Hong Kong Chinese and Mandarin are two different varieties of the Chinese
Language in terms of lexicology. For over three decades, new words from Hong
Kong Chinese have swarmed into Mandarin and related researches also
flourished. Yet the reverse is a trend somehow going about more or less unnoticed,
which is perhaps mostly due to the scantiness of amount of words involved as a
contrast. However, its importance has surfaced along with a growing number of
Putonghua words imported into Hong Kong Chinese in the early twenty-first
century, as a result of the increasing interaction between Mainland China and
Hong Kong. Therefore, the thesis sets to examine the phenomenon of language
migration to the South by investigating the use of Putonghua words in Hong Kong
written Chinese, so as to better observe the language exchange between Hong
Kong and Mainland China.
The main body of this paper comprises three parts. First it seeks to identify a
body of such Putonghua words entering Hong Kong in a vast corpus of formal
publications and web publications and look into the lexicological significance of
such words. A total number of 359 words have been collected and semantic
categories have been identified based on selected Hong Kong texts. Meanwhile,
the semantic meaning, pragmatic meaning and contexts of the words collected
have been analysed.
Second, this paper examines this body of borrowed Putonghua words from a
wide span of aspects in lexicology, including its syntactic and pragmatic features,
its different levels of being accepted in Hong Kong, its significance and migration
incentives. Meanwhile, The thesis also conducts a diachronic comparison study of
this body of loanwords centered on last decade.
Third, This paper carries out a synchronic comparison of borrowed words in
both directions (Hong Kong Chinese to Mandarin and Mandarin to Hong Kong
Chinese), to map out possible similarities and differences that reflect linguistic
exchange. It is found that the northward language migration prevails over its
southward counterparts regarding time, number, impact and other aspects.
Theories and research methods from social linguistics are widely employed in
this paper, in hopes of studying the language migration to the south in a scientific
and systematic way. It is found that southward migration of words into Hong
Kong will be a long-term and slow process, and that the bilateral language
exchange between Hong Kong and Mainland China will last continuously, thus
allowing Mandarin and Hong Kong Chinese share greater similarities while
preserving differences. / published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/174550 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Yan, Yan, 严嬿 |
| Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
| Source Sets | Hong Kong University Theses |
| Language | Chinese |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PG_Thesis |
| Source | http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B47849927 |
| Rights | The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works., Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License |
| Relation | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) |
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