Parallel constructions and their influence on the synchronic use of already, got, and one

As mentioned previously in Chapter 3, certain parallel constructions between different languages are stored in the same associational semantic network in the bilingual mind and the presence of these parallel constructions have a direct influence on a bilingual’s synchronic speech production. In what follows we will investigate how the parallel constructions described in the ethnic languages influence the way different ethnic groups in Singapore use already, got and one. This section will conclude with a brief discussion of the way in which such differences in synchronic use may be related to diachronic change in Colloquial Singapore English.

Use of already in Colloquial Singapore English

In Teo’s (2019) study of Colloquial Singapore English already, he has shown how Malay and Chinese speakers use already differently because of crosslinguistic influence from their respective ethnic languages. In this section on Colloquial Singapore English already, additional data on Tamil speakers’ use of already will also be included, and it will be demonstrated that they too, are influenced by their ethnic language, Tamil. Two possible aspects of crosslinguistic influence on Colloquial Singapore English already will be investigated in this section. First, the preferred syntactic position of already, second, the appearance of already in negative sentences like no more already ‘there is none left'.

Table 5.1 is a summary of Colloquial Singapore English already and the corresponding linguistic items in the ethnic languages that function similarly. For more information about each individual linguistic item, please see the descriptions in the previous sections about Colloquial Singapore English already and its parallels in the ethnic languages.

From the table, we can see that Chinese has two words, sentence-final le and yijing, that function similarly to Colloquial Singapore English already even though they are syntactically distinct. Another important distinction between these two words is that yijing gives a completive reading while sentence-final le can express the full range of interpretations, namely, completive, inchoative, and prospective. That is to say, when Colloquial Singapore English already is used in a completive sense by a Chinese speaker, it has two possible sources of crosslinguistic influence; but when it is used in a non-completive sense, the only possible source of crosslinguistic influence is sentence-final le. If crosslinguistic influence from Chinese has a strong effect on the way in which Chinese speakers

Table 5.1 Comparison of Colloquial Singapore English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil

Source: Modified after Teo 2019: 361

use Colloquial Singapore English already, there will be a strong preference for already used in non-completive interpretations to appear in sentence-final position. On the contrary, there is no such syntactic distinction in the use of already by Malay and Tamil speakers since both sudah and irkanavi appear primarily in a single position. Therefore, there should be no difference in syntactic preference regardless of whether already is used in a completive or a non-completive sense. In addition to a possible difference in syntactic position, the appearance of already in negative sentences is also how Chinese speakers will differ from Malay and Tamil speakers if there is a strong effect of crosslinguistic influence. As shown in Table 5.1, Chinese speakers frequently use negative sentences in sentence-final le constructions and Malay and Tamil speakers seldom use sudah or ёгкапагё in negative sentences.

In terms of the coding of the interview data, a token that indicates a completed event that is not continuing at speech time or some other reference time is coded as ‘completive’, and a token that indicates inchoative or prospective aspect at speech time or some other reference time is coded as 'non-completive'.