A Learner's Journey – Lars Dittmer

Schlagwort: linguistics

  • The communications system of the twins in Arundhati Roy’s „The God of small things“: How they apply the English language in a postcolonial Indian setting

    term paper abstract, summer semester 2005, grade 1,3, Potsdam University by Lars Dittmer

    Chacko told the twins that though they hated to admit it, they were all Anglophiles. They were a family of Anglophiles. (Roy 1996: 52) In establishing the two-egg twins Rahel and Esthapen (Estha) as main characters in her 1996 masterpiece “The God of Small Things”, Arundhati Roy has set up postcolonial prototypes in the area of conflict between British and Indian identity and culture.

    The body of the story focuses on the childhood of the twins, playing in the late 1960s; they are born to an upper middle class family in Kerala, South-Western India, and grow up fatherless. Their family to a large extent cultivates a British attitude – mainly due to grandfather Pappachi alias John Ipe, an Entomologist and former government official under the British colonial administration, his sister Baby Kochamma, and his son Chacko, who used to be an Oxford Rhodes Scholar. Until his death in the first part of the book, John Ipe drives a big Plymouth, he wears stiff English suits and it is inconceivable to him that any Englishman could misbehave; Chacko assumes the air of a British intellectual, he almost exclusively speaks English and often indulges in citing from English and American classics. The family has a high reputation in their home town Ayemenem, most members of the family profit from their Anglophile air in one way or other. The rest of the family more or less adapts to their way of life or finds a way to deal with the situation. The plot of the novel is balanced along cultural and social areas of friction within the Indian society, such as caste, class, religion, culture, clout, customs and traditions.

    source: Photograph: Corbis/Hulton-Deutsch Collection
    source: Photograph: Corbis/Hulton-Deutsch Collection

    It is one of the main tasks for the characters in the novel to find their place in this complex social structure. Though the twins are educated in English, their situation is particularly difficult and they receive some degree of alienation also from within the family. Of course, the twins mostly do not articulate these sorts of feelings and assessments explicitly; it has to be considered that they are children of the age of seven – but they are given a much more subtle means of communication by the author: language. Not the content of their sentences, but the way they apply the English language in various situations. It conveys a lot about how they assess their position and how they engage themselves in certain situations the novel fronts.

    Table of Contents

    1. General Introduction

    1.1 Introduction and problem identification
    1.2 Approach of this term paper

    2. English and other languages in India

    2.1 General facts and figures
    2.2 Indians in blood, English in taste and intellect
    2.3 Enmeshment between religion and language
    2.4 English as social indicator

    3. Constellation in Roy: The God of Small Things

    3.1 Social position and arrangement of the family
    3.2 Anglophile Tradition

    4. The twins and their communications system

    4.1 Rahel and Estha – two egg misfits
    4.2 Their way of using English

    4.2.1 English as everyday language
    4.2.2 English as a means of joking
    4.2.3 language as a means of rebellion

    5. Conclusion

    6. Works Cited

    1. General introduction

    1.1 Introduction and problem identification

    Chacko told the twins that though they hated to admit it, they were all Anglophiles. They
    were a family of Anglophiles.

    (Roy 1997: 52)

    In establishing the two-egg twins Rahel and Esthapen (Estha) as main characters in her 1997 masterpiece “The God of Small Things”, Arundhati Roy has set up postcolonial prototypes in the area of conflict between British and Indian identity and culture. The body of the story focuses on the childhood of the twins, playing in the late 1960s; they are born to an upper middle class family in Kerala, South-Western India, and grow up fatherless. Other family members besides the two-egg twins include their mother Ammu, their Uncle Chacko, grandparents Mammachi and Pappachi, their grandaunt Baby Kochamma, their cousin Sophie and her mother Margaret, the divorced wife of Chacko – she is an English native and lives with her daughter in London.

    The family to a large extent cultivates a British attitude – mainly due to grandfather Pappachi alias John Ipe, an Entomologist and former government official under the British colonial administration, his sister Baby Kochamma, and his son Chacko, who used to be an Oxford Rhodes Scholar. Until his death in the first part of the book, John Ipe drives a big Plymouth, he wears stiff English suits and it is inconceivable to him that any Englishman could misbehave; Chacko assumes the air of a British intellectual, he almost exclusively speaks English and often indulges in citing from English and American classics. The family has a high reputation in their home town Ayemenem, most members of the family profit from their Anglophile air in one way or other. The rest of the family more or less adapts to their way of life or finds a way to deal with the situation.

    The plot of the novel is balanced along cultural and social areas of friction within the Indian society, such as caste, class, religion, culture, clout, customs and traditions. It is one of the main tasks for the characters in the novel to find their place in this complex social structure. Though the twins are educated in English, their situation is particularly difficult and they receive some degree of alienation also from within the family. Of course, the twins mostly do not articulate these sorts of feelings and assessments explicitly; it has to be considered that they are children of the age of seven – but they are given a much more subtle means of communication by the author: language. Not the content of their sentences, but the way they apply the English language in various situations. It conveys a lot about how they assess their position and how they engage themselves in certain situations the novel fronts.

    1.2 Approach of this term paper

    To give the usage of the English language, as it is done by Rahel and Estha, a meaning, it is necessary to set up a scheme that clarifies the social standing of the twins and their family – some historic facts and postcolonial aspects will be highlighted to promote this in point two and three. This is especially vital to make clear why the twins and their family speak English at all, and not only Malayalam, which is the original vernacular in the Kottayam district of Kerala. The scheme serves as a theoretical fundament and it is also designed to highlight one of the main problems involved in this topic; namely that the concept of “identity” in postcolonial societies is a complex field that needs a careful approach for “westerners” who have not dealt with this topic before. The theoretical scheme set up in point two will also support the finding that they way how Rahel and Estha use language involves some degree of systematisation. Indeed, often postcolonial statements circulating around “identity” are at play in this system – three functions of this “communications system” will be dealt with in part four. This term paper does not analyze major parts of the novel; it is neither a historical nor a linguistic work. Indeed, it deals with language, but it wants to establish language not in a linguistic sense but as a symbolic arrangement that serves functions in the plot of the book and in the fictional lives of the twins.

    2. English and other languages in India

    2.1 General facts and figures

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  • Development and Demise of Orkney Norn – a peace of Scandinavian Culture in Great Britain

    term paper abstract, winter semester 2004/2005, Potsdam university by Lars Dittmer

    the Nordic cross in Great Britain – the unofficial flag of the Orkney Islands arouses astonishment in the watcher and gives him an idea of how Orcadians feel – being a Scandinavian, and being British. The flag shows the red Norwegian cross on a yellow background, symbolizing the Scottish Royal flag (cf. Towrie 1996-2005: FAQ). Scandinavian culture and self-image still constitute a part of identity in parts of Scotland – especially in Shetland and Orkney, collectively named the Northern Islands. Here, this cultural background has over centuries found expression through a Scandinavian language, called Norn, Icelandic norœnna, the Norwegian language (Fenton 1997: 617).

    former flag of Orkey - Scandinavian and British at the same time

    This term paper is to document the historical and cultural circumstances in which a Scandinavian language could develop in Northern Scotland, its nature and prevalence during its era, and finally, its demise and the remains of Norn in today’s language in Orkney. The paper attaches importance to the fact that it is on the one hand power constellations and politics that produce linguistic changes such as the death of a language, but on the other hand also requires “the active participation of its former speakers” (Barrett 2003: 98). The paper almost exclusively focuses on the development on the Orkney Islands, taking into consideration that history as well as the language itself differs to some extent on the Shetland Islands.

    Development and Demise of Orkney Norn – a peace of
    Scandinavian Culture in Great Britain

    Table of Contents

    1. General Introduction

    1.1 Introduction: the Nordic cross in Great Britain
    1.2 General facts about Orkney

    2. History and Language

    2.1 Pre-Norse Orkney
    2.2 The Pictish-Norse transition
    2.3 The Vikings and their language
    2.4 Norn
    2.5 “Scottization” – the demise of Orkney Norn

    3. Language in Orkney today

    3.1 The remnants of Norn
    3.2 The Orcadian dialect
    3.3 discussion/ outlook

    4. Bibilography

    1. General Introduction

    1.1. Introduction: the Nordic cross in Great Britain

    The unofficial flag of the Orkney Islands arouses astonishment in the watcher and gives him an idea of how Orcadians feel – being a Scandinavian, and being British. The flag shows the red Norwegian cross on a yellow background, symbolizing the Scottish Royal flag (cf. Towrie 1996-2005: FAQ). Scandinavian culture and self- image still constitute a part of identity in parts of Scotland – especially in Shetland and Orkney, collectively named the Northern Islands. Here, this cultural background has over centuries found expression through a Scandinavian language, called Norn, Icelandic nor(?)nna, the Norwegian language (Fenton 1997: 617).

    This term paper is to document the historical and cultural circumstances in which a Scandinavian language could develop in Northern Scotland, its nature and prevalence during its era, and finally, its demise and the remains of Norn in today’s language in Orkney. The paper attaches importance to the fact that it is on the one hand power constellations and politics that produce linguistic changes such as the death of a language, but on the other hand also requires “the active participation of its former speakers” (Barrett 2003: 98). The paper almost exclusively focuses on the development on the Orkney Islands, taking into consideration that history as well as the language itself differs to some extent on the Shetland Islands.

    1.2 General facts about Orkney

    Orkney1 is an archipelago of about 70 islands lying ten kilometres off the north coast of Scotland in the North Sea. The 2001 census provided a total number of 19, 245 people inhabiting less than one third of the islands. The major part of the population lives in the two main towns Kirkwall, the administrative centre of Orkney, and Stromness, both being located on “Mainland”, the largest island of the archipelago. Of further importance are the islands Hoy and South Ronaldsay in the south of Scapa Flow, and some minor islands in the north such as Sanday or Westray. People are mainly employed in agriculture and tourism. Since the 1970s, North Sea oil contributes to the income of the Orcadians. Since the 1990s, however, flows from this industry have decreased (Leyden 2004: 11).

    2. History and language

    2.1 Pre-Norse Orkney

    Today, there is no exact knowledge about the question when first human life came to Orkney. Nevertheless, there is evidence that the islands have provided human habitat for at least five and a half thousand years (Ritchie 1990: 36). Preserved constructions from these days such as the Ring of Brodgar, a large stone circle, and Maes Howe, a chambered tomb on Mainland, show that people in the Neolithic era were skilful stone-builders (Ritchie 1990: 39). Identity and language of the Picts, a tribe that settled in mainland Scotland and the Northern Islands from around 300 BC to the Norse settlements, have remained subject to dispute until today.

    (…)

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