The Singlish Controversy by Professor Lionel Wee: Chapter 7

We ended the previous chapter wondering "What is Singlish?"

This chapter, the last in the book, tackles that question. But if you're looking for a concrete definition like "What is diffusion? Diffusion is the movement of particles from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration." then I'm sorry. That's not how the humanities works.

Instead, our answer to "What is Singlish?" accounts for the many nuances in how Singlish is used and the people who use it.

Indexicality

Indexicality is the deeper meaning behind someone's use of language.

For example, I sometimes say "chewren" instead of "children". The former is the Singaporean way of pronouncing the latter. According to sociolinguistic theory, I don't do so randomly. There is a pattern that determines whether I say "chewren" or "children" in a given situation. If I'm motivated to highlight the fact that I am a Singaporean, for instance, I am more likely to say "chewren" because that pronunciation is a mark of Singaporean-ness.

More formally, what I just explained can be rewritten as follows: the pronunciation "chewren" indexes my Singaporean identity.

It's not difficult to imagine how we can think about Singlish in terms of indexicality. Let's look at an example.

My bowl of bak chor mee [a noodle dish] at the coffee shop nearby recently upped their prices from $2 to $2.20. Some have even upped it to $2.50. And don’t even talk about aircon food court prices. Inflation? Where got inflation? Singapore economy booming what.

The Singlish here, in italics, must be seen in conjunction with the surrounding text which is in "standard" English. It is the switch from "standard" to nonstandard that's noteworthy because it indexes several things.

1. A sarcastic expression of disbelief that there is no inflation and that the economy is booming. The switch to Singlish functions like an alarm light, telling people to sit up and take extra notice so that they will be able to detect the sarcasm.
2. The author's Singaporean identity. He is showing his ability to use Singlish, which marks him out as a Singaporean.
3. The author's positive attitude towards Singlish. The fact that he was using "standard" English before switching to Singlish shows that he is capable of using both. The fact that he is willing to switch to Singlish shows that he is not against its use.

Another interesting example is the word "got". It has many possible meanings in Singlish.

I got two brother, one sister. I have two brothers and one sister.

Here, "got" means to possess, or that something exists.

I got go to Japan. I did go to Japan.

Here, "got" means something actually occurred.

Person 1: This dress very red. Person 2: Where got?
Person 1: This dress is very red. Person 2: Is it? I don't think so.

Here, "got" signals disagreement.

The many meanings of "got" shows how difficult it is to pin down what Singlish actually is. It's not something static. It is very fluid and dependent on many factors: who is speaking, where the speaker is, who else is present, what the topic is, what the prevailing mood of the conversation is, how the speaker feels towards the topic, and so on.

Remember how, at the end of the previous chapter, we saw that the government's and Singlish supporters' arguments were both problematic? That's the result of the slippery nature of Singlish.

And there's nothing wrong with that. Humanities isn't about knowing the "correct" answer, because very often there's no such thing. We have to be okay with ambiguity.

So what is Singlish? It's whatever it means to each and every individual Singaporean, and each and every individual Singaporean will have a different concept of what Singlish is.