The origins of empty categories in Singapore English

Bao, Zhiming

doi:10.1075/jpcl.16.2.03zhi

Article published In: Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages
Vol. 16:2 (2001) ► pp.275–319

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The origins of empty categories in Singapore English

Zhiming Bao | National University of Singapore

Published online: 4 February 2002

https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.16.2.03zhi

The system of empty categories in Singapore English, a contact language with an endogenous ecology, arises through the interaction of three parameters: [topic-prominence], [pro-drop], and [wh-movement]. These parameters are reset under the pressure of the languages in the contact ecology, mainly the substrate Chinese dialects, and the lexifier English. The paper adopts a holistic approach to creole genesis, in which substrate and superstrate influence is expressed in terms of parametric re-structuring constrained by principles of Universal Grammar. Surface-true substrate, superstrate, or novel features are exponents of this parametric re-structuring.

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