Cantonese Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

This paper presents the first ever evidence that Cantonese children comprehend passives as early as age three, and suggests that the key factor that leads to the early acquisition of the passive in Cantonese is not the frequency of use in... more

This paper presents the first ever evidence that Cantonese children comprehend passives as early as age three, and suggests that the key factor that leads to the early acquisition of the passive in Cantonese is not the frequency of use in child-directed speech, but the obligatory presence of an explicit oblique agent. The required presence of the oblique agent phrase in Cantonese strengthens the role of the oblique agent as a cue for the passive voice pattern, thus increasing its saliency in the input. Because of this high saliency, children are able to acquire the passive voice early despite its extremely low frequency of use.

Jimmy Kin-wah Lam è docente di Lingua cantonese e di Cantonese per gli affari presso l'Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia. è inoltre specializzato nell'utilizzo delle arti drammatiche per la didattica delle lingue e della traduzione. Luisa... more

Jimmy Kin-wah Lam è docente di Lingua cantonese e di Cantonese per gli affari presso l'Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia. è inoltre specializzato nell'utilizzo delle arti drammatiche per la didattica delle lingue e della traduzione. Luisa M. Paternicò è ricercatrice presso l'Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale, dove insegna Lingua cinese. Si occupa di ricerche in campo linguistico e di didattica del cinese a stranieri.

This article presents a case study of the roles of Putonghua, English and Cantonese in a Hong Kong secondary school ideologically committed to the promotion of Putonghua, and relates this to the general problem of the relative position of... more

This article presents a case study of the roles of Putonghua, English and Cantonese in a Hong Kong secondary school ideologically committed to the promotion of Putonghua, and relates this to the general problem of the relative position of the different languages in Hong Kong. It examines the history of language policy in the school, in which the author himself once worked, and presents the results of a questionnaire survey of the practice and opinions of current members of staff. Efforts to promote a Putonghua-speaking atmosphere, like those to promote English, have to a large extent been frustrated by the strong attachment to Cantonese of an overwhelmingly Cantonese-speaking school community. The existing pattern of language use is similar to that in many Hong Kong educational institutions and workplaces and would be very difficult to change without the presence of a significant proportion of non-Cantonese speakers within the institution.

香港近年發生的社會事件或集體運動，有兩大明顯轉向。其一，正如梁啟智(2014)指出，乃是以爭取城巿權(right to the... more

香港近年發生的社會事件或集體運動，有兩大明顯轉向。其一，正如梁啟智(2014)指出，乃是以爭取城巿權(right to the city)為主的「空間轉向」，例子包括自2006年以降，接踵而來的保衛天星碼頭運動、保衛皇后碼頭運動、反高鐵運動，以至更為近期的新界東北爭議。這些被人籠統稱為「八十後運動」的主要特點就是，從論述到行動都要保留集體回憶和城市景觀，力圖在發展主義之外維護一些另類的生活方式(林匡正，2010)。這些關涉空間實踐的社會事件，已有不少文獻探討其文化及社會意義(馬國明，2007；許寶強，2010；郭恩慈，2011；葉蔭聰，2010；余在思，2013)。其二，則為同樣值得關注，但相對較少研究文獻探討的「語言轉向」。「語言轉向」意謂廣東話作為香港人的日常語言，成為本土身分認同的要點，進而引發一連串集體抗爭。故此，本文特意以此為題，跟進屬於「語言轉向」的研究領域，反思香港自身對廣東話有何重要論述，使得廣東話變成本土意識的重要戰線。

An exhausting comparison between German and Chinese which uses cognates to create a fully usable Script for German and English that is based on Sinographs/Kanjis (chinese Characters). When the book was first published it contained 3,000... more

An exhausting comparison between German and Chinese which uses cognates to create a fully usable Script for German and English that is based on Sinographs/Kanjis (chinese Characters). When the book was first published it contained 3,000 German Kanji. Now the number has risen to 4,000+. It is said that German has about 5,000 morphems. Sometimes the same character is used for different morphems if they are from the same root and no significant change in meaning is involved. For example the Character 給 (cantonese kăp (kap1)) has four readings in German, namely geb, gib, gab, gift and three readings in English, namely give, gave and gift.

The #MilkTeaAlliance continues to burgeon as a regional solidarity movement of protestors from Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan, its moniker coming from the beverage typically found in their cultures. The Oxford English Dictionary... more

The #MilkTeaAlliance continues to burgeon as a regional solidarity movement of protestors from Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan, its moniker coming from the beverage typically found in their cultures.
The Oxford English Dictionary describes it as “any of various drinks made with tea and milk or cream” – but milk tea is not just ‘tea with milk’; the referent is actually more specific.
Cultures worldwide have long consumed ‘milk tea’ beverages, including masala chai ‘mixed-spice tea’ in India, traditionally using water buffalo milk, and Mongolian salty ‘tea with milk’ suutei tsai. An early appearance of the term in English dates from 1897 describing how “a decoction known as nai-ch'a, or ‘milk-tea’, is drunk at the Manchu court, and is served out on state occasions”.
However the version which prompted the adoption of the term in English evolved in colonial Hong Kong. While origins lie in British ‘tea with milk’, Hong Kong-style uses evaporated (or condensed) milk – forms which kept better in the colonies then – with tea leaves strained through sackcloth. Ordered in Cantonese as náaihchà ‘milk tea’ – distinguished from chà ‘(Chinese) tea’ served without milk – this in bilingual Hong Kong got readily calqued into English as milk tea.
[...]

An ideophone is “a vivid representation of an idea in sound” (Doke 1935). In Hong Kong Cantonese, an ideophone is typically comprised of a disyllabic ideophonic suffix (DIS) and a root, such as hung4 (red) bok1bok1. The present study aims... more

An ideophone is “a vivid representation of an idea in sound” (Doke 1935). In Hong Kong Cantonese, an ideophone is typically comprised of a disyllabic ideophonic suffix (DIS) and a root, such as hung4 (red) bok1bok1. The present study aims to explore phonological characteristics of DISs in Hong Kong Cantonese in the following four aspects, with 138 collected examples of ideophones in current use. (1) Reduplicative patterns of DISs are demonstrated. Rules of phonetic changes that make full reduplication evolves into different kinds of partial reduplication are discussed, from which some obsolete full reduplication forms are deduced. (2) Syllables of DISs that violate Cantonese phonotactics are presented with DISs’ tone and phoneme preferences. (3) Sound symbolism of DISs is explored. It is found that the concept of size and the commendatory or derogatory sense are connected with the acoustic frequency. (4) In addition, based on the phonological characteristics of DISs concluded in the above sections, the grammaticalization process of DISs is discussed.

This paper investigates the Arabic origins of Chinese pronouns from a radical linguistic theory standpoint, a slightly revised version of lexical root theory. The data consists of personal, genitive, and demonstrative pronouns in Mandarin... more

This paper investigates the Arabic origins of Chinese pronouns from a radical linguistic theory standpoint, a slightly revised version of lexical root theory. The data consists of personal, genitive, and demonstrative pronouns in Mandarin Chinese in the main and traditional and modern Chinese dialects secondarily. The results show that Mandarin Chinese is perhaps the simplest language in the world structurally speaking; all whose pronouns have true Arabic cognates, with the same or similar forms and meanings. Their formal differences, however, result from natural and plausible causes and different courses of linguistic change. For example, spoken Mandarin an 'I' and all similar n-based forms in historical and modern Chinese dialects descend directly from Arabic ana 'I'; wŏ/wu 'I' come from Arabic 'iai and/or 'ee 'me/my' via /' & ai/-mutation into /w & o/; ta 'he, she, it; that' is derived from Arabic ti (tihi) 'this (f)' via lexical shift; de 'of, whose' is from Arabic dhi 'of, whose' where /dh/ became /d/. As a consequence, the results indicate, contrary to Comparative Method claims, that Arabic and Chinese are genetically related, leading to the postulation of a single, perfect, sudden world language, which may be called radical or root language, from which all human languages descended. The radical language could not have died out at all but has instead survived into modern languages, having been preserved almost intact in Arabic. They, therefore, prove the adequacy of the radical linguistic or lexical root theory according to which Arabic and Mandarin Chinese are genetically related besides English, German, French, Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit which have already been found to be dialects of the same language with Arabic being their origin all because of its phonetic capacity or complexity and huge lexical variety and multiplicity.

è lieto di invitare tutte le associate e tutti gli associati dell'Associazione Italiana di Linguistica Cinese (AILC) a partecipare alla VII edizione delle Giornate di Studio sulla linguistica cinese; l'invito è esteso a tutte/i coloro che... more

è lieto di invitare tutte le associate e tutti gli associati dell'Associazione Italiana di Linguistica Cinese (AILC) a partecipare alla VII edizione delle Giornate di Studio sulla linguistica cinese; l'invito è esteso a tutte/i coloro che si occupano di linguistica cinese. Il convegno delle Giornate di Studio si terrà a Bergamo nei giorni 9 e 10 settembre 2022. Il convegno si svolgerà in presenza; qualora, per il momento del convegno (settembre 2022), fossero previste restrizioni per gli spostamenti da taluni Paesi, il comitato organizzativo e il direttivo AILC valuteranno di permettere la presentazione a distanza. Il keynote speech sarà tenuto dal prof. Tao Hongyin (Department of Asian Languages and Cultures

This chapter reviews the existing empirical research on the structural features of Hong Kong English (HKE). Among postcolonial varieties of English, HKE is an unusual case in that the territory's emancipation from the colonial power was... more

This chapter reviews the existing empirical research on the structural features of Hong Kong English (HKE). Among postcolonial varieties of English, HKE is an unusual case in that the territory's emancipation from the colonial power was not accompanied by self-rule, but by what is locally called the "handover" of Hong Kong to mainland China. Thus, a relative lack in institutional entrenchment as well as a continuing turnover in population raises questions as to whether HKE is a "real/"focussed" variety. In addition to influence on HKE from Cantonese, the chapter addresses the sociolinguistics of Hong Kong as a globalised city by discussing the influence of local varieties of English used by speakers of Mandarin Chinese, by the South Asian and SouthEast Asian communities and speakers of English as a Native Language from so-called Inner Circle countries such as the United States. Finally, the chapter considers possible scenarios for the linguistic future of Hong Kong, involving Cantonese, Mandarin, and English, as well as for the future of HKE: On the one hand, an exonormative development with increasing Americanisation, and, on the other hand, an endonormative development with increasing reliance on a local identity and local norms.

The vast majority of Chinese Malaysians have originated from south China with their native languages, Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese, Teochew, Hokchew and Hainanese. Most of these native languages are weakening due to lack of intergenerational... more

The vast majority of Chinese Malaysians have originated from south China with their native languages, Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese, Teochew, Hokchew and Hainanese. Most of these native languages are weakening due to lack of intergenerational transmission. Languages spoken in the families are largely shifting to Mandarin and English. This paper has investigated the reasons why the community is shifting away from their native languages. Language attitudes, beliefs, and ideologies held by the majority of Chinese Malaysians have been collected and they are presented together with the historical development of Chinese languages. The origins of the factors, which put their native languages into disadvantageous positions, are discussed. This paper also explores the possibilities of running language revitalization programmes in the community.

This chapter provides an overview of research on heritage language (HL) sound systems, with a focus on areas of convergence and divergence among heritage speakers (HSs), native speakers (NSs) who continue to be dominant in the language,... more

This chapter provides an overview of research on heritage language (HL) sound systems, with a focus on areas of convergence and divergence among heritage speakers (HSs), native speakers (NSs) who continue to be dominant in the language, and second language learners (L2ers) who acquired the language later in life. Drawing on data from a wide range of HLs, the chapter addresses both phonetic (articulatory, acoustic, perceptual) and phonological (phonemic, distributional, phonotactic) aspects of the HL sound system, as well as that of the majority language, in light of theories of bilingual speech and variables previously studied as predictors of HSs' linguistic behavior. Despite the diversity of results reviewed, several recurring themes emerge, including intermediate patterning between NSs and L2ers, a higher level of performance in perception than production, and individual variability. In particular, the depth and the accessibility of HSs' knowledge of the HL sound system show considerable variation related to structural linguistic factors, demographic and sociolinguistic factors, input and usage-based factors, and methodological factors. In addition to summarizing the areas in which there is an emerging consensus, the chapter points out a number of remaining questions that pave the way for future research on HL sound systems.

Nixon, J. S., J. van Rij, P. Mok, R. H. Baayen, and Y. Chen Listeners rely on highly variable, non-discrete acoustic information to understand spoken messages. The present ‘visual world’ eye tracking study investigated whether the amount... more

Nixon, J. S., J. van Rij, P. Mok, R. H. Baayen, and Y. Chen
Listeners rely on highly variable, non-discrete acoustic information to understand spoken messages. The present ‘visual world’ eye tracking study investigated whether the amount of acoustic cue variation affected Cantonese listeners’ perception of speech contrasts. Participants saw pictures of word pairs which were identical except for initial consonants (unaspirated versus aspirated). Auditory stimuli were continua of increasing VOT presented in bimodal distributions. The amount of acoustic variation varied between conditions: high-variance versus low- variance. Generalised Additive Modelling analyses showed, in the low-variance condition, eye movements reflected cue values: there was differential fixation behaviour for category means, boundaries and peripheries. In contrast, in the high- variance condition, the acoustic cue had little effect: fixation behaviour was similar across the different acoustic cue values. This demonstrates listeners’ high sensitivity to the discriminative value of acoustic cues. How much cue dimensions are utilised depends on their variance.

Using etymological methods, the present study has researched four Sinitic and Uralic shared etymologies (etyma). Two of them form a rhyme correspondence. Three of them form an onset correspondence. These regular sound changes validate the... more

Using etymological methods, the present study has researched four Sinitic and Uralic shared etymologies (etyma). Two of them form a rhyme correspondence. Three of them form an onset correspondence. These regular sound changes validate the genetic connection between Sinitic and Uralic. The Sino-Finnic term for 'moon, month' is among these four etyma. It is demonstrated that this term should be aboriginal in Sino-Uralic languages.

粵語成為香港文化政治的重要場域，可追溯至1960至1970年代發生的「第一波中文運動」。之後的數十年，關於香港人日常應用語文的討論，總是被不同論者如何文匯、王亭之、陳雲等，以中華性（Chineseness）論述來為粵語的文化價值提供學術理據，生產各種「原生文化主義」論述。直至近年，有網民以各種網絡實踐，重新思考何謂屬於香港人的「香港語文」。藉此，出現了一套不再以中華性為港式粵語的理論根源，而是以「純粹香港性」為基礎的港式粵語論述。借用德勒茲（Gilles... more

粵語成為香港文化政治的重要場域，可追溯至1960至1970年代發生的「第一波中文運動」。之後的數十年，關於香港人日常應用語文的討論，總是被不同論者如何文匯、王亭之、陳雲等，以中華性（Chineseness）論述來為粵語的文化價值提供學術理據，生產各種「原生文化主義」論述。直至近年，有網民以各種網絡實踐，重新思考何謂屬於香港人的「香港語文」。藉此，出現了一套不再以中華性為港式粵語的理論根源，而是以「純粹香港性」為基礎的港式粵語論述。借用德勒茲（Gilles Deleuze）和瓜塔里（Félix Guattari）的少數書寫概念，本文意在展示兩種「港式粵語」論述怎樣作為應對「中共中華性」的策略，從語言文化論證香港性和本土性。

Wong Fei-hung was a Cantonese martial arts master from southern China who became associated with a melody called ‘General’s Ode’. Since the 1950s, over 100 Hong Kong movies and television shows have forged the link by using this melody as... more

Wong Fei-hung was a Cantonese martial arts master from southern China who became associated with a melody called ‘General’s Ode’. Since the 1950s, over 100 Hong Kong movies and television shows have forged the link by using this melody as Master Wong’s theme. During fieldwork in a Chinese Canadian kung fu club, I observed several consultants claiming this piece as a Cantonese national anthem—a hymn for a nation without a sovereign state. Virtual ethnography conducted online showed that this opinion is held more widely, but that the piece also inspires broader Chinese nationalist sentiment. My analysis of speech-tone relationships to melodic contour in Cantonese and Mandarin versions of the song, however, has revealed a tight integration with the former that the latter lacked. By sharpening Anderson’s concept of unisonance, I explore how this song has become an unofficial transnational anthem for Cantonese people, arguing that Master Wong’s theme auralises an abstract sense of imagined community.

This is an investigative report written at the time when Xiqu Centre (戲曲中心/ Chinese Opera) opens at the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong. It describes the linguistic landscape around the centre; cultural politics of Xiqu; and... more

This is an investigative report written at the time when Xiqu Centre (戲曲中心/ Chinese Opera) opens at the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong. It describes the linguistic landscape around the centre; cultural politics of Xiqu; and detailed interview with two Xiqu producers, namely Alisa Shum of the Chinese Artists Association of HK and Naomi Chung of the Xiqu centre. This investigative report attempts to lay out the tension between the local aesthetics and international reception of the traditional art form .

This paper considers how meaningful social information is conveyed with the use of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese. The purpose in this research is to provide a general sociolinguistic account of sentence final particles in... more

This paper considers how meaningful social information is conveyed with the use of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese. The purpose in this research is to provide a general sociolinguistic account of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese, and specifically to illustrate that social meanings of SFPs are variable, and do not constitute rigid or fixed meanings and interpretations. These social meanings, this paper argues, are a potential for indicating speaker identity at the individual level, and constitute a rich resource for communicating speaker identity in Macau Cantonese. This study uses an eclectic sociolinguistic approach, and combines elements of distributionist analyses, social network theory and constructionist approaches with a view to accounting for the dynamics underlying sentence final particle variation. Finally, this research considers constraints such as conversation topic, the affective relations between interlocutors, and gender as impinging on the distribution and use of SFPs in Macau Cantonese.

EXPO di Milano come occasione di crescita della conoscenza delle lingue di Silvio Pontani p. 3 EXPO 2015: Per orientarsi di Emanuela Gamberoni pp. 4-5 La cooperazione linguistica ed educativa italofrancese en route vers EXPO 2015! di... more

EXPO di Milano come occasione di crescita della conoscenza delle lingue di Silvio Pontani p. 3 EXPO 2015: Per orientarsi di Emanuela Gamberoni pp. 4-5 La cooperazione linguistica ed educativa italofrancese en route vers EXPO 2015! di Fabienne Rondelli pp. 6-7 Partecipazione cinese all'EXPO di Milano: Terra di speranza, cibo per la vita di Min Sun pp. 9-11 Ospitalità e comunicazione linguistica per venti milioni di visitatori EXPO di Giovanni Moretti pp. 12-13 L'Europa per un'educazione di qualità per la fascia d'età 0-6 di Gisella Langé pp. 14-15 L'impegno a valutare e certificare abilità reali utili per comunicare in lingua inglese oppure per diventare musicisti e performers nel mondo dello spettacolo Intervista a Claudia Beccheroni pp. 16-19 Quale inglese per comunicare oggi? di Paola Vettorel pp. 20-21 Nuovi scenari nella didattica delle lingue straniere e del CLIL in Europa di Letizia Cinganotto pp. 22-24 Le scuole internazionali in Italia e il liceo italiano ad "Indirizzo internazionale" di Sara Zamboni pp. 26-27 Maxims of Napoleon by Brian Yorke Deakin Recensione p. 28 What have SIETAR Italia and IATEFL got in common? by Peter Anderson p. 29 Il Cantonese: una lingua da riscoprire e da salvaguardare di Luisa M. Paternicò p. 30-31 f o r S c h o o l s Teaching You How to Teach English METODOLOGIE DELLA PER LA DIDATTICA INGLESE LINGUA MASTER UNIVERSITARIO ANNUALE DI 1° LIVELLO CORSO ANNUALE DI PERFEZIONAMENTO E DI AGGIORNAMENTO PROFESSIONALE L'Università degli Studi "Giustino Fortunato"-Telematica bandisce per l'Anno Accademico 2014-2015 PROGRAMMA DEL MASTER E DEL CORSO DI PERFEZIONAMENTO: PROGRAMMA DEI SEMINARI IN LINGUA INGLESE Master Universitario di 1° livello e Corso Di Perfezionamento in METODOLOGIE PER LA DIDATTICA DELLA LINGUA INGLESE, in convenzione con IPSEF, Ente Accreditato al MIUR per la "Formazione del personale della Scuola" ed in collaborazione con A.I.B.S.E. -Associazione Internazionale British Schools of English.

The diachronic development of morphemes meaning ‘wait’ has not been well documented. This paper describes multiple functions of the ‘wait’ verb dang2 in Hong Kong Cantonese: (a) a verb meaning ‘be in need of’, (b) a permissive verb... more

The diachronic development of morphemes meaning ‘wait’ has not been well documented. This paper describes multiple functions of the ‘wait’ verb dang2 in Hong Kong Cantonese: (a) a verb meaning ‘be in need of’, (b) a permissive verb meaning ‘let’, (c) a causative verb meaning ‘cause’, (d) a temporal marker meaning ‘at, when’, (e) a particle for giving notice of a coming event, and (f) a subordinating conjunction signifying someone’s surprise. Four development paths are proposed to account for the multifunctionality: ‘wait’ > (a); ‘wait’ > (d); ‘wait’ > (b) > (e); and ‘wait’ > (c) > (f). This case draws attention to the potential of ‘wait’ morphemes to be employed to express various other abstract concepts and, furthermore, highlights the role of indirect sources in the theory of grammaticalization.

This dissertation is a study of the author's own experiences learning Cantonese in 1996/7 as a student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and in informal interaction with native speakers. Data was provided principally by a... more

This dissertation is a study of the author's own experiences learning Cantonese in 1996/7 as a student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and in informal interaction with native speakers. Data was provided principally by a language-learning diary* by analysis of taped conversations with native speakers and by proficient speakers' holistic assessments of performance. Analysis suggests that although there was some evidence for implicit learning of syntactic patterns, acquisition of vocabulary was normally the result of conscious noticing of new items. This noticing was generally brought about by formal study or at least by exposure to written material, though it was also possible when conversation outside the classroom took on lesson-like features such as explicit correction of errors. Problems of concentration in group classes and routine exercises also suggested that, even when a learner's commitment to the general goal of increasing proficiency is high, securing the necessary attention to input probably requires intrinsically interesting subject-matter and clearly defined sub-goals. For a learner who is already at intermediate level, these are normally best provided by one-on-one conversation in which individual words or phrases are clearly perceived and matched with meaning, and/or by the detailed analysis of taped, authentic materials.

This study investigated the production and perception of the Cantonese vowel length contrast and vowel rounding contrast by South Asian (SA) students in Hong Kong. Twenty-six native Hong Kong Cantonese speakers and fifty-four SA speakers... more

This study investigated the production and perception of the Cantonese vowel length contrast and vowel rounding contrast by South Asian (SA) students in Hong Kong. Twenty-six native Hong Kong Cantonese speakers and fifty-four SA speakers whose dominant language was Punjabi, Urdu, or English participated in an AX discrimination task and a picture naming task. Results suggested that SA participants had the ability to distinguish both the vowel length and vowel rounding contrasts in Cantonese. However, relative to the performance of Cantonese speakers, SA students produced Cantonese rounded vowels with less lip rounding. In addition, smaller differences were found between the long and short vowels in terms of both vowel quantity and quality. Furthermore, difficulty of a particular contrast varies according to phonetic environments. These findings provided an acquisition pattern of vowel length and vowel rounding contrasts among SA students.

In this article, travel narratives by two late Qing diplomats, Zhang Deyi 張德彞 (1847-1918) and Fu Yunlong 傅雲龍 (1840-1901), are examined to explore global history from the perspective of Chinese travelers, revealing how discriminatory laws,... more

In this article, travel narratives by two late Qing diplomats, Zhang Deyi 張德彞 (1847-1918) and Fu Yunlong 傅雲龍 (1840-1901), are examined to explore global history from the perspective of Chinese travelers, revealing how discriminatory laws, imperial desires, mass migrations, power imbalances, and economic interests affected Chinese travelers who were distinct from other ethnic Chinese and non-ethnic Chinese itiner-ants traveling across the Pacific Ocean on the same ship and in the same era. Many of these Mandarin-speaking diplomats traveled on vessels with Cantonese-speaking ethnic counterparts, an indication of the multiplicity of "Chinese" migration experiences and distinct intraethnic encounters in the nineteenth century. This article shows how the embodied experience of Chinese travelers on ships affected not only the way they recorded the experience but also their understanding of the position of the Chinese empire with respect to the world at large.

This paper examines the feature composition of Cantonese determiner-like elements in the light of current literature , Cheng and Sybesma, to appear, Li 1998. It is argued that a combination of proposals in these works best captures the... more

This paper examines the feature composition of Cantonese determiner-like elements in the light of current literature , Cheng and Sybesma, to appear, Li 1998. It is argued that a combination of proposals in these works best captures the Cantonese facts. In particular, I argue for three specific positions: Firstly, classifiers, rather than demonstratives, are instantiations of D with a [referential] feature. Secondly, classifiers encode a [count] feature. Third, demonstratives encode a [definite] feature, but classifiers and numerals do not. What appears to be a bare classifier phrase in Cantonese (i.e. without an overt numeral or demonstrative) is actually bound by a Dem node, which may be empty (resulting in an indefinite reading) or filled by the classifier which moves from the lower CL position.

Analysing diachronic materials, this paper aims to provide a diachronic description of different types of equative constructions in Cantonese. This includes an investigation of their diachronic depths, a comparison of their present and... more

Analysing diachronic materials, this paper aims to provide a diachronic description of different types of equative constructions in Cantonese. This includes an investigation of their diachronic depths, a comparison of their present and past behaviour, and discussions of some related issues. One of the equative types in question has not been reported previously.

Using etymological methods, the present study has researched four Sinitic and Germanic shared (Sino-Germanic) etymologies (etyma) and two Sinitic and Uralic shared (Sino-Uralic) etyma. Two of the Sino-Germanic etyma form a rhyme... more

Using etymological methods, the present study has researched four Sinitic and Germanic shared (Sino-Germanic) etymologies (etyma) and two Sinitic and Uralic shared (Sino-Uralic) etyma. Two of the Sino-Germanic etyma form a rhyme correspondence. Three of the Sino-Germanic etyma form an onset correspondence. Two of the Sino-Uralic etyma form another rhyme correspondence. These regular sound changes validate the etymological connections in question. The Sino-Germanic term for 'star' and Sino-Uralic term for 'star' are supported.

China has been described by some scholars as an undifferentiated whole, held together by a unified culture and language. Jared Diamond, for example, claimed that when challenged by European powers in the nineteenth century, China “lost”... more

China has been described by some scholars as an undifferentiated whole, held together by a unified culture and language. Jared Diamond, for example, claimed that when challenged by European powers in the nineteenth century, China “lost” because it was encumbered by its “single writing system” and “substantial cultural unity.” On the other hand, when the linguist John McWhorter described China, he wrestled with how to describe a place where people speak a range of mutually unintelligible codes: “What are called the dialects of Chinese are as different from one another as are the Romance languages, and speakers of one must learn the others as foreign tongues.” Yet because Chinese is written using “symbols” and not an alphabet, McWhorter argued, this “means that all of the Chinese varieties can be written with the same script.” This feature of written language, combined with the “unifying effect of Chinese culture,” means that Chinese varieties should be counted as dialects and not distinct languages. A vision of China as a “unified whole,” however, may look different when considering everyday speaking practices. When meeting someone from China for the first time, it is commonplace to ask: Where are you from? What is your hometown? What “fangyan is spoken there”? This can then lead to an interesting discussion about differences between how words and phrases are uttered in that person’s fangyan (dialect/local language) and how they are pronounced in Standard Chinese (also called Mandarin or putonghua). The picture that emerges from a local point of view is that China is not a unified whole but an amazingly diverse patchwork of regional dialects, local language norms, and overlapping cultures.

Using etymological methods, the present study has identified five Sinitic and Uralic shared etymologies. These five etymologies form a rhyme correspondence. This regular sound change validates the etymological connection between Sinitic... more

Using etymological methods, the present study has identified five Sinitic and Uralic shared etymologies. These five etymologies form a rhyme correspondence. This regular sound change validates the etymological connection between Sinitic and Uralic. The Finnic term for 'sky' is among these five etymologies. It is demonstrated that this word root should be aboriginal in Sino-Uralic languages.

This article gives a brief account of the distinguishing characteristics of Cantonese and of the socio-finguistic circumstances in Hong Kong which have left it with a stronger role than that of regional dialects elsewhere in China.... more

This article gives a brief account of the distinguishing characteristics of Cantonese and of the socio-finguistic circumstances in Hong Kong which have left it with a stronger role than that of regional dialects elsewhere in China. Possible changes in that role after reunification with China are discussed. The main factors influencing the dialect's own development are seen as contact with English and of Putonghua, as well as the internal dynamic of language change. It is suggested that the tendency to converge with Puronghua norms might be offset by the wish to preserve a distinctive Hong Kong linguistic identity. Questionnaire data are presented to illustrate the extent to which certain features of pronunciation are seen as typical of Hong Kong rather than mainland speakers.

This study examines perceptions of language threat in Hong Kong against a background of increasing political tensions between Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). These tensions gained international attention in 2014 during... more

This study examines perceptions of language threat in Hong Kong against a background of increasing political tensions between Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). These tensions gained international
attention in 2014 during the 79-day protests known as the Umbrella Movement and more recently in 2019 due to the proposed introduction of an extradition treaty between Hong Kong and mainland China. It is
against this politically divisive landscape that the article examines perceptions around Hong Kong’s three spoken official languages: English, Cantonese, and Putonghua. Quantitative and qualitative survey data were collected in 2017 from 568 students across 15 tertiary
institutions in Hong Kong, with questions probing whether the respondents perceived that Cantonese was under threat, and if so, from which language – Putonghua or English or both. Respondents were also asked whether the current political tensions in Hong Kong were impacting their attitudes towards Cantonese, English, or Putonghua. A series of open-ended questions sought to find out why the respondents held particular perceptions towards these three languages. Gender as well as cultural identification were also examined as previous research has found that they significantly impact language attitudes in Hong Kong.

May 2017: Teachers’ perspectives on Chinese community schooling in the UK: Chinese as heritage or foreign language? Being and Becoming a Teacher of Chinese as a Foreign and Second Language Today Conference,University of Helsinki and the... more

May 2017: Teachers’ perspectives on Chinese community schooling in the UK: Chinese as heritage or foreign language? Being and Becoming a Teacher of Chinese as a Foreign and Second Language Today Conference,University of Helsinki and the Confucius Institute of the University of Helsinki, Finland