Interaction with individual-level social factors
An analysis of the interview data show's that crosslinguistic influence motivated by parallel constructions between the ethnic languages and Colloquial Singapore English may be strengthened or weakened by individual-level social factors that are determined partially or wholly by one’s social circumstances. In this section we will look at a specific case study of realis modality got and a more general interaction between the factors of language dominance and attitude toward English across all three linguistic items.
Crosslinguistic influence and English language proficiency
As shown in Table 5.3, there are a total of nine tokens of realis modality got, and they are all produced by two middle-aged Chinese speakers who have a lower English proficiency than the other speakers. These two speakers have a lower level of English proficiency because they had not studied English in school but acquired it later in their working life. This finding suggests that what constitutes as parallel constructions for an individual may differ depending on one’s knowledge or proficiency in the language one is acquiring and the age that an individual learned the language.
Since tense is optional in Colloquial Singapore English, Example (67) is a possible sentence that may be part of the language input of a Singaporean.
(67) She got scold (by teacher).
With input similar to that of (67), the generalization that got takes a VP complement can be made, and this is what speakers with a beginner level English proficiency would assume. Coupled with the fact that Standard English got has the implied notion of possession (see Example 14), Chinese speakers with a beginner level of English proficiency will view Chinese you as completely identical to English got, and will very likely expand its semantic functions to include the full range of semantic functions of you - possessive, existential, and realis modality marker.
However, a speaker who has more knowledge of English or is more proficient in English will know that 'got + VP’ is in fact only restricted to passive sentences. Moreover, he or she would also know other equivalent ways of conveying the meanings that are expressed by Mandarin ‘you + VP’. For example, one meaning that Mandarin ‘you + VP' and Colloquial Singapore English got is compatible with is the completive aspect as illustrated by Example (68a).
- (68a) She got brush her teeth.
- (68b) She did brush her teeth.
To indicate that it is a fact that someone has completed a particular action, an individual with an intermediate level of English proficiency will probably know that the equivalent of (68a) in Standard English is (68b), where a past tense did would be sufficient to indicate that the referent of she has in fact completed the action of brushing her teeth prior to speech time. As such, someone with an intermediate level of English proficiency would use (68b) rather than (68a), especially with normative social pressure to speak Standard English in Singapore. In short, what constitutes as parallel constructions between an individual’s ethnic language and Colloquial Singapore English may be different depending on the individual’s English language proficiency. In the case of Colloquial English got, a Chinese-English bilingual with a beginner level of English proficiency will most likely view Chinese you as exactly parallel to Colloquial Singapore English got. However, a Chinese-English bilingual with an intermediate or higher level of English proficiency will probably not associate the realis modality function of Chinese you with Colloquial Singapore English got. This suggests that the associational semantic networks of a bilingual (see Figure 3.7) may be reorganized as an individual improves in his or her proficiency level of the target language.
