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Title: | Examining the factors influencing WH-movement in Singapore English: A Discourse Perspective. | Authors: | TAN GIM YONG | Keywords: | Wh-movement, singapore english, discourse | Issue Date: | 11-Jan-2011 | Citation: | TAN GIM YONG (2011-01-11). Examining the factors influencing WH-movement in Singapore English: A Discourse Perspective.. ScholarBank@NUS Repository. | Abstract: | In Standard English, WH-movement is used to form interrogatives from their declarative forms. However, it is noted that Singapore English contains interrogatives that involve both WH-movement and WH-in situ. Works in the literature recognize that WH-in situ can sometimes occur in Singapore English, but falls short of providing a viable explanation. The occurrence of instances of WH-in situ and WH-movement is generally taken to be random. This paper seeks to explain the preference of WH-movement in certain situations over WH-in situ and vice versa. In order to do that, a background understanding of the language ecology of Singapore is needed. Upon establishing the strong influence that substrate languages like Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese have on Singapore English and that the superstrate language is Standard English, it is found that discourse plays a major role in deciding the preference of either of the two forms. Using the ICE-SIN corpus as the primary data and Google search results as supplementary data, a comprehensive analysis is done, examining in great detail the way WH-in situ and WH-movement are used in Singapore English. | URI: | http://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/25052 |
Appears in Collections: | Master's Theses (Open) |
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