“Is Selangor in deep water?”: a corpus-driven account of air/water in the Malaysian Hansard Corpus (MHC)
Air or its English equivalent ‘water’ is very important in our everyday life so much so that when the tap runs dry, it even made it as one of the topics debated by politicians. This paper looks at the issues that surround air/water in Malaysian Parliamentary debates by specifically focusing its r...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2019
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14083/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14083/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14083/1/28556-102502-1-PB.pdf |
| Summary: | Air or its English equivalent ‘water’ is very important in our everyday life so much so that
when the tap runs dry, it even made it as one of the topics debated by politicians. This paper
looks at the issues that surround air/water in Malaysian Parliamentary debates by specifically
focusing its relation to the state of Selangor. The air/water related issues were examined
based on the collocates of air and Selangor in the Malaysian Hansard Corpus (MHC) from
Parliament 1 (P1) to Parliament 13 (P13). The findings show that air is consistently present
as one of the collocates of Selangor from Parliament 4 (P4) to Parliament 13 (P13). However,
air started to show an upward trend starting in Parliament 7 (P7) and continued to Parliament
13 (P13). The recurring issues during those periods are the never-ending water-related
problems and the steps taken by the government to overcome the problems. In P7 and P8, the
focus is on the source of water as it collocates with pembersihan logi air (water treatment
plant) and kawasan tadahan air (water catchment area). In Parliament 10, Parliament 11,
Parliament 12 and Parliament 13 the recurring issue with air and Selangor is penyaluran air
mentah (the transfer of raw water) from the neighbouring state Pahang to Selangor. Another
issue observed is penstrukturan air (restructuring) of water supply and services which was
first observed in Parliament 12 and continues to Parliament 13. Thus, by focusing on the
collocates of air this corpus-driven account has managed to show the trend of the
parliamentary debates in relation to air and Selangor. Therefore, parliamentary debates where
various issues of national interest are often raised offer opportunities for more critical
analysis of issues that are important to the public. |
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