ABSTRACT
The investigation of past tense marking strategies provides a clear picture, similar to the results of the subject realization analysis. Turning to the particulars of past tense marking strategies, the results show clear differences, both between regular and irregular verbs and also in terms of mean length of utterance group/age and the different ethnicities/groups investigated. In general, the study has revealed that several past tense marking options exist for Singaporean children, viz. marking or simple unmarking of the main verb, as well as marking strategies via specific Chinese-derived lexemes/particles and according to specific patterns and principles found in Chinese. Mixed-effectsmodel reveals a significant interaction between Chinese ethnicity and regular verb type when it comes to the likelihood of zero past tense marking. This confirms the earlier observation that the omission of past tense marking is even more likely for regular verbs.
