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Reviews

Books

Literature on Singapore English

Deterding, David (ed.) Date? English in Singapore: phonetic research on a corpus. Singapore: McGraw Hill Education.

Unfortunately, this book is not yet available at the Library of Münster University. It consists of two background papers and 16 analytical papers. Four of them deal with consonants, two with vowels, four with suprasegments, two with conversation analysis, and four with intelligibility.
The extensive audio material that is usually supplied on a CD accompanying the book can also be found online at: http://videoweb.nie.edu.sg/phonetic/esproc-web/index.htm (accessed July 2007). does not function!!!
For each of the 18 chapters on Singapore English the page offers a vast amount of recorded interviews in high audio quality. Because of the detailed description of the files, the use of the page can be very revealing even without having the book at hand.
(Review by Helge Bräutigam)

[We have ordered the book and hope that it is available in our library soon. In the meantime, please use the inter-library loan system (Fernleihe).]

Foley, Joseph A. (ed.) (1988). New Englishes: the case of Singapore. Singapore: Singapore University Press.

New Englishes: the case of Singapore consists of nine papers written by eight different experts of the topic. The first chapter, written by Joseph A. Foley himself, offers a comprehensive review on the scholarly work that has been done on Singapore English up until the 1980s. Building on this background knowledge the following chapters deal with various specific topics of this field of research. A particular focus of the book lies on the acquisition of Singapore English by school children. Consequently, some knowledge of terms dealing with Second Language Acquisition is indispensable to appreciate those three articles. Besides a very useful glossary of terms the book offers a full bibliography, unfortunately only up until the mid 1980s. 
(Review by Helge Bräutigam)

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Gupta, Anthea Fraser (2003). Singlish on the Web. In: Azirah Hashim & Norizah Hasssan (eds). Varieties of English in SouthEast Asia and Beyond. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press.

In her article Singlish on the Web, Anthea Fraser Gupta explores in which contexts Singapore English (henceforth Singlish) is used on the Internet. For this reason she conducted a google search for expressions specific to Singlish and Geordie, the language variety spoken in Newcastle. Examples of both varieties were found in informal blogs or chats, on pages about the variety and on creative writings. Based on her analysis, Gupta argues that – no matter if you come from Singapore or Newcastle – anyone who has chosen to write in non-standard English has actively decided to do so, mainly in order to express an act of identity. On the internet, your accent cannot be heard, and your face cannot be seen; and consequently, writing in the style of your own language variety is the only possibility to express your identity.
Gupta presents a highly interesting cross cultural topic which is not only interesting for experts on Singlish but also for applied linguists who are generally concerned with the function of language on the web. Her writing style is easily accessible and does not require any prior knowledge of linguistic terms.
(Review by Helge Bräutigam)

[We have ordered the book and hope that it is available in our library soon. In the meantime, please use the inter-library loan system (Fernleihe).]

Lim, Lisa (2007). Mergers and acquisitions: on the ages and origins of Singapore English particles. World Englishes, 26. (to appear)

In her article Mergers and acquisitions: on the ages and origins of Singapore English particles, Lisa Lim chooses a new approach to analyse discourse particles in colloquial Singapore English. Whereas previous studies have mostly focused on their semantic and pragmatic nature, Lim analyses their etymological background in terms of structure and sociohistory. She succeeds in giving a good introduction to the use of particles in Singapore English such as lah, ah, hah, what, lor, hor. Moreover, the reader is introduced to the different substrates like the Malay Bazaar or the Chinese Hokkien. A special feature of the article is a very well structured table, which presents the most important periods in the linguistic sociohistory of Singapore. Beginning with the early 19th century, each period is presented with its special historical circumstances, the implemented educational policies and practices, and the particular language developments. In conclusion, the article is very appropriate for both supplying a comprehensive introduction to the topic in its first part and offering a very specific analysis of particles in Singapore English in its main body.
(Review by Helge Bräutigam)

[This journal is accessible via the Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothekat the RUB].

Lim, Lisa (ed.) (2004). Singapore English: a grammatical description. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

In Singapore English:  a grammatical description five experts on the subject (i.e. Umberto Ansaldo, Joseph A. Foley, Vivienne Fong, Lisa Lim, and Lionel Wee), analyse the main aspects of grammar and phonology of the language variety native to Singapore. In particular, the first chapter by Lisa Lim and Joseph A. Foley offers a comprehensive introduction to the topic. They start off with a short history of Singapore English and go on by introducing the Grammar of Spoken Singapore English Corpus (GSSEC). Eight hours of Spontaneous conversational data were collected by undergraduates at the National University of Singapore. The data comprise the three major ethnic groups of Singapore, i.e. people of Chinese, Malay, and Indian background. Based on the corpus, the second chapter extensively deals with characteristic features of Singapore English in terms of vowels and consonants. While the following three chapters focus on the grammatical features, the sixth chapter outlines the evolution of the language and analyses the impact of the multiethnic and multilingual society on the language.
The book certainly requires basic knowledge of linguistics. Nevertheless, the style is rather comprehensible. Moreover, the extensive list of references makes it easy to gain access to other essential works of the topic.
(Review by Helge Bräutigam)

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Low Ee, Ling; Grabe, Esther (1999). A contrastive study of prosody and lexical stress placement in Singapore English and British English. Language and Speech, 42. 39-56.

In A Contrastive Study of Prosody and Lexical Stress Placement in Singapore English and British English Ling Low Ee and Esther Grabe compare the cross-varietal difference in stress placement between Singapore English and British English. In Singapore English the final syllable of polysyllabic words such as flawlessly is stressed, whereas speakers of British English stress the first syllable. This feature is commonly explained by a simple difference in lexical stress location. However, Low Ee and Grabe could show that the stress on the final syllable is rather a means for signalling an intonational boundary.
 Besides its findings, the article is valuable as a good example of how to conduct an empirical study in the field of linguistics. Moreover, the well-defined structure makes it easy for students to adapt their own studies to the style of a prestigious journal.
(Review by Helge Bräutigam)

[This journal is accessible via the Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothekat the RUB].

Pennycock, Alastair (1994). The cultural politics of English as an international language. London/New York: Longman.

This book deals with the general political and cultural implications the English language has had on different countries in the world over the last four centuries. Thereby, Pennycock uses different approaches from research fields such as Colonial History, Postcolonial Literature and Applied Linguistics. One chapter explicitly deals with the effects of English on Singapore. After offering a short history of Singapore, the author focuses on the impact English Has had on the multiracial Singaporean society. Pennycock comes to the conclusion that particularly in Singapore, English can be the “language of modernity, the language of decadence, the medium of education, but not the mother tongue.” (225)
The book does not require a sound knowledge of linguistic terms. However, the extensive use of different terms from the fields of Postcolonial Studies makes the book rather inappropriate for a first encounter of the topic from a merely linguistic perspective.
(Review by Helge Bräutigam)

[English seminar library: S BA 94003]

Platt, John T. (1975). The Singapore English speech continuum and its basilect 'Singlish' as a 'creoloid'. Anthropological Linguistics, 17. 363-374.

The focus of this text is set on 'Singlish', i.e. Singapore Colloquial English (SCE), in contrast to formal Singapore English, also referred to as Standard Singapore English (SSE). After a brief introduction, a history of the development of Singapore English is given. The main part deals with the socio-economic factors related to the Singapore English speech continuum, with SSE on top and SCE at the bottom of it. Finally, the author takes a closer look at the characteristic features of 'Singlish' and tests it against the criteria of his concept of a 'Creoloid'. In sum, this text is of interest for experienced students rather than beginners.
(Review by Micha Hoekstra)

[Accessible via the Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothekat the RUB].