ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the syntax and semantics of Singlish (Colloquial Singapore English) sentence-final already and its development in the contact ecology of Singapore. Bao (2005a) identifies the Mandarin Chinese perfective suffix -le and sentence-final particle le as two substrate sources for Singlish already. In this chapter, I first argue instead that sentence-final le – together with its cognate liao/laa in other Chinese languages of Singapore – is the sole substrate source for the syntax and semantics of Singlish already. The various interpretational effects of already can be derived from a uniform semantics shared with its substrate cognate particles le/liao/laa, together with consideration of the telicity of the predicate. I furthermore show that the syntax of already differs subtly from that of its substrate cognates: Singlish sentence-final already unambiguously scopes over the entire clause, whereas its substrate cognate particles le/liau/laa are in a clause-medial position. I propose that this difference can be explained through a process of reanalysis forced by the interaction of a syntactic universal, the Final-over-Final Constraint, together with independent differences between Singlish and its substrate Chinese languages.
