In this assignment, you are required to conduct a small-scale
sociolinguistic study. Specifically,
choose one of the topics below, conduct research, and write up a research
report of 2000–3000 words (the word count excluding the list of
references and appendices).
Please note:
• You may brainstorm your project
Research topics:
1 Language history
Do families whose parents come from non-Cantonese speaking areas
in China still use the dialect of origin? If they do, when do they use
it? Has the third generation shifted entirely to Cantonese or not?
What languages does each generation speak, and how well? How did
they learn the language? Is it important for young people to master
each language? Is it a big loss if they do not know their dialect of
origin?
• Conduct a project on the languages spoken by different
generations of a family you know. Ask each member which
languages he or she can speak. Then ask them when they use each
language, where, with whom, on what subject, etc. Present your
data in the form of charts showing the languages/dialects spoken
and recorded interviews. Look for the similarities and differences
between generations. What conclusions can you draw from your
data?
• Alternatively, you can collect data from a cross-section of people
in your neighbourhood, workplace, or any other group you know.
2 Language change
Select an interview group that includes three generations if possible
(but if not, at least two generations). Interviewees can be family
members, people in your neighbourhood, colleagues, or others as you
see appropriate.
Below are sample interview questions. You can add, delete, or
modify them.
i What would you say when you are bored to death?
ii What would you say to ask someone to stop pushing you?
iii What would you say when you try to ask your friend to not be so
stingy and lend you his pen?
iv How would you tell your younger brother or sister to behave
himself or herself?
v What would you say to be excused from supper so that you can
do your homework?
vi How would you call your best friends?
vii How would you call your girlfriend/boyfriend?
viii How would you say ‘You must be crazy!’?
ix How would you refer to a certain person as stupid?
x How would you say ‘to enter a certain occupation’?
• Examine the similarities and differences between the answers of
different generations. What conclusions can you draw from your
data?
3 Use of English
Survey the use of English in your workplace, neighbourhood, or a
group that you meet with or belong to. Ask people when they use
English, where, with whom, and on what subject. Also find out the
approximate age (you can use age ranges) and education level of your
interviewees.
Conduct a qualitative study and investigate the linguistic behaviour
of your research participants. What conclusions can you draw from
your data?
4 Code-mixing/Code-switching
Record a conversation between yourself and your colleagues in a
meeting, or your friends in a café. Then, select and transcribe two or
three five-minute segments that contain code-mixing or codeswitching. Then, think about the following questions:
i Who seems to code-mix/code-switch most and when?
ii What may be the motivations?
iii What are the effects of the code-mixing/code-switching on the
audience in the conversations you recorded?
• What conclusions can you draw from the data?
• Present your data in the form of a chart and include your
transcripts.
• You could also carry out this project using TV/radio
programme excerpts.
5 Phonological variation
• Record your conversation with a friend in a causal setting and
transcribe three minutes of it. Decide which aspect(s) of
pronunciation you are going to focus on. Pay attention to your
friend’s pronunciation.
• After transcribing the data, carefully study the occurrences of the
variable(s) you are interested in. Specifically, identify the number
of times a variant was used. Present your results in percentage.
For example, you might find in the three-minute segment that
there were 24 words containing an initial (n). According to your
analysis, the speaker used 16 instances of [l] (66.7%) and 8
instances of [n] (33.3%).
• Next, record a conversation with another friend of about the same
length and carry out the same exercise, focusing on the same
variable and variants. What similarities and differences do you
notice? What conclusions can you draw?
Your report should contain the following:
i details of when and where the conversations took place;
ii the personal and education background of the speaker;
iii variable and variants studied; and
iv an appendix with your transcription of the two three-minute
excerpts, together with the recordings.
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