Grammatical Variations between Singapore, Mainland China, and Taiwan Mandarin: A Pilot Study of Aspect Marking

Grammatical Variations between Singapore, Mainland China, and Taiwan Mandarin: A Pilot Study of Aspect Marking Yong Kang Khoo Jingxia Lin School of Humanities School of Humanities Nanyang Technological University Nanyang Technological University 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore, 637332 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore, 637332 yongkang001@e.ntu.edu.sg jingxialin@ntu.edu.sg Abstract Current research on variations in Mandarin often focuses on the comparisons between Mainland China Mandarin (MCM) and other non-MCM varieties, and less between various non-MCM varieties. This study seeks to compare Mandarin across more regions, in this case, Mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore. This paper presents part of the findings of a pilot study on this issue, using aspect marking as a case study. It is found that a number of the variations identified in both Singapore Mandarin (SM) and Taiwan Mandarin (TWM) are in fact commonalities. A large-scale study of this may shed light on the variations that are, in fact, shared among non-MCM varieties and affect how these variations should be viewed in the large context of Global Chinese or World Chinese. 1 Introduction Variations in the Mandarin spoken across different regions such as Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong have long been observed and studied. These variations have been found in a range of linguistic categories, such as phonological, syntactic and even discourse. However, many of the current studies take Mainland China Mandarin (MCM) as a yardstick and investigate only the features that deviate from MCM (Lin et al. 2018). This may potentially lead to the neglect of features that are shared among non-MCM varieties; in fact, shared features between the non-MCM varieties, such as Singapore Mandarin (SM), Taiwanese Mandarin (TWM) and Hong Kong Mandarin (HKM), are not uncommon, given the similarities in their linguistic environments (Lin and Khoo 2018). An example of this situation can be seen in studies of aspect marking in SM, where most of the findings and observations about variations in aspect marking in SM are based on a comparison between SM and MCM. For instance, Zhu (2008) identifies 中 zhōng in the construction “VP+中 zhōng” as a continuous aspect marker in SM; as this marker is rarely used in MCM and has very limited usage situations, this marker was identified by Zhu as a unique feature found in SM. Zhu (2008) compares the marker to the English suffix –ing and suggests that -ing is a possible source for the usage of the construction “VP+中 zhōng” in SM. Yet, 中 zhōng as an aspect marker is not a feature unique to SM. Diao (2013) has noted that the construction is commonly found in TWM, which has been influenced by a similar construction in Japanese; Diao also suggests that the use of 中 zhōng as an aspect marker in MCM and HKM is likely a product of TWM influence. With two different possible sources for one construction, many questions can be raised, such as if there are any differences between the two given their potentially varied origins. However, as most studies compare these non-MCM varieties against MCM, these …

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