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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 883

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Testing the Dynamic Model: An analysis of letters to Hong Kong’s English newspapers (1842-2009)

Authors: Evans, Stephen
Submitted by: Evans, Stephen (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong S.A.R. (China))

This paper evaluates Schneider’s (2007) important and much-discussed theoretical framework, the Dynamic Model (DM), in the Hong Kong context. Schneider’s framework provides a basis for understanding how, in any colonial/post-colonial setting, the indigenous and English-speaking settler populations contribute to five developmental stages in the evolution of a post-colonial English. In his study, Schneider shows how the DM can be applied to the evolution of English in a variety of Inner and Outer Circle contexts. However, these ‘case studies’ are generally not the product of empirical research on Schneider’s part, but instead are somewhat condensed syntheses of other scholars’ work. Since much of this research is not diachronic in nature, and was neither inspired nor guided by the DM, it is difficult to determine the applicability of the DM, notwithstanding Schneider’s ‘strong conclusion’ that the model ‘works’ (p. 310).

 

The DM is a significant contribution to the literature on the diffusion and diversification of English, but before confident claims can be made for its applicability, it needs to be the subject of detailed empirical research, particularly in Outer Circle contexts such as Hong Kong. Schneider argues that the city presents ‘an interesting test case for the predictive implications of the Dynamic Model and the inherent power of the developmental dynamism which it describes’ (p. 139). Although Schneider claims that one of the DM’s main innovative qualities is that it adds ‘an essential dynamic dimension to earlier static classifications’ (p. 313), he offers little methodological guidance about precisely how this dimension might be uncovered. 

 

This paper seeks to address this limitation by attempting to identify distinct phases in the developmental cycle of English in Hong Kong through an analysis of the authorship of 1,307 letters to the English-language press. These letters were derived from a corpus of 599 editions of the city’s most influential English newspapers spanning the years between 1842 and 2009. These texts provide evidence about the readership of the English-language press and the degree of penetration of English in the city’s predominantly Cantonese-speaking population during this period. The results of this analysis provide some support for Schneider’s claim that the 1960s marked an important transitional phase in the evolution of English in the city as it is only in the past four decades that letters written by Chinese readers have appeared with any regularity in the English press. However, whether the 1960s marked the beginning of ‘nativisation’ (i.e. phase 3 in the DM) is open to question. The findings also call into question Schneider’s periodisation of phase 1 (i.e., ‘foundation’, 1841-1898) and phase 2 (i.e., ‘exonormative stabilisation’, 1898-1960s). This paper will use the findings to present an alternative periodisation.

  

Reference

 Schneider, Edgar W. (2007). Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

The work described in this paper was wholly supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. PolyU 542610).