Chapter I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction

Language is an exclusive human property. Human beings can

communicate with each other. Hence, language as users are rational and choose

a language that clearly marks their rights and obligations, relative to other

speakers in the conversation and its setting. Pascasio (1990) says that language

plays an important role in the social economic and educational development of

the nation.

Moreover, Pacasio (2003) says that “a major feature of the Philippine

language situation is its diversity”. Philippines is a multilingual country (Ravina,

1992). Multilingual speech communities differ from each other in so many ways

that every student of societal multilingualism must grapple with the problem of

how best to systematize or organize the manifold differences that are readily

recognizable. Regarding the issue of different languages, clearly there are cases

where no one is going to wonder whether two speakers are speaking one

language or whether they are speaking different languages. In large part, people

are in contact with one another and with many varieties of language (Fishman,

1967).

In the Philippine context, there are 168 extent languages (Conception,

2005). This multiplicity is compounded by another second language, English. The

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existence and exposure to these languages lead to the occurrence of Philippine

English or Filipinism.

Filipinism is considered as one of the varieties of English and is viewed as

a rising phenomenon here in the Philippines (Madrunio, 2003). It is widely used

in such domains as government, law, education, newspapers, electronic media,

music, entertainment, and Philippine literature (Bautista, 2008).

Furthermore, as a variety of language, Filipinism is seen as mainly an

effect of Language Dynamism. As Crystal (2008) expressed, language dynamism

characterizes a view of language in which a temporal dimension is introduced

into the study of language variation: synchronic states are seen in terms of the

process of change which produce or affect them.