Language and society in Hong Kong

The chapters discuss the complex relationship between the southern Chinese dialects and the Chinese language family as a whole (Mary Erbaugh), the changing sociolinguistic profile of Hong Kong with reference to data drawn from census data and language survey data (John Bacon-Shone & Kingsley Bolton), and a case study of language repertoire and language use in two Hong Kong Indian communities (Champa Detaramani & Graham Lock). Part 5 focuses on the much-researched area of language and gender, and explores the existence of gender bias in the Chinese language (Charles Ettner), gendered discourse practices in Hong Kong beauty pageants (Angel Lin), and gender-related use of sentence-final particles in Cantonese (Marjorie Chan). Part 6 addresses issues regarding language planning and language policies, with chapters on language rights in the context of Hong Kong law courts (Anne Cheung), the medium of instruction policy (Amy Tsui), and language attitudes of the first postcolonial generation in Hong Kong secondary schools (Mee-Ling Lai).