PHONOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTIC ASPECTS OF THE TONE GROUP IN SINGAPORE ENGLISH

Abstract

This Academic Exercise is the first attempt to study in detail the characteristics of the tone group in Educated Singaporean English. It aims to discover whether tone group division and nucleus placement in Singapore English are similar to that in British English. From the analysis of data of spontaneous Educated Singaporean speech collected from television dialogue programmes, it is found that there are some similarities and also significant differences. The tone group in Singapore English is similar to that in British English in that it frequently corresponds with the clause; but the data also shows a substantial proportion of tone group co-extensiveness with the phrase. However, the semantic unit, rather than the syntactic unit, is found to be the principle condition on tone grouping. Tone groups with one nucleus (as in British English) occur frequently in the data, but double nuclei tone groups are just as common, revealing a significant difference from British English. Another significant finding is the level tone, which appears to have contrasting functions with that in British English. In Singapore English, the falling and rising tones correspond, in general, to the functions that they perform in British English. This Exercise also discusses the function of the nucleus in highlighting various types of information, namely, end of tone group, new information, contrastive information and emphasis. In general, this research aims to provide a description of the intonational system of Educated Singapore English and to serve as a base from which further research can be carried out.