Hong Kong English: Exploring Lexicogrammar and Discourse from a Corpus-Linguistic Perspective

220 Pages·2017·2.744 MB·English

by  May Wong (auth.)

HONG KONG
ENGLISH
Exploring Lexicogrammar
and Discourse
from a Corpus-Linguistic
Perspective
May Wong
Hong Kong English
MayWong
Hong Kong English
Exploring Lexicogrammar and Discourse
from a Corpus-Linguistic Perspective
MayWong
SchoolofEnglish
UniversityofHongKong
PokFuLam,HongKong
ISBN978-1-137-51963-4 ISBN978-1-137-51964-1 (eBook)
DOI10.1057/978-1-137-51964-1
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017930569
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For Arthur
Acknowledgements
This book owes a great deal to a great many people. It is not possible to
nameeveryonewhohasmadeacontributiontoitinsomewayoranother
but I hope, at least, you will know my thanks.
This book was begun while working at the Department of Linguistics
and completed while working at the School of English, both in the
University of Hong Kong. I am exceedingly grateful to both units for
the time and space afforded to me that has enabled this project to be
pursued to fruition.
The intellectual space at the intersection between Corpus Linguistics
and World Englishes has only relatively recently been opened. I am
gratefultoallthoseresearcherswhohavehadahandincreatinghishighly
fl
productivespaceandwhoseworkisre ectedinthisbook.Iamespecially
grateful to those people workingin this area withwhom Ihave been able
to exchange ideas by distance or at international conferences, meetings
and symposia. Particular thanks are due to Dr Vincent Ooi.
Atthe University ofHong Kong,Ihave always found an environment
thatisextremelywarmandsupportive,bothpersonallyandprofessionally.
Iamgratefultocolleaguesthereformakingmefeelsoathome.Thisbook
fi
has bene tted enormously from the many stimulating conversations I
vii
viii Acknowledgements
have had with my colleagues, especially Dr Janny Leung and Dr Dirk
Noël, at the School of English. While at the Department of Linguistics I
enjoyed numerous discussions on matters of linguistics in general and
Cantoneselinguisticsinparticularwithbothmycolleaguesandpostgrad-
uate students. Special thanks go to Professor Kang-Kwong Luke and Dr
RichardXiaowhohavehelpedmeinvariouscapacitiesovertheyearswith
thiswork.Iamalsogratefultotwoanonymousreviewersforreadingdraft
chapters and offering useful suggestions for improvement. All remaining
oversights are, of course, my own responsibility.
I owe a great deal of gratitude to Professor Tony McEnery who
fi
introduces me to the vast and exciting eld of corpus linguistics by
being my PhD supervisor at Lancaster University. I am very grateful to
DrPaulRaysonforofferingmeafreeaccounttoaccesstheonlinecorpus
analysisinterfaceWmatrix.IwouldliketothankProfessorGeraldNelson
forkindlygrantingmealicencetousetheHongKongcomponentofthe
InternationalCorpusofEnglishinmyresearch.Iwouldalsoliketothank
thefollowingforpermissiontoreusepreviouslypublishedmaterialinmy
book:
(cid:129) ‘ ’
De Gruyter Mouton, for Hong Kong English in Bernd Kortmann
andKerstinLunkenheimer(eds.)TheMoutonWorldAtlasofVariation
–
in English, Berlin and New York, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 548 561,
2012 (Chap. 1).
(cid:129) ‘
Elsevier, for Expressions of gratitude by Hong Kong speakers of
English: Research from the International Corpus of English in Hong
’ –
Kong (ICE-HK) in Journal of Pragmatics 42 (5): 1243 1257, 2010
(Chap. 4).
EarlierversionsofChaps.2and3werepreviouslypublishedbyTaylor&
‘ ’
Francis as Tag questions in Hong Kong English: A corpus-based study
– ‘
in Asian Englishes 10 (1): 44 61, 2007 (Chap. 2), and Committee, staff,
’
council,etc.:AcorpusanalysisofcollectivenounsinHongKongEnglish
–
in Asian Englishes 12 (1): 4 19, 2009 (Chap. 3).
Acknowledgements ix
Atthe publishers, Iwould liketothankallthose involvedforcommis-
fi
sioning the work and for so ef ciently handling the production process.
Always last but never least, I would like to thank Arthur, my shining
light,fortheloveandsupportthathehasshownmeovertheyearsandfor
fi
his patience during the nal stages of preparing the manuscript for this
book. I hope somehow I will be able to repay him.
Contents
1 Hong Kong English: An Overview 1
1.1 Introduction 2
1.2 Sociocultural Background 3
1.3 Positioning the Book with Two Previously Published
Monographs on HKE 5
1.4 The International Corpus of English (The Hong Kong
Component) (ICE-HK) 6
fi
1.5 The Pro le of Hong Kong English 9
1.5.1 Features Relating to Pronouns and Nouns 10
1.5.2 Features Relating to Tense 15
1.5.3 Features Relating to Redundant Grammatical
Elements 18
1.6 Concluding Remarks and Structure of the Book 21
References 23
xi
xii Contents
Part I Lexicogrammar 29
2 Tag Questions 31
2.1 Introduction 32
2.2 Data Collection: Retrieving Tag Questions 33
2.3 Genre Variations in the Use of Tag Questions 35
2.4 Patterns of Polarity in Tags 36
2.5 Variability in the Use of Operators and Pronouns 39
fi
2.6 The Classi cation of the Communicative Functions
of Tags 43
fl
2.7 Substrate In uence from Cantonese 48
2.8 Conclusion 49
References 51
3 Collective Nouns 53
3.1 Introduction 54
3.2 Data Collection: Extraction of Collective Nouns 54
3.3 Motivations Underlying Concord Variability ofCollective
Nouns 57
3.3.1 Traditional Dichotomy Between Collectivity
and Individuality 57
fi
3.3.2 The Semantic Classi cation of Lexical Verbs 63
3.3.3 Variation Between Native and Non-Native
Varieties of English 66
3.3.4 A Note on the Substrate Language Cantonese 67
3.4 Concluding Remarks 68
References 69
Part II Discourse 71
4 Expressions of Gratitude 73
4.1 Introduction 74
4.2 Previous Research 74
4.3 Methodological Issues: DCT vs. Corpus Data 77