Abstract
ABSTRACT: The forms X‐self and ownself are both found in Colloquial Singapore English (CSE), but they are not synonymous. The question of exactly how their meanings differ is the focus of this paper. Starting with basic assumptions in cognitive linguistics and Clark's principle of contrast, I make use of Langacker's notion of profiling to suggest that X‐self profiles the most discourse‐prominent entity. That is, it picks out one entity from a group of other possibilities. In contrast, ownself profiles the exclusion of all entities other than the most discourse‐prominent one, so that this entity emerges as the only possibility. I close the paper by briefly exploring the implications of the analysis for the theoretical notion of profiling itself.
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