The relative clause in colloquial Singapore English

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate the specific ways in which the influence of Chinese manifests itself in the structure of the noun phrases containing relative clause modifiers in colloquial Singapore English. We argue that while previous researchers have been correct in pointing out the substratal influence of Chinese, they have not gone far enough in articulating the specific nature of this influence, in particular on the grammar. Colloquial Singapore English relative clauses are interesting because they show an amalgamation of both substrate and superstrate grammatical features. This blending of features is a precise one in which substrate influence is in some way regulated and limited by the superstrate grammar. The combination of superstrate and substrate grammars is illustrated in the constituent ordering of relative clause modifiers, as well as the grammatical behavior of the relative pronoun one. In this paper, we also seek to show that colloquial Singapore English relative clauses are extremely elaborate grammatical structures which argue against new varieties of English being characterized as simplified versions of their superstrate language.

Transferability of semantic functions in contact-induced grammaticalization

“…The Chinese influence is most likely from Southern Min as it was spoken by three quarters of the Chinese population (Siegel 2012) prior to the 1970s and was the lingua franca of the Chinese people (Lim 2007, Ansaldo 2009). However, we are looking at Mandarin data here for several reasons.…”

“…Any Chinese-English bilingual speaker in Singapore will identify Chinese de as the source of SCE one without any hesitation (Bao 2009). Furthermore, SCE one has been discussed extensively in the literature (see Gupta 1992, Alsagoff & Ho 1998, Brown 1999, Lim 2004, Wong 2005, Bao 2009, among others), and Gupta (1992) provides substantial empirical evidence to demonstrate that SCE one is indeed influenced by Chinese.…”

One in Singapore English

“…In Singapore English, it has two major uses, as a pronominal and as a marker of emphasis. The third use, as a relative pronoun, has been argued for in Alsagoff and Ho (1998). But this is relatively minor, for reasons that will be made clear in Section 2.3.…”

“…An English-Chinese bilingual speaker in Singapore will without hesitation identify Chinese de as the source of Singapore English one. In the scholarly literature one has been discussed extensively; see Gupta (1992a), Alsagoff and Ho (1998), Brown (1999), and Lim (2004. Gupta (1992a) gives an especially careful analysis of one, and its source in Chinese, based on data that she collected from Singaporean children's speech.…”

Errors on the Relative Marker WHERE: Evidence from an EFL Learner Corpus

“…Like other syntactic constructions, relative clauses (RCs) of World Englishes demonstrate some specific features of English influenced by local languages. For instance, Alsagoff and Lick (1998) discovered that the RC of colloquial Singapore English (CSE) is rule-governed, having its root in the grammars of English and Chinese. Put differently, Chinese, as one of the most dominant local languages of CSE speakers, has considerable influence on this variety development.…”