LINGUIST List 20.2854
Sun Aug 23 2009
Diss: Anthro Ling/Socioling: Chen: 'Bilinguals in Style: Linguistic...'
Editor for this issue: Di Wdzenczny
<dilinguistlist.org>
1. Katherine Hoi Ying
Chen,
Bilinguals in Style: Linguistic practices and ideologies of Cantonese-English codemixers in Hong Kong
Message 1: Bilinguals in Style: Linguistic practices and ideologies of Cantonese-English codemixers in Hong Kong
Date: 22-Aug-2009
From: Katherine Hoi Ying Chen <hoiyingcumich.edu>
Subject: Bilinguals in Style: Linguistic practices and ideologies of Cantonese-English codemixers in Hong Kong
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Institution: University of Michigan
Program: Department of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2008
Author: Katherine Hoi Ying Chen
Dissertation Title: Bilinguals in Style: Linguistic practices and ideologies of Cantonese-English codemixers in Hong Kong
Dissertation URL: http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/58417/1/hoiyingc_1.pdf
Linguistic Field(s):
Anthropological Linguistics
Sociolinguistics
Subject Language(s): English (eng)
Chinese, Yue (yue)
Dissertation Director:
Judith T. Irvine
Sarah G. Thomason
Babra Meek
Robin M. Queen
Lesley Milroy
Dissertation Abstract:
The trilingual (Cantonese, Putonghua and English) and multicultural settingof Hong Kong makes it a language contact zone in which different patternsof code-mixing occur. Previous studies of Hong Kong code-mixing mostlyfocus on the major pattern commonly found among locally educated ethnicChinese; little has been done on the coexistence of different code-mixingpatterns and their social significance. This research employs Irvine's(2001) conception of 'style', and the associated Irvine and Gal (1995)semiotic processes of language ideologies, to investigate two code-mixingpatterns found in Hong Kong and to explore how they are used indexically toconstruct distinct social and linguistic identities. The code-mixing stylecommonly used by the local younger generation, using Muysken's (2000)typology, is insertional, in that individual English lexical items areinserted into a base language of Cantonese at an intra-sentential level. Incontrast, another code-mixing style, which correlates with speakers whohave overseas and/or international school experience, is structurally muchmore complex. It has a combination of insertion (Cantonese insertion intoEnglish sentences and vice versa), alternation between the two languages,and the use of discourse markers at switch points. For the local youngergeneration, most of whom went through Hong Kong's bilingual educationsystem, use of the local code-mixing style is a way to identify andinteract with people of shared commonalities. It also provides a means todistinguish 'outsiders' who use or prefer a different style of languagemixing (or non-mixing). This research reveals how overlapping and fuzzy thelinguistic and social boundaries between Hong Kong locals and returneesare, yet social participants essentialize the relationship between speechand speakers, using such knowledge to construct, negotiate, and(re)position their identities, make decisions about whether or not to crossperceived social group boundaries; and maneuver in their local socialcontexts and beyond. This research demonstrates that, to understandlanguage and its speakers as social beings, linguistic structures must bestudied in conjunction with their contextualized use as well as themediating ideologies, i.e. the three components Silverstein (1985) definesas constituting a 'total linguistic fact'.
During fieldwork of this dissertation, a sociolinguistic documentary filmon code-mixing and code-switching is also produced, 'Multilingual HongKong: Present jat1 go3 Project' <http://www.foryue.org> , as a resource forraising public awareness on issues of bilingualism, bilingual education andlanguage-related social discrimination.
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