Pronoun choice of Filipino urban households helpers

• Main Author: Parina, Jose Cristina M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2008
• Subjects: Filipino language—Pronoun; Household employees—Philippines—Language; South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/1493
• Institution: De La Salle University

The paper studied how language, specifically the use of second person pronominals exhibits different social dimensions when used by a seemingly marginalized group in the Philippine context – the group of household helpers (hhps). The reason for the study is because, language is believed to be the single, most reliable indicator of one’s social and physiological characteristics and this indicator is most prominent when socio-economic level between interlocutors is wide. The researcher used triangulation – observing the respondents, recording interactions, and interviewing selected respondents – in gathering the corpus for the study. Analysis was done is two folds. First is the application of a simple frequency count and tallying of the pronouns followed by the comparison of the frequency distribution in order to determine whether the given variable elicited more plural or singular pronouns. Second is the qualitative analysis of the occurrences in order to identify and verify their link to different social dimensions. Results of the study show that the use of plural pronouns seems to exhibit politeness and this preference is mostly influenced by the role relationship of the interlocutors, the educational attainment of the hhps, and the age of both interlocutors. The use of singular pronouns, on the other hand, appears to exhibit linguistic power, but it could also exhibit solidarity. The preference for this form is mostly influenced by the length of stay of the hhps in the household, the place of origin of the hhps and setting of the conversations.