Singlish concept-level sentiment analysis

Abstract

In Singapore, the government has assigned four languages, namely English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay and Tamil, as the official languages of the state. English serves not only as the medium of instruction in education and administration, but also as a lingua franca of its multicultural society. Singapore English can be classified in two distinct varieties – Singapore Standard English and Singapore Colloquial English (also known as Singlish). While the former is generally used in formal contexts, the latter is preferred in informal communication, increasingly so in social media. To provide a more comprehensive understanding of the data available on social media, the scope of sentiment analysis has been broadened from English to other languages. However, the work on sentiment analysis for colloquial varieties like Singlish has been limited.