Pragmatic reality of Finglish (in Twitter social network)

With globalization and fast-changing world, language is among other things that undergo alterations both internally and externally. We now observe many languages appear in various geographic areas, changing linguistic landscape and causing mixture of languages. However, even few years ago it was almost unthinkable to predict that on the territory of a certain state these languages might appear, might spread and that local population start to be interested in learning such languages.

Though the mentioned term, i. e. world Englishes, is becoming more and more spread among the scientific community. Even back in 1992 International Organization of World Englishes was created with the purpose to promote, describe and share research results among the professionals to various ex

tent related to this or that variety of English. The fact that this organization was founded and started publishing the journal World Englishes – Journal of English as an International and Intranational Language shows that, first, there is a certain interests among the linguistic community towards these types of English and, second, that this term, World Englishes, is becoming accepted (though not properly defined).

Literature Review

English language being a language of globalization (and this status of English is accepted in many cases by default) is also exposed to changes perhaps to a larger extent than some other languages [1, 409 ]. Because of a mixture of a certain European language (alongside with other local national languag-

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® ФИЛОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ НАУКИ es) there occur prepidgin forms with English being a lexificator language.

The number of these “worlds Englishes” is constantly growing and changing, but on the other hand, based on some personal perceptions, we could notice certain reluctance among linguists to examine and describe the language fusions of such kind. Another issue that modern linguistics is struggling is the question of what language form “world Englishes” refer to [4; 6–9; 13–17; 19].

The objective of the research under question was Finnish English, Finglish. As far as the terminology is concerned, we regard Finglish as a pre-pidgin form. According to J. Siegel, pre-pidgin (also called “jargon”) emerge when people first develop their own individual ways of communicating often by using words and phrases they have learned from other languages (most often from the lexifier) that they think others might be familiar with [21, 11 ]. Bickerton [5] characterizes pre-pidgins as “structureless”, asserting that what is peculiar for the pre-pidgins is “almost complete absence of grammatical items, including a complete absence of tense, modality and aspects markers” [5, 53 ].

Explaining the reasons for emergence of pre-pidgins, scientists bring in two theories. The first theory named as “altered model theory” justifies the use of a pre-pidgin form because speakers of the lexifier language simplify their language in contact situations [20, 18 ].

The second theory named as “imperfect model theory” assigns the use of pre-pidgins to early stage of language development, specifically, preliminary versions of the lexifier language used by language learners who have acquired only lexical items and not grammatical morphemes [20, 18 ].

With all fairness, linguists study two prepidgin forms of Finglish. The first version of Finglish was a pre-pidgin form of the first immigrants from Finland to the USA, mostly to the state of Florida. This type of Fing-lish known as Finglish 1 is thoroughly described in many synchronic and diachronic researches [10–12; 18; 23] Such a pre-pidgin form has described thoroughly all the semantic and lexical feature of the first Finglish. This pre-pidgin form is regarded as an obso- lete, it was not subjected to further pidginiza-tion or creolization as children of the Finnish immigrants regarded English as their mother tongue.

The emergence of such a Finglish pre-pid-gin form can be explained by the “imperfect model theory” as Finnish immigrants did not possess enough commands of English and the words they picked up from it were extrapolated into the syntactic structures of Finnish.

On the other hand, the emergence of the pre-pidgin Finglish form that makes the subject matter of the current research can be explained by the above mentioned, “altered model theory”. The speakers deliberately simplify their speech in the common day-to-day situations, mostly in communicating via Internet social networks. The fact that they simplify and resort to English can be explained by complexity of Finnish language grammatical and syntactical structures as well as by the fact that Internet-based communication is presumably in English, it provides “ready-made” phrases (also known as clichés) that in most cases used as readymade ones, “cut-and-dried”.

The issue that a linguist may face up with while researching any types of pre-pidgin forms is the issue of selecting an appropriate method of recording and analyzing the data. The issue under question has to do with the difference between written and aural speech. What makes the “reflection of method” more complicated is discrepancy between standard and colloquial variants of the language. As K. Versteegh points out: “the written language can never be taken as evidence of ter-miuus ante quem of a certain language, in the linguistic communities the written documents – whether literary or epigraphic or even papyri – reflect the development of the standard language or rather the speaker’s attitude towards the written standard” [22, 64 ].

It is apparent that most English-based prepidgin exist in aural-form, rather than written one. That is why it is troublesome for a researcher to identify and/or record this language form. However, on the other hand, it confirms the existence and pragmatic reality of the prepidgin forms, i. e. they merge, develop and function in a certain “language continuum”. The reason for a pre-pidgin coining is that there is no boundaries within a diglossic speech community because “linguistic variation is organized along a continuum between the standard language and the vernacular – both ends of the continuum represents contrasts: at the top the standard of the codified norm, and at the bottom end of the continuum the idealized vernacular consists in a conglomerate of non-standard features” [22, 68].

Being mostly an aural form of a language, a pre-pidgin poses complexity for a researcher in terms of empirical data collection. Nevertheless only concentrating on the vernacular form of it may give evidence for the existence of the pre-pidgins and expand the geography of pre-pidgins, pidgins and creole languages. Thus in such a way, two Russian linguists M. Bergelson and A. Kibrik [3] have recently discovered and characterized a Russian-Alaskan pidgin Ninilchik.

Nevertheless, the language that is being used in communicating via social networks can not be regarded as a written language per se. It is rather be called a mixture of both aural and written form or a written fixation of the aural speech. Being a “display text” (the term that V. Kostomarov introduced into the linguistic use in the beginning of the era of computer technologies [2], Internet-based communication can provide a language researcher with a good bulk of empirical data and tends to be formal rather than informal speech.

Materials and Methods

Due to the reasons mentioned above, we considered it appropriate to select the material for the study a social network Twitter with “Finglish” as a hash tag. To give a certain estimate to the pragmatic side of it we also carried out a contextual analysis of all the twits with the respective hash tag. The working hypothesis we put forward was as follows: being widespread within school education in Finland and being taught at quite a good level English language should form a mixture with Finnish language predominately at lexical level. Mostly young people should be using Finglish in Internet. The research interest has been to specify the connotation, i. e. pragmatic aspect of it that micro context of a twit post might reveal. Overall, we have analyzed 398 twit inscriptions dated from 2009 until 2017.

PHILOLOGY

Results and Discussion

First, we should identify the users of the twits who apply “Finglish” as a hash while writing twits. It is mostly the Finns who decided to code-switch to English. It looks as if they try to justify the use of English and/or give a warning sign of using a different language:

• 1)    Andy Miller @andyikarma 10 Dec. 2016

Hate on that Nicole you jealous diva #xfac-torfinal Saara smashed it out of Wembley outstanding and she's now #Finglish ;

• 2)    Jason WFC Finland @FinlandHornet 10 Jul. 2016

Good luck to the Finn-Brit pairing today in the final! Always a good combo #Finglish #Wimbledon #Kontinen ;

• 3)    Henri Posa @Posambique 25 Feb. 2016

Finnish chefs blow job ended up in a turd?

#Finglish #RalliEnglish #LostInTranslation ;

• 4)    Arttu Salmi @ArttuSalmi 21 May 2015

One of those mornings when a producer calls about a job before you've had your coffee. #finglish #mumbling ;

• 5)    @IrishTimes

He’s definitely the real Santa. He knew our names and he speaks Finglish.

According to Eurobarometer data, the use of English in Finland in social networks is quite high percentagewise i. e. 65 % that is why it is not accidental for the Finns to tweet in English.It is the tag “Finglish” that arises a linguist curiosity. It can be explained by the awareness among non-native speakers of English about the variety of English that they use being different either from British English or American English.

Another group of twits is the twits that contain interspersing of English word combinations. Such tweets may have various connotations revealed in the context:

• 1)    Jarkko @jarkkoju 18 May 2016

“Hei, oisko sulla tulta? Fire?” #asemal-lakuultua #finglish

In this tweet, we see short translation of the request to give a light. The tweet does not contain any pictures to illustrate so obviously it shows the possibility of using a short translation of a standard request in Finnish;

• 2)    Sami Pulkkinen @sampyxx 2 May 2016 @EmmaPullinen

Siis toi on so embarrassing. Kuinka someone kehtaa duunaa like that? #finglish

What attracts in this tweet is deliberate distortion of orthography. The pragmatic purpose of the message is to show strong dislike;

• 3)    Demi Aulos @DemiAulos 9 Apr. 2016

Telkusta tuli “Haapasalo goes lomalle” -mainos, apua en kestä. Goes lomalle. Huh. Liian much #finglish

The tweet has an indication to a billboard (mainos) showing a well-known Finnish actor going on vacation. The pragmatic purpose of the message is evidently to deride at the use of English word in the advertisement;

• 4)    Jutta Puotiniemi @jutttap 10 Mar. 2017

Lauri Ylonen sanoi just tv-mainokses-sa: “Ma siis rakastan disainata (designa-ta?) taloja. Uskoni ihmiskuntaan on mennyt” #finglish

The word “desainata” obviously is causing bewilderment;

• 5)    We could see a “customized into Finnish language manner” the spelling of the English word “creative” in the next tweet:

MariS @twSilvennoinen 17 Aug. 2014

Ohikuultua: “Se ei oo pitkään aikaan tehny mitään kreativee!” #finglish #nykysuomi ;

• 6)    Antti Eskel @Anatec_OW 13 Nov. 2013

#finglish strikes again :D “November neljätoista”

This an indication of date where the month is in English and the number is in Finnish;

• 7)    Frank Uuno @Frank_Uuno 4 Oct. 2013

Pitäiskö kahvitauolle keksiä uusi niimi? Ehdotan breikkiä. #finglish

The word “break” here is written with a double consonant (that is peculiar for Finnish language phonetic system);

The tweets below are similar to the previous one in terms of observing Finnish generative case flexions (which English lacks) which embeds into English sentence structure:

• 8)    yaya @jadetsi 13 Feb. 2015

Oh my god how I needpolyhuiska and sili-tyslauta. #finglishl finnishgirl @JDBIEBER-FEVER96 16 Apr 2014 in response @san-nawbu it was sarkasmia #finglish ;

• 9)    Mikko @MikkoSuhonen 15 Apr. 2015

Ja sitten mennaan. Loppupaiva pyoritel-lään paperia ja prosesseja. #audithommat #syynit #meriselitys #finglish #moorgääs ;

• 10)    Ronja@inmaskieshand 26 Aug. 2016 @_samikoivisto

joskus mina tuun crashaan sinne #finglish

This tweet can be trnslated as “sometimes I will crash you”. The verb “crash” declines according to the rules of the fourth group of verbs in Finnish language.

While analyzing the twits tagged Finglish we have found out some other English word with distorted spelling though their English origin can be traced: gigi (gig); paperia (paper), newsfeedin (newsfeed), mobiiliäppi (mobilapp), problemsolvata (problemsolving), humina (human), strehni (strength), fiid-bäkkiä (feedback), integriteetti (integration), pikturi (picture).

Another type of messages we could point out in Finglish twits is the group with set English phrases. Colloquial phrases in English are quite widespread in Internet-based communication. Reoccurrence of communicative situations including the ones in Internet chats makes the set phrases of such kind function in the mind of a language user as “micro cognitive structures” (the term introduced by A. Zalevskaya [24]). Any communicative situation can act as a cognitive scenario that in its turn involves frames in cognitive structures of the mind:

• 1)    Markus Nieminen @markusnieminen 17 Feb. 2016 @rudiskogman

siis tarpoint koitin että onko tama oikeasti disruptoiva asia? Just wondering

The use of the phrase might have been brought about by asking about tar points and further describing them as disrupting things (disruptoiva asia);

• 2)    Ville @Peepsteri 8 Dec. 2015 @mary-theluckyone @IiroRantala

Thats ok We got the point... #Finglish #Mountains

The tweet was a response to the description of a personal problem in Finnish;

• 3)    Jason Lepojarvi @JasonLepojarvi 8 Oct. 2016 @00mathias @MariaPetterss0n

One day, Mathias, pidetään reunion. Sinäsaatpuhua #Finsvensk'iäkunhanannatan teeksioman #Finglish'ini

Here we could identify the use of indication to future action by the use of lexical structure “peditään + N” (as it is a common knowledge Finnish does not contain Future

Tense as a fully-fledged grammatical category);

• 4)    Onni @PahiSsOnNi 12 Jan. 2016

Mission Completed! @Nelinpeli n julkas-tike yhteen putkeen + kahvitauko. Huikeeta settiä! #finglish #armeijaan

The English phrase “mission completed” here acts as a “precedent utterance” matching the criteria of it given by Y. Stepanov1 i. e. being a reduced independent and final phrase which in some cease has become disconnected from the source phrase. However, the bulk of Twitter messages we have analyzed does not allow us to say the precedent phrases are widespread in the prepidgin form under question;

• 5)    In the following twit we could also notice “language means economy” as matching words are longer:

Karo Karhunen @KaroKarhunen 4 Feb. 2015

Sain itseni kiinni seuraavasta läpän-deeruksesta: hei me tarvitaan approval, et saahaan material speksit on the way. #fing-lish #nonsense ;

• 6)    Aino Halme @ainolainen 16 Nov. 2013

Teatterissa ei pitäisi joutua kehottamaan kanssakatselijoita to get a room #justsaying #finglish @komteatteri

The end of the sentence being finished in English has a “failed expectations effect” and probably was caused by a shorter infinitive construction to compare with a respective Finnish phrase ( -taan construction).

Finally, we cannot but mention about the group of tweets in which the users reveal their attitude to Finglish as a blend of languages:

• 1)    Antti Seppänen @nttiSeppanen 27 Oct. 2016

The tweet calls for declining the word “problematics” as a basis for the respective Finnish calk “ongelmtiikka”;

• 2)    Monimutka @Monimutka 11 Sent. 2016

Deal with it – Diilaa sen kanssa To make sense – Tehdä järkeä #Finglish :DD

As opposed to the previous post this post suggests calking as one of the ways for Fing- lish lexical means. We could trace the same trend in the twit below;

• 3)    Sako Salovaara @sakotus 26 Dec. 2015

Or translated: Mold makea mold. #Finglish The author suggests using the word “mold” for as a description of taste in Finnish;

• 4)    iLeevi @iLeevi 8 Jan. 2016

Still can’t decide wether to tweet suomeksi tai englanniksi. #finglish #twitterongelmat

The author shares his hesitation about choice of languages in Twitter and ending the phrase in Finnish conveys this;

• 5)    Tiia @tiiarahkonen 14 Nov. 2015

I love mixing languages in my tweets #finglish

The tweet shows positive attitude towards Finglish as a blend of languages used in social networks.

In the tweets below, we can single out irony with regard to using English words in Finnish tweets:

• 1)    Elisa Wulff @elisa_wulff 29 Nov. 2016

Maybe Facebook should add #Finglish as one of it's languages...

This suggestion to use Finglish as Facebook language from the side of this tweet user was caused by a reference to a different tweet “Ladyline Kuopion shared an tapahtu-ma” where the word “event” is replaced by a Finnish word “tapahtuma” . The Tweet user’s irony may also have been justified by use of the indefinite article before the Finnish words although the grammatical category of articles is not within the Finnish language structure;

• 2)    @moodwriter8 Jun. 2015

Our notes are the funniest because they are mostly in English but partly in Finnish and partly even in Finglish.

The context of the next tweets also allows to trace irony (which borders on bewilderment):

• 3)    Elisa Niklander @ElisAurinkoinen 22 Sept. 2016

Kollegani käyttää #kotoilu'n sijasta ter-miä #homettaminen siitä syystä, että nykyään on tapana puhua #finglish'iä. #otan #termin #käyttöön

The author shares concern that colleagues use terms in English and often speak Finglish;

• 4)    TooCreative 3 Mar. 2017 @toocreativeart

Yes, Im getting constantly told off by my Finnish family with my #Finglish more English than Finnish in sentences now

The author of this tweet indicates the case of interference of Finnish into English but does not specify which spheres of speech it effects at a greater extent – phonetical, lexical or grammatical and/or syntactical layers;

• 5)    EssiNummi @EssiNummi 9 Nov. 2015

Paivan #twitutus: jos on kielitaitoa, niin-miksipuhua #finglish'iä? Se ei ole kielitaitoa vaan laiskuutta. #kielitaito

In this tweet the author names laziness as being the main reason for use of Finglish;

• 6)    Emma Sireeni @emmasireeni 8 Nov. 2016

Naurattaa nää ulkomaan toimittajat jotka unohtaa suomen kielen kahen viikon amerik-kareissun aikana #finglish #usavaalit

The author of this message shares concern about her neighbors who, in her opinion, might have forgotten their native Finnish language after staying in the US for some time;

• 7)    MikkoLeppilampi @mikkoleppilampi 21 Oct. 2016

Maailman yhteinen kieli on huono eng-lanti. Think global! #finglish “Terveisia Lon-toosta, täällä puhutaan englantia!”

Here the Twitter user shows disapproval of English being a world language as well as of the referenced ads moto.

That drives us into pointing out another group of the twits of “Finglish” i. e. the group of tweets showing strong negative attitude for using a mixture of English and Finnish at the same time:

• 1)    Leena Majander @LeenaMajander 21 Feb. KaisaSjövall @ArtKaisa 29 Jul. 2016

@MTVUutiset Räjähdän aina nauruun kun kuulutatte “mtv3-sportuutiset”. Ne on urheilu-uutiset!! Mites olis weathertiedotus? #lol #finglish

The message ridicules the use of English word “sport” instead of the Finnish word “urheilu” for it insisting that then “weather” should replace “ilma” meaning “weatherfor-cast”;

• 2)    @visitfinlandsanoo @YleKulttuuri “eif-eikkiä, eiglitteriä” Suomen markkinoinnissa. #finglish on niinnoloa

The tweet lexemes contain simplified spelling (which is quite a common feature for a pre-pidgin). In quite a straightforward manner the author of the message names the use of Finglish in advertisement (“no fake no glitter” being preposterous (which is the English for “noloa”);

• 3)    Elias Repo @elias_repo2 Feb. 2016 @ HookedOnBands

Ootsiä katton tätä? En tiiä uskaltaako, cringe jo valmiiks#finglish

In this tweet the user is making comment about a headline in English (“Twenty OnePi-lot interview on radio NRJ”) in one of the Finnish sites. Using quite a strong word for it (“cringe”) the user on the one hand shows quite a good command of English and on the other hand shows adherence to the purity of the native Finnish language.

Conclusion

Researchers of language tend to be very careful when identifying and describing any types of territorial and/or social variation of language. The borders between the standard language use and its dialectal or social variation are too vague and it might have to do with language versus dialect dilemma. On the other hand, the languages are not isolated from each other, and lexical space of one language may freely mix up with another as lexical layer being the most flexible in the language system.

The examples of Finglish as a prepidgin form of the language shows various degrees of one language space bordering with another – it can be on level of one word or set phrases or the whole sentences. There are cases of grammatical categories that exist in one language substituting the ones that a second language lacks (e. g. future tense and articles from English into Finnish).

As far as pragmatic side of this Englishbased pidgin form is concerned, both positive and negative attitudes are equal in their representations. It is almost impossible to predict whether this prepidgin form will develop further or would be restricted (with variable degree of frequency) in social networks and/ or informal aural communication, but what is certain is that this form of the language takes place at present and thus linguists cannot ignore it. Any changes in language occur due to certain reasons (either social or inside-the-language factors), and study of any language variation may give us a clue to alterations in standard language use.