| dc.description.abstract | The aim of this thesis was to research and explore the linguistic complaint tradition in the Netherlands. The complaint tradition concerning the fallen standards of English is described in Schneider’s dynamic model, which illustrates the evolution of New Englishes (Schneider, 2003). In the Netherlands, complaints about the English language as used by the Dutch often target the Dutch accent and literally translated idioms.
According to Schneider’s dynamic model, the presence of a complaint tradition signals that the Dutch might be moving towards the stage of endonormative stabilisation, in which local features of English become accepted and codified. By further researching the Dutch complaint tradition, predictions can be made with regard to these salient Dutch interferences and whether these might become accepted features of Dutch English.
To test this, an online survey was distributed which included five samples with varying manipulations (literally translated written idioms, literally translated spoken idioms, and regular speech samples, of which all spoken samples were spoken with either a Dutch or a near-native accent). The participants were asked to judge the samples on pleasantness and acceptability. Many participants indicated that the intention of the samples was important and the varying manipulations influenced the participants’ interpretation of the samples. The overall responses indicated that a Dutch accent was often considered acceptable in informal contexts. However, literally translated idioms were only considered acceptable in informal situations with the intention of humour and thus unlikely to be codified in an acknowledged Dutch English variety. | |
