Boey Kwan and Rohan Ben Joseph

Simon Fraser University

​

Hong Kong English: An Experimental Approach to Measuring Cross-Varietal Morphosyntactic Distance

Aim:

• Investigate Hong Kong English (HKE)�

​

• � through its users’ language attitudes.

​

• �and its ontological status

Ontological Status:

Distinctive variety,

Or not a distinctive variety

(e.g. British, Indian, Singaporean)

(e.g. emergent variety, learner interlanguage)

Language attitudes

What one thinks of a variety and its speakers

Hong Kong English

​

Uses standard English norms

Views local markers as errors

Few local creative works

Few local reference works

Few users self-identify with it

For international use

Limited range & depth

No recognisable accent

Few distinctive forms

No historical role

​

Uses local English norms

Socially accepted

Many local creative works

Many local reference works

Users self-identify with it

For local use

Wide range & depth

Recognisable accent

Distinctive forms

English had a historical role

​

Uses standard English norms

Views local markers as errors

Few local creative works

Few local reference works

Few users self-identify with it

For international use

Limited range & depth

No recognisable accent

Few distinctive forms

No historical role

​

Uses local English norms

Socially accepted

Many local creative works

Many local reference works

Users self-identify with it

For local use

Wide range & depth

Recognisable accent

Distinctive forms

English had a historical role

Is HKE Distinct?

YES

NO

Aim:

• Investigate Hong Kong English (HKE)�and its ontological status�through its users’ language attitudes.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

2. and HKE in different domains.

​

​

​

​

​

​

1. British English (BrE) against HKE,

​

​

​

​

Objective:

• Compare the frequency distribution of distinctive HKE features in

HKE Features

3^rd singular marking on present tense verbs

Plural marking on nouns

Gender marking on 3^rd singular pronouns

HKE features

Underrepresentation of 3sg suffix on present tense verbs

Underrepresentation of plural nominal suffix

Levelling between gendered pronouns

He_i brought his_i/her_i own lunch

She smile(s)

Two paper(s)

Methods

Transcripts�(full)

PRP = personal pronoun

VBP = verb, non-3rd person singular present

Transcripts�(full)

Extract the text

Transcripts�(text only)

She smiles

PRP

VBZ

She

smiles

Parse the dependencies

NSUBJ

Detect the features

VBP

smile

PRP = personal pronoun

VBZ = verb, 3rd person singular present

​

​

NSUBJ = nominal subject

Tokenize & tag with parts of speech

Parse the dependencies

Detect the features

Feature distribution

Transcripts�(full)

Extract the text

Transcripts�(text only)

Vector space representation

Vector space representation

(di Buccio et al., 2014)

Results

Features were found:

He_i has been a banker working in bank and then she_i quit the job and start his_i own business.

I don't know how he work in school.

Two third of the year it's empty.

Underrepresentation of 3sg suffix on present tense verbs

Underrepresentation of plural nominal suffix

Levelling between gendered pronouns

n=74

n=138

n=30

What does this mean?

• English in Hong Kong seems to strongly follow BrE norms*
• English speakers in HK may perceive BrE as more accurate or as having higher socioeconomic value than HKE*
• These could suggest that HKE is not yet distinct, perhaps emergent
• However, HKE does have a uniquely HK quality - even in the public domain

*at least for certain domains and uses

We can learn more about:

Solutions:

• Informal vs formal
• Diachronic change
• User judgements of HKE
• Usefulness as a local identity marker

• Track trends over time
• Analyze diverse contexts and speech fellowships (e.g. youth, music)
• Attitude studies
• Use measurements to enhance comparability of different studies
• Combine vector spaces

In summary:

I don't know how he work in school.

• Language attitudes

• Future research

Thank you!

-Boey Kwan, SFU -Rohan Ben Joseph, SFU

​

References

• BNC Consortium, The British National Corpus, XML Edition, 2007, Oxford Text Archive, http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12024/2554.
• Chen, H. Y. (2006 Apr. 07). Multilingual Hong Kong: Sociolinguistic case study of code-switching [Video]. Infobase. https://fod-infobase-com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=35063
• Cheng W, Greaves C, Warren M (2005). The creation of prosodically transcribed intercultural corpus: The Hong Kong Corpus of Spoken English (prosodic), ICAME Journal, 29 (47-68). http://rcpce.engl.polyu.edu.hk/HKCSE/default.htm
• di Buccio, E., di Nunzio, G. M., & Silvello, G. (2014). A vector space model for syntactic distances between dialects. https://www.academia.edu/13522860/A_Vector_Space_Model_for_Syntactic_Distances_Between_Dialects
• Hall, C. (2020). An ontological framework for English. In C. Hall & R. Wicaksono (Eds.), Ontologies of English: Conceptualising the language for learning, teaching, and assessment (Cambridge Applied Linguistics, pp. 13-36). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi:10.1017/9781108685153.002
• Setter, J., Wong, C. S. P., & Chan, B. H. K. (2010). Hong Kong English. Edinburgh University Press.
• Wong, M. (2017). Hong Kong English: Exploring lexicogrammar and discourse from a corpus-linguistic perspective. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51964-1

​