Cover not available
Article published In:
Chinese Language and Discourse
Vol. 9:1 (2018) ► pp.46–74

Single-word English prepositions in Hong Kong Cantonese

A cognitive-constructionist approach

| University of Macau |

This paper proposes a structural borrowing account for a lexicogrammatical phenomenon whereby, in on ongoing Cantonese discourse, the use of a single-word English preposition triggers and activates an English construction, specifically an NP COP P NP sequence, and brings it into that discourse. The borrowed structure eventually converges with Cantonese, with the English preposition reanalyzed as a verb or a coverb. It is further suggested that these processes of structural borrowing and convergence are semantically motivated. Drawing on Cognitive Grammar, the borrowed structure np cop p np profiles a location as a relationship (whereas in Cantonese it is profiled as a thing by a postposition), and the pp (i.e., p np ) is profiled as a property of the subject or trajector (whereas in Cantonese a coverb phrase is always associated with a process). The converged constructions – in which an English preposition is reanalyzed as a verb or coverb – profile more dynamic and specific processes.

Keywords: Preposition, postposition, coverb, copula, code-switching, structural borrowing, convergence
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Single-word English prepositions in Hong Kong Cantonese
  • 2.Accounting for the syntax of the patterns
    • 2.1Syntactic models of code-switching
    • 2.2The pattern np cop p np as structural borrowing
  • 3.A cognitive-constructionist approach to structural borrowing
    • 3.1Structural borrowing and the lexicon-syntax division
    • 3.2Motivation for structural borrowing: The borrowed structure gives a different construal
    • 3.3The meaning of the np cop pp construction
  • 4.Structural convergence and reanalysis: A cognitive-constructionist approach
    • 4.1English preposition reanalyzed as a verb
    • 4.2English preposition reanalyzed as a coverb
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 27 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.17013.cha
References
Ansaldo, Umberto
2009 The Asian typology of English: Theoretical and methodological considerations. English World-Wide 30(2), 133–148. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baker, Mark C.
2003 Lexical categories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bauer, Robert S.
2006 The stratification of English loanwords in Cantonese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 34(2), 172–191.Google Scholar
Bullock, Barbara E. & Almeida Jacqueline Toribio
2004 Introduction: Convergence as an emergent property in bilingual speech. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7(2): 91–93. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chan, Brian Hok-Shing
1992 Code-mixing in Hong Kong Cantonese-English Bilinguals: Constraints and processes. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong MA dissertation.Google Scholar
1998 How does Cantonese-English code-mixing work? In Martha C. Pennington (ed.), Language in Hong Kong at century’s end, 191–216. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
2005 Categorial equivalence, selection and code-switching. Paper presented at the 5th International Symposium of Bilingualism at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, 20–23, March.
2009 Code-switching with typologically distinct languages. In Barbara E. Bullock & Almeida Jacqueline Toribio (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic code-switching, 182–198. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015a A diachronic-functional approach to explaining grammatical patterns in code-switching: Postmodification in Cantonese-English noun phrases. International Journal of Bilingualism 19(1): 17–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015b Portmanteau constructions, phrase structure, and linearization. Frontiers in Psychology 61:1851. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Chan, Mimi & Helen Kwok
1982 A study of lexical borrowing from English in Hong Kong Cantonese. Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Chen, Katherine H-Y.
2008 Bilinguals in style: Linguistic practices and ideologies of Cantonese-English codemixers in Hong Kong. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Cheung, Hung-Nin
2007 A grammar of Cantonese as spoken in Hong Kong. Revised edition. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. [In Chinese]Google Scholar
Cheung, Lawrence Yam-Leung
2009 Dislocation focus construction in Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 181, 197–232. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ching, Queenie. S-Y.
2009 Code-switching of Cantonese-English in Hong Kong Magazine Feature Articles. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong MA Research Paper.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam
1986a Barriers. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
1986b Knowledge in language: Its nature, origin, and use. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
1995 The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Croft, William
2001 Radical construction grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Djamouri, Redouane, Waltraud Paul & John Whitman
2013 Postpositions vs prepositions in Mandarin Chinese: The articulation of disharmony. In Theresa Biberauer & Michelle Sheehan (eds.), Theoretical approaches to disharmonic word order, 74–105. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Francis, Elaine & Stephen Matthews
2005 A multi-dimensional approach to the category “verb” in Cantonese. Journal of Linguistics 411, 269–305. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 Categoriality and object extraction in Cantonese serial verb constructions. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 241, 751–801. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Francis, Elaine & Etsuyo Yuasa
2008 A multi-modular approach to gradual change in grammaticalization. Journal of Linguistics 441, 45–86. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibbons, John
1979 U-gay-wa: A linguistic study of the campus language of students at the University of Hong Kong. In Robert Lord (ed.), Hong Kong language papers, 3–43. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
1987 Code-mixing and code-choice: A Hong Kong case study. Multilingual Matters, Clevedon.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele E.
2006 Constructions at work: The nature of generalizations in language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Grimshaw, Jane
1991 Extended projections. Manuscript, Brandeis University.Google Scholar
Gumperz, John
1982 Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva
2002 World lexicon of grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005 Language contact and grammatical change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huang, James C-T., Audrey Li & Li, Yafei
2008 The syntax of Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jackendoff, Ray
1977 X-bar syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lai, Wai-Ying
1989 The occurrence of code-mixing in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong MA dissertation. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lam, Joyce Y-H.
2005 A study of single English words occurring in Hong Kong Cantonese. Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong MA dissertation. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lam, Wai
2013 Code switching and code mixing in the broadcasts of Commercial Radio Hong Kong (CRHK). Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong MA dissertation. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W.
2008 Cognitive grammar: A basic introduction. Oxford University Press, New York. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leung, Yin-Bing
1987 Constraints on intrasentential code-mixing in Cantonese and English. Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong MA dissertation. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leung, Tommi T-C.
2001 An optimality-theoretic approach to Cantonese/ English code-switching. Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong MPhil dissertation. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Charles & Sandra A. Thompson
1981 Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Li, David C-S.
2000 Cantonese – English code-switching research in Hong Kong: A Y2K review. World Englishes 191, 305–322. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Siu-Lun
1996 A sociolinguistic study of code-mixing in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong MPhil dissertation.Google Scholar
Lui, Ngan-Chui
2000 Code-mixing in a Hong Kong secondary school. Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong MA dissertation. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Luke, Kang-Kwong
1984 Expedient and orientational language mixing in Hong Kong. York Papers in Linguistics 111, 191–201.Google Scholar
1998 Why two languages might be better than one. In: Pennington, M. C. (ed.), Language in Hong Kong at century’s end, 145–159. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
Luke, Kang-Kwong & Chak-Ming Lau
2005 On loanword truncation in Cantonese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 171, 347–362. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
MacSwan, Jeff
1999 A minimalist approach to intrasentential code-switching: Spanish-Nahuatl Bilingualism in Central Mexico. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Matthews, Stephen & Virginia Yip
2009 Contact-induced grammaticalization: evidence from bilingual acquisition. Studies in Language 33(2), 366–395. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 Cantonese: A comprehensive grammar. Second edition. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Muysken, Pieter
2000 Bilingual Speech. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2013 Language contact outcomes as the optimalization of strategies. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 16(4), 709–730. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Myers-Scotton, Carol
1993 Duelling languages: Grammatical structure in codeswitching. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
2002 Contact linguistics. Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 Multiple voices: An introduction to bilingualism. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Myers-Scotton, Carol & Janice L. Jake
2009 A universal model of codeswitching and bilingual language processing and production. In Barbara E. Bullock & Almeida Jacqueline Toribio (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic code-switching, 336–357. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pennington, Martha, Brian Hok-Shing Chan & Lawrence Lau
1996 Hong Kong radio: A changing profile. Strategic Grants Research funded by the University Grants Commission, Hong Kong. City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Pustet, Regina
2003 Copulas: Universals in the categorization of the lexicon. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reynolds-Lo, Sabrina, K-C.
1985 Code-switching in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong MA dissertation.Google Scholar
Rickford, John R.
1998 The creole origins of African American Vernacular English: Evidence from copular absence. In Salikoko S. Mufwene, John R. Rickford, Guy Bailey & John Baugh (eds.), African American English, 154–200. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Teng, Anne Y-Y.
1993 Code-mixing and code-switching in Chinese-English bilinguals. Cambridge: The University of Cambridge MA dissertation.Google Scholar
Thomason, Sarah & Terrence Kaufman
1988 Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wong, Cathy S-P., Robert S. Bauer & Zoe Lam
2009 The integration of English loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 11, 251–265.Google Scholar
Yip, Virginia & Stephen Matthews
2000 Syntactic transfer in a Cantonese-English bilingual child. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 3(3), 193–208. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yiu, Emily S-M.
2005 Language mixing and grammatical development in a Cantonese-English balanced bilingual child in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong MPhil dissertation. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Chan, Brian Hok-Shing
2022. Constructional Borrowing From English in Hong Kong Cantonese. Frontiers in Communication 7 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 march 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.