Language Culture and Society in Hong Kong (and beyond)

‘Slacktivism’ and social media

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Jason Szeto

With the advanced development of social media, it has allowed us to do in terms of communication and action that we were not able to do before. With social media, we can easily search for any information we need, get to know any breaking news around the globe or even catch up with our friends through different applications. Social media, like Facebook or Instagram, has greatly brought people closer in this modern era.

Social media seems beneficial and has no drawbacks. Nowadays, people can express their opinions and even vote on the Internet. Many websites and new platforms have integrated social media sites such as Twitter into their interface, allowing people to easily ‘like’ and ‘share’ about something interesting they saw on the Internet. People can now express their comments about social or political issues with nothing more than one click of a mouse, raising the concern of what is being achieved by these actions when very little thought or effort is required while high levels of political and civic participation keep increasing together with the rapid growth of social media websites.

The term ‘slacktivism’ is then created and is used to describe people who want to be activists while slacking at the same time. One of the examples where the phenomenon of slacktivism was identified would be the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. It had swept through the globe in 2014 for the release of a group of Nigerian schoolgirls that were kidnapped by a local Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram (BH). Activists carried out demonstrations in Abuja and the incident gone viral on Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. Countless netizens like and retweet posts with the above hashtag and hope to raise awareness in the public and other countries’ intervention. Most importantly, to force the Nigeria government to rescue the kidnapped girls as soon as it can.

The #BringBackOurGirls campaign was effective in raising others’ awareness but it was regarded as a failure as some schoolgirls are still missing now. Many of the campaign participants failed to provide any plausible solutions for the current situation. They like, retweet and share their opinions on Twitter and Facebook with little effort is required but considering a great accomplishment in return for their actions behind.

Yet, forms of ‘Slacktivism’ can still be an opportunity for causes to gain more awareness, like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that was launched in 2014. The campaign went viral and many celebrities participated in the campaign too. It ignited much attention around the world and successfully raised a considerable amount of money for future research of the disease. Still, launching campaigns on the Internet becomes the trend now. We can say that people who engage in slacktivism are not doing enough but at least, it is a great start and may lead to actual activism, thus having powerful real-world impacts as time goes by.

Power Asymmetry in Doctor-Patient Interactions

Posted on May 4, 2020May 4, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

By Carrie Chan

As citizens, we must have had certain experience in medical encounters or interactions in our daily lives. In institutional talks like business meetings, doctor-patient talks and political interviews, ‘institution’, ‘discourse’ (language) and ‘power’ are interconnected and language serves as the ‘principal means by which organizational members create a coherent social reality that frames their sense of who they are’ (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997, p. 181). Besides, every participant in institutional talks possesses specific goal orientations in order to match with their social roles. However, we might not be aware of the fact that power asymmetry does exist during the interactions since linguistic resources are employed in the process to make the power differences seem ‘pre-inscribed’. In that case, we as patients are usually at a more ‘inferior’ position while the doctors are more powerful since they possess the professional knowledge in medical science.

In fact, in the realm of language and power, a combination of Conversation Analysis (CA) which studies talk-in interactions at a micro-level as well as Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) which places the emphasis on describing, detailing and analysing linguistic features during talks could be used to help unfold the ‘generally hidden determinants’ during social interactions (Simpson et al., 2018). With these two methods, some common linguistic features that demonstrate the power asymmetry are found in doctor-patient interactions. They are ‘Topic control’, ‘Enforcing explicitness’, ‘Interruption’ suggested by Fairclough (1989, pp. 135-137) and a rhetorical device called ‘hedging’.

Topic Control

During the consultation, the doctor is usually the one controlling the sequences using a cycle of questions to elicit responses from the patient and the patients are bound to answer them. When answering these ‘closed’ questions asked by the doctors, the patients’ contributions are restrained since they are limited to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ or give brief responses.

Enforcing Explicitness

Patients as the less powerful speakers are usually asked to disambiguate the responses, explain with further details and make the ‘vague’ answers explicit. In order to cooperate and meet the social goals, the patients have to provide a clarification and be enforced to describe their conditions as requested by the doctors.

Interruption Interruption indicated by speech overlaps is also commonly found in everyday talks as well as doctor-patient interactions and it is somehow regarded as ‘normal’ and ‘natural’. For example, when a patient is making his turn or answering the doctor’s question, the doctor may interrupt without allowing him or her to finish the turn since the doctor knows what might be an ‘adequate’ answer for him to do the diagnosis.

Hedging

Apart from the above three devices, ‘Hedging’ is a linguistic device used by the patient where a mitigating word is used in the utterance to soften the tone or certainty (Brown & Levinson, 1987). Sometimes when patients are describing their conditions, words such as “I think” or “like” are used to hedge their speeches. Even though the patients possess the ‘superior knowledge’ about how they feel, they still choose to hedge the speech by uncertainty markers to downplay the certainty without ‘challenging’ the doctor whom they think possess professional knowledge in giving diagnosis.

From the above devices identified in doctor-patient interactions, it is shown that they serve as good examples that illustrate how power asymmetry is being ‘naturalized’ in institutional talks. Even patients possess ‘superior knowledge’ of how they feel, they would still align with the mainstream thinking that doctors are the more powerful figure during the interactions since they have professional recognition in medical science. Through critically picking out details from the above talk-in interactions, asymmetrical speaking rights, obligations and power differences in institutional talks could be brought to light.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of the 2016 US Election TV Debate

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Peifeier Rao

This article will analyze the language strategies used by Hillary and Trump and the ideological significance hidden behind their language from the perspective of critical discourse analysis (CDA). When focusing on the text, it gives more attention to the choices and patterns in vocabulary. The following context will mainly analyze the text itself from three aspects: the use of personal pronouns, transitivity and metaphor.

From the use of personal pronouns, the choice of different titles reflects the attitude and ideology of speaker. This article selects the first topic of the first TV debate, achieving prosperity, to count the frequency of personal pronouns used in it:

*Personal Pronouns*	I/me/my	You/your	We/us /our	They/them/their
Clinton	94	53	74	17
Trump	89	99	90	44

It is clear that the frequency of the first-person plural form “we/us/our” in Clinton and Trump’s discourse is ranked second. Both they used the first-person plural form “we/us/our”, narrowed the distance between the speaker and the voters, and won goodwill. “I/me/my” as the most used personal pronoun of Clinton, indicates that Clinton is more expressing her political views and showing her political wisdom, while Trump uses the second person “you/your” most, which refers to different objects.

Transitivity expresses people experience and knowledge in reality and the inner world and points out the participants and environmental components in various processes. The article also cites the first topic in first debate, achieving prosperity, to compare:

*Material process*	Metal process	Relational process	Behavioral process	Verbal process	Existential process
80	79	76	0	12	5
100	46	155	0	16	4

In terms of transitivity, Clinton used material processes, using a lot of real verbs to explain the measures she would take to achieve American prosperity, showing her political ability and self-confidence, thus winning more support. Trump often uses the relational process to show his understanding of the current state of the US economy and dispel voters’ doubts about him.

Metaphor is an important information processing tool that can simplify a large amount of complex and abstract information into easy-to-understand language, so that voters can better understand and accept, narrow the distance between candidates and voters, and achieve good political advice admonishment effect. There are four most important metaphors in election debate. The travel metaphor maps the characteristics of travel to the target domain, which is widely used in political speech and is a representative conceptual metaphor: Developing a country is a journey. The war metaphor maps the characteristics of war to the target domain. Architectural metaphor is to map the characteristics of architecture to the target domain, which has a corresponding structure and structure in terms of organization and internal structure. Body metaphor also become an important political metaphor for explaining political terms. It considers country/city as a human being, possessing human character and physiological status. Human organs are also used to refer to the different structures and functions of countries and organizations. The various use of metaphors in Clinton and Trump’s political speeches and debates not only helps explain and express their own ideas, demonstrates your strengths, but also helps voters understand political terms and make more sensible and clear choices.

In conclusion, the organization and wise use of language can effectively help candidates communicate their ideas to voters and attract them to vote more for candidates. By analyzing the linguistic elements in the television debates between Clinton and Trump, we can find the two speakers’ completely different speech styles and their ingenious intentions during the campaign.

Understanding power relations in the institutional language context: Carrie Lam’s official statement on COVID-19

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Lorraine Luo

Social institutions are all around people’s lives and they have the immense power to control and shape how people talk and think in particular ways. The government is one of the most significant social institutions and the governmental language discourses reflect the institutional power relations between the participants and in turn are shaped by the power control (Mayr, 2008).

The outburst of the COVID-19 epidemic is one of the hottest topics recently world-wide. Hong Kong had been through a tough time defeating this disease and the chief executive made her official statement through her website on January 25^th, 2020 to report the government’s recent control measures, to explain the current situations, and to encourage the citizens to stay strong together fighting the decease.

(Article link: https://www.ceo.gov.hk/eng/pdf/article20200225.pdf)

Through the Critical Discourse Analysis on this text, it can be discovered that the textual elements are carefully designed: formal expressions and precise grammar such as “we dare not underestimate its severity” (line 9, page 1), “accorded top priority” (line 1-2, page 4) and a variety of subordinate clauses are applied in this decent governmental official article. These textual factors present how the governmental chief pays attention to her manners of speaking/writing in order to perform appropriately as the chief leader. Also, the discursive variables in the CDA of this article suggest that the institutional language discourses apply nominalizations (“Multiple measures are taken…”, line 12, page 1) to mitigate the agents of the activities/issues and this is a typical official manner of speaking since the governmental spokespersons need to avoid giving out too many details of the administrative information which are confidential. Apart from that, Carrie Lam in the last paragraph of this article encourages the citizens using a direct quotation from an expert who dedicated himself to the battle against the epidemic. This is another discursive practice of intertextuality to increase this article’s authenticity and the power of persuasion. Last but not least, Carrie Lam in this article is reporting on behalf of the HKSAR and she takes the role as the representative of the government in the stance-taking analysis. Therefore, she speaks in a formal and official tone and this indicates the power distance between the participants (the government and the citizens).

What’s more, the information content in this article has been filtered and carefully chosen before announcing it to the public. This governmental statement did not include any negative information about any mistakes or their dereliction of duty in the fight against the disease. For example, in this article, Carrie Lam reports the effective control measures that the HKSAR government has taken but did not mention their negligence of not carrying out a timely overseas entrance restriction in early February which resulted in the rapid growth of imported infection cases.

We can see from this article that the governmental announcement carefully designs its language use and the information content. They report the important relevant events but do not provide much in detail; they pay attention to their tone and use official and less emotional expressions; they manipulate and filtrate the information to report the ones that are in favor of them. It can be concluded that, power controls and shapes how the language is used in institutional contexts and the linguistic properties of the institutional language reflect the power relations and distance between the participants in the social hierarchical structure. This mutual influence between power and language can be found not only in the institutional discourses but also in many other types of contexts such as in the social media languages, in the legalese, etc. Power influences the language use to control and rule how people think and talk. We need to consider this effect before accepting the information from another agent in order to explore the truth, the unbiased facts and the authenticity.

How the power of a politician is established in media discourse

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

(Comparing how the two Hong Kong ideologically opposed newspapers –Tai Kung Pao and The Apple’s Daily report the same incident by different linguistic strategies)

by Queenie Tsang

Nowadays, media discourse has become one of the most influential instrument for politicians to execute power and impose mind control over the audience. In order to understand the relation between media discourse and power construction, this article aims at comparing how the two Hong Kong ideologically opposed newspapers –Tai Kung Pao and The Apple’s Daily report the same incident (the conflict between Hong Kong police and student protestors on Hong Kong Chinese University Campus)^[1] by means of different discourse structures and linguistic strategies, including the global structure (headline), the microstructures (lexical choices and transitivity) as well as the inclusion of quotations. As a matter of fact, a newspaper is always affiliated to a particular political party, so different newspapers have different political biases. In this paper, Tai Kung Pao and The Apple’s Daily represent the two different political parties and ideologies. The former represents the Pro-Beijing Camp whereas the latter represents the Pro-Democracy Camp. Since Tai Kung Pao and The Apple’s Daily are the mainstream newspapers which have gained a foothold in Hong Kong news media and a high popularity amongst the readers of different ages, they are always the best choices for analysis, and more importantly, they can reflect the political reality in Hong Kong. A mini critical discourse analysis (CDA) is conducted to investigate how different discourse structures and linguistic strategies are employed in the two newspapers.

^[1] To read the online article from Tai Kung Pao, you can click the link below. (http://www.takungpao.com.hk/news/232109/2019/1113/373492.html)

To read the online article from The Apple’s Daily, you can click the link below.

https://hk.appledaily.com/local/20191113/ENYII43TF42JPDVRJAF72KV7KY/

A mini critical discourse analysis (CDA) is conducted to investigate how different discourse structures and linguistic strategies are employed in the two newspapers.

The analysis showed the following two major results.

In general, the first result indicated that although, theoretically speaking, a paper’s affiliation to a particular political party should not affect how a news story is reported, but, in reality, the newspaper text is strictly biased. In detail, the second result showed that by using different linguistic strategies, Tai Kung Pao and The Apple’s Daily have shown a totally different political standpoint and constructed a different political reality in readers’ mind. Tai Kung Pao upholds the beliefs of social stability and support the Hong Kong police’s acts upon the protestors, whereas The Apple’s Daily advocates the beliefs of democracy, freedom and support the student protestors’ acts.

Concerning the linguistic strategies, in terms of the global structure (headline), the two newspapers use different terms to describe the same incident. In particular, the roles and behaviors of the participants in the headlines are different. Tai Kung Pao identified mainland students and Hong Kong police as victim and student protestors as aggressor. In contrast, The Apple’s Daily identified student protestors as victim and Hong Kong police as aggressor. As for the microstructures, both Tai Kung Pao and The Apple’s Daily have highlighted the uses of metaphors, action verbs and numbers to shape the readers’ perception towards the participants involved in the incident and the incident as a whole. Apparently, they use the aforementioned three strategies (metaphors, action verbs and numbers) to highlight the offensive behaviors of the agent and arouse sympathy towards the patient from the readers. It is noted that the behaviors of the agent are always negative and aggressive. Besides these, transitivity is employed in the two texts. Concerning the role, Tai Kung Pao highlighted the student protestors as agent and the police as patient. On the contrary, the role reverse in The Apple’s Daily. Lastly, quotations are also used in the two texts to affect the readers’ interpretation of the same incident. Tai Kung Pao uses more primary sources and direct quotations to make the information appear to be more reliable. All these linguistic strategies are worked together to manipulate the readers’ thought and reinforce their political bias.

To conclude, it is realized that a newspaper is affiliated with a particular political party. So, the same incident reported by the two newspapers can be totally different. At the same time, it is interesting to note that political party often employs different linguistic strategies to affect readers’ perception of what happened to whom in the event. In the analysis, it is observed that the political standpoint and ideology are widely presented to readers through media discourse. Once the readers accept the political ideology, they will follow it and disseminate it to others. When a political party succeeds to establish its power and reinforce its ideologies in readers’ mind, such intangible power will lead to conflict and separatism between groups in society. For example, in Hong Kong, there are two different political groups which are ‘blue ribbon’ and ‘yellow ribbon’. The former represents the Pro-Beijing Camp whereas the latter represents the Pro-Democracy Camp. They not only represent different political parties, but also strengthen a particular political belief in society.

“Should Chinese boys protect Chinese girls?” – An analysis of language and power in Chinese gender relationships

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Amber Liu

Gender relationship is always a remarkable issue in the world over the years. As a country of East Asia, male chauvinism is a common phenomenon in China due to ancient social structures which refers to men are in power in their families. It seems that women are “the vulnerable” while men often have power in labour market, family, economy and so on, reflecting that gender equality still exists. (Attané, 2012). Recently, a Chinese expert, Yiyong YANG, drafted the “Regulations on the administration of permanent residence of foreigners.” He put forward that “encouraging Chinese girls to marry with foreigners,” which caused lots of public voices. People began to discuss their ideas about Chinese gender relation on the internet, suspecting that “whether Chinese boys can protect Chinese girls or not”, or “is Chinese boys not satisfactory?”

My project focused on the data from people of different genders who left comments on the internet, which is authentic and represents their real thoughts meanwhile, reflecting ideas about language, gender and power. After reading this article, people may further understand Chinese gender relationship by analyzing the data and contextual background.

Analytical method

Critical Discourse Analysis, Appraisal, Stance were used in order to analyze the data and discussions with reflections were also provided.

Content analysis – the problem of opinion on public affairs

Cited from Tik Tok, some boys put forward their ideas, which is just like a ridiculous slogan and there is no doubt that his stance is male and he wants to “protect” the girls. (see the right picture). However, in my opinion, it is not a meaningful action because he didn’t explain what is “protect the girls” and how to “protect” the girls. What’s more, in the left picture, when talking about domestic violence, the male even replied that “these are issues between the wife and the husband, which is not related to me.” It is obvious that some Chinese males still put themselves in a power position that is higher than girls. Men are ought to shoulder the burden, knowing that they should not violate or rape women, and pay close attention to these issues. If each man knows that they should not think they are higher than women, the discrimination and inequality can be improved gradually.

In a Wechat official account, an author wrote an article called “Do Chinese boys protect Chinese girls?” In the context, she listed lots of official news which shows how males encroach on females: raped girls under age, took pictures underneath girls’ skirts, put dizzy drugs into girl’s bowls or bottles, did sexual harassment to female students, tracked after girls at night, beat up girls due to different reasons……She also said, “if you really care about girls and want to protect them, you will not only afraid of them marrying with foreigners, instead, practical actions are required. Why are you silent? Chinese girls don’t belong to Chinese boys, they merely belong to themselves!” (Zhang, 2020). As a female, the author stood on the stance of girls, arguing that girls are still in a subordinate class. In addition, it seems that men have much power and they didn’t really protect Chinese girls. However, in comment sections, many contradictions and evaluations appeared due to different stances: many girls commented and supported that “yes, Chinese girls don’t need the protection of boys and shouldn’t be discriminated, humiliated and hurt.” When we see males’ comments, they are quite different. “The article is overgeneralization and the author has gender opposition thoughts. Nice boys will feel sad if they read this article.” “So the boys in your life are all like these ones?”……as we can see, females agree with the content because the discrimination and inequality do exist, which is their stance. In boys’ viewpoint, they think the author points the finger at men, accusing them. I can totally understand these appraisals because of different stances. Thus, an objective compromise should be reached between genders.

Solutions

When males and females discuss gender relationships on the internet, some people also represent what Chinese girls really need, such as equal employment, freedom and so on. In Weibo, a blogger also published a microblog: “For Chinese boys, it is easier to protect girls than you imagined. For example, if a girl was raped, don’t think that she wears skimpy clothes or says some erotic words. You need to make a sound, condemning that man; if a girl didn’t get the chance to study or work, don’t think it is common and please refute the boys who are discriminating girls; if a girl suffered from domestic violence, don’t think that it is not related to you and please try to help girls, opposing those boys who are indifferent about the issue; after marrying with a girl, don’t be male chauvinism and please do housework, take care of children and talk about future together with her……” The blogger stands by the stances of girls, stating that only changing people’s senses can gender relationship be improved. I also approve that it is important for males to make sound, which can set an example, telling others what males should do. However, nowadays, the bad things done by a part of males represents all males. Therefore, females expect males to make sound like “if you think you are represented by bad males, please express your ideas towards females.”

Conclusion

In conclusion, this essay uses a new regulation as a background, analyzing the data from social media and concluding the word “protect” and gender relationship. Because the topic of this essay is “should Chinese boys protect Chinese girls”, the word “protect” should be redefined: “protect” means respect, equality, trust, freedom and being treated as an independent individual. Chinese girls can marry with whoever they like. Everyone can express their thoughts with justice, which can improve gender relationship.

Although the difference and discrimination could not be changed or eliminated in one day, everyone has the duty to diffuse the notions and actions about equality.

References:

Attané ,Isabelle . (2012). Being a Woman in China Today: A Demography of Gender. China perspectives,2012(4).

Zhang, duidui. (2020). Do Chinese boys protect Chinese girls? Retrieved April 25^th,2020 from https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/UIeVfBW-Alio5Cuxq7eu1Q.

The Power Imbalance between Doctors and Patients in the Medical Setting: A case study

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

By Rachael Lee

(Picture retrieved from: https://media.beam.usnews.com/2d/a9/bd9e71c140ad845d6a5e2ac3fb01/140508-doctorpatientsymptoms-stock.jpg)

There is no doubt that everyone has the experience of visiting a doctor and not every visit is pleasant. Some frustrating situations a patient may encounter include not having a chance to ask questions, doctors having a cold tone and so on. Yet, the communication between the patient and the doctor is important as through effective communication, the patient can tell how s/he is feeling and the doctor can make the diagnosis accordingly. A breakdown of communication during consultations is undesirable and should be avoided as it would affect the doctor’s diagnosis and the patient’s recovery. It is also regarded as one of the major causes of medical malpractice. Knowing the importance of effective communication between the doctor and the patient, we are going to look into the power imbalance reflected in the medical discourse by analyzing a video recording of a patient’s medical appointment.

Youtube link (00:00-3:27) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWFVT-fUafQ&t=361s

The consultation could be broken down into three stages: questioning, physical examination and follow up.

1. Questioning

a. Question-answer sequence- adjacency pairs

At the beginning of the consultation, doctors would start by asking the patient some questions regarding his/her symptoms. This kind of question-answer sequence is regarded as adjacency pairs, which are utterance produced by two speakers in a turn-taking base. One of the examples of adjacency pairs from the video would be:

Doc: Well have you still got phlegm?

H: Hmm yes

Doc: Yellow?

H: Well, yellowy greeny

b. Topic control

Patients usually would raise their concerns at the questioning stage. However, doctors have the power to deicide whether they want to develop the issue raised by the patient or not. The doctor can temporarily put aside the question-answer sequence to address the patient’s concern or simply dismiss it. This is regarded as topic control, which is one of the tactics used by a more powerful group in a conversation in an institutional setting.

(Photo retrieved from: https://media.tenor.com/images/745a80469a59da413c6f35c5a8b1f8be/tenor.png)

c. Interruptions

As mentioned earlier, patients would raise their concern during the questioning stage. Apart from not addressing the newly raised issue, doctors can interrupt the patient when s/he is speaking and direct him back to the original question-answer chain if doctors find it irrelevant. One of the examples in the video shows that the doctor, who is the dominant speaker, ignores the patient’s contribution.

Doc: Any blood?

H: Hmm..well..it really look…

Doc: Any blood?

H: Hmm no

(Photo retrieved from: https://cdn.someecards.com/someecards/usercards/1327152439536_7131458.png)

2. Physical examination

a. Online commentary

When the doctor is physically examining the patient, they would provide comments in which they assess and evaluate some physical signs and such commentary is regard as online commentary. These online commentaries are used to forecast a “no problem”.

(Photo retrieved from:
https://www.glasbergen.com/wp-content/gallery/doctor-cartoons/Toon-12337.gif

Sometimes, during the examination, the patient would try to offer his/her explanation by using “do you think…”. Patients show tentativeness about the explanation they suggested as they are aware of their subordinate position and the doctor’s professional role.

H: Do you think it is bronchitis?

Doc: Sorry?

H: Do you think it is bronchitis

(Photo retrieved from:
https://www.glasbergen.com/wp-content/gallery/healthcare-cartoons/toon-3368.gif)

b. Subject of examination

The power imbalance is conveyed through presenting the patients as objects to be inspected, examined and manipulated by doctors. In the video, the doctor treated the patient like an object by turning the patient around without asking and neglecting her feelings by asking her to take off her top while the doctor can continue his process by only lifting her shirt up.

3. Follow up

a. Pre-closing moves

Doctors would have some pre-closing moves to suggest it is almost the end of the consultation. These pre-closing moves include making arrangements for tests and scheduling for a next visit if necessary. It is worth noting that sometimes the patient would subtly hint the doctor to influence the doctor’s prescription.

(Photo retrieved from:
https://www.glasbergen.com/wp-content/gallery/healthcare-cartoons/toon-3602.gif)

Although the patient is aware of his/her subordinate state, these actions can be seen as them bargaining for power and trying to take control of some aspects for instance having prescribed more antibiotics or having a diagnostic test

To conclude, there is a power imbalance between doctors and patients in the medical discourse, as doctors have more power and authority due to their social status and professional medical knowledge. Yet, such asymmetrical talk within the institute is not beneficial to the patients and doctors should encourage patients to express their feelings to achieve effective communication.

Deconstructing Modern Gender Relations in Marriage Story (2019)

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

By Florence Wong

In a divorce, the man is often seen as the victimizer. People tend to be more sympathetic to the wife since the rise of feminism. Meanwhile, people are still skeptical about it. Today, some still believe that feminism is about women neglecting their domestic roles and taking over men’s positions. Social conventions place pressure on both sexes. Both sexes are the victims under the system. Through media representations, we get a glimpse into how social conventions affect discourse. As defined by Michel Foucalt, discourses are “forms of subjectivity and power relations which inhere in such knowledges and relations between them.” (Weedon, 1987) Media is one representation of the reality using discourses and tells us about social practices in the current era. In order to illustrate the discourse communities of men and women, and their power relations, excerpts from Marriage Story (2019) are analyzed using Critical Discourse Analysis below.

Excerpts from Marriage Story (2019):

Nicole’s monologue: 28:04-30:35

Arguments between Charlie and Nicole: 1:10:48-1:11:51 and 1:34:26-1:39:16

The Courtroom scene: 1:25:16-1:27:51

Nora’s speech: 1:45:04–1:46:26

Use of pronouns

Inclusive and othering pronouns are indications of the characters’ sense of self. As the embodiment of modern women, Nicole has a strong sense of self. She distinguishes between “I” and “he” or “his” in her monologue. However, she is torn between her sense of self and the social expectation of married woman. Charlie, on the other hand, appears to be more self-centered and possessive. Although he emphasizes that they are a “we”, it only represents Charlie’s ego. Unconsciously, he has a patriarchal mindset in which he sees Nicole, a female, as subordinate.

2. Determiners

The use of determiners reveals Nicole’s strong self-awareness. She uses of the article “the” and the determiner, “that” to show the difference between life before and after marriage. Before, she is “the actress, the star”. Now, she is only “that actress who was in that thing that time”. The use of “that” shows a sense of carelessness while “the” indicates a sense of insistence on a specific person.

3. Naming strategy

The naming strategy reveals how the characters in the movie see themselves in gender relations and criticizes the problematic gender norms that confines women into domesticity. Gendered terms such as “mother” and “wife” are used by Nicole and Nora. Nicole sees herself as “George Harrison’s wife” and “a mother”. In court, Nora says that Nicole has sacrificed a lot because of “Charlie’s bequest to be a mother”. From a male perspective, women are seen as less intelligent than men. In court, Jay names Nicole as “the girl in that college sex movie who takes her top off” while Charlie is named as “a well-regarded, up and coming director of the avant-garde”. The male and female protagonists are given very different attributes despite the similarity of their works.

However, the naming strategy also shows the inequality of men in a divorce. In Jay’s defense of Charlie, he says that Nora is referring Charlie as the director of “a ramshackled downtown dump” when she is arguing custody. When she wants more money, Charlie suddenly becomes a “big rich genius Broadway director”. Men always occupy an inferior position in divorce. Society expects men to be strong and independent. They have difficulties gaining sympathy and often seen as the victimizer in the relationship.

4. Metaphor

The use of metaphor in Nora’s discourse shows the unfairness of gender norms towards the two sexes. People can “accept an imperfect dad” but not “a mother who drinks too much wine and yells at her child and calls him an asshole”. The reason is our problematic belief system. The metaphorical expression alludes to the Biblical story of the Holy Birth which also conveys a sense of sarcasm towards religion and its effects on the norms. Its sacrilege to Christianity makes Nora’s statement bolder.

5. Cohesion

The cohesion in the arguments between Charlie and Nicole shows the increase in female’s power in the battle between the sexes. Repetition of words and reiteration of synonyms are often used. When Nicole confronts Charlie about his affair, she uses the word “surprise” thrice to create a sense of irony. She wants to prove that she is equal in power as Charlie. In another argument, Charlie tries to justify himself by making Nicole the insatiable villain. He uses the word “voice” for three times. It seems to be an act against feminism which often emphasizes on female’s voice. Also, the two uses offensive words like “regressed” and “villain”. Both of them are trying to surpass one another. It shows the hatred between the couple and reveals the increase in gender equality in relationships.

6. Modality

For modality, it shows the problem of modern relationship. Conflicts can be solved if the two has better communication. They believe their spouses are the ones who want to get married but actually, both of them do not. In Nicole’s monologue, she uses the hedge, “really” twice. It seems like she is doubting her past decisions and realizes that it is naïve to get married so soon. For Charlie, he confesses that “there’s so much more I could have done” but it is Nicole who “wanted so much so fast” and he “didn’t even want to get married.” in his argument with Nicole. Both of them refuse to share their real thoughts. When they cannot hold these secrets anymore, their relationship collapses.

Conclusion

Although Marriage Story is just a media portrayal of the reality, it is a version of reality from the director’s eyes that we should be aware of. Skeptical as it seems, the public is not fully liberated towards feminism. The conventions of gender roles are still deeply rooted. They do not just affect the society but gender relations, causing more disputes between the two sexes. The problem is never the oppression of women but the oppression of equality for the whole humanity.

Power Negotiations Between the Police and Journalists in Hong Kong

Posted on April 24, 2020April 24, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Janice Hon

Journalism and politics have great influence in society. They are mutually connected to and dependent on each other. Due to the recent political situation in Hong Kong, the relationship between politicians, including the police force, and journalists has changed. A lot of press conferences were also held these days for reporting and presenting details of political incidents. Clayman and Heritage (2002) mentioned that the linguistic styles in political interviews have changed and “conversationalized” ,and the social distance between politicians and journalists has been reduced. In order to investigate the situation in Hong Kong, we are going to look into the conversation between the police representatives and some journalists during the Q&A session of the police press conference with regard to the “721 Yuen Long Attack” (See the video below). Several interactional patterns that shape their power relations are found by close conversation analysis of the data.

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwr-1vfRgNY

1. Journalists as “questioners” set the agenda

Journalists took the role of “questioners” and restricted what the police could answer in the next turn at the beginning of the Q&A session. They frame the topics and set the agenda of the following interaction by asking questions based on what the general public would like to know.

2. Police resisted by “asking for permission”The police made use of a strategy of “asking for permission” so as to sustain their turn and power. They are aware of the powerful position of journalists within the interaction. However, the police do not do that to simply admit their less powerful position. Instead, this strategy could smartly turn the police from the less powerful position to a position with advantage.

Picture source 1: Sing Tao Daily 2: RTHK Live video 20190723

3. Adjacency pairs allowed journalists to re-negotiate the agenda

Adjacency pairs were seen from the interaction when the police requested permission and journalists granted or rejected the approval. Journalists have a chance to re-negotiate the agenda and the power relationships, especially by rejecting the request.

4. Inserted sequences were used by both sides to sustain themselves as “questioners”

Inserted sequences were found throughout the interaction. Both the police and journalists tried to make use of inserted sequences with an attempt to interrupt the turns and sequences, hoping to turn themselves into the questioner.

5. Police made use of “no details in hand” strategy and silence to avoid answering questions

The police made use of strategies like “no details in hand” and silence to avoid answering questions they refused to talk about. When the police said they could not provide answers since they did not have related details or information in hand, it became challenging for journalists to ask follow-up questions and seek further responses. They seemed to have answered the questions but in fact journalists could not get useful information from their answers. Sometimes, they also kept silent when being asked questions that they might not be able to answer.

6. Presence of MC maintains the overall power of the police

The assistance and presence of the emcee, who was in charge of leading the press conference and spoke on behalf of the police force, were crucial for maintaining the power of the police force during the press conference. When the emcee said that they should move on to the closing sequence and end the press conference, the police could successfully avoid answering questions since journalists did not have the opportunity to ask questions or enforce explicitness anymore.

To conclude, the communicative style between the police and journalists is indeed “conversationalized”. However, the power relations between politicians and journalists are inevitably still asymmetrical. Despite the fact that journalists could ask questions and set agenda freely at the beginning of the Q&A session, the press conference was held by the police and they had control over the overall agenda. Therefore, they could interrupt and prevent journalists from asking for more details. Their power could be further reinforced by the strategy of “no details in hand” through which they seemed to have answered the questions but journalists could not get any useful information from their answers.

Hong Kong English Internet Slang

Posted on December 6, 2019May 15, 2020 by Benedict J. L. ROWLETT

by Psy Poon

The Origin of Internet Slang

Hong Kong English Internet Slang was initially developed mainly because of the limitation of words on early appeared online chatting platforms like ICQ and MSN Messenger, just like how the English community uses a lot of abbreviations when only 140 characters(now it is 280 characters) were allowed on Twitter before 2018. During then, Hong Kong people created a few Internet slangs, for example, c replaces ‘see’, and u replaces ‘you’. However, most of them were buried with the downfall of ICQ until the revival of Internet Slang.

The Revival of Internet Slang

With the rise of social media during the 2000s, Internet Slang captured attention once again. Especially in the early 2010s when platforms like Facebook and Twitter were gaining popularity rapidly, people sought convenience and speed in typing while they might have tens of friends in chat room or inbox. Here are the major advantages of using Internet Slang:

Is fun to use
Has shorter spelling
Enables faster typing
Implies informality
Indicates identity
Expresses in trendy way

After knowing all these pros, are you surprised why the use of Internet Slang is still growing?

The Development of English Internet Slang

Well affected by world trends and globalization, online forums dedicated to Hong Kong people such as HKGolden were established and they often got influenced by foreign cultures, but only the ones that are popular.

For example, the graph below shows the timeline of different acronyms in history of Internet Language. However, only YOLO(You Only Live Once), a slang developed in the black culture, survived with its discernible use in the Hong Kong Internet. It is even included in the Oxford English Dictionary. The hit of the song The Motto(YOLO) by Drake in 2011 was probably the cause, making the phrase ‘YOLO’ popularized.

Picture retrieved from: https://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/hss-language-evolution/wiki/chapter-12/)

Its appearance in the chorus part of BTS(a famous Korean boy band)’s song Go Go further proves the popularity of the slang ‘YOLO’ in different countries under the effect of globalization.

Another similar example is how the phrase ‘Nae Nae’ blew out when Watch me by Silentó was released in 2015. There used to be a Nae Nae dance craze which many teenagers were into in Hong Kong because of the catchy music and simple movement. Since the dance move seems like one is waiving and stepping back, ‘nae nae’ as slang could hold a variety of meanings like ‘saying bye to something in a cool/stupid way’, ‘a (cringey) no-no’, etc.

We see how Internet slang borrows cultures or originates from a specific place but ending up in being popular everywhere!

Common Hong Kong English Internet Slang in category

As mentioned before that Hong Kong is under the influence of popular culture, we developed our own set of Internet slang, the characteristics are as belows:

I. Shortened form of words

A. Abbreviations(the most common in English, the formation of slangs like lol as ‘laugh out loud’, btw as ‘by the way’ and omg as ‘on my god’, etc.)

Places, e.g. HKBU(Hong Kong Baptist University), NP(North Point)

2. People, e.g. KOL(key opinion leader), LKS(Li Ka Shing)

B. Initialisms regarding syllables or pronunciations(the formation of slangs like hbd as happy birthday and bbq as barbeque, etc.)

Places, e.g. MK(Mongkok), CWB(Causeway Bay)

2. Platforms, e.g. FB(Facebook), IG(Instagram)

3. Foul or vulgar language, e.g. cls(癡[ci1]撚[nan2]線[sin3], meaning ‘insane’ or ‘crazy’), dllm(屌[diu2]你[nei5]老[lou5]母[mou2], meaning f*** your mother)

C. Single word contractions(the formation of slangs like good → gd, what → wt, okay → k and though → tho, etc.)

D. Replacement of letters(the formation of slangs like good → gud and what → wut, etc.)

E. Clipping(the formation of slangs like sorry → sor and post → po, etc.)

II. Konglish

A. Loan translation

Foul or vulgar language, e.g. seven(柒[cat1], one of the vulgar names for penis, also the capital form of the chinese numeral seven ‘七’, meaning one is acting stupid), on nine(戇[ngong6]鳩[gau1], meaning similarly with ‘seven’)

2. Common expressions or Cantonese puns

a)add oil(加油, meaning an encouragement like ‘fighting!’)

b)laugh die me(笑死我, meaning something is funny to the point that can make the person died from too much laughter)

c) no eye see(無眼睇, meaning something is like an eyesore to oneself)

d) nine not following eight(九唔搭八, meaning that someone is providing irrelevant responses)

(For more examples, please visit https://zolimacitymag.com/tag/cantonese-language/)

III Typing out English syllables that sound similar to Cantonese

A. Interjections

B.Cantonese dialects that no Chinese words can represent, e.g. hea(the state of being lazing or chilling out), chok(acting cool)

IV Direct use of English inflectional suffixes

A. -ed indicating past event, e.g. doed(did)

B. -ing indicating progressing event, e.g. walking street(shopping)

C. ‘-er’ and ‘-est’ indicating comparatives and superlatives, e.g. gooder, goodest

V Mix-and-match of slang formation(for example, thx is first contracted or clipped that ‘th’ represents the sound /θaŋ/, and then ‘s’ is replaced by ‘z’, similar to what happened to plz)

From the list above, it can be observed that vulgar languages or Cantonese expressions have contributed a lot to the creation of various Internet slang in Hong Kong. These characteristics act as another proof that the use of Cantonese profanity and code-switching are prevalent, shedding light on the local linguistic culture.