Copula-less, Non-verbal Predication in Colloquial Singapore English and the General Anchoring Condition

Abstract

This thesis examines the phenomenon of copula-omission in non-verbal predication in Colloquial Singapore English (CSE). It is noted that copula-omission is not uniform and is only permitted with prepositional predicates, not nominal and adjectival predicates. We propose this can be accounted for by referring to a universal general anchoring condition stipulating that all sentences in natural language must be anchored to a salient reference point in discourse. Prepositional predicates contain an event argument that can be anchored to time via aspect, while nominal and adjectival predicates lack such an event argument. Other strategies in CSE that facilitate copula-omission can also be explained in terms of how they refer to event structure, aspectual information, or pragmatic information. We further discuss the theoretical implications of the proposed analysis in understanding the distribution of copula-omission, and of all grammatical features that very between the standard and non-standard forms in CSE.