Cover not available
Article published In:
Asia-Pacific Language Variation
Vol. 4:2 (2018) ► pp.161–196

Social meaning in the perception of neutral tone variation in Putonghua

| University of Nottingham
This study investigates the perception of the variation of neutral tone, a phonetic feature in China’s official language, Putonghua. Specifically, I explore whether native listeners perceive social meanings such as standardness, regional-ness, status and/or solidarity presumably associated with the low-use, standard use, and high-use of neutral tone, and how gender influences the perception of these meanings. Based on the results of a matched-guise test, I argue that the high use of neutral tone, through its link with Beijing dialect, is possibly competing with the standard, though the latter maintains a higher level of positive meanings. I also note that the low use of neutral tone – associated with Southern China and non-Mandarin varieties – carries more negative meanings. The overall gender differences show that gender prejudice towards women still exists in China. This study enriches our understanding of sociolinguistics in China and calls for more research on language variation in China.
Keywords: neutral tone, Putonghua , Chinese, Mandarin, gender, language variation, matched-guise technique
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Social meaning
    • 1.2Language standardness and language attitudes studies
    • 1.3Social meaning and gender
  • 2.Linguistic and social background
    • 2.1Regional Putonghua: Non-standard varieties of standard Chinese
    • 2.2Tones and neutral tone
    • 2.3Neutral tone variation in regional Putonghua
    • 2.4Gender (in)equality in China
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Stimuli
    • 3.2Questions
    • 3.3Listeners
    • 3.4Procedure
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Standardness
    • 4.2Perceived accent
    • 4.3Status
    • 4.4Solidarity
    • 4.5Occupational suitability
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Standardness and perceived accent
    • 5.2Status and solidarity
    • 5.3Occupational suitability
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aplv.18003.zha
References (125)
References
Agheyisi, Rebecca, & Fishman, Joshua A. (1970). Language attitude studies: A brief survey of methodological approaches. Anthropological Linguistics, 12(5), 137–157.Google Scholar
Anders, Kayla Elizabeth (2009). The effects of dialect, gender, and group identity on person perception. Unpublished bachelor’s thesis, The College of William and Mary.Google Scholar
Andrews, David R. (2003). Gender effects in a Russian and American matched-guise study: A sociolinguistic comparison. Russian Linguistics, 27(3), 287–311. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baran, Dominika Marta (2014). Linguistic practice and identity work: Variation in Taiwan Mandarin at a Taipei county high school. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 18(1), 32–59. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bates, Douglas, Machler, Martin, Bolker, Ben, & Walker, Steve (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bayard, Donn (2000). The cultural cringe revisited: Changes through time in Kiwi attitudes toward accents. In Koenraad Kuiper & Allan Bell (Eds.), New Zealand English (pp. 297–324). Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. Co. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Becker, Michael, & Levine, Jonathan (2014). Experigen – an online experiment platform. Retrieved June 1, 2012, from [URL]
Bellamy, John Paul (2011). Language attitudes in England and Austria: Comparing reactions towards high and low prestige varieties in Manchester and Vienna. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Benor, Sarah Bunin (2001). The learned/t/: Phonological variation in orthodox Jewish English. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, 7(3), 1–16.Google Scholar
Bilaniuk, Laada (2003). Gender, language attitudes, and language status in Ukraine. Language in Society, 32(1), 47–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary (2001). The whiteness of nerds: Superstandard English and racial markedness. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 11(1), 84–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Callan, Victor J., & Gallois, Cynthia (1982). Language attitudes of Italo-Australian and Greek-Australian bilinguals. International Journal of Psychology, 17(1–4), 345–358. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1987). Anglo-Australians’ and immigrants’ attitudes toward language and accent: A review of experimental and survey research. International Migration Review, 21(1), 48–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Campbell-Kibler, Kathryn (2006). Listener perceptions of sociolinguistic variables: The case of (ING). Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, Stanford.Google Scholar
(2010). Sociolinguistics and perception. Language and Linguistics Compass, 4(6), 377–389. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chao, Yuen Ren (1968). A grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen Ren, & Dil, Anwar S. (1976). Aspects of Chinese sociolinguistics: Essays. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Mengyi (2017). Guonei Jinshinian chengshi jumin yuyan taidu shuping [A review of language attitudes studies on Chinese urban residents in the last decade]. Xiandai Yuwen, 81, 119–122.Google Scholar
Chen, Ping (1999). Modern Chinese: History and sociolinguistics. Cambridge, U.K.; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chen, Songcen (1990). Shaoxingshi chengqu putonghua de shehui fenbu jiqi fazhan qushi [Social stratification and development of Putonghua in Shaoxing city]. Language Planning, 11, 41–47.Google Scholar
Chen, Yachuan (1991). Difang putonghua de xingzhi tezheng ji qita [Characteristics of Regional Putonghua]. Shijie hanyu jiaoxue, 11, 12–17.Google Scholar
Chen, Yiya, & Xu, Yi (2006). Production of weak elements in speech – Evidence from F0 patterns of neutral tone in standard Chinese. Phonetica, 63(1), 47–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chen, Zunping (2012). Lvelun difang putonghua yanjiu de jige wenti [A brief study on problems of local Putonghua]. Journal of Zunyi Normal College, 14(2), 47–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
China. (2016). Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language. Chinese Law & Government, 48(4), 275–278. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
China Youth Daily. (2013, Date). Daxue Zhaosheng Nannv Youbie She Xingbie Qishi [Gender discrimination: Differences of university recruitment between female and male students]. Retrieved September, 12, 2018, from [URL]
Chinese Academy of Sciences. (Ed.) (1977). Xian dai han yu ci dian [Contemporary Chinese Dictionary]. Hong Kong: Commercial Press.Google Scholar
. (Ed.) (2004). Xinhua Zidian [New China Dictionary] (10th edition). Beijing, China: Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Chong, Rachael Hui-Hui, & Tan, Ying-Ying (2013). Attitudes toward accents of Mandarin in Singapore. Chinese Language and Discourse, 4(1), 120–140. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clopper, Cynthia G., & Pisoni, David B. (2008). Perception of dialect variation. In David B. Pisoni & Robert E. Remez (Eds.), The handbook of speech perception (pp. 313–337). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Coates, Jennifer (1998). Language and gender: A Reader. Oxford, UK: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
DeFrancis, John (1984). The Chinese language: Fact and fantasy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Drager, Katie (2010). Sociophonetic variation in speech perception. Language and Linguistics Compass, 4(7), 473–480. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eckert, Penelope (1988). Adolescent social structure and the spread of linguistic change. Language in Society, 17(2), 183–207. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1989). Jocks and burnouts: Social categories and identity in the high school. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
(2008). Variation and the indexical field. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 12(4), 453–476. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2012). Three waves of variation study: The emergence of meaning in the study of sociolinguistic variation. Annual Review of Anthropology, 411, 87–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eckert, Penelope, & McConnell-Ginet, Sally (1992). Think practically and look locally: Language and gender as community-based practice. Annual Review of Anthropology, 211, 461–490. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Feifel, Karl-Eugen (1994). Language attitudes in Taiwan: A social evaluation of language in social change. Taipei: Crane Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Francis, Norbert, & Ryan, Phyllis M. (1998). English as an international language of prestige: Conflicting cultural perspectives and shifting ethnolinguistic loyalties. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 29(1), 25–43. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guo, Longsheng (2004). The relationship between Putonghua and Chinese dialects. In Minglang Zhou & Hongkai Sun (Eds.), Language policy in the People’s Republic of China: Theory and practice since 1949 (pp. 45–54). Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guy, Gregory R. (1988). Language and social class. In Frederick J. Newmeyer (Ed.), Linguistics, the Cambridge survey (pp. 37–63). Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haddock, Geoffrey, & Maio, Gregory R. (2004). Contemporary perspectives on the psychology of attitudes. New York: Psychology Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haleta, Laurie L. (1996). Student perceptions of teachers’ use of language: The effects of powerful and powerless language on impression formation and uncertainty. Communication Education, 45(1), 16–28. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Helleseter, Miguel Delgado, Kuhn, Peter, & Shen, Kailing (2016). Age and gender profiling in the Chinese and Mexican labor markets: Evidence from four job boards (Report no. 22187). Retrieved January 1, 2018, from [URL]
Hoare, Rachel (2000). Linguistic competence and regional identity in Brittany: Attitudes and perceptions of identity. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 21(4), 324–346. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holmes, Janet (2013). An introduction to sociolinguistics (Fourth edition). New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hu, Mingyang (1986a). Beijnghua he Putonghua (Shang) [Beijing Mandarin and Putonghua I]. Yuwen Jianshe, 31, 47–50.Google Scholar
(1986b). Beijnghua he Putonghua (Xia) [Beijing Mandarin and Putonghua II]. Yuwen Jianshe, 41, 49–51.Google Scholar
Hu, Weixiang, Jin, Jian, Wang, Xia, & Li, Aijun (2008). Guangzhou putonghua he biaozhun putonghua liangyinjie yulvci zhongyi duibi yanjiu [A comparitive study on accent pattern for disyllable words in Cantonese-accented Putonghua and standard Putonghua]. Paper presented at the Eighth Phonetic Conference of China, Beijing, China.
Ibrahim, Muhammad H. (1986). Standard and prestige language – a problem in Arabic sociolinguistics. Anthropological Linguistics, 28(1), 115–126.Google Scholar
Jaffe, Alexandra M. (2009). Indeterminacy and regularization. Sociolinguistic Studies, 31, 229–251. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jing, Song, & Niu, Fang (2010). Changsha difang putonghua guhua yanjiu – difang putonghua guhua de ge’an yanjiu [The fossilization of local Putonghua in Changsha: A sociolinguistic survey]. Applied Linguistics, 41, 41–49.Google Scholar
Johnstone, Barbara, Andrus, Jennifer, & Danielson, Andrew E. (2006). Mobility, indexicality, and the enregisterment of “Pittsburghese”. Journal of English Linguistics, 34(2), 77–104. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, Barbara, & Kiesling, Scott F. (2008). Indexicality and experience: Exploring the meanings of /aw/-monophthongization in Pittsburgh. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 12(1), 5–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kalmar, Ivan, Yong, Zhong, & Hong, Xiao (1987). Language attitudes in Guangzhou, China. Language in Society, 16(4), 499–508. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kubler, Cornelius C. (1985). The influence of southern Min on the Mandarin of Taiwan. Anthropological Linguistics, 27(2), 156–176.Google Scholar
Labov, William (1963). The social motivation of a sound change. WORD, 19(3), 273–309. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1966). The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
(1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
(1990). The intersection of sex and social class in the course of linguistic change. Language Variation and Change, 2(2), 205–254. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2015). The discovery of the unexpected. Asia-Pacific Language Variation, 1(1), 7–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lai, Mee Ling (2007a). Exploring language stereotypes in post-colonial Hong Kong through the matched-guise test. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 17(2), 225–244. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2007b). Gender and language attitudes: A case of postcolonial Hong Kong. International Journal of Multilingualism, 4(2), 83–116. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lambert, Wallace E. (1967). A social psychology of bilingualism. Journal of Social Issues, 23(2), 91–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lambert, Wallace E., Frankle, Hannah, & Tucker, G. Richard (1966). Judging personality through speech: A French-Canadian example. Journal of Communication, 16(4), 305–321. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levon, Erez (2006). Hearing “gay”: Prosody, interpretation, and the affective judgments of men’s speech. American Speech, 81(1), 56–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2007). Sexuality in context: Variation and the sociolinguistic perception of identity. Language in Society, 36(4), 533–554. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levon, Erez, & Fox, Sue (2014). Social salience and the sociolinguistic monitor: A case study of ING and TH-fronting in Britain. Journal of English Linguistics, 42(3), 185–217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lewis, M. Paul, Simons, Gary F., & Fennig, Charles D. (Eds.). (2016). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (19th edition). Dallas, Texas: SIL International.Google Scholar
Li, Charles N., & Thompson, Sandra A. (1981). Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Li, Dan, & Lai, Wei (2011). Taihe difangputonghua he putonghua de bijiao [A comparison between Taihe regional Putonghua and Putonghua]. Anhui Wenxue, 61, 254–255. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liang, Sihua (2014). Language attitudes and identities in multilingual China: A linguistic ethnography. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Liao, Silvie (2008). A perceptual dialect study of Taiwan Mandarin: Language attitudes in the era of political battle. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-20).
Lin, Hua (2001). A grammar of Mandarin Chinese. Muenchen: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Lin, Yi-chiou (1987). The social evaluation of Mandarin and Taiwainese in Taipei: A case study of attitudes ttowards language variation and language use. Unpublished master’s thesis, National Taiwan Normal University.Google Scholar
Lin, Yonghai, Li, Jing, & Qiu, Jingjing (2010). Yao children’s language impression on Mandarin, dialect and their own language: A matched-guise experiment. Journal of Guangxi Normal University, 46(4), 6–11.Google Scholar
Liu, Lili (2002). Ershi Shiji Hanyu Qingsheng Yanjiu Zongshu [Summary of the light tone study in the 20th century]. Yuwen Yanjiu, 31, 43–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Loureiro-Rodríguez, Verónica, Boggess, May M., & Goldsmith, Anne (2012). Language attitudes in Galicia: Using the matched-guise test among high school students. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 34(2), 136–153. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lu, Yunzhong (1995). Putonghua de qingsheng he erhua [Neutral tone and rhotacisation in Putonghua]. Beijing: Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Meyerhoff, Miriam (2006). Introducing sociolinguistics. Abingdon, England; New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moore, Emma, & Podesva, Robert J. (2009). Style, indexicality, and the social meaning of tag questions. Language in Society, 38(4), 447–485. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moosmüller, Sylvia (1990). Evaluation of language varieties in austria. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 831, 105–120.Google Scholar
(1995). Evaluation of language use in public discourse: Language attitudes in Austria. In Patrick Stevenson (Ed.), The German language and the real world: Sociolinguistic, cultural, and pragmatic perspectives in contemporary German (pp. 257–278). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Norman, Jerry (1988). Chinese. Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor (1992). Indexing gender. In Alessandro Duranti & Charles Goodwin (Eds.), Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon (pp. 335–358). Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Podesva, Robert J., & Chun, Elaine (2007). On indeterminacy in the social meaning of variation. Paper presented at the New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV) 36, Philadelphia.
Podesva, Robert J., Reynolds, Jermay, Callier, Patrick, & Baptiste, Jessica (2015). Constraints on the social meaning of released /t/: A production and perception study of U.S. politicians. Language Variation and Change, 27(1), 59–87. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Podesva, Robert J., Roberts, Sarah J., & Campbell-Kibler, Kathryn (2002). Sharing resources and indexing meanings in the production of gay styles. In Kathryn Campbell-Kibler, Robert J. Podesva, Sarah. J. Roberts, & A. Wong (Eds.), Language and sexuality: Contesting meaning in theory and practice (pp. 175–189). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Preston, Dennis Richard (1989). Perceptual dialectology: Nonlinguists’ views of areal linguistics. Dordrecht: Foris Publications. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2011). Methods in (applied) folk linguistics: Getting into the minds of the folk. AILA Review, 24(1), 15–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Preston, Malcolm Sturgeon (1963). Evaluational reactions to English, Canadian French, and European French voices. Doctoral dissertation, McGill University.Google Scholar
R Core Team (2018). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. Retrieved from [URL]
Roberts, Celia, & Street, Brian (1997). Spoken and written language. In Florian Coulmas (Ed.), The handbook of sociolinguistics (pp. 168–186). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Rohsenow, John S. (2004). Fifty years of script and written language reform in the PRC – the genesis of the language law of 2001. In Minglang Zhou & Hongkai Sun (Eds.), Language policy in the People’s Republic of China: Theory and practice since 1949 (pp. 21–43). Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shaffer, Margaret A., Joplin, Janice R. W., Bell, Myrtle P., Lau, Theresa, & Oguz, Ceyda (2000). Gender discrimination and job-related outcomes: A cross-cultural comparison of working women in the United States and China. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 57(3), 395–427. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shang, Guowen, & Zhou, Qinghai (2016). Xinjiapo Huayude Yuliu Yu Yinbian [Singapore Mandarin: Sound and pronunciation variations]. Journal of International Chinese Studies, 11, 205–216.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael (1976). Shifters, linguistic categories and cultural description. In Keith H. Basso & Henry A. Selby (Eds.), Meaning in anthropology (pp. 11–55). Santa Fe, NM: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Soukup, Barbara (2009). Dialect use as interaction strategy: A sociolinguistic study of contextualization, speech perception, and language attitudes in Austria. Vienna: Braumüller.Google Scholar
Street, Richard L. Jr., & Brady, Robert M. (1982). Speech rate acceptance ranges as a function of evaluative domain, listener speech rate, and communication context. Communications Monographs, 49(4), 290–308. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Street, Richard L. Jr., Brady, Robert M., & Lee, Raymond (1984). Evaluative responses to communicators: The effects of speech rate, sex, and interaction context. Western Journal of Speech Communication, 48(1), 14–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Street, Richard L. Jr., Brady, Robert M., & Putman, William B. (1983). The influence of speech rate stereotypes and rate similarity or listeners’ evaluations of speakers. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 2(1), 37–56. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Erik R. (2002). Sociophonetic applications of speech perception experiments. American Speech, 77(2), 115–147. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Trudgill, Peter (1972). Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British English of Norwich. Language in Society, 1(2), 179–195. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1974). The social differentiation of English in Norwich. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
(1979). Standard and nonstandard dialects of English in the United-Kingdom – Problems and policies. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 211, 9–24.Google Scholar
Walker, Abby, García, Christina, Cortés, Yomi, & Campbell-Kibler, Kathryn (2014). Comparing social meanings across listener and speaker groups: The indexical field of Spanish /s/. Language Variation and Change, 26(2), 169–189. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wang, Xuan (2017a). Exploring the role of attitudes in new dialect formation in Hohhot, China. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Canterbury.Google Scholar
(2017b). Investigating the role of speaker attitudes in koineisation in Hohhot, China. Asia Pacific Language Variation, 3(2), 232–270. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Watson, Kevin, & Clark, Lynn (2013). How salient is the nurse~square merger? English Language and Linguistics, 17(2), 297–323. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wolfram, Walt (1969). A sociolinguistic description of Detroit Negro speech. Washington: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Woodhams, Carol, Lupton, Ben, & Xian, Huiping (2009). The persistence of gender discrimination in China – evidence from recruitment advertisements. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20(10), 2084–2109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wurm, Stephen A., Baumann, Theo, & Lee, Mei W. (Cartographer). (1988). Language atlas of China. Hong Kong: Longman Group.Google Scholar
Xiao, Jinsong (2007). Putonghua zhongjieyu yanjiu shuping [An overview on interlanguages in Putonghua]. Journal of Yunyang Normal College, 27(2), 119–122. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yang, Mayfair Mei-hui (1999). From gender erasure to gender difference: State feminism, consumer sexuality, and women’s public sphere in China. In Mayfair Mei-hui Yang (Ed.), Spaces of their own: Women’s public sphere in transnational China (pp. 35–67). Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Yang, Wenqi, & Yan, Fei (2017). The annihilation of femininity in Mao’s China: Gender inequality of sent-down youth during the Cultural Revolution. China Information, 31(1), 63–83. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yao, Youchun (1989). Yinggai kaizhan dui difang putonghua de yanjiu [Research should be carried out on local Putonghua]. Language Planning, 31, 18–21.Google Scholar
You, Rujie, & Zou, Jiayan (2009). Shehui yuyanxue jiaocheng [A course on sociolinguistics]. Shanghai: Fudan University Press.Google Scholar
Zahn, Christopher J., & Hopper, Robert (1985). Measuring language attitudes: The speech evaluation instrument. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 4(2), 113–123. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Jijia (1990). Jiaoshi kouyin de shehui xinli yingxiang [Socio-psychological influence of teachers’ accents]. Psychological Science, 61, 50–53.Google Scholar
Zhang, Jijia, Yang, Zhuohua, & Zhu, Shimin (2003). Guangdong daxuesheng dui Putonghua he yueyu de yinxiang [Study into the impressions of Putonghua and Guangdong dialect in Guangdong university students’ eyes]. Exploration of Psychology, 11, 51–54.Google Scholar
Zhang, Qing (2001). Changing economy, changing market: A sociolinguistic study of Chinese yuppies. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, Stanford.Google Scholar
(2005). A Chinese yuppie in Beijing: Phonological variation and the construction of a new professional identity. Language in Society, 34(3), 431–466. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2007). Cosmopolitanism and linguistic capital in China: Language, gender and the transition to a globalized market economy in Beijing. In Bonnie S. McElhinny (Ed.), Words, worlds, and material girls: Language, gender, globalization (pp. 403–422). Berlin; New York, NY: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
(2008). Rhotacization and the ‘Beijing Smooth Operator’: The social meaning of a linguistic variable. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 12(2), 201–222. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2017). Language and social change in China: Undoing commonness through cosmopolitan Mandarin. New York; London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Gao, Feier & Jon Forrest
2023. Indexical meaning of Mandarin full tone in the construction of femininity: Evidence from social perceptual data. Language & Communication 91 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Zhao, Hui & Hong Liu
2021. (Standard) language ideology and regional Putonghua in Chinese social media: a view from Weibo. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 42:9 ► pp. 882 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 june 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.