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English World-Wide
Vol. 44:1 (2023) ► pp.91–117

The ages of pragmatic particles in Colloquial Singapore English

A corpus study based on oral history interviews

| University of Kiel
| University of Giessen
| University of Hamburg
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.
Keywords: Colloquial Singapore English, diachronic reconstruction, Oral History Interviews, pragmatic particles
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The form, function, and distribution of pragmatic particles in CSE
  • 3.The rise of pragmatic particles in relation to the linguistic ecology in Singapore in different historical stages
  • 4.Database and methodology
    • 4.1Oral history interviews
    • 4.2Methodology
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Year of birth versus pragmatic particles
    • 5.2Age versus pragmatic particles
    • 5.3Interview year versus pragmatic particles
    • 5.4Particle functions
    • 5.5Association with gender, ethnicity, and education
    • 5.6Random forest
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1The origin of the particles
    • 6.2The influence of gender and level of education
    • 6.3The influence of ethnic background
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Sources
  • References
Published online: 20 September 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.21016.li
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OHI-NAS. 2020. Oral History Interviews. Online Archives. National Archives of Singapore, 2020, <[URL]> (accessed September 9, 2021).
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