May 2020 – Page 2 – Language Culture and Society in Hong Kong (and beyond)

Language in New Capitalism – Analysis on Information from University of Oxford

Posted on May 8, 2020May 9, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

Julia Liao

If you ask someone why he or she would go to university and what benefits does university bring? The answers may be various. According to the article from Southern New Hampshire University on ‘Top 10 Reasons Why College is Important’, the article shows that the top reason for going to university are, ‘college graduates earn more on average’, ‘workers with a college degree are less likely to face unemployment’, ‘college graduates are more likely to experience job satisfaction’ and ‘college graduates are more likely to experience job satisfaction’ (Bogle, 2017). So why does the university place so much emphasis on the importance of employment? Voices from the capital market might show the answer. According to the report What skills do employers value most in graduates from World Economic Forum, in both reports in 2015 and 2020, the skills like ‘creativity’, ‘people management’, ‘negotiation’ and ‘service orientation’ are the most valuable ones (Pathak, n.d.). Actually, this is the embodiment of the new capitalism culture in universities and markets. Then what is new capitalism? According to Jessop (2000), “ the term ‘new capitalism’ is applied to those forms of contemporary transformations of capitalism which are characterized by a ‘restructuring’ of the relations between the economic, politic and social” (as cited in Simpson & Mayr, 2010, p. 37). This led to the reconstruction of those ‘non-commercial’ institutions, including universities, an classical example is the ‘marketization’ of universities. In fact, previous study of Mautner (2005) also indicates that ‘enterprise culture’ is powerful in Higher Education, the relationship between the market and Higher Education is not a merely on-side colonization, in fact the two domains intertwine (as cited in Simpson & Mayr, 2010). So here we are going to look into the example from University of Oxford, one of the most prestigious universities worldwide, aiming to know how the university adapts to new capitalism and uses language tactics to promote itself to the students.

(Picture source: https://www.nairaland.com/5378377/why-go-university)

Become an entrepreneur – Commercialising research

We’re focused on the real-world impact of our research. We’re one of the UK’s most successful organisations for commercialising research through technology licensing, accounting for £1 for every £10 earned by UK higher education.

University of Oxford Innovation (OUI) has created over 160 spinout companies—more than any other UK institution—and was named best in the world in the 2017 Global University Venturing awards. These spinouts have raised over £1.9 billion in external investment since 2011, and now have a global turnover of over £600 million. The OUI’s new £500,000 fund, SE2020, supports the development and acceleration of spinouts where the focus is solving a social or environmental problem.

(University of Oxford, Careers and Alumni, Become an Entrepreneur;
https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/why-oxford/careers-and-alumni?wssl=
1)

(Picture source:
https://medium.com/@info.delhipreneurs/entrepreneurship-a-boon-d50875e14ca3)

1. The first thing to notice here are the titles, ‘Become an entrepreneur’ and ‘Commercialising research’. In the phrase ‘Become an entrepreneur’, the word ‘Become’, indicating that students have the potential to be entrepreneurs, and the university is there to help them. The second phrase ‘ Commercialising research’, shows that the university treats its academic achievements as commodities.

2. Next, the detailed content of the ‘Commercialising research’. This part mainly talks about how the university is turning ‘research’ into a way of gaining funding and help incubating companies. This part uses numbers together with currency symbols such as ‘£1.9 billion’, to indicate that the commercialising research is ‘successful and powerful’ since it attracts capital. Business-related lexis evidences such as ‘spinout companies’, ‘external investment’ and ‘global turnover’ also show that the university has a great impact on the market.

To conclude, as being analyzed in this example, University of Oxford uses language tactics to advertize its information and services, as the way that companies usually do. This shows that language is a tool that serves in a certain culture, using language skills to shape a culture and achieve its ultimate goal. However, there is no right or wrong for the university to act like so because for each institution and individual that live in the era of new capitalism, adapting to development is an important way to ensure that we survive and become stronger, this might also be one of the best ways for human civilization to progress.

References:

Bolge, S. (2017, August 2). Top 10 Reasons Why College is Important. Southern New Hampshire University.https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/2017/08/why-is-college-important

Pathak, P. (n.d.). What skills do employers value most in graduates? World EconomicForum.https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/02/what-skills-do-graduates-need-to-get- a-job/

Simpson, P., & Mayr, A. (2010). Language and power : A resource book for students (Routledge English language introductions series). London ; New York, NY:Routledge.

University of Oxford. (n.d.). Careers and alumni:Become an entrepreneur. University of Oxford.https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/why-oxford/careers-and-alumni?wssl=1

Where reverse discourse meets advertising discourse: A parody poster against police brutality

Posted on May 8, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

By Jacqueline Tsang

Fairclough (1992) pointed out that a text is interdiscursive when it illustrates “an instance of mixing of genres, discourses and styles”. A parody poster against police brutality designed by Hong Kong netizens demonstrates how reverse discourse mixed with advertising discourse to spread the message – say no to police brutality, in a combination of verbal and visual modes.

In early November, the government released a series of posters asking citizens to stay away from violence. In other words, they spread a message that citizens should never support these violent protesters or rioters. To resist the dominant institutional discourse, the pro-democratic side released a parody poster in which the mainstream slogan and the ideology behind (stay away from violence) were adopted. Smartly through this revers discourse, they turned the mainstream opinion into one that spreads the subordinate belief. Additionally, the poster also shows some aspects of advertising discourse, which helps to intensify the message behind.

The slogan

In the slogan, the designer used the same vocabulary暴力to point out a counterargument. The designer also acknowledged the public notion that there were violent acts throughout the protest. However, with the use of reverse discourse, such violence no longer comes from the protesters, but the Hong Kong police. This allows the poster not to be argued by the mainstream; meanwhile, it challenged the current power structure by pulling down the police’s status from a powered discipline service team to a group of beasts doing violent acts.

Moreover, readers are directly addressed through the use of imperatives. According to Simpson, Mayr and Statham (2019), these imperatives allowed the designer to engage Hongkongers “on an individual basis” as if they are having a conversation with the designer. It is, therefore, more efficient to convey the message that citizens should stay away from the police in order to avoid violence.

The parallelism also intensified meaning. The repeated structure of an imperative starting with a phrasal verb turned the slogan to be a more melodic and rhythmic one, as well as intensifying the message behind – stay away from the police.

The faceless photo

Stepping on the protester’s head, the riot police seem to be the powered in the photo. Nevertheless, they are collectivised as a cold-blooded, unprofessional, “homogenous community” who is not performing the duty of protecting the citizens but hurting them (Calsamiglia and Ferrero, 2003). This, in turn, weakens the professional image of the whole police force. The collectivisation also reinforces the message that the riot police are all unable to make a judgement as they lack autonomy once they become a group.

Contrastively, the lone protester is individualised and humanised. Although he/she is powerless in the picture, the protester is still “personalised”, and thus readers are likely to regard them as a reasonable agent who could have enjoyed more autonomy if he/she had not been stepped at his/her head (Bernard, 2018).

Simpson, Mayr and Statham (2019) pointed out that “what is absent in a text is just as important”. It is therefore important to look at the missing facial expressions of both parties in the photo. The absence of faces of both the protesters and the riot police distances the social actors from readers. As a result, readers might have no feeling of the incident. However, such absence could also imply a warning message that the social actors in this photo, both the unfortunate victim on the floor and the brutal perpetrator, could actually be any of us. The designer, indeed, wanted to intensify the overall meaning to persuade the audience to choose wisely (by staying away from the police as encouraged in the slogan) so that they will not become similar to the violent police, nor the being beaten up by the riot police.

The layout

The simple layout here agrees with Kress and van Leeuwen’s notes on the idea of “Ideal” and “Real”. In the poster, the more generalised idea about violence is put as a logo on the top while the more “factual, down to earth information” is placed at the bottom. Such logical layout indeed helps readers to first grasp the more “frivolous” idea before knowing what exact actions they have to take (as demonstrated in the slogan).

Colour choice

The red colour, which reminds readers of blood or danger, was used with words violence as well as the term police. This fosters the message that the police force equals to the origin of violence in the protest. Contrastively, black colour is used in the background. Practically, it helps readers to focus on the photo and the slogan as a black background “make the other colours stand out”; while ideologically, it symbolises the dark side of the disciplined service team, as well as the dark future, or even the death of Hong Kong’s political environment.

Conclusion

The designer skilfully demonstrated a reverse discourse by turning the mainstream objection about protesters’ violence into an accusation towards police brutality. The visual elements, particularly the photo which personalised protesters, also reinforce such message. The lack of facial expression of both social actors allows readers to reflect on which side they should take. As a consequence, the poster might affect the current power relations that more citizens might be aware of police brutality and switch their side to support the protesters.

References:

Bernard, T. (2018). The Discursive Representation of Social Actors in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Integrated Annual (IA) Reports of Two South African Mining Companies. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines, 10(1), 81-97.

Calsamiglia, H., & Ferrero, C. (2003). Role and Position of Scientific Voices: Reported Speech in the Media. Discourse Studies, 5(2), 147-173.

Hariman, R., & Lucaites, J. L. (2007). No caption needed: Iconic photographs, public culture, and liberal democracy. University of Chicago Press.

Simpson, P., Mayr, A., & Statham, S. (2019). Language and power: A resource book for students (Second ed., Routledge English language introductions series).

Different languages use among the reports of successful entrepreneurs of different genders

Posted on May 8, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

By Jingchu Han

Nowadays, many people want to start a business, own their own company or brand, etc. There are a lot of discussions in the society about whether a man or a woman would be the best entrepreneurs. Well, it depends. Entrepreneurs should have some common characteristics and advantages in order to become entrepreneurs.

As for whether gender is a big variable, I don’t think so. However, I am sure that entrepreneurs of both sexes do approach things differently.

I found that when the media interviewed these entrepreneurs of different genders, the style of writing and the words used were very different as well as the ideological significance hidden behind their language from the perspective of critical discourse analysis (CDA).

Here some of my findings are as follows.

In men’s reports, the language of praise is very ornate and complex, even exaggerated. In addition to adjectives, strong verbs express the hardships and achievements of starting a business.

Here is a video link about an interview with Jack Ma. His conversations with the host were humorous and often made the audience laugh which shows a relaxed and cheerful atmosphere and the compliments from those around him. (start from 6’58’’)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqSkQye85OQ

However, in women’s reports, apart from some statements of achievement, great attention is paid to the women’s origin and family. These are rarely reported by men. (Mark Zuckerberg reports that his wife is mentioned, but only briefly as his wife.)
In most men’s reports, the active voice is used, while in many women’s, the passive voice is used, or object is used.

The World Bank earlier in October this year had launched a new women’s entrepreneurship fund, conceived by Ivanka Trump…
…where she was invited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the White House…

Here, as we all know, the active voice is mostly positive, while the passive voice is mostly negative and mistrustful. So here, men report using the active voice more often than women to acknowledge their achievements.

As for Zuckerberg’s permanent plaid shirt, the report said Zuckerberg is a thrifty man or a saver. But when it comes to Ivanka, a lot of reports will firstly describe her clothes, figure and makeup.

The society as a whole expects women to look better than men, especially public figures. As a result, women spend more time on their appearance than men, in addition to the entrepreneur’s own business.

In conclusion, there are some traits that have been identified in these reports as shared by both men and women who become entrepreneurs. They are generally more energetic and willing to take risks than others. Entrepreneurs usually have good self-control. They believe they can control their own destiny and have a vision.

Men are reported as being more willing to take risks and make decisions more easily than women. Men are more focused on their careers and women are more focused on relationships (family, negotiations). Female entrepreneurs, on the other hand, bear more family responsibilities and social pressure. They must be sociable, open-minded, energetic and able to share power. As a result, in some surveys, women entrepreneurs are more conservative (Zwilling, M. 2010).

For women, there are more barriers. Women may not have the experience and training that enabled them to succeed that their male counterparts had. Some Banks may have less confidence in female entrepreneurs than male ones. In some cultures, women are not seen as equal to men, and they are not given the resources that businesses need.

But through the reports I mentioned above, their admiration for female entrepreneurs can also be seen, and gradually accept the achievements of women (the case of Dong Mingzhu, in her report, gives a very objective account of her personal experience and achievements.) Hopefully in the future, successful entrepreneurs will not be discriminated against by their gender.

References:

Hayfaa A. Tlaiss & Saleema Kauser (2019) Entrepreneurial Leadership, Patriarchy, Gender, and Identity in the Arab World: Lebanon in Focus, Journal of Small Business Management, 57:2, 517-537, DOI: 10.1111/jsbm.12397

Shmailan, A. B. (2016). Compare the Characteristics of Male and Female Entrepreneurs as Explorative Study (Shmailan, J Entrepren Organiz Manag 2016, 5:4). Retrieved from https://www.hilarispublisher.com/open-access/compare-the-characteristics-of-male-and-female-entrepreneurs-as-explorative-study-2169-026X-1000203.pdf

Vishal K. Gupta, Alice M. Wieland. (2018, December 4). Gender Characterizations in Entrepreneurship: A Multi‐Level Investigation of Sex‐Role Stereotypes about High‐Growth, Commercial, and Social Entrepreneurs. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jsbm.12495

Why Are There More Male Entrepreneurs Than Female Ones?. Knowledge@Wharton (2015, December 14). Retrieved from https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/why-are-there-more-male-entrepreneurs-than-female-ones/

Zwilling, M. (2010, November 9). Men VS Women Entrepreneurs: Here Are The Facts. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/battle-of-the-sexes-do-men-or-women-make-better-entrepreneurs-2010-11

Metaphor of the CCP’s Political Slogans in the Great Leap Forward

Posted on May 8, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

By Joyce Fung

Political slogan is a widely used method of propaganda in China to spread the ideologies of the Communist Party. Slogans are fast and effective in spreading political ideas because they are short and concise. We can understand more about a certain historical event by analyzing political slogans. Let’s take the Great Leap Forward as an example.

The Great Leap Forward is an important mass movement in China from 1958-1962. The Three Red Banners Movement aims at modernizing China in both industrial and agricultural area. Mao and the Communist Party successfully used different political slogans to motivate Chinese to take part in the event. Therefore, we can see how powerful the language and metaphors are behind the words of the political slogans.

I will try to apply Critical Metaphor Analysis to analyze the metaphors of CCP’s political slogans in this period. The metaphors domain can be divided into five groups, which are conflict, building, journey, plant and religious metaphors.

Conflict metaphors

“*Drowning the enemy* in a torrent of steel!”

“Drowning the enemy” is an attack to the opposite camp who holds different ideology. One of the aims of the Great Leap Forward is to defeat the opposite camp in industrial area, so the attack of China is described as “torrent of steel”. China aims at catching up with the industrial development of US in fifteen years. From the poster, the children are putting the metal utensils into the dragon body to give energy to the dragon to drown the enemies. We can see that even children are engaged into the power conflicts between different world powers. China creates a national enemy for Chinese to competitive with and call for the Great Leap Forward Movement.

Building metaphors

鼓足幹勁、力爭上游、多快好省地建設社會主義

“Go all out, aim high and achieve greater, faster, better, and more economical results to build socialism”

The word “build” is mentioned directly in the slogan to show the ultimate goal of building a socialist state. Building socialism needs the public to support and work together hand in hand. In this way, the goal of socialist society can be achieved in a shorter time. Therefore, we can see different classes of people are facing the same direction energetically in the poster. It shows that the cooperation of people creates a fundamental base for the development of a country. People should follow the guidelines and orders of the government to build a new China.

Journey Metaphors

總路線萬歲！大躍進萬歲！人民公社萬歲！

“Long live the General Line! Long live the Great Leap Forward! Long live the People’s Communes!”

This slogan is the main idea in the Great Leap Forward. The literal meaning of “路線”is route, showing the path or road of China to become modernized and industrialized. The name “Great Leap Forward” also indicates the journey of China for moving a big step towards modernization. The three red flags in the poster indicates the Three Red Banner Movement, it is like the battle flags that guide different classes of people to go on a journey of socialism. “Long live” the journey is a wish of China as it represents unstoppable development of the country.

Plant Metaphors

坐著花生過黃河

“Crossing the Yellow River while sitting in a peanut”

“Peanut” is a metaphor of the People’s Commune. One of the functions of the People’s Commune is to distribute resources equally to every Chinese. The slogan tries to show the rapid agricultural production growth. The “Yellow River” has important cultural meanings to Chinese as the Yellow River is seen as the origin of the Chinese civilization. Therefore, the slogan implies the idea that the People’s Commune can let Chinese people have countless food to eat, hence have a better livelihood. It also further emphasizes that people should cooperate together and farm more food to make the nation become more prosperous.

Religious Metaphors

公社如巨龍，生產顯威風

“The commune is like a gigantic dragon, production is visibly awe-inspiring”

The “dragon” is not only a legendary creature, but also a kind of religious belief in China. In Chinese tradition, dragon symbolized power and strength. The Slogan is trying to compare the People’s Commune with “a gigantic dragon” to show the power of the People’s Commune and let the Chinese to respect it. At the same time, dragon is the God of the sea in Chinese mythology. Because of the ability of dragon to control rainfall and flood, the slogan implies that the People’s Commune can bring a great amount of agricultural production to China.

Reference:

Chinese Posters. (2019, October 13). Great Leap Forward (1958-1961). https://chineseposters.net/themes/great-leap-forward.php

Lu, X. (1999). An Ideological/Cultural Analysis of Political Slogans in Communist China. Discourse & Society, 10(4), 487-508.

Hong Kong Government’s Response to the Months long Protests – A Transitivity Analysis

Posted on May 8, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

By Lam Sze Ning, Cammy

Setting the context – Register of discourse:

Field: The outbreak of Hong Kong protests dated back to June 2019 in rallies against the extradition bill.

Tenor: The participants are mainly Hong Kong government and protesters, where the former has a higher power status in terms of authority and resources and the latter has a lower one.

Mode: Spoken, written and visual data from the YouTube videos.

This study investigates not only the register of discourse used by the government to reflect on the monthslong protests, but also how it attempts to create an opposing position between the government and the protesters. The Hong Kong government owns a YouTube channel where numerous videos promoting its policies and responses to the public are uploaded. Some of the videos on the channel are collected as the data I am focusing on to analyse how the government perceives protesters and itself, as well as how this institution is making an effort to legitimise their own interest through discourse. The main analytical method adopted is transitivity model.

1. How HK Gov stigmatized protesters and teenagers into “violent rioters”:

In the rap video “See the clear picture”, passive voice was used to highlight the victims and damage caused by the protests.

Material process:

“Trains are blocked from moving. Roads are blocked. People are impeded getting to work. People are forced to strike on three fronts”: The lines emphasize the actions of blocking and forcing, as well as the goals.

Possessive relational process:

After asking the audience “Youths are sacrificing for people?”, the next line implying the answer by the government is “They have no future”. It shows that youths, in the government’s opinion, have no future, therefore no stake in society. It tries to contextualize the whole protest into some sort of insurrection that teenagers aim to destruct the city for irrational reasons.

Theme and rheme:

“Police face a growing array of lethal weapons”

Theme: “police” ; Rheme: “face a growing array of lethal weapons” The theme “police” is emphasized, therefore is put at the beginning of the sentence. The weapons are described to be an increasing amount of fatal weapons that can inflict bodily harm to the police. This description emphasizes the irrational level of violence of the protesters.

“Innocent bystanders have been violently attacked by radical protesters”

Theme: “Innocent bystanders” ; Rheme: “have been violently attacked by radical protesters”

Bystanders were described as innocent, whereas protesters were described as radical, demonstrating that the bystanders are opposed to the protesters in their nature. Since this sentence is in passive voice, “innocent bystanders” becomes the subject and theme, emphasizing that they are the victims.

2. How HK Gov depicted itself as the protector of Hong Kong:

Contrarily, as opposed to the image of violent protesters, the videos revealed a positive side of the government.

Attributive relational process:

Mentioning the government ensures “Hong Kong is a free, open and dynamic city remain intact”, it is trying to tell people that Hong Kong will continue to be a competitive city as described under the protection of the government.

Choice of verbs:

The videos deliver the message that the police and government departments have the obligation to “restore law and order”, “robustly defend the rule of law” and “help life return to normal”. In these verb phrases, the verbs “restore”, “defend” and “help” are the actors in the material processes, having positive connotations. At the end of some videos of the same series, the line “treasure Hong Kong” appear. It is a material process showing the government protects and treasures this city, instead of harming it like the protesters do.

References:

isdgovhk. (n.d.). Hong Kong Protests 2019: Episode 1 and Episode 2. Retrieved from

isdgovhk. (n.d.). See the clear picture. Retrieved from

isdgovhk. (n.d.). 政府新聞處 Information Services Department, HKSARG. Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/user/isdgovhk

isdgovhk. (n.d.). See the clear picture. Retrieved from

isdgovhk. (n.d.). 政府新聞處 Information Services Department, HKSARG. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/user/isdgovhk

How is Princess Jasmine from the Animation (1992) Empowered in the Live Action Movie, Aladdin (2019)?

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

By Charlene Lee

The culture of Disney princesses has been globally pervasive for years and it shapes how people see the world. Promoting unrealistic fairy tales, the films are often criticized as reinforcing gender stereotypes. The power imbalance between princesses and male characters is obvious in terms of the ideology of gender performances. Other stereotypical linguistic features are also observable in Disney movies. For examples, the princesses use tag questions frequently, they discuss feelings a lot, and they tend to be submissive in the interactions with men.

The animated Princess Jasmine has been intelligent and witty in Aladdin (1992). Nevertheless, it is still considered to be an underdeveloped and passive role. When it comes to the live-action remake, it is surprisingly to see how the character evolves. Princess Jasmine becomes much aspired and stronger. To examine how Princess Jasmine from the animation is empowered in the 2019 Aladdin, selected lyrics of the new solo “Speechless” are analyzed with a critical discourse analysis. Furthermore, the linguistics features of Princess Jasmines in the two movies are compared, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Analysis on “Speechless”

The lyrics in the second verse and chorus of the song are analyzed descriptively, interpretatively and explanatively.

YouTube link (0:00 – 0:17 & 0:32 – 1:04):

1. Grammatical Structures (Descriptive analysis) & Interpersonal Meanings (Interpretative analysis)

a. A shift from passive voice to active voice

The second verse talks about the rules “being written” for centuries and unbendingly. The use of passive directs the attention to the agent who performs the action. The desperation of Princess Jasmine being powerless to change the law to marry a prince and not to be the sultan is expressed. Her destiny is dictated.

In the chorus, Princess Jasmine says that she won’t “be silenced” and won’t “tremble” and “go speechless”. The shift from passive voice to active voice indicates the reinforcement to herself and her determination to have a voice and to speak up.

b. Direct quotes

“Stay in your place” and “Better seen and not heard” is directly quoted from the character Jafar who is the oppressor to Princess Jasmine. The quoting reveals her anger and dissatisfactions to be condescended.

c. Pronouns

The pronouns “I” and “you” are used to refer to Princess Jasmine herself and the men, such as Jafar and the Sultan. The use of pronouns is indicated as a command of Princess Jasmine to the men to treat her ideals to be worth the consideration. She withholds the permission from them to keep her silenced.

d. Repetition

The word “speechless” and the clause “I know that I won’t go speechless” are repeated in the chorus. The thesis of the speaker Princess Jasmine is stressed on. She reaffirms herself not to stay alive without a voice, and she is confident to speak up for herself, for examples who to marry to, and for the country, that she can be a good leader.

e. Metaphor

The obstacles to get Princess Jasmine’s voice being heard is implied as “storm”. However, the speaker states “no” to refuse being alive as unspoken.

2. Ideology Shift (Explanatory analysis)

The core value of Princess Jasmine endeavouring to fight for true love is shifted into the striving to be a female leader of a kingdom. In Aladdin (1992), Princess Jasmine rebels mostly for marrying a Prince, such as she states, “If I do marry, I want it to be for love”. It complies with traditional gender stereotypes – that female tends to speak about relationships and feelings. While in the live action remake (2019), Princess Jasmine instead criticizes on the forced condescendence by men though “Speechless”. She demonstrates her political ambitions and protests on the forbiddance of females becoming a sultan, the leader of her kingdom. There is a shift of goals and subject matter in her speeches. The traditional gender performance is as well broken down. The song has been the power reclamation of Princess Jasmine. In the 1992 movie, she does not rebut when Jafar describes her as “speechless”. Notwithstanding, the power imbalance between men and women in the context of Agrabah is challenged in her solo.

Analysis on linguistics features

The linguistics features of Princess Jasmine’s speech are categorized into four groups according to the three-wave movement of feminism, from the Deficit group (e.g. talkativeness, weakness), the D/D group (e.g. tag questions, empty adjective, hedges), the Difference group (e.g. sharing problems, offering to help) to the New group (e.g. interruption, imperative forms, disagree). The degree of power is of ascending order from the Deficit group to the New group. The numbers of the linguistics features demonstrated in the two versions of movies are measured and compared.

In Aladdin (1992), the dominant group of characteristics identified is the D/D group. Princess Jasmine uses the forms of questions, empty adjectives and rising intonation turning an utterance into a question most frequently in her speeches (43%). On the contrary, the New group becomes dominant in the 2019 live action remake (51%). The usage of interruption and disagreeing increases for a great proportion.

On the other hand, there are other distinctive features identified in Princess Jasmine’s speeches in Aladdin (2019), they are as follows:

1. Usage of Direct, Face-to-face Insults/ Irony

In the animation, Princess Jasmine insults the princes, the candidates to be her husband, by indirect and satirical commenting in front of her father. Moreover, she uses the tactic shouting to express her anger.

Contrastively, she confronts the princes directly with insults in the live action movie, such as “We have that same title yet are never described the same way”, which are less likely to be ignored. This places her in a more favorable position in rejecting the prince. She also insults Prince Ali with question like “Are you suggesting I am for sale?” This works to devalue the morality of the other speakers and thus weaken the power of theme in the negotiation.

YouTube links:

Indirect insults (0:26 – 0:38):

Shouting (1:58 – 2:06):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p48EKzHNGqo

Direct insults to Prince Andres (0:47 – 1:11):

Direct insults Prince Ali (0:48 – 1:16):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr8J9NNB17c

2. Challenge on Institutional Status

In Aladdin (1992), Jasmine refuses to listen to Jafar’s command when he turns into a sultan by shouting and disagreeing – “We will never bow to you!” While in the 2019 movie, she reacts with the challenge on the Institutional Status in the lengthy monologue. She doubts the surface meaning and dependence of the institutional status of the Sultan, “Our greatest challenge isn’t speaking up against our enemies, but defying those whose approval we seek the most”. The presumed power gradient according to the institutional status is challenged. And that to “defy” unreasonable order and controls is emphasized. This is seemingly a stronger way to resist to power and defend her rights.

YouTube link (0:14 – 1:42):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXMLtJ9InS8&t=28s

All in all, Princess Jasmine is highly empowered in the live action remake of Aladdin with the new solo “Speechless” and strengthened speeches. Not only does she reclaim the power to be heard, she also speaks up to be a leader.

Hong Kong Police Force versus Hong Kong Citizens: Power Asymmetry in Discourse

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

By Chan Ka Hay, Gladys

Hong Kong Police Force (source: Reuters)

An institution is defined as “an interlocking double-structure of persons-as-role-holders or office-bearers and the like, and of social practices involving both expressive and practical aims and outcomes”. In institutional talks, there are asymmetrical speaking rights and obligations for the two sides. The asymmetry in power is demonstrated through the ability for the one of the higher rank to discipline, regulate, or even punish the lower rank. This asymmetry of power could be observed in the interactions between citizens and officers of different police institutions in different countries.

The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF), with no exceptions, has demonstrated institutional talks on multiple occasions towards local citizens. Since June 2019, there has been a wave of democratic movements in Hong Kong. There are frequent conflicts between HKPF and local protestors or citizens. During the conflicts, there are several recurring features in the discourse between the male officers and female citizens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlpYVSrPmt0

Vocabulary

Term 1: Angel (天使 / tin1 si2)

Tin1 si2 means “angel” in Cantonese. However, in Hong Kong, the word has an overtone, meaning “young females that provide sexual services”. The term is first introduced by Fanny Law, member of the Executive Council, stated on air publicly that she received confirmed information about the so-called “frontline angels” in the movements. The concept of “frontline angels” has been circulated among the pro-government camps. Since then, the term tinsi has frequently been used to insult female pro-democratic protesters.

Term 2: Liberal cunt (自由閪 / zi6 jau4 hai1)

The term zi6 jau4 hai1 was first used by an officer of the Special Tactical Squad (STS) of HKPF in June 2019. This is a combination of “freedom / liberal” and “cunt” in Cantonese. In Cantonese, “閪” is a profane word with the meaning of vulva, which could be directly translated into the swear word “cunt” in English. Recorded in a video clip, the STS officer shouted the term towards the crowd of protesters, who were behind a locked glass door of a shopping mall.

Different from the first term angel, this term includes a Cantonese swear word. This could be identified as abusive swearing. According to Pinker (2007), it is used with the intention to offend, intimidate, or cause harm emotionally or psychologically to the target listener.

Content: Verbal Assault

Verbal assault could be observed in the above examples. Bosch (2004) suggests that the methods of verbal assault are used in order to weaken, control, and manipulate another person to create shame, humiliation, hurt, and anger.

The name-calling strategy is used by the HKPF officers by assigning names with sexual overtones like “angel” or “liberal cunt” to female citizens, the HKPF officers’ attempts of belittling their target through the sexual aspect.

Content: Control of Topic

According to Bajner (2006), men are trained to capture power in their interactions, therefore they tend to make attempts to control the topic, even when they only have limited knowledge about the topic. In addition to the institutional power they have as police officers, there are obvious attempts for the male HKPF officers in trying to control the topic. Despite the aim of their speeches is to command the citizens to leave, the irrelevant and sex-related words like “angel”, “cunt” are used by them. Their identities as police officers and male are advantageous for them to control the topic more easily, especially for the act of redirecting the topic from requests for citizens to leave to groundless sexual accusations towards female citizens. By the topic redirection towards the aspect of sex, the male officers of HKPF were in the upper hand in the conversations.

Conclusion

There is a tendency for male officers of the HKPF to employ speeches with sexual overtones towards female citizens. Both verbs (“get fucked”) and nouns (“cunt”, “angel”) used in their speeches are sexually provoking. These preferences of words could be seen as a demonstration of the power of the identities as male police officers.

From the language used by the HKPF in the conversations with female citizens, there are demonstrations of power as both a police officer and a male in the society. These cases have provided evidence of the existence of verbal assault from the officers of the HKPF towards the local citizens, especially towards females. Female citizens, as the disadvantaged side in the asymmetry of power in the aspect of institution and sex, became the easy target of verbal assault of the HKPF officers.

Are you familiar with the language of power?

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Aliver Sheng

Men and women have different social identity so there are different positions of power in society. This position of power is reflected in the discourse to form different gendered languages. A lot of people have these stereotypes: Politeness and talkativeness are female. Analysis and laconicism are male. But they are not accurate. As Fairclough (2001) stated, ideology is closely linked with power, the essence of ideology is rooted in the power relationship behind certain conventions which takes the difference in these rights as a matter of course, a common behavior. And language, as the most common form of social behavior, is closely connected with ideology. People’s classification of male and female language characteristics is always associated with certain social status and gender ideology. You can see how such stereotypes are maintained and challenged in the following part.

Why people think women are more talkative?

Ke and Zhuang (2001) showed the differences in topic preferences between genders. It is pointed out that women tend to look for personal topics while men seek direct information. Direct information filters out overlapping and unnecessary emotional vocabulary so reduce the amount of conversation. On the contrary, chatting is the main way women get information, they use many words to express emotions for support and confirmation when talking personal topics.

Male: issue event > information/message>question>private affairs

Female: private affairs>question>issue event>information/message

The case of gender and amount of talk being linked indirectly rather than directly: the more direct link is with status (Cameron, 2007). Because the dominance of men in society is reflected through the use of self-affirming language strategies such as indicative language. This reflects their interest in gaining and maintaining status. Women’s relative subordination and traditional caregiver roles are expressed through subordinating language strategies such as support and agreement. It reflects their commitment to equality. Additionally, in public places, people with greater power have more right to speak, men generally speak more in this situation, while women are more silent, so the image of women in the eyes of the public should be quieter. Therefore, even if men and women speak the same amount, people still think women are more talkative.

(https://feminaquotes.tumblr.com/post/113252137491/the-talkativeness-of-women-has-been-gauged-in)

Why do people think women language is more polite than men’s?

More rigorous behavior is often accompanied by stronger affiliation. Women are usually in a secondary position relative to men, and because of the higher level of politeness from the bottom up it is considered that women ’s speech are more polite.

The cultivation of men and women ’s roles is by social structures. The behavior of women should reflect the corresponding image of polite and gentle, while the behavior of men should be responsible and strong. These image requirements will affect their language patterns. As Smith and Nancy (1988) stated, Javanese men and women are arranged to speak different languages on different occasions according to their social status. For example, wives are required to use polite language to their husbands and husbands use a less polite form to show their family status and power within family circle. It is worth nothing that husbands describe their wives’ verbal behavior to them as deferential rather than polite in Javanese. Therefore, polite norms can mean humility or respect, but also status and power. Meanwhile, women in Malagasy are not as polite as men because it is a manifestation of their status lower than men. It is what society demands of them. We can see that the code of politeness is not decrypted by gender, but more related to social structure and public power.

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2011/12/19754/are-women-more-polite-than-men/

In all, when we talk about the language characteristics of men and women, we cannot just talk about the differences between men and women. As shown by a large number of studies, we discuss them with social structure and status because some of the characteristics are the gender language brought by the social and cultural shaping of gender roles stereotypes. The issue of language differences between men and women a matter of power relations. Only when we thoroughly understand the different social attitudes and demands on men and women, as well as the unequal social status, can we know the source of stereotypes. Stereotypes are usually not true portrayals but a simplified classification, and these simplified classifications are closely related to cultural hegemony. Stereotypes can be regarded as a kind of social control which is not rigid, but controlled in a manner agreed by the public.

https://www.forbesindia.com/article/harvard-business-school/how-gender-stereotypes-kill-a-womans-selfconfidence/52763/1

References:

Deborah Cameron. (Oct, 2007). Do men and women speak the same language? World news. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/oct/01/gender.books. 

Norman Fairclough. (Jan 2001). Language and Power. Researchgate. Retrieved from:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/49551220_Language_and_Power#fullTextFileContent.

Smith-Hefner, Nancy J., 1988. Women and politeness: The Javanese example. Language in Society 17: 535-554. Retrieved from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4167976?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

柯建志, 莊淳惠. 線上兩性溝通風格研究－由黛伯拉．泰南的觀點談起. 資訊社會研究(1) 頁 121-146，2001年7月. 检自https://ir.nctu.edu.tw/bitstream^[1]/11536/123671/1/200107121146.pdf

Power Relations among Employers and Employees

Posted on May 6, 2020May 6, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

By Hung Ling Kwan

Power struggle exists between employers and employees in the business life. It is important to know the establishment of power relation in business because it is relevant to all of us. Everyone is a potential ‘employer’ or ‘employee’ after graduating from schools. Understanding the langauge and power relation in workplace will promote better communication among superiors and subordinates. With better communication means, it is easier for employers to establish an authortative image in office and be a persuasive leader at work. Indeed, the power relation among employers and employees is asymmetrical in essence. ‘Power’ is the ‘ability to influence decisions which are and are not taken by others’ (Hyman, 1975). It is well known that employer has the right to make business decisions and employees are the ones to enact the company plans. Hence, power is in hands of employers instinctively. However, without effective language use, we cannot say that power is manipulated by the business leaders successfully. It is easy for employeees to disregard employers if they consider them a mate instead of a superior, and they might try to negotiate and disobey the instructed orders. That’s why we should use the conventional mean of communication－language to build up and reinforce our authority in workplace. The use of language is particularly important in terms of handling employee discplinary and it would be shown below.

As proposed by Heritage (1988), every detail in a conversation contributes to social construction. It is further supported by Mehrabian (1981) that 55% of body language, 38% of speaker tone and 7% of the actual content interwine with one another and constitute to be a meaningful speech. Hence, we should not neglect the very detail of a conversation and take them seriously into the account for speech analysis. The analytic approach of Conversation analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis are effective in considering these elements into the examination of speech. While Conversation Analysis examines the talk-in-interactions of speakers and Critical Discourse Analysis deepens speakers’ linguistic strategies (Numa 2007; Simpson, Mayr & Statham, 2019), the features of a conversation could be fully captured and interpreted throughly using this comprehensive analytical methodology.

There’s a video clip featuring a employee discplinary issue and I would like to share my analysis with regard to Conversation analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk2z_eUGlDA)

A few linguistic strategies are adopted throughout the conversation:

Interruption

Interruption is a common linguistic device to gain control and dominance in speaking (Yang, 1996). When dominant speakers consider the contributions of a less powerful person are irrelevant, they disrupt and force others to stop speaking in showing his/her authority.

Topic Control

Powerful speaker would use questions to guide less powerful speaker to certain directions of the topic. By guiding questions, the dominate speaker could directly retrieve information they need and also avoid irrelevant information.

Adjacency pair & Imperative

The adjacency pair is used to illustrate the use of ‘summon and answer’ and there is no choice for the employee to reply a ‘no’to the statement. The employer also uses the imperative language of ‘need’ to indicate the necessity of the command.

Body language (Finger Pointing)

As stated above, body language aids us in emphasising the phrases and convincing the authority (Nicolas Fradet, 2020). This finger pointing gesture is to stress out the importance of message and reinforce the authority of speech.

All in all, language and power are interrelated in workplace communication. We have to manipulate the language effectively to build up power. On the other hand, power also make an impact on speaker’s language use. We could make good use of verbal language and non-verbal behaviors to reinforce power establishment.

Be a brick in children’s play and development: Say NO to LEGO® ’s gendered marketing!

Posted on May 6, 2020May 6, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Hiu Yue Heidi Wong

Toys are the first avenues of experience for children and contribute to many aspects of childhood development by equipping them with a range of physical, cognitive, and social skills (Maccoby, 1998; Reich, Black and Foliaki, 2018). In recent years, however, there has been a significant increase in gendered toys. Among all, The LEGO® Group was criticised for deviating from its traditional gender-neutral marketing ever since its release of the girls’ line LEGO®Friends in 2012. This consequently cultivates stereotypical gender schema in children and perpetuates the prescribed gender roles across generations.

Significance of studying gender stereotyping in children’s toys

The explicit and implicit messages about gender roles in relation to toy play that children received from various socialising agents (e.g. media, parents, and peers) will replicate and reinforce their stereotypical gender schemas for fulfilling the cultural and social expectations of appropriate gender roles and behaviours, which will then be passed on to the next generation. Having identified such an urgent need to stop the permeance of gendered toys in the market, we should take a closer look at LEGO®’s gender-typed advertising of LEGO® Friends through the lens of Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA).

Check this out:

Advertising Video 1 (Ad1): LEGO® Friends Rebrick

Advertising Video 2 (Ad2): LEGO® Friends x五個小孩的「正」綱

MCDA of two Facebook advertising videos of LEGO® Friends

Explicit gender labels

Adjectives

Examples in Advertising Video 1 (Ad1) of LEGO® Friend:

係女仔都想變靚啲，高踭鞋就最Lady!

All girls want to become prettier, like a lady wearing high heels.

佢成日笑到甜絲絲，不如送佢set High Tea?

Let’s prepare her a tea set that resembles her sweet smile!

The positive adjectives “prettier” (comparative form) and “sweet” are used to highlight pretty look and sweet temperament as desirable qualities of girls depicted by the mini-dolls in LEGO® Friends (see Fig. 1.1). This echoes the prevalence of toy make-up kits and dress-up play in the toy sets of LEGO® Friends.

In Advertising Video 2 (Ad2), “wasteful” (see Fig. 1.2) connotes the undesirable behaviour of wasting food. Given a cross-cultural tendency for children to imitate same gender models, the negative image of a “big waster” is demonstrated by a male mini-doll instead of the female protagonists in LEGO® Friends to avoid girls identifying with such bad behaviour. This negatively affects children’s perception of the opposite sex (as shown in Fig. 1.2, the girls despise the male mini-doll portrayed as a ‘big waster’).

Pronouns and collective nouns

Examples in Ad1 (female pronouns):

佢最愛中華白海豚，就砌個海豚樂園比佢喇!

She loves dolphins. Let’s build her a dolphin cruiser!

係?佢好似中意貓咪，貓咪屋岩玩啲!

Really? I think she likes cats, a cat’s playground sounds better!

The prevalent use of female pronouns (e.g. she, her) helps girls identify with the caregiving and animal-loving characteristic portrayed by the mini-dolls in the advertised toy set, which echoes the historical gender segregation of boys’ versus girls’ toys with the breadwinner versus caregiver model.

On the other hand, the use of deictic pronouns (e.g. we, you) and collective nouns (e.g. girls) also serves to cultivate a sense of participation and collectivism in the process of gender identification through toy play.

Examples in Ad1 (deictic pronouns):

我地比啲surprise佢囉！

Let’s (let us) give her a big surprise!

咁索性砌番間屋仔，入面賣雞蛋仔囉！

Why don’t we build a snack shop and sell egg waffles?

The use of the deictic pronouns allows the ad the sound more inviting as if the target audience (i.e. girls) are also taking part in the social conversation and activities performed by the mini-dolls in the ad.

Examples in Ad1 (collective nouns):

係女仔都想變靚啲，高踭鞋就最Lady!

All girls want to become prettier, like a lady wearing high heels.

Example in Ad2 (collective noun):

The use of the collective noun “girls” makes LEGO® Friends stands out as a girls’ toy and exclues boys from the toy play experience demonstrated in the ad. In Ad1, viewers’ attention is drawn to the aforementioned gender ideology on girls’ appearance and attractiveness. In Ad2, the slogan (see Fig. 1.3) highlights the creative and imaginative power of girls and keeps in line with LEGO® ’s mission of developing children as “creative, engaged, lifelong learners” (The LEGO Foundation, 2017). However, it also places boys in a disadvantaged position to be engaged in the creative and imaginative play opportunities brought by the LEGO® Friends series.

Implicit gender labels

Colour

The trend of “pinkification” in children’s toys not only attracts girls to toys designed and packaged with pastel colours, but also discourages boys to avoid playing with pinkified toys regardless of which gender it has been marked with.

Examples of pinkification in LEGO® Friends and its ads:

The use of a range of pastel colours (with pink and purple as the theme colours) are showcased in both product design and visual representation of the advertisements. In Ad1 (see Fig. 2.1), Pinkification is manifested in toys’ packaging, outfits of mini-dolls, and the decorative style of the room where the advertising video was filmed (i.e. pink pillow and purple wall). In Ad2, the interviewed girls dressed in outfits of pastel colours (and dresses, of course) to fit into the gender norms of girl fashion.

Font style

Past research suggested that script type fonts are associated with femininity, while display type fonts are associated with masculinity. In Fig 2.7, LEGO® Friends’ logo features a cursive and script type font coloured in purple with pink shades. The dot in ‘i’ appears in heart shape alongside the butterfly on top of ‘s’. This logo design captures the essence of femininity, thus serves as a subtle yet effective gendering tool for meeting the purpose of gendered marketing.

Product design

Mini-dolls as gender models

The mini-dolls in LEGO® Friends (see Fig 1.1) deviate from the appearance of the traditional LEGO® minifigs in that they are less blocky in body shape, looking more humanlike and stylish with the refined details of facial expressions, facial make-up and fashionable accessories. These stereotypical mini-dolls also mark distinction in gender roles, exemplify gender-appropriate activities, and influence children’s visions of their adult roles in both workplace and family contexts.

Suggested activities for play

Historically, feminine toys place an emphasis on nurturing and domesticity by engaging players in feminised labor and household activities that include baking and serving food, as well as caregiving (both human and animals). Later on with the prevalence of fashion dolls in the market, elements of glamour, entertainment and socialising are also recognised as common features in feminine toys. With all these markers of suggested activities for play shared among girls’ toys, children are directed to replicate and adopt the historical gender norms such as women domesticity and pursuit of beauty.

Examples in Ad 1:

In Fig 4.1, leisure and entertainment are highly recognised in different toy sets of the LEGO® Friends series. For instance, Ad1 showcases toy sets of a cafe, two playgrounds, and a dolphin cruiser, which seem to present leisure and socialising activities as the only options for girls’ play.

Examples in Ad2:

Fig 4.2 captures the enjoyment of the girls who are engaged in cooperative play in building and decorating the doll’s house with their peers. From their smiles and laughters, a friendly relationship between the girls is observed and it echoes the name of the LEGO® Friends series. However, Ad2 is still considered gender-typed in a way that it includes girls as the only participants in cooperative toy play. As much as how it may reinforce the feminine roles of caregiving, socialising, and domestic labouring in girls, Ad2 excludes boys’ participation in these activities and exploits their showcase of creativity and imagination through cooperative toy play with LEGO® Friends.

Implications and conclusion

Toys reinforce and perpetuate segregation of gender, as demonstrated in the above discussions of plentiful semiotic resources (e.g. language, colour, font style and product design) used in two advertising videos of LEGO® Friends. Although LEGO® ’s marketing has foregrounded caregiving, domesticity, entertainment and cooperative relationships as the core values of creative toy play, these values could be gender-biased when manifested in gendered marketing of toys that consequently leads to children’s limited play experiences and exacerbates the segregation and asymmetry of gender in adulthood. As more mature members in the society, we are responsible for limiting, monitoring, and challenging children’s exposure to different mediums of advertising where gender-typing is observed. In the meantime, members in the toy industry are also responsible for upholding gender equality through gender-neutral marketing of toys so that the existing gender stereotypes will not ingrain in children’s gender schema and affect their choices of roles to take in adulthood. Together we should all aim to facilitate children’s growth in a less gender-segregated environment so as to help them become more open-minded individuals and embrace diversity in not just toy plays, but all kinds of experiences in life.

Tags: Language and Gender, Gendered marketing of toys, Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis

References

Maccoby, E. E. (1998). The two sexes: Growing up apart, coming together. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Reich, S., Black, M., & Foliaki, R. (2018). Constructing Difference: Lego® Set Narratives Promote Stereotypic Gender Roles and Play. Sex Roles, 79(5), 285-298.