The lexical features of english used in travel brochures in vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTYOF POST GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ THU HƯƠNG THE LEXICAL FEATURES OF ENGLISH USED IN TRAVEL BROCH

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY

OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THỊ THU HƯƠNG

THE LEXICAL FEATURES OF ENGLISH USED IN

TRAVEL BROCHURES IN VIETNAM

(Đặc điểm của từ vựng Tiếng Anh được sử dụng trong

các quảng cáo du lịch ở Việt Nam)

MASTER’S THESIS PROGRAM I

Major: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01

Hanoi - 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY

OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THỊ THU HƯƠNG

THE LEXICAL FEATURES OF ENGLISH USED IN

TRAVEL BROCHURES IN VIETNAM

(Đặc điểm của từ vựng Tiếng Anh được sử dụng trong

các quảng cáo du lịch ở Việt Nam)

MASTER’S THESIS PROGRAM I

Major: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01

Supervisor: Dr Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm

Hanoi - 2019

I hereby declare that this thesis has been composed by myself and it has not beensubmitted, in whole or in part, for any other degree or professional qualification.This study is my own work, except where stated otherwise by references

Signature

This study would have been impossible without the kind assistance of many people

to whom I would like to express my appreciation and sincere thanks

I owe a great debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm, whoconstantly provided me with invaluable recommendations, prompt feedback andmeticulous attention Her great understanding and unfailing encouragement inspire

me to complete the research in a diligent manner

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the lecturers of the Post GraduateDepartment for their tremendous help and for conveying comprehensive knowledge

to me and my classmates during the past two years

Finally, special thanks are due to my family, friends and colleagues for theirboundless love and firm support

Considering the increasing popularity of Viet Nam as an attractive travel destination

in the world, numerous promotional materials have been created by incorporatingwords and images to entice potential foreign customers to come to Viet Nam Thepresent study is conducted in order to reveal the lexical features of English used intravel brochures written by Vietnamese to manifest and demonstrate the persuasivepromotional function of the tourism discourse It is also necessary to considerVietnamese English in these brochures as a variety of English in the ExpandingCircle The data in this study include nine travel brochures and were analysedquantitatively and qualitatively The results of this study suggest that there are fourout of five analyzed lexical features of travel brochures in Viet Nam occurringfrequently, namely lexical borrowing, descriptive adjectives, modal verbs andpersonal pronouns Nativized word formation processes were not detected in thesetravel brochures

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

LISTS OF FIGURES viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 1

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Significance of the study 2

1.6 Organization of the thesis 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 3

2.1 English as a global language 3

2.2 World Englishes today 5

2.3 Different models of World Englishes 7

2.3.1 A dualistic view of the status of English 7

2.3.2 A trinalistic view of the status of English 8

2.3.3 A monist view on the status of English 9

2.4 Varieties of English in Southeast Asia 10

2.4.1 Phonological features 11

2.4.2 Syntactic features 12

2.4.3 Discoursal features 13

2.4.4 Lexical features 13

2.5 English for tourism 14

2.6 Travel brochures as a special kind of genre 16

2.7 Theoretical framework 17

2.7.1 Lexical borrowing 17

2.7.2 Nativized word formation processes 19

2.7.3 Descriptive adjectives 22

2.7.4 Modal verbs 24

2.7.5 Personal pronouns 25

2.8 Review of previous studies 26

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 30

3.1 Data corpus 30

3.2 Data collection 30

3.3 Data analytical framework 31

3.4 Data analyzing procedure 32

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 34

4.1 Lexical borrowing 34

4.1.1 Transliteration 34

4.1.2 Loan translation 36

4.1.3 Loan blend (hybrids) 38

4.2 Nativized word formation processes 38

4.3 Descriptive adjectives 38

4.3.1 Miscellaneous descriptive (MD) 39

4.3.2 Evaluative/ emotive (EE) 41

4.3.3 Adjectives which describe the size, quantity and extent (SQE), time descriptors (T), color descriptors (C) and location descriptors (L) 44

4.3.4 Superlatives 45

4.4 Modal verbs 46

4.5 Personal pronouns 47

4.6 Others 49

4.7 Discussion 50

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 52

5.1 Recapitulation 52

5.2 Limitations of the study 53

5.3 Recommendations for further studies 53

Miscellaneous descriptiveReceived PronunciationSize/ quantity/ extentTime

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 The Corpus of nine travel brochures 30

Table 3.2 Analytical framework 31

Table 4.1 Examples of transliteration in Vietnamese travel brochures 35

Table 4.2 Examples of loan translation in travel brochures 38

Table 4.3 Descriptive adjectives used in the travel brochures 39

Table 4.4 Twenty most frequent MD group descriptors 41

Table 4.5 Twenty most frequent EE group descriptors 43

Table 4.6 Ego- targeting adjectives/ no of instances per 100 words 44

Table 4.7 The number of modal verbs “will” and “can” in each brochure 46

LISTS OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 The Life Cycle of Non- Native Englishes 6

Figure 2.2 Kachru‟s Concentric Cirles 8

Figure 2.3 The English Umbrella 9

Figure 4.1 Descriptive adjectives used in the travel brochures 40

Figure 4.2 Personal pronouns “you”, “we” and their corresponding 48

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

Tourism industry is now one of the biggest industries in the world and travelling isalways in great demand There is a growing tendency for people to travel abroadand Vietnam is a favourite destination for foreigners As a result, the necessity ofpropagandizing Vietnam tourist destinations arises Travelers require accurateinformation about the destinations and they are not able to test- drive a destinationbefore purchase; therefore, one of the most effective ways of propagation is usingtravel brochures written in English It is clear that English language plays anintegral role as the powerful tool for communication in global community, forunderstanding and exchanging ideas among people all over the world In tourismindustry, English is used as a means to communicate, negotiate and executetransactions with tourists by tourism employees

Dann (1996, p.2) found that tourism is an “act of promotion with a discourse of itsown”; indeed, “the language of tourism attempts to persuade, lure, woo and seducemillions of human beings, and, in doing so, convert them from potential into actualclients” The language of tourism becomes an important tool in the image creationprocess; consequently, an understanding of this language is crucial According toFluck (1885) domination of specialized professional vocabulary is one of thefeatures of the language used in tourism A lot of studies have been conducted onthe language and the discourse of tourism texts; however, little has been done on thelinguistic features of brochures written by people in Expanding Circle countries likeViet Nam As such, this study attempts to analyse the lexical features of Englishused in travel brochures in Viet Nam

The aim of this paper is to gain insight into the English lexical features of travelbrochures written in Viet Nam, since there has been no previous research on thistopic The study is conducted to investigate the lexical aspects of travel brochures as

a promotional text and in the context of Viet Nam, a non- native English speakingcountry in Southeast Asia.

1.3 Research questions

The study seeks to address the following research question:

What are the lexical features of English used in travel brochures in Vietnam as a global language perspective?

1.4 Scope of the study

This study focuses on the prominent English lexical features in travel brochures inVietnam The corpus of this paper was limited to nine travel brochures collectedfrom the internet and printed brochures written by Vietnamese

1.5 Significance of the study

This study will be of benefit as the findings on lexical features can be applied as amodel for the writers of the genre to create effective travel brochures This studywill also be useful for further studies examining other aspects of travel brochuresand those examining English lexis of other genres

1.6 Organization of the thesis

This paper has been divided into five chapters

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: states the rationale for the study, the aims and

purposes, the research question, the significance, the scope and the structure of theresearch

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW: provides definitions of key concepts

and lays the theoretical background for the study

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLODY: describes the selection of subjects, data

collection, data analytical framework and data analysis procedure

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS: present, analyse, synthesize and

discuss the findings obtained from the collected data

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION: summarizes the main issues discussed throughout

the paper, points out limitations of the study and makes suggestions for further

research This part is followed by the References and Appendix.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 English as a global language

In his book English as a Global English, Crystal (1997) asserts that “A language

achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized

in every country” (p.2) Indeed, English is spreading throughout the world to theunprecedented extent that it is labelled „English as a global language‟ Ferguson(1982, in Kachru 1992, p.xv) claims that there has never before a single languagewhich has spread [as a lingua franca] over most of the world, as English has donethis century […] The spread of English is as significant in its way as is the modernuse of computers Kachru (1992, p.67) also highlights “the unique internationalposition of English, which is certainly unparalleled in the history of the world Forthe first time a natural language has attained the status of an international (universal)language, especially for cross- cultural communication The English language isgiven a global status, firstly because of varying degrees of English usage across theglobe: English is spoken by large numbers of people as a mother tongue (like in theUSA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, severalCaribbean countries and a sprinkling of other territories); English has been made theofficial language of many countries (e.g Ghana, Nigeria, India, Singapore andVanuatu), to be used as medium of communication in such domains as government,the law courts, the media, and the educational system; and English has been made apriority in many countries‟ foreign- language teaching (e.g China, Russia,Germany, Spain, Egypt, Brazil) These developments, says Crystal (1997), coupledwith economic developments on a global scale, new communications technologies,the explosion in international marketing and advertising and mass entertainment,have also supported the continued expansion of English as a global lingua franca

In 1991, Rushdie reported that „the English language ceased to be the solepossession of the English some time ago‟ Crystal (1997) also claims in his book

„English as a global language‟ that when even the largest English- speaking nation,the USA, turns out to have only about 20 percent of the world‟s English speakers, it

is plain that no one can now claim sole ownership The language now belongs tothose who use it as their first language, and to those who use it as an additionallanguage, whether in its standard form or in its localized forms Because of thespread of English on a world scale, an inevitable consequence is the emergence ofnew varieties of English in different territories where the language has taken root.These varieties are often termed „new Englishes‟ since the 1960s Halliday,McIntosh and Strevens wrote in 1964 that „English is no longer the possession ofthe British or even of the Americans, but … exists in an increasingly large number

of different varieties But the most important development of all is seen in theemergence of varieties that are identified with and are specific to particularcountries from among the former British colonies In West Africa, in the WestIndies, and in Pakistan and India … it is no longer accepted by the majority that theEnglish of England, with RP as its accent, are the only possible models of English

to be set before the young.‟ (Halliday, McIntosh, & Strevens 1964: 293) Kachruand Smith (1985:210) explains that „Englishes‟ symbolizes the functional andformal variation in the language, and its international acculturation Patil (2006)explains that “when English migrates to foreign countries, it diffuses andinternationalizes, acculturates and indigenizes, and adapts and diversifies The newusers absorb, re-orient, appropriate and transform it They liberate it to embody theenergies of their respective sensibilities”

New varieties of English retain some cultural and linguistic characteristics of the

“Standard English” (Kachru, 1992) but additionally represent and include manyaspects of the culture and language of the country in which the new Englishfunctions Kachru (1992) claims that New Englishes carry “repertoires ofsociocultural identities” Varieties of Englishes firstly include the Englishes ofcountries of the inner circle like Australian English, New Zealand English,Canadian English, South African English, Caribbean English, and, within Britain,

Irish, Scots, and Welsh English Varieties among the countries of the outer circlehave also grown in distinctiveness in recent decades like South Asian English,including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka There are also varieties ofEnglishes in the former British colonies in West Africa and East Africa Otheremerging varieties have been noted in the Caribbean and in parts of Southeast Asia,such as Singapore This paper aims at analyzing the features of English in Vietnam,

a country in Southeast Asia

2.2 World Englishes today

According to Kachru (1992), the term “World Englishes” symbolizes the functionaland formal variations, divergent sociolinguistic contexts, ranges and varieties ofEnglish in creativity, and various types of acculturation in parts of the Western andnon-Western world This concept emphasizes “WE-ness,” and not the dichotomybetween us and them (the native and non-native users)

When English enters a new sociocultural setting and comes into contact with otherlanguages, “nativization” and “Englishization” (Kachru, 1992) occur These twofaces of English focus on the reciprocal effects of language context: the effect onEnglish in a localized context (nativization), and the effect on local languages in thesame situation (Englishization)

Englishization refers to the manifest influences of English on other languages in agiven repertoire; levels of languages from pronunciation through literary genresmay be affected in discernible ways (Kachru, 2011) For instance, Kachru (2006)pointed out that Englishization can extend to the level of grammar, as in theadoption of impersonal constructions in Indian languages; or the use of passiveconstructions with a “by” equivalent in Korean, both of which have been traced toEnglish

According to Saghal (1991), nativization, also termed “indigenization” by Moag(1982, p.235), is the process of transferring a local language to a new culturalenvironment Honna (2003) (cited in Patel, 2006) explains that when Englishmigrates to foreign language, it diffuses and internationalizes, acculturates and

indigenizes, and adapts and diversifies, resulting in localized or nativized items Theadaptation of English in particular social- cultural settings leads to qualifyingdescriptors such as “Indian English”, “Singaporean English”, “Philippine English”,

“Hong Kong English”, and many other descriptors around the world The greatestdegree of nativization takes place at the lexical level In the new cultural setting,English confronts many new realia closely intertwined into the regional cultures andEnglish may lack suitable equivalents to express or represent them As a result,English accepts and receives the words used by the natives Crystal (2003) claimsthat nativisation at the lexical level in New Englishes is realised through variouscreative processes such as borrowing, semantic shift, affixation, compounding,clipping, abbreviation, blending and hybrid compounding

There are many stages in the nativizing process Moag (1982) proposed the cycle of non- native varieties with five stages: transportation, indigenization,expansion in use and function, institutionalization, and restriction of use andfunction The first four processes are considered significant constituents of the lifecycle and the fifth one does not apply in all cases

life-Figure 2.1 The Life Cycle of Non- Native Englishes (Kachru, 1992)

The first phase “transportation” refers to the arrival of English in a place it has notbeen used before At the second phase of “indigenization”, the new variety ofEnglish starts to adopt local culture and becomes distinct from the parent imported

variety, and from other indigenized varieties elsewhere Kachru (1977) has used

“nativization” in much the same sense In the initial phase of indigenization process,English- speaking newcomers come into contact with items of the local material andnonmaterial culture for which there are no equivalents in their home environment orlanguage (Kachru, 1992), which results in lexical borrowing The second phase ofindigenization process comes when members of the local colonial elite begin to useEnglish for communication among themselves (Kachru, 1992) The third stage

“Expansion in Use and Function” marks the increase in the use of local variety withthe broadening of its function to new domains, particularly education, the media,and government services According to Kachru (1992), this process sees the role ofEnglish shift from that of a foreign to a second language In the fourth stage, thenativized variety is institutionalized Several factors play an important role in theprocess of institutionalization In the final stage, there will be restriction of the useand function of English by state regulated policies, resulting in a decline in its usagewithin the country

The study of the varieties of English has been the subject of much debate, researchand publication Different linguists have proposed several models to classify theWorld Englishes, mainly including “New Englishes”, “Three Concentric Circles ofEnglish”, “English Umbrella”, “World English”, and “English as Internationallanguage” Chen (2011) proposes three groups of classifying the classifyingvarieties of Englishes: dualism, trinalism and monism

2.3.1 A dualistic view of the status of English

According to Chen (2011), in this dualistic view, Englishes are divided into twokinds: original English and new Englishes The new Englishes refer to the Englishvarieties in non- English speaking countries as many English varieties have emerged

in these countries and gained legal existence Platt, Weber and Ho (1984: 2-3) holdthat a New English necessary fulfills the following criteria: (1) It has developedthrough the education system (2) It has developed in an area where a

native variety of English was not the language spoken by most of the population (3)

It is used for a range of functions among those who speak or write it in the regionwhere it is used (4) It has become localized and nativized by adopting somelanguage features of the native language, such as sounds, intonation patterns,sentence structures, words and expressions

2.3.2 A trinalistic view of the status of English

The three-circle Model of World Englishes proposed by Kachru in 1985 includesthe Inner Circle, the Outer Circle and the Expanding Circle These circles represent

“the type of spread, the forms of acquisition and the functional spheres in whichEnglish is used across civilizations and linguistic communication” (Kachru, 1985,p.12)

Figure 2.2 Kachru’s Concentric Cirles (Crystal, 2003)

The Inner Circle refers to the traditional bases of English, wherein English is thenative language or the mother tongue, like the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia andNew Zealand The assortments of English in the Inner Circle are said to be „norm-providing‟, which means that English language norms are developed in thesecountries – English is the first language there

Most of the states in the Outer Circle are former settlements of the UK or the USA(mainly New Commonwealth countries), such as Malaysia, Singapore, India,Ghana, Kenya and others English plays an important “second language” role in amultilingual setting and has become a part in the nation‟s institutions The Englishused in the Outer Circle is considered as „norm-developing‟.

Countries included in the Expanding Circle use English as a foreign language orlingua franca for international communication and English assumes no historical orgovernmental role The territories in the Expanding Circle include China, Japan,Greece and Poland These countries do not have a history of colonization bymembers of the inner circle, nor have they given English any special administrativestatus The English used in this circle is regarded as „norm- dependent‟ because itrelies on the standards set by native speakers in the Inner Circle

2.3.3 A monist view on the status of English

Figure 2.3 The English Umbrella (Yoneoka, 2001)

Yoneoka (2001) proposed “The English Umbrella: Model of a MulticulturalLanguage System” based on the image of an umbrella The central stem or core (1)represents a basic “easy” English – a basic lexicon and syntax and a generalized set

of phonemes At the tips of the umbrella (2) located the English varieties, includingnative varieties like British or Australian, ESL like Singaporean or Indian English,and myriad EFL varieties The tips of the umbrella connect to the centralized corevia the spokes (3), which serve as the communication network and support systems

Upon the spokes lies the fabric covering (4) which is the background socio- culturalsystems and the top is an idealized “standard” English (5) According to Chen(2011), advantages of the umbrella model over the concentric circles are that it isegalitarian and generic – for its division of core elements in all Englishes, flexibleand dynamic – for its concern on the sociocultural system and communicationsnetwork.

Kachru‟s Three- circle Model of World Englishes is widely regarded as the mostuseful and influential approach to describe the diffusion of English Therefore, thispaper employs the Kachru‟s Three-circle Model to analyze the features of Englishused in Viet Nam in relation to the varieties of English in Southeast Asia

2.4 Varieties of English in Southeast Asia

The new Englishes in Southeast Asia emerged from their respective colonialhistories Because of their typologically different background languages anddifferent colonial pasts, English in Southeast Asian arena is at different stages ofdevelopment and hence forms of Englishes are located at different points on a life-cycle (Bolton 2002a: 19; Llamzon 1986) Following Kachru‟s three-circle Model,Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei can be classified as “outer circle”countries where English is used as a second language Whereas, countries whereEnglish is a foreign language, namely, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar,Laos and Cambodia, fall into “expanding circle” countries

Southeast Asian includes eleven multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilinguisticcountries, ten countries of which are members of ASEAN, except for Timor-Leste.Although English is the second language in some countries (in Singapore, Malaysia,Brunei, and the Philippines), and the foreign language in the remaining countries,English is attaining the status of the most prominent language in the region andplays a major role in many spheres of life, in “our cultures, our languages, ourinteractional patterns, our discourse, our economies and indeed in our politics”(Kachru, 1997: 91) In ASEAN, English became a de facto lingua franca of ASEAN

countries (Krasnick, 1995) The position of English as the sole working language ofASEAN was officially sanctioned in 2009 with the signing of the ASEAN Charter.Article 34 „Working Language of the ASEAN‟ reads: “The working language ofASEAN shall be English” Thus, a good command of English deems necessary tocompete with the labor force of other ASEAN countries and to get free mobility inthe ASEAN countries Furthermore, Ministries of Education throughout ASEANhas made English a compulsory subject in the national curricula of many countries.When English is used in environments different from its origin, it adjusts andchanges to suit its new environments The New Englishes in Southeast Asia is not

an exception English in Southeast Asian has developed to the extent that a number

of local varieties have evolved and the New Englishes in Southeast Asia exhibittheir own linguistic characteristics The characteristics of Southeast Asian Englishhave been revealed in various publications such as those by Bautista (1997b), Crewe(1977), Gonzalez (1983), Llamzon (1969), Platt and Weber (1980), Said and Ng(2000), Tay (1993b), and Tongue (1979) A brief account of some phonological,lexical, syntactic and discoursal features of Southeast Asian Englishes is presentedbelow

2.4.1 Phonological features

Southeast Asian varieties of English share several striking phonological features.One of the most noticeable one is the tendency to use syllable- timing caused, by theavoidance of reduced vowels (Kirkpatrick, 2008) In this case, the syllables takeapproximately equal amount of time to pronounce whether it is stressed or not,which results in the absence of schwa Kirkpatrick (2008) attributes this to the factthat many of the speakers‟ first languages have a tendency to syllable timing Onthe contrary, in native English, syllables are audibly lengthened or shortened based

on stress (stress- timed language) Illustration in which people use full vowels inunstressed syllables could be seen in the example below

(1) They OFficially announced the winner.

(2) I first came TO Thailand two years ago.

Another outstanding feature of Southeast Asian phonology is the shift in stressplacement Pronouns are regularly stressed and heavy end stress is also common.For example:

Others phonological features shared by Southeast Asian include the substitution of

stops /t, d/ for certain fricatives /θ, ð/ (thin  /tin/; then  /den/), the simplification ofconsonant clusters in final position, the replacement of monophthongs for diphthongs(“make” is pronounced with /e/), the lack of length contrast and tenseness contrast invowels (bit/ beat are pronounced in the same way: /bit/)

2.4.2 Syntactic features

The shared syntactic features of Southeast Asian Englishes first can be seen in thenon- marking of third person present simple and past tense forms Southeast Asiantend to leave out the tense markers and adverbs may be used to signal the timereference For instance, in the sentence “I talk to her yesterday”, the adverb

“yesterday” is used to mark past tense instead of the tense marker “-ed” Kirkpatrick(2008) also added the relative lack of the use of complex tense forms such as PastPerfect or Past continuous

The distinction between count and non- count nouns in Southeast Asian Englishes isnot as institutionalized as in Inner-Circle Englishes Some forms such as furnitures,equipments, luggages, a research or one evidence can be frequently found In theseexamples, non- countable nouns are used as if they were countable

The copula construction may be left out in the progressive as in “he dancing”, in thepassive construction as in “she hurt”, as a linking verb as in “I hungry” This isbecause many Southeast Asian languages do not have a copula constructioncomparable to “she is beautiful” or “she is a doctor”

Some other features may be specific to each variety of English in Southeast Asia.For example, McArthur (1998) and Schneider (2003/2004) have pointed out thefollowing syntactic features of Malaysian English: missing noun inflectional

endings (mostly the plural -s and sometimes the genitive -s); missing sentenceconstituents (object, subject, auxiliary verb, copula, preposition) giving theimpression of phrasal “telegraphic” speech; variant complementation patternsfollowing verbs; wrong concord in noun phrases; innovations in phrasal verbs; andthe use of reflexive pronouns to form emphatic pronouns.

2.4.3 Discoursal features

One striking feature in the analysis of discourse features of Southeast Asian English

is the use of the pragmatic particles “la(h), leh, hor, etc”, especially in Singaporeanand Malaysian English These particles have no semantic content in isolation Theyare used at the end of the sentences in informal contexts to express interactionalmeaning Take „lah‟ in Singaporean English for example, „lah‟ is used to change averb into a command or to soften its tone, particularly when usage of the verb mayseem impolite

In Southeast Asian multilingual communities, the use of mixing and switching is common In Malaysia, code- switching may be used amongaccomplished bilinguals for rhetorical and accommodation purposes However,among speakers who are not highly competent in English, code- switching is used

code-as a repair strategy In the Philippines, code- switching can be extensively used indaily life conversations, in motion pictures, television, daily newspapers or weekly

magazines The following example shows the mixing of Malay and English: She wanted to beli some barang- barang “She wanted to buy some things”.

2.4.4 Lexical features

Kachru, Yamuna, and Cecil (2006) argue that the most obvious features inSoutheast Asian varieties are the loan words and the loan translation Haugen (1970)puts them under the term lexical borrowing, which includes loan words, loantranslation and loan blend Loan words are different for each society and culturebecause of the differences in the realia or referents in the culture, e.g., kinship titles,local food terms, indigenous values For example, some loan words in SingaporeanEnglish include “abang” (elder brother, male cousin), “hanram” (prohibited) or

“tang hoon” (rice flour, any kind of powder) Loan translation is a form ofborrowing from one language to another whereby the semantic components of agiven term are literally translated into their equivalents in the borrowing language.For example, in Philippine English “for a long time” is the loan translation of “sincebefore yet”, or “I‟m teasing you” is the loan translation of “joke only” Loan blend(or hybrids) is also common in Southeast Asian varieties In this case, a compound

is formed of words from different languages For example, “buco juice” (the juice of

a young coconut) or “pulot boy” (a tennis ball boy) can be found in PhilippineEnglish

In 2015, Nor, Zamri and Awab published a paper in which they examine the lexicalfeatures of Malaysian English and recognized the following aspects: local languagereferents, semantic expansion and word formation processes Firstly, the local termshave been assimilated into the spoken as well as written English in the country.Second, semantic expansion of words like “cut” carries both the original meaning of

“slicing” and the meanings of “overtake” and “reduce” in Malaysian English Andword formation processes in Malaysian English include affixation of local lexis

using English suffixes such as the English plural –s inflection or the progressive – ing marker; compounding which involves the creation of compounds from existing

English words such as “shophouses” (a row of shops usually with accommodation

on the top floor); reduplication such as “weird- weird” and “walk-walk”; repetition

like “You go in first la, you go in first la”; and conversion which involves a lexical item converting its word class to another, as in “Want any song, I can song for you”.

In general, some prominent lexical features of Southeast Asian English include loanwords, loan translation, hybrids, semantic expansion, and some word formationprocesses

2.5 English for tourism

Language is a “highly organized and encoded system employs many devices toexpress, indicate, exchange messages and information, represent and so forth”(Garner and Hancock 2014: 465) The language of tourism attempts to seduce

millions of people into becoming tourists and subsequently to control their attitudesand behaviour Tourists, in turn, contribute further to this language through thecommunication of their experiences Lam (2007) considers tourism English as aspecial register of English that is different from general English and that servessome specific purposes such as to catch reader‟s attention, inform and attract As aprincipal marketing tool, tourism brochures are found to be loaded with languageand images to maximize their persuasive power Weightman (1987) believes thatthe language of travel brochures becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as the tourbrochure directs expectations, influences perceptions and thereby provides apreconceived landscape for the tourist to discover Bhatia (1993) also argues thattexts in promotional genres including travel brochures tend to share certainlinguistic features in much the same way as advertisements A well- known study byLeech (1966) reveals the following aspects of advertising language Firstly, themodal verbs “will” and “can” are common words in advertising language Secondly,the most common generic sentence type for advertisements is the imperative which

is used to suggest or invite someone to do something Thirdly, another characteristic

of advertising language is the use of the first and second personal pronouns Lastly,adjectives occur frequently in advertisements and tend to be the most strikingcomponent of advertising language However, the imperative which belongs tosyntactic features will not be analysed in this paper

Concerning tourism context, there is a large volume of published studies describingthe English language of travel brochures Iborra and Garrido (2001) andBoonchayaanant (2003), scrutinized the modal verbs and reported that the modalverbs “will” and “can” in tourist texts convey the same meaning as those inadvertisements Researchers also agree that personal pronouns in tourism texts havesimilar function as those in advertisements Boonchayaanant (2003) and Iborra andGarrido (2001) suggest that the pronouns “you”, “your”, “we” and “our” aregenerally used in tourism texts With regard to the use of adjectives, Pakkinen(2005) agrees that one of the prominent language features of promotional texts is

the use of adjectives, wherein, subjectively evaluative adjectives are more effectivethan factual adjectives.

Francesconi (2004) claims that the language of tourism depicts the touristdestinations and services in persuasive, encouraging and alluring manner, andmakes them visual with dynamic images and vivid colors Consequently, travelbrochures are crammed with descriptive and evaluative adjectives, superlatives, andintensifiers to influence and even manipulate the attitude and behavior ofprospective tourists

In an analysis of the move and linguistic features of tourist texts, Iborra and Garrido(2001) found that adjectives were frequently used to describe age, size, or origin;few superlatives were used; the mostly used personal pronoun was “you” to addressthe readers directly and to attract the visitors‟ interests; the modal verb “can” wasfrequently used to indicate possibilities and complex noun phrase is also anothertypical linguistic feature of tourist texts

Henry and Roseberry‟s study (1996) also agrees that the personal pronoun “you”was frequently used in addressing the readers to create friendly atmosphere; themodal verbs “can” and “will” were used to show promise and opportunity and therewas a frequent use of adjectives, especially the superlative forms

2.6 Travel brochures as a special kind of genre

Travel brochure is an interesting form of print media intended for tourists, offeringinformation on locations and events As Molina and Esteban (2006) remind us, abrochure is a form of printed promotional material designed to communicate withexisting or potential tourists Traditionally, it has been used as the main marketinginstrument to enhance awareness of destinations, provide information and generatedesire to purchase (Chiou et al 2008, Getz & Sailor 1993, Zhou 1997, Yuksel &Akgul 2006) Travel brochures often strive to include a wealth of information,including both language and images to portray the destination in a positive light and

as an attractive destination for tourists And all these information is intended to helptravellers make informed decisions because some individuals tend to plan various

aspects of a vacation in advance (Walter & Tong, 1977) Therefore, informationfrom various sources, especially those from brochures gives tourists the opportunity

to reduce the risk of uncertainty and disappointing experiences (Jackson, White, &Schmierer, 1996; Rhoehl & Fesenmainer, 1992) Travel brochures have a distinctivefunction in that they can act as “a substitute for a product which cannot bephysically seen or inspected prior to purchase” (Holloway 2004: 17) Weightman(1987: 230) claims that the language of travel brochures becomes “a self- fulfillingprophecy” as “the tour brochure directs expectations, influences perceptions andthereby provides a preconceived landscape for the tourist to „discover‟” So “thedirected landscape becomes the real landscape” So influential the linguistic andvisual means employed in travel brochures are that many papers attempt toinvestigate how the words and images contribute to the persuasive power ofpromotional materials Travel brochures in Viet Nam without exception utilizespecific lexis to persuade and attract more and more visitors

2.7 Theoretical framework

Travel brochure in Viet Nam is a text featuring lexical aspects of an ExpandingCircle English variety and features of a tourism text Consequently, English xlexicalfeatures of travel brochures in Viet Nam are in line with those reported by Haugen(1970); Nor, Zamri and Awab (2005) (part 2.4.4) and Leech (1966), Iborra andGarrido (2001), Henry and Roseberry (1996) (part 2.5) English lexical features oftravel brochures in Viet Nam are brimmed with lexical borrowing, nativized wordformation processes, descriptive adjectives, personal pronouns and modal verbs

2.7.1 Lexical borrowing

Every language has its “untranslatable” words, which have no accurate equivalent inthe target language These are “culture-bound” terms, deeply rooted in culture,including some areas of culture such as food, drink, clothing, musical and artisticterms, certain sports, dances, time division, jobs, positions, professions, orinstitutions When one language has semantic gaps in its lexis and needs to borrow aterm to express the necessary idea or concept, lexical borrowing is employed as a

result of this language contact and culture contact As Ying (2012) puts it,borrowing is a natural process of language change whereby one language adds newwords to its own lexis by copying those words from the donor language and thewords borrowed are called loan words or borrowings He refers to three levels ofborrowing: transliteration, loan translation and loan blend Fantini (1985) mentionstwo levels of borrowing: “pure borrowing”, where the word retains all its nativefeatures, and “adjusted borrowing”, where the word adapts to the structural criteria

of the host language Other researchers, Bloomfield (1933) and Olmsted (1986),distinguish between three levels of linguistic integration: words used but retainingforeign phonology, words partially integrated into the borrowing language, andwords fully integrated and indistinguishable In another major study, Haugen (1970)points out three types of borrowing: “loanword”, which shows morphemicimportation without substitution; “loan translation”, which involves a semanticchange and the combination of native terms to undergo an extension of meaning,and “loan blend”, which refers to the hybrid form which is made up of partimportation and part substitution Similarly, this studies, basing on the lexicalborrowing categorization of Ying (2012), recognizes three types of lexicalborrowing: transliteration, loan translation and loan blend (or hybrids)

Transliteration is close to the idea of “pure borrowing” of Fantini (1985) and

“loanword” of Haugen (1970) Transliterated words are phonetically similar to thedonor language form and the borrowing language form These words are used in theborrowing language with the closest possible sounds and the closest possiblemeanings to the original words

Loan translation is defined by Bloomfield (1933) as a form of borrowing from onelanguage to another whereby the semantic components of a given term are literallytranslated into their equivalents in the borrowing language Moreover, the nativeword has no phonological similarities to the foreign word

Kachru (1983: 163) refers to hybrid formation as a characteristic feature oflanguage contact situations He further states that such hybridized lexical items are

used in all non-native varieties of English and represent linguistic evidence for thenativization process of English A hybrid consists of two or more elements and atleast one element will be from a local language Hybrids are formed due to theextensive use of two languages in informal discourse Hybrids can be single wordmixes or multi- word mixes Kachru (1983) categorizes hybrid forms according tothe units and elements which operate their structure The first group is hybridswherein the modifier is from English and the head is from a local language such as

the hybrid forms “Evening bajan” and “Eternal upavasi” in Indian English The

second group is hybrids wherein the English item functions as a head such as

“ahimsa soldier”, “durri weaving” or “sarvodaya leader”.

2.7.2 Nativized word formation processes

Nor, Zamri and Awab (2015), in their study of the lexical features of MalaysianEnglish, pointed out that word formation processes also contributed to thenativization of English The processes involved were affixation, compounding,reduplication, repetition and conversion In addition, in a corpus- based study, Lee(2010) reveals different creative processes employed by Malaysian speakers toconstruct meaning in informal conversations, including borrowing, semanticexpansion, loan translation, compounding, blending, affixation, reduplication

Affixation

Affixation involves the combination of an affix (either a prefix or a suffix) withanother word (either a noun or an adjective) to form a new word that may result in achange in the word class Nor et al (2015) takes the example of “datukship” whichproves an interestingly productive process of suffixation in Malaysian English:

Noun „datuk‟ + Suffix „ship‟= datukship, as in lordship

Compounding

Compounding is the process of taking two or more existing words and combiningthem to form a new lexical item that could carry a totally different meaning fromthe original words The meaning of each word is decipherable from the meaning of

the combined words and they are accepted in the acrolect form The combinationsmight not be found in other varieties of English and the words are used in a differentway For example, in Singaporean English, “tuition” (noun) is compounded with

“teacher” (noun) to produce “tuition teacher” (noun) Its native equivalent is

“private tutor”

Nor et al (2015) refers to the example of “last time” from Malaysian English Inthis case, the adjective “last” and the noun “time” are compounded to form “lasttime”, which functions independently as an adverbial of time referring to the past, as

in the example: “ Last time I got Honda you know.” On the contrary, in nativeEnglish, “last time” does not stand as an independent compounded lexical item.Instead, the word “last” is usually preceded by the definite article “the” andfunctions as an adjective to describe the noun “time”, as in the example: “The lasttime I met him was three days ago.”

Reduplication

Reduplication is a process in which the initial syllable or the entire word is doubled,exactly or with a slight phonological change, in order to add some extra meaning tothe basic words Reduplication is not a regular process of word formation inEnglish, and it is often used in children‟s language such as “boo-boo”, “choo-choo”

or for humorous or ironic effect such as “goody- goody”, “pooh-pooh” (Brinton,2000) However, reduplication is a productive process in the Malaysian language

As a result, by means of reduplication, a lot of expressions in Malaysian English arecreated for those that do not have equivalence in English Nor et al (2015) presents

the example of Malaysian English utterance “I want this one (shoe) … got shiny shiny …” The reduplication “shiny shiny” comes from the Malay reduplication

“kilat kilat”, as in “Aku mahu kasut yang ini, ada kilat kilat ”, intensifying thebrightness of the shoes

sound, syllable, word, phrase, line, stanza, or metrical pattern is repeated to make itthe basic unifying device While repetition is employed to urge a continuity ofaction, reduplication produces a new morpheme with added meaning Nor et al.(2015) illustrates their point with the examples “sweet sweet” and “come down,come down” The reduplication “sweet sweet” is a Malaysian English lexical item

on its own, whereas “come down, come down” is simply repeated to urge forcontinuity of that particular action of coming down Nor et al (2015) also argue that

if verbs are repeated three times, the meaning to indicate continuity orprogressiveness of the action in that particular situation is further intensified Forexample, “enjoy” is repeated three times as in “I enjoy, enjoy, enjoy …” to intensifythe feeling of enjoying

Conversion

Conversion is the functional shift of one part of speech to another without theaddition of a suffix It is sometimes said that a zero derivational suffix is added.Bauer (1983:226) considers conversion is a totally free process and any lexeme canundergo conversion into any of the open form classes as the need arises As Brinton(2000) puts it, what happens semantically when a word is converted may be quitevaried For example, in the V > N shift, an action is treated as an object or thing,though the emphasis may be on the action (e.g., an attack, a kick), the result of theaction (e.g., an award, a break), or the person performing the action (e.g., a cook, aspy) The A > V shift gives the inchoative („to become X‟) or the causative („tocause to become X‟) meaning The shift N > A expresses the quality associatedwith some entity, while A > N treats a quality as an entity (and hence quantifiable)(Brinton, 2000)

The N > V shift is perhaps the most varied In this shift, the verb may denote thething which is moved to a location (e.g., to paint, to water) or from a location (e.g.,

to milk, to skin), or the location to which the thing is moved (e.g., to bottle, to box)

or from which it is moved (e.g., to mine); it may also refer to the instrument of the

action (e.g., to lock, to comb, to nail), the time of the action (e.g., to spring, to fall),the place of the action (e.g., to sink, to drain), or the range of the action (e.g., tooverlap) (Brinton, 2000) Nor et al (2005) confirms the frequent use of the N > Vshift in Malaysian English, and they call this process “verbalization of nouns” Bhat(1994) (cited in Nor et al., 2015) states that nouns may be used in the categorialconditions of verbs by themselves, by adding an auxiliary, or by adding verbalizingaffixes or by making other types of changes in them.

Semantic expansion

Semantic expansion includes standard English lexemes that have the originalmeaning as well as an extended semantic range of meanings not originally in nativeEnglish A notable instance is the use of the words “aunty” and “uncle” In nativevarieties, these two words are kinship terms normally used in reference to siblings

of one‟s parents In Malaysian English, these two words are used as kinship terms

as well as reference towards the elderly of no blood- relationship or an older person

of long- standing acquaintance, commonly used by young Malaysians as a term ofrespect Hajar (2011) draws the example of the noun “terror” in Malaysian English,which carries the meaning “terrific” with a positive evaluation In this case, thelexical category of a noun is shifted to that of an adjective and the meaning isexpanded to include “terrific”

2.7.3 Descriptive adjectives

Adjectives play an integral part in the English language because they areresponsible for classifying events or entities or describing their qualities and theyprovide some means of modifying or elaborating the meanings of nouns (Fellaum,Gross and Miller, 1993) Adjectives are effective tools to convince the readers thatthe product is second to none Moreover, the use of adjectives and superlatives inthe tourist brochures are closely related to conative function, which is aimed toinfluence the emotions, attitudes and beliefs of the readers (Jørgensen, 2004).Detailed examination of the language of tourism by Mochini (2005) showed thatalthough the language of tourism is highly informative, its main role still lies in its

persuasive force, which is achieved through the discursive and linguistic strategiesused in the texts The three linguistic strategies related to the use of adjectives areeuphoria (Persson, 2012), ego- targeting (Maasalmi, 2013) and the creation ofisotopies (Mochini, 2005) Euphoria is concerned with the use of positive andglowing adjectives, such as „awe-inspiring‟, „unsurpassed‟, „unrivalled‟ or

„dazzaling‟ in order to appeal to the readers (Cappeli, 2006, as cited in Persson,2012) According to Maasalmi (2013), ego- targeting is a technique used toemphasize the grandeur of an attraction with adjectives like „best‟, „special‟, or

„top‟ used to emphasize how great and unique a particular attraction is and thesebest qualities are there just for the special „you‟ An isotopy refers to a theme,established by a group of semantically related key words, in an attempt to create theintended level of meaning (Wales, 1989, as cited in Mochini, 2005)

Biber et al.‟s (1999) semantic grouping divides adjectives into two groups:

descriptors and classifiers Whereas classifiers‟ main function is to delimit or

restrict a noun‟s referent by placing in a category in relation to other referents, descriptors are prototypical adjectives denoting such features as color, size and weight, chronology and age, emotion and a wide range of other characteristics Furthermore, because the idea behind this study is that the lexical features of

brochures tries to affect potential customers, this paper mainly focuses on

descriptive adjectives which are used to make the text more appealing Descriptive adjectives are divided into five groups by Biber et al (1999: 508-509):

1 Color – denoting color, brightness: black, white, bright, blue, brown, green

2 Size/ quantity/ extent – denoting size, weight, extent: big, deep, heavy, huge, long, large, short, thin, wide

3 Time – denoting chronology, age, frequency: annual, daily, early, new, recent

4 Evaluative/ emotive – denoting judgements, affect, emphasis: bad, beautiful, best, fine, good, great, nice

5 Miscellaneous descriptive: appropriate, cold, empty, free, hard, open,

private, strange, strong, sudden

Maasalmi (2013) added one more frequent group of adjectives found in travel brochures This group of adjectives seem to be essential for tourism discourse.

6 Location – denoting location, distance or describing the physical aspects,

setting or the atmosphere of a location or attraction: outdoor, sandy, remote

This study follows Biber et al (1999) semantic grouping which is slightly modifiedwith one more category added by Maasalmi (2013)

In addition, superlatives are an important feature of tourist texts Dhitthita (2009)confirms that superlatives are used to accentuate the highlights of tourist attractionsand emphasize the significance of the place, so as to increase the degree ofpersuasion Superlatives express the highest value of the described entities,distinguishing it from others, and emphasizing their uniqueness Furthermore,superlatives are not only persuasive but also informative in the way that they tell thepotential tourist that something is the most popular, the best preserved or the oldest

in the destination

2.7.4 Modal verbs

Iborra and Garrido (2001) reports that the modal verb (e.g “will”, “shall”, “should”,

“would”, “can”, “could”, “may”, “might”) is one of the distinguished features inadvertising Leech (1966) also reveals that the modal verbs are usually used to showpromise or benefits that the product offers However, he points out that modal verbsare rare in the language of promotional texts because they weaken the claims inwhich they appear The modal verbs such as “may”, “could” are notable examples

of this Nevertheless, the modal verb „can‟ and „will‟ are two exceptions which areused to encourage consumers to act, but instead of directly advising them topurchase a product or a service, advertisers provide information about their use andavailability (Vestergaard & Schroder, 1985, 68-69) In tourism context, Henry andRoseberry (1996), Iborra and Garrido (2001) and Boonchayaanant (2003),investigated the modal verbs and found that the modal verbs in tourist texts conveythe same meaning as those in advertisements They agree that “will” and “can” aremost commonly found and they are used to show promise and opportunity

Leech (1966, 125-126) reports that the modal verb “can” has two possible meanings

in the language of advertising If “can” follows an animate subject, usually the firstperson pronoun “you”, the modal verb “can” implies that the product or servicegives the addressee an ability or power to do something If “can” is preceded by aninanimate subject, the sentence concentrates on how the advertised product orservice benefits the audience or what it offers them

With regard to the modal verb “will”, Leech (1966, 125) claims that “will” in thefuture tense states a promise to the consumers In addition to expressing futurity,

“will” can also be used as a way of showing that the statement is unerring Leech(1966) gave the following example: “You‟ll love Carnation Caramel Custard” Withthe use of the modal verb “will”, this sentence can be understood as “You cannothelp but like Carnation Caramel Custard”

The first person pronoun “we” is used to signal a sense of solidarity with thecustomer and thus include the audience The use of “we” and their correspondingsuch as “our” or “us” helps to create a feeling of solidarity when discussing theenvironment, or when identifying themselves as part of the nation On the otherhand, “we” is used to exclude the people spoken to and refer only to the advertisers.The use of „we‟ leaves the reader an impression that the advertisers are obedientand provide good service

The use of direct address and the second person pronoun “you” can engage theiraudience in an apparently conversational, equal relationship (Delin, 2000), for thepurpose of creating an impression of intimacy and establishing a one-to-onerelationship As Cook (2001, 159-160) puts it, the pronoun “you” is “part of a high-

involvement strategy which attempts to win us over by very direct address; they step uninvited into our world, expressing interest in our most intimate concerns” With respect to the first person pronoun “I”, Cook (2002) claims that “I” can be the adviser, the expert, the relator of experiences and motives leading to purchase of the product In terms of the third person pronouns, “he” and “she” are usually used to refer to someonewho the recipient knows or someone who is presented in the promotional texts (Myers, 1994) Compared with Cook‟s opinion (2001), “he” and “she” are people who do not use the advertised product or service and the third person pronoun is used in

promotional texts to distance them The third person pronoun “they” is non- personal and is used when talking about “the great undistinguished mass that fails to use the product” or an appealing new group of people whose member the recipient will want to

be (Mayers, 1194) Boonchayaanant (2003) and Iborra and Garrido (2001) reveal that the pronouns „you‟ are used to address visitors and attract visitor‟s interests, while

„we‟ generally refers to the tourist organization These pronouns make the language more warm and friendly in tone, build a closer relationship between the tourist

organization and the reader and strengthen its appeal to the readers Therefore, this study narrows focus on the first person pronoun “we” and the second person pronoun

“you”

2.8 Review of previous studies

There are several previous studies which offer useful knowledge on various features

of travel brochures

Dhitthita (2009) studied the attraction move in tourist leaflets for the purpose oflooking at the prominent linguistic features, particularly focusing on modal verbs,imperatives, personal pronouns, and adjectival pre- modifiers The results of thestudy reveals that the most common modal verbs found from the corpus were “can”and “will”, which were used to show possibility and provide necessary information

In order to inform some important information to tourists and also to suggesttourists to visit attraction or join activities there, the imperatives “turn”, “take”,

“contact”, “call” and “get” were frequently used Furthermore, the top five personal

pronouns were third personal pronouns, including “it”, “its”, “their”, “his”, and

“they” In terms of adjectival pre-modifiers, the attributive adjectives with positivemeanings were prominently used to create vivid images of tourist attractions Thisstudy focused on the analysis of the move and linguistic features of tourist texts.However, within the scope of my study, only lexical features of tourism discourse isdealt with

The next study in tourism brochures to be mentioned was by Henry and Roseberry(1996) The corpuses of their studies were written English texts from airlinemagazines, newspapers, tourist information leaflets and guidebooks throughout theworld The results of the study revealed that the personal pronouns „you‟ and “we”were frequently used in addressing readers to create a friendly personal tone, themodal verb „can‟ and „will‟ were mostly used to show promise and opportunity Inaddition, there was a frequent use of adjectives, especially the superlative forms inboth pre- and post-modifying positions

Another study on the genre of tourist brochures was Maasalmi‟s study (2013) Thiswas a corpus- based semantic study aiming at comparing the specialized tourismdiscourse in tourist brochures from the United States, the British Isles and Canada.The results indicated that there actually appeared to be some statistically significantdifferences in how the Americans, British and Canadians use adjectives in tourismdiscourse The reason why I am referring to Maasalmi‟s research is because theresearcher used the same choice of criteria for classifying the adjectives However,this study focused only on tourism discourse by native English speakers from threemajor English speaking areas and included only the use of adjectives In contrast,

my study would explore the lexical features in a non- native community

David (2008) draws our attention to Malaysian English and Philippine English andstates that there is a strong trend of nativization of English in Malaysia and thePhilippines Speakers of English in these countries have borrowed words from thelocal languages and have coined new words The lexically entrenched local terms

have been adopted in the Malaysian and Philippine varieties of English in variouscategories such as people, events, cultural activities, places, political movements,religion, arts, films, food, clothes and quotations.

Ying (2012) studied the lexical characteristics of China English, a new variety ofEnglish in the Expanding Circle This study is concerned with three levels ofborrowing (transliteration, loan translation, combination of transliteration and loantranslation) and nativized expressions which are expressions for things and ideasunique to China This study is relevant to mine because it also deals with varieties

of English in the Expanding Circle

Ramly, Othman and McLellan in 2002 studied Englishization and nativizationprocesses in the context of Brunei Darussalam from a Brunei corpus of spoken andwritten language The characteristics of nativization of English comprise ofsemantic shifts/ new collocations, transferred syntactic structures, transcreation ofsimiles, metaphors, proverbs from other languages and hybrid lexical construction/combinations of concepts from two or more cultures Nativization at lexical level inthis study is compatible to that in mine

Furthermore, as discussed earlier, Nor, Zamri and Awab (2015) illustrates lexicalfeatures of Malaysian English, including local language referents, semanticexpansion and word formation processes

It is worth noticing that research to date on the nativization of English has tended tofocus on indigenized varieties of English particularly those in the Outer Circlenations (Ramply, Othman & McLellan, 2002) As far as Southeast Asian English isconcerned, concerns have been placed on nativization of English in Outer Circlecountries such as Singapore, Malaysia, or the Philippines and little has been donewith that in Expanding Circle countries like Viet Nam, Laos, or Cambodia.Moreover, there is a large body of literature on the language of tourism texts,including both lexical and syntactic features There has been very little research onlexical aspects alone Therefore, in order to fill in the gaps, this paper is conducted