1.0 Introduction
The notion of death is an interesting phenomenon that puzzled and still puzzles mankind. Death is defined as the termination of all biological functions concerning the life of an organism. What is even more intriguing is the work of a person that deals with death which in this case, is a mortuary makeup artist. An occupation such as this can be described as famous yet not famous, so to speak. It certainly is not a pleasant job scope but undeniably necessary. One can come into great conflict with his or her conscience when considering an employment of this nature.
This paper is based on a former podcast on March 18, 2018 that can be found on Lite FM radio. The transcription can be found in Appendix A. It is written with an aim to identify the various cultural differences that affect the linguistic features of a person such as language and society.
2.0 Language and Culture
Malaysia is known as a cultural hotpot as it’s a multi-racial country that consists of three major races which are Malay, Chinese and Indian. Of course, there are also other minority cultures in the country that live together in harmony. Needless to say, there are different cultures, different beliefs, diverse celebrations and festivals, different religions and not to forget, even funerals are held different according to the deceased and their family’s beliefs. In this paper, we will be discussing the way the Chinese community holds their funerals as the podcast analysed speaks about the role that a mortuary make-up artist plays in a Chinese funeral.
2.1 Types of Burials
In the Chinese community, there are two ways to handle the deceased’s body : cremation and burial. Cremation is a process where the deceased is sent into a crematorium where it is then burned until it becomes ashes. The traditional burial, on the other hand is a process where the deceased is buried underground.
2.1.1 Cremation
Due to the influence of modern media, most people prefer to be cremated as they believe that after being cremated, by having their family members throw their ashes at the top of the mountains or at the ocean when the wind is strong, their soul would gain freedom. This action represents the wind bringing their soul wherever they wish to go. As modern society can be viewed as restrictive and people more often than not, feel trapped while they’re living, it’s no wonder why this is a popular belief.
2.1.2 Burial
However, there is another belief regarding life after death. According to Buddhism, Buddhists believe that we should not part with any parts of our body as it can cause difficulty while our soul is leaving the body upon death. This is why there are people who believes that the deceased’s body should not be tampered with as it means grave disrespect and can bring bad luck to the deceased as well as the deceased’s family. According to “Life of the Eunuch,”during the Chinese dynasty, men that got castrated, otherwise known as eunuchs, carried a bag that contains their reproductive organ with them and are protective of it until death where they are buried with their bag as they believe that losing the bag with their organ, would bring bad luck to not themselves and their family but also cause difficulty when their soul is leaving the body. With this historical proof, it is clear that this belief stems from thousands of years ago and is still believed today. This method of handling a deceased’s body is where the role of a mortuary make-up artist comes in.
2.2 The role of a mortuary make-up artist
During the preparation of a Chinese funeral, the mortuary make-up artist plays a fundamental role as it is believed that no matter what social position the deceased may hold, everyone should leave this world with their best appearance. For example, a victim of a car accident may have suffered a severe injury that had resulted in partial loss of facial features or loss of limbs. This is when a mortuary make-up artist comes in and tries to reconstruct the facial features so that the deceased may look less gruesome and look their best before they’re put to eternal rest.
2.3 Conclusion
As the old saying goes, “They’ll feel pain”. Although, it is not determined whether this is true or not, some may still believe that it is better to respect tradition but we believe that it is better for the deceased and their family to follow their own beliefs.
3.0 Language and Society
The entire interview of Carmen and Shaz goes along in English, accompanied by some Malay terms. In their conversation, a lot of unique Malaysian dialects and slangs can be clearly found within. Even though the Malaysian government has listed Malay as the official national language of Malaysia, due to the variety of ethnicity in our country, English is also widely used in as a strong second language. However, meetings, conferences, and any formal gatherings such as this interview of Carmen, are most commonly conducted in English. With various official statuses according to the four basic languages in the country: Malay, English, Mandarin Chinese, and Tamil along with the diverse range of languages in actual use amongst the people of Malaysia. It is unsurprising then that the average Malaysian is at least bilingual, if not conversant in three or more language. (Baskaran, 2008)
In some part of the interview, Carmen used some Malay terms to support her sentence. Such as ‘orang tua’ in line 31:
Excerpt 1 : Usage of “Orang Tua” (1) [Line 31]
“Sometimes I see the some body is come from the orang tua centre.”
Apart from that, Chinese slangs are also easily found in their conversations; the use of ‘lah’ which is translated directly from Chinese, such as in line 25 :
Excerpt 2 : Usage of “lah” (1) [Line 25]
“so b-broken already so so the problem is this one normally we, in the Malaysia lah-”.
The evidences above show that Carmen has been exposed to a variety of languages in her environment. Supported by the results of a study by Flege, Munro and MacKay, the critical period of speech does not end abruptly. With exposure of different language and accents, bilinguals may speak their second language with a slight but detectable accent no matter how early in life they began to learn the second language. (James Emil Flege, Elaina M. Frieda, Takeshi Nozawa, 1997)
In Malay or Mandarin, the verb is not marked for tense. Local Chinese or Malay speakers will sometimes apply the same lexical rules in English. In the speech of Carmen, the arrangement of sentences is clearly seen to be in the form of Mandarin sentences. Not forgetting the missing pronunciation of ‘s’ in third person present tense. Furthermore, Carmen who has been working for 5 years has also developed her own jargons in the mortuary makeup field. She would use the term ‘visitor’ to mean corpses. And the term ‘jamuan’ is used to describe horrible accidents which have caused considerable damage to the bodies. This also revealed the society of Malaysia as the term origin from Malay.
Summarising all the points above, the way of Carmen’s speaking is affected by the society of Malaysia, where we are surrounded by multiple languages all the time. The society has changed the way of our speaking, resulting in us forming a very unique accent and slangs of not only English, but as well as other languages such as Mandarin. Amid the cacophony of local accents arise issues about whether such accents are correct or good or acceptable, the world is slowly recognising Malaysian English as a beautiful scenario in Malaysia, given us the audacity to present ourselves. (Pillai, 2012)
4.0 Linguistic Features
While we were analyzing the podcast, we found four areas to be fascinating and so we will be discussing these four areas, namely the use of filler pauses, the use of borrowed words from the Malay language, the excessive use of the word “already” and the use of the word “lah”.
4.1 The Use of the Filler Pauses.
During this podcast, there were several occasions where Carman used the word “uh” to fill in the pauses within her sentences. An example, would be an excerpt from line 2 and line 20 as quoted down below.
Excerpt 3 : filler “uh” (1) [Line 2]
“I fall in it is like…it’s…uh…long time ago about uh…five years, uh, one a moment I hate about the…and I, my job is a beauty line, I do a lot the beauty line, so, when one moment I hate it about the selling already, so, I returns to my mind say…uh, not to…to learning something special in…different in my job, but I still lovely in the make up, but I don’t wanna forget it.”
In this excerpt, it is shown that Carman used the word “uh” several times to stall time while she was trying to recall her work in the beauty line and how long it had been since she was in the beauty line which is the opposite of the next excerpt which will be explained later on. In this excerpt, Carman was struggling to find the words to explain her thoughts while she was working in the makeup industry.
Excerpt 4 : filler “uh” (2) [Line 20]
“Accidents I feel-, damage nah or something. If if uh, we say the, it’s uh, a bit of wound one on a something, a whore in the fay, still can recover. We still can r-running back on the face. If very damage already, we- we like uh, say uh, on a, um, in- in the jamuan so- ”
In excerpt 4, Carman is heard using the filler pause as she could’ve had limited linguistic knowledge and was struggling to find the right words to explain what she was trying to say. It was even more evident when she did quote switching (the word “jamuan) whilst she was trying to answer Shaz’s question. Carman could’ve also been struggling to explain the procedures of her work as the topic is sensitive for the Chinese community as it can be seen as extremely disrespectful to discuss the conditions of the deceased’s body.
There are also evidences when Shaz, despite being a native-like speaker uses filler pauses within her sentence as shown in the excerpt from line 15 and line 28.
Excerpt 5 : filler “uh” (3) [Line 15]
“Shaz : Carman, what is the hardest part of the body to uh, put makeup on? Or do you just focus really on the face?
Carman : If uh we face to the accident, accident-”
In excerpt 5, Shaz used the filler to find the appropriate word for her question for Carman. She might’ve forgotten that Carman is the make up artist for the face or she could’ve been wondering what else Carman does besides putting makeup on the face. However, her question contradicts each other and it is evident that even Carman got confused as she struggled to answer the question. Within Carman’s answer, there was also the usage of the filler pause “uh” as she was struggling to find the correct words and trying to comprehend Shaz’s question.
Excerpt 6 : filler “uh” (4) [Line 28]
“Now uhm you work with the deceased of all ages,”
In excerpt 6, the word “uhm” was used by Shaz to help with the cognitive process as she thought of the next word of her sentence. Filler pauses tends to be widely used to aid with the cognitive process whilst thinking of the continuation of a speaker’s sentence.
Fox Tree and Clark (2002) has stated that speakers use “uh” and “um” to announce that they are initiating what they think to be a delay in their speech. Speakers use these announcements to implicate that they are searching for a word or deciding what to say next. Evidence for the proposal comes from several large corpora of spontaneous speech. This shows that speakers monitor their speech plans for upcoming delays that are more worthy of comment. When they’ve discovered such a delay, they formulate where and how to suspend speaking, which item to produce (uh or uhm) and whether to attack it as a clitic onto the previous word and whether to prolong it. The argument is that uh and um are conventional English words, and speakers use them just as they would with any other word. (pp. 73-111)
This shows that the use of filler pauses are in fact, quite common within English speakers whether they’re native or non-native. This also shows that the use of filler pauses is to aid the speaker while they’re formulating a sentence in their minds, or when they’re planning for their next words. However, excessive use of filler pauses can show the proficiency of an English speaker as they require more time to think to formulate a proper sentence.
4.2 The Use of Borrowed Words from the Malay Language
In Malaysia, oftentimes, both native and non-native, although it is less common among native speakers, English speakers tend to borrow words from other languages, mainly the Malay language as it’s the country’s main language. During the podcast, we found an example of Carman borrowing words from the Malay language. The excerpt from Line 20 and Line 22.
Excerpt 6 : Usage of the word “jamuan” (2) [Line 20]
“Accidents I feel-, damage nah or something. If if uh, we say the, it’s uh, a bit of wound one on a something, a whore (hole) in the fay (face), still can recover. We still can r-running back on the face. If very damage already, we- we like uh, say uh, on a, um, in- in the jamuan so- “
Excerpt 7 : Usage of the word “jamuan” (3) [Line 22]
“so, so normally in the jamuan, the head is the- “
In excerpts 6 and 7, Carman is heard using the word “jamuan” within her sentence as there is not a single word in English that would fit with the situation she was talking about. “Jamuan” when translated directly into English means banquet and in English, this sounds far too festive to fit a sad occasion such as a funeral which could be the reason as to why Carman used “jamuan” instead of the words banquet or party as the two words are seen to be a joyous occasion, the opposite of a funeral.
During the evolution of English in Malaysia, it has come into contact with a wide range of typologically-distinct languages. All these languages have influenced the lexicon of Malaysian English but it is in fact Malay that has contributed most of the most noteworthy characteristics of this type of English.
Myers (2002) has stated that the presence of a “critical mass” of English- and Malay-speaking bilinguals in Malaysia, and the continuing relevance of Malay culture and tradition mean that once initiated, borrowings have ample opportunity to be transmitted to other members of the community. Many of the features we have seen started out as innovations but went on to become permanent additions to the ME vocabulary precisely because they fulfil specific linguistic and social needs of society. Once these features enter the lexicon of ME, they are generally acquired along with core English words. The transmission, hence, continues.
This shows that certain Malay words are borrowed as they fit certain needs during an English speaker’s everyday sentences. Certain words, not just Malay, when translated into English can sound awkward and out-of-place as there may not be a word with that particular meaning in the English language. Therefore, in a society such as this, the use of Malay words play a crucial part in a bilingual speaker’s day-to-day conversation.
4.3 The Excessive Use of the word Already.
During this podcast, we have noticed that there was an excessive use of the word “already” between Shaz and Carman’s conversation, with Carman being the one to excessively use the word “Already”. The excerpt from the line 33 and line 35 has been included below as line 35 is the continuation of line 33.
Excerpt 8 : Usage of the word “already” [Lines 33 – 35]
“So- So maybe that they leave the bodies long time at there and when I look like too slim already”
“and then they are, the body can’t get the straight already”
In Excerpt 8, Carman is heard using the word “already” excessively as a sort of habit when it comes to sentences such as these. She was attempting to explain the situations of the bodies of the deceased elderly people. It was also used as a replacement for the word “now”.
The word “already” is used to replace the word ‘now’ which is a sort of slang within the Malaysian society. This is oftentimes done by English speakers with low proficiency in the language.
Pillai (2012) noted that the “levelling of tense and aspect is prevalent in both colloquial varieties. This includes using the simple past form for StE present perfect with a preference for lexical marking of time and aspect with words like already.”
For instance:
– I shower already.
You eat already or not?
This feature is often attributed to first-language influences such as from Malay and Chinese (Alsagoff, 2001, Baskaran, 2005). The Chinese languages do not mark the verb for tense. Temporal information is obtained from context or from the use of temporal markers like today, everyday, l yesterday (Baskaran, 2005).
4.4 Usage of the word “lah”
During the entire podcast, there were occasional times when Carman or Shaz would use the word “lah” at the end of their sentences. Examples of Carman from the line 27 has been provided below.
Excerpt 9 : Usage of the word “lah” (2) [Line 27]
“we not uh properly to suggest to recover to do lah”
In excerpt 9, Carman was heard using the word “lah” at the end of her sentence as an emphasis to the fact that they wouldn’t suggest doing a recovery after a bad accident in Malaysia as it is within the Chinese culture to avoid risking destroying the deceased’s body even more.
Examples of Shaz from line 19 has been provided below.
Excerpt 10 : Usage of the word “lah” (3) [Line 19]
“If there’s been damage lah.”
In excerpt 10, Shaz used the word “lah” to further emphasise of her question, and to add-on details to her question that might’ve been a bit too broad to be answered by someone else.
Goddard (1994) stated that according to the proposed explication, which is the length of a short paragraph, lah offers an explanation of the speaker’s illocutionary purpose, which is roughly to correct or preempt a misapprehension or misunderstanding of some kind. The explication is shown to be flexible enough to predict the diverse effects that lah itself may convey in combination with other elements of an utterance, once Malay cultural norms of verbal interaction are taken into account.
As shown above, “lah” does not carry a particular meaning but rather emphasises on the way the speaker is speaking tone-wise. Therefore, it can be used in many context and would still be technically “correct”.
5.0 Conclusion
To conclude this paper, we can see the different extents that our environments and our associations such as the people we mix with, impacts us. This confirms the fact that language is learned not only in books or verbal communication, but also by mixing with the people around. From this podcast solely, we can observe the different accents possessed by Carmen and Shaz, and the way they applied grammar and vocabulary to their speech. It is proven that languages can be analyzed in detail when it is broken down in a way such as transcription. In written form, it is much easier to study the different utterances and verbal sounds made by people.