CC BY
74
3. Николис Г., Пригожин И. Самоорганизация в неравновесных системах. М., 1979.
4. Прытков В.П. Оправдание синергетики // Вопросы философии - 2001. - № 4. -С. 28 - 37.
5. Степин В.С. Саморазвивающиеся системы и постнеклассическая рациональность // Вопросы философии - 2003 - №8, С. 5 - 18.6
6. Образование и искусство в формировании целостной личности. М., Ред-изд. Центр «Школа - вуз - академия», 2002, 184 с.)
UDC 81.23
AUSTRALIAN IDENTITY AND ITS INFLUENCES ON AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH
North Robyn
Sydney College of Business and Information Technology Australia
Sydney, Australia
Abstract: The article presents an overview of Australian accents as a reflection of social values, which are undergoing great changes in the country. The question of Australian identity is being discussed as well as myths existing about Australian English.
Key words: identity, language, ethnic background, social values.
To talk of an Australian identity is to enter into a fiercely debated topic. Australia has never really had a national identity prescribed by politicians or the institutions they wield their power through. For almost 150 years after British colonisation, a British identity was the official identity of Australia. In fact, it was not until 1948 that Australian citizenship even existed. Prior to that, the Australians born were defined as British citizens.
The loss of the British identity in Australia left some Australians feeling quite aimless and lost in regards to what Australia is about. The aimlessness was recognised by author Donald Horne in 1964, who wrote, "Australia needs sudden shocks of reorientation within its society that will divorce it from the largely irrelevant problems of the British, make it possible to speed necessary changes and to develop some new sense of identity, some public feeling of being a people who can be described - even if incorrectly - as such-and-such a kind of nation, and act at times as if it were so. Australians are anonymous, featureless, nothing-men. This modest anonymity reveals itself in the argument that Australia does not run to the kind of person we could turn into a president."
Admittedly, Australia has always had unsanctioned national identities but the identities have never been able to build enough status to extend beyond fringe minority status. Specifically, for much of the 19th century, an Australian identity was formed by fusing Convict history, events like the Eureka Rebellion and Aboriginal culture to create a kind of bush identity that was different from the British identity and in opposition to it. For example, the song Waltzing Matilda built its patriotic credentials by using Aboriginal words like coolibah, jumbuck and billabong as it described a story of a man who stole a sheep but killed himself rather than be caught.
Australia's national day should be December 3, the anniversary of the Eureka rebellion, 'the day that Australia set her teeth in the face of the British Lion'. Naturally, those Australian institutions that were formally and informally governed by a British identity were hostile to the Australian identity. Generally, the threat was dealt with by failing to give any official approval to Australian culture and/or funding it in any way. Informally, this gave rise to the "cultural cringe" which led to a cultural rejection of anything with an Australian label. Formally, there was also
225
some rejection of the Australian identity with the NSW government banning bushranging films in 1906 and the state-run ABC banning Australian accents until the 1970s (newsreaders had to be imported from England.)
When the British identity was eroded, the failure to replace it with something that appealed to the more prescriptive minded personalities resulted in a great deal of derogatory caricaturing as a way to gain an identity formed in opposition. In particular, white Australians created derogatory caricatures of a white Australian identity, but in a way that also inferred that they were not personally tainted by the same derogatory traits.
The manner of speaking is an expression of identity; it signals identification with one group and rejection of another. For example, when soccer player David Beckam says, "I want to fank everyone for coming", his substitution of an 'f sound for the 'th' sound shows pride in his working class roots.
In England, accents vary according to class and region. In America, they vary according to race and region. Unlike America or England, Australia has no variance in speaking according to class, race or region. Instead, the accent varies according to ideology or gender. Two Australians can grow up side by side, go to the same schools, do the same job, but end up speaking English using different words, different syntax and with different accents. In fact, due to the gender variance, a brother and sister can grow up in the same house and end up speaking differently.
Australia has three recognised accents. About ten per cent of Australians speak like exprime minister Bob Hawke with what is known as a broad Australian accent. The broad Australian accent is typically associated with Australian masculinity. Notable speakers include ex-Prime Minister Bob Hawke, comedian Paul Hogan and actor Bill Hunter. Although the accent is only spoken by a minority of the population, it has a great deal of cultural credibility. This is shown by the fact that it is disproportionately used in advertisements and by newsreaders.
Around 80 per cent of Australians speak like Nicole Kidman with what is known as a general Australian English accent. These accents are somewhat of a mix between the broad Australian and cultivated accents. Because they are comparatively neutral in ideology, most of the speakers believe that they do not have an accent. The speakers realise that they speak differently to the broad Australian speakers that they associate with Australia as well as the cultivated speakers that they associate with upper class or elitism.
The final ten per cent of Australians speak with what is known as a cultivated accent, which sounds a bit like Prince Charles. It is usually spoken by women wanting to portray a feminine and sophisticated image. Although most speakers are women, some men, such as exprime minister Malcolm Fraser, use the accent. In the past, the cultivated accent had the kind of cultural credibility that the broad accent has today. For example, until the 1970s newsreaders on the government funded ABC had to speak with the cultivated accent. At the time, women were not allowed to be newsreaders on government television. Since there was a shortage of Australian men able to speak in the accent, male newsreaders were imported from England.
There are still some myths about the Australian accent. The first one is about the regional difference in pronunciation. For example, some people believe that all Queenslanders use the broad Australian accent. The stereotype is not based in fact. Queenslanders have the same variance in accent according to gender and ideology that is seen around Australia. Some people believe that South Australians talk like New Zealanders. The myth probably comes from a presumption that since South Australia and New Zealand didn't receive Convicts, both should speak the same way. Again, the presumption is incorrect. South Australians have the same variance in accent according to gender and ideology that is seen around Australia.
Some people believe that there is ethnic variance in pronunciation. Most migrants who speak English as their second language have an ethnic accent. The children of migrants, who speak English as their first language, usually use a broad, general or cultivated accent depending upon their ideology or gender. Sometimes the children of migrants will put on the accent of their
parents as a joke. For example, actor Mary Coustas created the character of Effie, which used a wog accent. It was not her real accent.
One more misconception is that poor Australians speak with a broad Australian, cockney or low class accent. Much like the character of Effie, the characters of Kim & Kim involved the creation of fictional stereotypes of low-class Australians that could be subsequently mocked. Contrary to the fictional portrayals, there is no relationship between socio-economic status and the manner of speaking. It is, however, more likely that women from wealthy families will speak with a cultivated accent because it is more likely that their parents will send them to a finishing school to cultivate a manner of speaking associated with elegance. The elegant image will be beneficial for the women because, as the characters of Kath & Kim and Effie show, there is ridicule associated with Australian women who lack elegance when speaking.
Unlike Australian women, Australian men will rarely be sent to finishing schools in order to improve their speech. This is probably because elegance is not an admired masculine quality in Australia. An Australian man that speaks like Prince Charles or Malcolm Fraser is likely to find himself the target of school yard bullies.
The broad Australian accent has cultural prestige for men because it creates an image that the man has the ability to relate to people from all walks of life, and will treat everyone with a sense of equality. For example, even though the late billionaire Kerry Packer was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he used a broad accent his entire life. The broad accent helped create a perception that Packer had an egalitarian ethic, which contributed greatly to his popular appeal amongst average Australians. Of course, not all Australians believe that the broad accent has a positive image. As a result, they prefer to speak like an Englishman.
There are many factors that influence a person's identity and these include their ethnic and linguistic background. Because Australians are such a diverse population, there are many ethnicities and languages represented as Australian cultures are diverse and dynamic. English is the national language of Australia although there are many other languages that are used in everyday life. Anglo-Australians speak English with a distinctive accent and Australians use many colloquialisms (unique expressions), and slang words and expressions. Many international students find these expressions difficult to understand, especially at first, occasionally resulting in misunderstandings
The constantly evolving Australian English used by many young Australians reflects the changing times, attitudes and identity of the Australian society. The emergence of ethnolects amongst teenagers and the usage of Aboriginal lexemes indicate the emerging multicultural identity of Australia. The shifting of the Australian broad accent and the emergence of Americanisms into the Australian lexicon shows that the Australian identity is becoming more globalised and standardised. The social acceptance of certain lexemes and the decreased usage of racist terms indicate changing social values and views of the Australian community.
The new multicultural identity of Australia is exhibited by the language used by young people. Ethnolects, such as "Lebspeak", is a variety of Australian English that utilises lexemes from Arabic and is used daily by Australian teenagers of Lebanese descent. Deborah Cameron remarks that ' [Lebspeak] helped to mark their identity' and that 'ethnic identity [is] an important feature of Australia's multicultural society'. Australian teenagers that use 'Lebspeak' use lexemes in Arabic such as 'habiib' instead of the Australian equivalent 'mate', which marks them as belonging to a group and is a marker of their national identity as a part of the multicultural Australia. Loan words used in the vocabularies of young Australians indicate the evolving identity of Australia as a multicultural nation. Koori lexemes still used in everyday Australian English, by teenagers and adults alike, provide and young adults symbolize the evolving identity of Australia as a multicultural nation.
The language utilised by young Australians is changing to reflect the developing identity of Australia as a multicultural nation while also making a global presence of a new Australian English with a history and a heritage, giving Australians their unique identity. Lexemes such as
'kangaroo' and 'boomerang' have no English equivalent and therefore highlight the importance of past historical events of Australia and the Aboriginal influence on everyday events, even to this day, making it an important part of the Australian identity.
List of references:
1. Barker, S.J The Australian Language. - Sydney: Currawong Publishing Co.,1966.
2. Clyne, Michael. Community Languages: The Australian Experience. New York/Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1991.
3. Mitchell, A. G., Delbridge, A. The Pronunciation of English in Australia. -Sydney: Angus and Robertson. 1965.
4. Strong, G. From Queens English to the World's Globlish.. .Or Not. - The Sydney Morning Herald, 2005.
5. Taylor, B. A. Australian English in interaction with other Englishes. In D. Blair & P. Collins (Eds.), English in Australia. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2001. - pp. 317-340
6. Turner, G. W. English in Australia. - The Cambridge History of the English language. Vol. V: English in Britain and Overseas: Origins and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. - pp. 277-327.
УДК 81.37
КОНЦЕПТ «ЧУДО/^й» В РУССКОЙ И КИТАЙСКОЙ ЯЗЫКОВЫХ КАРТИНАХ
МИРА
Семенова Инна Владимировна
к.ф.н., доцент кафедры «Русская филология» ФГБОУ ВО Тихоокеанский государственный университет Россия, г. Хабаровск Дун Циньфэй магистрант кафедры «Русская филология» ФГБОУ ВО Тихоокеанский государственный университет Россия, г. Хабаровск
Аннотация: Статья посвящена проблеме изучения концептов. Автор обращается к анализу семантики русского концепта «Чудо» и его эквивалента в китайском языке.
В статье рассматриваются идиоматические выражения и афоризмы русского и китайского языков, в которых репрезентируется семантика исследуемого концепта.
В ходе анализа идиоматических выражений и афоризмов автор выделяет семантические признаки в структуре концепта «Чудо/^®» и выявляет сходства и различия в мировосприятии этого концепта представителями двух культур.
Ключевые слова: концепт, языковая картина мира, семантика, устойчивые выражения, чудо.
THE CONCEPT OF «MIRACLE/^й» IN RUSSIAN AND CHINESE LANGUAGE
PICTURES OF THE WORLD
Inna V. Semenova
