Philippine Linguistics

Stress as a linguistic phenomenon has been studied previously. [1][2] This includes the definition and description of what comprises stress in a language. [3] The characterization of stress has been said to be concerned with three main acoustic correlates - length, pitch and intensity. Oftentimes, this characterization is language-specific; it is relative to the particular language in question. Previous studies have shown that Tagalog stress is related primarily to length, particularly vowel length. [4][5] Whether this holds true to other Philippine languages like Bikol is a subject of debate, though stress in Bikol has been mentioned to have phonemic status. [6]

Pairs contrasting only in the so-called “stress”, such as the case of the Tagalog pair /’ga.bi/ and /ga.’bi/ and Bikol pair /’ha.jup/ and /ha.’jup/, differs in meaning. This study aims to characterize the acoustic parameters that differentiate these pairs. Selected Filipino and Bikol disyllabic and trisyllabic minimal pairs are used. By means of evaluation by native speakers of synthesized and modified samples, this study aims to find out the threshold limit of the acoustic cues that results to the difference in perception.

Lexical markers basically constitute the Tense-Aspect of T'boli and Bahasa Indonesia/Malaysia. This is different in other Philippine-type languages which utilize a grammaticalized aspectual marking. This study provides a comparative analysis on the inventory of lexical markers of T'boli and BIM, which is analysed using the Contextual or Semantic TAM framework (Arka, 2013). Results show that since these markers are lexical in nature, it is imperative that both languages are analysed morphosemantically and not morphosyntactically. These lexical markers also appear to be highly optional and not overtly expressed in discourse all the time; hence they are highly contextual in nature. Following Grange (2006), this study also conducted an inventory of the combination of aspectual markers of both languages. Finally, the results of the study ultimately aim to provide further syntactic evidence for the genealogical relationship of these two languages and possibly determine which language first utilized such syntactic feature.

Despite previous studies on political discourse, the genre of political advertisement campaigns remains unexplored. This article aims to analyze the persuasive and invasive nature of such a genre as it simultaneously engages various domains in society through its mode of communication. A combined analysis of genre, political strategic functions of coercion and legitimization, and speech acts employed in the campaigns illustrates an important link between language and politics. The weaving of these forms of analysis attempts to create an awareness that may be beneficial in three ways. First, the identification of the generic structure and communicative purpose of political advertisement campaigns (PACs) enables the participants in the discourse to be conscious of the essential elements in their structure. Second, a political discourse analysis enables the participants to be more critical of the political strategies of coercion and legitimization. Also significant is the use of varied...

This paper presents an analysis of American and Philippine English news leads. This study of one week's news leads of six leading American and Philippine newspapers over internet online publications shows that there is no significant difference in the number of words used between the two Englishes. Moreover, both samples demonstrate similar preference for summary lead with who, what, and when as the most frequently used elements and who as the heavily used starting element. The recurrent patterns of similarities may be attributed to the tendency of Philippine writers to adhere to the expectations of international journalism as propagated by European and American journalists or as a trace of American influence in the Philippine educational system

Many Filipino children begin their education in a language they do not speak or understand as well as their first language. In this setting, only the learner's first language can provide the kind of bridge to a personal identity that incorporates both an ethnic and a national dimension. A technical model of literacy acquisition that emphasizes literacy primarily as an economic skill for use in the workplace cannot achieve the 1987 policy goals. Rather, an alternative, ideological model of literacy is proposed which develops the critical thinking skills of the students, builds cognitive and affective domains, and values their local language experience and culture. Thus, by first establishing the empowering role of language in the social system of the students' community, groundwork is laid for the expansion of the students' identity to include their role in the larger national and international contexts.

This study addresses a gap in research about Personal home pages (PHPs) by examining the uses of language for the expression of identity and self-presentation through the analysis of self-expressionlself-description data found on Filipino PHPs. Thirty personal home page texts that belong to 20 Filipino males and 10 Filipino females are analyzed to describe how Filipino home page authors present themselves on the web though their linguistic sources, which are investigated in terms of the structuring of three types of meaning involved in the clause: identificational, actional, and representational. When conveying identificational meaning through pronouns and modal markers, the authors present themselves as individuals who attempt to establish interpersonal relationship with their readers, casual communication, and high level commitment to their descriptions. When structuring actional meaning through 'sentence types' and speech functions, authors 'give off' information ...

Philippine languages have caught the curiosity of linguists as to their true syntactic nature. This notion is due to their perplexing case-marking system. Several attempts to describe them have been reliant on restrictive structural, clause-level analyses. Such is the case for Aklanon, a Western Visayan language closely related to Tagalog and Cebuano. This paper hence looks back at Aklanon case marking system based on the initial analysis by dela Cruz and Zorc (1968) and Zorc (1977). This presents an ergative analysis, elaborating on morphosyntactic clues of transitivity. The Aklanon actor-voice clause type is intransitive, while this also licenses antipassivity based on Santiago’s (2015) definitions. These notions of ergativity and transitivity are supported by similar patterns exhibited by other Philippine-type languages, and likewise by uncontroversially ergative non-Philippine languages.

Aklanon, a Philippine language under the Western Visayan branch, has been largely ignored by linguistic scrutiny for years. With a speculated number of speakers nearing half a million, it has been recently institutionalized by the Philippine government as a medium of instruction at the within the Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) scheme under the newly established K-12 curriculum. Prior to an apparent need to further its codification in academic texts, Aklanon continues to enjoy relative use in some government signages and local radio programs apart from its dominance in everyday speech within the province of Aklan, in the Philippines. This paper aims to identify bundles of isoglosses across a geographic area where Aklanon is reported to be natively spoken. Nearly 500 lexical items were used to determine varieties encompassing the towns of Malay, Nabas, Ibajay, Tangalan Makato, Numancia, Lezo, Banga, Malinao, Madalag, Libacao, Batan, Altavas, Balete, New Washington, and Kalibo, the provincial capital. Based on the patterns that emerged, salient lexical deviation in form is particular in Malay. Meanwhile, evidences from Nabas and Madalag revealed absence of the voiced velar fricative [ɣ]—claimed as a semivowel ([x]?) in existing literature (Zorc, 2005)—which was rather found to be present in most varieties. In place, [l] and [ɾ] are present for Nabas, and a higher incidence of [ɾ] are for Madalag. Presence of schwa [ə] in Madalag could also be noted with respect to discourse-motivated prosodic qualities. Overall, a large area across central until eastern Aklan province constitute a single isogloss exhibiting negligible lexical and phonological variations.

There is a strong trend of nativization of English in Malaysia and the Philippines. This research examines data from English newspapers in two Asian countries in order to determine the extent of nativization of local varieties of English. The papers examined were The Star (Malaysia), Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Manila Bulletin (Philippines). The borrowing and assimilation of a large number of lexical items in the English dailies in these two countries were analyzed and categorized. These lexical items were found in various categories, such as people, events, cultural activities, places, political movements, religion, arts/films, food, clothes, and quotations. The borrowing and switching to local lexis in English dailies demonstrate the nativization of English in these dailies.

To explore the role of the LI in L2 writing, 30 first-year college students were taped as they thought aloud while writing an essay in English. The tapes were transcribed and analysed, and a total of 615 composing behaviors were verbalized in their L1, Tagalog. The eight composing behaviors that were verbalized most frequently in Tagalog were text evaluation (25%), brainstorming (23%), lexical insertion and substitution (20%), idea evaluation (17%), organizing/deciding (5%), self-instruction (4%), metawmmwts (4%), and idea elicitation (2%). Results showed that the L1 facilitated planning and revising processes, and enabled the postponement of low-level writing goals so L2 writers can attend to higher level writing goals. Writing teachers need to reassess the role of the L1 in the L2 writing classroom, and explore the potential benefits that may be reaped when L2 learners tap their L1 as they plan, retrieve, generate, organize, evaluate, and revise their written products.

This paper examines the forms of reduplication found in the Ayta Mag-anchi language of the Philippines. This reduplication falls into two main categories: 1) That which is currently active in the language, functioning as an inflection or derivation, and 2) That which is fossilized in the present-day language - no longer functioning as an inflection or derivation, but fixed as a permanent part of an Ayta root. The currently active reduplication is found to have two main forms, but with a lot of overlap in function. The examples are presented according to the meaning components carried by this reduplication. The fossilized reduplication is found to co-occur with some other interesting fossilized morphological patterns, and is presented according to the patterns found, along with some questions of origin which are yet to be answered.

Verbal aspect constitues one of the semantic domains of the temporal category Tense, Aspect and Modality (henceforth TAM). This paper focused on the verb aspectual system of T’boli, an Austronesian language spoken in Mindanao, Philippines, which seems to be manifested differently compared to most Philippine languages. This paper also aimed to determine these aspectual markers through the Aspect Test and to re-examine the studies of Porter (1977) and Forsberg (1992), and compare their data with the 500 sentence elicitation list (Constantino and Hernandez). Results showed that there are lexicalized morphemes that encode the aspect in T’boli, while the affixes attached to the verb encode the focus system.  This study also explores the syntactic and aspectual functions of these lexical aspectual markers in simple and complex sentences. It was observed that such markers have optionality rules in between the two clauses in complex sentences. More aspectual markers and a combination of these were encountered in analysing T’boli aspect in complex sentences. An inventory of these markers were made.

For the past few decades, stylistics has emerged as a discipline that encompasses both literary criticism and linguistics. The integration of both disciplines opened many opportunities for English literature and language teachers to get creative in their teaching—by introducing the stylistic approach in their classrooms. However, in a typical Southeast Asian classroom (Sadiman, 2004), several problems such as the lack of resources, scarcity of quality teaching strategies, time de)ciency, as well as the unfamiliarity of authentic assessment seem to impede the utilization of the mentioned approach or other learnercentered approaches. Moreover, only limited literature on the analysis, let alone the teaching, of the ballad adopting the stylistic method are evident. This paper could be described as an attempt to address these problems. It provides a fresh perspective in analyzing a well-known 18th century British ballad, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” in the syntactical/structural, l...

What is the link between social values and linguistic features in the real world that students are being prepared for? With the range and depth of cultural interaction in the 21 st century, our learners find themselves in a multilingual society where the mixing of language in daily conversation finds its way to written work. By analyzing a corpus from the tabloids or compact newspapers, it is possible to further describe the reality of code-switching in the Philippines. The corpus is comprised of seven consecutive cover stories from the tabloid, Abante, whose base language is Filipino. The study investigates the syntactic categories code-switched, the linguistic assumptions the text makes regarding its readers, and possible reasons for switching to English. The analysis of the multiple motivations for code-switching conveys a connection between linguistic features and cultural values of a post-colonial society. The analysis from a historical-political context reveals conflicting vie...

In designing English language courses, we often take into account the needs of students, as well as of other stakeholders in the academic community. One such stakeholder is the content area teacher, who is traditionally viewed as a beneficiary of effective English language teaching (ELT). Using a survey, this paper looks into how these content area teachers mark their students' written work. The survey hopes to determine the criteria used by these teachers in grading reports and essays. As the writer analyzes how content area teachers mark written work, she also hopes to draw implications for English language curriculum and instruction in Ateneo de Manila University. In the end, it is argued that content area teachers are not just beneficiaries of ELT; they are also active partners of English language teachers.

The Philippines is a nation of 7107 islands located in Southeast Asia. The country is home to an estimated 99,809,100 people who thrive in a rich linguistic climate, which hosts 181 living languages (Lewis, Simons, & Fennig, 2014), an English variety (Philippine English) that has reached the fourth phase of Schneider’s dynamic model (Borlongan, 2011), and a rich tradition of applied linguistics (henceforth, AL) research that is aptly captured in Dita’s (2011) Issues and trends in applied linguistics in the Philippines: a decade in retrospect.

This is a case study of advice columns found in Filipino magazines and/or broadsheets (newspapers). It attempts to determine the genre of advice columns, particularly in the area of self-disclosure and the concept of presentation of self or face work strategies of those letter writers (presumably with problems that need counseling) who seek advice and the ones who offer advice, i.e. the columnist. The importance of the study lies primarily in its use of contrastive rhetorical analysis within the bilingual context. The study is also important because it not only provides an insight into this particular genre of writing, but also has implications for the Filipino psychology of self-help, and regard for authority

In the context of cooperative endeavors with Filipino scholars, institutions and language communities, SIL research on Philippine languages has been a part of the development of linguistics as a discipline in this country since the early 1950s. SIL researchers have adressed such basic questions as: What Philippine languages are there? and What are these languages like?. An analysis of SIL's academic and vernacular publications over the past fifty years reveals several areas of concentration. Particular contributions in the area of morphosyntax, discourse studies and lexicography are considered, and the variety and amount of literature produced in Philippine 'endangered languages' is highlighted. Some suggestions are given for the future research.

This paper analyzes aspects of the assessment reform that started in 2003 in the Philippines by evaluating its policy and its implementation. Documents from the Department of Education pertaining to the reform were reviewed to trace the alignment of pedagogy, assessment, and proficiency in English. In addition, focus group discussions and interviews were also conducted to see how English teachers in rural and urban public secondary schools interpreted the changes mandated to them by the Department of Education. Data collection started in 2003 up to 2007. The study uncovered some factors that might have led to the limited implementation of the assessment reform by the participants in the study.

... Mots-clés anglais / English Keywords. Syntax. ; Pragmatics. ; Syntactic position. ; Distributional analysis. ; Mots-clés français / French Keywords. Linguistique textuelle. ; Syntaxe. ; Pragmatique. ;Syntagme nominal. ; Position syntaxique. ; Initiale. ; Fonction discursive. ; Thème discursif ...

The subgroup of Philippine languages here called Northern Luzon (earlier descriptions called it Cordilleran), is slowly becoming better understood as new descriptions of its constituent languages are being published. This paper draws on the material that is now available to reconstruct various features of the morphosyntax of the parent of the group, Proto-Northern Luzon. Evidence for the unity of the group will first be examined, noting that there is little phonological evidence to unite the family, although the largest group of languages within the family, those which comprise what has been called Meso-Cordilleran does share certain phonological innovations. There is however a fairly substantial body of exclusively-shared lexical innovations which have been claimed to be reconstructible to Proto-Northern Luzon. The general typological features of clausal constructions, both transitive and intransitive, as well as non-verbal, found throughout Northern Luzon will be considered to be ...

This study is an attempt to investigate how couples perceive themselves making amends for an offense which they believe might have damaged the addressee's face needs (Brown and Levinson, 1999). It specifically aims to investigate what apology strategies Filipino-speaking couples choose to employ in certain contrived situations; how the weight of the offense influence the type of apology strategy use; if there is any difference in the females' choice of apology strategies from that of their partners; and what implications can be derived from the respondents' choice of apology strategies in terms of functions. Since literature on this aspect is scarce and very few studies are available to support it, the study will be a contribution in the field of sociolinguistics in the country. The results may be considered useful, too, for their pedagogical implications. Classroom activities during values integration sessions can be geared towards familiarizing students with effective ...

На протяжении веков жители Филиппинского архипелага, особенно прибрежных районов, в том числе тагалы, испытывали различное влияние таких иноземных культур, как китайская, малайская, индийская, арабская, испанская и – с начала XX в. по настоящее время – англо-американская культура. Основной контакт филиппинцев с южнокитайскими переселенцами специалисты относят к периоду X–XV вв.: активная китайская торговля и ремесло в Манильском регионе, рост числа поселенцев и их широкая ассимиляция обусловили заимствование тагальским языком значительного объема южнокитайской лексики, особенно из диалекта хакка, в том числе кулинарных терминов. С XVI в. по конц XIX в. Филиппины находились под властью Испании, и за 300 с лишним лет испанский как язык социальной верхушки оказал наибольшее воздействие на культурно-языковую среду Филиппин, включая и кулинарию. При этом испанские термины закрепились и за рядом уже имевшихся в тагальском языке наименований пищи, в том числе китайского происхождения. Данная работа посвящена китайскому и испанскому влиянию в тагальской кулинарной терминологии.

This paper presents an analysis of Philippine and Singaporean letters of complaint to editors published over a period of three months from July to August 2002. Eighty complaint letters from Philippine Daily Inquirer and The Straits Times, leading newspapers in the Philippines and Singapore, respectively, were examined in terms of their discourse structure. Textual analysis was used as a method of identifying the orsanizaitional moves. The t-test revealed that both Philippine and Singaporean samples employed the same number of moves: introduction, background, complaint, request for rests, suggestion, justification for suggestion, and conclusion. No significant differences wen found in the frequency of occurrence of these moves except for introduction. However, a significant difference was found between the two samples as regards length of letters. It is then concluded that Philippine English and Singapore English do not differ at all in terms of discourse structure.

This paper presents an analysis of Philippine and Singaporean letters of complaint to editors published over a period of three months from July to August 2002. Eighty complaint letters from Philippine Daily Inquirer and The Straits Times, leading newspapers in the Philippines and Singapore, respectively, were examined in terms of their discourse structure. Textual analysis was used as a method of identifying the orsanizaitional moves. The t-test revealed that both Philippine and Singaporean samples employed the same number of moves: introduction, background, complaint, request for rests, suggestion, justification for suggestion, and conclusion. No significant differences wen found in the frequency of occurrence of these moves except for introduction. However, a significant difference was found between the two samples as regards length of letters. It is then concluded that Philippine English and Singapore English do not differ at all in terms of discourse structure.

The study explores the notion of HP Grice's Four Maxims as realized in mobile phone discourse, particularly text messaging or short messaging service (SMS). Using data from selected Filipino SMS conversations, observance and non-observance of the maxims are described, and possible effects on the conversation posited. The results revealed that texters typically observe the maxims, although there were occasional instances of non-observance. Non-observance appeared non-intentional, and possibly constrained by the limited number of letters or characters that mobile phones accommodate, as well as by the style of particular texters. The maxims of quantity and relevance appeared to be the most observed of the four maxims.

Résumé/Abstract This paper analyzes aspects of the assessment reform that started in 2003 in the Philippines by evaluating its policy and its implementation. Documents from the Department of Education pertaining to the reform were reviewed to trace the alignment of ...

In the study of negation, two features are often attributed to it: universality and markedness. Negation is generally considered as a universal feature of languages. (Dahl, 1979) All languages have a way of how to express negation. (Horn & Kato, 2000) On the other hand, the markedness of negation is shown through its relationship to its counterpart affirmative statement. (Horn, 1989)

This study attempts to investigate the phenomenon of negation in Philippine languages. The term ‘Philippine languages’ is often taken to have three different meanings: geographic, typological, and genetic. (Blust, 1991) The definition of Philippine languages as a genetic subgrouping is the one used in this study.

Fifteen languages are investigated and these languages are Ivatan, Ilokano, Itawis, Tuwali Ifugao, Bontok, Pangasinan, Kapampangan, Tagalog, Bikol - Naga, Bikol - Oas, Cebuano - Leyte, Hiligaynon, Masbatenyo, Waray and Surigaonon.

As a category, negation can be expressed in various ways. To illustrate the diversity in the expression of negation, a typological approach was used to explore parameters associated to negation. The domains of negation included in this study are verbal (standard and prohibitive), non-verbal (nominal, adjectival, and existential) and cleft constructions. Negation strategies are compared and categorized. Through categorization of negation typologies, the relative homogeneity among the expression of negation in Philippine languages is illustrated.

With people becoming increasingly mobile, it is quite difficult to find a language that is in complete isolation. In this age of globalization, the tangle of cultures becomes more intertwined. With multilingualism set as the norm, contact among the languages involved often result to inevitable changes in these languages.

Santiago (1979) looked into the mixed bilingualism characteristic of Filipino native speakers of the Greater Manila Area, leading him to conclude that the language is in the stage of an incipient creolization. This paper aims to re-examine the status of Filipino as an emerging contact language, particularly a bilingual mixed language resulting from the extensive and regular code-mixing of the language with English. A recorded text test on Tagalog monolinguals shows how Filipino, with Tagalog as its nucleus, is starting to move away from its stock language as it continues to develop into a form palpably distinct from its aforementioned nucleus.