Cultural Dimensions of Language and Communication

Historical background in relation to language shift

In Hong Kong, the phenomenon of language shift can be explained by its historical development. Cheung pointed out (2006) that before the handover of Hong Kong to China, the city was once a British colony where the prevalent language was Cantonese. Started from 1950s, there was an influx of Chinese immigrants from China for job opportunities and better livings. Comparatively speaking, at that time, the local Hong Kong people had higher social status and advantages. Thus, the Chinese immigrants, particularly the younger generations, shifted from their parents' native Chinese languages and dialects to Cantonese. For instance, some Chiu Chow people may speak in Cantonese with other Chiu Chow people in Hong Kong. The reasons behind such shift can be the general social changes and self-identification of speakers. In this project, our group takes Hong Kong's historical background into account and examines its relation with language shift from Shanghainese to Cantonese.

Language shift from Shanghainese to Cantonese

Our group cares about language shift since we believe that Shanghainese owns cultural heritage (Austin & Sallabank, 2011). Albeit the popular language in Hong Kong is Cantonese, it is also important not to neglect other minorities, which are also members in the local community, along with their languages. We advocate and embrace linguistic and cultural diversity that enriches our society. In our diverse community and under globalization, we also pay attention to the minorities' national or regional identity (Austin & Sallabank, 2011). However, due to language shift, it is predicted that there has been the dominance of Cantonese over Shanghainese in Hong Kong.

As defined by Lim and Ansaldo (2016), the phenomenon of language shift is interpreted as the substitution of one language by another as "a primary means of communication and socialization within a community". Echoed by Myers-Scotton (2006), the shift to the dominant language is particularly hard to resist, the socio-economic advantages that are related to the dominant language especially serve as pull factors to drive its wide usage. 

Economic factors contributing to language shift

Suggested by Grenoble and Whaley (1998), economic factors in a narrower sense act as the fundamental shapers for the fate of endangered languages. Speakers in a community tend to change their linguistic behaviors, including shifting from one language to another, most typically because of real, or perceived, or desired changes in their material circumstances. The status of a language can be affected (positively or negatively) by the material circumstances of the speakers in a community. Speakers of a dominant language are perceived with greater economic power and wider reach to resources, such as education, jobs, information and networks (Grin, 2007).

Physical and demographical dislocation of language shift

As Fishman suggested (1991), physical dislocation can be one of the significant driving forces to language shift. Physical dislocation includes immigration, urbanization, natural catastrophes, such as famines, floods, earthquakes and major temperature change, etc. (Fishman, 1991). It can also involve human intervention, including warfare and genocide (Fishman, 1991). These environment changes "relocate" the population. The migration, no matter voluntary or not, tends to disrupt language and culture maintenance, further contributing to cultural and linguistic dislocation (Fishman, 1991). Populations may shift from one language to another because they are no longer exposed to their familiar circumstances, in which cultural values, norms and processes are established on consensus. Therefore, our group is interested in examining whether such differences exist in the Hong Kong society and its relationship with language shift from Shanghainese.

Using the language shift in Malays' language use in Sri Lanka as an example, Lim and Ansaldo (2007) further demonstrated different degrees of loss of their vernaculars in favor of other more dominant languages (i.e. English and Standard Malay). As Dixon (2005) stated explicitly, Singapore's bilingual education has led to language shift from dialects to Mandarin, and possibly from mother-tongue ethnic languages to English. It is therefore concluded that the natural factors such as natural disasters and conflicts (Austin & Sallabank, 2011) aside, economic, cultural, political, historical and attitudinal dominances have led to the significant language shift (Lim & Ansaldo, 2016).

Cantonese is the dominant de jure language in Hong Kong, whereas it is believed that there are a considerable number of Shanghainese speakers in the community. Due to the economic, social and cultural advantages (Austin & Sallabank, 2011), more and more Shanghainese tend to learn and speak Cantonese. Albeit these speakers become bilingual, they are under the pressure and, thus, eventually shift to Cantonese. It is a normal phenomenon that older people tend to maintain Shanghainese, whereas younger people shift to Cantonese, illustrating language shift from older to younger generations (Austin & Sallabank, 2011). According to Austin and Sallabank (2011), language shift can happen within one generation, but it can also occur eventually in two generations. In our project research, we demonstrate language shift that has occurred rapidly over a generation, as well as language shift that is considered continuous.

Methods assessing the shift

Domain analysis

Domain analysis is a method introduced by Fishman (1989) to investigate the use of languages under a specific context. The analysis centers on the question of "who speaks what language to whom and when" (Fishman, 1989). It assumes the language choice of a multilingual speaker is affected by factors, for instance, location, interlocutor(s), topic of discussion (such as family domain), that one language will be considered as more appropriate than another. In this way, it implies macro-social norms under micro-social observations. Family domain is usually viewed as the last resort to defend the survival of a minority language as the inability to pass down the language in the family domain might indicate the danger of language death eventually.

Ethnolinguistic vitality

According to Giles, Bourhis and Taylor (1977), ethnolinguistic vitality can be used to assess the coherence, distinctiveness and activeness of a language. Demography, institutional support and status constitute the objective vitality of a particular language (Giles et al., 1977). Languages with high vitality are likely to survive with cultural traits in multilingual settings (Bourhis, Giles & Rosenthal, 1981).

Ethnolinguistic vitality allows us to understand why Shanghainese speakers maintain or shift the language based on their identity (Giles et al., 1977). Shanghainese as a language itself, accent and certain lexical items are undoubtedly signs of membership and solidarity (Giles et al., 1977). Shanghainese vitality in Hong Kong is examined, in terms of demography and status as well as institutional support, through secondary resources in the following section (i.e. Socio-historical Background Information). All these factors may affect vitality of Shanghainese - whether Shanghainese adopt a more dominant language and vitality of it decreases accordingly.