ON THE SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS OF SINGAPORE ENGLISH VERY IN ADJECTIVAL PREDICATION

Abstract

Copula deletion is a phenomenon that has been well-described in the literature on Singapore English. In particular, the copula be has been noted to be most frequently omitted when it precedes an adjective phrase. However, copula deletion in this particular context is not without its restrictions; often, adjectives in predicate positions require additional functional material to be present for adjectival predication when the copula is omitted and this phenomenon has yet to be documented in the literature. This thesis thus aims to give an exact description of the distribution of a particular example of such functional material, namely, the degree adverb very. I also review the literature surrounding a parallel construction in Mandarin with the Mandarin degree adverb hen and assess the applicability of various analyses of Mandarin hen to Singapore English very. Based on the distributional patterns of very with negation and sentence final particles, I propose that in contexts of copula deletion in Singapore English, very has been absorbed into the same category as negation and sentence final particles which accounts for its distributional patterns. I also point out some existing problems with such a proposal by referring to bare adjectives in predicate positions in an embedded clause and the co-occurrence of negation with sentence final particles, and point out future directions of research that may go some way towards addressing these problems.