In:Genre in World Englishes: Case studies from the Caribbean
Susanne Mühleisen
[Varieties of English Around the World G67] 2022
► pp. v–viii
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Published online: 28 July 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g67.toc
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g67.toc
Table of contents
Chapter 1.Genre in World Englishes: The global and the postcolonial in oral, written and digital texts1
1.Introduction2
2.Genre and the classification of texts and speech4
3.Genre as dynamic community discourse: Formal and functional features in motion7
4.The history of genres as history of languages and communities: Case studies from Trinidad and Jamaica in this volume11
Chapter 2.Callaloo, stewed manicou and doubles: Caribbean culinary transformations in Trinidadian print and online recipes17
1.The raw, the cooked, and the recipe: From anthropological to text linguistic interests in food preparation in the Caribbean17
1.1Food origins and transformations18
1.2Culinary adaptations20
1.3Creolized food preparations22
2.The cooking recipe as a genre in English language contexts23
3.Print recipes in Trinidad: Text-external and text-internal features27
3.1Communicative purpose and target readership28
3.2Trinidadian lexical items and their sources32
4.The transition from print to online cooking recipes35
4.1Whose doubles? On authenticity, membership and appropriation37
4.2Reader response: Interactive features in online recipes38
5.Conclusion40
Acknowledgements42
Chapter 3.Personhood, genealogy and remembrance in death notices and obituaries43
1.Introduction: Last rites – linguistic and other acts of mourning43
2.Death notices around the world: Formal and functional features of a genre46
2.1The form and functions of death notices46
2.2Comparative structural features in death announcements: On cultural and linguistic versions of the text format49
3.Death notices in Trinidad: A corpus-based analysis of classified newspaper ads54
3.1Grandfather of 17: Positional identity, kinship and genealogy in remembrance56
3.2Taboo and euphemisms in the language of Trinidad death notices60
3.3“Better known as…”: Nicknames and personhood in Trinidad62
3.4Trinidadian death notices across time and media64
4.The starved eye closes: Obituaries as life narrative and praise song67
5.Beyond print media: Transitions in digital and audio-visual media73
Chapter 4.Metathesiophobia, nutty professors and Patois: Language debates in Letters to the Editor (LTEs) in a Jamaican newspaper77
1.Introduction: Readers as writers in letters to the editor77
2.Ex cons and elocutionists: The search for linguistic purity in LTEs81
3.I am, etc.: Form and function of LTEs83
4.Heritage and heresy in language debates in Jamaica89
4.1The good, the bad, and the linguist89
4.2Letters to the editor in the Jamaican language debate: An analysis of the Jamaica Gleaner LTE data92
5.Outlook: Langwij Pitishan: Opinion comments in social media96
Appendix 1.Table LTE 1999–2002 (Total: 40)99
Appendix 2.TABLE LTE 2010–2020 (Total: 60)101
Chapter 5.Tell me Pastor: Certainty, directness and the assertion of moral norms in a Jamaican newspaper advice column105
1.Introduction: Advice in everyday life105
2.Form and function of advice columns past and present108
2.1The nation’s confidante: Advice columns as education and negotiation of social norms110
2.2“What you might do is …”: Advice strategies in public and private situations113
2.3Advice columns in cultural comparison115
3.Advice in Caribbean contexts117
3.1Expert-user contexts: Advice columns in Jamaican newspapers118
3.2Confession, judgement and absolution: Directness and certainty in the Jamaican advice column Tell me Pastor120
3.3A corpus analysis of Tell me Pastor columns: Quantitative and qualitative aspects125
4.Outlook: User-user advice forums online129
Chapter 6.Mornin Caller: Negotiating power and authority in a Trinidadian radio phone-in programme133
1.Introduction: Participation and argumentative talk in public space133
2.Talk-in-interaction in radio phone-in programmes135
3.Phone-in programmes in the Caribbean and other postcolonial contexts140
3.1The politics of talk radio in Trinidad141
3.2Communication patterns in Caribbean talk radio142
4.Mornin Caller: On a Trinidadian radio phone-in community143
4.1Establishing identities: Opening sequences and greetings144
4.2Question-answer sequences: Challenging the host147
4.3Holding the floor: Power and authority in turn-taking sequences150
5.Conclusion156
Acknowledgements157
Transcription conventions157
Chapter 7.“… allyuh know how to parteeeeeeeeeeee. lawd!”: Linguistic choices and membership construction in the Trinidad & Tobago Possee Livin California forum159
1.Introduction: Diaspora communities past and present160
2.Language and identity in blogs and forums163
3.Non-standard orthography and identity: Creole in writing167
4.Trinidad & Tobago Possee Livin California: Notes on an online diaspora forum169
4.1Indexing Trinidadian identity171
4.1.1Establishing Trinidadian identities: Phonological, grammatical and lexical features173
4.1.2Establishing Trinidadian identities: Token phrases175
4.1.3Asserting Trinidadian identities: Manifestations of membership176
4.2Negotiation between heritage/home and host variety: Allyuh, yall and you guys179
5.Diasporic citizenship and the future of Cyber-Creole181
Chapter 8.Picong and puns, boasting and complaining: Oral performance in the language of calypso183
1.Introduction: Rum and Coca Cola: Contested perspectives on the nature of a genre183
2.Calypso, oral culture and the good performer186
2.1Historical roots of calypso186
2.2The language of calypso190
2.3Calypso and oral performance196
3.Belmont Jackass and Madame Dracula: Extempore performance and picong/ritual insults in the Trinidad Calypso context199
4.“I ain’t boasting but I’ve got durability”: Self-praise, masculinity and the gender divide in traditional calypso202
5.Outlook: Soca, calypso and the global scene207
References211
Index227
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Schönefeld, Doris, Viktorija Kostadinova, Gea Dreschler, Tamara Bouso Rivas, Réka Benczes, Ai Zhong, Maggie Scott, Lieselotte Anderwald, Wiebke Ahlers, Manuela Vida-Mannl, Kholoud A Al-Thubaiti, Alessia Cogo, Shawnea Sum Pok Ting, Ida Parise, Juliana Souza Da Silva, Elisabeth Reber, Naomi Adam & Fransina Stradling
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