Introduction to Sociolinguistic Research Issues in Hong Kong 25 January 2014

包睿舜 LING6023 Introduction to Sociolinguistic Research Issues in Hong Kong 25 January 2014 Robert S. BAUER Dept. of Linguistics University of Hong Kong Email: rsbao@yahoo.com 1 Lecture Topics Methods for 母 researching Hong Kong s languages 文 Surveys Interviews Language diary: study of speakers of Punjabi, Cantonese, and English Hong Kong s Languages Meaning of Chinese(?) 語中 mother tongue and Terminology and need to be clear and precise How to study speakers use of their languages? 2 Lecture Topics Sociolinguistic correlational studies Social and linguistic variables Language is a sociopolitically sensitive issue Study on Cantonese Profanity Is Hong Kong Cantonese a languageor a dialect? Attitudes toward Cantonese Survey of topics to be discussed this semester Census Survey of Languages Spoken in Hong Kong Hong Kong is multilingual community in which different Chinese dialects and foreign linguistic varieties are spoken. Hong Kong Census has asked questions about use of languages among population. Most recent data are from 2011 (for website address see References). HK s predominant language and Chinese variety is Cantonese. Other Chinese varieties include Putonghua, Chiu Chau, Hakka, Hoklo, Shanghainese, etc. 3 4 Census Data on HK s Ethnic Groups: Table 1. HK s populations of ethnic groups from 2011 Census. Ethnic group: Population number: % of total: Majority pop.: Chinese: 6,620,393 93.6% of total pop. Minority pop.: Indonesians: 133,377 29.6% of subtotal pop. Filipinos: 133,018 29.5% Whites: 55,236 12.2% Indians: 28,616 6.3% Mixed 24,649 5.5% ethnicity: Pakistanis: 18,042 4.0% Nepalese: 16,518 3.7% Japanese: 12,580 2.8% Thais: 11,213 2.5% Other Asians: 7,038 1.6% Koreans: 5,209 1.2% Others 5,687 1.2% Minority subtotal: 451,183 6.4% of total pop. 5 Total Pop.: 7,071,576 100.0% Table 2. % of HK s Population speaking languages and dialects. Usual Lang. Another Lang./Dial.: Total: Lang.: 2001 2006 2011 2001 2006 2011 2001 2006 2011 Cantonese 89.2% 90.8% 89.5% 6.8% 5.7% 6.3% 96.1% 96.5% 95.8% English 3.2 2.8 3.5 39.8 41.9 42.6 43.0 44.7 46.1 Putonghua 0.9 0.9 1.4 33.3 39.2 46.5 34.2 40.1 47.9 Hakka 1.3 1.2 0.9 3.8 3.6 3.8 5.1 4.7 4.7 Chiu Chau 1.0 0.8 0.7 3.8 3.2 3.1 4.8 3.9 3.8 Fukien 1.7 1.2 1.1 2.3 2.1 2.3 4.0 3.3 3.4 Shanghai 0.4 0.3 0.3 1.1 0.9 0.9 1.5 1.2 1.2 Pilipino 0.2 0.1 0.2 1.7 1.3 1.4 1.9 1.4 1.6 Indonesian 0.2 0.1 0.3 1.2 1.5 2.2 1.3 1.7 2.5 Japanese 0.2 0.2 0.2 1.2 1.1 1.4 1.4 1.2 1.6 Other 1.7 1.6 1.9 - - - - - - Total: 100.0 100.0 100.0 - - - - - - 6 1

Bahasa Indonesian Burmese English Filipino/Tagalog Hindi Japanese Korean Malay Non-Chinese Languages Spoken in Hong Kong Nepali Punjabi Thai Urdu Vietnamese Language Use among Bilingual Indian Adolescents in Hong Kong Besides Chinese dialects, some minority languages are also spoken in Hong Kong. Included among these are Hindi and Punjabi spoken within HK s Indian population. Pannu(1998) conducted a small-scale study of language use among a group of eight bilingual secondary-school Indian students. 7 8 Methodology: Language-diary Language-diary: students kept a language diary in which they recorded over a period of one week the languages they spoke, along with details about the topic of conversation and the social characteristics of the people with whom they verbally interacted. Tape-recorder: students carried around with them tape-recorders which they used to record all of their verbal interactions for one whole day. Sociolinguistic Characteristics of this Microstudy s Subjects The eight secondary-school students (four male and four female) were 16 and 17 years old; six were born in Hong Kong and two in India. All eight students were native speakers of Punjabi, but they also spoke Hindi, Cantonese, and English with high proficiency; four of the students also spoke French. 9 10 Findings from Pannu s Study A total of 1,179 verbal interactions were recorded in the eight students diaries. Verbal interactions by ethnic background of students interlocutors (who they talked to): Indians: 84% Chinese: 9% Westerners and other Asian peoples: 7% 11 Language Choices in Interactions Monolingual interactions (741 or 62.8%) are preferred: Cantonese: 30.0% Punjabi: 23.6 English: 9.2% Bilingual = mixed-code interactions(438 or 37.2%): Cantonese with some Punjabi: 13.3% Cantonese with some English: 7.0 Punjabi with some Cantonese: 6.9 Cantonese, Punjabi, English: 4.9 Punjabi with some English: 3.2 English with some Cantonese: 1.5 English with some Punjabi: 0.4 12 2

Mixed-code Interactions By Matrix Language: Cantonese (239): 62.9% Punjabi (119): 31.3% English (22): 5.8% (58 interactions involved Cantonese, Punjabi, and English mixed together, so matrix language could not be determined). 英中 Hong Kong s Official Languages Two official languages: 兩文 Chinese zung man: established in law in 1974 and reaffirmed 三文語 in HK s Basic Law. English jing man: HK s Basic Law states it may also be used as an official language. Language policy in education: Biliterate loeng man:chinese and English Trilingual saam jyu: Cantonese, Putonghua, and English What is the meaning of 中中文 What is 中文?? Cantonese? Putonghua? Mainland standard written Chinese? Hong Kong written Chinese? Classical Chinese? All of the above? 13 15 Other Findings and Conclusions Students spoke only Punjabi to their parents even though parents also spoke Cantonese Punjabi was spoken by boys in 30.2% of their interactions, and by girls in 18.1% Cantonese was spoken by girls in 36.4%of their interactions, and by boys in 22.6%; girls may regard Cantonese as having prestige and conferring status on speaker English was spoken by boys in 9.4% of their interactions, and by girls in 8.9% Students preference for Cantonese indicates 14 assimilation into HK Chinese community 香香機港港關基, 特本除別法使行, 用政第區中一的文章行 : 總政則機, 關第九立條法機關和司法 Hong Kong s Official Languages : 是正式語文中文外, 還可使用英文, 英文也 Hong Kong Basic Law, Chapter I, General Principles, Article 9: In addition to the Chinese language, English may also be used as an official language by the executive authorities, legislature and judiciary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. 中文 Why zung man instead of another word? What other words could have been used: 中漢華國中語文 zung man in Hong Kong 普官通話話北方話 18 16 17 3

語一語是文政策 : 為促進學習成效府文直以來都致力推行以母香港的情況 Hong Kong s Mother Tongue 童, 言以所中以由文政於為中府母文亦語和 ) 投英為放文本大同地量是學資本校源, 港的以的主法培流定訓教語學為香港的母語通兩話文和 ( 英中語 ) 文和的英能文力 ) 三語 ( 廣東話普,[ 港政 ] http://cd1.edb.hkedcity.net/cd/mce/mega2/tea chers/education.pdf Meaning of Mother Tongue From Glossary of Sociolinguistics (Trudgill 2003): Mother tongue see native language Native language see first language First language A language or (languages) which a speaker learns first, from infancy, as their native language or mother-tongue. Compare primary language. Primary language A language which speakers use most often. 19 Translation of Previous Text Languagepolicy: In order to promote effective learning, the government has all along promoted the use of mother tongue(in the Hong Kong situation Chinese is the mother tongue) as the mainstream languageof instruction in local schools. Because Chineseand English are both official languagesin Hong Kong, therefore the government has also expended considerable resources in training schoolchildren s ability in the two written languages[i.e. biliteracy] (of Chineseand English) and three spoken languages[i.e. trilingualism] (of Cantonese, Putonghua, and English). 20 度我調唔查講但我知係乜香梁港麗青娟少年對粗口態 Study on HK Cantonese Profanity 突破 conducted by Liang Lijuan ; it is entitled, [I won t say it, but I know what it is, a study of the attitudes of Hong Kong young people toward profanity]. Kong magazine Breakthrough. A study on the topic of Cantonese profanity was This study was published in 1994 in the Hong 2/24/2014 21 22 Study on Cantonese Profanity Liang s purpose was to survey through the means of a questionnaire young people s definitions of Cantonese profanity and their usage and attitudes toward it. Most (73%) of Liang s subjects were aged between 16 and 30; half were male and the other half female; 92% had at least a middle school education or higher (50% indicated university education); 63% were workers, while 20% were students; 56% indicated they had no religion, while 40% did. 23 Study on Cantonese Profanity This survey requested the subjects to do the following things: indicate which items in a list of 20 lexical items they considered to be profanity; rate each lexical item s degree of profanity; indicate if they often used these words in their own conversations; and indicate whether or not they accepted the frequent use of profanity in their conversations with other people. 24 4

Profanity and Non-profanity Some of the 20 items that were investigated had been predetermined by Liang to be profanity and some to be non-profanity. The following graph indicates the evaluation of the 20 lexical items according to they degree by which they were classified as profanity by the subjects who participated in the study. Cantonese Profanity 粵語粗口 25 (Liang 1994:6) 26 Cantonese Profanity 粵語粗口 Cantonese Profanity 粵語粗口 (Liang 1994:7) (Liang 1994:7) 27 28 (Liang 1994:8) 29 (Liang 1994:9) 30 5

Why can Language be Sociopolitically Sensitive? The language(s) we speak symbolize(s) who we are, the group(s) we belong to, and define(s) our sociocultural identity. People have a natural wish to use their own mother tongue, to see it survive and grow, and they do not take kindly when the language of another culture is imposed upon them. Crystal (2012:125) Implications?... Hong Kong is the Cantonese-speaking capital of the world. Bolton (2011:64) 31 32 由港 Is Cantonese Being 線中航取資空消海南航周空發控通股告, 標由榜昨日很起香近港九成的航香 Suppressed 機上的廣東話 or 廣播 Sidelined? 起英反語 ; 對, 但昨實日施黃不昏到即一急天, 急, 疑取只因消用前新普線規通員定話工及群 In January 2014 in response to complaints HK Airlines tried to abolish using Cantonese in its inflight announcements on some flights : http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/news/art/20140 Language Attitudes The attitudes which people have towards different languages, dialects, accents and their speakers. Such attitudes may range from very favourable to very unfavourable, and may be manifested in subjective judgements about the correctness, worth and aesthetic qualities of varieties, as well as about the personal qualities of their speakers. (Trudgill 2003:73) 107/18582286 33 34 Language Attitudes Linguistics has shown that such attitudes have no linguistic basis. Sociolinguistics notes that such attitudes are social in origin, but that they may have important effects on language behaviour, being involved in acts of identity, and on linguistic change... Language attitudes is one of the most important topics in the social psychology of language. (Trudgill 2003:73) Cantonese is coarse, vulgar relic Cantonese is a dialect,not a language, and Hong Kong and Guangdong province are not countries that have their own independent cultures. Like all Chinese dialects, Cantonese is an appropriate medium of folk culture only. However, in the way that it is used in Hong Kong, it is merely a coarse, vulgar relic of China's feudal past. 35 36 6

Cantonese is only fit to be spoken in home or wet market It is fine to use a dialect like Cantonese in the home or wet market,but it is completely inappropriate in a modern city to use it for education and formal communication in the way that Hong Kong people stubbornly do. Cantonese is corrupt form of Chinese Hongkongers should be ashamed. Thirteen years after returning to the motherland, the great majority of this city's residents are unable to speak Putonghua well and our children continue to learn a corrupt form of Chinese in schools. Clark Li, Tai Po, from his letter to editor, South China Morning Post, 5 August 2010 37 38 How to Distinguish between Language and Dialect? In 1945 Max Weinreich (1893-1969), mid-20th century Yiddish linguist based in America, wrote: A language is a dialect with an army and navy. (Chambers 1997:214) (Original Yiddish: A shprakh iz a dyalekt mit an armey un flot. Yiddish is a variety of German written in the Hebrew alphabet). A Language is a Dialect Weinreich said that he himself did not originate this statement but was in fact quoting a man who had attended one of his public lectures. While this aphorism may sound humorous to us, is there some truth in it? 39 40 Mutual Intelligibility For some people (but not sociolinguists) the criterion of mutual intelligibility may be used to distinguish between languages and dialects: i.e., languages are mutually unintelligible, while dialects are mutually intelligible. Mutual intelligibility: the extent to which speakers of one [speech] variety are able to understand speakers of another [speech] variety. Trudgill (2003:91) Mutual Intelligibility, Language, and Dialect The criterion of mutual intelligibility, and other purely linguistic criteria, are... of less importance in the use of the terms language and dialectthan are political and cultural factors... Trudgill (2000:4) Differences between language and dialect are based on non-linguistic that is, political, social, cultural, historical factors, etc. 41 42 7

What on earth do you mean!? Grandma, please speak Putonghua. 愛説不 Slogans 我國普講是旗通方中, 話言國, 唱國歌, 説普通話 Promote 娃, 寫不愛規講説範髒普字話, 文明人 Putonghua 通做話個合格小公民 among Mainland Primary Schoolchildren (from the Monkey King (2010) 43 44 I love Cantonese, I don t know *bou 1 dung 1 gwaa 1 [literally, cook winter melon, i.e. Putonghua] 普通話 *Pun on Cantonese pronunciation of pou 2 tung 1 waa 6/2. (From The Monkey King 2010) 45 Views on Cantonese are Condescending and Offensive I did not know whether to laugh out loud, or to cry out loud when I read the letter by Clark Li... Cantonese is a dialect and a language -and a very well-developed and rich language at that. You don't need a country to have independent cultures. On the contrary, every country possesses its own spectrum of regional cultures... It is an absurdity and gross condescension that Cantonese should only be used at home or the wet market. 46 What is the basis that Cantonese has been inappropriate for education when we in Hong Kong have produced, at least through the Chinese University and the University of Hong Kong, some excellent Chinese scholars? Why should Cantonese people, who make up most of the residents of Hong Kong, be ashamed to speak their own tongue? Why should we have to substitute Cantonese with Mandarin? Sir David Tang, from his letter to Editor of Soth Chin Morning Post, 10 August 2010 47 Why are authoritarian regimes so obsessed with the suppression of local languages, or dialects...?... China has demonstrated an equal determination to curb or even destroy the linguistic diversity that exists in the nation. In Guangdong, home of Cantonese, the language battle is accelerating. The most recent spark [for public protests] was over a proposal to switch from Cantonese to Putonghua in Guangdong television broadcasts (SEHK: 0511), but the underlying issue has been there for much longer and is more profound. 48 8

Cantonese, like Shanghainese and the non-chinesebased languages of the Uygurs and Tibetans, has not been submerged by the national language. Although Cantonese is described as a dialect, many linguists say it is a language. But this view is contentious, although it is hard to deny that it is a much older tongue than the northern-based Mandarin and could well have become the national language after the foundation of the People s Republic. 49 Like other languages, Cantonese provides an identity for the society it serves. It reinforces the regional differences and is attached to a rich cultural history that cannot simply be expunged by edict. Moreover, because of the intense tradition of emigration from the south of the country, Cantonese has become the effective lingua franca of much of the Chinese diaspora and has developed a life of its own outside China. 50 Back in Guangdong, and here in Hong Kong, Cantonese speakers have demonstrated an intriguing ability to seamlessly incorporate foreign words, particularly English ones, into the lexicon and proved more than adept at creative use of the language by employing puns and synonyms that makes Cantonese quite distinctive and worth treasuring not only for historical reasons. 51 And, of course, Cantonese enhances a sense of identity. It is this that scares the rulers in Beijing; officials across the border are already accusing the defenders of Cantonese of having ulterior motives. Authoritarian governments have great difficulty with diversity; they see it as undermining their authority and sowing the seeds of discontent. Even quite innocent manifestations of local pride and regional identification are frowned upon unless officially instigated and approved. 52... Thus, in schools, every effort is made to denigrate and downplay local languages. Officials, like the born-again patriots who run Hong Kong, strive to demonstrate their proficiency in the national language, wearing it as a badge of loyalty. And there has been a constant battle against the development of local languages in literature and the mass media..... in China, there is a sullen suspicion of anyone showing the smallest sign of asserting anything other than officially approved forms of identification with the state. This makes the nation infinitely poorer, not more united. (from Vines 2010) 53 54 9

Some Sociolinguistic Research Issues in Hong Kong to be Discussed this Semester: Development of Chinese as a Pluricentric Language: the View from Hong Kong Distinctively regional varieties of Chinese: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, mainland China Hong Kong Chinese Hong Kong Chinese: distinctive, separate, and unique variety of Chinese under influence of local historical, sociopolitical, and linguistic factors. Hong Kong Chinese is notincorrect, wrong, or improper in comparison to mainland standard Chinese but is simply different. 55 56 Language Contact in Hong Kong and Its Consequences Linguistic borrowing from English into Cantonese: Lexical borrowing: Methods of borrowing English loanwords into Cantonese Loanwords from historical and modern perspectives Contact between Cantonese and English and Its Consequences Development of Canton Pidgin English in 19 th century Is Canton Pidgin English still spoken today? Cantonese-English Code-mixing 57 58 Hong Kong Bilingualism Acquisition of Cantonese and English by children in the family, from peers, at school, etc. (inside and outside the home environment) Formal bilingual education in Cantonese, English, and Putonghua 59 Bilingual Education Meeting differing needs for bilingual schooling among speakers of Cantonese, English, and minority languages in Hong Kong Cantonese speakers learning English and Putonghua English speakers learning Cantonese and Putonghua Speakers of South Asian languages learning written Chinese through medium of Cantonese 60 10

Languages in Hong Kong Education Medium of Instruction (MoI) English in Anglo-Chinese schools What is Mixed code? Is it bad for students? Introduction of mother tongue education in Hong Kong Using Putonghua as MoI to teach Chinese language subjects 61 Language Variation and Change Sociolinguistically-based research findings on phonological variation and change in Cantonese initial consonants, rimes, and tones Principles and methodology for sociolinguistic research applied to study of Cantonese phonological variation and change 62 Linguistic Variable... a linguistic item which has identifiable variants. (Wardhaugh 1992:139) A linguistic unit, sometimes known as a sociolinguistic variable, initially developed by Labov in connection with his work in secular linguistics and variation theory, in order to be able to handle linguistic variation. Variables may be lexical and grammatical, but are most often phonological. (Trudgill 2003:82) (Secular of or relating to the worldly or temporal; not overtly or specifically religious ). 63 Social Variables Speakers use of linguistic variables has been found to correlate with following social variables of the speaker and speech situation: Sex Age Educational level Social class Speech style (formal, colloquial) 64 Variation and Change in the Cantonese Lexicon Slang, trendy words, argot (secret language), taboo words, auspicious lexical homophony, taboo bilingual homophony Lexical innovation and attrition induced by social change and influence of Putonghua and English Lexical-phonological interface in colloquial stratum of Cantonese 65 Variation and Change in Syntax Syntactic developments in HK s standard written Chinese as influenced by (spoken) Cantonese Impact of Cantonese-English bilinguals on development of Cantonese syntax 66 11

Variation and Change in Semantics Variational Lexico-semantics in Hong Kong Cantonese and standard written Chinese Written Cantonese 書面粵語 Description and analysis of features, conventions, principles, and texts Comparative developments in written Cantonese within Hong Kong and Guangzhou communities 67 68 Hong Kong English Is there a distinctive linguistic variety that can be called Hong Kong English? Some lexical and phonological features of Hong Kong English 69 Hong Kong Diglossia In HK relationship between standard written Chinese (and English by some accounts) as the H(igh) language(s), on the one hand, and Cantonese as L(ow), on the other, has been one of modern diglossia. According to Snow (2010), HK society has been moving away from this situation toward bilingualism (Cantonese and English in the last years of the colonial era), and, in recent years, trilingualism (Cantonese, Putonghua, and English under Chinese sovereignty) (Snow 2009). 70 References Apple Daily on Hong Kong Airlines. Retrieved from: http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/news/art/201401 07/18582286 Bolton, Kingsley. 2011. Language policy and planning in Hong Kong: colonial and post-colonial perspectives. In Li Wei, ed., Applied Linguistics Review 2: 51-74. Chambers, J.K. 1997. Sociolinguistic Theory. Oxford: Blackwell. Crystal, David. 2003. English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. 2 nd edition. 71 References Hong Kong Basic Law. Retrieved from: http://www.basiclaw.gov.hk/tc/basiclawtext/chapt er_1.html http://www.basiclaw.gov.hk/en/basiclawtext/chap ter_1.html 告人口普查簡要報 Hong Kong Population Census. 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.census2011.gov.hk/en/maintable/a107.html, A111.html http://www.censtatd.gov.hk. 2011 Population Census, 2011, Summary Results. 72 12

期至頁香港青少年梁對麗粗口月態號度總調第查唔講突但破我知係乜 References Liang Lijuan, -., Breakthrough. 9. 238. 6 19. Mother tongue in Hong Kong education: http://cd1.edb.hkedcity.net/cd/mce/mega2/teac hers/education.pdf Pannu, Jasbir. 1998. Language choice and identity: the world of the Hong Kong Indian adolescent.in Martha Pennington, ed. Language in Hong Kong at Century s End. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press. Pp. 219-242. 73 娟我. 1994. References Snow, Don. 2010. Hong Kong and modern diglossia. International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 206:155-179. Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics, an Introduction to Language and Society. London: Penguin Books.. 2003. A Glossary of Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Wardhaugh, Ronald. 1992. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwell. 2/24/2014 74 13