Discourse particles in Colloquial Singapore English

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe research looked into choices by speakers of Colloquial Singapore English with different ethnicities (Chinese, Indian and Malay) in the use of particles whose roots lie not in English. The 76 speakers under investigation used 1,427 such particles in 30 conversations. The general rate of particle usage by the members of each ethnicity was similar. The particles lah and ah, whose linguistic origins are unknown and which account for almost 94 per cent of the total particle use, were both frequently used across ethnic groups. The Chinese speakers used these articles less than the other two ethnicities and were more inclined than the other two groups to use Cantonese particles, especially lor. Two other Cantonese particles, hor and leh, were used six and nine times respectively, and these rare instances were exclusively produced by Chinese speakers. Indian speakers did not distinguish between the number of particles in intra‐ and interethnic settings, while the other two groups did, especially the Malay speakers, for this group the difference was significant. Our research shows that while ethnic patterns seem absent in the use of the most frequent CSE particles, infrequent particles may nevertheless reveal such patterns. Future research should focus on infrequent CSE particles.