2018 Vol. 2 : simplebooklet.com

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL Table of Contents 17 Chinese Compliment Responses Do They Vary among Different Areas 7 Written Corrective Feedback in L2 Writing A Critical Review W Li What has been done to argue for and or against the helpfulness of written corrective feedback in L2 writing What suggestions have been made regarding this topic How does written L2 feedback contribute to second language acquisition N Zhang Chinese compliment responses are strongly characterized by rejection However some studies have yielded a wild range of different findings Are Chinese compliment responses different among different areas 26 29 Activismo y revoluci n en La Mujer Habitada de Gioconda Belli Activism and revolution in Gioconda Belli s La Mujer Habitada Este trabajo explora c mo La Mujer Habitada una historia con incre ble poder documental que tiene lugar durante la revoluci n social en Nicaragua fusiona diferentes discursos a trav s del tiempo y del estado social para encontrar a trav s del combate la liberaci n y la nueva identidad This paper explores how La Mujer Habitada a story taking place during the social revolution in Nicaragua merges different discourses through time and across social status to find through combat liberation and new identity M Garc a Rodenas 51 A Corpus Based Analysis of Two Chinese Loanwords in English Newspapers Evidence for Linguistic Innovation and Propagation M Garc a Rodenas W Li This paper will focus on the lexical level and offers a preliminary corpus based analysis of two Chinese loanwords used in contemporary English media The goal is to discover patterns of use of these two loanwords in different contexts and at different time periods 2 Copyright 2018 Read With You L L C All rights reserved As part of our mission to help make the world a better place for the children of today and tomorrow American Language Journal is committed to making responsible business decisions that will protect our natural resources and reduce our environmental impact 3

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL Written Corrective Feedback in L2 Writing ABY Critical Review WENFENG LI GUANGDONG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN STUDIES INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE Introduction The role effect effectiveness of corrective feedback henceforth referred to as CF in L2 writing has been the center of an over a decade long debate In this paper I will review different primary and secondary studies on this topic with a view to finding out 1 what kind of work has been done to argue for and or against the helpfulness of written corrective feedback in L2 writing 2 what theoretical or methodological suggestions have been made regarding this kind of study and 3 whether and how the question about how written L2 feedback relates to and or can contribute to second language acquisition is addressed The ongoing debate over the effect of written corrective feedback in L2 writing Truscott 1996 1999 takes a strong position on the topic in question written CF should be abandoned for both theoretical and practical considerations In theory no conclusive evidence was produced showing the usefulness of written CF in improving the accuracy or promoting acquisition of the corrected items Rather the practice had potential harm for L2 writing In practice providing written CF is time consuming and the time can be better used for other activities more conducive to the development of writing skills Truscott s argument has been based both on the findings of the different studies on written CF e g Kepner 1991 Robb et al 1986 Sheppard 1992 and grounded on second language acquisition theories and research in particular the line of research on L2 learner s developmental sequences e g Dulay Burt 1973 Bailey Madden Krashen 1974 The rationale behind the assertion is that written CF that fails to target at the learner s developmental stage is not likely to facilitate learning since the learner is not ready to incorporate such information and since it is difficult to determine the developmental stage of a learner and each learner is at a different stage of development there is next to no chance of written CF being beneficial to an L2 writing class On top of that there are practical issues that prevent learners from benefiting from this kind of feedback as Truscott 1996 points out these include but are not limited to the often inconsistent and unsystematic feedback provided by the instructor the feelings of frustration or even resistance on the part of the students and inadequate attention to the feedback etc In a more recent paper on the basis of a critical review of both controlled experiments such as Kepner 1991 Semke 1984 Polio et al 1998 Fazio 2001 and Robb et al 1986 to name just a few and uncontrolled experiments for example Ferris 2006 cited in Truscott 2007 pp 265 267 and Lalande 1982 among others Truscott 2007 reiterates that instead of being helpful written CF could in fact have a small negative effect on L2 learner s accuracy in writing p 270 In her rebuttal to the assertions made in Truscott 1996 1999 Ferris 1999 2002 2004 has argued just as strongly for the effectiveness of written CF in improving accuracy in L2 writing drawing on new studies that find positive relationships between CF and L2 writing improvement measured differently in each study In a review of previous studies on corrective feedback for L2 writing Ferris 2004 argues that corrective feedback should continue to be part of the teaching practice in L2 writing class as its usefulness has been corroborated by different studies from different lines of research e g the role of corrective feedback in SLA studies in general see Sheen 2010 and Li 2010 for a review experimental as well as longitudinal 6 7

Page 7

Page 8

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL studies of corrective feedback in L2 writing see Bitchener 2008 suggesting the usefulness of error correction in L2 writing Ferris 2004 p 60 In the mean time Ferris admits that further research is needed to resolve some if not all of the controversies surrounding this topic and lists some guidelines for future work on the topic and asserts that as most of the studies carried out hitherto are not comparable in the most fundamental ways the basic parameters the instructional procedures and the research design see Table 3 Ferris 2004 p 57 the on going debate that draws on such studies cannot in any way help us find the answer to the basic question asked by Truscott 1996 does error correction help L2 writing Ferris insists that researchers should not come to any conclusion about the effect of corrective feedback in L2 writing until studies that are been pursued in a sustained systematic and replicable manner 2004 p 55 have been conducted across different contexts and types of students and they consistently show a lack of positive effect of such error treatment Numerous studies have been done following the guidelines and caveats proffered by previous work demonstrating the merits of methodological rigorousness Kang Han 2015 exemplifies this kind of research effort Their meta analysis of 21 primary studies on written corrective feedback selected on a rigorous set of criteria produced a broad understanding of the efficacy of written CF and identified and assessed the impact of potential mediating factors i e factors that might mitigate its efficacy p 1 In addition primary studies have been conducted that approached the role of written CF from different perspectives and the main focus in many of such studies has been on whether and how different types of feedback improve the accuracy of certain grammar aspects in L2writing For instance Bitchener 2008 proposes that studies should focus on certain types of feedback dealing with certain error categories focused written CF a point elaborated in Bitchener Ferris 2012 Research along this line includes Bitchener 2008 Ellis et al 2008 Farrokhi Sattarpour 2011 Sheen 2007b and Sheen et al 2009 These studies investigate the performance of the experiment group that received focused error treatment with that of unfocused and or control groups and have shown a positive effect of focused CF on the accuracy of the relevant grammar aspect However Sheen 2010 indicates that their studies all concern the treatment of English articles and thus such evidence in favor of focused CF cannot be generalized to other linguistic aspects without further investigation It remains to be proved whether focused CF works for other aspects of the English grammar or other languages and more effort needs to be made along similar lines with comparable research design Other studies have dealt with other types of written corrective CF factors other than the feedback type and the interaction between factors that may have an effect on the effectiveness of written CF The study by L pez Van Steendam Buyse 2017 for instance showed that comprehensive CF led to improvement in grammatical accuracy for both low and high proficiency learners Stefanou Revesz 2015 conducted a classroom based study in which the effectiveness of direct written CF was investigated in relation learner differences i e grammatical sensitivity and knowledge of metalanguage Van Beuningen De Jong Kuiken 2012 explored the effectiveness of two types of comprehensive written CF direct and indirect as well as the interaction between CF types and error types grammatical and nongrammatical Their study found that both types of comprehensive written CF led to improved accuracy and different CF types have value for different error types Van Beuningen De Jong Kuiken 2012 p 32 How far has research on written CF in L2 writing gone It is evident from the kind of review of studies as conducted by Ferris 2003 2004 Truscott 2007 and Bitchener Ferris 2012 that no conclusive evidence has been produced in favor of either of the two positions on this topic Bitchener Ferris 2012 outlines the key design flaws and execution shortcomings of earlier studies some of which Truscott 1996 has drawn on Kepner 1991 Semke 1984 Robb et al 1986 including a lack of a real control group not establishing the initial level of accuracy or performance and the failure to administer comparable writing tasks as a valid measurement of improvement p 51 In summary it is difficult to utilize the often conflicting findings of the existing studies on written CF in L2 writing to make any generalizations due to the abovementioned and other methodological concerns What kind of work is needed In view of the controversy on the effect of written CF in L2 writing scholars have made different suggestions about how to obtain reliable results on which valid claims can be made about the effect of written CF in L2 writing For example Ferris 2004 recommends that longitudinal research which is also reasonably controlled involving a control group be conducted to make the results more valid evidence in favor of or against the effectiveness of corrective feedback In a review of a number of theoretical perspectives and some empirical evidence concerning the role of written CF in the field of SLA Van Beuningen 2010 argues for more attention to the learning potential of written CF both comprehensive and focused and to how written CF affects different error categories More qualitative work is also called for as a detailed look at individual learners sequential accuracy development Van Beuningen 2010 p 20 will enable us to gain more insight into how and when learners benefit from written CF Meta analyses of comparable empirical studies could also contribute to a better understanding of the role of written CF as they may identify gaps and conflicts in extant findings Kang Han 2015 p 1 So exactly what can and should researchers do with all the insights gained hitherto Of course researchers should take along cautions and suggestions from such analyses with a global perspective into corrective feedback to better steer their own manoeuvre Bearing in mind all the methodological concerns and precautions proposed so far researchers might want to as Ferris 2004 suggests take a step back and think about what kind of research can answer the basic question asked of intervention in SLA studies what can help whom when and how 8 What else can be done It is important to note that while researchers should definitely investigate the what element the ones they have control over they should always bear in mind what Corder 1967 has long warned SLA researchers about the focus should be on the learner By investigating who benefits from a specific kind of intervention i e written corrective feedback researchers are on their way to finding out how this happens essentially this might give us a better idea about the fundamental issue in SLA namely how acquisition happens Some studies that focus on whether written CF can aid L2 development are mentioned in Van Beuningen 2010 including Bitchener 2008 Ellis et al 2008 and Sheen 2007b However the focus of such studies is still on the final outcome as measured by comparing the result of a pretest and a posttest of the learner s accuracy and little is known about the on line processing of written CF the learners go through and how it leads to learning and or acquisition Research along these lines should make a step further to investigate the relevancy and or legitimacy of 9

Page 9

Page 10

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL the theoretical arguments based on which they have selected a specific kind of CF method for example focused written CF in the aforementioned studies To understand this question we need to look at on what theoretical grounds corrective feedback has been and will continue to be an important topic in SLA there have been various theories predicting the usefulness of CF in SLA Schmidt s 1990 2001 noticing hypothesis and the arguments for a need of negative evidence made by different studies referred to as negative input in Swain 1985 p 245 see also the notion of interactional modification in Long 1996 cited in Sheen 2010 p 170 It follows naturally that at least one line of empirical research should strive to find out how written CF relates to the theories that argue for the relevance of this practice to SLA or L2 writing to be exact and subsequently produce findings that might incorporate itself into larger theoretical frameworks in addition to addressing practical issues concerning the adoption of corrective feedback i e the pedagogical implications for L2 writing class For example research is needed on the process of how corrective feedback is incorporated by the learner or his her uptake of the corrective feedback in L2 writing class to further strengthen the arguments made in Schmidt s 1990 2001 noticing hypothesis A recent publication by Bitchener and Storch 2016 pointed to and undertook research venues of such nature examining the potential of written CF to facilitate L2 development p 1 both from empirical and theoretical i e cognitive and sociocultural perspectives In their argument for the facilitative role of written CF in L2 development Bitchener and Storch drew on concepts crucial to informationprocessing e g noticing attention proposed by Schmidt and other cognitive interactionist theorists e g Tomlin Villa 1994 This kind of perspective one that connects research on feedback in L2 writing to a broader theoretical framework is only recently receiving more research attention according to Bitchener and Storch 2016 who noted that t he information processing stages and conditions discussed have not been the primary focus of the written CF studies until more recently p 6 Much remains to be done to promote this new line of research in order to gain more insights into the process of second language acquisition There are however a few studies that have made such an endeavor The work by Wigglesworth Storch 2010b 2012 well exemplifies this kind of effort Their studies have been conducted in a socio cultural framework with a view to examining the effect of collaboration in pair work on writing development The experiment in Wigglesworth Storch 2012 compared the performance of three groups two of which received different kinds of feedback the third being a control group focusing on the learners interaction in which feedback is discussed Development in this study was operationalized as the opportunities to learn and secondarily as the improvement shown in the writing of new texts By opportunities to learn Wigglesworth and Storcj 2012 mean the quantity and quality of learners discussion of the feedback the language related episodes in which the feedback was discussed by the pair in second part session of their experiment In addition the accuracy and complexity of the rewrites in the third part session were examined in comparison The findings of their study show that the level of engagement in the pair interaction is not a reliable predictor of the extent to which the feedback is accepted or rejected instead strong correlations are found between the level of uptake of feedback and individual characteristics of the learners including their knowledge attitude toward the feedback and beliefs about L2 Wigglesworth and Storch 2012 also acknowledges the difficulty of determining the level of engagement by examining the audio recorded data gathered in the experiment due to differences in personality and interaction styles that might not be manifest in a particular session of interaction Nonetheless this kind of collaboration still enables researchers to gain some insights into how learners respond to the feedback and further the understanding about how language acquisition takes place The effect of affective factors on the uptake and retention of feedback that has been noted in their earlier study Storch Wigglesworth 2010b is confirmed in Wigglesworth Storch 2012 Wigglesworth and Storch s 2012 findings corroborate their argument that earner agency plays an important role p 92 in determining what linguistic features get noticed and whether or not the features and feedback get accepted lending support to a socio cultural perspective on L2 learning Some other studies have investigated the way students react to the feedback with the use of think aloud protocols For instance in Sachs Polio s 2007 study that compares the performance of different groups control group error correction group reformulation group and reformulation think aloud group in a three stage L2writing task the participants report of awareness was examined to gain access to the learners thinking process and to make inferences about the noticing of the feedback The participants who were asked to produce verbal protocols were given a chance to practice this kind of speaking about an original and revised versions of a piece of writing before actually taking the experiment so that they would feel less uncomfortable with this kind of method Correlations were found between the noticing demonstrated in the verbal report and the subsequent revision of the features that were noticed The finding lent support to the noticing hypothesis Schmidt 1990 showing that there should be a certain degree of noticing in order for at least temporary learning to occur Nevertheless reactivity effects were also observed in Sachs Polio 2007 in which the thinkaloud protocols were found to distract the participants attention from their writing and thus affected their performance in the first experiment A similar study was carried out by Qi Lapkin 2001 in which much care was exercised to reduce the reactivity effects The two EFL participants were given abundant opportunities to practice and get comfortable with the use of verbal protocols they were also allowed to use a language of their choice in their verbalization Interviews were also conducted with the participants to make sure the reactivity effects were kept at the minimum level The results in Qi Lapkin 2001 also show that language related noticing may contribute to the improvement of L2 writing p 294 Another finding concerns the quality of noticing in the comparison stage which was found to have direct implications for final writing product p 294 In Qi Lapkin 2001 the effects of reactivity were not properly measured as there wasn t any control group receiving feedback but not providing verbal reports to compare these participants with on this aspect though the use of think aloud protocols didn t seem to have a negative effect on the experiment according to the responses from the two participants in the follow up interview It is important to note that future studies that seek to gain access to the learner s processing of feedback should adopt verbal protocols with great care every effort should be made to minimize the effects of reactivity and caution should be exercised in interpreting the findings of such studies Another aspect worth investigating is learners attitudes towards written corrective feedback and their motivation the latter of which is arguably debilitated by corrected feedback given by the instructor Truscott 1996 Students reaction to correction in L2 writing class is described in a matterof fact manner by Truscott and it is another aspect whose validity needs to be based on empirical data Truscott might be in the right direction in stating that although students want and expect CF their motivation might still be harmed by the teacher delivered CF which is mostly likely to cause anxiety 10 11

Page 11

Page 12

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL However his claim is more of a hypothesis than a tested fact While Truscott claims that some studies Kepner 1991 and Sheppard 1992 cited in Truscott 1996 p 354 show the complexity of the students writing was reduced who received grammar correction there is only evidence concerning the marking of sentence boundary Sheppard 1992 cited in Truscott pp 332 333 The measure of complexity in Kepner 1991 is not discussed in Truscott which casts doubt on the validity of the claim based on it In summary an argument based on such scarce and inconclusive evidence should be mitigated and tested against more empirical data Researchers need to conduct systematical studies on students reaction to CF and how their motivation and or attitudes is affected by the feedback and need to include in their investigation different types of L2 writers in different social institutional and learning contexts before any conclusion can be drawn about the effect of written CF on the students motivation and about how students motivation and or attitudes influence the way they approach CF To address the question of how feedback is viewed by students Ferris 1995b conducted a survey on students reaction to teacher response to their writing in a multi draft classroom The major findings are 1 students generally took the teacher feedback seriously and paid a lot of attention to it p 47 2 the most attention was accorded to teachers comments on their grammar than to comments on other aspects of their writing especially in their preliminary drafts and 3 the majority of the students perceived teacher feedback positively including feedback on grammar mechanics and organization stating that the teacher s feedback had been helpful Although written corrective feedback was only one type of feedback given by the teacher in the context of this study the findings could still be taken as evidence of a positive attitude toward written CF on the part of the students Some other studies investigate students preference of teacher feedback For example Radecki Swales 1988 found that overall the students held a positive or at least neutral attitude toward teacher feedback and felt satisfied about having their mistakes marked or corrected although there was also a great degree of variation among the students in terms of their attitudes toward different types of feedback grammar correction and other kinds of teacher intervention The survey responses in Leki 1991 show most of the students were interested in receiving error correction and self reported reading this kind of feedback carefully Bitchener Basturkmen 2012 also found that balanced feedback on both organizational matters and grammar of their writing from their supervisors was appreciated by graduate students with English as their L2 Some illustrative examples were given showing that at least some students in this group perceived the written feedback on grammar as useful pp 10 11 Apart from asking the students questions to which the responses depend on past experience or imagination there is another way of getting evidence about the students attitude toward written CF Storch Wigglesworth 2010a 2010b 2012 point to this new direction for researching learners motivation and attitudes with regard to written CF in L2 writing Their investigation of the learner s processing of written CF in pair work shows that whether the participants incorporated the feedback into their revision of the first draft was related to their attitudes toward the feedback their knowledge and belief about the language On the basis of the findings they argue for a socio cultural approach to second language acquisition that takes into account learner agency Their studies are also important evidence that research on written CF in L2 writing can and should be part of the intellectual effort to gain a better understanding of the process of L2 acquisition 12 AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL Conclusion In the foreseeable future the debate over the effect or usefulness of written CF for L2 writing development is most likely to continue This debate has served to advance our understanding of the role written CF plays in L2 writing and of other issues that have been brought to our attention in the course of the debate A reflection on the previous work on this topic has not only revealed the areas that need improvement e g methodology and design in order for the studies to produce generalizable and comparable results but has also pointed to possible directions that will connect this line of research which is mainly driven by and serving pedagogical concerns to the broader range of research efforts to better understand second language acquisition It is hoped that more illuminating discoveries will become possible about the effect of written CF and the ways research on this topic can shed light on the process of second language acquisition 13

Page 13

Page 14

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL REFERENCES Bitchener J 2008 Evidence in support of written corrective feedback Journal of Second Language Writing 17 2 102 118 Bitchener J Ferris D R 2012 Written Corrective Feedback in Second Language Acquisition and Writing New York Routledge Bitchener J Storch N 2016 Written corrective feedback for L2 development Multilingual Matters Corder S P 1967 1981 The significance of learners errors Reprinted in S P Corder Error analysis and interlanguage pp 5 13 Oxford Oxford University Press East M Bitchener J Basturkmen H 2012 What constitutes effective feedback to postgraduate research students Journal of University Teaching Learning Practice 9 2 7 Retrieved from http ro uow edu au jutlp vol9 iss2 7 Ellis R Sheen Y Murakami M Takashima H 2008 The effects of focused and unfocused written corrective feedback in an English as a foreign language context System 36 3 353 371 Farrokhi F Sattarpour S 2011 The Effects of Focused and Unfocused Written Corrective Feedback on Grammatical Accuracy of Iranian EFL Learners Theory Practice in Language Studies 1 12 Ferris D R 1995b Student reactions to teacher responses in multiple draft composition classrooms TESOL Quarterly 29 1 33 53 Ferris D R 1999 The case for grammar correction in L2 writing classes A response to Truscott 1996 Journal of Second Language Writing 8 1 1 10 Ferris D R 2002 Treatment of Error in Second Language Student Writing Ann Arbor MI The University of Michigan Press Kepner C G 1991 An experiment in the relationship of types of written feedback to the development of second language writing skills The Modern Language Journal 75 3 305 313 Lalande J F II 1982 Reducing composition errors An experiment The Modern Language Journal 66 2 140 149 Leki I 1990 The preference of ESL students for error correction in college level writing classes Foreign Language Annals 24 3 203 218 Li S 2010 The Effectiveness of Corrective Feedback in SLA A Meta Analysis Language Learning 60 2 309 365 L pez M B Van Steendam E Buyse K 2017 Comprehensive corrective feedback on low and high proficiency writers ITL International Journal of Applied Linguistics 168 1 91 128 Polio C Fleck C Leder N 1998 If only I had more time ESL learners changes in linguistic accuracy on essay revisions Journal of Second Language Writing 7 1 43 68 Qi D S Lapkin S 2001 Exploring the role of noticing in a three stage second language writing task Journal of Second Language Writing 10 4 277 303 Radecki P Swales J 1988 ESL student reaction to written comments on their written work System 16 3 355 365 14 AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL Robb T Ross S Shortreed I 1986 Salience of feedback on error and its effect on EFL writing quality TESOL Quarterly 20 1 83 93 Sachs R Polio C 2007 Learners uses of two types of written feedback on a L2 writing revision task Studies in Second Language Acquisition 29 1 67 100 Schmidt R W 1990 The role of consciousness in second language learning Applied Linguistics 11 129 157 Schmidt R W 2001 Attention In P Robinson Ed Cognition and second language instruction 3 32 Cambridge University Press Semke H 1984 The effects of the red pen Foreign Language Annals 17 3 195 202 Sheen Y 2007b The effects of corrective feedback language aptitude and learner attitudes on the acquisition of English articles In A Mackey Ed Conversational interaction in second language acquisition A collection of empirical studies 301 322 Oxford Oxford University Press Sheen Y 2010 The role of oral and written corrective feedback in SLA Studies in Second Language Acquisition 32 2 169 179 Sheen Y Wright D Moldawa A 2009 Differential effects of focused and unfocused written correction on the accurate use of grammatical forms by adult ESL learners System 37 4 556 569 Stefanou C Revesz A 2015 Direct written corrective feedback learner differences and the acquisition of second language article use for generic and specific plural reference The Modern Language Journal 99 2 263 282 Storch N Wigglesworth G 2010a Students engagement with feedback on writing The role of learner agency beliefs In Rob Batstone ed Sociocognitive Perspectives on Language Use and Language Learning 166 185 Oxford Oxford University Press Storch N Wigglesworth G 2010b Learners processing uptake and retention of corrective feedback on writing Case studies Studies in Second Language Acquisition 32 2 303 334 Tomlin R Villa V 1994 Attention in Cognitive Science and Second Language Acquisition Studies in Second Language Acquisition 16 2 183 203 Truscott J 1996 The case against grammar journal correction in L2 writing classes Language Learning 46 2 327 369 Truscott J 1999 The case for the case for grammar correction in L2 writing classes A response to Ferris Journal of Second Language Writing 8 2 111 122 Truscott J 2007 The effect of error correction on learners ability to write accurately Journal of Second Language Writing 16 4 255 272 Van Beuningen C 2010 Corrective feedback in L2 writing Theoretical Perspectives empirical insights and future directions International Journal of English Studies 10 2 1 27 Van Beuningen C G De Jong N H and Kuiken F 2012 Evidence on the Effectiveness of Comprehensive Error Correction in Second Language Writing Language Learning 62 1 1 41 Wigglesworth G Storch N 2012 Feedback and writing development through collaboration A socio cultural approach In Rosa M Manchon ed L2 Writing Development Multiple Perspectives 69 100 Boston De Gruyter Mouton 15

Page 15

Page 16

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL CHINESE COMPLIMENT RESPONSES DO THEY VARY AMONG DIFFERENT AREAS BY NAN ZHANG PURDUE UNIVERSITY Compliment responses is one of the most studied speech acts in pragmatics across languages Research on compliment responses started from English early on acceptance of the compliment is the strategy being most commonly adopted among English speakers Herbert 1986 Holmes and Brown 1987 while deflecting or rejecting are usually used in some Asian regions such as China Taiwan and Japan Chen 1993 Yu 2004 Azuma 1994 In Chinese compliment responses studies Chen 1993 found that Chinese compliment responses are strongly characterized by rejection Later on other studies have yielded a wild range of different findings Loh 1993 reported that the acceptance rate to compliments is less than a half in studying Hong Kong Chinese In Yuan 2002 s study the rate between accepting and deflecting rejecting the compliment is almost equal Yu 2004 focused on Taiwanese Chinese and showed an extremely low rate of accepting compliments Tang and Zhang s 2009 study showed a higher rate of acceptance than the results from Yu 2004 result To account for the variations of Chinese compliment response studies in the literature Chen 2010 has proposed two possible reasons One is that responses to compliments in Chinese have changed over time the other one is that Chinese speakers differ from one population to another in responding to compliments In Chen s 2010 study only the first reason has been examined based on two cross sectional studies using the same questionnaire in Xi an China which shows that now people tend to use accepting strategies more than a decade ago The current study is primarily aimed at testing the second assumption are Chinese compliment responses different among different areas Secondarily it can also verify whether there is a change or not in areas other than Xi an The study will be presented in four sections literature review methods results and discussions and conclusion Literature Review Compliment is defined as a speech act which explicitly or implicitly attributes credit to someone other than the speaker usually the person addressed for some good which is positively valued by the speaker and the hearer Holmes 1988 However compliments may also be regarded as a threat to the speaker and hearer s face Therefore people select varied strategies in responding a compliment Compliment responses are situated in each speech community culture and are considered as a device of interpersonal relationships in daily life Tang Zhang 2009 16 17

Page 17

Page 18

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL Several theories have been used as the framework for the study of compliment responses Brown and Levinson s 1978 politeness theory is the dominate one Politeness theory attempts to explain how and why people in different cultures establish and maintain social relations through language They define face as the public self image that every member wants to claim for himself Every rational social being is interested in saving other s face to maintain the social relationship Brown and Levinson proposed two types of face one is positive face and the other is negative face Positive face refers to the desire for approval and the need to be accepted Negative face refers to the social member s desire of freedom of action Compliments or expressing envy or admiration are categorized as a face threatening act in Brown and Levinson s politeness theory Compliments predicate some desire of speaker toward hearer or hearer s goods giving hearer reason to think that the complimentee may have to take action to protect the object of the speaker s desire or give it to the speaker Even though the speaker is complimenting the hearer it has a potential threat to the hearer s negative face Besides Brown and Levinson s politeness theory new theoretical constructs are proposed to explain compliment responses In Leech s 1983 explanatory analysis of politeness he describes the constraints of a compliment as Agreement Maxim and Modesty Maxim The Modesty Maxim puts pressure on the recipient of a compliment to reject it Cultural schema is used in Sharifian s 2005 study in accounting for Persian compliment responses The study argues that the compliment responses are motivated by the schema of modesty in Persian culture Chen 2001 proposed a selfpoliteness model which includes strategies like justify contradict hedge impersonalize use humor be confident be modest hesitate and attach conditions Regarding to the classification of the compliment response strategies Herbert 1986 categorized them into three groups agreement non agreement and other interpretations Agreement includes appreciation token comment acceptance praise upgrade comment history reassignment and return Non Agreement includes scale down question disagreement qualification and no acknowledgement Other interpretation has one type as request interpretation Holmes 1988 developed three broad categories of response to compliments accept reject and deflect or evade Under accept strategies there are appreciation or agreement token agreeing utterance downgrading or qualifying utterance return compliment In reject strategies there are disagreeing utterance question accuracy challenge complimenter s sincerity In the group of deflect evade strategies there are shift credit informative comment ignore legitimate evasion and request reassurance repetition Based on Holme s 1988 classification Chen 2010 developed 16 strategies also grouped into three major categories accepting strategies evading deflecting strategies and rejecting strategies In the literature of Chinese compliment responses Chen 1993 investigated the politeness strategies American English speakers and Chinese speakers use to respond to compliments The study reported that Xi an Chinese subjects reject compliment 95 73 of the time accept them 1 of the time and use the thanking and denigrating strategy 3 4 of the time In this study Discourse Completion Task DCT was used to collect data with four scenarios Loh 1993 studied Hong Kong Chinese in UK The results were synthesized with rejecting rate 22 of the time while accepting rate 41 of the time Yuan 2002 provided results from three different data sources DCT natural conversation and interviews With the DCT data it showed that Chinese speakers in Kunming reject compliment 28 93 of the time accept compliment 50 28 of the time while deflecting compliment 20 79 of the time With the natural data reject rate is higher as 33 98 and accepting rate is lowered to 31 26 Tang and Zhang 2009 studied Chinese is Australia using DCT with four situations in both Mandarin Chinese and English The four situations are complimenting on appearance character ability and possession respectively There are 30 Mandarin Chinese native speakers and 30 Australian English native speakers within which 15 are males and 15 are females in each group The rejecting rate towards compliment is 14 55 accepting rate is 48 82 and deflecting rate is 36 66 The results from previous studies of compliment response strategies are inconsistent due to different data collection methods different time when collecting data and different population representations The following section will present the method of the current study which adopts the same data collection tool across different regions within the same time frame 18 19 Method Eighty three Chinese speakers participated in the study however 5 were removed from the data analysis due to partially missed data Among 78 participants who were included in the final data analysis 11 of them are from Beijing 11 are from Shanghai 12 are from Hong Kong 12 are from Chongqing 14 are from Guilin and 18 are from Kunming There were no compensation for their participation The selection of the six regions which are Beijing Shanghai Hong Kong Chongqing Guilin and Kunming are based on the previous studies Hong Kong population was studied in Loh 1993 Kunming speakers were in Yuan s 2002 study Spencer Oatery and Ng 2001 investigated speakers in Shanghai and Guilin I added Beijing due to its important political and economic status in influencing people s language use Chongqing is another big economic center in the west which was developed later than Beijing and Shanghai and influenced less from western culture A survey questionnaire see appendix A was used to elicit participants responses to compliments The questionnaire was adapted from Chen 2010 in the consideration of making comparison with the same situational scenarios There were four situations provided in Mandarin Chinese Small adjustments have been made so that participants can relate more to these circumstances The survey questionnaire was created on Tencent Questionnaire which can be shared free on electronic devices through social network Wechat the most commonly used Chinese multi purpose social media mobile application software is the platform to disseminate the survey questionnaire More several open ended individual interviews were followed up based on the initial findings Excel and Nvivo were used for the data analysis Coding process was operated in Nvivo software The written responses from participants were coded into 18 strategies see Appendix B for detail 16 strategies were from to Chen s 2010 coding system Two new strategies were added based on the data from the current study smile laugh and promise 18 strategies were grouped into three categories Accepting strategies Deflecting strategies and Rejecting strategies The two new strategies were categorized in the group of Deflecting strategies since they are not directly accepting or rejecting the compliment Results There are 403 strategies used in total from all the written responses of 78 participants In general the accepting strategies are used 65 49 of the time 24 54 of the time people adopt defecting strategies in responding to compliments while 9 97 of the time speakers reject the compliments see Table 1 This is surprisingly consistent with Chen 2010 62 60 of accepting 28 27 of deflecting and 9 13 of rejecting strategies Among all the strategies Thanking strategy is the most frequently used one 36 97 of all responses which is far more frequently adopted than the rest of the strategies Encouraging strategy

Page 19

Page 20

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL ranks at the second position 9 92 of all responses Returning strategy is the one closely followed 8 68 of all responses The first three most adopted strategies in responding compliments are all belong to the group of accepting strategies Seeking Confirmation strategy in the group of Deflecting strategy is the fourth used strategy 7 94 of all responses Denigrating strategy in the group of Rejecting strategy is at the fifth position 6 of all responses among all individual strategies AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL Table 2 Strategies used among different regions Table 1 Chinese compliment responding strategies Looking at the strategies selection from the six regions there are variations among different group of speakers For the Accepting strategy use the rate for speakers from Beijing 69 84 Hong Kong 72 41 and Chongqing 70 18 are similar while the rate for speakers from Guilin 61 84 Kunming 51 and Shanghai 47 62 are lower Especially for speakers from Shanghai and Kunming the rate of adopting Accepting strategy is much lower For the Deflecting strategies Shanghai speakers use them the most 39 67 The rest of the areas show a great variation from Shanghai especially Kunming with the lowest rate of 20 As to the Rejecting strategies Kunming speakers have the highest Rejecting strategy use 29 while Chongqing speakers use of Rejecting strategy is extremely low 1 75 The rates for Beijing 7 94 Shanghai 14 29 Hong Kong 6 90 and Guilin 9 21 are similar Overall the relatively high likelihood of adopting Accepting strategy is consistent in all areas however there are great variation within each strategy across six regions 20 There are other interesting findings related to particular situational scenarios Eight out of 13 humor strategy are observed in situation 4 which is responding to the compliments on the luxury Cartier watch The compliment is Wow What a watch I wish I had one like that Typical responses are I regret after I bought it It is gift to you now It s faked I can sell it to you with 20 off Some of these responses seem like offering disagreeing or denigrating But they are coded into humor strategy because in the interview participants expressed that they are making these comments as a joke And both speakers in the conversation understand that the complimentee does not mean what he she is saying it is just a way the complimentee jokes to defuse the potential conflict which is discussed as a threat to the complimentee s negative face in Brown and Levinson s 1978 politeness theory Also the complimentee does not feel comfortable if there is a huge difference between two friends This can be considered as a face saving act especially under this situation the complimentee feels urged to avoid face threatening act to both speakers due to the high imposition in the compliment Or the complimentee strongly feels that he she has to take action to protect his her luxury Cartier watch since the speaker expressed the desire towards the watch The degree of imposition is an important factor here in selecting the strategy for a compliment response Among four situations situation 3 is the only one with formal context 50 of the denigrating responses occur in this context Some examples of denigrating strategy are There are many places I didn t do well I have to learn from you more Just so so There are some weakness Comparing to other informal situations occurred among friends the social distance between complimenter and complimentee is larger in this situation as classmates or colleagues The weight of the potential face threatening act is higher The complimentee chooses denigrating strategy to show the humbleness while it is not as much necessary for the complimentee to denigrate him herself in informal conversations between friends Discussions and Conclusion This study is consistent with Chen 2010 in showing that Chinese people now tend to accept the compliment rather than deflect or reject As to which degree people would be more likely to accept deflect or reject the results confirm that there are variations across different regions For example speakers from Chongqing barely reject a compliment while speakers from Shanghai are likely to deflect reject a compliment more than half of the time However the rational and patterns to account for the variations are not obvious One of the possible assumed reasons is that Chinese language use behaviors have been influenced by western culture But it can not explain the results from this study Because Shanghai is in the east which has been influenced by western culture earlier while Kunming is the city is the far west which is one of 21

Page 21

Page 22

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL the least affected and both cities have a low rate of adopting accepting strategy Moreover Chongqing located in the west has an extremely low rate of adopting rejecting strategy and a quite high rate of using accepting strategy To investigate the underlying patterns of the area variation in compliment responses further study can include more factors like age gender and power which are not examined in this particular study Since the questionnaire link is distributed on social media it is highly possible that there are not many elderly participants Also there might be a gender differences in responding to the compliment Herbert 1990 found that females are twice likely to accept compliments than males The study might not represent the language use of the Chinese older generation The findings of this study propose appropriate adjustment in teaching Chinese compliment responses Teaching and emphasizing only deflecting or rejecting strategies to compliments in Chinese may create disconnection in reality It is no more necessary to correct students when they respond with Xiexie thank you Also it is too simplistic to attribute the degree of adopting accepting strategy to western culture influences and hence apply the accepting strategy more from east coast over the inland Local culture and language practice should be observed when learning and teaching a language In conclusion the current study is consistent with Chen 2010 Chinese speakers are more likely to use accepting strategies than two decades ago It further provides evidence of area differences in responding compliments to account for the variations in compliment literature Moreover variations of compliment responses across different situational scenarios echoed with the previous research Tang Zhang 2009 as well Humor is observed in this study to mitigate the potential conflict when the complimentee feels a high imposition in the compliment And speakers are more likely to reject the compliment when they are situated in a formal context with relatively large social distance 22 AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL REFERENCES Azuma S 1994 Teineina eigo shitsureina eigo Eigo no poraitonesu sutorateji Polite English rude English Politeness strategies in English Tokyo Kenkyusha Brown P Levinson S C 1987 Politeness Some Universals in Language Usage Cambridge University Press Cambridge Chen R 1993 Responding to compliments a contrastive study of politeness strategies between American English and Chinese speakers Journal of Pragmatics 20 1 49 75 Chen R 2001 Self politeness a proposal Journal of Pragmatics 33 87 106 Herbert R 1986 Say thank you or something American Speech 61 1 76 88 Herbert R 1990 Sex based differences in compliment behavior Language in Society 19 201 224 Holmes J 1988 Paying compliments a sex preferential positive politeness strategy Journal of Pragmatics 12 3 445 465 Holmes J Brown D F 1987 Teachers and students learning about compliments TESOL Quarterly 21 523 546 Leech N 1983 Principles of Pragmatics Longman London Loh W 1993 Reponses to Compliments across Languages and Cultures A Comparative Study of British and Hong Kong Chinese City University of Hong Kong Department of English Research Report Series 30 1 89 Sharifian F 2005 The Persian cultural schema of shekasteh nafsi a study of compliment responses in Persian and Anglo Australian speakers Pragmatics and Cognition 13 2 337 361 Spencer Oatey H Ng P 2001 Reconsidering Chinese modesty Hong Kong and mainland Chinese evaluative judgments of compliment responses Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 11 2 181 201 Tang C Zhang G 2009 A contrastive study of compliment responses among Australian English and Mandarin Chinese speakers Journal of Pragmatics 41 2 325 345 Yu M 2004 Interlinguistic variation and similarity in second language speech act behavior The Modern Language Journal 88 1 102 119 Yuan Y 2001 An inquiry into empirical pragmatics data gathering methods Written DCTs oral DCTs field notes and natural conversations Journal of Pragmatics 33 2 271 292 Yuan L 2002 Compliments and compliments responses in Kunming Chinese Pragmatics 12 2 183 226 23

Page 23

Page 24

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL Appendix A Survey Questionnaire Appendix B Macro level Micro level CRs CRs Note please provide your response to each of the following situations please write down how you would answer in real life conversations Agreeing You meet an acquaintance you haven t seen for some time After an exchange of greetings s he says you look so nice Even nicer than when I saw you last To this you reply Expressing gladness Returning Thanking Accept strategy You are wearing a new top One of your friends meets you in the morning and says what a nice top You look great in it you reply Encouraging A ccepting explaining Offering You have given a presentation in your class workplace After the presentation one of your classmates colleagues comes to you and says that was a great presentation I really enjoyed it You reply You are wearing a Cartier watch A friend of yours sees it and says to you Wow What a watch I wish I had one like that You reply Using humor Deflecting strategy Seeking confirmation Doubting Deflecting D eflecting explaining Smile Laugh Where do you live Which dialect do you speak Promise Disagreeing Denigrating Rejecting strategy Expressing Embarrassment R ejecting explaining 24 Examples I like it a lot too I think it s very nice too thank you for your recognition thank you many thanks I am happy that you think it s good you too you look much younger now your earrings are very pretty it will look good on you if you have one I bought this one recently I will pay for your dinner next time we meet I can bring you shopping together don t you know that I always look good take it is it really you are not making fun of me it must be fake you are joking around we can discuss more if needed you have a good conversational skill I bought it on sale hahaha smile without saying anything I will keep working hard I think there are places that are not good you are over praising me I look the same in all clothing nothing special you are over praising me I look the same in all clothing nothing special I m embarrassed some ideas are not presented because of the time limitation 25

Page 25

Page 26

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL ACTIVISMO Y REVOLUCI N EN LA MUJER HABITADA DE GIOCONDA BELLI POR MONTSERRAT GARC A RODENAS AUBURN UNIVERSITY Mujeres en el frente del mbito dom stico a la l nea de combate La guerra es un entorno hostil desde todos los ngulos pero sobra decir que los testimonios de guerra mediante los que la poblaci n civil sabe de ella han sido tradicionalmente escritos por hombres blancos debido a su posici n privilegiada como soldados o corresponsales de guerra que les permit a paralelamente escribir para grandes medios Hasta la posmodernidad no se ha dado visibilidad a otras voces en concreto de las mujeres como testigos de guerra porque no hab a mujeres que luchasen en ella y al no haber podido tomar parte en un ej rcito no se consideraba que tuvieran autoridad para hablar de los conflictos armados Aunque en el mayor de los casos las mujeres han sido las principales v ctimas de los conflictos tradicionalmente la imagen que hemos tenido de la mujer en la guerra ha ido asociada a roles de g nero y clich s dom sticos la mujer es retratada en literatura como enfermera que cura a los soldados como viuda o hu rfana de guerra como madre que pierde a su hijo en el frente etc Aun as el tema mujeres y guerra es much simo m s extenso de lo que puede parecer a primera vista son muchas autoras can nicas y no que han escrito sobre la guerra desde su propia experiencia presencial Aunque actualmente la guerra contin e siendo un mbito masculino a finales del siglo XX las mujeres cambiaron el mbito dom stico por el frente y la presencia de mujeres soldado en las fuerzas armadas ha fomentado una imagen m s com n de la mujer en la guerra A pesar de que todas las guerras tienen diferentes contextos hist ricos durante la d cada de los 70 fueron muchos los pa ses latinoamericanos que padecieron terribles dictaduras militares bajo la constante amenaza del gobierno estadounidense pero tambi n fue una poca de resistencia ciudadana bajo organizaciones revolucionarias de tintes socialistas y comunistas A las filas revolucionarias se incorporaron muchas caras conocidas burgueses artistas e intelectuales participaron en primera l nea de batalla junto a otros miles de ciudadanos an nimos y por primera vez mujeres como las Madres de Plaza de Mayo en Argentina o el Comit de Madres Monse or Oscar Arnulfo Romero en El Salvador fueron pioneras en la lucha por la democracia y un ejemplo de integraci n de la mujer en los movimientos sociales y pol ticos latinoamericanos Este trabajo pretende llamar la atenci n sobre la implicaci n de la mujer nicarag ense en la revoluci n sandinista y su contribuci n al xito del mismo durante la d cada de los 70 Para ello trazaremos el paralelismo entre la incorporaci n pol tica y concienciaci n feminista abordando los distintos personajes femeninos que aparecen en la novela La Mujer Habitada 1988 de Gioconda Belli cuyo compromiso personal en la lucha por la liberaci n de la mujer y por sus derechos en Nicaragua la convierten en una autora fundamental para comprender 26 27

Page 27

Page 28

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL la significativa urgencia de dejar atr s la imagen tradicional de la mujer reducida a la otredad y la necesidad de asumir nuevas identidades alejadas de estereotipos sexistas La mujer nicarag ense durante la revoluci n sandinista La mujer ha sido tradicionalmente vista como sujeto antag nico del hombre como el otro releg ndola a ser objeto del deseo masculino y vincul ndola a la vida dom stica en contraposici n con la individualidad y autoridad del hombre en la vida p blica Dec a Simone de Beauvoir en su obra El Segundo Sexo 1949 que El cuerpo del hombre tiene sentido por s mismo abstracci n hecha del de la mujer mientras este ltimo parece desprovisto de todo sentido si no se evoca al macho El hombre se piensa sin la mujer Ella no se piensa sin el hombre Y ella no es otra cosa que lo que el hombre decida que sea La mujer se determina y se diferencia con relaci n al hombre y no ste con relaci n a ella la mujer es lo inesencial frente a lo esencial l es el Sujeto l es lo Absoluto ella es lo Otro p 18 Despu s de siglos de permanecer silenciadas y marginadas en la esfera privada fueron muchas las mujeres que se plantearon una reforma social El feminismo actual abarca una continuada en p gina 30 28 ACTIVISM AND REVOLUTION IN GIOCONDA BELLA S LA MUJER HABITADA BY MONTSERRAT GARC A RODENAS AUBURN UNIVERSITY Women on the Front From the Domestic Sphere to the Battle Line War is a hostile environment from all perspectives However it goes without saying that most accounts of war received by civilians have traditionally been written by white men due to their position as soldiers or war correspondents that enabled them to write for big media Until postmodernity other voices in particular that of women as witnesses of war have remained quieted Few women fought in these wars and were therefore not considered to have authority to talk about armed conflicts Although women have often been the primary victims of conflict traditionally the image we have had of women in war has been associated with gender roles and domestic clich s women are portrayed in literature as a nurse who heals the soldiers as a widow or war orphan as a mother who loses her son on the front etc Even so the theme of women and war is much more extensive than it may seem at first sight there are many authors canonical and not who have written about war from their own face to face experience Although at present war continues to be a masculine area at the end of the 20th century women changed the domestic sphere from the front and the presence of women soldiers in the armed forces has fostered a more common image of women in war Although all wars have different historical contexts during the 70s many Latin American countries suffered terrible military dictatorships under the constant threat of the US government but it was also a time of citizen resistance under revolutionary organizations of socialists and communists Many familiar faces were incorporated into the revolutionary ranks bourgeois artists and intellectuals participated in the front line of battle alongside thousands of other anonymous citizens and for the first time women such as the Madres de Plaza de Mayo in Argentina or the Comit de Madres Monse or Oscar Arnulfo Romero in El Salvador were pioneers in the struggle for democracy and an example of the integration of women in Latin American social and political movements This work aims to draw attention to the involvement of Nicaraguan women in the Sandinista revolution in the 1970s and to women s contributions which resulted in the revolution s success For this we will draw a parallel between the political incorporation and feminist awareness approaching the different female characters that appear in the novel La Mujer Habitada 1988 by Gioconda Belli whose personal commitment in the struggle for the liberation of women and for their rights in Nicaragua make her a fundamental author to understand the significant urgency of leaving behind the traditional image of women reduced to otherness and the need to assume new identities away from sexist stereotypes 29

Page 29

Page 30

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL amplitud de temas es heterog neo pero en sus inicios sus precursoras fueron solo una minor a blanca y burguesa persiguiendo alcanzar lo que les estaba vetado por su g nero 1 En una poca tumultuosa plagada de violencia e injusticia como fueron los a os 70 las mujeres nicarag enses comenzaron a tomar conciencia en la vida p blica y pol tica pronunci ndose no solo en contra de una dictadura sino tambi n abogando por un cambio social que las considerase como iguales Esto supon a un reto en la sociedad de la poca ya que debido a la extrema pobreza que hab a generado el somocismo y la expropiaci n estadounidense la gran mayor a de las mujeres estaban limitadas doblemente por su g nero y por su baja clase social Aunque los cargos de liderazgo de las organizaciones revolucionarias estuvieron en manos de los hombres aproximadamente el 30 de las fuerzas combatientes eran mujeres de modo que la incorporaci n de la mujer al frente tuvo un peso fundamental en el triunfo del mismo Como causa de esto en 1969 el revolucionario y por entonces l der pol tico y militar del FSLN2 Carlos Fonseca elabor un programa de quince puntos para definir la estrategia de la organizaci n armada cuyo sexto proyecto era la emancipaci n de la mujer 3 La elevada incorporaci n de la mujer como sujeto revolucionario en el Frente Sandinista de Liberaci n Nacional FSLN supone un paso al frente sin igual en la lucha por la igualdad con un alcance muy significativo para otros pa ses latinoamericanos que ve an en el sandinismo el ejemplo a seguir para la restauraci n antiimperialista El sandinismo ofrec a al pueblo nicarag ense una oportunidad para liberarse de la opresi n somocista y la explotaci n estadounidense y era la lucha armada popular la nica v a posible para derrocarlos bajo el lema Patria Libre La mujer nicarag ense seg n La Mujer Habitada An lisis de personajes Gioconda Belli 1948 es una escritora nicarag ense que guiada por su alto nivel educativo y posici n social buscaba avanzar en la lucha por la emancipaci n de la mujer en una sociedad especialmente conservadora y arcaica como la suya Belli particip activamente en los sucesos que estaban protagonizando el cambio de Nicaragua como miembro de la Comisi n Pol tico Diplom tica del FSLN y viaj a diversos pa ses para la divulgaci n sandinista Belli en sus primeras obras durante los a os 70 redact poes a socialmente comprometida en la que tambi n hay un amplio tratamiento del tema de la opresi n de la mujer en el seno de las instituciones familiares Tras su extensa obra po tica y su implicaci n en la militancia del FSLN aparece su primera novela La Mujer Habitada 1988 en la que a trav s de los distintos personajes y guiada por sus propias experiencias plasma la doble opresi n sufrida por la mujer por su condici n social y por su g nero La novela est protagonizada por Lavinia una joven de 23 a os hija nica de una familia bien posicionada dentro de la burgues a de la ficticia ciudad de Faguas que abandon el hogar familiar para estudiar arquitectura en Bolonia pero regresa a su pa s para intentar ejercer su profesi n Su voz narrativa nos indica desde el comienzo su rechazo por las convenciones que impone la sociedad patriarcal de la poca a la mujer de clase social alta que parece destinada desde su nacimiento a mantener el protocolo y la reputaci n familiar en sus papeles de esposa hija y madre roles femeninos que subyugan a la mujer como otro con respecto al hombre Sin embargo gracias a su formaci n acad mica Lavinia posee una independencia econ mica impropia en otras j venes de su edad y se muestra orgullosa de poseer una casa propia herencia de su querida t a In s una habitaci n propia 4 Su condici n de hija nica que ha pasado los ltimos a os en el extranjero la hace no tener firmes v nculos familiares ni c rculos sociales en Faguas de modo que aunque liberada parcialmente Lavinia se encuentra a lo largo de la novela en una b squeda constante de sentido 30 AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL The Nicaraguan woman during the Sandinista revolution Women have traditionally been seen as an antagonistic subject of man as the other relegating her to be the object of male desire and linking it to domestic life as opposed to the individuality and authority of men in public life Simone de Beauvoir said in his work The Second Sex 1949 that The body of man makes sense by itself abstraction made of the woman while the latter seems devoid of all sense if the male is not evoked Man thinks without the woman She does not think without the man And she is nothing other than what man decides to be The woman is determined and differentiated in relation to the man and not this in relation to her the woman is the inessential versus the essential He is the Subject he is the Absolute She is the Other p 18 After centuries of being silenced and marginalized in the private sphere there were many women who considered social reform Current feminism covers a wide range of topics it is heterogeneous but in its beginnings its precursors were only a white and bourgeois minority pursuing what was denied to them by their gender 1 In as tumultuous an era plagued by violence and injustice as the 70s were Nicaraguan women began to become aware of public and political life speaking out not only against a dictatorship but also advocating for a social change that would consider them equal This was a challenge in the society of the time because due to the extreme poverty generated by the Somocismo and the expropriation of the United States the vast majority of women were doubly limited by their gender and by their low social class Although the positions of leadership of the revolutionary organizations were in the hands of men approximately 30 of the fighting forces were women such that the incorporation of women in the front had a fundamental weight in their triumph As a cause of this in 1969 the revolutionary and at that time political and military leader of the FSLN2 Carlos Fonseca developed a fifteen point program to define the strategy of the armed organization whose sixth project was the emancipation of women 3 The high incorporation of women as a revolutionary subject in the Sandinista National Liberation Front FSLN represents an unparalleled step forward in the struggle for equality with a significant scope for other Latin American countries that saw in Sandinismo the example to follow for the anti imperialist restoration Sandinismo offered the Nicaraguan people an opportunity to free themselves from Somoza oppression and US exploitation and the popular armed struggle was the only possible way to overthrow them under the slogan Patria Libre or Free Homeland The Nicaraguan woman according to La Mujer Habitada Analysis of characters Gioconda Belli 1948 is a Nicaraguan writer who guided by her higher education and social position sought to advance in the struggle for the emancipation of women in a particularly conservative and archaic society such as hers Belli actively participated in the events that were leading the change of Nicaragua as a member of the Political Diplomatic Commission of the FSLN and she traveled to various countries for the Sandinista dissemination Belli in her first works during the 70s wrote poetry committed to social issues in which there is also a large focus on the oppression of women within family institutions After her extensive poetic work and involvement in the militancy of the FSLN her first novel La Mujer Habitada 1988 appeared in which through the different characters and guided by his own experiences she depicts the double oppression suffered by women by their social condition and by their gender 31

Page 31

Page 32

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL para su vida En palabras de la propia protagonista se pregunta a s misma la noci n de independencia de mujer sola con trabajo y cuarto propio eran opciones incompletas rebeliones a medias formas sin contenido p 97 La lucha contra el falocentrismo en paralelismo con la dictadura somocista conlleva no solo la ruptura de los patrones preestablecidos sino tambi n un cuestionamiento constante un proceso de auto descubrimiento personal que lleva consigo un cambio de paradigma lo que se conoce como deconstrucci n derridiana 5 Por esto la voz de Lavinia a lo largo de casi toda la novela est cargada de introspecci n de planteamientos y cuestiones que la llevan a revisar lo que es lo que fue y lo que quiere ser Su toma de conciencia pol tica en correlaci n con su feminismo est n en proceso de construcci n tal y como lo est su propia casa como lo est su propio pa s Uno de sus momentos principales de revelaci n lo encontramos cuando est en el hospital acompa ando a Lucrecia Ella se hab a comprometido a luchar por los due os de los pies Ser una de ellos Sentir en carne propia las injusticias cometidas contra ellos Esa gente era el pueblo del que hablaba el programa del Movimiento Y sin embargo all junto a ellos en las salas de emergencia sucia y oscura del hospital un abismo los separaba p 165 Esos pies s mbolo de la identidad hist rica y nacional del pa s le muestran el camino La despiertan de la alienaci n que atraviesan los de su clase Tanta gente se las ingeniaba para ignorar la miseria aceptando las desigualdades como ley de la vida p 116 Ella decide no mirar para otro lado como gran parte de las personas pertenecientes a su clase social e intentar reconciliar sus privilegios y su reci n adquirida conciencia social Esto explica por qu la motivaci n de Lavinia de participar en el movimiento carece de ideolog a inicialmente ella entra en contacto con la clandestinidad cuando conoce a Felipe un compa ero de trabajo del estudio de arquitectura en el que ambos trabajan en Faguas y con el que inicia una aventura amorosa 6 Tras sus miedos y desconocimiento inicial ella logra ver en el frente la oportunidad de tomar las riendas de su propia vida y competir en las mismas actividades con los hombres Lavinia se incorpora al combate clandestino como parte de la lucha de su pa s por liberarse de la tiran a y de las desigualdades sociales pero la revuelta que lleva a cabo Lavinia no es principalmente ideol gica y o destinada a desmantelar el poder opresor sino que tambi n deber enfrentarse a la diferencia sexual y de clase que la sit an dentro de una relaci n asim trica en relaci n a sus compa eros de trabajo y del movimiento Belli utiliza el personaje de Lavinia para representar por un lado la voz de un nuevo modelo de identidad de la mujer nicarag ense y por otro el aporte de la clase alta burguesa a la revoluci n sandinista ambas posturas basadas en las experiencias de la propia autora que pueden verse en su obra autobiogr fica El pa s bajo mi piel 1988 Ambas entraron a participar en la revoluci n con 32 AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL The novel stars Lavinia a 23 year old daughter the only daughter of a well positioned family within the bourgeoisie of the fictional city of Faguas Lavinia left the family home to study architecture in Bologna but returns to her country to try to practice her profession The narrator indicates from the beginning her rejection by the conventions imposed by the patriarchal society of the time on women of high social class which destined women from birth to maintain the protocol and family reputation in their roles as wife daughter and mother feminine roots that subjugate woman as other with respect to man However thanks to her academic training Lavinia has an improper economic independence than other young women of her age and is proud to own her own house inherited from her beloved Tia Ines a room of her own 4 Her status as the only child who has spent the last years abroad makes her not have strong family ties or social circles in Faguas so that although partially released Lavinia finds herself throughout the novel in a constant search for meaning for life In the words of the protagonist herself she asks herself the notion of independence of a woman with a job and her own room were incomplete options half rebellions forms without content p 97 The fight against phallocentrism in parallel with the Somoza dictatorship involves not only the breaking of pre established patterns but also a constant questioning a process of personal selfdiscovery that brings with it a change of paradigm what is known as Derrida s deconstruction 5 For this reason Lavinia s voice throughout almost the entire novel is full of introspection approaches and questions that lead her to review what is what was and what she wants to be Her political awareness in correlation with her feminism is in the process of being built just as her own house is as is her own country One of his main moments of revelation is found when she is in the hospital accompanying Lucrecia She had vowed to fight for the owners of the feet Be one of them Feel in the flesh the injustices committed against them These people were the people that the Movement s program talked about And yet there next to them in the dirty and dark emergency rooms of the hospital an abyss separated them p 165 These feet symbol of the country s historical and national identity show her the way They awaken her from the alienation of her class So many people managed to ignore misery accepting inequalities as the law of life p 116 She decides not to look the other way like a large part of the people belonging to her social class and try to reconcile her privileges and her newly acquired social conscience This explains why Lavinia s motivation to participate in the movement lacks ideology initially she comes into contact with the underground when she meets Felipe a co worker at the architecture studio where they both work in Faguas and with whom she starts a love affair6 After her fears and initial ignorance she manages to see in the front the opportunity to take charge of her own life and compete in the same activities with men Lavinia joins clandestine combat as part of her country s struggle to free herself from tyranny and social inequalities but Lavinia s revolt is not primarily ideological and or aimed at dismantling the oppressive power but she must also face the sexual and class differences that place her within an asymmetrical relationship with her co workers and the movement Belli uses the character of Lavinia to represent on the one hand the voice of a new identity model of Nicaraguan women and on the other the contribution of the bourgeois upper class to the Sandinista revolution both positions based on the experiences of their own author which can be seen in her autobiographical work El pa s bajo mi piel 1988 Both entered to participate in the revolution 33

Page 33

Page 34

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL grandes dudas inspiradas por un hombre en ese proceso de b squeda de identidad y de cambio que ella misma se reconoce como vemos a continuaci n with great doubts inspired by a man in the search for identity and change that she recognizes herself as we see below Sin duda estaba cambiando El problema era no saber qu acabar a siendo Se ten a que acostumbrar por lo pronto a ser tres personas Una para sus amigos y el trabajo otra para el Movimiento una tercera para Felipe En ocasiones le daba miedo no saber cu l de esas personas era realmente p 146 It was definitely changing The problem was not knowing what it would end up being She had to get used for the time being to being three people One for her friends and work another for the Movement a third for Felipe Sometimes she was afraid of not knowing which of those people she really was p 146 La transformaci n de Lavinia puede parecer un modo autoindulgente y solipsista de justificar el tard o despertar de conciencia de clase de la propia autora sin embargo son muchos los historiadores que afirman que sin la participaci n de la burgues a nunca se hubiera conseguido derrotar a Somoza y aunque parecen antag nicos los intereses de la burgues a con respecto al proletariado siendo los ltimos subyugados por los primeros la dictadura cre un marco para la coexistencia de ambas clases sociales de modo que las desigualdades entre los personajes femeninos de Belli ofrecen paralelamente un nuevo espacio de convivencia A continuaci n vemos un ejemplo de las reflexiones de Lavinia acerca de su propia participaci n como miembro de la burgues a Lavinia s transformation may seem to be a self indulgent and solipsistic way of justifying the tardy awakening of the author s own class consciousness however many historians affirm that without the participation of the bourgeoisie Somoza would never have been defeated and although the interests of the bourgeoisie with respect to the proletariat seem to be antagonistic the latter being subjugated by the former the dictatorship created a framework for the coexistence of both social classes so that the inequalities between the female characters of Belli offer in parallel a new space of coexistence Below is an example of Lavinia s reflections on her own participation as a member of the bourgeoisie A pesar de la aceptaci n que el Movimiento le brindaba no dejaba de sentir su clase como un fardo pesado del que hubiera querido librarse de una vez por todas Le parec a una culpa sin perd n una frontera que quiz s solo la muerte heroica podr a desvanecer totalmente p 296 Tambi n su clase social condiciona su relaci n con las otras mujeres de la novela Es Lavinia la que se ala al lector sus diferencias con respecto a Flor y Lucrecia como veremos posteriormente as como su activismo condiciona su amistad con Sara a la que parece querer desafiar continuamente por medio de retorcidas preguntas como modo de incitaci n a la deconstrucci n Sara es un personaje femenino importante para entender los valores androc ntricos ya que representa el complejo fen meno del sexismo interiorizado 7 Al igual que la madre de Lavinia Sara vive alejada de cualquier compromiso revolucionario e ideol gico acomodada en su clase privilegiada y sometida ciegamente al patriarcado Sus aspiraciones se limitan a las labores dentro del mbito dom stico como esposa y ama de casa a sus obligaciones sociales y superficiales Lavinia muestra su rechazo a los ambientes lujosos y hogare os de los que goza Sara as como la protecci n paternalista que le ofrece Daniel una yuxtaposici n mediante la que Belli nos muestra unos personajes femeninos opuestos que se han ido alejando y diferenciando por la nueva conciencia de Lavinia pero que podr an haber sido similares sino fuera por la deconstrucci n de sta Lejos de la pudiente vida de Sara y Lavinia y del ajetreo de los clubes sociales encontramos a Lucrecia la empleada dom stica de Lavinia perteneciente a una realidad de Faguas que Lavinia nunca ha conocido la clase baja el pueblo llano Un narrador nos describe la austera vivienda de Lucrecia compartida con su hermana y sobrina en una barriada marginal de la periferia Lavinia pudo ver el techo sin cielo raso los cables el ctricos cruzando el zinc y una sola buj a balace ndose atada a una viga Colchones colgados doblados sobre un travesa o Los descolgar an a la hora de dormir Hab a una silla desvencijada en el rinc n La estancia ol a a trapos sucios y encierro p 161 34 In spite of the acceptance that the Movement offered her she did not stop feeling her class like a heavy burden that she wanted to get rid of once and for all It seemed like guilt without forgiveness a frontier that perhaps only the heroic death could totally vanish p 296 Lavinia s social class conditions her relationship with the other women in the novel It is Lavinia who points out to the reader her differences with respect to Flor and Lucrecia as we will see later just as her activism conditions her friendship with Sara which she seems to continually challenge through twisted questions as a way of inciting deconstruction Sara is an important female character to understand androcentric values since she represents the complex phenomenon of internalized sexism 7 Like the mother of Lavinia Sara lives away from any revolutionary and ideological commitment accommodated in its privileged class and blindly subjected to patriarchy Their aspirations are limited to work within the domestic sphere as a wife and housewife to their social and superficial obligations Lavinia shows her rejection of the luxurious and homey environments that Sara enjoys as well as the paternalistic protection offered by Daniel a juxtaposition by which Belli shows us opposite female characters who have moved away and differentiated by the new consciousness of Lavinia but that could have been similar if not for the deconstruction Far from the wealthy lifestyle of Sara and Lavinia we find Lucrecia Lavinia s domestic employee belonging to a Faguas reality that Lavinia has never known the lower class the common people A narrator describes the austere house of Lucrecia shared with her sister and niece in a marginal neighborhood of the periphery Lavinia could see the roof without ceiling the electrical cables crossing the zinc and a single spark plug being tied to a beam Mattresses hung folded on a crossbar They would pick them up at bedtime There was a rickety chair in the corner The room smelled of dirty rags and confinement p 161 35

Page 35

Page 36

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL La miseria y la pobreza latentes en la vida de Lucrecia condicionan la relaci n entre ambas porque no es igualitaria desde el nacimiento de cada una de ellas Lucrecia est subordinada respecto a Lavinia doblemente por su baja clase social y por sus roles de empleada dom stica patr n La inclusi n de un personaje como Lucrecia nos indica una sociedad pre capitalista que divide la esfera econ mica de la dom stica seg n la condici n social de cada uno y de la que parece complicado escapar Esto destina a Lucrecia a sufrir una evoluci n limitada ya que debido a su nula preparaci n acad mica y falta de medios dif cilmente podr a lograr un trabajo bien remunerado que la enriqueciera y motivase a salir de su barrac n a pelear por la igualdad Lucrecia est condenada por el analfabetismo y la escasez carencias contra las que la burgues a parece querer luchar dentro del sandinismo y no puede ver el trabajo como un medio para obtener independencia como Lavinia sino como una simple manera de subsistir En cuestiones de g nero la mujer de clase baja trabajadora queda constre ida a la funci n reproductora y las actividades laborales la met fora cuerpo m quina 8 Las mujeres de clase baja como Lucrecia estaban totalmente infravaloradas y desprotegidas en la sociedad como se ve en el episodio en el que casi pierde la vida al ser sometida a un aborto ilegal La mentalidad de la poca al asumir un embarazo no deseado dejaba a la mujer de clase baja en malas condiciones arruinada deshonrada desprotegida y en una b squeda desesperada de soluciones que en numerosas ocasiones les provocaba graves infecciones o incluso la muerte Sin embargo la ley amparaba que un hombre no se hiciera cargo de su hijo lo que indica la fuerte desigualdad del hombre frente a la mujer en cuestiones jur dicas Esta falta de protecci n de la mujer y ausencia de derechos ligada a la explotaci n laboral en jornadas agotadoras de las mujeres trabajadoras conlleva que la mujer proletaria est lejos de involucrarse en la lucha parad jicamente su d a a d a ya constituye una pura supervivencia y que la mujer burguesa acomodada como Lavinia tenga motivos para luchar por simple empat a y conciencia tica Son las mujeres burguesas como Lavinia e incluso las de clase media como Flor cuya incorporaci n a la revoluci n permitir nuevas oportunidades a todas las que est n por venir otro paralelismo con la lucha feminista encabezada primero por mujeres acad micas y burguesas puesto que desgraciadamente Lucrecia no puede a tener un cuarto propio ni escoger opciones para mejorar su vida Por otro lado el personaje de Flor representa un estado m s avanzado de la incorporaci n de la mujer al movimiento y de la apropiaci n de la mujer del espacio masculino Flor es una integrante de la guerrilla que ejerce diversos roles dentro de la organizaci n por su profesi n de enfermera es til para tratar camaradas heridos y contratiempos pero tambi n sabemos que formaba parte en los movimientos estudiantiles desde sus a os universitarios y que posee extensos conocimientos te ricos por lo que supone un importante aporte en el adoctrinamiento y aprendizaje de los nuevos integrantes Representa la participaci n de la clase media concienciada plenamente con el cambio y se convierte en una fiel aliada de Lavinia le proporciona ayuda le comparte folletos para solventar su incertidumbre inicial y le recuerda que el Che hab a escrito que las mujeres eran ideales para cocineras y correos de la guerrilla aunque despu s anduvo en Bolivia con una guerrillera llamada Tania Cambi p 138 Flor es un ejemplo de sororidad y del progreso de la mujer de clase media que a pesar de haber atravesado una infancia y adolescencia especialmente traum tica sin arquetipos ejemplares a quien seguir encuentra en la lucha su modo de vida Su apoyo y protecci n a Lavinia son todo un ejemplo a la hora de transmitirle fortaleza y de despertar su conciencia social como ciudadana y mujer que culmina cuando reaparece de la clandestinidad para tomarle juramento como militante En los siguientes fragmentos vemos ejemplos de c mo Flor construye esta alianza un v nculo de confianza The misery and poverty latent in the life of Lucrecia condition the relationship between the two because theirs is not equal even from birth Lucrecia is doubly subordinate to Lavinia because of her low social class and because of their roles as maid employer The inclusion of a character like Lucrecia indicates a pre capitalist society that divides the economic sphere from the domestic one according to the social condition of each and from which it seems complicated to escape This destined Lucrecia to suffer a limited evolution because due to her lack of academic preparation and lack of resources she could hardly achieve a well paid job that would enrich her and motivate her to leave her barracks to fight for equality Lucrecia is condemned by illiteracy and scarcity shortcomings against which the bourgeoisie seems to want to fight within Sandinismo and cannot see work as a means to obtain independence like Lavinia but as a simple way of subsisting In gender issues lower class working women are constrained to reproductive function and work activities the body machine metaphor 8 Lower class women like Lucrecia were totally undervalued and unprotected in society as seen in the episode in which she almost lost her life when subjected to an illegal abortion The mentality of the time when assuming an unwanted pregnancy left lower class women in bad conditions ruined disgraced unprotected and in a desperate search for solutions that on numerous occasions caused serious infections or even death However the law did not allow a man to take care of his son which indicates the strong inequality of men in relation to women in legal matters This lack of protection of women and an absence of rights linked to labor exploitation in exhausting days of working women means that the proletarian woman is far from being involved in the struggle paradoxically her day to day is already a pure survival and that well bourgeois women like Lavinia have reasons to fight for simple empathy and ethical conscience They are bourgeois women like Lavinia and even middle class women like Flor whose incorporation into the revolution will allow new opportunities for all those who are to come another parallelism with the feminist struggle headed first by academic and bourgeois women since unfortunately Lucrecia cannot have a room of her own nor choose options to improve her life On the other hand Flor s character represents a more advanced state of the incorporation of women into the movement and the appropriation of women from the masculine space Flor is a member of the guerrilla and exercises diverse roles within the organization for her nursing profession it is useful to treat wounded comrades and setbacks but we also know that she was part of the student movements since her university years and she has extensive theoretical knowledge for what it supposes an important contribution in the indoctrination and learning of the new members She represents the participation of the middle class fully aware of the change and becomes a faithful ally of Lavinia she provides help she shares leaflets to resolve her initial uncertainty and reminds her that Che had written that women were ideal for cooks and guerrilla correspondents although later he went in Bolivia with a woman fighter called Tania He changed p 138 Flor is an example of sisterhood and the progress of the middle class woman who despite having gone through a particularly traumatic childhood and adolescence without exemplary archetypes to follow finds her way of life in the struggle Her support and protection for Lavinia is an example when it comes to transmitting her strength and awakening her social conscience as a citizen who eventually reappears from hiding to take her oath as a militant In the following fragments we see examples of how Flor builds this alliance a bond of trust to transfer to Lavinia her way of understanding the action and participation of the movement 36 37

Page 37

Page 38

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL para trasladarle a Lavinia su modo de entender la acci n y participaci n del movimiento Te preocupas demasiado por eso de la aceptaci n O por la identidad Cada uno de nosotros carga con lo propio hasta el fin de los d as Pero tambi n construye Como arquitecta deb as saberlo El terreno es lo que te dan de nacimiento pero la construcci n es tu responsabilidad p 224 S que est s pasando momentos dif ciles pero tengo confianza que vas a salir de esta situaci n fortalecida Yo que te he visto superar tus dudas e inquietudes s que tengo razones para confiar en vos razones para respetarte Optaste por unirte a nosotros arriesgarlo todo poner tu vida en la l nea de fuego Eso tiene su valor y yo te prometo que voy a luchar porque se te permita participar por tus propios m ritos No porque Felipe te lo pidi sino porque vos lo mereces p 354 AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL You worry too much about acceptance Or about identity Each one of us carries our own until the end of the days But it also builds As an architect you should know The land is what you get from birth but construction is your responsibility p 224 I know that you are going through difficult times but I am confident that you will come out of this situation strengthened I have seen you overcome your doubts and concerns I know that I have reason to trust you reason to respect you You opted to join us risk everything put your life in the line of fire That has value and I promise that I will fight because you are allowed to participate on your own merits Not because Felipe asked you to but because you deserve it p 354 Aunque Flor se siente integrada plenamente en el movimiento revolucionario denuncia que como mujer tiene que pelear por obtener posiciones que el hombre tiene asignadas sin cuestionamiento tal y como le ocurre a Lavinia en el terreno profesional lo que las lleva a identificar valores actitudes y aptitudes varoniles a imitar al hombre como medio de integraci n en un terreno que les era ajeno Aunque hoy d a emular el status quo masculino como patr n a alcanzar nos resulte una conducta de reivindicaci n obsoleta o insuficiente no hay que olvidar que constituye un estado de feminismo primigenio 9 que se conoce como feminismo de la igualdad 9 As que tanto Flor como Lavinia al acceder a un territorio masculino y no tener modelos femeninos que seguir se perciben como personajes femeninos copiando valores exaltados por la sociedad patriarcal El feminismo posmoderno de la diferencia como alternativa no patriarcal era todav a considerado radical en Europa en los 70 cuando fil sofas como Luce Irigaray o Anne Lecrerc planteaban la necesidad de ruptura del pensamiento faloc ntrico Sin embargo Lavinia casi al final de la novela comienza a ser consciente del discurso dominante y se ala como hasta las expresiones de guerra han pertenecido hist ricamente al hombre y excluido a la mujer el que se quede fuera es hombre muerto A menos que sea mujer pens Lavinia No pod a evitar al o r hablar de esta forma burlarse del lenguaje p 373 Flor adem s resulta trascendental al revelarle a Lavinia como a su rol como mujer trabajadora y revolucionaria se le suma el estar doblemente subyugada al hombre en casa por la figura de un amante de ideas machistas y retr gradas como Felipe que no la quiere involucrar en el movimiento por no considerarla apta y disfraza su decisi n con una ret rica paternalista10 para subordinarla en la relaci n y en el trabajo por su jefe Juli n que no valora lo suficiente sus capacidades profesionales como para colocarla al frente de la obra que ella misma ha dise ado desde el inicio Flor le muestra que se encuentra en una relaci n no igualitaria cuando le se ala que lo que l quiere es el reposo del guerrero sonri Flor la mujer que lo espere y le caliente la cama feliz de que su hombre luche por causas justas apoy ndolo en silencio p 109 Como contraposici n Flor enaltece la capacidad de Lavinia al ser capaz de tomar una consciencia colectiva alejada de su clase social Lavinia pese a sus contradicciones y titubeos no acepta un rol pasivo y aprende y se deja aconsejar por Flor sobre el frente y la revoluci n Sin embargo en las contradicciones de Felipe y especialmente en su relaci n con l vemos muchas ambig edades clich s y prejuicios en su proceso de integraci n y liberaci n como la mujer Primero Lavinia mantiene a lo largo de casi toda su relaci n esperanzas en que Felipe recular a y reconocer a su error sin embargo l nunca deja de verla como Although Flor feels fully integrated into the revolutionary movement she denounces that as a woman she has to fight to obtain positions that the man has assigned without questioning as happens to Lavinia in the professional field which leads them to identify values attitudes and manly aptitudes to imitate man as a means of integration in a terrain that was alien to them Although today to emulate the male status quo as a pattern to achieve we find an obsolete behavior or insufficient claim we must not forget that it constitutes a state of primal feminism is known as feminism of equality 9 So both Flor and Lavinia when accessing a male territory and not having female models to follow are perceived as female characters copying values exalted by the patriarchal society Postmodern feminism of difference as a non patriarchal alternative was still considered radical in Europe in the 1970s when philosophers such as Luce Irigaray or Anne Lecrerc posed the need to break phallocentric thinking However Lavinia almost at the end of the novel begins to be aware of the dominant discourse and points out how even the expressions of war have historically belonged to man and excluded women he who stays outside is a dead man Unless it s a woman thought Lavinia He could not avoid hearing this kind of talk making fun of language P 373 Flor is also transcendental in revealing Lavinia as her role as a revolutionary and working woman She is doubly subjugated to man at home by the figure of a lover of macho and retrograde ideas like Felipe who does not want to involve her in the movement for not considering her fit and disguises her decision with a paternalistic rhetoric10 to subordinate her in the relationship and in the work by her boss Juli n who does not value her professional skills enough to place her at the forefront of the work she has designed from the beginning Flor shows him that he is in an unequal relationship when she tells him that what he wants is the rest of the warrior Flor smiled the woman who waits for him and warms his bed happy that her man fights for just causes supporting him in silence p 109 In contrast Flor enhances Lavinia s ability to be able to take a collective consciousness away from their social class Lavinia despite her contradictions and hesitations does not accept a passive role but learns and is advised by Flor on the front and the revolution However in the contradictions of Felipe and especially in her relationship with him we see many ambiguities clich s and prejudices in his process of integration and liberation of women First Lavinia maintains throughout most of their relationship hopes that Felipe would reject and recognize his error but he never fails to see her as the other in a subordinate position of origin culture and especially gender He sees her as a weak subject does not consider her suitable to participate in the national liberation movement In addition a process of gender deconstruction must be bidirectional one must be questioned internally as well as externally Lavinia reflects on her identity as a woman but also needs to review the ideas of masculinity so that reflections 38 39

Page 39

Page 40

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL otro en un posicionamiento subalterno de origen cultura y especialmente de g nero La ve como un sujeto d bil no la considera id nea para participar en el movimiento de liberaci n nacional Adem s un proceso de deconstrucci n de g nero debe ser bidireccional uno se debe cuestionar internamente as como su mirada al exterior Lavinia reflexiona acerca de su identidad como mujer pero tambi n necesita revisar las ideas de masculinidad para que reflexiones como la siguiente resulten inadmisibles Por supuesto que los hombres no lloraban Los dos hombres pod an mirar al peri dico con los ojos secos y fijos leerlo atentamente a pesar de las fotos p 80 Este pensamiento generalista de Lavinia sobre lo normativo en cuanto a la masculinidad que los hombres no lloran tan desfasado y nocivo demuestra de nuevo ese estado de feminismo primigenio que la protagonista est atravesando a lo largo de la novela y que necesita revisi n y transformaci n en profundidad 11 El desatino con el taxista que acaba con la vida de Felipe resulta una iron a del destino para que Lavinia participe en la revoluci n la oportunidad que l le negaba le es concedida tras su muerte La autora parece indicarnos con este accidente que la igualdad es un logro complicado de obtener por m ritos propios ya que consigue este puesto otorgado por el hombre con el que tiene una relaci n sentimental como nos indica la siguiente reflexi n de Lavinia like the following are inadmissible Of course men did not cry The two men could look at the newspaper with dry eyes and fixed read it carefully despite the photos p 80 This generalist thought of Lavinia s on the normative in terms of masculinity that men do not cry so outdated and harmful demonstrates again that state of primal feminism that the protagonist is going through the novel and that needs revision and transformation in depth 11 The blunder with the taxi driver that ends Felipe s life is an irony of fate for Lavinia to participate in the revolution the opportunity that he denied was granted after his death The author seems to indicate with this accident that equality is a complicated achievement to obtain on its own merits since she obtains this position granted by the man with whom she has a sentimental relationship as indicated by the following reflection by Lavinia Al final le pidi que lo sustituyera No porque lo hubiera querido Por necesidad Las mujeres entrar an a la historia por necesidad Necesidad de los hombres que no se daban abasto para morir luchar para trabajar Las necesitaban a fin de cuentas aunque solo lo reconocieran en la muerte p 361 Lavinia nos confirma que apenas ha escalado un pelda o en la igualdad de c mo la plena integraci n de la mujer apenas se vislumbraba en el horizonte unas p ginas m s adelante Sinti que finalmente hab a trascendido sus miedos Por fin cre a confiaba Estaba segura de querer estar all compartiendo con ellos con estas personas y no otras lo que quiz s ser an los ltimos momentos de su vida Aqu se acababan las cunas de tul o de palo los distintos recuerdos de infancia en ese instante en ese par ntesis de tiempo todos se fund an animales de la misma especie Sus vidas depend an las unas de las otras Confiaban los unos en los otros confiaban sus vidas a la sincron a colectiva a la defensa mutua al funcionamiento de equipo p 370 Reconciliada de todo cuanto la afligiera durante meses se decidi a aceptar tristemente el hecho de que nicamente en su relaci n con Felipe no hubo conciliaci n En el combate en que se enfrentaron solo la muerte los igual Solo la muerte de Felipe le devolvi sus derechos le permiti estar all El s mbolo era oscuro y desgarrador Pero no pod a aceptarlo como augurio funesto del amor o del viejo antagonismo de Ad n y Eva M s adelante las cosas cambiar an M s adelante p 371 M s adelante s pero cu ndo Felipe la hace conocedora del movimiento Flor la impulsa a encontrar su propia voz en la lucha pero es Itz quien le transmite el valor que necesita para transgredir el orden imperante y a su vez su historia refleja siglos de resistencia de la mujer y de desigualdad en la sociedad de modo que la esperanza de conseguir igualdad m s adelante se torna en una urgencia del aqu y ahora haciendo una llamada a la memoria colectiva a la reescritura de la historia por parte 40 In the end he asked her to replace him Not because he wanted it For necessity Women would enter history out of necessity Need for men who could not cope to die fight to work They needed them in the end even if they only recognized it in death p 361 Lavinia confirms that she has scarcely climbed a step in equality of how the full integration of women was barely glimpsed on the horizon a few pages later She felt that finally she had transcended her fears At last she believed she trusted I was sure I wanted to be there sharing with them with these people and not others what might be the last moments of his life Here the tulle or wooden cradles the different memories of childhood ended at that moment in that parenthesis of time they all merged animals of the same species Their lives depended on each other they trusted each other entrusted their lives to collective synchrony to mutual defense to team functioning p 370 Reconciled to everything that afflicted her for months she decided to accept sadly the fact that only in her relationship with Felipe there was no conciliation In the battle they fought only death matched them Only Felipe s death gave him back his rights allowed him to be there The symbol was dark and heartbreaking But she could not accept it as a fatal omen of love or the old antagonism of Adam and Eve Later things would change Later p 371 Later yes but when Felipe makes her aware of the movement Flor urges her to find her own voice in the struggle but it is Itz who transmits the courage she needs to transgress the prevailing order and in turn her story reflects centuries of resistance from women and of inequality in society so that the hope of achieving equality later becomes an urgency of the here and now making a call to the collective memory to the rewriting of history by the other the colonized and women Itz is an aborigine who like Lavinia separated from her family and died in battle with her beloved Yarince in the fight against Spanish conquest After her death she transformed into an orange tree located in the garden of Lavinia s house She enters Lavinia every time she drinks the juice from 41

Page 41

Page 42

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL del otro colonizados y mujeres Itz es una aborigen que al igual que Lavinia se separ de su familia y muri en combate junto a su amado Yarince en la lucha de la conquista espa ola y que se transforma en un naranjo situado en el jard n de la casa de Lavinia para despu s penetrar en Lavinia cada vez que sta bebe el zumo de las naranjas de su rbol y as transmitirle la esencia revolucionaria para que sea ella la que pueda continuar la lucha por su pueblo As nos indica que la muerte no es en vano sino que es el motor que impulsa a futuras generaciones El hecho de que su esencia persista tras la muerte es una alegor a de la lucha sandinista y de las posteriores muertes de Felipe y Lavinia que a os despu s de la muerte del revolucionario nicarag ense pone nombre a la oposici n somocista y sirve de acicate para la lucha the oranges of her tree and thus she transmits the revolutionary essence to her so that she can continue the struggle for her people Thus it tells us that death is not in vain but is the engine that drives future generations The fact that her essence persists after death is an allegory of the Sandinista struggle and of the subsequent deaths of Felipe and Lavinia that years after the end of the Nicaraguan revolution it still provides incentive for the fight The Spaniards said they had discovered a new world But our world was not new to us Many generations had flourished in these lands from our ancestors worshipers of Tamagastad and Cippatoval settled down We were Nahuatl but we also spoke Chorotego and the Niquira language We knew how to measure the movement of the stars write upon strips of deer leather we cultivated the land we lived in large settlements on the shore of the lakes we hunted we played we had schools and sacred celebrations The Spaniards said that they should civilize us make us abandon barbarism But they with barbarism depopulated us In a few years they made more human sacrifices than we ever did in the history of our festivities Our inheritance of swinging drums has to continue beating in the heart of these generations There is the only one of us Yarince who remained the resistance p 97 Los espa oles dec an haber descubierto un nuevo mundo Pero nuestro mundo no era nuevo para nosotros Muchas generaciones hab an florecido en estas tierras desde que nuestros antepasados adoradores de Tamagastad y Cippatoval se asentaron ramos nahuatls pero habl bamos tambi n chorotego y la lengua niquirana sab amos medir el movimiento de los astros escribir sobre tiras de cuero de venado cultiv bamos la tierra viv amos en grandes asentamientos a la orilla de los lagos caz bamos hil bamos ten amos escuelas y fiestas sagradas Los espa oles dec an que deb an civilizarnos hacernos abandonar la barbarie Pero ellos con barbarie nos despoblaron En pocos a os hicieron m s sacrificios humanos de los que jam s hici ramos nosotros en la historia de nuestras festividades Nuestra herencia de tambores batientes ha de continuar latiendo en la sangre de estas generaciones Es lo nico de nosotros Yarince que permaneci la resistencia p 97 Por otro lado la inclusi n del personaje de Itz por parte de Belli representa la lucha ancestral de un pueblo que ha vivido todo tipo de opresiones como la mujer y que se niega a la p rdida de la cultura tradicional de su pueblo Y es el paisaje de ese pueblo lo que Lavinia siente y asocia como patria 12 La alegor a de la madre patria parece sugerir que la naci n representa una serie de valores asociados a la maternidad que protege dispensa cuidados entrega incondicional y lucha incansablemente y parad jicamente la renuncia de Itz y Lavinia a la maternidad13 las llevo a entregar esos cuidados a su pueblo a su naci n Me deb haber quedado en Bolonia pens recordando su apartamento al lado del campanario Era su reacci n cada vez que se topaba con el lado oscuro de Faguas Pero en Europa se habr a tenido que contentar con interiores remodelaciones de viejos edificios que no alteran las fachadas la historia de mejores pasados En Faguas en cambio eran otros los restos Se trataba de dominar la naturaleza volc nica s smica opulenta la lujuria de los rboles atravesando ind mitos el asfalto p 15 On the other hand the inclusion of the character of Itz by Belli represents the ancestral struggle of a people who have experienced all kinds of oppression like women and who refuse to lose the traditional culture of their people And it is the landscape of that town that Lavinia feels and associates as a homeland 12 The allegory of the mother country seems to suggest that the nation represents a series of values associated with motherhood which protects dispenses care unconditional surrender and tireless struggleand paradoxically Itz and Lavinia s resignation to motherhood13 led them to deliver those cares to her people to her nation I should have stayed in Bologna she thought remembering her apartment next to the bell tower It was her reaction every time she came upon the dark side of Faguas But in Europe she would have had to be content with interiors renovations of old buildings that do not alter the facades the history of better pasts In Faguas on the other hand there were other remains It was about dominating the volcanic seismic opulent nature the lust of the trees indomitably crossing the asphalt p 15 Por esto aunque alejados en el tiempo ambos discursos se funden en una historia colectiva inspiradora que ve en el combate una forma de liberaci n de crearse a s mismas una nueva identidad de redescubrirse La agresiva colonizaci n espa ola y la represi n dictatorial se funden en una historia colectiva que inspira a la lucha por construir una nueva identidad El siguiente fragmento simboliza la resistencia del cuerpo femenino y el rechazo del rol pasivo que les ten an asignado a Itz y a las mujeres en general Because of this although separated in time both discourses merge into an inspiring collective history that sees in combat a form of liberation of creating a new identity of rediscovery The aggressive Spanish colonization and dictatorial repression merge into a collective history that inspires the struggle to build a new identity The following fragment symbolizes the resistance of the female body and the rejection of the passive role assigned to Itz and to women in general 42 43

Page 43

Page 44

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL Dentro de la casa los hombres discuten Oigo los murmullos de sus voces como tantas veces escuch desde la oscuridad los consejos que Yarince hac a con sus guerreros Aquellos en los que a m no me era permitido participar aun cuando me llevaran al combate Ten a un cuerpo capaz de dar vida en nueve lunas y soportar el dolor del parto Yo pod a combatir ser tan diestra como cualquiera con el arco y la flecha y adem s pod a cocinar y bailarles en las noches pl cidas Pero ellos no parec an apreciar estas cosas Me dejaban de lado cuando hab a que pensar en el futuro o tomar decisiones de vida o muerte Y todo por aquella hendidura esa flor palpitante color de n spero que ten a entre las piernas pp 82 83 Inside the house men argue I hear the murmurs of their voices as I heard so many times from the darkness the advice that Yarince made with his warriors Those in which I was not allowed to participate even when they took me to combat I had a body capable of giving life in nine moons and endure the pain of childbirth I could fight be as skilled as anyone with the bow and arrow and also I could cook and dance in the calm nights But they did not seem to appreciate these things They left me aside when you had to think about the future or make life or death decisions And all for that slot that pulsating flower medlar color that I had between my legs pp 82 83 Conclusiones Lo m s destacable de esta novela es que pese a la sencillez del lenguaje y la trama no resulta una lectura complaciente sino m s bien arriesgada cuyo tono se endurece a medida que avanza A pesar de que el paralelismo entre la historia de Itz y Lavinia nos advierte de un final tr gico el lector es testigo de c mo la situaci n del pa s parece agravarse y volverse insostenible y a la vez mantiene la esperanza en la fuerza de la lucha La sinceridad de Belli ante los actos m s cotidianos de la mujer empuja al lector a empatizar con los dilemas de esta joven que se plantea diversos problemas ticos ante los que nunca se hab a tenido que enfrentar por la comodidad y seguridad que ofrece el pertenecer a una familia adinerada Nos narra apenas unas semanas en la vida de la protagonista pero resulta suficiente para demostrar como en materia de feminismo Nicaragua y su autora estaban todav a muy alejados de los logros adquiridos en otras partes del mundo Y del mismo modo su autora que ya en su ltima novela El pa s de las mujeres 2010 tambi n localizada en Faguas nos ofrece una s tira pol tica de un pa s solo gobernado por mujeres muestra de que veinte a os despu s la integraci n leg tima en el poder por parte de la mujer ya no es una reivindicaci n ni una imitaci n sino una realidad conciliable con nuevas identidades y masculinidades La Mujer Habitada se ala directamente la necesidad de estimular una profunda conciencia social y compromiso sobre la revoluci n en personas de esferas sociales m s altas ajenas ante la verdadera gravedad del conflicto del pa s y sin cuya colaboraci n activa posiblemente no hubieran logrado el nivel de organizaci n y recursos que les llev a conseguir abandonar las monta as por el palacio presidencial del mismo modo que es una novela con gran valor documental gracias a la verosimilitud de los personajes que nos hacen testigo de asuntos como el aborto la sororidad la importancia de la formaci n y la presencia de modelos femeninos para construir nuevas identidades en libertad e igualdad para lograr una sociedad m s justa 44 Conclusions The most remarkable thing about this novel is that despite the simplicity of the language and the plot it is not a complacent reading but rather a risky one whose tone hardens as it advances Although the parallelism between the history of Itz and Lavinia warns us of a tragic end the reader is witness of how the situation of the country seems to worsen and become unsustainable and at the same time maintains hope in the strength of the struggle The sincerity of Belli before the most daily acts of the woman pushes the reader to empathize with the dilemmas of this young woman who poses various ethical problems before which she had never had to face for the comfort and security offered by belonging to a wealthy family She tells us only a few weeks in the life of the protagonist but it is enough to show how in matters of feminism Nicaragua and the author were still very far from the achievements acquired in other parts of the world And in the same way its author who already in her latest novel El pa s de las mujeres 2010 also located in Faguas offers us a political satire of a country governed only by women which shows that twenty years later the legitimate integration into power by women is no longer a demand or an imitation but a reconcilable reality with new identities and masculinities La Mujer Habitada directly points out the need to stimulate a deep social conscience and commitment to the revolution in people of higher social spheres alien to the true gravity of the country s conflict and without whose active collaboration they could not have achieved the level of organization and resources that led them to be able to leave the mountains for the presidential palace just as it is a novel with great documentary value thanks to the credibility of the characters that make us witness of issues such as abortion sisterhood the importance of training and the presence of female models to build new identities in freedom and equality to achieve a more just society 45

Page 45

Page 46

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL Notas al final End Notes 1 Conviene recordar que las primeras batallas por la igualdad de las mujeres como la Convenci n de S neca Falls en los EE UU en 1848 fueron encabezadas por mujeres intelectuales blancas marginando las necesidades de las mujeres obreras y o racializadas como narra Angela Davis en Mujeres Raza y Clase 1981 Paralelamente el logro de las sufragistas brit nicas lideradas por Annie Kenney y Christabel Pankhurst fue conseguir en 1918 el voto para mujeres mayores de 30 a os y poseedoras de una casa es decir se beneficiaron de este derecho solo las mujeres privilegiadas De modo que no fue hasta los a os 70 80 en la segunda ola que el feminismo se convirti en una lucha global para alcanzar los derechos reproductivos igualdad salarial y educativa para mujeres ind genas chicanas lesbianas trans u obreras Para m s informaci n consultar Valc rcel A 2009 Feminismo En El Mundo Global C tedra 1 It should be remembered that the first battles for women s equality such as the Seneca Falls Convention in the US in 1848 were led by white intellectual women marginalizing the needs of working and or racialized women as Angela Davis narrates in Women Race and Class 1981 In parallel the achievement of the British suffragettes led by Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst was to get in 1918 the vote for women who were over 30 years and possessors of a house That is only privileged women benefited from this right So it was not until the 70s 80s in the second wave that feminism became a global struggle to achieve reproductive rights equal pay and education for indigenous women Chicanas lesbians trans or workers For more information consult Valc rcel A 2009 Feminism in the Global World 2 El movimiento revolucionario fundado en 1961 toma el nombre del general de la guerrilla liberal Augusto C Sandino qui n muri en 1934 a manos de los hombres de Somoza por defender el territorio nacional de las intervenciones de las tropas estadounidenses de 1927 a 1934 Estaba formado por instituciones religiosas obreros intelectuales pobres y burgueses todos unidos contra los estragos de la dictadura somocista V ase Flakoll D Alegri a C 2004 Nicaragua La Revolucio n Sandinista Una Cro nica Poli tica 1855 1979 Anama Ediciones Centroamericanas 3 FSLN 1969 Programa Hist rico del FSLN Disponible en http www cedema org ver php id 3399 consultado en abril de 2018 4 Alusi n que aparece varias veces hecha por Lavinia al t tulo de la obra escrita por Virginia Woolf en 1929 en el que la autora inglesa declaraba mediante el s mbolo del cuarto propio que era fundamental la independencia econ mica y personal de la mujer artista creadora y por ende de cualquier mujer que necesitase hallar su propia identidad 5 Jacques Derrida es un fil sofo franc s que desarroll en su obra de 1967 De La Gramatolog a muchas de las ideas de Heidegger que desarrollaron posteriormente el discurso de la deconstrucci n como un pensamiento que critica analiza y revisa las palabras y los conceptos de diversas disciplinas 6 Felipe la informa de la acci n en la siguiente cita Estamos creciendo empezando a operar en las ciudades No nos van a poder detener La resignaci n no es el camino Lavinia No podemos seguir dejando que la guardia imponga la fuerza Contra la violencia no queda m s que la violencia p 61 2 The revolutionary movement founded in 1961 takes the name of the liberal guerrilla general Augusto C Sandino who died in 1934 at the hands of Somoza s men for defending the national territory from the interventions of the American troops from 1927 to 1934 It was formed by religious institutions workers intellectuals poor and bourgeois all united against the ravages of the Somoza dictatorship See Flakoll D Alegr a C 2004 Nicaragua The Sandinista Revolution A Political Chronicle 1855 1979 Anama Central American Editions 3 FSLN 1969 Historical Program of the FSLN Available at http www cedema org ver php id 3399 accessed April 2018 4 An allusion that appears several times made by Lavinia to the title of the work written by Virginia Woolf in 1929 in which the English author declared the symbol of the own room fundamental to the economic and personal independence of the artist creator and to any woman who needed to find her own identity 5 Jacques Derrida is a French philosopher who developed in his 1967 work On Grammatology many of Heidegger s ideas that subsequently developed the discourse of deconstruction as a thought that criticizes analyzes and revises the words and concepts of various disciplines 6 Felipe informs her of the action in the following appointment We are growing starting to operate in the cities They will not stop us Resignation is not the way Lavinia We cannot continue to let the guard impose force Violence is nothing but violence p 61 7 En la obra Internalized Oppression The Psychology of Marginalized Groups 2014 David nos habla de c mo la educaci n y la sociedad moldea nuestra visi n de g nero interiorizando desde la ni ez roles femeninos y masculinos asumiendo as determinados comportamientos como normativos en el caso de Sara el hogar la maternidad y tachando otros como anormales la independencia de Lavinia o su rechazo al matrimonio por ejemplo Para detectar el sexismo interiorizado es necesario fortalecer v nculos de solidaridad empoderamiento y aprendizaje entre mujeres esto lo vemos de Flor hacia Lavinia pero no en Lavinia hacia Sara ya que se muestra cr tica con ella de manera que ella 7 In the work Internalized Oppression The Psychology of Marginalized Groups 2014 David tells us about how education and society shapes our gender vision by internalizing male and female roles from childhood assuming certain behaviors as normative in the case of Sara home motherhood and crossing off others as abnormal Lavinia s independence or her rejection of marriage for example To detect internalized sexism it is necessary to strengthen bonds of solidarity empowerment and learning among women we see this from Flor to Lavinia but not Lavinia to Sara since she is critical of her so that she is also conditioned by his internalized sexism In other words having a critical attitude and pointing out macho attitudes in other women who are in the process of deconstruction such as legitimizing your struggle as authentic and true rejecting the other positions of other women is part of 46 47

Page 47

Page 48

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL misma tambi n est condicionada por su sexismo interiorizado Dicho de otro modo tener una actitud cr tica y se alar actitudes machistas en otras mujeres que est n en proceso de deconstrucci n como legitimar tu lucha como aut ntica y verdadera rechazando las dem s posturas de otras mujeres forma parte del sexismo y la misoginia interiorizada que exigen revisi n Sara necesita ponerse las gafas violetas pero Lavinia tiene que aprender a utilizarlas the internalized sexism and misogyny which demand review Sara needs to put on her violet glasses but Lavinia has to learn how to use them 8 El concepto marxista CUERPO M QUINA implica una transformaci n del cuerpo de los sujetos proletarios en una maquinaria de producci n y consumo Beatriz Preciado en el Manifiesto Contrasexual recupera este concepto y lo une a la concepci n del Manifiesto Cyborg de Haraway para se alar el cuerpo desvalorizado de la mujer como simple herramienta de producci n y reproducci n tal y como figura Lucrecia como asistenta y no madre o Mercedes como secretaria chismosa y amante 9 La controversia entre feminismo de la igualdad vs feminismo de la diferencia viene de los a os 8090 Actualmente el feminismo no significa que mujeres y hombres sean id nticos ni ejercer el poder o interpretar los cargos de liderazgo imit ndolos ya que es as como han surgido las desigualdades sino apostar por una nueva identidad que se ajuste a las necesidades y beneficios de todos por igual pero s ha sido esta la concepci n durante d cadas en Occidente y se pueden ver en figuras de poder pol tico en la actualidad como ngela Merkel Hillary Clinton Marine Le Pen o Theresa May que defienden la igualdad pero no el feminismo por las connotaciones negativas todav a arraigadas a este t rmino para desprestigiarlo Para m s informaci n consultar Scott J W n d Deconstructing equality versusdifference Or the uses of poststructuralist theory for feminism The postmodern turn pp 282 298 10 Este paternalismo se ve espec ficamente en la siguiente cita Yo no te puedo obligar a incorporarte al Movimiento No ser a correcto de mi parte No te puedo decir que no tengas miedo porque lo que hacemos es peligroso y ciertamente da miedo No te puedo enga ar para que te unas a nosotros invit ndote como si se tratara de una fiesta p 144 11 Obviamente esto no ocurre en la obra por la pronta muerte de Lavinia as que podr amos decir que su feminismo es muy primitivo la punta del iceberg solo sobresalen peque os atisbos ante una gran masa que permanece oculta y en la que se sostienen siglos de valores sexistas dentro de un sistema patriarcal Esto conlleva que una toma de conciencia feminista pueda llevar a os como posiblemente le ocurri a la propia autora como muestra en su autobiograf a 12 Este paisaje era su noci n de patria con esto so aba cuando estuvo al otro lado del oc ano Por este paisaje pod a comprender los sue os casi descabellados del Movimiento Esta tierra cantaba su carne y su sangre a su ser de mujer enamorada en rebeld a contra la opulencia y la miseria los dos mundos terribles de su existencia dividida p 347 13 Las siguientes citas recogen el rechazo al menos a corto plazo de maternidad por parte de Lavinia y la decisi n irrevocable de Itz Para ella la maternidad hab a sido una noci n postergada para un futuro sin dise o preciso Con el rumbo que tomaba ahora su vida aquello era a n m s impreciso Un hijo no cab a en semejante inseguridad Era un pensamiento disparatado p 129 Nos negamos a parir Yo recib noticias de las mujeres de Taguzgalpa Hab an decidido no acostarse m s con sus hombres No quer an parirles esclavos a los espa oles p 130 48 8 The Marxist concept BODY MACHINE implies a transformation of the body of proletarian subjects into a production and consumption machinery Beatriz Preciado in the Contrasexual Manifesto recovers this concept and unites it with the conception of the Cyborg Manifesto of Haraway to indicate the devalued body of women as a simple tool of production and reproduction as Lucrecia appears as a maid and non mother or Mercedes as a gossip secretary and lover 9 The controversy between equality feminism vs difference feminism comes from the 80s 90s Currently feminism does not mean that women and men are identical or exercise power or interpret leadership positions imitating them as this is how inequalities have arisen but to bet on a new identity that fits the needs and benefits of all equally but this has been the concept for decades in the West and can be seen in figures of political power nowadays as Angela Merkel Hillary Clinton Marine Le Pen or Theresa May who defend equality but not feminism due to the negative connotations still rooted in this term which could discredit it For more information consult Scott J W n d Deconstructing equality versus difference Or the uses of poststructuralist theory for feminism The postmodern turn pp 282 298 10 This paternalism is specifically seen in the following quote I cannot force you to join the Movement It would not be right of me I cannot tell you not to be afraid because what we do is dangerous and certainly scary I cannot fool you to join us inviting you as if it were a party p 144 11 Obviously this does not happen in the work for the early death of Lavinia so we could say that her feminism is very primitive the tip of the iceberg only small glimpses stand out before a great mass that remains hidden and in which centuries of values are held sexists within a patriarchal system This implies that a feminist awareness may take years as possibly occurred to the author herself as shown in her autobiography 12 This landscape was her notion of homeland with this she dreamed when she was on the other side of the ocean Through this landscape I could understand the almost insane dreams of the Movement This earth sang her flesh and her blood to her being a woman in love in rebellion against opulence and misery the two terrible worlds of her divided existence p 347 13 The following quotes include the rejection at least in the short term of maternity by Lavinia and the irrevocable decision of Itz For her motherhood had been a postponed notion for a future without precise design With the direction her life was now taking that was even more imprecise A child did not fit in such insecurity It was a crazy thought p 129 We refuse to give birth I received news from the women of Taguzgalpa They had decided not to sleep with their men anymore They did not want to give slaves to the Spaniards p 130 49

Page 49

Page 50

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL A CORPUS BASED ANALYSIS OF TWO CHINESE LOANWORDS IN ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS Evidence for Linguistic Innovation and Propagation BY WENFENG LI GUANGDONG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN STUDIES INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE Introduction In past decades work on different English varieties the more well established or emerging ones alike has increased exponentially and investigations at various linguistic levels have produced a wealth of evidence pertaining to claims about the status of these varieties This paper will focus on the lexical level and offers a preliminary corpus based analysis of two Chinese loanwords used in contemporary English media The goal is to discover patterns of use of these two loanwords in different contexts and at different time periods Literature review English varieties and lexis Lexis or lexical borrowing lies at the heart of the definition of one variety of English As far as Inner Circle countries are concerned the use of distinctive lexical items to express unique social cultural political notions events and phenomena is a landmark of one particular English variety Back in the beginning of the 20th century Mencken 1919 argued fervently for the existence and legitimacy of an American variety of English basing much of his claim on the observation of America s innovation of a wide range of lexical items denoting objects products and phenomena in a variety of domains biology geopolitics society culture literature technology etc that were found in the U S G rlach 1998 made a statement along the same lines in his discussion of how the settlers in the new land adapted their linguistic system to the new situations and he claimed that innovation in the lexicon constituted a major process in the formation of a new variety of English Lexis plays an equally if not more important role in the definition and or identification of English varieties in the Outer Circle and Expanding Circle According to Kachru 1983 the linguistic characteristics of Indian English are transparent in the Indian English sound system phonology sentence construction syntax vocabulary lexis and meaning semantics p 66 Deterding 2007 listed several borrowed lexical items used by all races in Singapore as part of the defining features of an emerging distinct brand of Singaporean English Commenting on the controversy on the existence of a Hong Kong variety of English Bolton Kwok 1990 suggested that i f one can establish that in addition to identifiable local accent there are clusters of shared lexical and grammatical items which contribute to a distinctive body of shared linguistic features then this may well legitimatise recognition of Hong Kong English as a localised variety p 163 cited in Benson 2000 p 373 italics mine In the Chinese context much importance is attached to lexis with Chinese characteristics in the research on a Chinese variety of English although controversy remains on the existence label and definition 50 51

Page 51

Page 52

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL of such a variety In the earliest research on the English language used in China Ge 1980 pointed out the necessity of distinguishing China English from Chinglish or Chinese English the two labels for some English expressions in books or magazines published in China that didn t conform to the norms observed by the people from the English speaking countries given by foreigners who read about such usages expressions considering them to be completely unacceptable Ge 1980 p 2 Ge 1980 acknowledged the importance of abiding by such norms but insisted that there was a need to express things that were unique about China using China English The examples of such China English he gave are English translations of some Chinese concepts and phenomena e g four modernizations which could be understood by the English speaking people along with some explanation Ge 1980 p 2 It can be inferred that vocabulary was one if not the only one important defining feature of China English in Ge 1980 Although Ge s view on China English is considered to be incomprehensive in later research e g Jin 2003 it points to the important role lexis plays in defining a Chinese variety of English The relevance of lexis or vocabulary along with other dimensions of English usage in defining a Chinese variety of English was more explicitly expressed in Li 1993 who posited that China English is a composite of lexis syntax and discourse with Chinese characteristics p 19 This view was echoed by He Li 2009 Jiang Xiang 1997 and Wang 1991 and other scholars who argued for the existence of a Chinese variety of English refer to both the process and products instance of borrowing Apart from providing a definition of borrowing Haugen 1950 also discussed the independence of the act or process of borrowing from the result of such an action and offered a detailed analysis of various kinds of interference that loans might undergo in various socio cultural contexts which would lead to the alteration or change in such loans He underscored the importance of isolating the initial leap of pattern from one language to another and stated that every loan now current must at some time have appeared as an innovation although it is difficult to catch a speaker in the actual process of making an original borrowing p 212 This point made in Haugen 1950 has close bearing on the distinction between the two key concepts in Croft s 2000 analysis of language change p 4 5 innovation defined as altered replication or the creation of new forms in the language p 4 and propagation or the spread of the change or the new forms in the language p 4 5 These two constructs would serve as a good starting point for examining borrowings in effect the act of borrowing could be seen as a process of innovation since new features are added to the linguistic pool though they are not equivalent in the strict sense Furthermore an examination of the propagation process of borrowings has the potential of answering the question about how lexical adaptation contributes to the structure of an emerging English variety In this sense Croft s model would be useful in the analysis of data on lexical borrowing If Croft s model were to be adopted for the current study both synchronic and diachronic analyses would be necessary since i nnovation is a synchronic phenomenon it occurs in speaker action at a given point in time whereas p ropagation is a diachronic phenomenon occurring sometimes over a very long period of time even centuries Croft 2000 p 5 The former kind of analysis can be conducted by investigating the motivations and or functions for certain innovations the characteristics of such innovations the contextualization contextual features of these innovations etc while the latter will encompass a wider range of research including work on the use and or frequency of use of some innovations in different domains in different regions and countries how the usage might have changed within and or across regions countries over time and whether they have been or are in the process of being accepted into general international English It should be pointed out that Croft s 2000 theory dealt mainly with language change in particular changes within a language or language family Although there was a relatively brief discussion about borrowing Croft approached this issue from a global perspective focusing his analysis on contact situations language maintenance resistance to contact induced borrowing The two notions emphasized throughout the book didn t seem to have much applicability or relevance to the discussion of borrowing in Croft 2000 In this paper I would draw on his model of language change and point out where adaptations or modifications are needed to adequately account for the data Lexical borrowing innovation vs propagation synchronic vs diachronic With vocabulary or lexis being placed at the center of the definition of an English variety which in this case refers to a Chinese variety of English the question naturally arises as to what characterizes a lexicon of a particular English variety and how it is developed to delineate the boundaries between the variety in question and other varieties Put in a different way the question can be broken down into three sub questions First what are the mechanisms whereby language changes at the lexical level to produce a unique lexicon for a particular variety The second sub question is about how such adaptation affects or contributes to the general structure of an emerging language variety Third what are the results of this kind of lexical adaptation that mark the distinctiveness of that variety which are synonymous with what Benson 2000 referred to as vocabulary of regional varieties of English p 374 This paper will address the first two sub questions in the analysis of two new borrowings with a view to gleaning sufficient knowledge for proposing a tentative answer for the third one Previous research on different varieties of English has provided an answer to the first subquestion above one major mechanism of linguistic adaptation at the lexical level is lexical borrowing along with coinage or invention of new lexemes For instance Mencken 1919 asserted that the Americanisms or the linguistic innovations manifest in the lexical system of the then emerging American variety were realized by the invention of new lexical items and borrowing of words from outside resources p 90 G rlach 1998 also listed borrowing as one of the three principal methods of lexical adaption along with coinage and semantic shift of existing words The current investigation will focus on borrowing in particular one type of borrowing and how it relates to the development and demarcation of a Chinese variety of English Haugen s 1950 work on linguistic borrowing laid the foundation for later research For the purpose of this paper I will adopt his definition of borrowing According to Haugen borrowing is the attempted reproduction in one language of patterns previously found in another p 212 Although borrowing was defined as a process involving reproduction the term borrowing was used to refer to the results or instances of borrowing in Haugen 1950 Following Haugen I would use the term to 52 Lexical borrowing categorization In the definition and categorizatoin of borrowing this paper will follow Haugen 1950 who put forward three major categories of borrowing including loanwords loanblends and loanshifts According to Haugen loanwords show morphemic importations without substitution p 214 with a varying degree of phonemic substitution loanblends show both morphemic substitution and importation whereas only morphemic substitution is involved in loanshifts which include both loan translations and semantic loans In his definitions of these terms inflectional modifications are not included in the term morpheme Of particular relevance to this paper is the first category of borrowing namely loanwords 53

Page 53

Page 54

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL involving direct morphemic importation These three categories are investigated in various studies on Chinese borrowings e g Cannon 1987 1988 Gao 2001 Yang 2005 2009 Research on China English has used the term of transliteration or its Chinese equivalent yinyi in place of the more general loanword He Li 2009 Jin 2003 Li 1993 Wan 2005 transliteration refers to Chinese borrowings transcribed in a Roman alphabet based on their pronunciation According to Moody 1996 the majority of the Chinese loanwords listed in Cannon 1987 1988 were borrowed into English at a time when there was no standard or even reliable system for transcribing Chinese characters in a Roman alphabet Moody 1996 p 412 in addition many of the words were transcribed according to their pronunciation in different Chinese dialects e g Cantonese Amoy from which they were borrowed In the past three decades however Pinyin1 has been gaining more recognition and influence in the transliteration of Chinese loanwords and Pinyin based loanwords have been on the increase see Yang 2009 for a review A comparison of transliteration and the term loanword as defined in Haugen 1950 reveals the superiority of the former in the study of Chinese borrowing although no phonemic change occurs to Chinese words introduced into English in this way such borrowings do not quite qualify as morphemic importations without substitution given the orthographic changes and the loss of tonal information which I will elaborate in the discussion However since the term loanword along with loan translation has been commonly recognized in the field Yang 2009 p 91 it will be used interchangeably with transliteration in this paper Chinese borrowings in English Chinese borrowings in English have received abundant research attention and have been examined from different perspectives for different purposes a number of studies have approached this topic from a sociolinguistic perspective with a focus on China s social and cultural influence on general English vocabulary and processes and forces underlying such influence Bian et al 2007 Du 1999 Li 2001 Li 2009 Moody 1996 Moody Ma 2008 Wang Chang 2001 Zhou 2011 Some studies focus on existing Chinese borrowings in English and the mechanisms whereby such borrowings came into being e g transliteration loan translation semantic shift Chen Zhou 2012 Tao 2011 Xiong 1996 Zhang 2008 For instance Chen Zhou 2012 reviewed the list of Chinese transliterations in Moody 2008 and in Liang 2006 cited in Chen Zhou 2012 p 140141 in addition to some recent loanwords they observed This kind of studies provides a relatively comprehensive or updated list of Chinese borrowings but is not satisfactorily informative as far as the status usage and spread of such borrowings are concerned The phenomena of borrowing from Chinese into English have also been investigated by researchers fighting to establish the legitimacy of a Chinese variety of English be it called Chinese English or China English see Chen 2007 Du Jiang 2001 Ge 1980 Jiang Xiang 1997 Jin 2002 2003 Li 1993 Li 2004 Wan 2005 Wang 1991 Wang 2009 Wang 2011 Wu 2009 Yang 2010 Yuan Lu 2003 Zhu Liu 2006 etc A similar list of Chinese borrowings can be found in these studies including loanwords and loan translations For example Ge 1980 listed various then current loan translations that were associated with Chinese society culture and politics e g four modernizations Two Hundred Policies Four Books as well as loanwords for that matter e g baihuawen xiucai Expanding on Ge s list 1980 Li 1993 provided more examples of Chinese borrowings in English by means of transliteration e g kowtow yamen and loan translation e g Great Leap Forward Gang of Four Jiang Xiang 1997 included in their list of examples both loan translation e g spiritual civilization and semantic shift Jin 2003 also listed some borrowings to illustrate the different features of a Chinese variety of English In his analysis a shoe shiner Hong Kong English is an example of Sinicized English and one country two systems illustrates a kind of Chinese flavored English while borrowings like kung fu belong to expanded enriched English which has contributed to the international Englishes To sum up Chinese borrowings have been discussed or mentioned by scholars aiming to establish China English or Chinese English whatever the label they give it as a legitimate variety of English or otherwise Nonetheless without a systematic analysis looking into the actual usage status and acceptance of such borrowings in different contexts and situations these studies fall short of their target The argument that a Chinese variety of English exists or is coming into existence needs to be built on linguistic evidence such as phonological lexical syntactic and pragmatic innovations that are uniquely Chinese I would argue that a list of borrowings do not measure up to evidence of lexical innovations to corroborate the claim about an English variety unless it is demonstrated that the phenomenon of borrowing is robust and has been or is in the process of being recognized on a regional national or even global scale Relevant to this point is Haugen s 1950 analysis of different stages of borrowing It can be implied from his study that if some borrowings fail to find their way into the linguistic system or become part of the linguistic repertoire of the majority of the speakers with or without some modification morphemic phonemic or semantic it is not likely that they will contribute to the marking of that particular variety of language In this sense the results of borrowing or the acceptance of borrowed items into the borrowing language needs to be proved necessitating some kind of corpus or data based analysis In fact this kind of analysis has been conducted by different scholars though the studies are not without their own problems I will come back to this later in this section In addition if researchers are to use instances of borrowing to argue for the legitimacy of a variety of English it will be of enormous significance to investigate if borrowing a form of nativization is a continuous process in that variety In other words apart from the more established borrowings research needs to include in their list new items that are undergoing the process of borrowing bearing in mind the notions of innovation and propagations in their investigation of such items If the robustness of the borrowing phenomenon or processes is borne out in such empirical studies it will give much validity to claims about the emergence and or existence of the variety under investigation from the point of view of vocabulary The availability of large corpus of English media newspapers and other forms of English communication provides a unique opportunity for researchers who are willing to undertake a project on the current usage of new borrowings and their status in their original and other contexts As mentioned previously corpus and data based studies on this topic are not lacking in the field Work on the acceptance of Chinese borrowings in general English can be traced back to the 1980 s The influential work by Cannon 1987 1988 revealed the presence of 196 Chinese borrowings mostly loanwords and loan translations in desk English dictionaries Although Cannon made no argument for or against the existence of a Chinese variety of English his work provided valuable evidence of the continuing nativization of English in China and of their acceptance in general English His research method has also inspired later research on the status of Chinese borrowings in English For instance Yang 2009 conducted a rigorous examination of the Chinese borrowings in English listed in Cannon 1988 comparing them to the corpus from eight up to date desk dictionaries of English The resulting list was composed of contemporary Chinese borrowings accepted into general English the change in the status of different Chinese languages e g Cantonese Amoy and Mandarin and different orthographic systems e g the Yale or Wade Giles System Pinyin in the process of borrowing were 54 55

Page 55

Page 56

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL also examined in the study Of special relevance to this paper is his data based observation of an upward tendency for Pinyin based loanwords or transliterations in the past three decades This has important implications for future research on Chinese loanwords If a comparable degree of acceptance can be observed for new Chinese loanwords and these loanwords are found in various semantic fields as Yang 2009 suggested it will lend further support to the claims made by China English scholars The aforementioned dictionary based analyses can effectively test the membership of Chinese borrowings in general English however for loanwords and or loan translations that are not as wellestablished in this respect the use of corpus will be a more powerful diagnostic tool of their current status in general English It also has more potential of bringing to light the initial stage of borrowing innovation as well as the later stage i e the propagation of new features or innovations and making discoveries which are otherwise not possible A recent corpus based study was carried out by Gao 2001 who investigated the acculturation of English at the lexical level in his analysis of data from Beijing Review an English magazine in China and from China Daily a widely read China based English newspaper Gao presented a number of instances of loan translation and semantic shift used in a wide range of domains politics economy customs and arts etc and in doing so he aligned himself with scholars arguing for the legitimacy of a Chinese variety of English p 85 Two things were especially noteworthy in Gao s paper loanwords were excluded from his analysis and no reasons were offered for this decision One possibility is that he didn t find any loanwords other than the wellestablished ones in his data as Yang 2005 speculated However this was still surprising according to Yang 2005 since he found more loanwords than loan translations in his data from similar sources The second point I would like to make concerns the nature of Gao s study it is essentially a shortperiod synchronic analysis of the innovations as defined by Croft 2000 since the paper focused on the lexical items as they were used at certain points of time over a short period and provided only one instance of each lexical innovation with no reference to the frequency distribution and diffusion of such innovations except for a brief mention of such expressions and phrases not being part of the linguistic repertoire of native speakers Gao 2001 p 75 and an equally short comment on how some expressions belonging to different certain fields were used with varying degrees of frequency at different certain historical periods which was not supported by any statistics In this respect his study fell short of its potential Yang s 2005 study based on China Daily and Beijing Weekend was more carefully designed and provided more details about the frequency and use of the borrowings identified He also offered some tentative explanations about the context in which borrowing might occur in the form of loanwords instead of loan translations or vice versa I will come back to this in the discussion of my own data In summary Yang s 2005 study fills a gap in the research on Chinese borrowings but still fails to dig into the process of borrowing due to the type of data he used the publications of two China based news media at a short period of time Taken together the dictionary or data based studies mentioned in this section have given us new understandings on lexical borrowing that is of interest in this paper Nevertheless the dictionarybased studies in a whole haven t been able to shed much light on how lexical items especially the newer ones have been working their way into the language The aforementioned corpus based studies failed to provide a clear picture of where the borrowings examined stand in a broader context with respect to the more established counterparts The dictionary based and corpus based research should complement each other so that a fuller picture and a better understanding of the status and significance of certain borrowings can be obtained This paper will make such an endeavor by scrutinizing the use of two loanwords in different contexts from the perspective of innovation and propagation a large online corpus of English used in global media along with online up to date dictionaries will be used for data collection and analysis The hopes are that patterns and evidence of linguistic penetration and or acceptance will be found for these items at the regional or global scale 56 57 Data collection and analysis The corpora In order to investigate the innovation and propagation of some new features in operation at the level of lexis in an arguably emerging variety of English I decided to focus on analyzing a couple of new borrowings that haven t established themselves as members of the general English therefore I discarded all the items listed in Cannon 1987 1988 Gao 2001 and Yang 2009 and most of the other studies mentioned in the previous sections Inspired by Yang 2005 I adopted a corpus based approach to this topic and based my selection of target items collection and analysis of the target items on available databases I used several sources of data in this paper Factiva the official website of China Daily China Daily in print in PDF and six 6 online dictionaries Factiva is a large Internet based database of news covering more than 31 000 sources of news from more than 200 countries in 26 languages including nearly 600 continuously updated newswires including Dow Jones Reuters and the Associated Press More than 2 300 sources are available on or before the date of publication Factiva User s Guide The data or news articles in which the target items appeared were obtained from this database I will elaborate on the process of data collection in the corresponding section In addition to Factiva I also used the official website of China Daily for an informal survey prior to the collection of data with a view of choosing appropriate items for this paper China Daily is one of the most widely read English newspapers in China and offers free PDF download of a large proportion of the newspaper in print This would be useful when entries of the news articles I obtained from Factiva need to be compared with newspapers in print PDF I will discuss this in the section on data analysis The third type of corpus used in this paper was the online version of 6 English dictionaries listed in Appendix 1 The choice of dictionaries was made on the basis of logistical and financial considerations Furthermore the websites of the six dictionaries supposedly represent their newer if not the latest version of their desk counterparts as stated in the introduction in one of the websites Thus they should provide accurate information about the acceptance of newer loanwords in general English The idea to include three American dictionaries and three British ones was adapted from Cannon 1988 and Yang 2009 Selection of target items The selection of the target items has been based on the following considerations first the items should have been in use with a sufficient degree of frequency over a relatively long period of time in written communication i e newspapers in this case to serve the purpose of this paper as described above Secondly they shouldn t have been identified by most of the studies e g Cannon 1988 Moody 1996 Yang 2009 as well established naturalized borrowings Ideally these items should also reflect mainstream cultural and social situations events and or phenomena in contemporary China To determine which target items could satisfy the prerequisites an informal survey was carried out on the loanwords that have been found with relatively high frequency in China Daily The survey was conducted by means of browsing the newspapers available in China Daily s official website and asking frequent readers of the newspaper questions about such loanwords The borrowings selected

Page 57

Page 58

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL for analysis in this paper were two loanwords hukou and guanxi The choice of loanwords was the result of a number of factors linguistic and non linguistic A later search in the newspaper s website corroborated the results of the survey showing that these two terms have been used with high frequency over a long span of time The definitions of these two items are given in the following section the spelling of the loanwords was identical to that of many other Chinese characters transcribed in a Roman Alphabet Since such Chinese transliterations have lost their tonal marking the one feature distinguishing Chinese words written in Pinyin it is difficult if not impossible for the search engine to separate the expected results from other irrelevant items with only one key word provided as the input Different combinations of key words were used in an attempt to locate the target items and eventually I chose a relatively effective way of getting only the right entries albeit with its own drawbacks For example I would use the target item hukou as well as several key words that might be found in the same articles made somewhat ambiguous and flexible and connected by or e g hukou and residen or regist or ID This gave me 5 152 entries It is still possible that the results included articles that didn t match the topic but a quick look at the entries confirmed the superiority of this set of search command over other methods deployed Another potential problem that might be caused by this kind of search command is that some articles might have been left out that satisfied the requirements simply because a different key word was used in the same article as hukou was Therefore a comprehensive search and manual elimination of the mismatch in the results are needed in future research The same method was applied for guanxi using the most relevant words in combination with the target word e g guanxi and relationship or connection or network with a total of 4 411 entries listed The following section discusses the data with respect to the two notions crucial to the analysis innovation and propagation Hukou and guanxi denotations and connotations The definition of the Chinese word for hukou given by Online Xinhua Dictionary one of the most authoritative Chinese dictionaries is short and uninformative Hukou has two senses 1 one household and 2 the brochure on which the civil administration of the local government keeps record the registration of the residents or the ID of local residents A more detailed explanation is found on the Wikipedia page for Hukou system 2 Although a similar household registration system exists in some other Asian countries and there might be some parallel the system in China and that in other Western countries the hukou system has a unique history distinct features and a range of social economic and political implications in contemporary China It is tied up with education health care employment and housing in China The dichotomy between rural and urban household registrations and the superiority of hukou of certain big cities have posed a major obstacle to upward mobility in modern China The hukou system has long been and will still be a topic of much debate and controversy It is thus not surprising that the word has been borrowed into English by means of transliteration instead of direct translation though it has often found to be accompanied by some explanation or definition in English newspapers I will come back to this point in the analysis of data Similar to hukou the word guanxi is also unique in terms of its cultural connotation It should be pointed out that the original Chinese word has multiple senses many of which are often translated into English using their near equivalents e g relationship significance and that the loanword guanxi transliterated from the original word expresses only one of the original senses This sense is often translated as connection or relationship According to Wikipedia g uanxi describes the rudimentary dynamic in personalized networks of influence which can be best described as the relationships individuals cultivate with other individuals and is a central idea in Chinese society In Western media the pinyin romanization of this Chinese word is becoming more widely used instead of the two common translations connections and relationships as neither of those terms sufficiently reflects the wide cultural implications that guanxi describes 3 The explanation by Wikipedia can partially account for why this sense of the word has been borrowed into English via transliteration instead of via loan translation or semantic shift The claims made on the Wikipedia page will be examined against empirical data in this paper Data analysis Data collection The data was collected differently from the three sources The examination of the two target items in the 6 dictionaries was quick and straightforward They were keyed into the search column in each online dictionary and the entries or a lack thereof were recorded separately The results are shown in Chart 1 and Chart 2 The collection of data from Factiva database involved many more steps and trials which would be described in greater detail In order to locate the target items in different news articles in Factiva each of the two items i e hukou and guanxi was used as the key word in the initial search4 with the option of searching for All dates This produced a large number of entries articles for each word 6 829 for hukou and 5 674 for guanxi but many turned out to be irrelevant Such result was not totally unexpected as Examining innovation Haugen 1950 stated that a clear understanding of the process of borrowing could only be obtained by isolating the initial leap of a pattern from one language to another p 212 The database available for this paper has provided a unique chance for looking into this initial stage at which a borrowing appears as an innovation The question is how can one identify an instance of borrowing as an innovation There are different ways to approach this problem First Croft s 2000 definition of innovation i e altered replication or the creation of new forms indicates that it is a process involving some change in feature Drawing on Croft 2000 I maintain that the change could occur to different linguistic aspects of the target items although phonology was the focus in Croft s 2000 discussion It naturally follows that these items called replicates by Croft 2000 p 3 become distinguishable from the original Not confusing Croft s definition of innovation with Haugen s conceptualization of the same term I would treat an innovation as actualization of the process in a linguistic unit The process such items undergo is innovation and what results from the process are innovations which might in turn participate in the propagation process until they become established in the new language variety In the case of the current investigation the change affects the phonetics and orthographyphonology and orthography semantic interface of the lexical items borrowed from Chinese to English There are also other contextual features the borrowed items don t share with the original forms in the donor language and such features contribute to the identification of such items as innovations in the borrowing language Another dimension of innovation that should also be addressed in the analysis is the functions and or motivations for such process In short innovation as a process can be investigated from multiple angles and this will be done for the two loanwords in their respective contexts using the corpora from the above mentioned sources 58 59

Page 59

Page 60

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL To start with both loanwords have been affected at the representation level to an equal degree the diacritics marking the tones of each of the constituent characters in guanxi and hukou both written in Pinyin were abandoned in the borrowing process of these words from Chinese into English The orthographic change led to the loss of different kinds of linguistic information including phonetic and phonological information needed for the processing of the sounds semantic information the retrieval of which depends largely on the reading of characters and to a lesser extent Pinyin transliterations with tonal diacritics This type of change means that the two loanwords are distinct from the original forms and are mostly likely to be treated as erroneous or foreignized representations of some Chinese characters if they stand alone instead of appearing in an English text A second type of change that distinguishes the two loanwords from their original forms is lexico grammatical in nature These two words have been used to a varying degree as regular English nouns in the data preceded by an English article a or marked for plurality by the suffix s This is not surprising given the morphological differences between Chinese and English in the marking of plurality and the use of quantifiers It should be noted however the two loanwords exhibited some difference in the frequency in which they were marked for plurality For instance hukou is marked for plurality in 69 search entries or news articles from both Chinese and Western media found in Factiva Nonetheless there is only 1 entry from a UK based trade magazine in which guanxi bears the plural marker s The gap between the two loanwords can be explained by the difference in the denotations for the two loanwords The original form for hukou with the sense of residence ID or permit is a countable noun and can be immediately preceded by a sequence of a number a classifier e g or two Classifier hukou while the original form for guanxi with the sense of personal networking is usually considered an uncountable noun and cannot be modified by a specific number in Chinese though it can sometimes take a modifying quantifier The use of hukou as a regular countable noun in English is evidenced by the search results showing that the word is modified by a that is used to mark a countable noun in the singular form It has been showed that the two loanwords exhibit different patterns from their original forms in the donor language primarily due to the typological differences between the donor language and the borrowing language What is more worth noting about these two loanwords is that they are separated from other items in the borrowing language in many ways and stand out as innovations in the borrowing language working to make their way into the linguistic repertoire of the speakers of the new language variety The following section looks at how the loanwords behave or are treated by speakers of that language variety differently One way the two loanwords differ from other English words in news articles concerns their appearance for lack of a better word This includes the font style for the loanwords and the quotation marks that accompany them The quotation marks were noticed when I was browsing some of the news articles A systematic investigation of this approach to the loanwords indifferent newspapers and of the consistency of such an approach in the same newspaper s across time wasn t conducted given the scope of this paper Instead the investigation was restricted to a couple of newspapers published over a short period of time I first identified the newspapers with articles in which the loanwords were used within quotations marks e g Xinhua News and then looked at five of the latest entries and five of the oldest entries containing the target loanwords located by the kind of search command discussed in the section on data collection The findings showed that the kind of treatment given to the loanwords by each of these newspapers was fairly consistent across time The discovery of a different font used for these loanwords was made possible by the availability of the PDF version of China Daily newspapers The decision to restrict my search to a small number of newspapers led to the examination of the news articles in the form of PDF that corresponded to the articles I found by searching on the website of China Daily It turned out that the loanwords appeared in italics in all the articles in PDF format I was able to download from China Daily In contrast in the online issues or versions of newspaper or magazine articles there were no differences in font style between the two loanwords and other words in the same articles It remains to be found out whether the same strategy was adopted in the articles in print for other editions of China Daily and in other newspapers Apart from these features that separate the loanwords from the other words in the media texts some other common strategies were found in different newspapers in presenting these loanwords in their articles For example in a number of newspapers Chinese e g South China Morning Post or otherwise e g The Wall Street Journal The Toronto Star the first mention of one of the two loanwords was almost always accompanied by a translation explanation or definition of the term usually immediately following the introduction of the loanword regardless of the way the loanword per se was presented i e with or without quotation marks The data was examined in terms of the consistency of this kind of strategy and the results mirrored those for the check on the use of quotation marks Taken together the evidence supports the claim about the distinctiveness of the two loanwords as compared to their original forms in the donor language and to other words in the borrowing language These features help define the loanwords as innovations On the surface the loanwords seem a misfit on both sides and the justifications seem lacking for the use of such innovations since alternatives exist to express the meanings they convey A legitimate question to ask in this situation is what are the motivation and or functions of this kind of innovation A tentative answer was offered in Croft 2000 as summarized by Von Rooy 2010 Innovation is a linguistic functional process driven by forces such as expressiveness economy and an attempt to avoid misunderstanding Von Rooy 2010 p 9 However this kind of theory wasn t completely borne out by the findings made hitherto There is no denying that the use of loanwords might have been based on the intention of avoiding misunderstanding since the rich social and cultural connotations these loanwords are unlikely to be effectively conveyed by a translation or near equivalent in the language This might also be considered expressive creative however the use of the loanwords along with some form of definition or explanation didn t seem to conform to the economy principle as discussed in Croft 2000 p 75 since extra effort was needed to avoid misunderstanding by providing any definition or explanation to the loanwords used in the text There must be another layer of consideration for the creation of a new form in addition to the ones proposed in Croft s 2000 model of language change In fact in his mention of borrowing of content words Croft cited the hypothesis made by Thomason Kaufman 1988 about the motivation for such borrowing Non basic words are borrowed is for cultural and functional reasons Thomason Kaufman 1988 cited in Croft 2000 p 205 This complements Croft s original model and provides a more satisfactory account for the innovation investigated in this paper Without going into too much detail about the social dimension of the motivation I would argue that the writers of the news articles who used each of the two loanwords and provided explanations definitions for them have done so for social reasons e g asserting their social identity or showing alignment to their readers This means that different from other kinds of innovation discussed in Croft this kind of innovation concerning the two loanwords overlaps with the propagation process in terms of motivation contrary to the claim made by Croft about the separateness of motivations for innovation and propagation5 Propagation of the loanwords is examined in the next section 60 61

Page 61

Page 62

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL Propagation the other side of the coin Within the scope of this paper only the crude findings of a preliminary analysis of the data were presented here The preliminary analysis approached the question about the propagation of the loanwords by examining three dimensions their regional distributions the yearly distributions and the acceptance of the loanwords into general English The two sets of data collected from Factiva with 4 188 entries for hukou and 2 611 entries for guanxi were used to address the first two dimensions The six online dictionaries were used to investigate the third dimension The findings concerning each of the three dimensions were presented below With respect to the regional distributions the data provided by Factiva showed that the loanword guanxi was found most often in China followed by Asia referring to other Asian countries Emerging Marketing Countries Eastern Asia the United States Hong Kong Beijing Singapore UK Australia For the word loanword hukou the top ten regions included China Beijing Guangdong Emerging Market Countries Asia Eastern Asia Hong Kong Shenzhen Shanghai the U S For both loanwords the U S and Hong Kong were ranked high in the list probably because China Daily has a U S edition and Hong Kong edition However the data did provide some evidence of the spread of the words at the national and broader Asian level As regards the yearly distributions of the loanwords in all media and all regions two charts were provided by Factiva as shown below Chart 1 Guanxi Chart 2 Hukou The third issue addressed in this paper concerns the status of the two loanwords in general English This was examined by checking their presence or the lack thereof in six online dictionaries 6 The results of the search were as follows On the British side there was 0 entry for both loanwords in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English there was 0 entry for hukou and 1 entry for guanxi in Oxford English Dictionary 3 ed In Collins English Dictionary guanxi had 1 entry while hukou has none Among the American dictionaries Dictionary com has 1 entry for guanxi but not for hukou while the other two dictionaries had 0 entry for both guanxi and hukou Apparently guanxi has gained some international recognition found in three of the six dictionaries whereas hukou still has a long way to go found in none of the six dictionaries It is hypothesized that if the debate about China s household registration system continues hukou will have a good chance of emulating guanxi although it is not clear whether a loanword related to a temporary social phenomenon can compete with one that is part of the underlying social structure Conclusion Research on lexical borrowing has given us much insight into how a language or language variety develops in the context of international contact In effect many languages around the world English in particular have benefited from the process of borrowing and have been enriched by borrowings from other languages With a view of investigating the innovation and propagation processes of two loanwords this paper has focused on a synchronic analysis of corpora from different sources and has only attempted a preliminary diachronic analysis and future research is necessary to address such issues by conducting a more systematic and careful diachronic analysis as well as a synchronic one so that more insight can be gained into how new vocabulary items enter and consequently contribute to the establishment of a new language variety It is clear from the charts that two loanwords didn t enter the English media until relatively recently Guanxi appeared slightly earlier and the use of this loanword showed a steady increase over time and only dropped in the year of 2013 In sharp contrast hukou had a negligible presence in the 1980s and 1990s and started to gain some more recognition towards the end of the last century the period from 2009 to 2013 in particular saw a spike in the use of this loanword Although the frequency of use of the loanwords could have been significantly affected by the social economic and political situations in the regional national and international contexts the patterns observed in the charts could find a good explanation grounded on the sociolinguistics and or social realities of the two loanwords The concept guanxi has always been part of the social landscape in China and the discussion of this notion bears on various aspects of Chinese people s social and economic life The adoption of this innovation in China based media was a natural process and its spread is also predictable on the basis of the increasing level of China s influence in the globe By comparison it was only recently that the issues related to hukou have attracted public attention because the hukou system had remained constant in ancient China until the new hukou policies were implemented in New China and the consequences of the policies were more clearly felt by the younger and older generation whose life has been most affected by the process of urbanization 62 63

Page 63

Page 64

AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE JOURNAL End Notes References 1 Pinyin is the official system for transcribing Mandarin Chinese Bian F Zhang Y Shi Y 2007 14 397 98 Benson P 2000 Hong Kong words variation and context World Englishes 19 3 373 380 Cannon G 1987 Dimensions of Chinese borrowings in English Journal of English Linguistics 20 2 200 206 Cannon G 1988 Chinese borrowings in English American Speech 63 1 3 33 Chen X 2007 3 Croft W 2000 Explaining language change An evolutionary approach Pearson Education Chen L Zhou L 2012 9 2 140 142 Deterding D 2007 Singapore English Edinburgh University Press Du Mi 1999 4 49 51 Du R Jiang Y 2001 1 Eaves M 2011 English Chinglish or China English English Today 27 04 64 70 Gao L 2001 The lexical acculturation of English in the Chinese context Studies in the Linguistics Sciences 31 73 88 Ge C 1980 J 20 G rlach M 1998 Varieties of English world wide where we stand Links Letters 5 1336 Guanxi March 31 2018 In Wikipedia Retrieved March 31 2018 from https en wikipedia org wiki Guanxi Haugen E 1950 The analysis of linguistic borrowing Language 26 2 210 231 He D Li D 2009 Language attitudes and linguistic features in the China English debate1 World Englishes 28 1 70 89 Hukou system March 31 2018 In Wikipedia Retrieved March 31 2018 from https en wikipedia org wiki Hukou_system Jia G Xiang M 1997 5 11 Jin H 2003 5 66 70 Kachru B B 1983 The Indianization of English The English Language in India Oxford Oxford University Press Li C 2001 5 92 96 Li Z 2009 5 029 Li W 1993 4 1 Li X 2004 1 47 49 Mencken H L 1919 1980 The two streams of English The American Language 4th edition H L Mencken pp 3 28 New York Alfred A Knopf Moody Andrew J 1996 Transmission language and source languages of Chinese borrowings in English American Speech 71 4 405 20 Moody J A M Y 4 141 144 2 According to Wikipedia Hukou 2018 hukou refers to a record in the system of household registration in mainland China and Taiwan A hukou can also refer to a family register in many contexts since the household registration record is issued per family and usually includes the births deaths marriages divorces and moves of all members in the family 3 The definition and explanation of guanxi in Wikipedia Guanxi 2018 was retrieved on March 31 2018 4 The search was performed in December 2013 5 According to Croft 2000 while functional considerations such as expressiveness economy and avoidance of misunderstanding motivate the process of innovation the process of propagation is motivated by a set of social reasons e g accommodation acts of identity p 79 6 The search of these two loanwords in the six dictionaries was performed twice once in December 2013 and the second time in March 2018 64 65

Page 65

2018 Vol. 2

Page 1

Page 2