SINGLISH: The Phenomenon of Linguistics in Singapore

Summary from: http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/singlish.html

            Singapore is situated in South-east Asia. Since long time ago strategic place of Singapore has attracted western people to come. History noted down that British conquered Singapore that they took control in that country. Since then, the colonial government encouraged people to come to the Singapore. As the result, even to date, Chinese ethnics were the largest community in Singapore, followed by Indian and Malay.

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Analysis of the Poem “From Pamphilia to Amphilantus”

A. Poem

Original version

From Pamphilia to Amphilantus

When night's blacke Mantle could most darknesse prove,
And sleepe (deaths Image) did my senses hyre,
From Knowledge of my selfe, then thoughts did move
Swifter then those, most swiftnesse neede require.
In sleepe, a Chariot drawne by wing'd Desire,
I saw; where sate bright Venus Queene of Love,
And at her feete her Sonne, still adding Fire
To burning hearts, which she did hold above,
But one heart flaming more then all the rest,
The Goddesse held, and put it to my breast,
"Deare Sonne now shoot," said she: "thus must we winne;"
He her obey'd, and martyr'd my poore heart.
I waking hop'd as dreames it would depart,
Yet since, O me, a Lover I have beene.

( www.allpoetry.com )

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My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun - poem -- analysis

In this sonnet Shakespeare compares his mistress' eyes to the sun. He makes the case that her eyes are very different from the sun. Though the sun is beautiful and glowing, it has little in common with his mistress' eyes. Though they may be beautiful, reality is that they can't be compared to the sun. In short, the eyes are nothing if compared with the sun.

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Silent Snow, Secret Snow - An Essay

          Silent snow, secret snow is a short story written by Conrad Aiken and published at 1934. It tells about a twelve-year-old boy as the main character, Paul Haselman, who had peculiarity in his mind. He found a delightful way in creating his own world which was different with the reality. In that world, he was isolated himself there and enjoying the snowy world. In case, his parents noticed that his behavior was changed and tried to have a better communication towards Paul. But Paul had already enjoyed his other world and did not want to have the consultation with the doctor. In the end of the story, it tells that Paul was getting closer to his imaginary world.

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When “Ladies First” Comes in Advertisement

           Public becomes smarter and smarter today. It turns out in a fact that, even in trading, people need to spend their time to think further in buying or selling things. This happens because people do not want to be tricked by the marketing when they are going to buy things. Vice versa, the sellers are also smart enough to do the marketing in promoting and selling their things – even the things are not that good as in the advertisement. Therefore, the use of language is really powerful in marketing world to guide people in selecting things before buying.

            Talking about marketing and the existence of advertisement in trading, the use of language is a key to achieve their success. Moreover in this wired era, the seller should be attractive to get the consumers’ attention not only in real world, but also in the virtual one. As we know, the elements of an advertisement are not limited by the picture and the classification of the product only. It also needs a beautiful arrangement of words to attract the readers. The use of sensitive words is also often found in advertisement. One of the examples is in Pulsar’s advertisement. The advertisement of Pulsar as a motorcycle is provocative. It uses a phrase “Cewek Duluan” or “Ladies First” to describe that their men-designed motorcycle is better than women-designed. Therefore, the use of that phrase in Pulsar’s advertisement contains gender bias. It can be analyzed from anthropomorphism, socialization, and culture point of view.

            The first way to analyze it is by using anthropomorphism. As been said by Goddard and Mean in Intertext (2009:6), “Anthropomorphism means giving something a human shape and describes another kind of projection that we often see in language”. In other words, we can say that anthropomorphism is a way to humanize thing that is inhuman. In this case, Pulsar is a motorcycle that is designed for men in Indonesia and its advertisement is using the word: ladies which means the advertisement makers describes that product as if it is a man and describes other motorcycle products as women. Why is it called as provocative or gender sensitive?

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