硕士论文：the integration of yue dialect words into modern written chinese

8/14/2019 the Integration of Yue Dialect Words Into Modern Written Chinese

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TheIntegrationofYueDialectWordsintoModernWrittenChinese

WongHiuLamSallyM.A.Dissertation

TheUniversityofHongKongJune,2006


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Abstractofthesisentitled

TheIntegrationofYueDialectWordsintoModernWrittenChinese

Submittedby

WongHiuLamSallyforthedegreeofMasterofArts

atTheUniversityofHongKong

inJune2006

There is a language dilemma in Hong Kong: on the one hand, its unique

socialculturalenvironmentcallsforakindofwrittenChinesethathasalocalflavour,

while on the other hand, there are strong expectations for the use of more

standardizedvarieties.TheuseofYuedialectwords is thusan importantand

controversial topic. These nonstandard words include traditional Yue dialect

words,locallygeneratedwords,loanwords,localabbreviationsandsomestandard

wordswithextendedmeaning.

Tomaintain language standards, somescholarshaveproposeddialectwords

integrationprinciples,makinguseofFergusons theoryof Diglossia(1959).They

believe that formaluse of language shouldbebased on the standard language as

definedby the Central government, which accommodates only a relatively small

numberofdialectwords.


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Thisresearchaimstounderstandtheuseof localdialectwords inHongKong

written Chinese. Dialect words are collected from a local newspaper to form a

databasewhichcanbestudiedonfouraxes:(1)theoccupationaldomainswherethe

wordsareused;(2)thedifferentfunctionsofthewords inthetext;(3)thedifferent

rolesthewordsplayinasentence;and(4)theoriginsofthewords.Interviewswere

conductedwithexperiencedjournaliststoprovidefurtherdata.

Itwas found that there isnocorrelationbetweendialectwordsusageand the

degreeof formalityofdifferent sectionsof thenewspaper.However,dialectwords

arenotused inanarbitrarymanner.Therationale for theusage isexplored in two

ways: language attitudes of thejournalists and thepracticalmotives of achieving

differentcommunicativegoals.


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1

DECLARATIONS

I declare that this thesis represents my own work, except where due

acknowledgementismade,andthatithasnotbeenpreviouslyincludedinathesis,

dissertationorreportsubmitted to thisUniversityor toanyother institution fora

degree,diplomaorotherqualifications.

__________________________________________15thJune2006


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CONTENT

DeclarationsAcknowledgementsContentListofTablesandCharts

CHAPTER

I

INTRODUCTION

TO

THE

RESEARCH

ISSUE

1.1TheResearchBackground (Page9)

1.2TheResearchIssue(Page12)

CHAPTERIILITERATUREREVIEW

2.1TheLanguageQuestionintheWrittenLanguageinHongKong(Page13)

2.2TheCharacteristics andEvaluationsof theLanguageUsed in theHongKong

MassMedia(Page15)

2.2.1TheOverview:ThePrevalenceofDialectWords(Page15)

2.2.2The

Language

Styles

of

Different

Types

of

Mass

Media

(Page

18)

2.2.3 TheWordsAppearing in theMassMedia are Influential to Language

Learners(Page20)

2.3TheReason for thePrevalenceofLocalDialectWords intheWrittenLanguage

(Page21)

2.4TheAcademicResearchandProposalsinStandardizingtheWrittenLanguagein

HongKong(Page23)


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2.4.1TheUrgeforStandardizationResearchforWrittenLanguage(Page23)

2.4.2ThePrinciplesProposedbyHongKongLinguists(Page25)

2.4.3TheIntegratingProgressofYueDialectWordsintheStandardLanguage

andtheWorkingFocusintheFuture(Page28)

2.5 Arguments Against the Integration of Yue DialectWords into the Standard

Language(Page30)

CHAPTERIIITHERESEARCH

3.1TheScopeoftheResearch(Page32)

3.2TheBasisandAimoftheResearch(Page33)

3.3TheHypothesis(Page35)

3.4TheMethodologyoftheResearch(Page36)

3.4.1ResearchMaterials(Page36)

3.4.2CreatingaDatabasewithFourDimensionswithLocalDialectWordsfrom

aNewspaper(Page37)

3.4.3InterviewingFiveExperiencedJournalists(Page41)

CHAPTERIVFINDINGSANDDISCUSSION

4.1OverviewoftheFindingsintheNewspaperStudy(Page42)

4.2TheResultsofSortingWordDatawiththeFourAxes(Page44)

4.3GeneralFeaturesand InternalDifferencesbetween theLocalDialectWords in

EachSampleSection(Page46)

4.3.1 General Features and Internal Differences of Local DialectWords on

ImportantNewsandLocalNews(SectionAPileI)(Page46)


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ChinaNewsandInternationalNews(SectionAPileII)(Page51)

4.3.3GeneralFeaturesand InternalDifferencesofLocalDialectWordsof the

samplesectiononFinancialnewsandPropertynews(SectionB)(Page55)


EntertainmentNews(SectionD)(Page59)

4.3.5GeneralFeaturesandInternalDifferencesofLocalDialectWordsonLife

SupplementaryFeatures(SectionE)(Page63)

4.3.6GeneralFeaturesand InternalDifferencesofLocalDialectWords in the

samplesectiononEducationalnews(SectionF)(Page67)


SportsNews(SectionS)(Page71)

4.4Jusitifications for the InternalDifferenceswithin theLocalDialectWordData

andtheReasonsfortheIntegration(Page75)

4.4.1MotivesforJournaliststoIntegrateLocalDialectWordsintotheChinese

WrittenLanguage(Page78)

4.4.1.1 The Insufficiency of the Present Principles for Dialect Word

Integration

4.4.1.2UsingDialectWordstoDemonstrateReality

4.4.1.3UsingDialectWordstoActasaRhetoricalMeansofExpression

4.4.1.4UsingDialectWordstoAppealtoLocalReaders

4.4.1.5UsingDialectWordstoCreateanIconofHongKongsIdentity

4.4.1.6 Using Dialect Words to Enhance Readers Comprehension

Efficiency

4.4.2ConsciousApplicationofLocalDialectWords(Page88)


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CHAPTERVTHECONCLUSION

5.1TheResultoftheResearch(Page91)

5.2TowardsPrincipleSettingforLanguageStandardizationinHongKong(Page92)

AppendixA:TheFullListofNewspaperStudyResults(Page95)AppendixB:TheListofLocalDialectWordsSortedByTheirSources(Page109)AppendixC:TheListofLocalDialectWordsSortedByTheirGrammaticalFunctions(Page117)AppendixD:TheListofLocalDialectWordsSortedBytheWordOrigins(Page126)Bibliography(Page136)ResearchMaterial:Thesamplepagesstudiedinthenewspaperstudy(Page140)


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LISTOFTABLESANDCHARTS

TABLES

Table1:Thecoding,themaincontentandsizeofeachsamplesection.

Table2:Theoverallresultofthenewspaperstudy.

CHARTS

Figure1:Piechartshowingtheproportionoflocaldialectwordsfoundineach

samplesection.

Figure2:Piechartshowingtheproportionoflocaldialectwordsfoundwith

differentsourcesoftextfunctions.


differentgrammaticalfunctions.

Figure4:Piechartshowingtheproportionoflocaldialectwordsfoundindifferent

origins.

Figure5:Columnchartshowingthegeneralfeaturesandinternalcharacteristicsin

thesamplesectiononImportantnewsandLocalnews(SectionAPileI).


thesamplesectiononChinanewsandInternationalnews(SectionAPileII).


thesamplesectiononFinancialnewsandPropertynews(SectionB).


thesamplesectiononLocalandOverseasEntertainmentnews(SectionD).


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thesamplesectiononSupplementaryLifefeatures(SectionE).


thesamplesectiononEducationalnews(SectionF).


thesamplesectiononSportnews(SectionS).

Figure12:Horizontalaccumulativebarchartshowingthepercentageproportionof

dialectwordsusedindifferenttextsourcesofeachsamplesection.


dialectwordsusedindifferentgrammaticalfunctionsofeachsamplesection.


dialectwordsusedindifferentoriginsofeachsamplesection.


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CHAPTERI

INTRODUCTIONTOTHERESEARCHISSUE

1.1THERESEARCHBACKGROUND

SinceModernWrittenChinesewasadopted in the1950s,the languageof

northernChinabasedontheBeijingdialecthasbecamethecommon languageof

mainland China. Basically, all thewords licensedby the standard language are

limited to theonesexisting in thewritten languageof theMayForthwriters. It

excludesdialectwordsinthestandardizationprocess.1

Inthelastfewdecades,Chinahasgonethroughaneraoftremendouspolitical,

economical and cultural development. The language measures are generally

loosened. 2 Chinese linguists and lexicologists who work on language

standardization have switched their focus to firstly, enhancing the flexibility and

accommodatingabilityof the standard language; secondly,makingcomputational

dictionariesandmachine translators, inorder tocatchupwithaneraof intensive

generation ofnewwords. In the 2005 edition of theChinesedictionary Xiandai

Hanyu Cidian editedby Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan Yuyan

Yanjiu suo ()which hasbeen one of the authoritative

piecesof literature,has introducedover6,000newwords into thedictionary,over

1(2002)2(2005)


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onethirdofwhichoriginatedfromtheYueregion.3

Chinesecitiesandprovincesalongthesoutheastcoast,especiallyYueprovince,

havebeen flourishingwith cultural development.With increasing vitality,Hong

Kong isespecially influential invariousaspectof life.Sincethe1980s,someHong

Kongdialectwords(mostofwhicharetraditionalYuedialectwordsandloanwords)

havebeengraduallyacceptedbypeopleinmainlandChinaasapartoftheirword

use.4

In contrast, the language standard and language proficiency is criticized

extensively in Hong Kong.5 The use of Yue dialect words and its grammatical

collocations hasbecome a controversial topic.Academic research hasbeen done

with an open attitude in studying the language use in the mass media6. The

standpoints are fairly onesided. Hong Kong educational linguists have closely

studied the principles and guidance of dialectal word use in Chinese language

teaching7.Principlesproposedaredynamicaccordingtothedifferentwordorigins.

Theircommongroundliesinconsideringthefrequencyofappearanceofthewords

intheformalwrittenlanguages,aswellastherebeingnootherreplaceablewordsin

the standard language. Most of these academic researches apply the theory

3(2005)4(1997)Page2352595Someoftherecentcriticismscanbefoundin (2000) and(2000)6Someacademicresearchesinpositiveattitudecanbefoundin (2000)Page 246261; (1997)Page204212;(1997)Page213228,etc7Variousresearchesareconductedby (2000)

; (1999)Page412423and (2000)


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introducedby Ferguson,CharlesA (1959) Diglossia in that they expect formal

languagesoftheHighVarietiestobebasedontheofficiallanguage.


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1.2THERESEARCHISSUE

Chungwondersifthetheoraticalpredictionsandaspirationsmustberealized.8

While theuseofdialectbyHongKong studentshasbeen thoroughly researched,

this research tries toreveal thepresentphenomena indialectalworduse inHong

Kongmassmedia,anotherinfluentiallocalworduserandproducer.Localdialectal

wordsaredeliberatelyusedincertainhighvarietiesandlowvarietiesinevery

sectionsofa localnewspaper.Also, the studymay shed lighton the realmotives

behindthewordusesoastofigureoutthereasonsforitsconservativeresistanceto

thetotaladoptionofthestandardlanguage.

8(2000)


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CHAPTERII

LITERATUREREVIEW

Thissectionreviewsrecentacademicfindingsinfiveaspects.Itsummarizes(1)

the language question in the written language in Hong Kong; (2) the general

characteristics and evaluations of the language usedby themassmedia (3) the

reason for the prevalence of local dialectwords in thewritten language; (4) the

academicresearch

and

proposals

in

standardizing

the

written

language

in

Hong

Kong; and (5) arguments against the integration of Yue dialect words into the

standardlanguage.

2.1THELANGUAGEQUESTION INTHEWRITTEN

LANGUAGEIN

HONG

KONG

AcontroversialHongKong languagequestionwasseriouslydiscussed in the

1997ChineseLanguageConference thatCantonesedialectwordswere integrating

into the standardwritten language inHongKong. The twoChinese languagees

varietiesseemtobemutuallyinfluencingeachother.

The opening speech9 of thementioned conference summarized that though

ModernStandardChineseisrecognizedastheframeofreferenceinlanguageuse,it

lackswords representing local concepts andnew ideas.While the senseofHong

9(1997)Page15


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Kongs identitywasgrowingafter the1967 riots,peoplevalued theirownculture

insteadoffollowing the imposedstandard.Moreover,HongKongwasenjoying

itssuperior internationalstatuseconomically,sociallyandculturally.Foreign ideas

andadvancedconceptswererapidlyimportedintoHongKongwithintheregionof

Chinesesocieties.Thesesituationsdemandednewwords.Apositiveviewisstated

thatlanguageisalwaysundergoingevolutionasitdoesthroughoutitsdevelopment.

Hongsupportedthisviewintheconferencebyprovingtheintegrationofthedialect

wordsinthestandardlanguageasaninevitablefact. 10

10(1997)Page235259


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2.2 THE CHARACTERISTICS AND EVALUATIONS

OF THE LANGUAGEUSED IN THEHONG KONG

MASSMEDIA

2.2.1TheOverview:ThePrevalenceofDialectWords

AnoverviewstudyoflanguageuseinthemassmediawascarriedoutbyNgin

200011.HongKongsmassmedialikestousecolloquiallanguageinformalarticles,

phrases and words, localized foreign terms, numbers, abbreviations and

homonymicwords in theirpublications.These languages are found tobe highly

expressiveand fullofvarieties to suit themarket interests.Thewriterappeals to

editors to reinforce the accuracy as students are always learning from themass

media.

Cantonese words are frequently seen in major types of formal written

languages inHongKong. Thebook ContrastingHongKongChineseLanguage

(translated)12

states

it

is

an

undeniable

fact

that

Hong

Kong

Chinese has already become the formal written language in this society. This

aggressiveviewpredicts thepresentprinciples in the standard languagemaybe

overthrown later.Wordexamples from importantnews reports (hardnews)are

quoted from Singdao Daily issued from 2003 to 2004 while this newspaper

11(2000) Page24626112(2006)


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publisherhasupheld theuseof standard language strictly.Readers shouldknow

about thedifferencesofworduse inCantoneseand thestandard language.Hong

Kongpeople need to communicate correctly and efficientlywithpeople in other

societies.

InthechapterentitledWrittenCantoneseinModernHongKongofthebook

CantoneseasWrittenLanguage(2004)13,DonSnowdescribes thehighdegreeof

socialacceptanceofCantonesewriting(partly,oreveninthewholetext)nowadays.

It isevenacceptedbypeople inacademicfields.WrittenCantoneseappears inthe

mass media including advertisements, magazines, newspapers, paperbacks and

comicbooks.Thewriterproves its significant role inHongKong society.Written

Cantonesetextsarenotonlyappearinginlowvarietylanguagesonly,butalsoare

associatedwithtextinhighvarietiessespeciallyinlighttopics.

Thepopularity ofusing localdialectwords in themassmedia is shownby

Chan14.Samplesoflocaldialectwordsarefoundfromthesoftnewssections,even

inhardnewssectionsinlocalnewspapers,inadvertisements,popsonglyricsand

comics. Local dialect words are proved to be significant in the Hong Kong

community.They are featuredby the flexibleuse ofparts of speech,presence of

affixes,newlycreatedmonosyllabicverbs, transliteratedandadaptedoralsounds,

loanwordsfromothersocieties,etc.Chanacceptsthepresenceofdialectwords in

thelowvarieties,butshecriticizesthepresenceoftheminhighvarietiesbeforethe

dialectwordscouldbegenerallyknowntoChinesesocieties.

13 Snow,DonB.(2004)CantoneseasWrittenLanguage,WrittenCantoneseinModernHongKong,HongKong:HongKong

University

Press.

Page

125

174

14(1997)Page274281


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AfocusstudyofHongKongloanwordswasperformedin2001.15 Itcompared

the differences in loan words used in Hong Kong and mainland China. The

characteristicsofloanwordsusedinHongKongaresummarizedandthepositive

andnegativeimpactsofsuchwordusewererevealed.Theloanwordssuggestthe

high status of foreign cultures inHongKong. Besides, the postcolonial culture,

prestigiouseconomyandeducationsystemcreated in thecolonialeraaffected the

useofwords.Loanwordsareintegratedinwrittenarticles.

Loanwords inHongKong are firstly introducedby themassmedia16. The

majorityoftheloanwordsaretransliteratedorborroweddirectlyfromalphabetical

wordsinsteadoftranslatedbyparaphrasing.Itservestheaimofkeepingpacewith

the fast information circulation. 17 The words will undergo a process of

specializationsuchthatthemeaningoftheoriginalwordislocalized.Itmeanssome

wordskeeppartoftheoriginalmeaningwhilesomewordmeaningsareextended

locally. Based on the loanwords, some newwords havebeen generatedby the

mediatoo.

15(2001)2000:3,Page31216(2001)2000:3,Page31217(2004)


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2.2.2TheLanguageStylesofDifferentTypesofMassMedia

Focusedresearchon theuseofdialectwords ineach typeof themassmedia

hasbeencarriedout.

Languageproficiencyofnewspapers inHongKong,mainlandChina,Taiwan

and Singaporewas graded in 1997.18 The grading criterionwas the frequency of

dialectalwordsand communitywordsused.HongKongnewspaperspossess the

highest frequency of local dialect words. The cause of the phenomenon was

discussed.Thewriterurgedforalanguagereforminlanguagebeingusedinformal

occasions.

The style ofHong Kong advertisements languagewas studied.19Word use

was especially analyzed. Locally generated words were characterized by their

ability to reflect and reconstruct the value system of the generalpublic. Some of

these words were generated based on Cantonese words. The fabrication is not

restrictedbyanypartofspeechandmanysemanticagreementsofcommendatory

andderogatoryuseofaword.Insomesentences,grammar issedulouslyviolated

forthesakeofcommercialpromotions.

HongKongcomic languagehasbeenstudied20.Theirdialectalwordusewas

discussed. Comic language preserves a style of traditional Chinese novels by

18(1997)Page20421219(1997)

Page21322820(1997)Page239252


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keepinga lotof idiomaticphrases, foursyllablewordsand theclassical language

whichgivesasenseofwrittenlanguage.Besides,Cantonesewords,slapstick,triad

society language and foul language are also widely used inHong Kong comic

books.


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2.2.3TheWordsAppearingintheMassMediaareInfluentialto

LanguageLearners

Inaresearchof localdialectwordsused instudentcompositions21, theresult

wasnotconvincing thatHongKong studentscompositionsaremuchaffectedby

Cantonesedialectwords,especiallyinprimarystudentswork.Inthesameaspect,it

was discovered that students performance deteriorated as they progressed to

secondaryschool.Bycomparingtheworkdonebysecondarystudentsandprimary

students,itrevealsthattheirreadinghabitsandtheknowledgeareamayaffecttheir

performance.Wordsused in themassmedia are found tobe very influential on

teenagers.Inreality,thewordsimpactalsoonlocalChineseteachersinthattheyare

sometimes incompetent in identifying dialectwordswhen thewords repeatedly

appearinformalwrittenlanguage.

Whethertheuseofdialectwordslowersthelanguageproficiencyofuniversity

studentswasrevealedbyotherresearchbyYeung22.Universitystudentscanobtain

the ability to distinguishbetween Cantonesewords and the standard language

words. However, university students deliberately do not follow the standard

language.Universitygraduatesdonotadmit that this isaphenomenon involving

the lowering of Chinese language proficiency. The article supports the fact that

Cantonesedialectwordscanenlightenideaexpressionbuttheyshouldbeawareof

theirtargetreaderstomakesurethelanguageservesthedesiredaim.

21(2000)22(1999)Page412423


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2.3THEREASONFORTHEPREVALENCEOFLOCAL

DIALECTWORDSINTHEWRITTENLANGUAGE

Dialectwordsthathavebeenintegratedintothestandardlanguagehavebeen

studied. 23 Theyarewords representing local ideasandnewobjects.Thereareno

replaceable options found in the standard language and are distinct by their

expressiveness.However, caseswhere some localwords are integrated into the

standardlanguagewithoutaconvincingreasonarealsofound.

Tin (2005)24 explains the deviations inHong Kongwritten language.Hong

Kong possesses a specific historical background and economic status in the

geographical region. The language naturally has features deeply influenced by

English andJapanese language, traditionalYuedialectwords, ancientwords and

community words. A lot of transliterated words are used to represent various

importedconceptsandadvanced inventions.Thenew loanwordsare likely tobe

useddirectlyintheformofLatinletters.Theyarelocalizedandmodifiedfromtime

totimeandintegratedintothestandardlanguageinthefinalstage.

Inthesamearticle,TinfurtherexplainsHongKongcommunitywords,aswell

as the way of generating words and phrases, show regional distinctiveness.

Homophonouscharactersareborrowedfromthestandardlanguagetransliterating

Cantonese sounds. Some characters, even using parts of the Latin alphabet, are

23(1997)Page23525924(2005)2005:12


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generated to represent other Yue dialect sounds. Some words in the classical

languageare leftbehind in thedialect.These featuresareclosely related toHong

Kongscultural lifeand the languageenvironment inHongKong (proved inTins

1989work25 and2002work26).Politicalmeasures,economicdevelopment,education

reform,technologyandsociallifegenerateandenrichlocaldialectwords.Therefore,

Tinadoptsanopenattitudetowardsdialectwords(especiallythelocallygenerated

ones)butstandardglossary listsareneeded for thesakeofmutualunderstanding

betweenChinesesocieties.

25(1989)26(2004)


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2.4 THEACADEMICRESEARCHAND PROPOSALS

IN STANDARDIZING THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE

INHONGKONG

2.4.1 The Urge for Standardization Research for Written

Language

AfterpointingoutthepredominantstyleofwrittenChineselanguageinHong

Kong,bothMiu27 andHong28 agree although the languages variety has its own

featuresinworduse,thebasicstructureisclosetothestandardone.Theypropose

that a tailoredwriting standard shouldbemade forHongKong society.A case

studyofquantifiers29 findshowmeasuringunitsdifferinHongKong,mainland

ChinaandTaiwanwithoutapropercontrol.Astandardisneededtoeliminateany

misunderstandingsespeciallyinproperactivities.Thisisthereasonforlinguiststo

urgeforthehighesteffortstogiveanaccountofandguidelinesforahealthylexical

development:keepingthelivelinessofthestandardlanguagewithoutdamagingthe

communicativefunctionofthelanguage.

Another article byWong30 shows the demand of intervention measures to

27(1997)Page768228(1997)Page23525929(1997)Page28228630(1997) 1997


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controlunhealthy integration.Asamatterof fact,HongKongpeopleare loyal to

Cantonese,yettheyhavetoadoptthesocialnormofusingthestandardlanguagein

workandstudy.Luckily,Wongs1995work31 proves thatpeopleofotherChinese

provinces favourCantonesedue toHongKongs leadingprosperity status.Hong

KongpeoplemaywanttopreservetheiruniqueidentitybyusingCantonese,their

dialect.The social factor indirectlypromotesmerging of localHongKongwords

intothestandardlanguage.

TheconceptofHongKongChinese isproposed.32 Thewritten language in

HongKonghasthedistinctivestyleofprofoundabsorptionof localdialectwords,

phrasesandEnglish(andotherforeignlanguages)inthehighvarieties.Thelack

of languagepolicyandstandardizationwork inHongKong iscriticized.Teachers

andstudentsarenotprovidedwithanyreferencetochecktheaccuracyofworduse.

ThereisnoonetryingtodevelopacorrectlanguageconceptfortheHongKong

standard language.Lee33 alsohasasimilarpointofview.Hehasdonea research

basingonChinesehistoricalandlexicographicalworkstoprovehispoint.

Page9910431(1992)32(1997)

Page16917433(1997)Page147155


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2.4.2ThePrinciplesProposedbyHongKongLinguists

Actually,someworkhasbeendonebyChineselinguistsinHongKong.Tsang

publishedabookin2002providingalistforcrossreferencingbetweenlocaldialect

words(mainlytraditionalYuedialectwords)andoralPutonghuawords.Itrecords

14,000Cantoneseterms.34 Thewordsarefurtherclassifiedaccordingtothedegree

ofoccurrenceinthestandardlanguage.TypeIisagroupofancientwordswhichis

notused

in

both

written

and

oral

language.

Type

II

is

agroup

of

words

that

is

seldom used in Putonghua but frequently appears in Cantonese. Most are

monosyllabic. Type III refers to dialect words that also appear in the standard

language.Thisview issimilar to the integrationprinciplesproposedbyLee35.Lee

stresses his requirement of checking the activeness of ancientwords and dialect

words.Nevertheless,thisshowslinguistshavebeenconsciousofthetopicofdialect

wordsintegration.

Inhisarticlepublishedin199336,Leeproposedthreeprinciplesforintegration

of dialect words into the written language: the frequency of the dialect word

appearing in the standard language; the general demand for theword in that it

givesaspecific

meaning;

and

the

meaning

explicitness

of

the

word.

In

short,

a

populardialectwordwhichhasaspecificmeaning(orexplicitassociativemeaning)

isqualifiedtobeintegratedwiththestandardlanguageforeffectivecommunication.

34(2002)35(1993)page3942and (1993)

page434636(1993)page4751


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Thisargumentiselaborateduponinhis1989work37.Themainpointis,inlicensing

the use of dialect words in the standard language, people should check if the

extendedmeaningormetaphoricmeaningisexplicit.

In200038,theseprincipleswereappliedtojustifythequalityofusingCantonese

words inwrittenlanguage(inwhichwordsareextractedrandomlyfromthemass

mediaincludingnewspapersandmagazines.)Expressivedialectwordsareproved

tobeable toenhance thecommunicative functionof thestandard language itself,

butfurtherstandardizationworkisneededtomaintainlanguageproficiency.

TheChinese linguistTinSiulamhasdone thorough researchonHongKong

popularwords since the 1980s tillnow. In 1993, she suggested anew concept of

communitywords39. In short, communityword refers to the group ofwords

that is only used in a particular society. The words reflect a districts culture

especially politics, economy and other life aspects.Deliberate use of community

wordsshowsthegrowthofcitizenidentity.Itdiffersfromtraditionaldialectwords

in that theyarenot subjected toachangeof formwhen leaving thearea.Mutual

influencesmaytakeplacebetweencommunitywordsfromdifferentsocietiesfrom

time to time. She elaborates40bydistinguishing communitywords from classical

words,traditionaldialectalwordsandloanwords.

From theclose relationshipbetweenwordsandHongKongcultural life,Tin

37(1989)

Page889538(2000)

Page121839 (1993)40 (1997)


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setsout the rules for languagestandardizationby includingcommunitywords in

thestandardlanguage.TindefinesCantonesewords41bothinanarrowersenseand

abroadersense.Thenarrowersenserefers to termswheretheirmeaningsreferto

particularphenomena inHongKongwhile thebroader sense refers toCantonese

words which have a higher potention incorporate into the Chinese common

language.

Lacking a strong language policy, the burden of setting and adjusting

standardizationprinciples is loweredonto theshouldersofHongKongeducators.

There are articles discussing the difficulties teachers encounter in upholding the

principlesofthestandardlanguage.

Educational linguist Chung Lingsung42 studied the attitude ofHong Kong

Chinese language teachers in treating local dialect words in compositions. The

articlepublished in1993 findsout that languageteachersarewilling toaccept the

dialectwords toacertainextent.Widelyusednounsand transliteratedwordsare

mostlyaccepted.The2000thesis43 summarizesthreebasicrequirementsforteachers,

withalistofselectionrequirementsforlicensingCantonesewordstobeusedin

writtenlanguage.Amuchclearerprincipleorguidelineisneededtocatchupwith

thetrendofwordchanginginHongKong.

LanguagestandardizationworksofModernStandardChineseisstillgoingon

under strong governmental support. 44 The statisitics of word use frequency is

41(2004) 42(1993)

1993:34

43(2000)44(1997) 1997


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alwaysusedasoneofthestandardforwordlicensing.Themethodisintroduced

byChan45.Hegrantedlicensesforsomenewlygeneratedidiomswhicharebuilt

from loan words in Hong Kong, Taiwan and other Chinese societies. This also

suggestsatypeofintegrationprinciple.

2.4.3 The Integrating Progress of Yue Dialect Words in the

StandardLanguageandtheWorkingFocusintheFuture

TheintegratingprogressofYuedialectwordsinthestandardlanguagestarted

from the 1980s, and has persistently increased in the 90s till now.The article A

QuantitativeAnalysisoftheLexicalDistributionindifferentChineseCommunities

in the 1990s46 describes theworduse landscapebasedon the extensiveChinese

Corpus()builtbytheHongKongPolytechnicUniversity,containing

over5millionChinesecharacters.Similaritiesandthevarietiesincommunityword

useof importantcitiesofmainlandChina,TaiwanandHongKongarecompared.

Theresearchisquantitative.Bytheconcordanceofthecorpusanditscorresponding

analysis,theconclusionsareobjectivelypresented.Basicwordsarefoundtobethe

sameinthesesocieties,butwordswhichareonlyusedinoneorafewsocietiesare

alsolistedanddiscussed.

Alatterstudy(1997)47 provesmutualabsorptionsandadaptations incandesce

Page81445(2001)46(1999)1999:3,Page101847(1997)Page5158


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29

as timepasses.BothcommunitywordsandtraditionalYuedialectwordsare

gradually integrating into the standard language. However, the reason for the

integrationhaschanged.Theimportanceofeconomicstatus,entertainmentbusiness

and cultural phenomena spread by the mass media outweigh political and

educationalenforcement.Localdialectwords fromHongKongalwayscarrynew

conceptsandlivelyideas;readersinmainlandChinacouldeasilyacceptavarietyof

newwords andYuedialectwords thatdescribe theparticular condition inHong

Kong. On the other hand, this creates problems for any Chinese who are

unconnected toHongKong tocomprehendwordswithmodifiedmeaningby the

HongKongmassmedia.48

Benefiting from information technologydevelopment, several important and

professionalcorpuseshavebeendevelopedbytheleadinguniversitiesinChinalike

BeijingUniversityandQinghuaUniversity.Withdifferentfociincludingsemantics,

translation, grammar and statistics onword use frequencies,much research has

been done. To eliminate and include dialectal words in themature corpuses is

alwaysoneofthekeyfociinthediscussionprocess.Theplatformprovidesatoolfor

quickanalysisandintegrationofusefulwordsinthefuture.

48(2006)


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2.5ARGUMENTSAGAINSTTHEINTEGRATIONOF

YUE DIALECT WORDS INTO THE STANDARD

LANGUAGE

Hong49 givesexamplesfromdifferentoccupationalfieldsofdialectwordsthat

havebeenincludedintomodernChinesecorpusesalready.Fromthelexicographers

pointof

view,

intense

arguments

from

the

supporters

and

the

opponents

are

listed.

The topic isverycontroversial that thediscussionsareespeciallykeen.Theuseof

loanwordsand letterwordsshouldbebasedonwordusefrequencies,popularity

and expressiveness. The discussion revealed that there is a large amount of

transliteratedwords inthewritten language.Mostresearchersblame theoverflow

of loan words and letter words since there are not enough explanations and

researchesdone.Theythinkthatsufferersarethelanguagelearners.

Chow50 contraststheworduseinmainlandChinaandHongKongandpoints

out the inappropriateness of direct adaptations of dialect words in Putonghua

teaching. The cited arguments aremainly predicates and functionalwords since

theyare

especially

contrastive.

As

amatter

of

fact,

the

words

show

cultural

differences of the two places no matter whether in terms of weather, clothes,

transportation or eating habits. For language learners, they need to grasp the

culturaldifferencestohandlethewordswell.Theroleoftheteachersistoannotate

activewords inHongKong, touphold thosestillalignedwithChinese traditions,

49(1997)

Page23525950(2000)Page246261


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andtoavoidwordswhichonlydescribethenationalconditionsinmainlandChina.

Leung51 arrived at the same conclusion by contrasting the word senses of the

standard language. She suggests themedium of instruction ofChinese language

shouldbechangedtoPutonghuatoalleviatetheunpleasantfactofdialectword

intervention.

51(1997)Page423431


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32

CHAPTERIII

THERESEACH

3.1THESCOPEOFTHERESEARCH

AstheleadingfinancialcityoftheZhujiangDelta,HongKonghasbeenvery

influentialfor

the

region

in

the

recent

couple

of

decades.

Her

language

is

not

an

exception.The research topicconcentratesonHongKongdialectwordsand their

integrationintothestandardwrittenlanguage,ModernStandardChinese.

Within the literature, there are two main senses in defining Yue Dialect

Words.Inanarrowersense,itreferstotheorallanguagewordsinGuangzhou.Ina

broadersense,itreferstowordsthatarewidelyusedbutregionallyconfinedwithin

Yueprovince.The researchadopts the latterdefinition, inorder to figureout the

relationshipbetweenthedialectwordsandtheeaseofintegrationintothestandard

written language. It proposes that internal differencebetween different types of

dialectwordsmaygivetheclue.


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3.2THEBASISANDAIMOFTHERESEARCH

The language dilemma in Hong Kongs written language is clear: while

ModernStandardChineseisregardedasthestandardlanguageinmainlandChina,

written language in Hong Kong is expected to follow the standard language

especially in formal publishing.However, the literature reveals that thewritten

languageinHongKongisaffectedbyotherfactors.Moreimportantly,HongKong

needsthisparticularstyleoflanguage,HongKongChinese,indifferentaspects

oflife.Scholarsareaskingforalocalizedlanguagestandard(inastrictersense)or

anintegrationprinciple(inamoreopensense)astheModernStandardChinese,

inordertomaintainthelanguageproficiencyandefficiencyforHongKongsociety.

OneofthemarkedstylesofHongKongwrittenlanguageisitsworduse.The

use ofnonstandardwords is controversial. It includes theuseof traditionalYue

dialect words, locally generated words, loan words (including letter words,

transliterated words and paraphrased translations), non standardized local

abbreviations by combining two associated words randomly, and some

abnormalways in using the standardwords. Inmost cases, they are used as

differentpartsof speechwithextendedmetamorphicoranalogicalmeaning from

the root.Thedegreeof tolerancevaries towardsdifferentoriginsofnonstandard

word use, different occupational disciplines, different functions of the text, and

differentrolesitplaysinasentence.

The aim of the research is to reveal the present phenomena of local dialect

word integration in the standardwritten language inHongKong. It is going to


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justifythedegreeofdialectwordstolerance,toexplorethemotiveofusingdialect

wordsandreasonsforHongKongpeopletoresistthetotaladoptionofthestandard

language.Hence,thefindingscanbehelpfulforthelocallanguagestandardization

work.


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3.3THEHYPOTHESIS

While journalists are conscious of their language use as a part of their

professionalism,limitedlocaldialectwordsuseisexpected.It isassumedthatYue

dialectwordshavebeenintegratedintothevariouswrittencontexts.Thehypothesis

isthatthefrequencyoflocaldialectsdecreaseswiththeseriousnessofthenatureof

thenews.


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3.4THEMETHODOLOGYOFTHERESEARCH

3.4.1ResearchMaterials

Takingadvantageofthethrivingadvancementof information technology,the

efficiencyofinformationspreadinghasgreatlyincreased.Thelanguageusedinthe

massmediareacheseverysocialstratumandeveryonewhoiswillingtobrowsethe

internet.Manywordusephenomenaarefirstlyintroducedbythemassmediathat

theyaredescribedasthelanguagedemonstrator ithasbeensaidthatlanguage

learners should read newspapers for language improvement.Journalists seem to

pocess every right to use words in every way and to loan words from other

languages.Theyareevenwordcreators.Languageappearinginlocalnewspapers

is very abundant, practical, sticking to life, and very lively which qualifies as

materialforundertakingresearchintowords.Journalistshelpisalsoneededforthe

explanationandjustificationofthelocalworduse.

Among themiscellaneous news providers, newspaper publishers can easily

buildanimageofseriousnessandprofessionalisminjournalism,bykeepinganeye

ontheupholdingoftheuseofthestandardlanguage.TheSingdaoDailyisatypical

example. Thismakes the newspaper suitable for the study of the dialect word

integration issue. Besides, five experiencedjournalists, including 3 editors and 2

reporters,areinterviewedtouncoverprinciplesinrefiningtheHongKongwritten

languagebybalancingtheuseofthestandardlanguageaswellasthedialectwords.


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3.4.2 Creating a Database with Four Dimensions with Local

DialectWordsfromaNewspaper

The chosenHongKong newspaper is the SingdaoDaily issued on 27th

April2006.Localdialectwordsareextractedfromthissamplenewspapertoform

ONEdatabase. In thestudy, thedatabase issorted four timesaccording to four

differentaxes: (1)occupationaldisciplineswhere thedialectwordsareused; (2)

different

functions

of

the

dialect

words

in

the

text;

(3)

different

roles

the

dialect

wordplaysinasentence;and(4)theoriginsofthedialectword.

Toensure thesamplenewspaper reflects the recent languagedevelopment,a

newspaper issued on 27th April 2006 is chosen. It is a Thursday and a normal

workingday.ThenewspaperreportsnewsfromatypicalroutinelifeofHongKong

society.

LanguageusedintheSingdaoDailynewspaperiswidelyrecognizedasabove

average 52 by linguists, scholars and literary authors in Hong Kong. The

headquartersoftheSingdaoDailyhasalsoreleasedmemostotheirjournalistsfrom

timeto

time

insisting

on

the

use

of

the

standard

language

53

.Words

that

the

newspaperusesreflectjournalistsprofessionalisminlicensingthetermstobeused

togetherwiththewrittenlanguage.

Thenewspaperincludesseveralsectionswithdifferentreportingfoci:

52Theidea

is

provided

by

(2000),(2006)etc53 ProvidedbyJournalistsAandB


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SectionA(pileI)reportsonimportantnewsandlocalnews. SectionA(pileII)reportsonChinanewsandinternationalnews. SectionBandSectionCreportsonfinancialnewsandpropertynews. SectionDreportsonentertainmentnewsfromlocalandinternationalevents. Section E is the supplement of the newspaper which shows features from

differentaspectsoflife.

Section F reports on local educational news, including pages for studentreaders.

SectionHreportsonnewsfromlocalhorseraces. SectionSreportsonlocalandinternationalsportsnews.Inadditiontothesesections,therearetwoseparatesupplementarysections,which

containthefeaturedtopics,withallcontentsprovidedbyspecificbusinessfirms

oneisaneducationalfirmandtheotherisafinancialfirm.Inthestudy,dialectword

samplesaretakenfromeverysectionofthenewspaper,excludingthreesections.In

order to maintain the validity of the samples, the mentioned two separate

supplementary sections and Section H are eliminated for the language used is

generallynotcensoredbythejournalistsoftheSingdaoDaily.54

Inviewofthedifferenceinnumberofpagesineachsection,thesamplesizeof

eachsectionisfurtheradjustedbymaximizingthenumberofpagesineachsection

uptotenpages.Table1belowshowsthedetailsofthestudysamplesize.

NameoftheNewspaper:SingdaoDaily

Datedon27thApril2006

54 ProvidedbyJournalistsAandB


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39

Sections MainContentoftheNewsSection TotalNumber of

SamplePages

SectionA(pileI) ImportantnewsandLocalnews 10pages

SectionA(pileII) ChinanewsandInternationalnews 6pages

SectionBand

SectionC

FinancialnewsandPropertynews 10pages

SectionD Entertainmentnews 10pages

SectionE SupplementaryLifefeatures 10pages

SectionF Educationalnews 8pages

SectionS Sportsnews 6pages

Table1:Thecoding,themaincontentandsizeofeachsamplesection.

In each of the sample pages, ALL words, including the page headers and

footers,thenameofthenewscolumn,aswellasallthetitles,theleads,thetext,the

captionsforfiguresforthemaincontent,aswellasallwordsintheadvertisement

are closely studied and examined. All words, besides the names of person,

organizationsorbrands,arelookedupintheXiandaiHanyuCidian

(July2005edition)55 publishedby theCommercialPress (Beijing)which is the

latestrepresentationofworduseinModernStandardChinese.Theselectedwords

aredoublecheckedinthe2003CDROMoflistsofCantonesewordsdevelopedby

Tsang Zifan ()56, a linguist who hasbeen studying Cantonesewords for

manyyears.Allwordsthatarenotpresentinthementioneddictionaryarelistedin

thestudyresult.Inthisstudy,theyarenamedandreferredtoasthedialectwords.

EachpresentYuedialectwordislistedandcountedoncepernewssection.

At thisstage,allthesampledata iscollected.Thedatabase isthendeveloped

witha taggingjobaccording to the fouraxesmentioned in the firstparagraph in

55200556 TsangTzefan(2002)


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40

3.4.2.

Inthefirstaxis,theoccupationaldomainswherethedialectwordsareusedare

considered.Allthedialectwordsaresortedaccordingtothesamplesections,which

isdominatedbycertainoccupationaldomainsasmentionedpreviously.Appendix

Ashowsthesortedresults.

In the second axis, different functions of the dialect words in the text are

considered.CollectedwordsaremarkedaccordingtothesourceoftheYuedialect

word. The categories are: The title, the lead and the column names aswords

servingthepurposeofaccouchementandattraction;maintextandthecaptionas

wordsservingasdescriptivepurposeinthatlanguagesareinthethirdpersonand

writtenobjectively;quotedstatementsarewordsthatserveadescriptivepurpose

written in the first person and written subjectively and the category of

advertisement.AppendixBshowsthesortedresults.

In the third axis, different roles the dialect word plays in a sentence are

considered.Thecollectedwordsare categorizedby thematic roles in the sentence

according to their grammatical functions. The categories are subjects/agents,

predicates,adjectivaloradverbialphrasesaswellasfunctionalwords.AppendixC

showsthesortedresults.

Inthefourthaxis,theoriginsofthedialectwordsareconsidered.Thecollected

words are taggedwith theiroriginswith categoriesof locallygeneratedwords

referring to regional confined ideas, nonstandardized abbreviations, loan

words (including letterwords, transliteratedwords and paraphrased translated


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41

wordswhich are locally generated), traditional Yue dialectwords (the narrow

sense of Yue dialect words) and standard words which possess a new local

meaning.

3.4.3InterviewingFiveExperiencedJournalists

Fiveexperiencedjournalists, including reportersandeditors fromHongKong

newspaper companies are interviewed. The newspaper companies chosen are

understood tobeconscientiousandcarefulpublishers57. Individual interviewsare

conducted with questions on principles in dialect words used under their

supervision. Interviewees are also asked tojustify the study result. Theirbasic

informationisasfollows:

1. JournalistA,Editor(DepartmentofSupplementaryLifefeatures),SingdaoDaily,aged47

2. JournalistB,Reporter(DepartmentofLocalnews),SingdaoDaily,aged343. JournalistC,Editor(DepartmentofEducationnews),MingPao,aged514. JournalistD,Editor(DepartmentofEntertainmentnews),WenWeiPo,aged555. JournalistE,Reporter(DepartmentofLocalnews),DaGongbao,aged35

57heideaisprovidedby (2000),(2006)etc


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42

CHAPTERIV

FINDINGSAND

DISCUSSION

4.1 OVERVIEW OF THE FINDINGS IN THE

NEWSPAPERSTUDY

All the localdialectwords collected are shown in the appendices.There are

1,334targetlocaldialectwordsfoundinthesamplesections.Onaverage,thereare

26.7wordsperpage.Theproportionofthedialectwordsfoundfromeachsample

section is then calculated for a clear comparisonwith the average proportion of

14.3%persection.ThefulllistcanbefoundinAppendixA.Thesummarizedfigures

areshowninthefollowingtableandthefigure.

SampleSection No.oflocal

dialectwords

Averageno.oflocal

dialectwords

Proportion

(%)

ImportantnewsandLocalnews

(SectionAPileI)

150words 15wordsperpage 10%

ChinanewsandInternational

news(SectionAPileII)

59words 9.9wordsperpage 7%

FinancialnewsandProperty

news(SectionB)


Entertainmentnews(SectionD) 414words 41.4wordsperpage 29%SupplementaryLifeFeatures

(SectionE)


Educationalnews(SectionF) 135words 16.8wordsperpage 12%

Sportsnews(SectionS) 57words 9.5wordsperpage 7%

Total/Average 1,334words 26.7words/pageThe mean

is14.3%

Table2:Theoverallresultofthenewspaperstudy.


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43

Figure1:Piechartshowing theproportionof localdialectwords found ineach

samplesection.

WiththehelpofwordcounttechnologyandthewebsiteoftheSingdaoDaily58,

it is roughly found that the average number of words per page within the

newspaperwasabout5,000words(awordisdefinedasanitemofvocabulary,nota

character). This sharp ratio proves that the intervention of local dialect words

remainslowthroughoutthenewspaper.

Theresultfromeachsamplesectionvariesdramatically.Thedecreasingorder

ofproportionof thedialectwords towards the sample sectionsareEntertainment

news (Section D) 29%, Financial news and Property news (Section B) 20%,

Supplementary Life features (Section E) 16%, Educational news (Section F) 12%,

ImportantnewsandLocalnews(SectionApileI)10%,andfollowedbyChinanews

andInternationalnews(SectionApileII)7%andSportsnews(SectionS)7%.The

line of themean average cut across at 14.3%,which indicates the former three

sectionshadahigherfrequencyofdialectwords.

58 SingdaoDaily(HongKong), http://singtao.com/,viewedrepeatedlyfrom15thApril,2006to30thMay,2006


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45


differentgrammaticalfunctions.

Figure4:Piechartshowingtheproportionoflocaldialectwordsfoundin

differentorigins.


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46

4.3 GENERAL FEATURES AND INTERNAL

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE LOCAL DIALECT

WORDSINEACHSAMPLESECTION

4.3.1GeneralFeaturesandInternalDifferencesofLocalDialect

WordsonImportantNewsandLocalNews(SectionAPileI)

4.3.1.1BriefDescriptionsoftheSamplesection

Inthesamplesectionabout importantnewsandlocalnews(SectionAPileI),

30columnsofarticlesand10advertisementswerestudied.150dialectwordswere

found.

Togetherwithtwofullpagesofadvertisements,theleadingarticlesreportedon

themajorheadlineof thedayof27thApril2006, the report releasedby theAudit

Commission of the Hong Kong government. The report revealed how several

governmentbodies

were

managing

public

funding

improperly.

Three

full

pages

werededicated to thereportingof,respondingtoanddiscussionofthe topic.The

discussionswere especiallykeenon the criticismofRadioTelevisionHongKong

(RTHK). The other pages reported other important local news on commercial

activitiesinHongKong.


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47

4.3.1.2TheDistinguishableStatisticalFeaturesoftheLocalDialect

WordsinThisSampleSection

Aconsiderableamountofdialectwordswerefoundin thissamplesection.

Theyspreadout invarious typeof text in thesamplesection.Mostof themare

locallygeneratedreferringtoregionalconfinedideas.Theyareusedwithvarious

grammarfunctions.Typicalexamplesare .

Innews reporting, i.e. themost important and controversial issue in society

(whichisakindofhardnews59),thestyleandlanguageusedareexpectedtobe

formal as it reports themost influential news, events and speeches in a serious

manner60.However,againstexpectations, thestudyresultshows theproportionof

localdialectwordswithin thissamplesection isneither toohighnor too low.The

percentage figureof 10% isjustbelow the average line (which is 14%).Pageson

Chinanews,internationalnewsandsportnewspossessamuchlowerproportionof

dialectwordstothissamplesection(consisting7%).(ref.AppendixA)

59(2000)60(1997) 1997 Page814


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48

Figure1:Piechartshowingtheproportionoflocaldialectwordsfoundineach

samplesection

Compared toother sample sections, the localdialectwords arequite evenly

distributed.Thestandarddeviationvalue is roundedup to22.Thismeansdialect

wordsappearinarandommannerinthetitle,articleleads,columnnamesandthe

main text, the captions, quoted statements and even in advertisements. (ref.

AppendixB)

Analyzingtheresultingrammaticalfunctions,thelargestproportion(38%)of

the dialectwords is found tobe subjects or agents in the language expressions.

However, thesignificantamountofpredicates,andadjectivaloradverbialphrases

shouldalsobenoticedastheyoccupyapercentageof28%and29%respectively.(ref.

AppendixC)

With respect to theoriginsofword, thedialectwords in this sample section


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originatefromdifferentaspectsinquiteanevenmanner.Amongthem,wordsthat

arenewlycreatedbysocietyareusuallyreferredtoaslocalconcepts61 andaseries

of traditionalYuedialectwordsdominates.Yet, though only occupying 14%, the

category of standardwordswith locally developedmetaphorical and analogical

meaningpossesses a considerablybig proportionwith reference to other sample

sections.(ref.AppendixD)

61(2000)Page246261


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50

Figure5:Columnchartshowingthegeneralfeaturesandinternalcharacteristics

inthe

sample

section

on

Important

news

and

Local

news

(Section

A

Pile

I).


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51


WordsonChinaNewsandInternationalNews(SectionAPile

II)

4.3.2.1BriefDescriptionoftheSampleSection

InthesamplesectiononChinanewsandinternationalnews(SectionAPileII),

38columnsofarticlesand10advertisementswerestudied.59dialectwordswere

found.

Thesamplesectioncontainsarelativelysmallnumberofpages(includingtwo

fullpages of advertisements). It reflects there isnotmuch importantnews in the

sectionreportedonthatday.ThemaincontentoftheChinapagesreportsonaseries

ofcrimesinmainlandChina.Thefocustopicofthepagesoninternationalnewsand

Taiwannewsfallsontopicsofdiplomacy.


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52


WordsinthisSampleSection

Asmallamountofdialectwordsarefound in thissamplesection.Mostof

thedialectwords are subjects and agents that refer tonon local concepts.The

wordsarefromvariousoriginssuchthatalotofnonstandardabbreviationsand

loanwordareused;thestyleiscongruentwiththerecentlanguagedevelopment

inmainland

China.

Typical

examples

are

As thenews sourcesof thepress releasesand figures areprovidedbynews

agencieslikeXinhuaNewsAgency,CentralNewsAgency(CNA),AssociatedPress

(AP), Agence FrancePresse (AFP) and Reuters, the reported news are selected,

translatedand further integratedby thejournalisttranslators62.Theproportionof

localdialectwordswithinthissamplesectionisoneofthesmallest,consistingof7%

of all the extractedwords.Thedialectwords collected in this sample section are

mainlyfromthepagesonChinanewswhilethewordsaremostlytheterminologies

describingthecrimesparticularlyinChina.(ref.AppendixA)

Themajority (54%)of thedialectwordsareextracted from themain textand

captions. The context hints that there cannot be any statement quoted from

Cantonesespeakers,sotherelativepercentageshouldbeignored.Sincetheaverage

ratioof1:35 is found63 in thewordcountof the title to themain textonanormal

pageofthenewspaper,theratioofdialectwordsappearinginthissectionismarked

62 CombinedideasfromJournalistB,CandD63 CombinedideasfromJournalistAandE


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inthesamplesectiononChinanewsandInternationalnews(SectionAPileII).


58/143


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56

examplesare .

As an international financial centre, theHeng Sang index is an indicator of

Hong Kongs financial performance of the day while the performance of the

propertymarketshowshereconomicperformanceforalongerperiodoftime.The

financialandpropertynewswidelyinterestbothbyHongKongcitizensandpeople

in other neighbouring financial centres, and in the terminology of journalism,

financialnewsisdemarcatedas hardnews64.Thelanguageusedinthesepagesis

supposedtobeformal,seriousandaccessibletothegeneralpublic65.However,the

newspaperdialectwordsstudyrevealsthatthisisnotthecase.

Theproportionoflocaldialectwordswithinthissamplesectionissurprisingly

big such that it occupies about onefifth (21%) of all the samplewords,which is

about 6% above the average line. The frequency of the dialectwordsjust came

second below the entertainment pages. Reading the sample words closely, the

meaningofthemtendtoreflecttheadvancedfinancialconceptsandaredescriptive

inshowingthefluctuationandundulationoftheperformanceofthestockmarket.

(ref.AppendixA)

Dialectwordscollectedaremainlyfromthesourceofthemaintext(whilethe

number of captions is negligiblewithin the sample section) so that it occupies a

threequarterproportion(75%)whichisthehighestamongallthesamplesections.

Contrastingly, thewordsused in theadvertisementswithinthesamplesectionare

mostlyinthestandardlanguagesothatonly25wordsarefound(containing9%of



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57

thesamplesection).Theproportionofdialectwordsfoundinthetitleandthenews

lead isaboutaverage.Thedata isfoundtobeextremeandthestandarddeviation

valueisthehighest(34)ofallthesamplesections.(ref.AppendixB)

Analyzing the result in grammatical functions, the largest proportion of the

dialectwordsliesinadjectivaloradverbialphrases(consistingof41%),followedby

subjectsoragents(consistingof33%)andbypredicates(consistingof21%).Asmall

amount of dialectal functionwords are found in this sample section. Generally

speaking,thedialectwordsappearinvariousgrammaticalfunctionssothatitgives

anaverageappearance.(ref.AppendixC)

Consideringtheoriginoftheextracteddialectwordsinthissamplesection,the

proportion shows thewords are dominatedby certain types of origin.A lot of

traditionalYuedialectwords(consistingof37%),locallycreatedwords(30%),anda

relativelyhighproportionofnonstandardizedlocalabbreviations(17%)exist.(ref.

AppendixD)


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59


Wordson

Entertainment

News

(Section

D)


Inthe

sample

section

on

local

and

overseas

entertainment

news

(Section

D),

47

columns of articles and 7 advertisements were studied. 414 dialectwordswere

found.

Entertainmentnewsisquitediversifiedinthesamplesection.Itreportsonthe

lifeof film stars and singers likepreparing entertainmentproducts,disputes and

public activities. It alsoprovides entertainment information and the schedule for

televisionprogrammes,forexample.Lotsofstatementswerequoteddirectly,with

lots of colourful pictures and tables included to create an image of liveliness

throughoutthewholesamplesection.



Thedialectwordsectionisthelargestamongall.Mostofthemarefoundin

quoted speeches.Most of them are commentary terms originating in the Yue

dialect.Thedialectwordsmainlyplay theroleofdescription inasentenceand


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60

mostareadjectivalandadverbialphrases.

The entertainment news section reports on details of local stars and

entertainmentactivities,aswellasall sortsof informationaboutcelebrities in the

world. The ruling principles forjournalistswhen highlighting the news are the

general interests of the readers. In Hong Kongs situation, there is usually no

masteringfactorinentertainmentnewstosocietydevelopment.Thereportingstyle

and content, including relevant advertisements are reader interest oriented.66 On

theotherhand, thenew focus isable to liftupapopular trend,orevenstirupa

great mass fervour. The language used in the entertainment news section is

supposed tobe informal and able to serve thepurposeof leisure for thegeneral

public.67

The general study result fits the expectation. The proportion of the dialect

wordsisthehighest(consistingof29%)ofallthesamplesections.Itstandsoutby

15% from theaverage line.Reading the samplewordsclosely, themeaningof the

dialectwordstendtobeemotional,descriptivewords,andquiteanumberofthem

are commentary terms.Theyareprovocativeandoffensive so that theycancarry

obviousmeaningsofappreciationornonappreciation.(ref.AppendixA)

Proportionally speaking, dialect words are mostly found in the direct

quotations of local stars and singers (where the proportion is up to 27%). The

proportionofdialectwordsappearinginthirdpersonnarrativesisrelativelylower.

With reference to the overall ratio of reported texts to quotations of this sample



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61

section, the proportion of the dialect words found in the direct quotations is

overwhelminglyoutweighedbythosefound inthemain texts(which isbelowthe

averagelineby15%).Similarphenomenaarenoticedinthesectionofthetitleand

the lead in each news column in overseas entertainment news. This shows a

consciouspreferenceofjournaliststobalancethelanguageusedbetweenthearticle

title,themaintextandthequotedstatements.Asaresult,thedialectwordsdensely

spreadoutinthissamplesection.Thestandarddeviationvalueisthelowestofall

thesamplesections,thoughithasaspecialpreferenceinthequotedstatements.(ref.

AppendixB)

Analyzing the result in grammatical functions, over one half of the dialect

wordsarefoundtobeadjectivaloradverbialphrases(consistingof54%),whichisa

dominating figure.Asimilarproportionofsubject/agentsorpredicates (consisting

of26%and16%respectively)isfound.Acertainamountofdialectalfunctionwords

arefoundinthissamplesectionespeciallyinthequotedstatements.(ref.Appendix

C)

When thedataof thissamplesection issortedaccording to theoriginsofthe

dialectwords, three extremeproportions are found tobe against themain trend.

The sample section contains the leastproportion of locally generatedwords and

nonstandardizedlocalabbreviations(consistingof19%and10%respectivelyonly)

whichfigureisthelowestofallthesamplesections.Anotherdistinctivefiguregoes

tothehugeproportionoftraditionalYuedialectwordswhichconsistsofnearly60%

outofthe414wordsfoundinthesamplesection.(ref.AppendixD)


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inthesamplesectiononLocalandOverseasEntertainmentnews(SectionD).


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WordsonLifeSupplementaryFeatures(SectionE)


InthesectiononSupplementaryLifefeatures(SectionE),36columnsofarticles

and9advertisements

were

studied.

226

dialect

words

were

found.

The main content of this sample section of Supplementary Life features

introducesthethoughtfulservicesoftheshoppingmalls,newfashionsreleasedby

wellknownbrandsandfashionshows,fashionabledishesandaccommodationfor

luxuryvacations.Thedialectwordsextractedarefoundtorefertothesefashionable

objectswithanewcontext.Thesamplesectionalsoincludesonepageofproseand

essays for eminent writers and caricaturists to share their life experiences and

thoughts. The language used represents the fact that every one of them has a

distinctivestyleinhisorherwork.



Comparatively speaking,word use is conservative in this sample section.

There isvery fewdialectwordsuseddeliberately.Locallygeneratedwords are

usuallymodified bymorphemes of the standard language.Dialectwords are


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usedonlywhentherearenoalternativesthattherearenostandardwordstorefer

tosomenewcontextssotheproportionofsubjectandagentisdominating.

The section on Supplementary Life features is a kind of dailymagazine

which reveals the latestnewsand trends in the fouressential requirementsof the

people: food, clothing, housing and transportation in upholding a quality

metropolitan life.Theword quality isupheld in that thenews issupposed tobe

trendbuildingandproclaimative.Lotsof thebest indifferentlifeaspectsistobe

presentedinthisdailylifemagazine.68 Thelanguageusedneedstobeconvincingto

readersinordertokeepupwithauthoritativetoneinthefeatures.69

Theoverviewfigureshowsthattheproportionofappearancefrequencyofthe

dialectwordsisslightlyhigherthanthegeneralaveragefigureinthatthereare22.6

dialectwordsoneachpageinthissamplesectiononaverage.Theproportionofthe

dialectwordscamethirdaftertheentertainmentnewsandbusinessnewssuchthat

itmakesup16%oftheworddata.Thedialectwordscollectedarenewnamesand

concepts related to the reported theme.Very few functionaland structuralwords

arefound.Mostofthemarenoncommentaryterms.(ref.AppendixA)

Whenstudyingthespreadofdataaccordingtothesourceofthedialectwords,

it isoneof themost extreme cases in the sample sections such that the standard

deviationvalue rises to33.Comparatively speaking, theproportionof thedialect

wordsfoundin thetitle,theleadandthecolumnnames isthesmallest(consisting

of 9% only);while the one found in themain text and the caption is one of the



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highest (consisting of 74%). This fact suggests that the journalists have been

deliberatelyavoidingtheuseofdialectwordsinthetitleandthearticleleadunless

it is needed to describe a new thing. All words found are content words

(contrastingtofunctionwords)inthissamplesection.(ref.AppendixB)

Once thedata issortedaccording togrammatical functions, the resultclearly

showsthereisapredominantproportionofdialectwordplayingtheroleofstating

the subject or agent in sentences (consisting of 53% of the listeddata).All other

categories, includingpredicate,adjectivaloradverbialphrasesandfunctionwords

areproportionallylowerthantheaverageline.(ref.AppendixC)

Whenthedialectwordsofthissamplesectionaresortedbyorigin,theresultis

quitebalancedandevenlydistributed,whilethefiguresevenlieontheaverageline

inproportionexceptone.This resultmeans thedialectwordsused in thissample

sectionaredevelopedfromvariousorigins.Theonlyfigureworthmentioningisthe

relativelybigproportionofloanwordsused,whichincludesletterwords,translated

wordsand transliteratedwords.Mostof these loanwordsrefer to imported ideas

andtrends.(ref.AppendixD)


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inthe

sample

section

on

Supplementary

Life

features

(Section

E).


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WordsinthesamplesectiononEducationalnews(SectionF)


InthesamplesectiononEducationalNews(SectionF),27columnsofarticles

and15advertisementswerestudied.135dialectwordswerefound.

Themain content of this sample section reports on the newest Form three

TerritorywideSystemAssessment(TSA)oftheday.Universitypolicies,aswellas

studentpagesdiscussingsome languagefociarealsoprinted.Wordsextractedare

found tobe referring to the educational policies and ideas introduced after the

adoptionofeducationalreformin2000.Thereisnodialectwordfoundinthestudy

guidesandarticleswrittenby languageeducatorsandadvertisementsreleasedby

educationinstitutes.



Articlesarebasicallyalignedwiththestandardlanguage.Thedialectwords

found are evenly spread in terms ofdifferent functions in the text and in the

grammaticalroles,

except

that

it

is

dominated

by

alarge

proportion

of

locally


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68

generated terms, the terms that refer to the new practices in theHong Kong

educationreformsince2000.

Theeducationnewssectioncontainslocaleducationalnewsandstudentpages.

Theformercontentsmainlyreportontheprogressoftherecenteducationreforms

and the feedback from society. The latter is used to discuss tertiary education

information and advice togetherwith some articleswritten as study guides and

some indepth discussions on language topics by linguists. 70 Language used

shouldbesuitableforstudents,learnersofthestandardlanguage,toread. 71

Theproportionof thedialectwords foundoccupies12%of the totalamount

found,whichproportion isbelow theaverage line;around16.8dialectwordsare

foundoneachpagewithinthissamplesectiononaverage.Mostwordscollectedare

locally confined as they refer to the specific educationpolicy set forHongKong

circumstances.Therearerelativelylargeamountsofdialectwordsconcentratingin

theadvertisementpart; theadvertisementsare found in theclassified recruitment

pageswithinthesamplesection.Manydialectwordsareusedtodescribethenature

oftheofferedjobs.(ref.AppendixA)

Thecollecteddata is foundevenly fromdifferent sources.With the standard

deviationvalueof24,thenewstendstousedialectwordsintitles,themaincontent,

thequotedopinionaswellas inadvertisements.Amongstall thesamplesections,

the proportion of the dialect words found in the advertisements is thebiggest

(occupying 23% of this sample section). Besides getting a certain proportion of



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dialectwordpresenceinthequotedstatementsbyCantonesespeakers(around4%),

theothertwofiguresofproportionofdialectwordsarefoundin thetitle,thelead

andthecolumnnames (consistingof14%);theproportionfound inthemaintext

andthecaption(consistingof59%)arenormalfiguresfittingintothemainstream

perfectly.Thisfactsuggeststhatthejournalistshavebeenveryselfdisciplinedwith

regard to the written language when producing articles in the education news

section.(ref.AppendixB)

Once thedata is sortedaccording togrammatical functions, the result shows

thatboththeproportionofsubjectoragentandadjectivaloradverbialphrases

areparallelwings.Theymakeup44%and45%ofthewordsfoundcorrespondingly

andarepercentageslingeringaroundthemean.Theproportionofpredicatesisthe

smallest(accountingfor9%only)ofallthesamplesections.(ref.AppendixC)

Thedialectwords of this sample section are sorted according to origin.The

proportionofthelocallygeneratedwordsisveryhighinthatitaccountsfor37%of

the data section, in quick secessionby the proportion of traditional Yue dialect

words (consisting of 36%) and nonstandardized local abbreviations (13%). The

proportionsharedbytheothertwocategories(includingloanwordsandstandard

wordswith locallydevelopedmeanings) are similar to theother sample sections,

consistingof8%and6%correspondingly..(ref.AppendixD)


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inthesamplesectiononEducationalnews(SectionF).


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WordsonSportsNews(SectionS)


InthesectiononSportsNews(SectionS),45columnsofarticleswerestudied.

Therewere

no

advertisements

in

this

sample

section.

57

dialect

words

were

found.

The sportsnewsof theday in the sample sectionhad several reporting foci.

Unluckily, therewas nomain sports competition on the day. Instead, the news

focusedonsomepreparatoryeventsfortheupcomingWorldCup,theretirementof

several important football starsaswellas some criticismsandpredictions for the

coming events. The words collected are mostly commentary terms that are

emotional and descriptive carrying explicit meanings of appreciation or

nonappreciation.



Small amounts of dialectwords are found in this sample.Thewords are

mainly found in the title of the news articles.Thewords are very descriptive

which is dominated by adjectival and adverbial phrases. Flexible uses of

descriptivestandardwordsarealsofound.


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72

Thesportnewsreportsinternationalsporteventsandsportsstars,localsports

events followedby the news describing the relevant gamblingmarket.72 As the

functionofsportsnewsissimilartothatofentertainmentnews,itisasectionwith

anentertainingfunction.Languageusedissupposedtobeattractive,refreshingand

descriptivetoletthereadersenjoythenews. 73

An astonishing fact is that theproportionof thedialectwords found in this

sample section occupied 7% of the total amount, which is one of the lowest

proportionsamongall thesamplesections.Only9.5dialectwordswere foundon

eachpagewithinthissamplesectiononaverage.Mostofthedialectwordscollected

was relatively vulgar, yet vivid in describing sports related activities and the

responsesoftheiraudiences.(ref.AppendixA)

Consideringthesourcesofthedata,allthelocaldialectwordslistedarefound

in the title, themain text and the caption.As the sports news is dominatedby

internationalsportsnews,all thequotedstatementsare translated in thestandard

language.Sincetherearenoadvertisementstobefoundinthissamplesection,the

percentageportion isinvalid.Thestandarddeviationvalueis24asaresultofthis

unevendistribution.Compared to thegeneral result, theproportionof thedialect

wordsfoundinthetitleandthearticlenewsisoutstandingandtripledthenormal

proportion (up to 49%),while thedialectwords extracted from themain texts is

thereforerelativelylowingeneral(51%)(ref.AppendixB)



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Ontheaxisofgrammaticalfunctions,thedialectworddatashowsthelargest

proportion of adjectival or adverbial phrases which consists of 61% and the

smallestproportionofsubjectoragentwhichconsistsof21%onlyamongallthe

samplesections.Theproportionofpredicatesishigherthantheaveragelineby6%.

(ref.AppendixC)

With reference to the origins of the dialect words, the proportion of the

standardwordswithlocallygeneratedmetaphoricalandanalogicalmeaningisthe

highestinthatitaccountsfor18%ofthedatasection;theproportionofloanwords

istheleastofall(consistingof2%).Besides,theuseoftraditionalYuedialectwords

is higher than the average to a certain extent (consisting of 42%).There are also

dialect word samples which originate from locally generated words and

nonstandardized abbreviationswhich occupy a similar proportion to other data

(occupying22%and16%respectively).(ref.AppendixD)


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inthesamplesectiononSportnews(SectionS).


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4.4 JUSITIFICATIONS FOR THE INTERNAL

DIFFERENCES WITHIN THE LOCAL DIALECT

WORD DATA AND THE REASONS FOR THE

INTEGRATION

Inthissubsection,theinterviewresultswiththejournalistsarecontrastedwith

thenewspaper

study.

The

journalists

motives

for

using

local

dialect

words

in

formal

news writing are collected. The overall interview results are compiled and the

performance in the sample sections is analyzed based on the four dimensions.

Differenttypesofdialectwordsarepurposefullyorganized.Itshowstherationale

behind thejournalistsconvention in the integrationofdialectwords. The figure

belowshowsthedetailedcompositionoftheanalysiswiththefourdimensionsfor

referenceinthissubsection.


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Figure12:Horizontalaccumulativebarchartshowingthepercentageproportion

ofdialectwordsusedindifferenttextsourcesofeachsamplesection.


ofdialectwordsusedindifferentgrammaticalfunctionsofeachsamplesection.


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ofdialectwordsusedindifferentoriginsofeachsamplesection.


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78

4.4.1Motives for Journalists to Integrate LocalDialectWords

intotheChineseWrittenLanguage

Presentprinciplesofdialectwordintegrationarenoteffectiveinnewspaper

productiondue topractical factorswhichdemanddialectwords.Properuseof

dialectwordscanshowthereality,enhanceexpressiveness,appealtothemarket,

create an icon of Hong Kong identity and help readers to comprehend the

message.

4.4.1.1TheInsufficiencyofthePresentPrinciplesforDialectWord

Integration

Inspiteofthefrequentcomplaintsoftheloweringofthelanguagestandardin

formalnewspapers74, the interviewedjournalistscriticized the fact thatnotall the

academicprinciples couldbeadopted in reality. Instead, theadoptionofabsolute

standardlanguagewordshinderstheminfulfillingtheirprofession.

Thegreatestlimitationofwordsinthestandardlanguageisthattheyfailtoshowtheprofessionalismofthelocaljournalistswhoaretheservantsoffactandfacthunters(referringtothetargetreaders). (JournalistE)

Althoughthepublicreaddifferentsectionsofthenewspaperforvariousaims,thebasicmotivationforthemremainsthesame,togetextensiveinformationandtogather

74 (2006)


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concernedfactsforanewviewoflife.(JournalistC)

Languageandthewordsusedshowyourprofessionalisminbalancingthedignityofthemassmediaandyourtargetreaders.(JournalistA)

Thefindingshows thatjournalistsfromeachsectionoftheSingdaoDailyare

still upholding and preserving the micro language culture within each news

sectionestablishedthroughouttherecentyears.Outofthe6experiencedjournalists

interviewed,allagree that this is theonlyway toensure thesurvivalof thenews

sectionandthemarketvalueofthewholepieceofthenewspaper.

The findings in thenewspaperstudyand thejournalist interviews reveal the

reasonwhynewspaperarepurposefullyusingdialectwords.

4.4.1.2UsingDialectWordstoDemonstrateReality

The outstanding amount of local dialect words in the financial news and

propertynews isoutstandingandagainst theassumption that formal language is

used in importantpagesofhardnews.75 Thewordsfound in financialnewsare

locallycreatedandnewlygenerated referring toeconomicconcepts like

. This point is further supported by the high percentage of

subjects/agentsofthegrammaticalfunctionwhichareusuallynouns.

Ontheotherhand,duetothelackoffinancialactivitiesinChinabefore1980s,

75 (2004)


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standardwordsindescribingintensecommercialactivitiesarerare;theonlychoice

forefficientjournalistsistouselotsofYuedialectwordstodescribethefluctuation

andundulationoftheperformanceofinvestorssincethatperiodoftime.Thishabit

iskept tillnow.Words like and are found in the sample

paper. Besides, the abundant number of standardwordswith locally generated

metaphoricalandanalogicalmeaningslike italsoproved

thatthewordsusedreflecttheneedsofthebusinessfield.Thoughthesewordsare

gettingmore familiar inMainlandChina in describing other situations, they are

obviouslydevelopmentfromYuedialectwordstodemonstratebusinessactivities.

When reporting events outsideHong Kong, the demand for dialect words

usage obviously decreases. The supporting argument comes from the lowest

percentageofdialectwordsinthesectionofChinapageandtheinternationalpage.

Accordingtotheusualpracticeinnewspapercompanies,thearticlesinthesepages

arenotwrittenbyHongKongjournalists themselvesbut theyareusuallybought

from international agencies. The messages bought will be translated, edited or

rewritten; also the titlesof thenewswillbe rewritten to attract andpinpoint the

emphasisof themessage from thepointofviewofHongKongpeople.However,

unliketheexceptionallyhighpercentageofthepresenceofdialectwords insports

news,dialectwordswereseldomdiscovered throughout the titles,main textsand

the captions as no dialectwords are needed to describe the concepts and cases

outsideHongKongsociety.


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4.4.1.3 Using Dialect Words to Act as a Rhetorical Means of

Expression

In hisbook76,Don Snow suggests localdialectwords appear innewspapers

especially in the titleof articles.Using theWiseNews internet system, it is found

thatthemajorityoftitlesofheadlinesandimportantlocalorinternationalnewsuse

localdialectwords,o

硕士论文：the integration of yue dialect words into modern written chinese

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