Quiz 2: Speech Functions and Linguistic Politeness (PDF)

Wk 6 -- Speech Function and Linguistic Politeness - **Face Threatening Act (FTA**) - Face: public self-image member wants to claim for themselves - **Positive**: desire to be liked, approved - **Negative**: desire NOT to be impeded or imposed upon freedom...

Wk 6 -- Speech Function and Linguistic Politeness - **Face Threatening Act (FTA**) - Face: public self-image member wants to claim for themselves - **Positive**: desire to be liked, approved - **Negative**: desire NOT to be impeded or imposed upon freedom to act - Weight of **FTA = D (S, H) + P (H, S) + Rx** - **D: Social Distance ; P: Power Distance ; R: Importance of Act** - S: System state ; H: History - Risk of FTA in ascending order: [polite] indirect address -ve face address +ve face direct - [**Politeness** used to redress the performance of FTAs] - Universal? - There are **Eurocentric bias** in terms of "face", therefore has overemphasis on **individualistic and egalitarian / liberalism** motivation (care more about -ve) - Meanwhile in East Asia, it is more **collectivistic hierarchy base** such as China with Confucius - Face definition: Lian (interval, moral related, +ve) vs Mianzi (external, other's appreciation of Lian) - **-ve face concept foreign to Chinese** - Politeness: self-denigration as respect, elevation of others as warmth - Japanese politeness: please treat me favorably / pleaes take care of me fail to capture this Wk 8 -- Language, Gender and Sexuality - Sex vs Gender - **Sex**: **biological** categorization (**male vs female**) - **Gender**: **social** elaboration of biological sex, cultural traits and behavior (**masculinity vs femininity**) - **Sexuality**: identity in terms of sexual activity - **Heteronormativity**: belief or assumption that heterosexual relationships are the default or \"normal\" mode of human sexuality (in oppose to fluidity) - **Women's Language**: a way of speaking that reflects and produces a **subordinate** position in society tool of oppression for women - Rife with **hedges** (sort of, I think) - Inessential **intensifiers** (really, so) - Elaborate **color** terms (lilac instead of purple) - **Tag questions** (... isn't it?) - Tentative, powerless, trivial disqualify women from position of power and authority - **Learned**, imposed on women by **social norm** to be a women one must speak that way, but speaking that way means being looked down on, therefore women remains in subordinate position - Gender Language: men and women speak differently because society subjects them to different life experience - Men: more competitive, sign of domination to get ahead report - Women: web of inclusion, softer and more embracing rapport - Study shows that female are more likely to pay compliments to female, but male compliments female more than female compliments male showing female might not necessarily be more polite - Biological difference - Evolution: **gossip** **women** gather and child care to gain **verbal skills**, while **men** hunt to gain **spatial skills** - Brain volume: men larger than women but of cours e don't matter - **Fetal Testosterone (FT)** - Men has higher FT **slower development of left hemisphere (verbal)** and faster growth for right (non-verbal) spatial ability - Women use more of both hemisphere, men has dominance - Bilateral representation may explain why women show better performance in verbal skills, less likely to develop aphasia or to recover more quickly - Female product more FOXP2 protein ability to acquire and produce language at younger age and precociousness in learning to talk - Conclusion: - Speculative in nature - Based on shaky evidence with exaggeration / distortion - At early stage, far from conclusive - May vary historically and cross-culturally - Performance of gender and sexuality - Gender has to be constantly reaffirmed and publicly displayed by repeatedly performing such art until they are no longer viewed as performance but look natural Wk 9 -- Communication in Global Context - Popular culture: system or artifacts that most people share and that most people know about - Central and pervasive in advanced capitalist systems, produced by culture industries, serving **social functions** - **Primary social function to generate profit** - Defining and disseminating social norms, a platform for discussion or an initiating force for social change, key component in the production of social identities - Negative connotation: commercialization, homogenization - **Globalization**: the expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across world-time and world-space - cause cultural flow to be dynamic, not simply from center to peripheral, by no means a process of passive consumption, and an active construction of different possible worlds and identities - Believe that increasing interconnectedness has a profound impact on culture - 3 types of globalization believers - **Hyperglobalist** - Foster strong awareness of the globe - **Universalism or cosmopolitanism**: a uniform, global culture that overrides locality - Adverse reaction: - **Hegemony of capitalist system** and the **domination** of the rich nation over the poor - **Homogenization** of the world's culture and **cultural imperialism** - Modern form of **colonialism** - *What is at stake is the cultural identities of all of our nations* - **Sceptics**: regional instead of global - Globalization is not homogeneous global culture but **accentuating the "otherness" of local communities** - A resurgence of language and cultural assertiveness led by localizing pressure - **Transformationalists** - Heterogeneous, multidimensional, **hybridized** - Global and local are dual and simultaneous forces, **engaged in relational and reciprocal process** NOT opposing - **Local vs global identity** - Globalization offers **opportunities** to develop social identity as full fledged member of global community - **Transcultural identities** are made possible by gloal culture and languages - Spread of English as global language: used as official or semiofficial language in \>60 countries - **Homogeny**: hidden political and ideological motivation for spread - **Linguistic imperialism**: for of linguicism, that permeates all other types of imperialism since language is the means used to mediate and express them upset global linguistic ecology causing linguistic genocide - **Heterogeny**: *are we really oppressed and powerless while using English?* - Practice of English **embedded in local culture** and influenced by the previous linguistic habits of the speaker - English will still continue to **indigenize** everywhere, acquiring **local characteristics** in the same way - English becomes acculturated and transforms itself into **localized varieties**, to represent effectively the **contextual experience** of those who it - **Hybridization** - Seen as a language of threat, desire, destruction, and opportunity - **Translanguaging**: the dynamic meaning-making process whereby multilingual speakers go beyond conventional divides between named languages and between modalities to act to know and to be - Involving thus **incorporation and orchestration** of multiple ways of speaking by making use of all the speaker's linguistics or semiotic resources, not just different languages but also **different styles**, accent, registers, etc - Creates sense of identity in various domains multilingual digital exchanges on social media... Wk 10 -- Language Planning and Policy - **Language planning / management**: all **conscious effort that aim at changing the linguistic behavior of a speech community** actual proposal - Any **systematic**, **theory-informed** design to solve the communication problems of a society by **influencing speaker's choice concerning languages and varieties**, as well as **structural features** of a language (eg. Pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary...) - Types of planning - **Status planning**: decision about which languages will fill various official roles in society (eg. Work, government administration...) - **Corpus planning**: regulatory measures to influence the structural aspects of a language (eg. Lexicon, grammar, vocabulary, speaking through development of writing systems, dictionaries...) - **Acquisition planning**: decision about how language varieties are to be learned and at what age (medium of instruction, requires understanding of second language acquisition) - Level of planning - **Macro**: policy level - **Micro**: use in particular circumstances - **Meso**: small languages maintenance and revival - **Language Policy**: **general linguistic, political, and social goals** underlying the actual planning process - **Device** to perpetuate and impose language behavior, an **expression of ideological orientations and views** - Views on Language - **Ideological**: linguistic nationalism, nothing ore valuable than language, resides in every language is a characteristic world view, seen as unifying force for statehood and national identity - **Utilitarian**: commodity, a practical tool efficiency in facilitating communication and usefulness in achieving utilitarian goals (especially in multilingual globalized world) - China - History and development - **Qin**: **unifying** various warring states and adopted **xiaozhuan** as official script, although different people speak different **hua** or dialect Chinese became cover term **Han** language (significant identity marker) **Ming** dynasty established Guanhua as speech of officials - 19^th^ century: **Guoyu** as national language, **wenyanwen** as classic literary, **baihuawen** as vernacular literary language - 20^th^ century: spread of **Putonghua** as national language, **simplification** of script, **Pinyin** as auxiliary use - Influence from West: 1) spoke one common language 2) roman alphabet - **Nationalism**: became driving force for **political power shift**, language is to be blamed as it causes China society to remain stagnant with slow development since the language is hard to learn, causing high percentage of illiteracy - **Linguistic nationalism** - **Negative feelings** towards and minimal respect for Chinese language - No treasured essence of a nation and its people - Keen interest for reform with a fully utilitarian view of language (eg. By using roman alphabet phonetic writing system, get rid of wenyanwen) - Little nationalist passion for Chinese language - Historically: language is never power, usually empire and ruling - Politically: kill people who don't use national language - Linguistically: huge diversity amongst different people, different dialect - **Reform** proposed: - Establish and promote a new spoken standard, reform written language, simplify traditional writing system - **Baihuawen** replace wenyanwen (as this is often the blame, too difficult) - **Simplification** of traditional to simplified Chinese - **Putonghua** promoted as national language, used as medium of instruction from kindergartens to lower middle school - **Guowuyuan** - Allow **bi-diglossia:** proficiency in both Putonghua and local dialect of Chinese - Language selection if opn to personal choice, increasingly popular use of Putonghua, having attrition of other dialect - Yet **high prestige and usefulness** of Putonghua outweigh the attachment to local dialect or identity - **Phonetic** system is deemed **unfeasible** (diversity among dialects, same sound can mean different things) - **Bilingualism**: notion of **pluralistic integrity** - Pluralistic base of different distinctive ethnic groups (minzu) form together as integral whole (nation) - All ethnic minorities should have freedom to make use of their own languages and scripts encouraged to be bilingual - Linguistic pressure at various level - Decline and endangerment of minority languages in favor of Chinese or another stronger minority language - Economic and pragmatic drives Wk 11 -- Linguistic Landscapes in Global Cities - **Linguistic Landscape** - Visibility of Language on objects that mark the public space in given territory - Semiotic landscape, discourses in place, a new approach to multilingualism, a window to look into the increasingly complex sociolinguistic realities in globalized era - Most **salient marker of perceived in-group versus outgroup vitality** - Visibility of a particular language indicative of the vitality of the language and its group of users - A **quantitative distributive** approach through geographic distribution of signs through counting categorization and comparison - Territorial presence reflects societal and official status - **Relative power** of certain language groups or their ethnolinguistic vitality manifesting itself in the presence or absence of respective signs in the public sphere - Hong Kong - Bilingual, Cantonese remained strong, written form of Cantonese not highly visible, influence of Putonghua is insignificant - English remained highly visible though in official signage it seemed to have changed from primary to subsidiary - Minority group difficult to be noticed (apart from Japanese, French and other European languages) - **Geosemiotics**: social and cultural placement of signs the social meaning of material placement of signs and discourse - Physical location of signage in material world adds to the sign's meaning and interpretation, thus space is considered as an active factor in semiotic processes. - Frames of discussion - **Index frame**: ideational - **Functionality** of road sign, **convey sense of territory and unique residence**, inclusion vs exclusion - **Spectacle** **frame**: **consumerist** spectacle, commodity **transformation** from a dwelling place to lifestyle, status, and identity - Unique architectural design, individualistic styles of sign, semiotics of luxury, intertextual links, appeals to traditional values using archaic or formal Chinese characters - **Brand** **frame**: idealization of a **salient component** into the branding (build into brand value) through repetition of brand name with presence in multiple places Wk 12 -- Culture, Identity, and LLP in HK - **Illusion of linguistic communism**: misconception that everyone can understand and communicate perfectly through a shared language, regardless of individual backgrounds, dialects, or cultural contexts. This idea suggests that a common language can eliminate misunderstandings and promote equality in communication. - Yet this ignored **socio-historical conditions** which have established a particular language or set of linguistic practices as dominant and legitimate, and others subordinated or eliminated - **Capital** -- symbolic power, where each capital interconnect, numerical accumulation - **Economic capital**: material wealth - **Cultural capital**: knowledge, skills, and cultural acquisition as exemplified by educational and technical qualifications - **Social capital**: aggregate of an individual's group memberships and social connections - **Symbolic capital**: accumulated prestige or honor - **Linguistic capital**: fluency in, and comfort with a high-status, world-wide language which is used by groups who possess economic, social, cultural, and political poer and status in local and global society ; like other forms of capital has exchange value in a market economy - **Field**: social **context or ideological position** which operate as sites of struggles and through which the types of **capital are distributed** - Colonial history of HK - **Linguistic hegemony**: **dominance** of one language over others within a particular social, political, or cultural context (supremacy of **English** education over vernacular education) - Vernacular (everyday language or dialect spoken by ordinary people) left to religious and charitable organization - Political and commercial interest rendered the study of English of primary importance in all government schools - Focusing on providing English education of the elites - **Biliteracy and trilingualism** after handover - Use more Cantonese and Chinese, Putonghua introduced in 1998 - Implemented **mandatory mother-tongue education policy** (75% chinese as MOI, others as English) considered as one of Tung's gravest policy failure - Considered undermining the English standard, and HK's competitive advantage - After complaints Demand for allowing schools to make their own decision on **MOI (medium of instruction)** policy refined in 2010/11 which allowed English to be MOI as long as student posses the ability to learn, teacher possess the capability to teach, and schools have adequate support - Now schools are able to make **flexible** adjustment in each of the school years, no longer bifurcated into Chinese vs English medium - Chinese -- problematizing English and Putonghua - Modern standard written Chinese - **Cantonese as the dominant vernacular** with strong ethnolinguistic vitality - Putonghua as symbol of national unity, long term goal in governmental discourse - English scarcely used for intra-ethnic communication despite its official status and great symbolic value attached - However there is a **lack of conducive social environment for using and practicing English and Putonghua** in authentic communication, most exposure only comes from school - There is also huge **typological dissimilarity** between English and Chinese, while also **linguistic variation** between Cantonese and Putonghua - **A social, sociolinguistic, and linguistic obstacle** to become biliterate and trilingual - Concerns - Employer: difficult to recruit employees with adequate skills - Parents: concerned with diminishing opportunities to access MOI education - Chinese MI: negative consequence of public perception and survival - Teachers of CMI and EMI: translanguaging pedagogy and EDB guideline - Minority: - Good knowledge of Chinese is required for civil service jobs, yet literacy activities in both learning and use was perceived rather challenging for ethnic minorities - Chinese learning deemed same as other language, however there are difficulties in adapting to the new MOI for Chinese language subject which leads to adverse effect on Chinese language development among students - Teacher also find it difficult to teach