SINGAPORE'S LINGUISTIC PALETTE : A STUDY OF SOME DEVICES USED TO PRODUCE COLOUR IN SINGAPOREAN ENGLISH

Abstract

This Academic Exercise is an attempt to make a preliminary investigation to try to discover what constitutes colour in text. As the concept of colour is ill-defined and has hardly been the subject of much study, we do not have a clear idea of what makes a piece of writing colourful. Five features are hypothesised here to be major contributors to the effect of colour. The editorials and the arts and entertainment pages of The Straits Times and The lndependent are examined and analysed and the results totalled and tabulated. An interpretation and explanation of the findings will be made, together with comments on the significance of the five features to the contribution of colour in the newspapers. The concluding chapter will suggest that these features should not be taken as the only contributors to colour in text. Further investigations, perhaps into other types of discourse, could be undertaken.