Research
Hokkien
M.A. Dissertation, 2015 - Nanyang Technological University
"Tonal Assignment of Malay Loanwords in Penang Hokkien"
Supervised by Dr Tan Ying Ying
This dissertation is an investigation of the processes involved in the tonal assignment of Malay loanwords in Penang Hokkien. In the process of this investigation, the tonal system of Penang Hokkien and the possibilities of lexical stress in Penang Malay are first examined. The research concludes that the process of tonal assignment of Malay loanwords in Penang Hokkien is motivated by lexical stress and syllable phonotactics.
Sub-fields: loanword phonology, contact linguistics.
Link: Abstract
Conference Proceedings
Soon, S. 2016. Tones and Loanwords: Tonal Assignment of Malay Loanwords in Penang Hokkien. Language Contact in Asia and the Pacific, 14-15 September. Macau.
Soon, S. 2013. Implications of Language Contact: Tones on Loanwords in Penang Hokkien. International Symposium on Bilingualism,
10-13 June, Singapore.
More on Penang Hokkien
Singapore English
B.A. Honours Thesis, 2011 - Nanyang Technological University
"Is Singapore English becoming American?"
Supervised by Dr Tan Ying Ying
This paper seeks to discover if Singapore English displays American English features, thus validating the assumption that Singapore English is moving towards American English, as raised previously by Mr Lee Kuan Yew in 2011. Through a comparison of speech data collected from young and old adult Singaporeans, the results show that young Singaporean adults display significantly more American English features in the form of post-vocalic /r/, taps and vowels. The research concludes that it is evident that Singapore English displays influences of American English at present.
Sub-fields: phonology, varieties of English.
Undergraduate Term Paper for Language Contact, 2012 - Nanyang Technological University
"Singapore's Linguistic Landscape - A Comparison between Food Centres Located in Central and Heartland Singapore"
With Neo Wanting, supervised by Dr Frantisek Kratochvil
This paper aims to investigate the trends and motivations on the construction of Singapore's linguistic landscape, given the multilingual and multicultural nature of its society. Food centres are used as the location of study for this paper as they are public domains frequently visited by people from all walks of life in Singapore. A comparison between a centrally located food centre, Lau Pa Sat, and a heartland food centre, Boon Lay Hawker Centre is made, thus proving that the extent of multilingualism and the variation of language used in Singapore is highly related to its geographical demographic.
Sub-fields: linguistic landscape, multilingualism, languages in contact.
Link: Paper
Nagamese
Graduate Term Paper for Language Documentation, 2012 - Nanyang Technological University
"A Sketch Grammar of Nagamese"
Supervised by Dr Alexander Coupe
This paper aims to present a preliminary sketch grammar of Nagamese, a creole spoken in Nagaland. Nagamese is known as an Assamese-based creole and it shares a large part of its lexicon with Assamese.
Sub-fields: creole linguistics, language documentation.
Link: Paper