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Cantonese English learners in Hong Kong appear to confront substantial difficulty in their development of English relative clauses, yet knowledge on learners' development of such a language structure is limited. The present corpus-based study aims at verifying predictions of hypotheses about second language learners' development of English relative clauses with data from written Hong Kong English and identifying quantitative and qualitative attributes of relative clauses in Hong Kong English in comparison with their counterparts in British English in a bid to inform second language grammar instruction. Language data for the study were collected from the Hong Kong and Great Britain components of the International Corpus of English. 'wh' relatives and 'that' relatives in the data were identified from untimed student essays in the corpus through concordance search. The Perceptual Difficulty Hypothesis appears to be supported by data from written Hong Kong English whilst the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy and the Subject–Object Hierarchy Hypothesis are only partially supported. Relative clauses appear much more frequently in written British English than in written Hong Kong English, and some attributes of non-standard relative clauses are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies of speech accommodation focus on native speakers with different dialects, whereas only a limited number of studies work on L2 speakers' accommodation and discuss theories for second language (L2) accommodation. This paper aimed to fill the theoretical gap by integrating the revised speech learning model (SLM) with the exemplar-based models for L2 speech accommodation. A total of 19 Cantonese–English bilingual speakers completed map tasks with English speakers of Received Pronunciation and General American English in two separate experiments. Their pronunciations of THOUGHT and PATH vowels, and fricatives [z] and [θ] were examined before, during, and after the map tasks. The role of phonetic dissimilarity in L2 accommodation and L2 category formation in the revised SLM (SLM-r) were tested. First, the results suggested that global phonetic dissimilarity cannot predict Hong Kong English (HKE) speakers' accommodation patterns. Instead, the segment-specific phonetic dissimilarity between participants and interlocutors was found to be positively correlated with the participants' degree of accommodation. In addition, HKE speakers who did not form a new L2 category of [z] were found to significantly accommodate toward their interlocutor, suggesting that L2 accommodation might not be constrained by phonological category. An integrated exemplar model for L2 accommodation is proposed to explain these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the framework of postcolonial Englishes and their evolutions, Hong Kong English represents an extraordinary case in that the political independence of Hong Kong from the British in 1997 did not result—as in most other cases—in a self-governing political body, but a formal re-integration of Hong Kong into China. As the handover of Hong Kong also marks a drastic linguistic re-orientation, this short-term diachronic paper studies newspaper data from before and after the 1997 handover. With a view to the structural object of investigation, particle placement, the exploration of relevant predictors and their effects in Hong Kong English sheds light on whether and, if so, how the end of British colonial rule has left linguistic traces in particle-placement choices. Using a sample of 322 particle verbs extracted from the South China Morning Post Corpus (SCMPC) and employing random forests, the study reports that pre- and post-handover constructional choices of particle placement are largely compatible with one another. Said choices are mainly guided by principles related to cognition and eurhythmy that—at least in the period observed—appear unlikely to be affected fundamentally by language-external political change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Развитие современного английского языка как средства межкультурного общения происходит в условиях интенсивных культурно-языковых контактов, результатом воздействия которых становится его вариативность. Вариативность играет важную роль в формировании нового варианта и создании его специфики. Особенно ярко вариативность проявляется на фонетико-фонологическом уровне, в частности в его просодической составляющей. В связи с этим в статье предлагаются результаты исследования особенностей просодии новых вариантов английского языка, функционирующих в Индии и Гонконге. Целью исследования является изучение их просодических свойств в области мелодики, ударения и ритма и выявление национально-специфических признаков, отличающих варианты как друг от друга, так и от британского произносительного стандарта, выступившего в качестве нормы. Методом сравнительно-сопоставительного анализа составляется просодическая характеристика изучаемых вариантов и определяется набор отличительных признаков, характеризующих конкретный вариант. Делается вывод о существовании в вариантах определенных тенденций, направленных на становление собственных просодических норм, отличных и независимых от внешних произносительных стандартов.

Previous language attitude research has paid little attention to the (para)linguistic inventory of the speech samples used for accent evaluation. As an example, this study used five Hong Kong English (HKE) voices with more or less localised features, which were assessed by 100 English language teachers in Hong Kong in a verbal-guise experiment. In addition to the closed questions used in the verbal-guise study, we asked the listener judges, in open-ended questions, to reflect on their first-hand impressions of the speakers, their perceived likability, and what in particular they had noticed in the speakers’ language. Findings show that suprasegmental features are highlighted as important for speaker identification and evaluation, whereas segmental features are not mentioned. Listener judges mention prosody (intonation, pitch and stress) as particularly salient; nativeness and level of proficiency are also highlighted. Findings are discussed vis-à-vis language attitude research methodologies, and we argue that the study has contributed towards disentangling the language attitudes processes by emphasising the salience of suprasegmetals for accent recognition and evaluation. We conclude with a call to replicate the research in other socio-cultural contexts and to include other research methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous language attitude research in Hong Kong compared Hong Kong English (HKE) to exonormative standard Englishes, whereas this study uses five varieties of HKE with more or less localised features. One hundred English language teachers were listener judges in a verbal-guise experiment, and the results showed that most of the speakers received positive evaluations, particularly on solidarity dimensions. The speaker with most local features received the most negative evaluation, but the difference was most evident on status dimensions. Thus, speakers of HKE are seen as likeable, competent and proficient, which suggests that Hong Kong may have entered into the nativisation stage of Kachru's (1983) model. We argue that the recognition of HKE demonstrated in this study should have implications for English language teaching. We propose adopting pedagogies grounded in local language and culture, which would encourage students and teachers to express themselves in localised English, and express a local identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents data for a tightly controlled recognition and production study of English language intonation in reading by speakers of British English and second language learners of English in Hong Kong. We demonstrate a relatively high correlation between the scores for the two studies when data are separated by utterance type (statement, echo, WH-question, etc.). Our finding that this cohort of English learners performs better at production of nuclear tones than in the corresponding recognition study when both are judged by a template for British English adds support to the claim that the perception-production link, a theory that production is contingent on perception, is not borne out by the empirical study of learners of World Englishes. Data collected for the British English speakers give insight into a changing intonational phonology, while Hong Kong data indicate differences in intonational categories, a different distribution of tones, and possibly tonal innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues it is no longer possible to refer to Hong Kong English speakers en masse as EFL speakers, nor can we say they speak a fully formed new variety of English called Hong Kong English (HKE). Taking into account the language(s) used for school, for work, for entertainment, and for socializing, we can see that Hong Kong’s speech community is extremely heterogeneous, both regarding levels of English and degrees of English usage. A small but growing number of Hongkongers now report that they speak English as a native language. Hongkongers with white collar jobs have been found to write more English than Chinese while at work, making it reasonable to argue that they write English as a second language (ESL). Many Hongkongers seek out English-speaking social networks and choose to watch and listen to English-medium forms of entertainment, which means their English-speaking experience is very ESL-like. However, in addition to these variations, there are great differences in English speaking and writing abilities that correlate largely with socioeconomic status. Adding to this lack of homogeneity among English speakers is the fact that extremely few Hongkongers speak English among themselves outside of specific work or school contexts. This means that HKE is not yet a new variety of English, and will have a difficult time becoming one unless the linguistic habits of Hongkongers change. English language education should take all these individual differences into account, including potentially wide differences in the speaking, listening, reading and writing abilities among individuals themselves.

The study focuses on some of the most typical prosodic features of Hong Kong English, the variety which emerged in the former British colony under the substrate influence of the speaker’s native language – Cantonese. The acquired prosodic features are treated in the current study as markers of the speaker’s national identity in spoken speech.The typical features of Hong Kong English prosody are identified by means of acoustic analysis of rhythmic and melodic organization of spontaneous speech of 20 Hong Kong English speakers. At the conclusion of the study, the author gives a prosodic characteristic of the variety, viewed as a medium for expressing the speaker’s national identity. It is believed that the findings of the research will advance the knowledge of the understudied Hong Kong English phonology, as well as reduce risks of communicative failures in cross-cultural discourse due to its divergences from Standard English pronunciation.

This article examines the attitudes toward Hong Kong English (HKE) and its role in carrying the linguistic identity of Hong Kongers under the influence of the Hong Kong protests against the proposed legislation of the 2019 extradition bill. Two groups of Hong Kongers with and without overseas living experiences were chosen in this study. A questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews were used to compare their acceptability on HKE and views on language use. This study sheds light on the evolution of HKE by examining its interpretation based on the personal experiences of the participants influenced by different sociological factors. The results show that even though the majority of the two groups disagree that they speak or use HKE more often during this period, they tend to support HKE as a marker of identity with a distinct pattern shown between the young and middle to older generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study employs a contrastive approach to analyze five consonantal features (TH stopping/ fronting, L vocalization, [n, l]/[s, ∫] conflation, /r/, /v/, /w/ substitution and consonant cluster modification [CCM]) of Hong Kong English (HKE) from 37 online sound clips from 29 speakers. Compared to the traditional contrastive approach, the current study uses a world Englishes paradigm to analyze the data, which aligns more with the recent movement of world Englishes. The result shows that all the five features exist in the corpus; however, TH-stopping/fronting and CCM are more common than others. The results behind the features in HKE could be hinted from the comparison with Cantonese, the L1 of Hongkongers. Moreover, the results help to develop the categorization of HKE speakers--Hong Kong English Continuum--which potentially facilitates the discussion of HKE under the world Englishes paradigm in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues it is no longer possible to refer to Hong Kong English speakers en masse as EFL speakers, nor can we say they speak a fully formed new variety of English called Hong Kong English (HKE). Taking into account the language(s) used for school, for work, for entertainment, and for socializing, we can see that Hong Kong's speech community is extremely heterogeneous, both regarding levels of English and degrees of English usage. A small but growing number of Hongkongers now report that they speak English as a native language. Hongkongers with white collar jobs have been found to write more English than Chinese while at work, making it reasonable to argue that they write English as a second language (ESL). Many Hongkongers seek out English-speaking social networks and choose to watch and listen to English-medium forms of entertainment, which means their English-speaking experience is very ESL-like. However, in addition to these variations, there are great differences in English speaking and writing abilities that correlate largely with socioeconomic status. Adding to this lack of homogeneity among English speakers is the fact that extremely few Hongkongers speak English among themselves outside of specific work or school contexts. This means that HKE is not yet a new variety of English, and will have a difficult time becoming one unless the linguistic habits of Hongkongers change. English language education should take all these individual differences into account, including potentially wide differences in the speaking, listening, reading and writing abilities among individuals themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the great number of functions that forms of address perform are the following: to attract attention of the person one wants to speak to, to express the addresser’s attitude to the addressee, to remind of the spiritual relations between the speakers, to empathize the speakers’ professional status, and many others. Within the boundaries of the World English theory, study of the forms of address used by speakers of East Asian Englishes is supposed to prove that these terms reflect the cultural identity which is expressed by means of the variety of the English language these speakers use. By means of observation, descriptive and quantitative analysis methods, the authors of the article analyze forms of address used in Hong Kong English. Our previous classification of the forms of address used in Hong Kong English was made on the basis of the questionnaire analysis conducted in Hong Kong [1] and it made it possible for us to single out 6 major groups of forms of address in Hong Kong English: 1) kinship terms of address; 2) forms of address used to strangers; 3) forms of address used by friends and acquaintances; 4) forms of address to people of certain professions; 5) forms of address to animals; 6. unique forms of address. This article is the result of analysis of direct and indirect forms of address presented in “A Dictionary of Hong Kong English”. Now, forms of address are classified into 7 major groups with the forms of address empathizing the addressee’s national identity, insulting forms of address, and Hong Kong traditional forms of address among them. Forms of address presented and analyzed in this article prove our hypothesis that greatly influenced by Cantonese, English spoken in Hong Kong is the reflection of the cultural identity of its speakers.

Most previous studies on discourse markers (DMs) have yielded a common finding, that is, native speakers of English (NSs) and non-native speakers of English (NNSs) use discourse markers in different ways, especially as regards frequency of occurrence, position and function. Although discourse markers, such as I think, I mean and you know, are sometimes syntactically peripheral and poor in semantic meaning, they are pragmatically indispensable in spoken discourse and serve a variety of pragmatic functions. This study focuses on one of the most frequently overused discourse markers by NNSs, I think, and presents a comparative analysis of I think as used by Hong Kong English (HKE) speakers and British English (BrE) speakers in terms of its frequency of occurrence, position, collocation patterns and pragmatic functions, based on two parallel corpora: the Hong Kong component (ICE–HK) and the British component (ICE–GB) of the International Corpus of English (ICE). By highlighting similarities and differences in the use of I think by HKE and BrE speakers, this study also examines possible reasons that may lead to these. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To find empirical evidence for Schneider's (2007) periodisation for the emergence of Hong Kong English, Evans (2014, 2015) scrutinised various historical documents, such as newspapers, council proceedings and jury lists. Taking the increasing use of the terms Hongkonger and Hongkong people during the 1980s as evidence for the emergence of a new Hong Kong identity, he argued that the Chinese population considered themselves part of the community. This paper systematises Evans' (2014) approach by analysing terms denoting ingroup and outgroup members in English news discourse in Hong Kong from 1903 to 1999. By tracing changes in frequency, reference and discourse topics associated with the terms, periods of identity reconstructions are uncovered and Schneider's and Evans' periodisations reassessed. The study thus contributes to our understanding of the social dynamics in Hong Kong's history, which are considered key to the emergence of Hong Kong English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong English is to a certain extent a standardized English variety spoken in a bilingual (English-Cantonese) context. In this article we compare this (native) variety with English as a foreign language spoken by other Cantonese speakers, viz. learners of English in Guangzhou (mainland China). We examine whether the notion of standardization is relevant for intonation in this case and thus whether Hong Kong English is different from Cantonese English in a wider perspective, or whether it is justified to treat Hong Kong English and Cantonese English as the same variety (as far as intonation is concerned). We present a comparison between intonational contours of different sentence types in the two varieties, and show that they are very similar. This shows that, in this respect, a learned foreign-language variety can resemble a native variety to a great extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we examine elaboration, compression and explicitness in academic and popular writing in an Outer Circle variety of English, that of Hong-Kong, as represented in the International Corpus of English corpus. As Biber and Gray (2016) show, contemporary academic discourse is structurally compressed at NP level (rather than elaborated) and inexplicit in the expression of meaning. The linguistic features selected for analysis are short passives, which are compressed and inexplicit, and adnominal relative clauses, which represent the opposite tendency, that towards elaboration and explicitness. We focus on register variation through analyzing, first, differences between academic and popular writing, and second, interdisciplinary variation in four sub-registers: humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the English Department of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University we are compiling the Hong Kong Corpus of Spoken English. In the examination of our data we have found that the ways in which the two sets of participants (i.e. Hong Kong Chinese and native speakers of English) ask questions share some similarities, but also differ in a number of respects. It seems, for example, that the Hong Kong Chinese have a stronger tendency to ask questions by means of declarative-mood questions, and the intonation used to achieve this indirect question form is examined in this paper and compared with the native speakers in the data. The implications of the findings for learning and teaching the English language are explored.

This study examined the choice of English pronunciation goals by Hong Kong's major stakeholders (i.e. professionals, teachers and students) via semi-structured individual/focus group interviews. 146 participants reported on their English use experience and explained their choice among three targets, namely a native speaker (NS) target, an educated local target and a target focusing on intelligibility. The findings revealed the participants' differing views and concerns surrounding four factors determining their choices (i.e. people's experience of language use, the status and pragmatic value of the language goal, its perceived attainability and intelligibility). Despite the professionals' greater experience with international communication, most of them regarded NS pronunciation as their target because of its high pragmatic value. Although some students and teachers acknowledged the importance of maintaining mutual understanding, their choice seemed to be restricted by the NS-oriented assessment criteria. This study concludes by discussing the implications of the research findings for pronunciation teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the historical development of varieties of English usually tracks influence from established, so-called Inner Circle, varieties of English (such as British English) to less established Outer Circle varieties (such as Indian English). Recently, evidence of convergent patterns of language use in a number of Outer Circle Asian varieties has emerged, which might have been caused by the influence of Indian English in the region, but the existing evidence is strictly synchronic. Using the apparent-time method, this article investigates the focus particles 'also' and 'only', which have developed new uses in Asian Englishes. We provide evidence of language change in progress in Indian English and Hong Kong English, suggesting that Indian English might have influenced Hong Kong English, while evidence of Indian English influencing Philippine English remains tentative. The results lend support to a description of Indian English as a 'super-central variety' that has some influence over other varieties, thus challenging the traditional account of the development of varieties of English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As is common in work on prosodic typology, the notions 'tone' and 'stress' play a key role in Wee's 2016 study of the tone system of Hong Kong English (HKE). Based on the absence of phonetic correlates of stress and the distribution of tone in polysyllabic words, Wee claims that HKE must have lexical (high) tone. In this reply, we argue that, even in the absence of phonetic correlates of stress, foot structure provides a more parsimonious account of the distribution of surface tones. Multiple high tones within words follow from predictable morphological structure and/or tonal spreading, rather than from lexical tone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examines patterns of TH variation in Hong Kong English (HKE). In particular, it examines patterns in the realization of the voiceless interdental fricative /θ/ as the voiceless labiodental fricative [f], a process known as TH-fronting, as well as realization of the voiceless of TH as [s]. Previous research on HKE (Bolton & Kwok 1990; Hung 2000; Deterding et al. 2008; Setter et al. 2010) has established that TH-fronting is a variable phenomenon in HKE, with both intra- and inter-speaker variation, though no research to date has examined the social and linguistic constraints that govern this phenomenon in HKE. The current study also examines the realization of TH as [s], which has not been documented in previous research on HKE, but was found to be a variant of TH in the current study. This article thus examines the social (defined here as non-linguistic constraints such as gender, medium of instruction and proficiency) and linguistic (syllable position, linguistic environment, stress) factors which impact the realization of TH in HKE and whether these factors differ for the realization of TH as [f] or [s]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generative linguistics has long been concerned with the linguistic competence of the "ideal speaker-listener, in a completely homogeneous speech-community, who knows its language perfectly" (Chomsky 1965: 3). Research in formal-linguistics-based second language acquisition takes as its starting point the second language (L2) speaker's underlying mental representation. Here the factors of interest are influence of the learner's native language and, in generative SLA, the operation of innate linguistic mechanisms (Universal Grammar). Similar to methodology in formal syntax, lxSLA adopts techniques such as grammaticality judgment, comprehension and perception tasks supplementing spontaneously produced oral data. While there may be individual differences in oral production, tasks that tap learners' mental representations reveal commonalities across learners from a given native language background with the same amount/ type of exposure and age of initial L2 exposure. When it comes to phonology, age has long been a central factor with numerous comparative studies showing younger learners far outperforming older learners (see Piske et al. 2001). This paper discusses a case of possible non-acquisition by L2 children who had had considerable exposure to the L2. Children's non-acquisition is only apparent, and this allows us to consider the value of lxSLA methodology on the one hand, and and raises issues about what might be lacking in the current socio-SLA paradigm, on the other. We argue that only when we return to the cooperation that marked its birth in the 1960s will we have a comprehensive picture of SLA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an update of Luke and Richards and Li on the functions and status of English in postcolonial Hong Kong. Two decades after the handover, relatively little has changed except in the education domain. The ‘mother tongue education’ policy implemented from September 1998, whereby primary school-leavers are streamed into Chinese-medium and English-medium secondary schools, was ‘fine-tuned’ in 2009. Chinese-medium schools are given the flexibility to introduce English-medium classes to students under specific conditions. Hong Kong English is one of Edgar Schneider's 17 case studies of the evolutionary dynamics of postcolonial Englishes. The paper reviews a critique of that Dynamic Model based on Stephen Evans’s extensive diachronic evidence of HKE spanning from the 1850s to the 2010s. While ascertaining the heuristic value of Schneider’s analytical framework, Evans’s well-triangulated studies point toward the need for alternative periodization of HKE along the five uni-directional phases of evolutionary development of postcolonial Englishes. Evans’s analysis of Butler’s five criteria for determining the emergence of a localized variety of English will also be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study reports on the result of ethno-linguistic research which aims to investigate whether an emerging form of code-switching among three languages, namely Cantonese, English and Putonghua, exists in Hong Kong. This study follows the research method of Sung (2010) which the author recorded his experiences as a 'purist' in Hong Kong: during a three-day experiment - the author employed only Cantonese, English and Putonghua, respectively. Field notes and reflective diaries were used to record the incidents of communication breakdowns resulted from the use of pure-code instead of mixed codes. Because of the recent change in language policy in which Putonghua has placed more important roles in language teaching in Hong Kong, Putonghua has been added into the current study intentionally because Sung (2010) only included Cantonese and English, which largely ignored the fact the Putonghua has become an important part in the linguistic environment of Hong Kong. The difficulties of using only pure-Cantonese, pure-English and pure-Putonghua in Hong Kong will be discussed. Also, I suggest that there exists the code-switching among Cantonese, English and Putonghua in Hong Kong because of the increasing contact with China and the new policy of using Putonghua as the Medium of Instruction (PMI) in some primary schools. Moreover, the present study suggests that the use of pure-code in these languages may hinder communication in Hong Kong. Further studies are needed on code-switching among the three languages within the younger generation of Hongkongers, especially those who attend PMI schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015 a new term appeared in public discourse regarding English in Hong Kong: Kongish, which refers to a hybrid form of English and Cantonese used in online communication. This article outlines some of the features of Kongish and assesses its status in Hong Kong, comparing and contrasting it with previous conceptualisations of 'Hong Kong English' as a local variety. We argue that the Kongish phenomenon is interesting for two main reasons: first it reveals certain aspects of language use under conditions of late modernity, including computer mediation, the relationship between language and identity, and the presence of a dynamic multilingual language ecology. Second, comparing Kongish and Hong Kong English reveals some of the uses and limitations of the variety concept in studies of language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong culture blends paradoxes: In it, life and death, the real and the other world coexist in the traditions of its inhabitants, which eventually surface in the variety of English spoken in this Special Administrative Region of China. Our corpus-linguistic analysis, on the basis of ICE-HK and the GloWbE (Davies 2013) corpus, demonstrates the centrality of the family concept and its ramifications as well as its relation to the concept of money in Hong Kong English. The conceptualization children are an investment does not only show the conceptual network family and money belong to, but also lucidly shows the dynamics within the parent-child relationship, which is governed by filial piety and elderly care when the investment bears fruit. Collocations such as 'hungry ghost,' 'hell money,' and 'worship ancestors' are combinations of common core English terms that underwent semantic extension under the influence of the local Hong Kong cultural context. Our data shows how tightly language and culture are linked and that culture and cultural changes are the main factors to influence language and its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the conceptual difficulties that are involved in the understanding of several basic linguistic notions: namely language, dialect, sociolect, register, style, genre, and in particular, variety. Using the definitions provided in various sources, particularly introductory textbooks and dictionaries of linguistics, I examine the ways in which these terms are explained, and discuss how there is actually no consensus on how they are understood and conceptualised. This is particularly true for the term variety, which is regarded by many linguists as a neutral and ideology-free unit for research. In this article, I show that whether a set of linguistic features is regarded as a variety depends on three main factors; there is no absolute - and thus, ideologically neutral - way that linguists can refer to this concept when considering what is or is not a linguistic variety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into intonation of non-native varieties of English in the World Englishes paradigm often has a strong focus on typical features at the expense of variation. The present study employs a unified approach to analyse intonational variation in Hong Kong English (HKE), involving two distinct accents: HKE with global orientations (HKE-gl) and HKE with local orientations (HKE-lo). A closer look at HKE-lo has contributed to the revision of the existing phonological rules of HKE intonation. The study also examines how speakers of HKE style-shift between the two accents. The results show that only speakers of advanced L2 intonation aptitude (not proficiency) have access to both accents. However, the stigmatised status of HKE-lo is linked to its indexical functions. The decision-making process involves factors including polycentricity. The study of intonational variation in HKE has immense implications as speakers of HKE may employ intonational variation to perform social marking and construct identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In British Standard English, number in the verb phrase is exclusively characterized by the use of the -s inflection with the third person singular present tense. World Englishes present a high level of variation as the uninflected third person singular and the inflected third person plural may also occur in these contexts. This paper pursues four objectives: a) to analyse the use of present third person inflections and compare their distribution in different varieties of English; b) to assess the occurrence of forms across speech and writing, text categories and the informant's age and gender; c) to classify the instances by type of subject (nominal vs. pronominal) and d) to evaluate the impact of proximity agreement, notional agreement and the existence of intervening elements in the choice of the inflection. Our evidence comes from the New Zealand, Indian, Singaporean and Hong Kong components of the International Corpus of English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]