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II. A detailed account of the language contact situation in Hong Kong. With the question of 1997 looming very large, changes in the language situation and in attitudes to both English and Chinese are taking place, and this is a rich area for further sociolinguistic research.7
III. An analysis, with illustrations of the methods of naming new 'things'. The exposure to things Chinese inevitably leads to the need to 'name' things which are Chinese and new and alien to the English-speaking expatriate. Hockett writes of 'need-filling' as one motive for borrowing. The methods are:
(i) The adaptation of an existing English term.
This appears to be a favoured method when the referent is an object with a discernible physical appearance or a distinctly describable function. English speakers have tended in some instances to extend the semantic range of existing terms in their own language in order to give a name to the newly-introduced object. For example, traditional Chinese in Hong Kong are firm believers in the principles of fung shui, literally 'wind and water', or the proper and propitious placing of objects so as to ensure good fortune. While the term has been borrowed locally as a phonetic loan and fung shui appears in local publications and novels with a Chinese setting, an English term geomancy, borrowed, but not from Chinese, has been modified to refer to this Chinese belief and art. The loose unisex garment worn by the working class, the sam fu has been dubbed pyjamas. The individual pieces which make up a mahjong set being referred to as tiles is another example of adaptation.
(ii) A second method of coping with the need for new 'names' based on the use of native resources is operative among the English-speaking expatriates in Hong Kong. They take the English 'name'
¦
65
II. A detailed account of the language contact situation in Hong Kong. With the question of 1997 looming very large, changes in the language situation and in attitudes to both English and Chinese are taking place, and this is a rich area for further sociolinguistic research.7
III. An analysis, with illustrations of the methods of naming new 'things'. The exposure to things Chinese inevitably leads to the need to 'name' things which are Chinese and new and alien to the English-speaking expatriate. Hockett writes of 'need-filling' as one motive for borrowing. The methods are:
This
(i) The adaptation of an existing English term.
appears to be a favoured method when the referent is an object with a discernible physical appearance or a distinctly describable function. English speakers have tended in some instances to extend the semantic range of existing terms in their own language in order to give a name to the newly- introduced object. For example, traditional Chinese in Hong Kong are firm believers in the principles of fungshui k literally 'wind and water', or the proper and propitious placing of objects so as to ensure good fortune. While the term has been borrowed locally as a phonetic loan and fungshui appears in local publications and novels with a Chinese setting, an English term geomancy, borrowed, but not from Chinese, has been modified to refer to this Chinese belief and art. The loose unisex garment worn by the working class, the samfu * has been dubbed pyjamas. The individual pieces which make up a mahjong set being referred to as tiles is another example of adaptation.
(ii) A second method of coping with the need for new 'names' based on the use of native resources is operative among the English-speaking expatriates in Hong Kong. They take the English 'name'
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