Crosslinguistic Influence in Singapore English - Nghiên cứu của Ming Chew Teo

Crosslinguistic Influence in Singapore English In a social setting where speakers with several languages interact extensively, a major source of variation in Colloquial Singapore English comes from the complex interaction between crosslinguistic influences and various social and linguistic factors. By unifying both social and linguistic aspects of the phenomenon through the use of multivariate analyses like logistic regressions and Poisson regressions, this book represents a novel approach to the study of crosslinguistic influence in Colloquial Singapore English. As multivariate analyses provide us with information regarding the relative strengths of each social and linguistic factor, they are useful tools that allow us to have a more nuanced understanding of crosslinguistic influence in contact situations. Linguistic features from a variety of linguistic domains – morphology, semantics, and discourse – will be quantified, and statistical analyses will be run in R to determine the degree to which various social and linguistic factors affect the extent of crosslinguistic influence.

Well-­ known Singlish features like the optionality of past tense and plural marking, the unique meanings of already, got, and one, and discourse particles lah, leh, and lor, are analyzed using this approach. The statistical modeling of these features is a first step towards creating a unified framework to understanding crosslinguistic influence. Ming Chew Teo is an assistant professor of Chinese in the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department at Virginia Tech. He is interested in the study of language contact and has published several articles on Singapore Southern Min and Colloquial Singapore English.

Routledge Studies in Sociolinguistics Emerging Hispanicized English in the Nuevo New South Language Variation in a Triethnic Community Erin Callahan Racialization and Language Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Peru Edited by Michele Back and Virginia Zavala Discourses of Identity in Liminal Places and Spaces Edited by Roberta Piazza Language Policy in Superdiverse Indonesia Subhan Zein Re-­positioning Accent Attitude in the Global Englishes Paradigm A Critical Phenomenological Case Study in the Chinese Context Fan (Gabriel) Fang Revivals, Nationalism, and Linguistic Discrimination Threatening Languages Kara Fleming and Umberto Ansaldo Crosslinguistic Influence in Singapore English Linguistic and Social Aspects Ming Chew Teo Chinese-­English Interpreting and Intercultural Communication Jim Hlavac and Zhichang Xu Ageing Identities and Women’s Everyday Talk in a Hair Salon Rachel Heinrichsmeier For more information about this series, please visit www.com/Routledge-­ Studies-­in-­Sociolinguistics/book-­series/RSSL Crosslinguistic Influence in Singapore English Linguistic and Social Aspects Ming Chew Teo First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Ming Chew Teo The right of Ming Chew Teo to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-­in-­Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-­in-­Publication Data Names: Teo, Ming Chew, author. Title: Crosslinguistic influence in Singapore English: linguistic and social aspects/Ming Chew Teo. Description: New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. | Series: Routledge studies in sociolinguistics | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019044283 (print) | LCCN 2019044284 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138614864 (hardback) | ISBN 9780429463853 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: English language—Singapore—Foreign elements. | English language—Dialects—Singapore. | English language—Social aspects—Singapore. Classification: LCC PE3502.95957—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.gov/2019044283 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.gov/2019044284 ISBN: 978-­1-­138-­61486-­4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-­0-­429-­46385-­3 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of figuresvi List of tablesix List of abbreviationsx 1 Introduction – Crosslinguistic influence in Singapore English 1 2 You say buay, I say tahan – The linguistic situation in Singapore 10 3 Toolkit for unifying social and linguistic aspects 22 4 Missing you – Past tense and plural marking 38 5 Semantically unique – already got one 87 6 At the end of the clause – Discourse particles lah, leh, lor 132 7 Conclusion – Towards a more complete picture 153 Index 156 Figures 1.1 Sub-­varieties of Singapore English available to speakers in the Singapore speech community 5 1.2 Relationships between acrolectal speakers, mesolectal speakers, and basilectal speakers according to Poedjosoedarmo (1995) 6 2.1 Map of Singapore and surrounding region 11 3.1 General framework for the study of crosslinguistic influence in language contact situations 23 3.2 Snapshot of Section 1 of the language dominance questionnaire 25 3.3 Snapshot of Section 2 of the language dominance questionnaire 26 3.4 Snapshot of Section 1 of the language attitude questionnaire 28 3.5 Snapshot of Section 2 of the language attitude questionnaire 28 3.6 Snapshot of sociolinguistic interview questions 30 3.7 Priming of one construction in the mind of a Chinese-­English bilingual 33 4.1 The effect of preceding phonological environment on past-­tense marking (weak verbs) 56 4.2 The effect of English dominance on past-­tense marking (weak verbs) 57 4.3 The effect of ethnicity on past-­tense marking (weak verbs) 57 4.4 The effect of attitude toward English on past-­tense marking (weak verbs) 58 4.5 The effect of education on past-­tense marking (weak verbs) 59 4.6 The effect of gender on past-­tense marking (weak verbs) 59 4.7 The effect of lexical aspect on past-­tense marking (weak verbs) 60 4.8 The effect of grammatical aspect on past-­tense marking (weak verbs) 61 4.9 The effect of priming on past-­tense marking (weak verbs) 62 4.10 The effect of English dominance on past-­tense marking (strong verbs) 64 4.11 The effect of grammatical aspect on past-­tense marking (strong verbs) 65 4.12 The effect of attitude toward English on past-­tense marking (strong verbs) 66 Figures vii 4.13 The effect of education on past-­tense marking (strong verbs) 66 4.14 The effect of priming on past-­tense marking (strong verbs) 67 4.15 The effect of lexical aspect on past-­tense marking (strong verbs) 68 4.16 The effect of English dominance on plural marking 71 4.17 The effect of gender on plural marking 71 4.18 The effect of the presence of plural modifier on plural marking 72 4.19 The effect of priming on plural marking 73 4.20 The interaction between presence of plural modifier and syllabic plurals 75 4.21 The interaction between education and grammatical aspect (weak verbs) 78 4.22 The interaction between education and syllabic plurals 79 4.23 The interaction between education and lexical aspect (weak verbs) 80 4.24 The interaction between education and attitude (strong verbs) 81 4.25 The interaction between age and ethnicity (weak verbs) 84 5.1 Frequencies of already according to syntactic position 111 5.2 Frequencies of already according to syntactic position (completive) 112 5.3 Frequencies of already according to syntactic position (non-­completive) 113 5.4 Proportions of already in negative versus positive sentences 115 5.5 Proportions of standard versus colloquial use of got 116 5.6 Marginal effects of each factor for Colloquial Singapore English got 118 5.7 Proportions of standard versus colloquial use of one 120 5.8 Marginal effects of each factor for Colloquial Singapore English one 121 5.9 Interaction between English dominance and attitude toward English for sentence-­final already 127 5.10 Interaction between English dominance and attitude toward English for the colloquial variants of got 127 5.11 Interaction between English dominance and attitude toward English for the colloquial variants of one 128 5.12 Relationship between language dominance and attitude toward English 129 6.1 Interaction between age and ethnicity for discourse particle lah 139 6.2 Interaction between age and ethnicity for discourse particle leh 140 6.3 Interaction between age and ethnicity for discourse particle lor 141 6.4 The average number of tokens of lah per speaker according to ethnic group 142 6.5 The average number of tokens of lah per speaker according to age group 142 6.6 The average number of tokens of leh per speaker according to ethnic group 142 viii Figures 6.7 The average number of tokens of leh per speaker according to age group 143 6.8 The average number of tokens of lor per speaker according to ethnic group 143 6.9 The average number of tokens of lor per speaker according to age group 144 Tables 1.1 Linguistic repertoire of an English-­educated Malay Singaporean 7 2.1 Ethnic composition of Singapore from 1840 to 2010 11 2.2 Most frequently used language at home from 1990–2010 15 2.3 Linguistic repertoires of Singaporeans 16 3.1 Background information of research participants 31 3.2 Organization of binary data in an Excel spreadsheet 34 4.1 Analysis of weak verbs with speaker as a random effect 55 4.2 Analysis of strong verbs with speaker as a random effect 63 4.3 Analysis of plural marking with speaker as a random effect 70 5.1 Comparison of Colloquial Singapore English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil 110 5.2 Poisson regression results for Colloquial Singapore English got 117 5.3 Breakdown of the different functions of got 119 5.4 Poisson regression results for Colloquial Singapore English one 121 5.5 Breakdown of the different colloquial functions of one 123 6.1 Percentage of interviewees who used at least one token of a certain clause-­final particle 145 6.2 Variation in the use of clause-­final particles (Chinese speakers) 147 7.1 Relationship between salience and social function 154 Abbreviations 1 first person 2 second person 3 third person CFM contrastive focus marker CL nominal classifier COM comparative marker CRS currently relevant state marker DET determiner DIS discourse particle EMP emphatic marker EX exclamative EXP experiential marker EXST existential marker LOC locative case NEG negation NMM nominal modification marker NMZ nominalizer PFV perfective marker PL plural PNG person, number, and gender agreement marker POSS possessive marker PRS present tense PST past tense REA realis modality marker SG singular 1 Introduction Crosslinguistic influence in Singapore English Some things that a visitor to the tropical island of Singapore definitely will not miss are the clean and green cityscape, the amazing variety of food available, and the unmistakable sounds of Colloquial Singapore English.

Colloquial Sin- gapore English is the local lingua franca that developed from a complex contact situation between several distinct languages. The three other official languages of ­Singapore – Chinese, Malay, and Tamil, have all played a role in shaping Col- loquial Singapore English to varying extents, making it uniquely Singaporean. In this study we will investigate the speech of twenty-­four Singaporeans and exam- ine the way in which an individual’s use of English is influenced by his or her ethnic language. Such influence from one language on another is known by many terms – interference, language transfer, crosslinguistic influence, and others.

For the purposes of this study, the term crosslinguistic influence is used as a cover term for the various kinds of crosslinguistic influences observed in Colloquial Singapore English. The term crosslinguistic influence is chosen because it is one of the more conventional cover terms for the phenomenon in studies of contact languages and second language acquisition. The phenomenon of crosslinguistic influence is of great interest to researchers in a wide range of fields that include language acquisition, language attrition, lan- guage contact, and studies of bilingualism and multilingualism. Crosslinguistic influence is the way in which existing linguistic knowledge of a bilingual, broadly defined as a person who knows two or more languages, affects the way he or she acquires and uses an additional language.

In order to truly understand how bilinguals, both in a classroom setting or in a language contact situation, acquire and use his or her languages, we need to understand crosslinguistic influence first. Crosslinguistic influence is usually divided into two main types: positive and negative transfer. Positive transfer is when crosslinguistic influence facilitates the learning of the target language and leads to grammatical output in the use of the target language.