The ages of pragmatic particles in Colloquial Singapore English

IF 0.8 4区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

English World-Wide Pub Date : 2022-09-20 DOI:10.1075/eww.21016.li

Lijun Li, Eliane Lorenz, Peter Siemund

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The study aims to work towards a diachronic reconstruction of pragmatic particles in Colloquial Singapore English (CSE, also known as “Singlish”) by exploiting an unused historical data source: The Oral History Interviews held by the National Archives of Singapore (OHI-NAS). We investigate the distribution of five pragmatic particles (ah, lah, leh, lor, and meh) in 101 interviews conducted between 1979 and 2009 in speakers born between 1899 and 1983. Lim (2007) reconstructs the origin of these particles in different substrate languages, with the first two particles (ah and lah) being traceable to earlier Bazaar Malay and/or Hokkien, while the latter three (leh, lor, and meh) are of later Cantonese origin. The results of the present study show that ah and lah are the most frequent particles attested earliest. Their frequency of use increases over time, being additionally contingent on the gender and age of the speakers, their educational level, and their ethnic background. The particles ah and lah are mostly used in assertive contexts.

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新加坡口语英语中语用助词的年龄

本研究旨在利用新加坡国家档案馆(OHI-NAS)的口述历史访谈这一未使用的历史数据源，对新加坡口语英语(CSE，也称为“新加坡英语”)中的语用小品进行历时重构。我们调查了1979年至2009年间101位生于1899年至1983年的说话者的五个语用助词(ah, lah, leh, lor和meh)的分布情况。Lim(2007)在不同的基底语言中重建了这些颗粒的起源，前两个颗粒(ah和lah)可追溯到早期的巴萨马来语和/或闽南语，而后三个颗粒(leh, lor和meh)则来自后来的广东语。本研究结果表明，ah和lah是最早被证实的最常见的粒子。它们的使用频率随着时间的推移而增加，另外还取决于说话者的性别和年龄、教育水平和种族背景。助词ah和lah大多用在断言的语境中。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

English World-Wide Multiple-

CiteScore

1.70

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： English World-Wide has established itself as the leading and most comprehensive journal dealing with varieties of English. The focus is on scholarly discussions of new findings in the dialectology and sociolinguistics of the English-speaking communities (native and second-language speakers), but general problems of sociolinguistics, creolistics, language planning, multilingualism and modern historical sociolinguistics are included if they have a direct bearing on modern varieties of English. Although teaching problems are normally excluded, English World-Wide provides important background information for all those involved in teaching English throughout the world.