Doctoral Dissertation Research: Language Differentiation and Categorization: Postcolonial Transformation of Linguistic Lives of Chinese Singaporeans

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In households where the grandparents, parents and children have different linguistic backgrounds, what kind of interactions and linguistic behaviors can we expect to find? Will speakers choose to use a state-instituted official mother tongue over their native language? How will the language they choose to speak affect their ethnic identity construction? This dissertation research project will examine intergenerational language use among Chinese Singaporeans whose linguistic experiences differ from one another because of rapid language shift in postcolonial Singapore. In addition to examining the effects of language shift on how speakers interpret the languages and varieties spoken in their community, it also seeks to investigate the relationship between language and ethnic identity construction. Through participant observation of linguistic behaviors, audio and video recording of naturally occurring speech, and interviews with members in three multigenerational Chinese Singaporean households, this study utilizes the concepts of iconicity, fractal recursivity, and erasure (Irvine & Gal 2000) to provide a complex and layered framework for identifying and analyzing the semiotic processes of language ideologies that have resulted from State language policies. Bourdieu's (1991) notions of cultural and symbolic capital in linguistic markets [the linguistic market??] add an important politico-economic dimension to the investigation.The broader impacts of this study are found in the way that it questions the link between language and ethnic identity that government policies assume. This project foregrounds the experiences of speakers, bringing attention to normalization processes of linguistic practices in Singaporean society, thereby permitting policymakers to better assess the consequences of the essentializing [essentializing?? Is this a word of English? Standard sociolinguistic jargon?] assignment of languages to ethnic groups.