Colloquial Singapore English got: functions and substratal influences

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Got in Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) has grammatical and semantic functions which are very different from standard varieties of English such as Standard British English (BrE). This paper provides a comprehensive description of the usage of the word. Seven distinct meanings are identified: possessive, existential, realis modality (further divided into temporal location, aspect and emphasis), idiomatic use in the expression where got?, passive, ‘to receive/obtain’ and ‘to become’. With regard to these seven meanings, the paper then makes a cross‐linguistic comparison between CSE and four languages which played a role in the formation of CSE, namely BrE, Hokkien, Cantonese and Baba Malay. The results of the comparison show that it is Hokkien that constitutes the main substrate of CSE. This claim is further supported by sociohistorical facts and a comparison between CSE and Baba Malay of two expressions that are potentially of Malay‐origin, namely the kena passive construction and the idiomatic expression where got?. Moreover, the paper also maintains that the sources of the various uses of got can be classified into three, two of which were gained through successful L2 acquisition and the other through a combination of simplification and relexification.