LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF AMERICAN ENGLISH IN THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER BY MARK TWAIN

AbstractThis study investigates the linguistic features of American English in the novel "The adventures of Tom Sawyer" by an American author, Mark Twain.. It presents the issues relevan

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐỖ THỊ PHƯƠNG MAI

LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF AMERICAN-ENGLISH

IN THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER BY

MARK TWAIN

(Đặc điểm ngôn ngữ của tiếng Anh Mỹ trong "Những cuộc

phiêu lưu của Tom Sawyer" của Mark Twain)

M.A THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15

Hanoi – 2010

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐỖ THỊ PHƯƠNG MAI

LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF AMERICAN-ENGLISH

IN "THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER" BY

MARK TWAIN

(Đặc điểm ngôn ngữ của tiếng Anh Mỹ trong "Những cuộc

phiêu lưu của Tom Sawyer" của Mark Twain)

certificate of originality

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and certify the best of my knowledge.This thesis contains no materials that have been accepted as part of requirements for any otherdegree or diploma in any educational institution nor previously published is written unless thereference to the material is made

Signature

Đỗ Thị Phương Mai

AbstractThis study investigates the linguistic features of American English in the novel "The adventures of Tom Sawyer" by an American author, Mark Twain.

The Introduction gives a rationale for the study and sets up the aims, scopes andmethods for the study

Chapter 1 constitutes the study's theoretical background It presents the issues relevant

to the study's topic including an overview about standard language, dialect, American Englishdialect, Southwestern American English, certain information about Mark Twain, his works

and specifically the novel "The adventures of Tom Sawyer."

Chapter 2 investigates American English in "The adventures of Tom Sawyer" in

terms of phonology, grammar and lexis as well as a possible correlation between the socialstatus of a character and his/her use of the linguistic code

The Conclusion sums up the issues addressed in the study and suggest some mainpoints for a further research

Acknowledgements

I would like first and foremost to thank M.A Van Thi Thanh Binh, my thesis supervisor,for her critical comments and valuable instructions without which this thesis could nothave been completed

My indebtedness is also to my beloved family members whose help and encouragementscontributed greatly to the completion of my study

Last but not least, I am grateful to my colleagues and my friends for their supportthroughout the process of writing this thesis

Lists of tables and figures

Tables

American English

16

American English in the novel

34

American English in the novel

35

Southwestern American English in the novel

Figures

TABLE OF CONTENT

Certificate of originality i

Abstract ii

Acknowledgements iii

List of graphs and tables iv

Table of content v

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Methodology 4

5 Design of the study 4

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT C HAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1 1 Standard language 5

1 1 1 Definition of standard language 5

1 1 2 Features of standard language 5

1 2 Dialect 6

1 2 1 Definition of dialect 6

1 2 2 Levels of dialects……… 7

1 3 American English 11

1 1 1 American English - a dialect of British English 11

1 1 2 Features of American English dialect ……… 12

1 4 Southwestern American English 14

1 4 1.Phonological features of Southwestern American English 14

1 4 2 Grammatical features of Southwestern American English 18

1 4 3 Lexical features of Southwestern American English……… …24

1 5 Mark Twain and "The adventures of Tom Sawyer" 24

1 5 1.Mark Twain - the first 'truely' American writer 24

1 5 2 The novel "The adventures of Tom Sawyer"……… …29

C HAPTER 2: DISCUSSIONS AND FINDINGS 2 1 Linguistic features of American English in characters' utterences……… 33

2.1.1 Phonological features of American English……… 33

2.1.2 Grammatical features of American English ……… 38

2.1.3 Lexical features of American English ……… … …41

2 2 Linguistic peculiarities of American English in characters' utterences………… 48

2.2.1 Linguistic peculiarities of American English in characters' utterences…… 48

2.2.2 Linguistic peculiarities of American English as a means of characterisation… 58 PART 3: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION 1 Issues addressed in the study 64

2.Issues not addressed in the study 67

3 Application 68

4 Suggestions for further study……… 69 REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

1

1 Rationale

PART I: INTRODUCTION

Language is a communicative means and also a social phenomenon Human beings uselanguage to communicate among themselves as well as to construct the world around them.The study of language, therefore, should be the study of language in use A language,however, is not realized in only one but in a variety of forms among which one form can beconsidered the standard one while others are the non-standard or dialects of the standard one.(Wolfram, 1991) The study of one language, therefore, should include not only the so-calledstandard but also other variations of this language

Nowadays, English, an international language used in many parts of the world andalmost every aspect of life, exists in more than ten big group variations, among whichAmerican English is particularly influential due to the U.S.'s dominant in the world economy.The study of American English is, therefore, of interest of many people and also the author ofthis thesis

Additionally, literature is "a body of written works related by subject-matter, by

language or place of origin, or by prevailing cultural standards of merit." (Peter Widowson,

1998) Literature is an art that adopts language as its form and its means Language of literatureworks, hence, has been the subject of many studies by linguists because it presents particularlythe relation of language and culture It is not only the language of art but also the language oflife The author hopes to reveal all these relations through this thesis, consequently

It is also essential to provide an explanation why Mark Twain and his work, "The

adventures of Tom Sawyer" are chosen Firstly, Mark Twain is considered the "first 'truly'

American writer." (Howell, 1967) Early 19th century American writers tend to be too flowery,sentimental or ostentatious, partially because they were trying to prove that they could write aselegantly as the English Nevertheless, together with the country development in almost everyaspect of life and the national self-confidence spirit, American writers sooner or later realizedthat they must have their own American literature which is quite separated from the one of

English And Mark Twain is regarded as "the Lincoln of our literature" (Howells), the one that

revolutionaries American literature Additionally, Van Spanckeren (1994: 78) argues that

"Twain was the first major author to come from the interior country, and he captured its

distinctive humorous slang and iconoclasm" She further states that "Twain's style, based on vigorous, realistic, colloquial American speech, gave American writers a new appreciation of their national voice" In fact, many critics comment on the high level of accuracy of Mark

Twain in recording various dialects making it possible "to present his characters in a truthful

light to the reader in a language that is both vivid and clear at the same time" Furthermore,

Twain is considered a realistic writer (High, 1986; Gerber, 1993; Van Spanckren, 1994 andWonham, 1996) who has the ability to give an accurate description of the nation's experience

"its soul, its life, its speech, its thought" (Twain 1895 cited in Wonham, 1996: 1) Following

the realistic dimension, Twain claims in the preface to "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

(p 1) that almost all the events in the novel really occurred and that characters are inspired bypeople he knew In fact, if events and characters are drawn from life, it is likely that thelanguage spoken by characters is also drawn from life It is, consequently, an important reasonfor the author to investigate Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer with the hope of revealing thelinguistic features of American English spoken in the Southwest of America in the 19thcentury

2 Aims of the study

This study aims to investigate the linguistic features of American English in characters'utterances in Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer

To realize this aim, the answers for the two following research questions are soughtout:

1 What are the linguistic features of American English in characters' utterances in Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer?

2 To what extent the characters in the novel share these linguistic features?

3 Scope of the study

For the limitation of the time, reference books and other constraints faced by theauthor, this thesis cannot cover all linguistic features of American English in Mark Twain'sTom Sawyer This study, therefore, will focus on analyzing and identifying certain linguisticfeatures of Southwestern American-English presented in the novel including phonological,grammatical and lexical features of Southwestern American- English

Additionally, within this M.A thesis, only characters' utterances are investigated tofind out the linguistic features of American English in the novel without concerning thevariety used by the narrator

4 Methodology

First of all, it is noticeable that in the process of the study, both qualitative andquantitative methods are employed The former is used in the form of listing and the latter isused in the form of analyzing the linguistic features

Additionally, the theoretical background in chapter 1 relies on the published literature

on the concepts of standard language, dialect and levels of dialect, American English together

with a brief introduction to Mark Twain and his novel "The adventures of Tom Sawyer."

Last but not least, the analysis of linguistic features of American English is merelybased on Wolfram W& Schiling-Estes, N.'s framework (1998) about linguistic features ofSouthwestern American English stated in 1.4 in the first chapter "Theoretical background" ofpart II

In this main part, the author starts with the analysis of linguistic features of AmericanEnglish in terms of phonology, grammar, and lexis in characters' speech in the novel with theapplication of idealisation Then the author attempts to investigate whether there aredifferences among the characters of the novel as far as their use of language is concerned tolook for a possible correlation between the characters' social background and their use oflanguage

5 Design of the study

The study consists of three main parts

This is the main part consisting of two chapters

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

This chapter is preserved to give the basic theoretical background of the study It includes anoverview about standard language, dialects, American English, and Southwestern AmericanEnglish Additionally, certain information about Mark Twain, his works and specifically the

novel "The adventures of Tom Sawyer" is included.

Chapter 2: Linguistic features of American English in Mark twain's Tom Sawyer Chapter 2 is the heart of the thesis which investigates American English dialects in "The adventures of Tom Sawyer." in terms of phonology, grammar and lexis The analysis is

attached to the theory about Southwestern American English of Wolfram W& Schiling-Estes,

N (1998) to realize the aims of the study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

To provide a theoretical background to this study, this chapter will be devoted to areview of issues most relevant to the thesis's topic: standard language, dialect, American

English, Southwestern American English, the writer Mark Twain and his novel "The adventures of Tom Sawyer."

1.1 Standard language

1.1.1 Definition of standard language

Language is a communicative means and also a social phenomenon of human Alanguage, as Wolfram (1991) stated, is not realized in only one but in a variety of formsamong which one form can be considered the standard one while others are the non-standard

or dialects of the standard one Consequently, there have been quite a number of attempts todefine what a standard language is

Finegan, Edward (2007) defines a standard language as "a particular dialect of a

language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status It is said to be the most correct language of a nation."

Wolfram W& Schiling-Estes, N (1998) believe that "a standard language is a

language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works "

It is noticed that the above definitions share the same idea that a standard language is a

variety of a language used by a group of people and it is normally considered the 'correct' or 'formal' form of a language.

1.1.2 Features of standard language

According to Wolfram W& Schiling-Estes, N (1998), standard languages usually areestablished upon the following features

Firstly, it may be formed by a recognized dictionary (standardized spelling and vocabulary)Secondly, a recognized grammar is also a basis for establishing a standard language

The third feature is a standard pronunciation (educated speech.) The standard British English,for example, historically based on the language of the medieval English court of Chancery

The late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the establishment of this standard as the

norm of "polite" society, that is to say of the upper classes The spoken standard,

consequently, has come to be seen as a mark of good education and social prestige associatedwith the RP accent

Fourthly, a standard language can be established by linguistic institution defining usagenorms, such as Académie française in France or the Royal Spanish Academy in Spanish.Other features defining standard languages include constitutional status, the effective publicuse like court; legislature or schools and a literary canon

1.2 Dialect

1.2.1 Definition of dialect

Dialect, a linguistic phenomenon, has been accessed from a more technical point of

view recently The question "What is a dialect?" has been approached by many linguists.

Nordquist, R (2006) defines dialect as "a regional or social variety of a language

distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a way of speaking that differs from the standard variety of the language."

Wolfram W& Schiling-Estes, N.'s (1998) claims that dialect is any variety of languagethat is shared by a group of speaker

In the views of linguists, however, dialect is used to refer to "varieties that seem to be

typified by the use of non-standard forms." In other words, dialect can be perceived as an

imperfect attempt to speak "correct" or "proper" the standard language Dialects; however,

are not deviant forms of language, but simply different systems with distinct subsets oflanguage patterns (Wolfram W& Schiling-Estes, N.'s (1998) Language patterning here refers

to the fact that language features are distributed in systematic and orderly ways rather thanused randomly That is, for any given language feature, there are contexts in which the formmay be used and contexts in which is not typically used

1.2.2 Levels of dialect

According to Nordquist, R (2006), dialect differences can be manifested in a number

of different ways For example, they may involve the use of difference words for the same

item, as in the use of sub, hoagie, hero, or grinder for a sandwich made on a long roll with

cheese, meat, and vegetables such as lettuce, tomatoes, and onions They may also involve thepronunciation of the same word in different ways For example, in some dialects the vowels in

word pairs like dawn and Don are pronounced the same, while in other vernacular dialects,

they are pronounced differently Dialect differences may also involve the ways words are put

together into sentences, as in The house needs painted vs The house needs painting, and even how language is used in carrying out social routines, such as greeting people with Hi, Hey, Yo,

of language form to perform different functions

1.2.2.1 L e xi c al di ffe r e n ce s

One of the obvious levels of vernacular dialect variation is the lexicon, or vocabulary,

of a language As Nordquist, R (2006) states most of us used to encounter the situation inwhich we failed to recognize a word used by some regional or social groups despite sharingthe same standard language, which resulted in confusion, and sometimes outrightcommunication breakdown A famous example stated in Wolfram W& Schiling-Estes, N.(1998) is the circumstance in which a traveler goes to different places of the United Stated and

orders a soda, and he finds that he receives different drinks in different regions like a simple

carbonated drink in Philadelphia and a carbonated drink with ice-cream in it in Chicago.People of different social classes as well as different age groups suffer from the samesituations in communication

There are a number of different ways in which lexical differences can manifestthemselves

Firstly, the relationship between a real- word object and the word used to describe it is almostalways arbitrary; therefore, people often find that different labels are used to describe the sameobject or idea in different dialect areas People also find different words because diverseobjects and activities are found in different regions For example, in America it is easy to find

such words as sneakers, tennis shoes, gym shoes and running shoes referring to the same basic

type of athletic shoe when worn as casual footwear

Secondly, not only do dialects use different words, but they may use the same words withdifferent meanings Meaning is flexible and transitory, and they may change in a number ofways over time and places Dialects differences result when a meaning changes in one way in

a particular region but in some other way in other dialect areas For instance, the broadening in

meaning of the word barn which used to refer to a building that was used for only storing

grain in British English to a building for storing all sorts of farm-relalted items includinganimals and machinery results in a lexical difference between America and Britain

Finally, there are a variety of ways to create new words as compounding, acronyms, blending,clipping, so on and so forth And there also appear many instances of new meanings for oldwords across the dialects of a language in general and English language in particular although

in many cases speakers may be uncompletely unaware of the fact that the words they use indaily conversation originally had quite different meanings from the ones they have today

1.2.2.2 P h o n ologi c al di f fe r e n ce s

Like lexical differences, phonological variation among the dialects of a language can

be highly noticeable In America, for example, listeners are quick to hone the distinctive

vowel sounds associated with "The Southern drawl," the "broad a" and "dropped r" of the Boston speech or the "dropped g" in certain vernacular.

Phonological pattern can be indicative of regional and socio-cultural differences, and aperson who has a good ear for dialects can often pinpoint a speaker's general regional andsocial and ethnic affiliation with considerable accuracy based solely on phonology Even intoday's increasingly interconnected world, the use of a few critical pronunciation cues cannarrow down a person's place of origin to at least a general region of a country

Wolfram W& Schiling-Estes (1998) states many ways in which phonologicaldifferences may be manifested in the dialects of a language Firstly, it is the variation inpronunciation of vowels and consonants, which concerns instances in which a sound in onedialect corresponds to a different sound in another variety Secondly, there are also instanceswhere sounds are added or deleted affecting the basic sequencing of sound segments Theaddition or deletion of sounds has to do with how sounds are pronounced when they occur inparticular sequence or with the arrangement of sounds into syllables rather than with overallchanges in the organization of sound system Addition and deletion processes, therefore, tend

to be restricted to certain phonetic contexts as well Finally, the potential for pronunciationdifferences that have to do with such matters as the stress patterns of words, the intonationalcontours of sentences, or the timing of syllables is also noticeable

Although there may be some social stigma attached to certain pronunciationdifferences, phonological dialect differences are normally considered to be matters of curiosityrather than grounds for condemnation Moreover, in terms of principles governing theorganization of language systems, it is difficult to explain why certain pronunciation changestake place in some regions or among social groups and why other changes take placeelsewhere However, once a given pronunciation takes hold, it may persist for quite a longtime as a symbolic marker of regional or social group identity

1.2.2 3 Gram m a t i c al d i ffe r e nc e s

Grammatical variation may be discussed in terms of two types of language

organization One level, called Morphology, relates the way in which words are formed from

their meaningful parts The other major level of grammatical organization, Syntax, refers to

the arrangement of words into larger units such as phrases or sentences

Firstly, in terms of Morphology, there appear cases in which inflectional morphemes

can be added or omitted in a language Additionally, morphological differences may be due toregularization or simplification and these differences can carry a great deal of socialsignificance in a society, and listeners draw sharp distinctions between dialects and standardspeaking groups on the basis of the use or non-use of regularized morphological forms Inpart, the prominence of regularized morphological forms may be attributed to the fact that all

tendency is overcome only by paying special attention to the irregular forms, which must belearned by rote since they are not as linguistically "natural" as regularized forms This focusedattention on learning these forms subsequently makes them sensitive to social marking Inother words, because speakers of standard varieties may have struggled to learn irregularforms during their school years, they will be quick to notice when regularized forms are usedand just as quick to stimatize speakers to use them Furthermore, it should be noticed that notall dialect word formation processes are the result of regularization and simplification It mayinvolve complications as well as simplification.

The other major level of grammatical organization called Syntax refers to the

arrangements of words into larger units such as phrases or sentences As with morphology, it

is found that the tendency toward making meaning differences transparent may lead to dialectdifferentation in syntax For example, it is common in English language for the speakers ofdialect variaties to use auxiliary, or helping verbs to give verbs special meanings that can beonly indicated in standard variaties through adding a good bit of additional materials to thesentence if the meaning can be conveyed at all Syntactic differences may involve specialauxiliaries, types of structures that can co-occur with particular verbs, agreements amongdifferent elements in the sentences or linear arrangement of words in phrases or sentences

1.2.2 4 La n g u age u sa g e a n d

Prag m a t i c s

Knowing a language involves more than knowing the meanings of words and thephonological and grammatical structures of the language In every language and dialect, thereare a variety of ways to convey the same information or accomplish the same purpose, and thechoice of how to say something may depend on who is talking to whom under what social

circumstances Therefore, the term Pragmatics is used to refer to how language is used in context to achieve particular purposes And in Pragmatics, one important concept is the

speech act, which refers to an utterance that accomplishes a social action, such as requesting,making a promise, complimenting, or apologizing

Speakers of all languages and dialects are quite capable of performing the same basickinds of speech acts but how these speech acts are carried out and the conditions under whichthey are considered to be appropriate varies considerably across cultural groups Statements

may be strong or direct or they may be softer and less direct Additionally, different social andcultural groups often have contrasting expectations about the appropriate use of direct orindirect expressions Related to the issue of cultural differences in directness is the distinctionbetween literal and non-literal language use Conventions for interpreting statements as literal

or non-literal vary considerably among different social and cultural groups, as does the valueaccorded to literal vs non-literal language use For example, Shirley Brice Heath (1983) cited

in Wolfram W& Schiling-Estes (1998) found that European Americans in one particularworking class community valued perfectly factual children's stories more highly than AfricanAmericans in the same community, who placed higher value on stories embellished by non-literal language use, including invented quotations This contrast contributed to the negativevaluation of African American children by school teachers, since story telling conventions inthe classroom setting were largely reflective of mainstream Although there are many types oflanguage- use differences, it is also stated in Wolfram W& Schiling-Estes (1998) that acouple of areas are particularly sensitive to variation involving address forms, greeting, leave-taking, turn taking, overlapping, backchanneling, so on and so forth

Many linguists like Crystal, D (1997), Downes, W (1998), or Labov (2005) all claimthat American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the UnitedStates They, therefore, argue that American English is in fact a variation of British English

Other linguists like Edgar Schneider (2003) quoted in Wolfram W& Schiling-Estes,

N (1998) showed that in the process of its development, American English has evolvedthrough a number of different stages, from the simple transplantation of wide range of Britishdialects to the Americas to the internal diversification of dialects within America EdgarSchneider (2003) further suggests that there are five stages that can be applied to the spread of

English to different locations across the world, including "its movement to and development

within the United States."

In the initial phase called the Foundation stage, English was used on a regular basis infive primary cultural hearths including Jametown, Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston, and NewOrleans where it was not used previously The second phase namely ExonormativeStabilization witnessed the consideration influence of British norms in American languagedespite American resistance to British English In the next phase, Nativiation, there was afundamental transition towards independence - politically, culturally, and linguistically; as aconsequence, unique linguistic usages and structures of American English emerged This alsocreated the differentiation of American English from British English In the fourth phaseknown as End normative, the new-established country America adopted its own languagenorms rather than adhering to external norms while in the last phase, Differentiation, theAmerican English dialect evolve in its own, and quite different from British English In short,

in such as progression, we can see how language variation in the United States has developedfrom its initial roots in the English language of the early British colonists to its current state inwhich the dialects of American English are viewed as the regional and cultural manifestations

of diversity solely within America

1.3.2 Features of American English

As the author has mentioned in the previous part, American English is a dialect ofBritish English Although all Americans do not speak the same way, their speech has enough

in common that American English can be recognized as a variety of English distinct fromBritish English, Australian English, and other national varieties American Englishundoubtedly have certain distinguished linguistic characteristics in comparison with BritishEnglish The differences between American English and British English has been investigated

by many linguists like Mencken, H.L (1962), Lippi-Green (1997) and such features can besummarized as follows:

First of all, in terms of phonology, the difference in words pronunciation betweenBritish and American English is little while in some cases there are differences betweenAmerican English and British English in the rhythm of words

Secondly, in terms of inflexional forms, the difference is not much For example, theplural nouns and verb tenses of the two English have not diverged very much Thousands of

nouns form their plurals in regular fashion in the manner of boy-boys; girl-girls; bus-buses Even certain irregular nouns such as knife-knives; tooth-teeth or sheep-sheep have the same

form in these two different places Furthermore, there are of about 120 or more irregular verbs

like get-got in English language And the point here is that both American English and British

one share the irregularities For most of the verbs, two forms of the language are pretty identical

well-Thirdly, in terms of word order for the arrangement of the words into phrases andsentences, British and American English are similar

Fourthly, in terms of lexical field, unlike British English, American English is variousfor there are many loan words in present - day American English Certain languages that havecontributed to the diversity of American English include Indian, French, Spanish, Dutch,Germans, Africans and others Moreover, millions of people from different parts of the worldwho have settled in American have also contributed to American English to make it moreplentiful

Additionally, the different varieties of English do use different words for many words

that are slightly less common, for example, British crisps for American potato chips It is even

more common for the same word to exist with different meanings in different varieties of

English Corn is a general term in Britain, for which Americans use grain, while corn in

American English is a specific kind of grain Many of the words most easily recognized asAmerican in origin are associated with aspects of American popular culture, such as

gangster or cowboy.

Finally, in terms of every day communication and text-o-logy, American have atendency of expressing their opinion by brief statements through simple sentences or clausesrather than complex sentences Moreover, thanks to their religious beliefs, they like to usereligious expressions in communication with each other

1.4 Southwestern American English - a dialect of American English

The investigation of the regional dialects of American English has been a majorconcern for dialectologists and sociolinguists since at least the early part of the twenty century.Linguists have additionally long debated the precise place of regional dialect studies in theoverall investigation of language variation However, this M.A thesis is mainly based on thetheory developed by Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schiling-Estes (1998) to explore in moredetails one of the variations of American English, i.e Southwestern American English Thereare two main important reasons for this choice that is firstly, the setting of the novel analyzed

in this thesis is in the South-west of America and much more importantly, the theory aboutSouth-western American English developed by these two authors, in the researcher' opinion, iseasy to understand and follow

According to Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schiling-Estes (1998), the distinctive features

of Southwestern American English are numerous in comparison with the so-called standardAmerican English Nonetheless, within this study, the author just focuses on phonological,grammatical and lexical features and such features can be summarized as follows:

1.4.1 Phonological features of Southwestern American English

The distinctive features of American English in terms of phonology can be sub-dividedinto features related to consonants including consonant deletion and consonant changing theirfeatures; features related to vowels like vowel shift and vowel deletion; and features related toconnected speech such as elision, contraction, assimilation, liaison, juncture

1.4.1.1 F e at u r e s r e lat e d to c o n so n a n ts

There are a variety of phonological items in Southwestern American English differentfrom the so-called standard American including the consonant deletion and consonantschanging their features

1.4.1.1.1 Consonant deletion

a Unstressed initial syllable loss

In Southwestern American vernacular, the general process of deleting unstressed initial

syllables in informal speech style of general American English such as 'cause for because is

extended; as a result, a wide range of word classes including nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc and

a wide range of initial syllable types are affected by the process of deleting unstressed initialsyllables

The following are certain examples of this process

b Dropping of final consonant sounds

A certain consonant sounds, especially [t] and [d], are dropped when they are at theend of the words Some examples of this phenomenon are:

1.4.1.2 Consonant changing their features

a th sounds

There are a number of different processes that affect th sounds for the phonetic production of it is sensitive to the position of th in the word and the sound adjacent to it Consequently, a number of changes with th sound can be seen in American English of people

in the Southwest depending on its position in the words

At the beginning of words th tends to be produced as a corresponding stop, as in dey for they or even it can be dropped like the → de , that → dat

In word-final position and between vowels within a word, th tends to become d like such words as wid (for with) or furder (further)

b g - dropping

g - dropping is commonly found in Southwestern American English It is the process in

which the nasal segment represented phonetically as [η]] (often spelled ng) is produced as the sound [n] Consequently, this process makes the final nasal segment of taken [tekin] and takin' [tekin] phonetically the same This process takes place when the ng occurs in an unstressed

syllable at the end of a word

c Instructive t

A small set of items, usually ending in [s] and [f] in the so-called standard American

English is produced with a final t in Southwestern American English This results in a final consonant cluster Typical items affected by this process are oncet, twicet, clifft and acrosst.

The following table summarizes phonological features related to consonants ofSouthwestern American English according to Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schiling-Estes (1998)

T

a b le 1

Phonological features related to consonants of Southwestern American English

Form used Standard

form

Consonants deletions

Certain consonants, especially ones

in unstressed positions, are deleted

in American English

an'goin''cause

andgoing becauseConsonants changing

their features

Certain consonants like t or th

change their features whenproduced in words

Denwid oncet

thenwith once

Figure 1

The Southwestern American English vowel shift (Adapted from Labov 1991)

in such words as 'long or b'long.

1.4.1.3 F e at u r e s r e lat e d to c o nn ec t e d sp eec h

Three different types of features related to connected speech may be noticed in western American English basing on the theory of Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schiling-Estes(1998) including elision, contraction, and assimilation

South-1.4.1.3.1 Elision

Elision is the process in which appears the cutting off or suppression of a vowel orsyllable, for the sake of meter or euphony and the dropping of a final vowel standing before aninitial vowel in the following word, when the two words are drawn together are realized

E

xa m p l e s:

1.4.1.3.2 Contraction

Contraction is a shortened form of a word or group of words, with the omitted letters

often replaced in written English by an apostrophe, as e'er for ever, isn't for is not, or dep't for department.

Contraction can appear in three types namely positive contraction like he'd; I've;

you're, negative contraction as in aren't; can't; won't and informal contraction Among the

three mentioned, it is essential for the author to explain more about the last type, informalcontraction

Informal contractions are short forms of other words that people use when speaking

casually They are not exactly slang, but they are a little like slang For example, "gonna" is a short form of "going to" If you say "going to" very fast, without carefully pronouncing each

word, it can sound like "gonna" It is noticeable that unlike other normal contractions, we donot usually use apostrophes (') with informal contractions when written

1.4.1.3.3 Assimilation

Assimilation is a common phonological process by which the phonetics of a speechsegment becomes more like that of another segment in a word (or at a word boundary) For

example, in the utterance "don't be silly" where the /n/ and /t/ in "don't" are assimilated to /m/

and /p/ by the following /b/, where said naturally in many accents and discourse styles("dombe silly")

E

xa m p l e s :

Gimme (The oral labio-dental fricative /v/ is assimilated by the bilabial nasal stop /m/)

Lemme (The oral alveolar stop /t/ is assimilated by the bilabial nasal stop /m/)

1.4.2 Grammatical features of Southwestern American English

Southwestern American English has a variety of different grammatical features incomparison with the so-called standard American English The prominent ones includefeatures related to verb phrases like the irregular verbs, co-occurrence relations and meaningchange, special auxiliary form or absence of subject-verb agreements; features related toadverb; features related to noun phrases; features related to adjective phrases, the negation,etc

1.4.2.1 F e at u r e s r e lat e d to ve rb p h ras e s

Many of the significant grammatical structures involved aspect of verb phrases inAmerican English are distinguishably identified in the Southwest of America includingirregular verbs, co-occurrence relations and meaning changes, special auxiliary forms, andabsence of subject-verb agreements

1.4.2.1.1 Irregular verbs

There are three ways in which irregular verb patterns differently in standard and western vernacular These differences are as follows:

South-First of all, certain participle can function as the past form in the sentences as in It

wasn't I who done it.

Secondly, making language forms as regular and straightforward as possible leads tothe regularization of certain irregular verbs ending with diphthongs having a regular 'ed' past

tense inflection like knowed, waked, etc.

Thirdly, even certain bare roots can also be used as past form

1.4.2.1.2 Co-occurrence relations and meaning changes

There are a number of different types of constructions that can co-occur with certainverbs in Southwestern vernacular There are also meaning changes that affect particular verbs.These constructions and meaning changes include the following types:

Firstly, some complement structures can co-occur with particular verbs, which can be

quite different from standard American English and other vernacular dialects as in All we

got to do is to arrive on time.

Secondly, some verbs can be followed by particle forms like go to fishing.

Thirdly, there appears also the use of progressive with stative verbs as in:

Fourthly, Southwestern American English also exhibits the so-called reciprocal verbs,i.e the verbs indicating similar relationships of converseness are reduced to a single verb withlittle or no negative social repercussion For example, the verb "learn" which can only take theperson or people who are the recipients of the knowledge as an object can co-occur with a

subject indicating the person who is conveying knowledge to someone else as in I'll learn you.

1.4.2.1.3 Special auxiliary forms

There are a number of special uses of auxiliary forms that set apart SouthwesternAmerican English from the standard American English Many of these auxiliaries indicatesubtle but significant meanings related to the duration or type of activity indicated by verbs orverb aspect These special uses include the followings:

First of all, an a-prefixing may occur on -ing form functioning as verbs or

complements of verbs It can also be attached to other verb forms such as participles or simplepast forms as in:

I'm going in a-fishing

It would a-spoiled everything.

Secondly, the form done when used with a past tense verb may mark a completed

action or event in a way somewhat different from single past tense form In this use, theemphasis is on the completive aspect or the fact that the action has been fully completed The

done form may also add intensification to the activity.

Thirdly, be form may be absent However, it's important to note that this absence takes place only on contractible forms as in You bad guy.

1.4.2.1.4 Subject-verb agreements

There are a number of different subject-verb agreement patterns including thefollowing things

The first pattern is involved in the leveling to is for present tense form of be.

Women's always beautiful.

Secondly, s can be absent on third-person singular forms.

And God forgive you

Another pattern of subject and verb agreement is the agreement with the form "don’t"

in

: It don't

hurt any more.

Fourthly,

was

can also

be thepast tense form

of be

for allthe subjects

m e

Y o u

t w o

w a s

s o

n a u g h t y

Finally, the existential there can also have special agreement in Southwestern

American English

There's flowers everywhere

1.4.2.2 F e at u r e s r e lat e d to adj ec ti v e p h ras e s

There are certain differences involving in the structures of adjective phrases ofSouthwestern American English in comparison with the standard language

Firstly, the comparative and superlative inflections -er and -est are used after a long

adjective as in:

This is the pleasantest news he had ever heard.

Secondly, there appears the comparative form of an adjective expressed through both

morphological and analytical ways such as”It's surer."

Thirdly, adjectives can be used as adverbs as in: "It's got to be done very careful" 1.4.2.3 F e at u r e s r e lat e d to n o u n p h ras e s

Distinctive features related to noun phrases in American language of the Southwestinclude:

The first feature is the absence of a determiner before a singular noun as in utterance

like "Yes, bean's good I've done that"

Secondly, it is the use of the objective pronoun as a determiner before a plural noun

For example, "Well, where did you see him car?"

Finally, it is also noticeable that there sometimes appears the plural inflection of

indefinite pronouns like somewhere, everywhere

1.4.2.4 M u ltiple n e gati o n

The major vernacular negation features of Southwestern American English are the use

of double negative or multiple negation.

Multiple negation is the use of not only the negation of the main verb or the auxiliaryverb It includes the marking of the negative on the auxiliary verbs and the indefinitesfollowing the verbs at the same time The use of multiple negation is just to make sure thatlisteners pick up the negative meaning of their utterances Linguistically, the attachment of the

negative element on indefinite forms through the sentences makes negation more transparentthan in its standard American English counterpart where it can only be attach at one point

straightforward as possible by adding the inflectional ending n This is especially prominent in

the language of rural people

What are you going to do with your money?

Secondly, there appears the absence of the possessive suffix -s as in Mrs Daisy told

about her daughter studying result in a merry voice In this case, the ending has been lost

because in essence, it is the redundant marker The positioning of her daughter and studying

result is sufficient to indicate the possessive relationship.

Finally, the extension of object forms to possessives also occurs:

I can’t stand them ways.

1.4.2.6 Existential " they"

As used in sentences such as There are four people in school and There's a picture on

T.V., the American English form there is called an Existential since it indicates the mere

existence of something rather than specific location Southwestern Americans tend to use they for there in existential constructions.

E

xa m p l e s :

They isn’t anybody in the room.

They isn't anybody as polite as her.

1.4.2.7 A d ve rbs

There are several different kinds of patterns affecting adverbs in Southwestern

American English involving -ly absence, the use of intensifying adverb mighty and double

She sings beautiful.

1.4.2.7.2 Intensifying adverb mighty

The intensifying adverb mighty is used as a helping verb form to intensify particular attributes or activities with the meaning of very or really as in:

I'd feel mighty shaky if I saw him.

1.4.2.8 Q u e stion ord e r

Involving in the syntactic features, the basic linear arrangement of words in phrasesand sentences in Southwestern American English is somewhat different from other vernaculardialect One of these differences is in the question order For example, in 'standard' AmericanEnglish and some other dialects, the order of questions is normally patterned with the questionword first followed by the auxiliary verb, the subject and the main verb In Southwestern

American English, however, the ordering of words in questions may be different as in What

you are doing here?

The most prominent feature of lexical features of American English in the Southwest is

the use of non-standard forms of the verbs 'to have' and 'to be' in forms of ain't, warn't and

hain't in different morphological realisations.

Firstly, ain't is used as the present negative form of 'to be' in its third person singular

form (is not); in its first person plural, second person and third person plural form (are not) and also in its first person singular (am not) like in the following examples:

E

xa m p l e s :

He ain't an honest person.

We ain't from Florida.

I ain't good at Mathematics.

Secondly, warn't is used as the past negative form of 'to be' in its first person and third person singular form (was not) and in its second person and third person plural form (were not):

He warn't born in this village

Those boys warn't naughty at all.

Thirdly, hain't is used as the present negative form of 'to have' in its third person singular form (has not) and in its other forms (have not)

Moreover, there also appear a number of words used only in the Southwest of

American English and not found in modern standard American English like goner, chap,

goody, etc Some of these items are entered in the dictionary as slang words and some othercolloquial items are not entered in the dictionary

1.5 Mark Twain and "The adventures of Tom Sawyer"

1.5.1 Mark Twain- The first " truly" American writer.

1.5.1.1 T w ai n 's biogra p h y

The man who would become known as Mark Twain was born Samuel LanghorneClemens in Florida, Missouri, in 1835, and grew up in nearby Hannibal, a small MississippiRiver town

The young Clemens grew up in a prosperous family—his father owned a grocery store

as well as a number of slaves—but he was sent out to work at the age of twelve after his

father’s death As a young man, he traveled frequently, working as a printer’s typesetter and as

a steamboat pilot In this latter profession he gained familiarity with the river life that wouldfurnish much material for his writing He also gained his pen name, Mark Twain, which is ameasure of depth in steamboat navigation

Twain enlisted in the Confederate militia in 1861, early in the Civil War, but he soonleft to pursue a career in writing and journalism in Nevada and San Francisco His articles andstories became immensely popular in the decades that followed On the strength of thisgrowing literary celebrity and financial success, he moved east in the late 1860s and marriedOlivia Langdon, the daughter of a prominent Elmira, New York, family Twain and Langdon

settled in Hartford, Connecticut; there Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which he published in 1876 Twain proceeded to write, among other things, The Adventures of

Huckleberry Finn (1884) and two sequels to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894) and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896) He died in 1910, one of America’s most

beloved humorists and storytellers

1.5.1.2 T w ai n 's w r iti n g st y le

During early to mid-19th century, as America sought enhanced definition as a nation,there were several calls for a national literature William Ellery Channing, Ralph WaldoEmerson, and Walt Whitman were particularly forceful in their plea for a literature that wouldcapture the spiritual essence of the new nation’s beliefs, and the distinctive character of thenew nation’s people Mark Twain is generally acknowledged as the founder of Americanrealistic literature whose work opened up a new area for American literature to develop

Many critics consider Twain as a realistic writer (cf High, 1986; Gerber, 1993; Van

Spanckren, 1994 and Wonham, 1996) Twain himself speaks about 'the native novelist' who has the ability to give an accurate description of the nation's experience: "its soul, its life, its

speech, its thought" (Twain 1895 cited in Wonham, 1996: 1) Wonham (1996: 1) argues that

"Literary creativity, according to Twain, depends on the unconscious accumulation of local

knowledge, for the writer is ultimately less a creator than an 'Observer of Peoples'" In this

sense, the writer is a 'regional specialist' who observes his nation, shares its life and reports it.

Wonham further argues that the best writings of Twain were when he dealt with village life

Additionally, Twain is justly renowned as humorist He portrayals of uniquelyAmerican subjects in a humorous, colloquial and poetic language are of great culturalsignificance It helped to appreciate the end of American revenge for British and Europeanculture and for the formal language associated with these cultures His adherence to Americanthemes settings and language set him apart from many other novelists of his day and had apowerful effect on American writers of the later generations For instance, Twain’s influence

as a master of the vernacular was demonstrated by Ellison’s friend and fellow novelist Saul

Bellow Bellow’s first two novels were small-scale “literary” works But his third novel, The

Adventures of Augie March (1953), whose very title is a kind of tribute to Twain, was a majorbreakthrough in his career It is a large, sprawling book, narrated in the lively, slangy, veryAmerican voice of Augie himself, and filled with vivid characters and both grotesque andhilarious incidents It’s the reason why Faulkner at a literary conference in Japan in 1955,

called Twain “the father of American literature … the first truly American writer, and all of us

since are his heirs.”

To sum up, the author of this study relies on Dean Howells' (1817) comments about

Mark Twain's distinct stylistic traits as "the Lincoln of our literature" as the followings:

Firstly, he is excellent in the frequent use of dialect or more specifically, the use ofSouthwestern American English Dialect is the distinctive way that a group of people from alocal area speaks For example, people in Northern Minnesota have a different dialect thanpeople from West Virginia; they have different accents Twain was an excellent recorder ofdialects, and was passionate about recording the way people spoke exactly He felt so strongly

about it that at the beginning of his book "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," he states,

"In this book a number of different dialects are used," and then he goes on to explain each and every type of dialect that he uses, so that "readers would [not] suppose that all these

characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding."

Secondly, his social commentary is much more subtle than the satire of other writers After all,

there have been many a reader of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," or "The Prince and the Pauper" who have enjoyed

these

narratives told by seemingly artless narrators without realizing Twain's cynicism toward

society A simple line from "Connecticut Yankee" such as: "The old abbot's joy to see

me was pathetic Even to tears; but he did the shedding himself" points to this cynicism.

Thirdly, Twain was known as a humorist and demonstrated a playful quality in most of

his writings This is evident throughout the book The Autobiography of Mark Twain, in which

he uses humorous phrases to describe situations, such as when wasps are crawling up the leg

of a boy so stricken with shyness by some girls in the room that he cannot move Twain

describes the wasps as ''prospecting around,'' and says that' 'one group of excursionists after

another climbed up Jim's legs and resented even the slightest wince or squirm that he indulged

himself with in his misery.’’ By employing interesting words like "excursionists" in obviously

unconventional ways, Twain elicits a laugh from his readers Twain's humor, however, alsohas a sharp edge to it when it is aimed at somebody else He does this when he wants to vilifysomeone whom he feels has wronged him For example, when explaining that Webster'sbusiness manager at the publishing company came from the same town as Webster and his

lawyer, Twain says, ‘‘We got all our talents from that stud farm at Dunkirk.’’ A stud farm is a

place where quality horses are bred By referring to the three young men who sink the

business as ' 'talents’’ who came from a ' 'stud farm,'' Twain is suggesting just the opposite—

that the men have no talent and they come from low stock

Finally, as an American humorous writer, Mark Twain is especially praised for hisvarious using of idioms In his works, Twain is an inventive writer who is very good at varioususing of idioms to make his story lively and thus humorous

1.5.1.3 T h e u se of dial ec t ve r n a c u lar in T w ai n 's w orks

The use of vernacular dialects in literature undoubtedly has a variety of functions.According to Wolfram (309):

"Dialect in literature is a helpful tool that an author may use in order to make his or her characters well-rounded By using a certain dialect for a character, the author is actually telling the reader more about that character's background without directly stating anything It is a subconscious detail that readers sometimes rarely notice if they are caught up in the book."

Sharing the same point of view, Katie, K (1996) states that the vernacular that eachcharacter (in a literary work) presents controls the mind of the reader and allows the reader tobecome more involved in the story.

As discussed in the previous chapter, Mr Clemens is well-known for his great use of

vernacular Dean Howells (1817) has stated that "He (Twain) writes English as if it were a

primitive and not a derivative language" (1817: 169) In comparison with other writers of his

time like Henry James, Milton or Thackeray whose language is scholarly and conscious,

Twain's one is "real American" or more specifically "Western" words Alexander, S also

claims that the dialects Twain uses in his works, especially in the two novels "The adventures

of Tom Sawyer" and "The adventures of Huckleberry Berry Finn," allow the reader to

have a closer connection to the setting of the story and also permits for the story to be morebelievable and understandable

Being born on the Missouri river, which was not only Western but also Southern, Mr.Clemens found himself placed in and under Westerners, near to a world of obsolete nature andprimitive He understands the life of South westerners that through his works, the readers can

almost "breathe" the atmosphere of the daily life in the Southwest.

In short, we can borrow the words of Ralph Ellison, whose Invisible Man (1952) is

considered one of the greatest American novels since World War II, explained in an essay

what Twain had meant to him and to American literature: “Mark Twain …

transformed elements of regional vernacular speech into a medium of uniquely American literary expression and thus taught us how to capture that which is essentially American in our folkways and manners For indeed the vernacular process is a way of establishing and discovering our national identity."

1.5.2 The adventures of Tom Sawyer

"The adventures of Tom Sawyer" is considered one of the most successful by Mark Twain and a typical of his style The fictionalized setting of Twain’s "The adventures of

Tom Sawyer" was St Petersburg, which was given model from Twain's hometown Hannibal,

a small Mississippi River town

As its title indicates, the novel deals with the adventures of Tom Sawyer, a prototypemischievous boy who hates school and looks for treasure In all his adventures, Tom wasaccompanied by other characters with whom he interacts linguistically: he lived with his auntPolly, his half-brother Sid and his cousin Mary; he went with his friend Huck to the graveyardwhere they witnessed the murder of Dr Robinson by Injun Joe; he fell in love with BeckyThatcher, and had an adventure with her when they got lost in the cave; he ran away with hisfriends Joe Harper and Huck Finn to an island to become pirates; and he discovered a treasurewith Huck

Twain based The Adventures of Tom Sawyer largely on his personal memories of

growing up in Hannibal in the 1840s In his preface to the novel, he states that “[m]ost of the

adventures recorded in this book really occurred” and that the character of Tom Sawyer has a

basis in “a combination of three boys whom I knew.” Indeed, nearly every figure in the

novel comes from the young Twain’s village experience: Aunt Polly shares manycharacteristics with Twain’s mother; Mary is based on Twain’s sister Pamela; and Sidresembles Twain’s younger brother, Henry Huck Finn, the Widow Douglas, and even InjunJoe also have real-life counterparts, although the actual Injun Joe was more of a harmlessdrunk than a murderer

In the novel, the author introduces a variety of characters belonging to different socialbackgrounds (the wealthy, the poor, ethnic minorities, old and young people…) and describestheir beliefs, their superstitions and their social interactions

As one of the America's best-loved tales, "The adventures of Tom Sawyer" not only

appeals to the children as the exciting adventures of a typical boy during the mid-nineteenthcentury but also to the adult readers who wants to look back on his/ her own childhood withfond reminiscences Consequently, it is no doubt that Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer to this dayremains perhaps the most popular and widely read of all Twain’s works

The content of the novel can be summarized as followed:

The book begins in St Petersburg, Missouri, a small village on the banks of theMississippi River in the mid−1800s Tom, a mischievous boy, is hiding from his Aunt Pollywhile stealing jam from the pantry When caught, he runs away and goes swimming instead ofgoing to school.

The next day, Aunt Polly punishes him for playing hokey by making him whitewashtheir entire fence Tom instead convinces the other boys in town that whitewashing is fun andgets them to do all the work for him Aunt Polly lets him go and he goes to play with his friendJoe The two boys have wild imaginations and a taste for getting into trouble On his wayhome from playing, Tom sees a beautiful girl and falls in love with her

That Sunday, the whole family must go to church At Sunday school, Tom trades otherboys for tickets that will earn him a free Bible To actually earn the Bible, children mustcollect tickets by learning two thousand Bible verses Tom's new love, Becky Thatcher, arrives

at Sunday school with her father, a judge Tom proudly claims his Bible in front of everyone,but cannot name the first two disciples when questioned by Judge Thatcher At church, heentertains himself by playing with a pinch bug, which bites a dog and causes a hugedisruption

On his way to school on Monday, Tom runs into Huckleberry Finn, the son of the towndrunk Huck is homeless, can't read and lives a wild life Tom is late for school, and forpunishment is forced to sit next to Becky, which he is happy about At lunch, Tom and Beckymeet and Tom convinces her that they should get engaged and kiss She does kiss him, butTom lets it slip that he was already engaged to someone else, and she rejects him Tom skipsthe rest of school and meets Joe in the woods to play Robin Hood At midnight, Tom andHuck sneak into the graveyard Once there, they hear people coming and hide Dr Robinsonarrives with Injun Joe, an evil criminal, and Muff Potter They are stealing bodies from thegrave The men argue Muff Potter is knocked out, and Injun Joe murders Dr Robinson Tomand Huck run away, fearing for their lives When Muff Potter awakes, Injun Joe tells him that

he, not Injun Joe, murdered the Doctor