User:Trista Luo/sandbox

1.2. Current Sociolinguistic background of Shenzhen Before Shenzhen becoming a Special Economic Zone .(SEZ thereafter), two languages were mainly used by local people in ShenzhenThese were Hakka dialect and local Cantonese, which was represented by Nantou dialect (Liang, Wu, 2011). Because Shenzhen turned into a SEZ, many immigrants and constructors from different parts of China flowed into this city. As a result, they brought their dialects such as Hunan dialect, Sichuan dialect and so on. A variety of dialects and local dialects have influence on each other, which composes a complicated language phenomenon in Shenzhen. However, in this day and age, due to Mainland’s education policy, teachers are required to use PTH as a medium of instruction and students are asked to speak and learn PTH compulsorily. The effect of promoting PTH is obvious for the reason that PTH has become the most commonly used language in Shenzhen.

On account of Shenzhen’s geographical location, which is near Cantonese speaking regions Hong Kong and Guangzhou, Cantonese has been widely used among local people. Additionally, the mass media has posed a great influence on Cantonese usage in Shenzhen because Shenzhen local people’s preference on Hong Kong TV dramas. Hence, Cantonese can be viewed as the second main language in Shenzhen. With the internationalization of Shenzhen, for example the successful host of 2012 World University Games. English enjoys an increasing higher status than before. Although English has been a compulsory course from primary school, many students in Shenzhen have been contacted with English in kindergarten. Moreover, English is an important subject and has occupied a large proportion in different levels of school entrance exams. Education department requires university students at least have to pass College English Test Four before they obtain a bachelor’s degree. Hence, English is mainly connected with certificates and marks in Mainland’s education. Most of the time people use it in school instead of using it frequently in daily life.

1.3. The definition of C-E code-mixing in Hong Kong Increasing attention has been paid on studies of attitudes and use of Cantonese-English (C-E) code-mixing in the last thirty years by linguists in Hong Kong. Different definitions of code-mixing and code-switching have been given. However, both of the types of dual language use indicate that a person has ability in speaking mother tongue and a second language can alternate between these two languages in the process of speaking or writing even if they are not fluency in second language (Regan, 2003). Most of the time speakers mix elements of a second language into the dialogue of the first language. According to Regan’s (2003) statement, when the inserted parts of a second language are shorter, this phenomenon may be regarded as code-mixing. In other situations, if the inserted parts are longer, it may be considered as code-switching. Based on Hong Kong’s case, Li (1998; 2000) articulates that due to native Cantonese speakers’ forceful norms disagreeing with the use of English in the process of intra-ethnic communication, it is rare to detect clause-level switches. Hence, it is suitable to use code-mixing to Hong Kong people’s language usage habit (Tse, 1992). This phenomenon has also been discussed by Fu (1987), Li (1998) and Luke (1998) and they point out that individuals use more clause-internal mixings than clause-level switching in some occasions. Additionally, bilingual speakers in Hong Kong may use a Cantonese syntax oriented clause in their speech if they uses English words and longer expression (Li, 1998). However, few studies have conducted on the phenomenon of C-E code-mixing in Shenzhen, though PTH, Cantonese and English are also the mainly used language in this day and age.