Got-interrogatives and answers in Colloquial Singapore English

Abstract

This paper investigates the use of got in interrogative sentences and their corresponding answers in Colloquial Singapore English (CSE). Lee, Ling, and Nomoto analyze CSE got as a realis marker from which several different meanings are derived, including temporal location, aspect, and emphasis. While following in their essential claims, we propose that the acceptability of the got-interrogatives and their answers depends on the inherent lexical aspect of the verb (aktionsart) that accompanies got in interrogative sentences. Concerning got-interrogatives and their answers, we discuss situation-based sentences that denote the experiential, habitual, and completive aspects, as well as those sentences that have stative meanings. We suggest that stative sentences are critical to our aspectual analysis, as the notion of stativity, rather than realis vs. irrealis distinction, is the primary determinant of the acceptability judgments concerning the situational interpretations of the got-interrogatives and their answers. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.