The Need for Insider Perspective in Language Codification; a Study in Relation to Sri Lankan English Codification

Abstract

Defined as the "language used by Sri Lankans who choose to use English for whatever purpose in Sri Lanka (Gunesekera, 2005, p. 11), Sri Lankan English (SLE) is gradually accepted as a newly institutionalized variety of English, with its unique phonological, morphological lexical, and syntactic features. SLE vocabulary has been identified as one of the most prominent features of Sri Lankan English`s unique linguistic identity (Gunesekera, 2005; Meyler, 2007). Among the limited number of efforts in codification of SLE vocabulary, Michael Meyler`s 'A Dictionary of Sri Lankan English` could be considered the most elaborate. Although the publication of the book is one of the most important milestones in the field of SLE vocabulary studies, certain drawbacks were identified, including the lack of nuanced understanding of the socio-linguistic circumstances of the language on the part of the codifier and the seemingly biased data collection method which seem to exclude the lexical usages of other less prestigious varieties of SLE. Therefore, the research gap is identified to be the lack of an insider perspective on the codified vocabulary of SLE, where an insider who speaks English as their second language and/or bilingual in English and Tamil or Sinhala could utilize his/her nuanced socio-linguistic understanding of first and second language varieties (Sinhala and Tamil) to provide affirmation of the authenticity and accuracy of codified vocabulary of Sri Lankan English. Thus, the present study applies the theories of positionality and reflexivity in providing a detailed reflexive analysis of the lexical items included in Meyler`s dictionary, in order to provide a subjective analysis of codified lexical items in the dictionary. The researcher will investigate to what extent the codifier has done justice to the meaning of a lexical item, accuracy of the meaning and recorded usages, possible alterations to the meaning, socio-cultural nuances associated with the lexical items, alternative usages and also the ability of the lexical item to show the language of other speech communities with less power and prestige.