Code-switching in Hong Kong popular magazines : a critical discourse analysis of media texts

Abstract

This study focuses on the use of English in Hong Kong media discourses, which are predominantly written in Chinese. The objective of the study is theoretical in both broad and local senses. In a broad sense, this study aims to search for an appropriate framework in studying printed media texts in context by employing an interpretative approach. The model proposed in this study emphasizes: (1) the different functions of code-switching different genres; (2) the complex relationships between the participants in printed media discourses; (3) the graphical values of non-Chinese words in printed media texts; and (4) the linkage between the micro studies of languages in daily mediated interactions and the macro sociocultural context. In a local sense, we d see how the analysis of code-switching helps us to understand local media texts and the Hong Kong society. This study provides data of how languages are used in Hong Kong popular magazines. How media texts can be understood by applying local knowledge is also discussed. We d also see how Hong Kong people might search for our identity of modernity through the production and consumption of tests in Fashion Discourse. This study employs critical discourse analysis as the main method to analyze texts. The data is obtained from three Hong Kong magazines which have been collected for a year. Languages used in the sample articles are compared in a cross-magazine, cross-genre and cross-Discourse manner. The second method employed is interview. Interviews with magazine producers and readers have been conducted for a general account of how texts are produced and consumed. The third method employed is focus group study. Narratives of members belonging to Fashion Discourse are collected for accounts of how they search for their identities through the consumption of texts. As the objective of this study is twofold, the implications are also theoretical in both broad and local senses. After taking the aforementioned four emphases into account, h s study found that media texts, and human speeches at a broader level, are never totally "original". Intertextual and interdiscursive relationships between texts are observed. From a member's point of view, the concept of code-switching may not fully capture the phenomenon of using two or more languages in text. This study proposes that the concept "voice-quoting" might better describe the activities of the members when they are making sense of each other through the appropriation of different linguistic and cultural resources. The theoretical argument in a local sense of h s study is that by employing two or more languages in media texts, this practice may maintain and reinforce the grand narrative that the government has constructed and propagated for Hong Kong people. The grand narrative is that Hong Kong people are conventionally described as 'Westernized Chinese" and Hong Kong is a place where "east meets west". Code-switching, as a form of language use, may be coherent with the grand narrative of Hong Kong and Hong Kong people. Language use is hence a form of identity constructing tool.