Code-switching in Hong Kong

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Code-switching, or the practice of using more than one language in conversation, is very common in Hong Kong. It usually involves a mix of Cantonese and English as a result of the bilingualism in Hong Kong. For example, people in Hong Kong may say "聽日一齊去食lunch吖﹖" ("Let's have lunch tomorrow?") when inviting someone for a meal.

Having been under British rule for over 150 years, Hong Kong's spoken Cantonese (and sometimes written Chinese) is still heavily influenced by English, particularly the lexicon which contains numerous English words. Code-switching has become a sociolinguistics phenomenon that is deeply rooted in the everyday lives of Hong Kong people.

Code-switching in Hong Kong is mostly intra-sentential - switching within a sentence or clause. The syntax of the sentence follows Chinese grammatical rules, but substitutes English words and phrases for their Chinese equivalents. For example, being an analytic language, Chinese uses particles instead of verb inflection. In the last example below, the verb book is not changed when being code-switched.

Reasons for code-switching in Hong Kong

There are several possible reasons for Hong Kong people to code-switch in their everyday lives.

1. It is communicatively efficient by using the fewest number of words possible to express oneself, especially as many English words are in common usage and thus widely understood. In other words, it is a shortcut to communication.
2. It avoids embarrassment. Asian culture in general is rather demure and places less emphasis on expressing one's feelings openly in public. Thus, it may be more comfortable to use English instead of Chinese in some cases^{[citation needed]}. For example, saying I love you in English is more common than "我愛你" in Chinese. Other examples include sensitive words such as underwear, toilet, gay or expressions of personal feelings such as I'm proud of you or I appreciate it^{[citation needed]}.
3. As code-switching is more prominent in Hong Kong than in Cantonese-speaking regions of China (i.e. Guangdong), code-switching is most probably adopted as a linguistic habitus of Hong Kong. The fact that Hongkongers code-switch, continue to use traditional Chinese characters (along with Taiwan, Macao, and the Chinese diaspora), and accord high "prestige value" to English, is to distinguish themselves from the people of China. It is a nod to the lingering values of the British colonial era^{[citation needed]}.

Examples

Chen (2005) documents numerous instances of code mixing, where English words are used in essentially Cantonese sentences. For example:

• "我今日要present一個project." ("I have to present a project today.")

In addition, there are instances of intersentential code-switching, where sentences of English and sentences of Cantonese occur in the same conversation. Lin (1996) offers this example (Yale transcription system for Cantonese used in original):

• Math teacher: How about you? Oh, neih meih jouh hou hah? Chahn Gwai-hou. Laahndi-wo. Neih ne? ("Oh, you haven’t done it yet Chahn Gwai-hou. So lazy. And you?")

See also

• Bilingualism in Hong Kong
• Chinglish
• Hong Kong English
• Code-switching

References

• Chan, Elaine (2002). Beyond Pedagogy: language and identity in post-colonial Hong Kong. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23 (2), pp. 271–285.
• Chen, Katherine & Carper, Gray (2005). Multilingual Hong Kong: A sociolinguistic case study of code-switching (video recording). Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
• Lin, Angel M.Y. (1996). Bilingualism or linguistic segregation? Symbolic domination, resistance and code switching in Hong Kong schools. Linguistics and Education, 8 (1), pp. 49-84.
• Milroy, Lesley & Muysken, Pieter (1995). One speaker, two languages: Cross-disciplinary perspectives on code-switching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Wright, Sue & Kelly-Holmes, Helen (Eds) (1997). One country, two systems, three languages: a survey of changing language use in Hong Kong. Clevedon, England; Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters.