Singapore Mandarin Chinese

Variation and Shifts in a Glocalized World
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-009-52261-8
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 338 Seiten

Singapore Mandarin represents a distinct and dynamic variety shaped by local multilingualism and global influences. This comprehensive study offers the most up-to-date linguistic description of contemporary Singapore Mandarin, drawing on a decade's worth of natural spoken and written data. Through rigorous quantitative and qualitative analyses, it systematically examines the variety's distinctive lexical, grammatical, and discourse features, revealing it as an inclusive and evolving system. Expanding beyond Putonghua comparisons, the analysis incorporates perspectives from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia Mandarin, offering a broader perspective on regional variations. A sociolinguistic survey of native speakers further enriches the study with insights into language attitudes, ideologies, and usage trends. By documenting how external sociocultural factors and internal innovations drive linguistic change, the book advances global understandings of Mandarin variation. As a significant contribution to Chinese linguistics, World Chineses, language contact, and multilingualism studies, this work is essential reading for linguists, educators, and policymakers.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lin, Jingxia

Teo, Ming Chew

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of figures; List of tables; Abbreviations; 1. Introduction; 2. Lexical variation; 3. Grammatical variation and shifts: grammatical categories; 4. Grammatical variation and shifts: constructions and word order; 5. Grammatical variation and shifts: interface with semantics/pragmatics; 6. Discourse variation and shifts; 7. Singapore mandarin in flux: variation, shifts, and influence in a glocalized world; 8. Conclusion; References.

Über Autor(innen)

Teo, Ming Chew
Teo Ming Chew is an Associate Professor of Chinese at Virginia Tech, USA. His research explores cognitive linguistics, Chinese linguistics, sociolinguistics, contact linguistics, and second language acquisition, with a focus on linguistic varieties in Singapore.

Lin, Jingxia
Lin Jingxia is an Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research explores Chinese linguistics, syntax-semantics interface, language variation and change, and typology, with a focus on Putonghua, World Chineses, and Wenzhou Wu.