Debra Ziegeler , Converging grammars : Constructions in Singapore English

Over the past thirty years, Construction Grammar approaches (see e.g. Croft 2001; Goldberg 2006; Hoffmann & Trousdale 2013) have received substantial support from psychoand neurolinguistics as well as from research on L1 (Diessel 2013) and L2 (Ellis 2013) acquisition. It is therefore not surprising that recently a considerable number of studies on World English varieties have emerged that adopt a Construction Grammar perspective (inter alia, Mukherjee & Hoffmann 2006; Mukherjee & Gries 2009; van Rooy 2010; Hoffmann 2011, 2014; Gilquin 2016). In the present book, Debra Ziegeler now provides a Construction Grammar analysis of Singapore English. Drawing on the results of four previously published studies, she outlines how contact varieties can give rise to so-called ‘merger constructions’, pairings of form, meaning and function that combine properties of the contact standard variety, the local vernacular as well as other local languages of contact or substrates. In chapter 1 (‘Introduction’, pp. 1–14), Ziegeler first of all introduces the main varieties under investigation: the local standard variety (Standard Singapore English (SSE)) and the local vernacular dialect (Singapore Colloquial English (SCE) / Singlish). She then goes on to offer a first glimpse of the challenges that the Englishcontact varieties of Singapore pose for a Construction Grammar analysis. This is followed by a short section in which important terms and notions of the book are defined and discussed (including ‘contact variety’, ‘lexifier’, ‘substrate–superstrate’, ‘model and replica language’ and ‘semantic continuity’). After that, Ziegler gives a concise overview of the following seven chapters of the book. Next, chapter 2 (‘Singapore English’, pp. 15–40) tracks the historical evolution of SSE and SCE, describing the rich linguistic ecology in which these varieties emerged (which included Malay, numerous Chinese dialects, such as Hokkien, Cantonese and Teochew, as well as various Indian languages). Following that, the present-day sociolinguistic situation is surveyed. As Ziegeler shows, the relationship between SSE and SCE is a diglossic one in which the two varieties are not completely mutually exclusive and the choice of code also has important indexical meaning (with SCE acting as a marker of local Singaporean identity even for educated speakers). She then presents a number of grammatical features of Singapore English, some of which can be attributed to substrate influence (such as bare modal can), while others seem to arise due to universals of language development (such as the use of stative verbs with the progressive construction).