Papers by Brian, Hok-Shing, Chan
How Does Cantonese-English Code-Mixing Work?
Language in Hong Kong at century's end, 1998
... Their idea is that in code-mixing (which they term 'intrasentential code-switchi... more ... Their idea is that in code-mixing (which they term 'intrasentential code-switching'), the code ... Whilecode-mixing data which meet the two constraints are indeed found (Poplack, 1980; Sankoff ... some violations are also observed (Bentahila and Davis, 1982, on Arabic-French; Berk ...
Translanguaging in multimodal Macao posters: Flexible versus separate multilingualism
International Journal of Bilingualism, 2016
Aims: This paper suggests a framework of separate and flexible multilingualism to describe multil... more Aims: This paper suggests a framework of separate and flexible multilingualism to describe multilingual phenomena in Macao. The aims are to capture both conventional and creative language practice and to explore what exactly is the state of multilingualism in modern Macao under the context of globalization, and more specifically how we can capture variation in multilingual practice. Methodology: The objectives are achieved by analyzing the interplay and distance between languages in multilingual texts, focusing on the multimodality and intertextuality of the texts. Data and analysis: The database is a collection of 300 posters for cultural and entertainment events in Macao. The distance of languages is analyzed at the unit level in multimodal texts; separate and flexible multilingualism are exemplified and further elaborated. Conclusions: Multilingualism in Macao is mainly characterized by separate multilingualism, where different languages are demarcated clearly. However, Macao is ...
Sentence-Final Particles, Complementizers, Antisymmetry, and the Final-over-Final Constraint*
Theoretical Approaches to Disharmonic Word Order, 2013
Beyond “Contextualization”: Code-Switching as a “Textualization Cue”
Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 2004
“Contextualization cue” seems to be the one notion that has been unanimously accepted in recent l... more “Contextualization cue” seems to be the one notion that has been unanimously accepted in recent literature on the pragmatic motivations of code-switching. This article argues that in view of the wealth of new data analyzed the original conception of contextualization cue can no longer be taken for granted. In particular, it is argued here that code-switching does not necessarily “index” or “signal” certain contextual presuppositions. In addition, some instances of code-switching do not seem to be contextualization cues at all. It is then suggested that code-switching is better characterized as a “textualization cue”: The speaker hints that the listener has to interpret the forthcoming message somewhat differently. Finally, the implications of this analysis, in particular the full range of possible meanings conveyed pragmatically by code-switching, will be discussed.
Aspects of the Syntax, the Pragmatics, and the Production of Code-Switching
... nature of code-switching itself. Essential reading.» (Neil Smith, University College London) ... more ... nature of code-switching itself. Essential reading.» (Neil Smith, University College London) «A novel approach to the highly fascinating type of code-switching found in the Chinese-English context. Brian Hok-Shing Chan has ...
A diachronic-functional approach to explaining grammatical patterns in code-switching: Postmodification in Cantonese-English noun phrases
International Journal of Bilingualism, 2013
One major controversy in the study of code-switching (CS) has been the treatment of structural re... more One major controversy in the study of code-switching (CS) has been the treatment of structural regularities or patterns. Formal approaches attribute these patterns to syntactic constraints or models that are independent of socio-pragmatic or discourse factors, and hence they fall short of accounting for the variation and diachrony of CS constructions. Functional approaches call for due consideration of inter- and intra-speaker variation and discourse or processing factors, but they do not seem to go very far in pinpointing precisely what factors motivate a particular structural pattern. This paper attempts to integrate these two approaches in examining an emergent pattern in Cantonese–English CS in which postmodifying phrases are attested with English prepositions. The form of the construction may well be captured by some version of the Null Theory, but nonetheless it has little to say about why it is a new and variant pattern in Cantonese–English CS. This paper suggests that the construction is prompted by discourse factors such as salience, information status (i.e. given versus new) and heaviness (of the modifying noun phrase); typological differences (i.e. word order difference between Cantonese and English) and syntactic properties of words (such as prepositions) also have a role to play. Diachronically, this paper suggests that the construction evolves from a continuous English noun phrase with a further switch, which this paper terms “reinsertion”, within this noun phrase. Variants and possible changes of this postmodifier construction are also discussed in the light of “reinsertion” and “schematization”.
Code-switching between typologically distinct languages
The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Code-switching
This paper examines the feature composition of Cantonese determiner-like elements in the It is ar... more This paper examines the feature composition of Cantonese determiner-like elements in the 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.
This paper is concerned with the idea that the morpho-syntax of intra-sentential codeswitching is... more This paper is concerned with the idea that the morpho-syntax of intra-sentential codeswitching is strictly governed by the grammar of the matrix language/ML, whereas the embedded language/EL only contributes certain lexical elements within confines set by ML. A particular model embodying this idea theLemma Congruence model (Myers-Scotton and Jake 1995) is discussed. The Lemma Congruence model states that an EL word can appear in code-switching provided its lemma (i.e. morpho-syntactic properties) is congruent with its ML equivalents. I argue that the Lemma Congruence model fails to explain recurrent patterns in Cantonese-English code-switching, where various English (i.e. EL) forms may appear despite their “incongruence” with their Cantonese (i.e. ML) counterparts. As an alternative, I suggest that code-switching may occur provided that the c-selection requir ements of functional heads are satisfied. I argue that the latter approach which I call the Functional Head Selection approac...
To cite this article: Hong Zhang & Brian Hok-Shing Chan (2017) The shaping of a multilingual land... more To cite this article: Hong Zhang & Brian Hok-Shing Chan (2017) The shaping of a multilingual landscape by shop names: tradition versus modernity, Language and Intercultural Communication, 17:1, 26-44,
Aims: This paper suggests a framework of separate and flexible multilingualism to describe multil... more Aims: This paper suggests a framework of separate and flexible multilingualism to describe multilingual phenomena in Macao. The aims are to capture both conventional and creative language practice and to explore what exactly is the state of multilingualism in modern Macao under the context of globalization, and more specifically how we can capture variation in multilingual practice. Methodology: The objectives are achieved by analyzing the interplay and distance between languages in multilingual texts, focusing on the multimodality and intertextuality of the texts. Data and analysis: The database is a collection of 300 posters for cultural and entertainment events in Macao. The distance of languages is analyzed at the unit level in multimodal texts; separate and flexible multilingualism are exemplified and further elaborated. Conclusions: Multilingualism in Macao is mainly characterized by separate multilingualism, where different languages are demarcated clearly. However, Macao is undergoing a significant process of globalization, accompanied by a huge flow of people, and concomitantly flexible multilingualism is emergent and coexistent with separate multilingualism. Flexible multilingualism is often manifested in translanguaging. The various practices of translanguaging are performances of creativity and they show criticality by problematizing the widely accepted essentialist conceptions on boundaries between languages and modes. Originality: This paper extends the framework of separate and flexible multilingualism to explain multilingual practice in general. We analyze multimodal data using a combined method of multimodality and multilingualism while focusing on the linguistic elements. The paper treats the posters as a special and less studied type of linguistic landscape in Macao, and it provides an original and realistic interpretation of the written multilingual linguistic landscape in a unique Chinese city. Significance: This paper provides a new way of understanding multilingualism; translanguaging is broadened to account for written data. Multilingualism can be understood better by observing language-related practice in multimodal texts.
Portmanteau Constructions, Phrase Structure, and Linearization
In bilingual code-switching which involves language-pairs with contrasting head-complement orders... more In bilingual code-switching which involves language-pairs with contrasting head-complement orders (i.e. head-initial vs head-final), a head may be lexicalized from both languages with its complement sandwiched in the middle. These so-called “portmanteau” sentences (Nishimura, 1985, 1986; Sankoff, Poplack, and Vanniarajan, 1990, etc.) have been attested for decades, but they had never received a systematic, formal analysis in terms of current syntactic theory before a few recent attempts (Hicks, 2010, 2012). Notwithstanding this lack of attention, these structures are in fact highly relevant to theories of linearization and phrase structure. More specifically, they challenge binary-branching (Kayne, 1994, 2004, 2005) as well as the Antisymmetry hypothesis (ibid.). Not explained by current grammatical models of code-switching, including the Equivalence Constraint (Poplack, 1980), the Matrix Language Frame Model (Myers-Scotton, 1993, 2002, etc.), and the Bilingual Speech Model (Muysken, 2000, 2013), the portmanteau construction indeed looks uncommon or abnormal, defying any systematic account. However, the recurrence of these structures in various datasets and constraints on them do call for an explanation. This paper suggests an account which lies with syntax and also with the psycholinguistics of bilingualism. Assuming that linearization is a process at the Sensori-Motor (SM) interface (Chomsky, 2005; 2013), this paper sees that word order is not fixed in a syntactic tree but it is set in the production process, and much information of word order rests in the processor, for instance, outputting a head before its complement (i.e. head-initial word order) or the reverse (i.e. head-final word order). As for the portmanteau construction, it is the output of bilingual speakers co-activating two sets of head-complement orders which summon the phonetic forms of the same word in both languages. Under this proposal, the underlying structure of a portmanteau construction is as simple as an XP in which a head X merges with its complement YP and projects an XP (i.e. X YP → [XP X YP]).
A local voice of Macau: Traditional Characters, code-switching and Written Cantonese in an internet forum
Macau is geographically small but it has a large and complex population with various sub-groups f... more Macau is geographically small but it has a large and complex population with various sub-groups from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Against a backdrop of multilingualism and multiculturalism, questions arise as to whether there is a local Macau Chinese identity and, if yes, how this identity is constructed via language. From a set of language data collected from an internet forum, where university students and their peers have been expressing themselves under minimal censorship, a vernacular “voice” does seem to emerge with the pervasiveness of Traditional Characters and Written Cantonese, demarcating local students and mainland students. Whereas Written Cantonese, often interspersed with English words and phrases, has long been in use in Hong Kong and Macau, the data do show many creative expressions or literacy practices that depart further from the more (quasi-)standard Written Cantonese characters. This creativity is appropriately described as “translanguaging”, and yet “translanguaging” is nothing new in Cantonese-speaking communities; that is, at its outset, Written Cantonese is a “translanguaging” practice in the sense that it challenges the literary norm that “Chinese should always be written in Modern Standard Chinese” and problematizes the language ideology that “a dialect, such as Cantonese, cannot be written”. In addition, these literacy practices, though fluid and creative, are largely based on spoken Cantonese, and hence they can be seen as a way of making the forum even more exclusive to mainland students.
Juggling language ideology and discourse purpose: Code-switching and repair in a Hong Kong radio programme
Assuming that there are close connections between forms and functions of code-switching and the r... more Assuming that there are close connections between forms and functions of code-switching and the register/genre of a bilingual or multilingual discourse, this paper analyzes data of Cantonese-English code-switching in a Hong Kong radio programme which is informative in purpose and supposed to be typical of the radio register/genre. The data show that the radio hosts constantly strive to meet conflicting demands imposed by the register; on one hand, they endeavor to keep to Cantonese in accordance with linguistic purism and/or monoglot ideology as bastions of proper language use; however, at times they appeal to English in the delivery, emphasis and clarification of ideas, which is also crucial for the informative purpose of the programme. As a result, various patterns are developed, such as Medium Repair, Delayed Other Language Repair and Same Language Repair, sequences which have not been discussed in the context of code-switching in Hong Kong. From a broader perspective, this set of data calls for rethinking such concepts as “Medium” and “register”, issues that are addressed in the final part of this paper.
Theoretical Approaches to Disharmonic Word Order, 2013
International Journal of Bilingualism
One major controversy in the study of code-switching has been the treatment of structural regular... more One major controversy in the study of code-switching has been the treatment of structural regularities or patterns. Formal approaches attribute these patterns to syntactic constraints or models which are independent of socio-pragmatic or discourse factors, and hence they fall short of accounting for the variation and diachrony of CS constructions. Functional approaches call for due consideration of inter and intra-speaker variation and discourse or processing factors, but they do not seem to go very far in pinpointing precisely what factors motivate a particular structural pattern. This paper attempts to integrate these two approaches in examining an emergent pattern in Cantonese-English code-switching in which postmodifying phrases are attested with English prepositions. The form of the construction may well be captured by some version of the Null Theory, but nonetheless it has little to say about why it is a new and variant pattern in Cantonese-English code-switching. This paper suggests that the construction is prompted by discourse factors such as salience, information status (i.e. given vs new) and heaviness (of the modifying noun phrase); typological differences (i.e. word order difference between Cantonese and English) and syntactic properties of words (such as prepositions) also have a role to play. Diachronically, this paper suggests that the construction evolves from a continuous English noun phrase with a further switch, which this paper terms "reinsertion", within this noun phrase. Variants and possible changes of this postmodifier construction are also discussed in the light of "reinsertion" and "schematization".
English in Asian Popular Culture, 2012
Code-switching between Typologically Distinct Languages
The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Code-switching, 2009
English in Hong Kong Cantopop: language choice, code-switching and genre
World Englishes, 2009
ABSTRACT: Code-switching research has focused on spontaneous conversation, and code-switching ha... more ABSTRACT: Code-switching research has focused on spontaneous conversation, and code-switching has often been seen as a consequence of bilinguals attending to and extending the “macro” status and functions of the two languages in society, attitudes towards these languages, and their cultural connotations, for instance, the “we-code” vs. “they-code” distinction. In the Hong Kong context, code-switching to English has been primarily considered as quoting “Western” concepts and ideas, conveying referential and connotative meanings absent in Cantonese. Investigating a corpus of planned discourse, namely, Cantonese popular songs (i.e. Cantopop) in Hong Kong, this paper finds that the status and functions of English in Cantopop are more variable and flexible, beyond a mere symbol of “Western” culture or identity. Nonetheless, these functions can be attributed to the properties of the pop song genre, namely, Cantopop as poetic text, media text, and a product of pop culture; in particular, code-switching fits into the rhyming scheme, marks text structure, indexes prior texts, and conveys alternative identities.
Lingua, 2008
This paper claims that lexical categories (V, N) and functional categories (D, I, C) behave diffe... more This paper claims that lexical categories (V, N) and functional categories (D, I, C) behave differently in bilingual code-switching: whereas functional heads always determine the order of their code-switched complements, lexical heads may not do so. This proposal thus deviates from many recent studies which suggest that all heads determine the order of their complements (e.g. Mahootian, 1993; MacSwan, 1999; Nishimura, 1997; Nishimura and Yoon, 1998). Assuming a “Null Theory” perspective (Mahootian, 1993; MacSwan, 1999), code-switching data are explained here in terms of existing syntactic apparatus which also governs monolingual syntax. It is proposed that word order between lexical categories and their complements is determined by head parameter instead of feature strength as an intrinsic property of the lexical heads. Nonetheless, head-complement order is inherently specified in functional categories. On this account, prepositions are functional heads instead of lexical heads.
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Papers by Brian, Hok-Shing, Chan
This paper proposes that single English prepositions appear in Cantonese-English code-switching by way of “reinsertion” within whole English PP’s that are inserted in Cantonese-framed sentences. The most common position of English prepositions is predicative after a Cantonese copula verb, presumably due to “constructional equivalence” (instead of “categorical equivalence” which characterizes other kinds of single-word insertions in code-switching). Their appearance in other positions (e.g. an adverbial phrase and a co-verb phrase) is probably a later development, and more recently some single prepositions have come to be reanalyzed as verbs. Broader theoretical implications of this analysis (on syntax, grammaticalization and processing) are discussed at the end of the paper.
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2003). Alternatively, the mixed code itself rather than the separate languages may convey a hybrid, youth identity (Sarkar 2009, Sarkar and Winer 2006, Sarkar and Allen 2007). In this light,
the lyrics of songs performed in the 2008 Olympics are very interesting in that conveyance of identities and ideologies seem to be the predominent function of code-switching. In some songs
English comes to symbolize a global identity which includes the Chinese and other nationalities (parallel found in Lee 2006 and similar patterns found in some Cantopop---Chan 2010). In others,
English comes to represent the West whereas Chinese comes to represent the East, and crossing (Rampton 1995, etc.) between East and West is accomplished quintessentially by performance;
that is, the “Western” singer picks up the Chinese verses and the “Chinese” singer picks up the English ones. Crossing also takes place when there is no code-switching. That is, there are songs
in Putonghua only, but they are performed by singers from Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea (e.g. Rain) who do not come from Putonghua-dominant regions. Notwithstanding the utopian
ideals portrayed in these songs which are fitting for the Olympic games, traits of linguistic imperialism and hegemony can be detected in the language ideologies underlying these texts; the
most salient ones being that English stands for the West and the world, and Putonghua stands for the East. Diversity (linguistic, cultural, ethnic, etc.) under the East and the West (and more
specifically China) is largely suppressed and under-represented.
This paper attempts to discuss the possible empirical and theoretical problems of these accounts. In addition, based on some naturally-occurring code-switching data involving Cantonese and English, I propose a non-derivational account which simply suggests that an overt functional category such as ge3 or a classifier inherently determine head-complement or head-modifier order in Cantonese NP. On the other hand, the head-initial VP/VO order may be accounted for by more traditional devices such as the directionality parameter or others. Since VP order and NP order are determined by different mechanisms in Cantonese, disharmony is indeed possible. The resultant picture of phrase structure portrayed here is seemingly more compatible with cognitive grammar or constructional grammar where a phrase may be more schematic (such as [V NP]VP) or more specific (such as [NP/RCL/Adj ge3/classifier N]NP).
This paper revisits the “conversational functions” in the light of Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson 1995). It is suggested that code-switching, and probably other so-called “contextualization cues” as well, reflect the speakers’ desire to optimize relevance.