This paper' reports on an investigation carried out by the authors into the variant forms and social functions of the variable (LA); the classic stereotype of Singapore English. The aim of the investigation was to test out the assertions made by earlier scholars (most particularly, Richards andTay 1977 andKwan-Terry 1978) against further empirical evidence and introspection on the part of a sophisticated native-user of Singapore English. Since the scope of the investigation has had to be severely limited through lack of time and other resources, it should be treated as a small-scale enquiry in which the currently accepted explanations of the (LA) phenomenon are taken as hypotheses which require checking rather than 'facts' about (LA) which can be taken as accurate and adequate. The methodology adopted is a multi-method 'triangulation' approachliterature review, text-analysis, questionnaire administration, informal interviewing and introspection -which yields 'results' which can be summarized as follows:(a) The existence of two distinct variants of (LA) is confirmed; a short la and a long lah which are distinguished from each other by the second (the lah) possessing rather more than twice the duration of the first (the la).(b) The existence of strict rules governing the occurrence of (LA) not only in sentence or phrase-final position but also inside the structure of noun phrases and verb phrases.(c) The function of (LA) as both a code-marker and as an emphaticmarker is also confirmed.(d) The functions of the two variants of (LA) as carriers of contrasting pragmatic value is also confirmed but, it is demonstrated, the values are the reverse of those previously reported, i.e. la signals solidarity, friendship, a reduction of social distance between participants, in contrast with lah with its power-signalling, hostility and social-distancing function.The paper concludes with a number of suggestions for followup studies on (LA) which would help deepen our understanding of the forms and functions of (LA) and contribute to our attempts at making sense of the role of linguistic variation in social life.
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