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Shifting style-shifts? Higher-order style-shifting in Hong Kong Cantonese-English languaging through indexicality and audience design

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This study examines style-shifting between monolingual and bilingual Cantonese-English styles in Hong Kong through audience design and indexicality. Using narrative elicitation, YouTube data, and an attitudinal experiment, it finds that bilingual styles are often downplayed in public but appear more robust in scripted speech, where speakers exercise greater control and tap into alternative indexical meanings. Attitudinal data confirm that these monolingual/bilingual styles carry distinct social meanings, shaped by processes such as enregisterment, which enable their mobilization. Based on these findings, the study proposes an “independent layers” socio-indexical model, where these styles function as distinct yet overlapping resources. In a field focused on micro -level shifts, this research contributes a novel Hong Kong perspective, showing how speakers navigate macro -stylistic choices amid shifting audiences, ideological pressures, and identity work in a postcolonial context.

Source: Language & Communication

DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.007

Author: Wilkinson Daniel Wong Gonzales

Institution: Chinese University of Hong Kong

Language: English

Topic: Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies

Subfield: Linguistics and Language

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,030

Funder: Chinese University of Hong Kong