such employment of more hard words by consideration); Move 3 – Provide argument, including
American teacher-applicants may then be attributed to supporting information about background and
the conventions followed in technical writing such as in experience (3a – Implicit argument based on neutral
business letter writing. The usage of complex word items evidence or information about background and
was also observed in the samples of Filipino job experience; 3b – Argument based on what would be
application letters since Filipinos follow technical good for the hiring company; 3c – Argument based on
writing standards from American English. However, a what would be good for the applicant); Move 4 –
higher extent of preference for hard words is more Indicate desire for an interview or a desire for further
observable among the analyzed cover letters written by contact, or specify means of further communication/ how
American teacher-applicants. to be contacted; Move 5 – Express politeness strategies
(pleasantries) or appreciation at the end of the letter;
Move 6 – Offer to provide more information; and Move
7 – Reference attached resume. Tables 4 and
Table 4. Moves identified in Filipino teachers’ job application letters
Moves
Filipino Teacher-Applicant Number M3
M1 M2 M4 M5 M6 M7
a b c
FTAP #1 1 1 1 1 1
FTAP #2 1 1 1 1 1 1
FTAP #3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
FTAP #4 1 1 1 1 1 1
FTAP #5 1 1 1 1
FTAP #6 1 1 1 1 1 1
FTAP #7 1 1 1 1 1 1
FTAP #8 1 1 1 1 1
FTAP #9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
FTAP #10 1 1 1 1 1
FTAP #11 1 1 1 1 1 1
FTAP #12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
FTAP #13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
FTAP #14 1 1 1 1 1
FTAP #15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
TOTAL 6 14 15 14 5 13 13 3 10
77
5 illustrate the moves employed in both Filipino and For the other moves, M1 (Identify the source of
American teachers’ job application letters. information), M3c (Argument based on what is good for
The results of the study are congruent with the the applicant), and M6 (Offer to provide more
findings of other researchers who also investigated the information) are all identified as optional moves. These
same genre. Filipino teachers have the propensity to moves occurred less than 60% in the corpus of job
observe the moves indicated in Upton and Connor’s application letters written by Filipino teacher-applicants.
(2001) Coding Scheme for Learner Application In the study of Miciano (2014), the said moves
Letter. Specifics about the position applied for were were not considered optional but as statements generally
also seen as obligatory in the study of Miciano (2014). embedded among the corpus of Filipino job application
This is identified as Offering Candidature (OC) in the letters analyzed. In the principles of a good cover letter
rhetorical moves established by Henry and Roseberry introduced by Blinn College−Bryan Writing Center
(2001). However, M2 in the coding scheme used is (n.d.), one of the do’s in writing a cover letter is to
not identified in the proposed rhetorical moves of both identify the sources of information for the application.
Bathia (1993) and Henry and Roseberry (2001). Move However, it is emphasized that source information may
3a, on the one hand, is consistently observed in the or may not be included; it depends whether the
corpus of job application letters written by Filipino application is solicited or unsolicited. Thus, if it is
teachers. Thus, the need to provide background unsolicited, it is suggested that asking if a position is
information and experience on the part of the teacher- available will do. On a relative note, statements
applicant is seen as enforced details in cover letters. expressing an applicant’s potential benefits when hired
As one of the obligatory moves identified, M3b are not essentially emphasized in cover letter writing.
or stating arguments based on what the applicant could What count as an important part of the application letter
contribute to the hiring school is also a required element are the arguments stating the benefits the institution
for Filipino teacher-applicants. According to the NC could have out of considering the application. Writing a
State University Career Center (2010), the first and cover letter is like advertising oneself to be considered
second paragraphs of a cover letter must contain by an employer; and in doing so, an applicant presents
statements about the specific position being applied for himself in such a way that his qualifications are
and arguments relative to the candidate’s qualifications contributory to the hiring company. As highlighted by
and skills that could benefit the hiring company. Gallo (2014), an applicant must emphasize his or her
Consequently, these moves are contributory to the personal value, not the personal satisfactions to be
possibility of capturing the attention of an employer. derived from the company. Also, offering to provide
For M4 and M5, necessary details about the more information is not consistently observed among the
interview process and polite statements or pleasantries are corpus of Filipino job application letters in this study.
also considered requirements based on the sample job The aforementioned move is not also seen as obligatory
application letters written by Filipino teachers. The in the study of Miciano (2014). Although there are letters
importance of letting the employer know the applicant’s in the study that include statements to further provide
desire for an interview has to be underscored in the information, such are overpowered by the applicants’
application letter. The connection between the employer statements expressing their desire for an interview.
and the job seeker is built through the interview process. Hence, among the job application letters written by
Thus, asking for an interview helps job seekers to present Filipino teachers, M6 is just secondary or at times, goes
their skills and acquire a desired position on merit. Further, hand-in-hand with M4 (Indicate desire for interview or
politeness strategies as socially and culturally practiced further contact).
(Watts, 2003) are used as a way to respectfully deal with The following extracts represent the
people. As part of Filipino idiosyncrasies, politeness could obligatory and optional moves in the corpora of job
be observed in the way Filipinos communicate both in oral application letters written by Filipino teachers:
and written discourses. As cited in the study of Gan, David,
and Dumanig (2015), culture is seen as an important factor • Obligatory Move – M3a (Implicit argument
that influences the address and request forms of Filipinos. based on neutral evidence or information
about background and experience)
78
Table 5. Obligatory and optional moves identified in American teachers’ job application letters
Upton and Connor’s (2001) Coding Scheme for Learner Application Letter
Samples M3
M1 M2 M4 M5 M6 M7
a b c
ATAP #1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
ATAP #2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
ATAP #3 1 1 1 1 1
ATAP #4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
ATAP #5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
ATAP #6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
ATAP #7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
ATAP #8 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
ATAP #9 1 1 1 1 1 1
ATAP #10 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
ATAP #11 1 1 1 1 1 1
ATAP #12 1 1 1 1 1 1
ATAP #13 1 1 1 1 1 1
ATAP #14 1 1 1 1 1 1
ATAP #15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
TOTAL 5 15 14 14 4 14 13 9 15
(FTAP # 1) I graduated last March 31, M5 (Express politeness or pleasantries), M6 (Offer to

2000, as a Cum laude at Republic Central provide more information), and M7 (Reference
Colleges with a Degree of Bachelor of attached resume) are all obligatory moves.
Secondary Education, major in Filipino. I Both M2 and M7 are deemed necessary by the
successfully passed the Licensure American teacher-applicants; and these findings are in
Examination for teachers last August 27, accordance with the studies of Li (2011) and Connor
2000. et al. (1995), respectively. The former found out that
Canadian students use different strategies in
• Optional Move – M6 (Offer to provide more presenting their desires to apply for an internship
information) position. This is relevant to the current study since
Americans and Canadians belong to the Inner Circle
(FTAP #3) Shall the need for further of World Englishes, thus, having similar preferences
details of my personal background arise; in cover letter writing. On the other hand, the latter
I am more than willing to mail them upon contrastively analyzed job application letters written
your request. by Finnish, Flemish, and American applicants and
found out that Americans tend to draw the readers’
The move analysis done among samples of attention to the enclosed resume.
American teachers’ job application letters reveals that M2 Significantly, M3a and M3b, including M4,
(Apply for the position), M3a (Implicit argument based on are concerned with how American teacher-applicants
neutral evidence or information about background and present themselves and provide arguments as to how
experience), M3b (Argument based on what would be good their qualifications would benefit the hiring school
for the hiring company), M4 (Indicate desire for an and the applicant’s desire to be interviewed. In the
interview or a desire for further contact, or specify means of genre-based study of Hsiao (2004), 100% of the
further communication/how to be contacted), university application letters of American graduate
79
students employed a move identified as “promoting the information in their job application letters than their
candidate,” which qualifies such a finding that M3a is an American counterparts. This shows the directness of
obligatory move in the current study. American teacher- the Americans when starting their letters of
applicants provide more arguments relative to M3b application. They go directly to M2, which states their
(presenting arguments on the possible benefits of the application for the position desired. Finally, providing
hiring school) in the present study. Connor et al. (1995) arguments for the benefits of the applicants is not seen
concluded in their study that a typical US applicant as necessary among the American application letters.
provides more supporting arguments about the benefits Although it is observed in some of the letters, it is not
of the employer. The inclusion of details about an as frequent as M2 and M7. On the contrary, the results
applicant’s desire for interview is found out to be of the current study differ with those of Connor et al.
indirect and unintended among American teachers. This (1995). As mentioned, a typical US applicant provides
is evident in the number of politeness strategies more arguments to discuss the benefits of the
presented in the sample application letters, thus, making employer as well as the applicant himself. Such a
M5 as another obligatory move in the American corpus. distinction may be attributed to the emphasis given by
This may be attributed to the tendency of Americans to the American teachers on the qualifications that would
not perform the face-threatening act of requesting and to make them employable in the school they are applying
be more particular with deferring to the readers (Connor in more than the personal benefits they could derive
et al., 1995). out of teaching in their target institution.
The use of M6 can also be considered an The following extracts represent the
obligatory move among American application letters. obligatory and optional moves in the corpora of job
However, in the study of Li (2011), both the native application letters written by American teachers:
and the nonnative participants who were asked to
write internship application letters did not include M6 • Obligatory Move – M2 (Apply for the position)
in the closing paragraphs of their letters. Instead, most
of the participants paid much attention to indicating (ATAP #1) I am interested in applying
desire for an interview or desire for further contact. It for the elementary teaching position
is then apparent among the corpus of American posted on the OLAS website.
application letters from the current study that along
with the aim of expressing desire for an interview is • Optional Move – M1 (Identify the source of
the need to provide more information. information)
Significantly, the moves that are least observed
among the application letters of Americans are M1 and (ATAP #4) Please accept my letter of
M3c. The moves present the identified sources of application for the mathematics teacher
information and on providing arguments good for the position at Warren High School. I
applicant. As found in the study of Connor et al. (1995), learned about this opening through the
Flemish applicants provide more sources of Nashville Metropolitan Public Schools
website.
Table 6. Similarities and differences in the rhetorical moves employed in Filipino and American
teachers’ job application letters
Moves
Samples M3
M1 M2 M4 M5 M6 M7
a b c
Filipino Teachers' Job 6 14 15 14 5 13 13 3 10
Application Letters
American Teachers' Job 5 15 14 14 4 14 13 9 15
Application Letters
80
Based on the summary of the rhetorical moves use of interrogative sentences, which is the same with
employed in both job application letters written by those used in advertisements. This may signify that the
Filipino and American teachers, no further differences in teacher-applicant was not aware of the vacancy she was
the occurrences of each move in the given corpora can applying for. Others presented first their qualifications
be established. However, there are some moves where before the details about their application, and some
discrepancies are slightly apparent. These include M6 provided introductory sentences about the importance of
(Provide more information) where there are three (3) schools. In addition, there were application letters that
letters observing the said move and nine (9) from the expressed commendations for the school; others used
Americans. Another one is in M7 (Reference attached politeness strategies in their introductory paragraphs,
resume) where only ten (10) Filipino application letters while few sounded direct in their approach. The
conformed. Consequently, all the sample American following extracts show the different strategies
application letters observed the said move. With the employed by Filipino teachers in the corpus of job
comparable rhetorical moves in the application letters of application letters used in the study:
Filipino and American teachers, a deeper analysis of
how they construct and present the moves is discussed. (FTAP #1) Are you in need of a
For M1, Filipino teacher-applicants competent teacher? Please consider me
acknowledge the sources of information at the onset an applicant for that position.
of their application letters before stating their
application for the given position, while American (FTAP #8) I am Ms. Aireen U. Bambalan,
teachers suspend first such details by stating first their a licensed teacher at Tarlac Montessori
interest or desire for their applications to be accepted School, Tarlac City. In line with the need of
by the hiring school or educational institution. our public schools for teachers, I would like
Another observation is that all sources of information to apply for a position in your school as a
from Filipino application letters were taken from print grade school teacher.
references such as magazines and from people’s
words of mouth. On the other hand, Americans get In contrast, a majority of the corpus of
sources of information from the Internet, specifically American teachers’ job application letters shows that
from websites providing teaching employment. These they prefer a more direct way of providing details about
distinctions can be observed in the following extracts: their teaching job application. There are few letters
which, on the other hand, utilized different ways of
(FTAP #12) I was informed by a colleague presenting the desire to apply. These include using
that you are in need of Technology and politeness strategies and presenting qualifications suited
Livelihood Education (TLE) teachers for to what the school is looking for. However, though more
this coming academic year. direct in manner, one formulaic expression was found
out as to how American teachers directly present their
(ATAP #1) I am interested in applying candidacy as job seekers. They always include framed
for the elementary teaching position sentences such as, “I am writing to apply…”, “I am
posted on OLAS website. writing to express…”, “It is with great pleasure that…”,
and “It is with great anticipation that…” The following
M2 is also presented differently from the extracts illustrate the said strategies:
corpora of job application letters written by Filipino
and American teachers. It was found out that Filipino (ATAP #4) Please accept my letter of
teachers employ different strategies in presenting their application for the mathematics teacher
desire to apply for a teaching position. The details are, position at Warren High School.
therefore, representative of Filipinos’ way of framing
their introductory paragraphs for their application (ATAP #14) With over 20 years of
letters where Move 2 is included. The Filipino hands-on, successful teaching experience,
teachers presented the said detail through the I am confident in my ability and passion
to
81
become a positive addition to your school with the propensity of American teachers to follow up
community as a High School Mathematics their requests, specifying the way they can be further
Teacher. contacted either through phone or e-mail. This
observation is not common among the samples of
For M3, which is further divided into M3a, Filipino job application letters. As cited in Connor et al.
M3b, and M3c, both of the Filipino and American (1995), US applicants were not as direct in asking for an
corpora of job application letters provide supporting interview. Significantly, both corpora of job application
arguments about the applicants’ background and letters share a comparable level of politeness when
experience and on the details that provide urgings on asking for an interview or further contact. To show such
what is good for the hiring school or institution. Based differences, the following extracts are presented:
on the number of occurrences, it can be noted that
both Filipino and American corpora do not frequently (FTAP #3) An interview at your most
observe M3c when structuring arguments in providing convenient time will be a great favor for
supporting information. It is, therefore, important to
me.
note that in establishing background and experience,
the Filipino teachers emphasize more the positive (ATAP #8) In closing, I look forward to
qualities they possess, which they consider beneficial
meeting with you to discuss in greater
for the schools they are applying in. Conversely, the
detail how can I contribute to the
American teachers put accent on their relevant
continued success of your music program.
pedagogical experiences and achievements as
educators. Such a distinction is based on affective and In relation to the use of pleasantries or
cognitive professional characteristics of the politeness strategies in M5, both Filipinos and
applicants. To give details about the said preferences, Americans use them sparingly. A separate discussion
the following extracts are presented: on the politeness strategies utilized in the two sets of
corpora is presented in the next section.
(FTAP #2) As you will note I am very
On the other hand, both of the corpora do not
flexible in response to changing demands.
frequently employ M6. However, Americans observe
With my creativity I can work well and
it more than the Filipinos. This may be attributed to
give my best solitary or collaboratively. the fact that American teacher-applicants accompany
their desire to be further contacted to provide more
(ATAP #4) Through the secondary
information about themselves and their qualifications.
education program at Vanderbilt, I have
With the way they present such details, both have the
had opportunities to gain experience at
same frames. Both samples of letters use M6 in order
many schools that serve a variety of
to further present their qualifications, background, and
populations. In addition to student
suitability for the job geared toward winning the favor
teaching, I have several years of experience
of employers. The similarities of the two corpora of
working with children in various settings.
job application letters are presented in the following
Under M4, the Filipino and American teachers extracts:
also differ. The preference for a direct expression of their
(FTAP #2) I welcome the opportunity to
desire for an interview is prevalent among Filipino
meet you to discuss how my extensive
teachers. Such an interview is requested to provide
experience and skills would benefit your
further details about the applicant’s qualifications and
academic program.
any other background information. On the other hand,
the American teachers formulate the said move (ATAP #2) I look forward to hearing from
differently. All the American letters do not directly ask you at your earliest convenience to further
for an interview but rather indirectly ask for a possible
discuss my qualifications as a secondary
meet up with the employer. Another difference goes
English teacher in your district.
82
Table 7. Negative politeness strategies employed in Filipino and American teachers’ job application letters
Formulaic Expressions Used in Filipino Job Application Formulaic Expressions Used in American Job Application
f f
Letters (Negative Politeness Strategies) Letters (Negative Politeness Strategies)
I am more than willing… 7 I would appreciate the opportunity… 2
Thank you for your time and consideration… 3 I welcome the opportunity… 2
Your consideration will be much gratified… 1 I would enjoy the opportunity… 2
Thank you… 1 I would welcome the chance… 1
Thank you very much… 6 Thank you for your consideration… 2
Thank you and more power… 1 Thank you for your time and consideration… 10
May the Lord of the Harvest bless you… 1
I would like an opportunity… 1
TOTAL 21 TOTAL 19
For the last move (M7 Reference attached extracts:

move), the Filipino and American teacher-applicants (FTAP #5) Your consideration will be much
differ in the way they include other documents such as gratified. (negative politeness strategy)
their resumes in their letters. The Filipinos include the
information about the attached resume in paragraphs − (ATAP #1) I would appreciate the
a presentation that goes with the other rhetorical opportunity to meet with you to discuss
moves. On the other hand, the Americans just simply how my skills and experience can meet
write the word “Enclosures” at the end of the letter, the needs of your students. (negative
immediately after the signature line. politeness strategy)
3.4 Politeness Strategies Used in Filipino and Also, the most frequent formulaic expressions
American Teachers’ Job Application Letters from both sets of letters are relative in conveying
gratifying messages to employers by stating the
The following tables and discussions relate to congenial clauses, “Thank you very much…” and
both the negative and the positive politeness strategies “Thank you for your time and consideration…” The
employed in the application letters under study. use of such expressions is, therefore, significant with
the purpose of employing negative politeness
3.4.1 Negative Politeness Strategies strategies in letters − that is, for the applicants to give
respect to the addressees and be modest as possible by
Negative politeness strategies are used to acknowledging the latter’s independence and freedom
reinforce the speakers’ respect for the addressees, of action (Brown & Levinson, 1987).
showing that the speakers acknowledge the addressees’ Conversely, both Filipinos and Americans do
independence and freedom of action (Brown & Levison, not have apparent differences when using formulaic
1987). Such politeness strategies are connected with the expressions for negative pleasantries as shown by the
use of modals and formulaic expressions. Table 7 minimal two-point difference of the two sets of corpora.
following table shows the negative politeness strategies However, it is evident that the Filipino teacher-
utilized in M4 and M5 of both sets of job application applicants have more varied formulaic expressions
letters written by Filipino and American teachers. compared with those produced by the Americans. This
The results of the analysis reveal similarities and means that though both of the corpora observe negative
differences in the use of negative politeness strategies in the politeness strategies, the Filipino teachers seem to be
said corpora. Both corpora of job application letters use a more aware of the need to express respect toward their
number of negative pleasantries through the inclusion of prospective employers and be modest as possible.
formulaic expressions. Examine these However, when it comes to the use of modals, the
83
Table 8. Positive politeness strategies employed in Filipino and American teachers’ job application letters
Formulaic Expressions Used in Filipino Job Application Formulaic Expressions Used in American Job Application
f f
Letters (Negative Politeness Strategies) Letters (Positive Politeness Strategies)
I look forward to hearing from you soon… 2 I look forward to hearing from you… 4
I hope I would satisfy… 3 You can reach me at… 1
May I look forward to the accommodation… 1 I hope you will consider me… 1
You may contact me… 1 I may be contacted at… 1
Hoping for your favorable response… 1 Please consider this resume… 1
You can contact me at… 1 I may be reached at... 1
I have hopes that… 1 I will contact you in one week… 1
I can be contacted at… 1 Please contact me at… 3
I am hoping with great anticipation… 1 I look forward to meeting with you... 1
Please contact me at… 1
I look forward to meeting with you… 1
TOTAL 14 TOTAL 14
American teachers utilize more “social-interactional” excuse letters, which is comparable with the way the
modals (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999) or Filipino applicants end their cover letters.
qualifying modals such as would and may. Among the
sample American application letters, the use of would to 3.4.2 Positive Politeness Strategies
qualify statements is more prevalent. For the Filipino
corpus of application letters, the modals used are either Positive politeness strategies are employed to
would or may but on a fewer occurrence when compared emphasize the shared goals and common ground
with the American corpus. The results on the use of between the speaker and the addressee. The strategies
qualifying modals are consequently relevant to the are most effective when both the speaker and the
results of Li’s (2011) study, which revealed that addressee see themselves as equals (Li, 2011).
Canadian students use more modals in their internship According to Upton and Connor (2001), the directness
cover letters than their Taiwanese counterparts. of the speaker and the use of optimism are identified
Another significant finding in the analysis of the as positive politeness. Table 8 shows the politeness
letters’ negative politeness strategies is that Americans strategies employed by both Filipino and American
appear to use more structured or patterned expressions teachers in their cover letters.
than the Filipinos. It can, therefore, be noticed from The table shows the matching preferences for
Table 7 that the Filipino teachers have varying formulaic positive politeness strategies found in the corpora. The
expressions as compared with those produced by their Filipino and American teachers utilize the same number
American counterparts. As concluded in the study of of expressions related to the said politeness strategies. In
Upton and Connor (2001), Americans tend to be more support to this claim, Maier (1992) found in her study
patterned or even formulaic with their politeness that native speakers used more deferential politeness
strategies. In the present study, the formulaic expressions strategies than nonnative speakers. She also added that
of Filipinos are more heterogeneous and personal. the natives mitigated their requests by using more
Ultimately, the Filipinos’ tendency to use more modals and indirect expressions.
expressions of thanks (Thank you…) in their application As cited in the study of Li (2011), positive
letters’ goodwill close is justified in the study of politeness strategies may be in the form of common
Bernardo (2010) about the hybrid rhetoric employed in sentence structures such as “You can…” or the phrase,
Filipino and American parents’ letters of excuse. “Please + action verb.” Politeness strategies could also
Bernardo clarified that saying “Thank you” has become a show the applicant’s optimism through formulaic
generic goodwill close for Filipino parents’ expressions such as “look forward to” and “hope”
84
(Upton & Connor, 2001). The function of such forward…” are more frequent than the expressions
phrases is to minimize the distance between the utilized in the job application letters of Filipino teachers.
speaker and the addressee and to reach common goals. Such an observation is the same with Maier’s (1992)
From among the samples of Filipino job study, which found that native speakers, like US
application letters, it can be observed that formulaic applicants, mitigated their polite requests by using more
expressions are more varied and personalized. modals and indirect expressions.
Directness and the tendency to become uncommon
with positive politeness strategies are also evident in
the Filipino corpus. The following sample extracts 4. Conclusion
prove such an observation:
The study puts forward the similarities and
(FTAP #5) May I look forward to the differences between the ways Filipino and American
accommodation you can give for the teacher-applicants write job application letters. The
position you have at a moment. objectives of the study are, therefore, geared toward
(directness of politeness expression) identifying the features unique to both corpora of job
application letters and examining the conventions in
(FTAP #14) I am hoping with great cover letter writing observed by Filipinos and
anticipation to discussing with you many Americans. The following conclusions may be drawn
ways in which I can make a significant from this study:
contribution to your school district. First, job application letter writing has to
(uncommon politeness strategy) adhere with certain rules and conventions. Observing
the necessary elements of a cover letter links the
Also, the use of phrases that would incur applicant’s readiness for the job and his chance to be
optimism is not consistent among Filipinos, for there called for an interview. Likewise, writing an effective
are only two occurrences of the said phrases in the cover letter is not a simple task. It requires thought,
corpus. This may be relevant to the results of the knowledge, and understanding. Hence, a cover letter
study of Maier (1992), which indicated that nonnative needs as much attention and skill in the preparation as
speakers used more potentially-risky positive the resume. Such a skill includes knowing how to
politeness strategies and were more informal and maneuver the letter using some linguistic features and
direct than the native speakers. rhetorical elements. Linguistic properties, such as the
length of the letter and its level of readability that
(FTAP #9) You can contact me at includes lexical density, could make the evaluator or
09328903877. Thanking you for the employer delve into what the applicant wants to
considering me for this position. (positive convey in his job application letter. As mentioned by
politeness strategy) Connor et al. (1995), written applications constitute a
business genre in which communicative success (or
(ATAP #2) I look forward to hearing lack of it) partially depends on observed writing skills;
from you at your earliest convenience to hence, textualization, according to these researchers,
further discuss my qualifications as a is positively correlated with the prospective
secondary English teacher in your employer’s evaluation. It can, therefore, be concluded
district. (positive politeness strategy) that the formal and functional features of a cover letter
could stand out as particularly powerful determinants
On the other hand, the American teachers’ use of communicative success.
of modals make their expressions less direct and more Second, contrastively analyzing job application
formal. The occurrences of phrases that express the letters of Filipino and American teachers brings in a
applicant’s optimism are also consistent with the revelation of the two discourse communities’ cultural
Americans more than the Filipinos. The use of phrases relativities. The propensity of Filipino teacher-applicants
that begin with “Please...”, “I hope…”, and “I look to write shorter but more lexically dense
85
sentences compared with the longer but less lexically subjecting teachers in EOP (English for Occupational
dense sentences of their American counterparts Purposes) classes. This variation of ESP is, therefore,
underscores distinct genre-based writing practices. This taught in such a situation in which learners need to use
leads to the deduction that American teacher-applicants English as part of their work or profession (Kennedy
may be accustomed toward presenting in detail their & Bolitho, 1984). Hence, the competencies involving
qualifications for the teaching position desired for as the use of English for a work-related purpose, such as
compared with the limited details provided among job those linked to technical writing for professionals, are
application letters of Filipino teacher-applicants. The embedded in EOP. The results of the current study are,
difference, thus, lies on the readability of the letters in therefore, deemed significant as to how teachers in
which the ones produced by the Americans are seen as particular could be taught the rudiments of effective job
more comprehensive. However, this was contradicted in application letter writing. In technical writing courses,
the study of Li (2011). He made a conclusion that the students are geared toward enhancing their marketability
differences in letters’ linguistic features may not be by learning about workplace writing. Thus, helping
considered as a significant factor in creating barriers for teachers develop a good way to land on teaching
communication. Instead, he advocated for the positions capitalizing on documents, e.g., application
consideration of the letters’ pragmatic features. letters, must be one of the priorities in an ESP writing
Lastly, the rhetorical moves identified show class. Knowing the conventions, such as the right format,
the discourse community that is more acquainted with the length of the letter’s content, and the way the content
the rudiments of cover letter writing. Americans are itself is presented, would enable an applicant to
more consistent in observing the parts of a job successfully win the approval of his future employer.
application letter and its moves. Filipinos tend to be
more unconventional and inconsistent in observing the
parts of a letter and in presenting necessary details. References
This can be seen, for example, in the distinct use of
politeness strategies between the two. Americans are Arvani, M. (2006). A discourse analysis of business
more formulaic while Filipinos include more varied letters written by Iranians and native speakers.
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was found out that US cover letters not only provide Benjamins, J. (2010). A rhetorical analysis of
more information but also show a greater concern for examination essays in three disciplines: The case
semantic precision. of Ghanian undergraduate students (Doctoral
On a relative note, the limited number of dissertation). National University of Singapore.
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study may not be considered as entirely representative writing: The case of American and Filipino
of the way Filipinos and Americans write job parents’ letters of excuse from school. Philippine
application letters. Hence, using a larger corpus for ESL Journal, 5, 134-159.
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conclusions made. professional settings. London: Longman.
Blinn College–Bryan The Writing Center (n.d.)
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angled corpus analysis of moves and strategies of Northern Michigan University. (2011). Parts of a
the genre: ‘Letter of Application’. English for business letter. Retrieved from https://www.nmu.
Specific Purposes, 20(2), 153-167. doi: edu/writingcenter/parts-business-letter
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Hope College. (2002). What is the purpose of the vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity:
personal statement? Retrieved from http://www. Problems with using long words needlessly.
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Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Sanders, R. (2011, April 1). Hovering over a cover
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of Research in Language Studies, 16(1-2), 1-20. html
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1966.tb00804.x Swales, J.M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in
Kennedy, C., & Bolitho, R. (1984). English for academic and researching settings. UK: CUP.
Specific Purposes. London: Macmillan. The Writing Center @ The University of Wisconsin–
Lakoff, R. (1973). The logic of politeness, or minding Madison. The writer’s handbook - Writing cover
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pdf
88
Miete or Mitte? A Preliminary Study of Vowel Length Contrasts


University of the Philippines, Diliman
Quezon City, Philippines
Abstract
The present study provides insights into the reception of vowel length in Filipino learners of German.
As learning German as an L3 requires phonological awareness of vowel length, an analysis of the relationships
between distinguishing vowel length in English, a common L2 in the Philippines, and German, is instructive in
determining how L2 competencies and the context of L2 learning influence the acquisition of an L3. Eleven
(11) participants took receptive and productive tests to ascertain L2-L3 influences in phonology. In the receptive
test, they classified the first stressed vowel in mono- or disyllabic German and English words as long or short. In
the second test, the participants recited English and German words containing the target vowels. The recorded
vowels, their durations, and long-short ratios were then contrasted with native speakers’ recordings and
correlated with variables in a questionnaire on the participant’s linguistic background. The results of the study
revealed that exposure to English media had a positive effect on learning German phonology.
Keywords: L3 acquisition, German as a foreign language, phonology, foreign languages in the Philippines
1. Introduction language learning often encompasses multidirectional

transfer, nonlinguistic influences in language learning,
Today’s increasing multilingualism, as well as and metacognitive language acquisition skills that
the historic existence of multi- and plurilingual societies supplement further learning (Hufeisen, 2001; Aronin &
in postcolonial societies such as the Philippines, Ó Laoire, 2004). These particular conditions have been
necessitates a revisiting of two central research the focus of tertiary language studies, where languages
frameworks in cross-linguistic transfer, the contrastive learned after the L2 are the focal point of analysis.
framework (Lado, 1957), characterized by a comparative Much of the recent work on English as an L2
approach to the structural aspects of language, and the before German has been conducted in countries with a
linguistic interdependence framework (Cummins, 1981) non-European L1 such as Taiwan (Chen, 2005) and
that focuses on “the extent that instruction in Lx is Malaysia (Kärchner-Ober, 2009), with both studies
effective in promoting proficiency in Lx, transfer of this paying particular attention to the role of sociocultural
proficiency in Ly (either in school or environment) and and educational factors during the acquisition of the L2
adequate motivation to learn Ly” (Cummins, 1981, p. that influence how further foreign languages are learned
29)1. The scope of these ideas, while remaining a and taught. The frequent use of English as a lingua
consistent feature of foreign language learning research, franca or first foreign language across the world has
has been further expanded with the emergence theories raised questions of its utility in learning a foreign
on tertiary or L3 language learning, specifically whose language from within the same language family, as
object of study comprises of foreign languages learned structures in a Germanic L3 may be easily associated
beyond the second language2 (see Hufeisen, 2001). The with their English equivalents and, therefore, facilitate
study of tertiary learning. This study, therefore, focuses on how (and if)
1 The Lx here can be defined as one of the languages learned prior to Ly, which is the language currently being learned.
2 A second language is defined here as a language learned after the ‘mother tongue’ or L1 but is no longer being actively learned (see
Hammarberg, 2001).
89
English as an L2 facilitates L3 learning, in particular has been extensively tested in psycholinguistic studies.
in pronunciation and phonological awareness3. For example, phonological priming from words that do
English in the Philippines is one of the primary not exist in one language may affect the reception of
languages used in schools and is recognized as an words (or pictures associated with words) in a task
official language of the country. While its use and status explicitly conducted in another language (see Brysbaert,
as a lingua franca is not consistent throughout the Van Dyck, & Van de Poel, 1999). Secondly, no studies
country, it is used widely in business, law, and on tertiary language acquisition in recent years have
education. A majority of Filipino children are acquainted dealt explicitly with pronunciation in speakers with an
with English at a relatively young age through both L1 Filipino, L2 English, and L3 German, although
educational instruction and media. But with only an phonetic characteristics of individuals with L1 Filipino-
estimated 0.04% of the overall population with English L2 English have already been extensively documented in
as an L1 (see Gonzalez, 1998), it becomes clear that studies such as Tayao (2004) and Llamzon (1997). Both
English in the Philippines is generally spoken a second studies encompass the pronunciation of Philippine
language from a chronological perspective 4, although the English, or the variety of English spoken and understood
possibility of concurrent L1s and L2s cannot be ruled in the Philippines. Among some of the inferences drawn
out. A lack of systematic and regular data on English from the empirical data are the importance of
impedes the depiction of general trends: the last attempt environmental and sociocultural variables in speaking
at data collection on English speakers, the 2000 Census, English in the Philippines (see section 1.2) and the
revealed only 63.71% of the population reported English varying influence of Filipino phonemes: for instance, a
as their second language (National Statistics Office, tendency among a number of Filipino speakers is the
2000). No official records of English proficiency across nondifferentiated production of vowels of similar height
a broad spectrum of the population are available. such as /i/ vs. /ɪ/, which differ both in length and quality
Because of the difficulties of obtaining reliable data in General American English. Although vowel length is
about English speakers, the study limited to individuals not phonemic in both Filipino and (General American)
at the college level who have learned English and are no English, there are complementary allophones based on
longer in the process of actively learning the language in vowel length in particular English words, such as before
a classroom setting, consistent with the above definition. voiced consonant phonemes in the coda of a syllable
The potential influences of Filipino and [bi:d] and [sip]. Vowel length in German, however, is
English, as L1 and L2 respectively, on the learning of phonemic, and plays an important role in pronunciation.
German as a tertiary language, provide an opportunity Studying the effects of subtle vowel length differences in
to investigate the processes of cross-linguistic transfer English on the pronunciation and reception of German
between and amongst the L1, L2, and L3 as well as vowels can, thus, provide evidence for the facilitatory
the effect of a postcolonial and multilingual context effect of the L2 on the L3. In light of this, the present
on foreign language learning. Phonetic and study endeavors to answer the following research
phonological aspects of tertiary language learning can questions:
offer valuable insights in cross-linguistic transfer for a
number of reasons. First, it is widely acknowledged
that the phonetics of a foreign language (in particular, 1. Do frequent encounters with L2, particularly
pronounciation) is prone to L1 transfer, but evidence where listening is concerned, contribute to
exists to imply that the L2 could similarly influence greater phonological awareness and a more
pronunciation under particular circumstances (see accurate pronunciation of L3 vowel lengths?
Williams & Hammarberg, 1998). The role of the 2. Does performance in L2 vowel length tests
phonetic and/or phonological characteristics from correlate with performance in L3 tests of the
previously learned languages in bi- and multilinguals same nature?
3 Phonological awareness can be defined as the ability to attend to, isolate, and manipulate the sound structure of oral language (Toregesen,
Wagner, & Rashotte,1994, as cited in Hipfner-Boucher, Lam, & Chen, 2014, p. 119).
4 A second language or L2 is defined as a language that is not currently in the process of being learned (see Hammarberg, 2001).
90
Few studies exist to date in the Philippines on European L2 (see Marx, 2000; Kärchner-Ober, 2009).
German Language Learning. Neri (2006) attempted to Kärchner-Ober’s (2009) study is of particular interest to
contrast and provide a description of the phonemic the Philippine context, as it takes a holistic view of
inventories of German and Filipino in order to forecast language learning in the Southeast Asian context using a
difficulties in teaching phonetics to German learners in case study of a group of foreign language students
the Philippine context. A number of the study’s remarks learning in Malaysia. The study encompassed not only
on phonetic difficulties were replicated in other the effects of diverse multilingual backgrounds, in which
contrastive analyses between German and Filipino (see Chinese, Hindi, and Bahasa Malaysia were acquired or
Kelz, 1982). This study is an attempt to bridge what is learned in varying competencies, but also in the form of
already known about differences in Filipino and German teaching, which relies heavily on rote memory and does
vowel inventories and the prevalent use of English in not often explicitly introduce learning strategies. The
various contexts and media in the Philippines, which study provides impetus to studying usage patterns of
may or may not facilitate phonological awareness and English in the Philippines, which may vary in usage,
aspects of pronunciation in the L3, German. frequency, context and medium, and how these
contribute to learning other European languages.
1.1 Cross-linguistic Transfer in Tertiary In Groseva’s Foreign Language Acquisition Model
Language Learners (1998), the roles of previously learned languages as well as
the learner’s own interlanguage are considered as the main
Cummin’s 1981 hypothesis that instruction in sources for which hypotheses about L3 rules are made. The
Lx positively influences the acquisition of a further model incorporates not only the assumption of positive and
language has since received nuancing from tertiary negative transfer from the L1 but also the possibility of a
language learning studies; many of which have learner’s interlanguage that may be activated automatically
concentrated on the utilization of language learning in production5. The conscious or unconscious usage of L2
strategies as well as L2 features while learning the L3 as a source or testing L3 hypotheses does not, however,
(see Kärchner-Ober 2009; Hufeisen, 2001). Hammarberg exclude an L1 influence; rather, particular aspects that are
(2001), for instance, studied the varying degrees of the structurally similar to the L3 are thought to facilitate L3
utilization of previously learned languages in the learning. Utilizing the Foreign Language Acquisition
acquisition of an L3. In the course of his case study of a Model in a phonetic context can be complemented with the
native English language speaker’s acquisition of inclusion of a phonological lexicon (see Caramazza, Miceli,
Swedish after a significant period of staying in Germany, Villa, & Romani, 1987, p. 62), where the spoken form of
it was found that German was used as a template for known words are stored. The existence of such a lexicon
phonetics in the first phases of learning Swedish based has typically been a feature of psycholinguistic research on
on native speaker judgments, whereas an English accent different spelling tasks such as written spelling, oral
appeared to gradually manifest itself in the subject’s spelling, and lexical recognition tasks, although it can
advancement, resulting in a group of native speakers arguably guide a phonetic study by providing a means
accurately identifying an English-speaking background. through which disparities between correctly perceived and
Hammarberg (2001) determined that the L2 status factor, wrongly produced sounds (or vice versa) can be analyzed.
thus, played a role in learning the L3, resulting from “a It is possible that a language learner’s phonological
desire to suppress L1 as being ‘non-foreign’ and to rely awareness of the spoken form of words in their
rather on an orientation towards a prior L2 as a strategy phonological lexicon can lead to the correct identification
to approach the L3” (p. 36-37). This has been especially of vowel length contrasts in his or her known languages, yet
prominent when the L1 is perceived not to be the learner may exhibit difficulties in replicating these
‘typologically’ similar to the L3, as with non-Indo- characteristics in spoken language because of interferences
European L1s and an Indo- from the L1,
5Interlanguage refers to Selinker’s (1972) concept of a dynamic system of a learner’s language that includes influences due to transfer of
training, L1 transfer, and the utilization of strategies such as simplification and overgeneralization of target language rules.
91
L2, or the interlanguage. between vowel phonemes. The current set of five vowel
Because of the linguistic focus of Groseva’s phonemes, /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/, are generally believed
model and its ambiguity of the role that internal and to have originated from a vowel system comprising of
external factors play in foreign language production, it three vowels, /a/, a closed high vowel /i/, and a closed
may be considered as a variant of traditional contrastive back vowel /u/ (Tayao, 2004; Llamzon, 1997). The
analyses. But in the context of a multilingual society vowel inventory of Filipino has often been cited as
where competence and use of the L1, L2, and L3 differ playing a prominent role in the pronunciation of the
considerably among the target population, a purely variety of English spoken in the Philippines (Philippine
contrastive analysis does not reveal factors that English), but to various degrees determined by
determine habits in L2 usage that could facilitate L3 educational and social factors. Llamson (1997) notes that
production. The inclusion of tertiary language learning there are three (sociolects) of Filipino English, the
models that emphasize skills learned while learning the acrolect, the mesolect, and the basilect, which are
L2, such as Hufeisen’s (1998) Factor Model, can primarily based on the educational level and contextual
substantiate Groseva’s model by providing additional usage of English of the speakers. Acrolects are typically
context. The Factor Model assigns skill sets and sources involved in professions that require extensive use of the
of knowledge to each language being learned, with English language, and also tend to have frequent contact
universals and the learning environment as the main with friends and family in English. The mesolect variety
factors contributing to L1 acquisition, and learning of Philippine English is associated with frequent use of
strategies and experiences as further influences in L2 the language in professional or educational situations but
learning. The difference between L2 and L3, however, not generally in the private sphere, whereas the basilectal
consists of the strategies and experiences (habits) group makes the least use of English either in
acquired while learning the first foreign language (the professional or intimate settings. Whereas it has
L2) (Hufeisen, 1998) in addition to the other factors previously been argued that General American English
influencing L1 acquisition and L2 learning. Hufeisen, or gAmE (as opposed to RP) is generally used as a guide
thus, depicts a qualitative difference between learning for Filipino learners of English, the phonetic realization
the L2 and the L3 that draws attention to the complexity of gAmE phonemes in the Philippine context differs
of factors involved in language acquisition and foreign considerably from the ‘idealized’ native speaker of
language learning that will be of use when describing the American English, as phonetic equivalents, including
context (environment) and metalinguistic knowledge vowels that are the focus of this study, are influenced by
contributing to pronunciation and phonological various degrees by the vowel inventories of Filipino
awareness of the L3. languages. This implies that instead of Filipino English
To summarize, studies in tertiary language having a standard inventory of vowels, there are ranges
learning have expanded beyond a purely behaviorist and of phonetic realization that are influenced largely by
contrastive approach to studying language learners and societal factors. However, unlike gAmE, which is argued
their mistakes and have now incorporated additional to be the basis for Philippine English, the Filipino vowel
factors that may facilitate learning, such as the internal inventory has only five vowels, in contrast to gAmE’s 12
disposition of the learner, learning strategies and monophthongs and seven diphthongs, as depicted in
experiences, and the greater sociocultural environment. Figure 2, for which there exist minimal pair distinctions
Futhermore, contrastive analyses have also been further based on vowel length.
nuanced to include the appearance of interlanguage and The acrolect, the mesolect, and basilect groups
hypothesis testing utilizing L2 structures in the L3. approximate gAmE to varying degrees, the acrolect
being the ‘closest’ variant phonetically. Figure 1 depicts
1.2 Contrastive Analysis: Filipino, Filipino data from Tayao (2008), which show a close
English, and German resemblance of the acrolectal variety of Philippine
English with General American English (see Figure 2 for
The Philippine national language, Filipino, comparison), where the pronunciation of /æ/ remained
possesses a phonemic inventory that is characterized dependent on the individual. A reduced vowel inventory
by the lack of a short-long phonological distinction is characteristic of the mesolect variety
92
(depicted by encircled vowels in Figure 1), where Figures 1 and 2 also reveal that vowel length is
only one variety of high front, mid front, high back, not a phonemic feature in either Filipino English or
and mid back vowels is generally produced. Schwa General American English, although contrasts have been
vowels are also missing from both the mesolect and drawn between vowels in General American English on
basilect varieties; the latter of which is associated with the basis of both quantity and quality. As mentioned in
the least number of vowels out of all the groups, with section 1, there are differences in both the quantity and
only three vowels utilized to represent the 12 General quality of lax and tense pairs of similar height, i.e., /i/ vs.
American English vowels, namely, /i/, /ɑ/, and /u/ (see /ɪ/, /ej/ or /eɪ/ vs. /ɛ/, and /u/ vs. /ʊ/, in English that can
boxed vowels in Figure 1). be used to test if the phonological awareness gained by
learning of both length and quality contrasts in English
facilitates distinguishing between long and short vowel
phonemes in German.
Figure 3 depicts vowels in German that are
coupled with a long or short contrast. Despite German
having the highest number of monophthongs in the
study, vowel phonemes that are not present in English
or Filipino, such as /y:/, were not incoporated in the
study, as there were no points of comparison in either
the L1 or the L2.
( ) = Deviances in acrolect variety; Circles =

Mesolect phonemes; Squares = Basilect Phonemes
Adopted from Tayao (2008), p. 173
Figure 1. Filipino English vowels
Adopted from Pompino-Marshall (2009)
Figure 3. Standard German vowels
The choice of German phoneme contrasts in the

production tests, while not necessarily direct contrasts with
their gAmE equivalents, serve as parallels to vowels that
are present in both English and Filipino, notably /u/, /i/, and
/e/. The German vowel phoneme inventory contains 16
Adopted from Tayao (2008, p. 173) monophthongs; a majority of which have a long-short
contrast, as depicted in Figure 3. The vowel contrasts in
Figure 2. General American English vowels Figures 1 and 2 allow various hypotheses to emerge vis-à-
vis the learning of German, as a length
93
contrast in English occurs in instances between high vowels in German, making the fortis/lenis contrast
front /i/-/ɪ/, mid front /e/-/ɛ/, high back /u/-/ʊ/, and more distinct in comparison to English.
mid back vowels /o/-/ɔ/; all of which are reduced to
one particular vowel sound in at least two varieties of
Philippine English. It can, therefore, be hypothesized 2. Method
that acrolect speakers can distinguish and produce
both qualitatively and quantitavely distinct vowels in 2.1 Participants
both English and German, whereas the mesolect and
basilect group may experience more difficulty. The study included eleven (11) participants
German vowel phonemes and their phonetic (seven males, four females) in the experimental group
representations differ from English long-short contrasts taken from German 11-12 classes (corresponding to
in two primary ways. First, the production of German the A1.2 to A2.1 level classes) at the University of the
long vowels usually is twice as long as their short Philippines, Diliman. A relatively low level of
counterparts (see Nimz, 2014, p. 316), unlike in gAmE German was selected in order to control for greater
where the ratio lies between 1 and 2. Secondly, greater metalinguistic awareness, as well as document
muscle tension is required when pronouncing long potential difficulties in the early phases of language
Table 1. LEAP-Q Scores
English (L2) German (L3)

M SD Range M SD Range
Speaking age 3.18 1.35 2.00-5.00 19.09 3.05 17.00-25.00
Reading age 4.55 1.49 2.00-6.00 19.09 3.05 17.00-25.00
Self-reported Proficiency
Speaking 8.00 1.26 6.00-10.00 2.27 0.90 1.00-3.00
Understanding 8.18 1.17 7.00-10.00 2.27 0.90 1.00-4.00
Reading 8.45 1.21 7.00-10.00 2.73 1.01 2.00-5.00
Factors while Learning

Friends 7.55 2.16 3.00-10.00 3.64 2.87 2.00-8.00
Family 6.36 3.20 1.00-10.00 1.91 2.77 0.00-7.00
Reading 9.18 2.40 2.00-10.00 5.27 3.17 0.00-10.00
Tapes 4.64 3.64 0.00-10.00 4.64 2.84 0.00-8.00
TV 6.91 3.27 0.00-10.00 1.64 2.34 0.00-7.00
Radio 6.27 3.41 0.00-10.00 1.27 2.41 0.00-7.00
Exposure to Language
Friends 7.45 2.25 5.00-10.00 2.64 2.34 0.00-8.00
Family 5.27 3.32 2.00-10.00 0.64 1.43 0.00-4.00
TV 7.45 3.24 0.00-10.00 1.64 1.86 0.00-5.00
Radio 8.64 1.63 5.00-10.00 2.09 2.07 0.00-5.00
Reading 9.55 0.82 8.00-10.00 2.64 1.69 1.00-7.00
Language Labs 6.36 4.23 0.00-10.00 4.18 2.18 1.00-8.00
Foreign Accent Perception 5.55 2.16 2.00-10.00 2.73 2.28 0.00-7.00
94
learning. The participants in the experimental group who The test subjects in the experimental group were
were between the ages of 16 to 27 with at least one year asked to fill out a Language Experience and Proficiency
of college education took the four tests (i.e., two Questionnaire (LEAP-Q) survey (Marian, Blumenfeld,
receptive tests for determining vowel length in German & Kaushanskaya, 2007) containing information on the
and English, and two productive tests in which words learning, usage, context, and exposure to languages
containing minimal pairs distinguished by vowel length the respondent already knows. The categories in the
are read out loud) in succession in a quiet room. survey include 10-point Likert Scale items on self-
Two control groups were found for the reported proficiency in speaking, understanding and
pronunciation of German and English words in the reading, factors that influenced language learning, and
productive test, which is detailed in section 2.2. The the sources of exposure to languages already known,
control group for the German test consisted of three among other details listed in Table 1.
male L1-German speakers, while the control group for
the English test included three L1-North American 2.2 Procedure
English or gAmE speakers. The three participants in
the German control group were students at the The experiment consists of a questionnaire and
Bauhaus Universität Weimar at the time of data two tests encompassing vowel length contrasts in
collection and were between the ages of 19 to 30. All minimal pairs in German and English. The questionnaire
of the German-speaking participants use German as is a modified version of the Language Experience and
the primary language in school and the sole language Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP) (Marian, Blumenfeld,
with their families, and originated from either Central & Kaushanskaya, 2007) adjusted for the purposes of this
or South Germany. study and the Philippine context6. The LEAP
The English-speaking control group consisted of questionnaire includes self-reports on competency and
two females and one male from North- and/or Northeast use of both the L2 (English) and the language in the
America who use English in school and as the sole process of being acquired, L3 (German). The two types
language with their families. They were between the of tests (productive and receptive) comprised of two
ages of 18 to 30 during the time of data collection. subtests each.
The control groups were primarily used for the Firstly, a set of oral repetition tests was
pronunciation (productive) experiment in order to serve conducted. A list of English minimal pairs containing the
as a frame of reference for the produced vowel lengths of vowels /eɪ/-/ɛ/, /i:/-/ɪ/, and /u:/-/ʊ/ was provided for the
the experimental group from the Philippines, as well as participants to read out loud. These words contain
to provide empirical support for vowel length norms different minimal pairs from the stimuli in the second
described in the latter section. As the receptive tests were test, in which German minimal pairs including the
designed to elicit insights into the interaction between the vowels /e:/-/ɛ/, /i:/-/ɪ/, and /u:/-/ʊ/ are read out loud by a
perception of the L2 and L3 in the experimental group native speaker of German in a repetition test made by the
from the Philippines, the L1 control groups were not author with PsychoPy (Peirce, 2007). The experimental
used for comparison in the analysis. A two-way group was requested to repeat the words uttered by the
comparison for the receptive task would also be speaker for the German task. Vowel durations were then
insufficient to make any claims of either one or the other automatically recorded and measured with Praat
language being the primary ‘template’ in perception, as (Boersma & Weenink, 2015). The duration was defined
while the target languages involved in the experiment are as the length of time between the first vowel peak to the
clearly set in the productive test, reception tests may onset of the post-vocalic consonant, determined by a
involve the activation of any number of latent languages decrease in amplitude and differences in the complexity
or sounds, even in the control group of the waveform. The German-speaking and the English-
- multilingualism, like bilingualism, is “greater than speaking control groups were asked to read the same set
the sum of its parts” (Hakuta & Bialystok, 1994). of words. Their recorded vowel
6 Identification with a particular culture was left out as Philippine English is spoken in a postcolonial multilingual environment, making
distinctions between particular cultures associated with languages (such as in a North American or European setting) vague.
95
lengths were used as a frame of reference vis-à-vis the 3. Results

experimental group.
The English and the German productive tests 3.1 Productive Tests
differ in type in order to ensure that no ambiguities result
from grapheme-phoneme errors in the reading of The vowel durations of each minimal pair were
German. It is assumed that this form of transfer is measured and contrasted with the length of their shorter
unlikely to occur in the English list of one-syllable pair in the form of a ratio. Because of technical difficulties
minimal pairs because of a lengthy educational incurred while recording, only six test subjects could
background in the English language. The receptive tests produce sufficient data for vowel length measurements
serve to measure the sensitivity of the participants (partial data for other participants appear in Table 2). The
toward vowel length in German and English. The results were compared to vowel lengths of the control
recordings of 32 spoken monosyllabic disyallbic group, three native speakers of German. The data revealed
minimal pairs of the abovementioned vowels were that although the averages of the experimental group fell
played in German; 12 of these included the target well within the ratios of the control group, ratios were
vowels, and 20 other words served as distractors. The generally found to be low for closed back and near close
experimental group was asked to select if the first near back vowel length contrasts [u:] - [ʊ] in the
stressed vowel is long or short. Reaction times and error experimental group. While there was no significant
rates are recorded automatically by the program. A difference between the ranges of the native speakers
second test was conducted in a similar manner as the (M=1.54, SD=1.06) and the test subjects (M=1.88,
first receptive test with 12 target words and four SD=1.56): t(8) = 0.38, p<0.72, it should be noted that this
distractors, but with English-language stimuli instead. particular productive test included an audio component that
the experimental group was tasked to repeat. The partial
results of P10 and P11 show little variance between [u:] -
[ʊ] contrasts despite the direct stimulus, indicating that
transfer of L1 phonetic features is possible despite the
nature of the task.
Table 2. Vowel length ratios and ranges for German minimal pairs
Ratio C1 C2 C3 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P10 P11

[e:] - [ɛ] 2.64 2.24 2 1.99 1.88 3.81 2.36 4.07 2.16 3.05
[i:] - [ɪ] 3.07 2.27 2.25 3.073 2.17 3.153 2.60 3.60 2.69
[u:] - [ʊ] 2.49 2.37 2.3 2.49 2.022 2.516 1.16 1.40 2.06 1.83 0.96 1.02
Range
High 3.25 2.71 2.70 2.19 2.67 4.08 3.07 5.8 2.94
Low 2.13 1.83 1.67 1.71 1.38 1.28 1.88 1.18 2.06
C = Control group, P = Experimental group
Table 3. Vowel length ratios in English
Ratio C1 C2 C3 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P11

[e:] - [ɛ] 1.36 1.22 1.47 1.15 1.09 1.43 1.47 1.7 1.24 1.39 0.83 0.73 1.16 0.89
[i:] - [ɪ] 1.73 1.55 1.34 1.43 1.38 1.63 1.24 2.84 1.75 1.58 1.85 1.02 1.70 1.5
[u:] - [ʊ] 1.32 1.31 1.48 1.13 0.63 0.92 0.66 2.90 1.67 1.21 1.07 0.95 1.54 0.85
Range
High 1.75 1.55 1.57 1.76 1.79 1.76 1.78 3.47 1.81 1.88 2.7 1.14 1.81 1.68
Low 1.24 1.2 1.28 0.88 0.62 0.84 0.16 1.39 1.18 1.18 0.56 0.61 0.58 0.57
C = Control group, P = Experimental group
96
Table 3 shows the results for the English

language vowel length for both the control group of
North American speakers and the experimental groups.
In general, English vowel durations had smaller ratios
than average German minimal pair contrasts. However,
ranges produced by the experimental group (M=1.18,
SD=0.55) varied considerably from the control group
(M=0.38, SD=0.11) in comparison to the German task,
with the mean between ranges revealing significant Figure 4. Error rates: German Vowels
differences: t(12) = 2.43, p<0.03. The strongest points of
contrast between the English results and the German
results were incidences of short vowels pronounced
longer than long vowels or diphthongs, as well as little
or no length contrasts between vowels. In particular, the
phoneme [u] proved to have very little length distinction.
On the other hand, all German vowels produced by the
participants were clearly distinguished by longer vowel
durations.
Figure 5. Reaction times: German vowels
3.2 Receptive Tests
3.2.2 English Vowels: Error Rates and Reaction
3.2.1 German Vowels: Error Rates and Reaction Times
Times
The error rates from English are concentrated in the
Data on error rates and reaction times for three [i:] phone, followed by vowel length contrasts for [u:] and
vowel contrasts in German were collected in the [ As with the German test, no significant correlation
experiment: /i:/ vs. /ɪ/, /e:/ vs. /ɛ/ and /u:/ vs. /ʊ/. Error between error rates and reaction times was found (r=-
rates for German vowels were found mostly for [ɛ] and 0.01, p<0.5). The amount of errors for [i:], however, did
both [u:] and [ʊ]. While error rates for the vowels did not not correspond with a longer reaction time. Longer
correlate significantly with higher reaction times (r=0.33, reaction times are observable for [u:] and [ɛ], which
p<0.26), a number of tendencies can be noted: the order correspond with the vowels with the longest reaction
of reaction times did not correspond with the error rates, times for the German activity. Results from the LEAP-Q
with [i:] rather than [e:] eliciting longer reaction times. survey do not reveal any particular self-reported items of
The phoneme [i], on the other hand, elicited the lowest the L2 that increased scores in the English-language
error rates but a relatively long aggregate reaction time, receptive test, and no significant correlations were found
along with phonemes producing high error rates: [ɛ] and between English error rates and German error rates, or
[u:]. Variables from the LEAP-Q survey were correlated English reaction times and German reaction times.
with error rates for German vowels, and it was found
that exposure to English-language radio (M=8.64,
SD=1.63) revealed a significant correlation with
performance in the German-language receptive test
(M=0.19, SD=0.11) and the lowering of error rates (r=-
0.55, p<0.04), while strong correlations were to be found
between the exposure to English-language TV (M=7.45,
SD=3.24, r=-0.49, p<0.06) and exposure to English
within the family (M=5.27, SD=3.32, r=-0.47, p<0.07)
and the lowering of German-language results. Figure 6. Error rates: English vowels
97
characteristics of English onto German as

hypothesized in Groseva’s FLAM (1998), thus,
appears to hold water in this case study.
While the production of English vowel
durations comprised of L1 interferences in the form of
ambiguous vowel length distinctions, these did not
reappear in German words, where the ratio of long-short
pairs ranged from 1.18 to more than 2. It, thus, appears
that an approximation of gAmE-comparable vowel
length ratios was characteristic of production in the L3.
Figure 7. Reaction times: English vowels
The meta-knowledge of vowel contrasts from L2
phonological features and the role of other strategies
(such as the overgeneralization of rules) appear to
4. Discussion
facilitate the lengthening of vowels. However, these are
The results from the tests reveal that the influence not necessarily indicated by results in the reception tests,
from L1 is still clear in the production of vowel-length as no significant correlations were found between
contrasts in the L2, although this is less clear for English and German results (n=5, p=0.19). While
performance in the L3. This may be attributed to the seemingly counterintuitive, English stimuli produced
acceptability of these pronunciations in the sociocultural more errors overall than German vowel stimuli (0.25
context of the Philippines, or because of the lack of was the average number of errors in German, compared
metalinguistic knowledge on English vowel-length to 32 in English), which indicates that the longer length
contrasts due to training7. However, performance in the L2 distinctions in German, and potentially the vowel
did not necessarily predict performance in the L3 in the quality, known to be more tense in German long vowels
production task, possibly because of the limitations of the than in English, are likely to have contributed to better
type of stimuli used (the L2 productive test was a read-out performance.
loud activity, whereas the L3 oral production exercise Considering the inclusion of phonetics in the
presented audio stimuli that were to be repeated). textbooks used in class, Cornelsen’s Studio D (Funk,
Nevertheless, it appeared that scores for the German Kuhn, Demme, Christiany, Bayerlein, Lex,
receptive task were closely correlated with LEAP-Q survey & Redecker, 2005), it is not impossible to rule out
results for habits relating to English language use, including training in the development of phonological
exposure to English through TV, radio, and conversations awareness in the L3. While vowel length is explicitly
within the family, leading to lower error rates in identifying included in German learning materials, it is unknown
German vowel duration contrasts for those who were whether or not the same linguistic awareness was
frequently exposed to English through these channels. introduced during English language classes. The
Extended audio exposure may, thus, lead to a higher problem of how L3 difficulties can be resolved, thus,
awareness of vowel length contrasts in other languages. appears to be connected to how the L2 is taught, as
This lends credence to theories that postulate that skills Marx (2005) has correctly pointed out.
learned through the use of L2 may be utilized in the
learning of another language (Hufeisen, 1998); in addition,
the influence of factors found mostly in contexts outside the 5. Conclusion
classroom is not irrelevant in developing listening skills.
The effects of exposure to English in the family and by way This study provides insights into the acquisition
of various media on listening skills provide evidence for the of vowel duration in Filipino learners of German as a
role of sociocultural factors, i.e., the lectal classifications of third language. It focused primarily on the differences
phonology in language learning. The templating of between vowel duration in production (speaking) and
successfully learned reception (listening) and determined that the ability to
7For an example of this in the Southeast Asian context, see Kärchner-Ober, 2009.
98
distinguish between long and short vowels in German Experimental Psychology, 25(1), 137-148.
depended partially on the speaker’s exposure to the Caramazza, A., Miceli, G., Villa, G., & Romani, C.
English language in various contexts, showing how (1987). The role of the graphemic buffer in
sociocultural variables affect the successful use of skills spelling: Evidence from a case of acquired
acquired from English in learning German as a foreign dysgraphia. Cognition, 26, 59-85.
language. In terms of production, the participants fared Chen, Y. H. (2005). Deutsch als Tertiärsprache in
better in German than in English, as the range of vowel Taiwan unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von
duration contrasts in the German task did not Chinesisch als L1 und Englisch als erster
significantly differ from the control groups, whereas Fremdsprache (Doctoral dissertation). Hamburg,
there was a significant difference between the control Universität Hamburg.
and experimental groups in the English task. This could Cummins, J. (1981). The role of primary language
be attributed to two factors: firstly, differences in development in promoting educational success for
method, as a recording of the German words was heard language minority students. In California State
prior to the recording in order to avoid graphematic Department of Education (Ed.), Schooling and
errors being transferred into pronunciation; and language minority students: A theoretical
secondly, there were technical difficulties that impeded framework (pp. 3-49). Los Angeles: Evaluation,
the collection of data for some of the participants in the Dissemination and Assessment Center, California
German task. It is, therefore, recommended that further State University.
studies increase the number participants in order to gain Funk, H., Kuhn, C., Demme, S., Christany, C.,
more data in the Philippine context on vowel length Bayerlein, O., Lex, B., & Redecker, B. (2005). In
contrasts, as well as consider the use of suitable primes H. Funk (Ed.). Studio D A1.1 (pp. 1-139).
should the oral word repetition task be used. Munich: Cornelsen.
As the participants fared better in German Gonzalez, A. (1998). The language planning situation
than in English in both tasks, it can be assumed that in the Philippines. Journal of Multilingual and
explicit training in phonetics could be an aid in Multicultural Development, 19(5), 487-525.
increasing phonological awareness. It is hoped that the Groseva, M. (1998). Deutsch als L3 bei bulgarischen
findings of this study will lead to the use of more lernern. Wichtige herangehensweisen und
instruments in research to evaluate the role of context, strategien. In B. Hufeisen, & B. Lindemann
frequency, use and attitude toward language, as well (Eds.), Tertiärsprachen. Theorien, modelle,
as the environment in which it is learned, especially in methoden (pp. 133-144). Tübingen: Stauffenburg.
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The science and psychology of second language
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100
Appendix A. Word List Sets
Test Set 1 Test Set 2
German Word List German Word List
bieten Beet
bitten Bett
Beet bieten
Bett bitten
Ruhm Huhn
Rum Hund
spuken Kehle
spucken Kelle
Miete Miete
Mitte mitte
Fete Ruhm
fette rum
English Word List English Word List
bait beat
bet bit
cheek blade
chick bled
hood fool
look full
Luke pool
seat pull
sit sleep
wait slip
wet wait
who’d wet
101
2015 LSP Annual Report
LINGUISTIC SOCIETY OF THE PHILIPPINES

Annual Report for 2015
I. ACADEMIC/SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES
A. Monthly Board Meetings
February 27, 2015 (1:00 – 2:30 p.m.)

Room 701, Henry Sy, Sr. Hall, De La Salle University, Manila
March 17, 2015 (2:00 – 4:20 p.m.)

16/F Andrew Gonzalez FSC Bldg., De La Salle University, Manila
April 11, 2015 (9:30 – 9:50 a.m.)

University of Asia and the Pacific
April 21, 2015 (11:00 a.m. – 3:05 p.m.)

May 5, 2015 (1:00 – 3:00 p.m.)

Graduate School Meeting Room, TARC, University of Santo Tomas
June 2, 2015 (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)

BPS Auditorium, Philippine Normal University
July 7, 2015 (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)

De La Costa Hall, Ateneo de Manila University
August 4, 2015 (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)

September 5, 2015 (1:00 – 3:00 p.m.)

De La Costa Hall, Ateneo de Manila University
November 10, 2015 (10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)

ALB Executive Lounge, University of Asia and the Pacific
B. Lectures
1. LSP Special Lecture
Speaker: Dr. Angela Reyes (City University of New York)

Topic: “Conyo: Ideologies of Mixed Race/Language in the Philippines”
Date: January 8, 2015 (3:00 – 4:30 p.m.)
Venue: Lecture Room A1703, Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC Bldg., De La Salle University,
Manila
102
2. The Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC Distinguished Professorial Chair in Linguistics and Language
Education
Chair Holder: Dr. Loy Lising (University of Sydney, Australia)

Topic: “The Linguistic Ideologies of Multilingualism and Skilled Migration:
The Case of Filipino Skilled Migrants in the Australian Diaspora”
Date: February 28, 2015 (10:00 – 12:00 nn.)
Venue: 13th Floor Exhibit Area, Henry Sy, Sr. Hall, De La Salle University, Manila
3. The 7th Emy M. Pascasio Memorial Lecture

Speaker: Dr. Maria Luz Elena N. Canilao (Ateneo de Manila University)
Topic: “The Use of English in Multilingual Classrooms: Frameworks, Features, and
Factors”
Date: September 5, 2015 (9:00 – 11:00 a.m.)
Venue: Natividad Galang Fajardo Conference Room, Ateneo de Manila University
C. Conferences
1. National Conference
2015 LSP National Conference and General Meeting

April 11, 2015
University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P)
Theme: “Language and Intelligibility”
Conference Director: Arwin M. Vibar (University of Asia and the Pacific)
Invited Speakers and Topics:
Danilo T. Dayag (+) (De La Salle University, Manila)

“Larry Smith’s Studies of Intelligibility and World Englishes Issues and Prospects”
Shirley N. Dita (De La Salle University, Manila)

“The Intelligibility and Comprehensibility of Philippine English to EFL Learners”
Jesus Federico C. Hernandez (University of the Philippines, Diliman)

“Intelligibility in Flux: Evolution, Differentiation, and Diffusion”
Marilu Rañosa-Madrunio (University of Santo Tomas)

“Clear Language for Clear Communication: Assessing the Clarity of Philippine Consumer Finance
Contracts”
Maria Asuncion L. Magsino (University of Asia and the Pacific)

“Peirce-Sebeok Framework of Language”
J. Stephen Quakenbush and Jason T. Griffiths (SIL International)

“Language, Intelligibility and Language Development in the Philippines”
103
Rowella Tanjusay and Perpi Tiongson

“The Swadesh Method, Intelligibility and Language Change: The Rationale for Recognition of FSL
as the National Sign Language in Proposed Legislation”
2. International Conference
The 9th Annual International Free Linguistics Conference (FLC 2015)

September 24-26, 2015
De La Salle University, Manila
Conference Directors: Shirley N. Dita (LSP President)
Ahmar Mahboob (FLC Founder)
Focus Speakers:
Priscilla Tan-Cruz (Ateneo de Manila University)

“Construing an Identity for a Nation: Values Education, English Language Teaching, and Secondary
School Pedagogy in the Philippines”
Maya Khemlani David (University of Malaya)

“Language Policies and Ecology of Literacies”
Gail Forey (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

“Call Centres and the Workers Within: Thinking Smart and Sounding Smart on Every Single Call”
Lisa Lim (The University of Hong Kong)

“Centres of Diversity, Platforms for Evolution: On Margins and Mobility in Language Practices in
the Global Knowledge Economy”
Jane Lockwood (City University of Hong Kong)

“The Many Faces of Business Communication: Asian Profiles”
Andrew Moody (University of Macau)

“Mock Englishes in Popular Culture: Appropriating English for Popular Consumption”
Symposia:
Talking Across the World (TAW) Symposium

Organized by: Gail Forey (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
Philippine English Symposium 2

Organized by: Danica Salazar (Oxford English Dictionary)
Shirley N. Dita (De La Salle University, Manila)
104
Workshops:
JungAe Lee Allman (University of Texas at Arlington)

“Linguistic Analysis Using AntConc”
Priscilla Tan-Cruz (Ateneo de Manila University)

“Grammar into Discourse: A Framework for Analyzing How Texts Make Meaning”
Maya Khemlani David (University of Malaya)

“Becoming Aware of Cross-Cultural Norms in Speech Acts”
Gail Forey (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

“Analysing Spoken discourse: The Role and Value of Interactional Talk in Service Encounters”
Paulina M. Gocheco (De La Salle University, Manila)

“Writing an Effective Review of Related Literature”
Merry Ruth M. Gutierrez (Philippine Normal University)

“ESL Reading Instruction in the K-12 Curriculum”
Jesus Federico C. Hernandez (University of the Philippines-Diliman)

“A Pinoy Babel Story: FAQs and the Linguistic Identity of the Speech Varieties in the Philippines”
Lisa Lim (The University of Hong Kong)

“Don’t feel kawawa; it’s ok to be kiasu; add oil! Advancing Intelligibility and Acceptability of New
Englishes in the Multilingual Global Ecologies of Asia”

“Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) Assessment: New Directions”
Marilu Rañosa-Madrunio (University of Santo Tomas)

“Forensic Linguistics: Quo Vadis?”
Missy Maramara (Ateneo de Manila University)

“Performing Punctuations for Better Communication in English”
Andrew Moody (University of Macau)

“Using Linguistic Data from Popular Culture: A Workshop on the Possibilities and Limitations for
Research”
Other highlights:
Attendance: 930
Number of Countries Represented: 36
Paper Presentations: 125
Poster Presentations: 9
105
D. Publications
The Philippine Journal of Linguistics Volume 45 (December 2014 issue) was released in October 2015.
The Philippine Journal of Linguistics Volume 46 (December 2015 issue – this issue) was released in
early February 2016.
II. INSTITUTIONAL OR ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES
A. Organizational Structure
The following officers were elected in April 2015:
LSP OFFICERS (2015-2018)
Shirley N. Dita
PRESIDENT
Arwin M. Vibar
University of Asia and the Pacific
VICE PRESIDENT
Marianne Rachel G. Perfecto

Ateneo de Manila University
SECRETARY
Camilla J. Vizconde
TREASURER
Rochelle Irene G. Lucas

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Arceli M. Amarles
Philippine Normal University
Director of Membership
Marlina L. Lino
Mariano Marcos State University
Director of Research and Special Projects
106
Ma. Milagros C. Laurel

University of the Philippines-Diliman
Director of Public Relations and Linkages
Priscilla T. Cruz
Ateneo de Manila University
Director of Publications
Alejandro S. Bernardo
Director of Conferences
Paulina M. Gocheco
Director of Professional Meetings
Jason T. Griffiths
SIL International
Director of Trainings
B. Memberships
As of December 31, 2015, LSP has the following memberships:
Lifetime Members: 129

Honorary Lifetime Members: 24
Institutional Members: 5
Regular Members: 112
Student Members: 101
107
III. Financial Standing
2015 LSP Financial Report

Income:
LSP Memberships P 125,800.00
LSP Conference P 52,825.00
FLC Share P 193,837.11
Donations P 45,00.00
PJL Sales P 31,140.00
TOTAL P 448,602.11
Expenses:
LSP Conference P 127,615.00
PJL-related P 111,284.00
PSSC P 58,075.42
Permit-related P 26,004.30
Operational Expenses P 11,040.00
TOTAL P 334,018.72
BALANCE: P 114,583.39
108
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to thank the following for serving as referees for this issue’s articles:
Resty Cena
University of Alberta, Canada
Priscilla Angela T. Cruz

Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
Eden Regala-Flores
De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines
Isabel Pefianco-Martin
Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
Richard Powell
Nihon University, Japan
Sridevi Sriniwass
University of Malaya, Malaysia
109
INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS
Review Process: All manuscripts shall undergo a blind and independent review process. As such, authors
are requested to submit a separate cover sheet containing the article title, author’s name, and
institutional affiliation. Every effort should be made to remove any clue as to the author’s identity. The
Editor will ensure that each cycle of the review process takes no more than six months.
Length: Articles should be from 6,000 to 10,000 words inclusive of tables, figures, references,
and supplementary materials. Book reviews should be no more than 2,000 words.
Title: Titles and section headings should be clear and brief.
Abstract: An abstract of up to 150 words is required. A maximum of five key words should be
written below the abstract.
Typing: Articles should be word-processed (in Microsoft Word format, Times New Roman font 12
points), and double-spaced throughout. Margins on all sides should be from 1 inch to 1.25 inches.
Language and Spelling: Articles should be in English. Quotations of text extracts in other languages
should be translated. UK or US spelling may be used, but usage must be consistent throughout.
Documentation: In citing sources in text and onthe list of references, the style guidelines of
the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 6th Edition) should be
followed.
Tables and Figures: Tables and figures should be numbered and have short descriptive titles.
Camera-ready artwork should be supplied for all figures and images. Gray-scale or line-art
images are acceptable. Color images will not be printed.
Quotations: Short quotations in the text itself should be marked as such with “double
quotation marks”. Lengthy quotations (over five lines or 50 words) should be indented in the
text without quotation marks.
Submission Instructions: To be considered for possible publication in an incoming issue of the

journal, manuscripts should be submitted before March 30. Those submitted beyond this deadline
will be considered for the next issue. All contributions should be in MS Word and PDF formats, and
sent as e-mail attachments to [email protected] with the subject: PJL submission.
Subscription Rates
The Journal is distributed to members of the Linguistic Society of the Philippines and is paid by
their annual dues. Subscription per year is PhP 700. Foreign subscription, excluding the cost
of handling and mailing, is USD 40 an issue.
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ISSN 0048-3796

VOLUME 46 DECEMBER 2015

Aims and Scope Board of Editorial Consultants

The Philippine Journal of Linguistics, the official Maria Lourdes S. Bautista

Issue Editors J. Stephen Quakenbush

Morphological and Lexical Variations of Isnag, Isneg Yapayao, 14

Modal Must in Philippine Editorials: A Corpus-based Study 39

Linguistic Politeness of the World: Strategies Used by Organizers 50

A Contrastive Rhetoric Analysis of Job Application Letters 68

Miete or Mitte? A Preliminary Study of Vowel Length Contrasts 89

Linguistic Analysis of Trading Agreements: Insights

Pia Patricia P. Tenedero

Keywords: Plain writing, linguistic features of contracts

1. Introduction An online trading agreement is an example of a

Table 1. Corpora source

Corpus Online Stock Broker Website

syntactic, and discourse features strengthens the 3. Results and Discussion

Table 2. Impersonal references in selected online trading agreements

Noun Reference Corpus 1 Corpus 2 Corpus 3 Corpus 4 Corpus 5

Table 3. Modal verb use in selected online trading agreements

Modal verb Corpus 1 Corpus 2 Corpus 3 Corpus 4 Corpus 5

Table 4. Legal archaisms in selected online trading agreements

Archaism Corpus 1 Corpus 2 Corpus 3 Corpus 4 Corpus 5

Table 5. Average sentence length in selected online trading agreements

Average Sentence Corpus 1 Corpus 2 Corpus 3 Corpus 4 Corpus 5

Table 6. Personal references in selected online trading agreements

Pronouns Corpus 1 Corpus 2 Corpus 3 Corpus 4 Corpus 5

this part of speech may, in fact, help avoid antiquated language:

Table 7. Total legal archaisms in selected online trading agreements

Corpus 1 Corpus 2 Corpus 3 Corpus 4 Corpus 5

of the obligation to strictly abide by all the terms of

the-philippines/ Securities and Exchange Commission. (1998,

Acknowledgments: The author wishes to thank Prof.

Morphological and Lexical Variations of Isnag, Isneg Yapayao, and Itneg

Keywords: Morphological features, lexical variations, Philippine language

1. Introduction varieties, namely, Itneg Tingguian, Isneg Yapayao, and

1.2 Statement of the Problem participants, responses were subjected to analysis. At

Table 1. Distribution of participants per IP community

Table 2. Number of nouns in Isnag

TAGALOG (TAG) ILOCANO (ILO) ISNAG (ISA)

Table 3. Number of nouns in Isneg Yapayao

TAGALOG (TAG) ILOCANO (ILO) ISNEG YAPAYAO (ISE)

3. Results and Discussion reduplication (Dita, 2011; Ruffolo, 2004). Tables 2, 3,

Table 4. Number of nouns in Itneg Tingguian

TAGALOG (TAG) ILOCANO (ILO) ITNEG TINGGUIAN (ITE)

Table 5. Gender of nouns across L1 communities

ITEM TAGALOG ILOCANO ISNAG ISNEG YAPAYAO ITNEG

(7) Ballad - Adu a ballad 3.1.2 Gender of Nouns

ITEM TAGALOG ILOCANO ISNAG ISNEG YAPAYAO ITNEG

ITEM TAGALOG ILOCANO ISNAG ISNEG YAPAYAO ITNEG

3.1.3 Body Parts (15) Magatawa

3.1.4 Reciprocal Nouns 3.1.5 Comitative Nouns

Table 8. Comitative nouns in ISA, ISE, and ITE

ITEM TAGALOG ILOCANO ISNAG ISNEG YAPAYAO ITNEG

Table 9. Instigator nouns in ISA, ISE, and ITE

ITEM TAGALOG ILOCANO ISNAG ISNEG YAPAYAO ITNEG

ITEM TAGALOG ILOCANO ISNAG ISNEG YAPAYAO ITNEG TINGGUIAN

observation was found true to ISA, as in: (22) TAG - Lutuan

Table 11. Personal pronouns in ISA, ISE, and ITE

Name (Optional): ____________________ Age:_ Gender: _________