Factors affecting the acceptability of grammatical features of Hong Kong English

Abstract

Although a large number of varieties of English in Asia have gained recognition as independent varieties, this has not been the case for Hong Kong English (HKE) (Jenkins, 2015: 162). The city has a low level of affiliation towards HKE (Jenkins, 2015: 167) and often laments its ever-falling standard of English (Leung, 2015). There exists a phenomenon of ‘linguistic schizophrenia’ – the community may recognise that a local variety of English exists and conform to its features in practice, but it still looks to native varieties as the norm and views local features as evidence of deteriorating language standards (Kachru, 1983: 118).

‘It Looks Weird to Me.’: Attitudes Towards Standard Usage and Variant Use in Present-Day English

“…Regarding grammatical features, Lim and Hwang (2019) observed the respondents' moderate level of positive attitudes towards non-standard grammatical forms. Similarly, Ploywattanawong and Trakulkasemsuk (2014) and Ting and Wong (2019) found that the respondents had reluctant and negative attitudes. In support of many of these previous studies, the present study indicates that many EFL students and teachers tend to give more importance to linguistic standards and correctness than communicativeness.…”

“…Studies have also found that language users tend to regularise and simplify grammar rules, especially those with exceptions and irregularities (e.g. Martinez, 2018;Seidlhofer, 2004;Ting & Wong, 2019). There is no doubt that many of the student respondents judged many variant forms as grammatically correct and standard forms as incorrect.…”

“…Further research on language attitudes should contextualise non-standard features in relation to factors such as users' social status and competence, mode of communication, and levels of formality (e.g. Ting & Wong, 2019).…”

“…All these studies indicate that the participants tend to prefer standard varieties of English. In terms of language variation, previous studies have investigated language attitudes towards standard features and their non-standard forms, such as gender-neutral singular pronouns (Bradley, 2019), epicene pronouns in non-native writing (Stormbom, 2018), grammatical features of English as a lingua franca (ELF) (Lim & Hwang, 2019;Ploywattanawong & Trakulkasemsuk, 2014), and grammatical features of Hong Kong English (Ting & Wong, 2019). The results of these grammar studies have revealed mixed results, which warrant further investigation.…”