scholarly journals Hong Kong Women Project a Larger Body When Speaking to Attractive Men

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Lee ◽  
Eva Ng

In this pilot study we investigated the vocal strategies of Cantonese women when addressing an attractive vs. unattractive male. We recruited 19 young female native speakers of Hong Kong Cantonese who completed an attractiveness rating task, followed by a speech production task where they were presented a subset of the same faces. By comparing the rating results and corresponding acoustic data of the facial stimuli, we found that when young Cantonese women spoke to an attractive male, they were less breathy, lower in fundamental frequency, and with denser formants, all of which are considered to project a larger body. Participants who were more satisfied with their own height used these vocal strategies more actively. These results are discussed in terms of the body size projection principle.

Author(s):  
Alice Y.W. Chan

AbstractThis study investigates the acquisition of English word-final consonants by Hong Kong Cantonese learners of English as a second language and assesses the validity of the Markedness Differential Hypothesis for second language phonology acquisition by these learners. Twelve participants and three native speakers performed four speech tasks: reading a word list, reading three passages, describing pictures, and participating in a conversational interview. The results show that: (i) word-finally, more non-target laterals were produced than voiceless obstruents; and (ii) non-target productions of voiced obstruents were the highest. We argue that the Markedness Differential Hypothesis does not explain the acquisition of English word-final singleton consonants by Cantonese ESL learners in Hong Kong. We conclude that markedness alone cannot be used as a predictor for the relative difficulty of acquiring the target segments of a second language.


1997 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Balcom

Zobl discussed inappropriate passive morphology (‘be’ and the past participle) in the English writing of L2 learners, linking its occurrence to the class of unaccusative verbs and proposing that learners subsume unaccusatives under the syntactic rule for passive formation. The research reported here supports and amplifies Zobl' proposal, based on a grammaticality judgement task and a controlled production task containing verbs from a variety of subclasses of unaccusatives. The tasks were administered to Chinese L1 learners of English and a control group of English native speakers. Results show that subjects both used and judged as grammatical inappropriate passive morphology with all verbs falling under the rubric of unaccusativity. The article concludes with linguistic representations which maintain Zobl’s insights but are consistent with current theories of argument structure.


Multilingua ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jette G. Hansen Edwards

AbstractThe study employs a case study approach to examine the impact of educational backgrounds on nine Hong Kong tertiary students’ English and Cantonese language practices and identifications as native speakers of English and Cantonese. The study employed both survey and interview data to probe the participants’ English and Cantonese language use at home, school, and with peers/friends. Leung, Harris, and Rampton’s (1997, The idealized native speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroom realities.TESOL Quarterly 31(3). 543–560) framework of language affiliation, language expertise, and inheritance was used to examine the construction of a native language identity in a multilingual setting. The study found that educational background – and particularly international school experience in contrast to local government school education – had an impact on the participants’ English language usage at home and with peers, and also affected their language expertise in Cantonese. English language use at school also impacted their identifications as native speakers of both Cantonese and English, with Cantonese being viewed largely as native language based on inheritance while English was being defined as native based on their language expertise, affiliation and use, particularly in contrast to their expertise in, affiliation with, and use of Cantonese.


1991 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Zee

The style of speech illustrated is that typical of the educated younger generation in Hong Kong. The recording is that of a 22-year-old female university student who has lived all her life in Hong Kong.


BMJ Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. e018380
Author(s):  
Albert Lee ◽  
Calvin Ka-man Cheung ◽  
Kenneth Lo ◽  
Vera Mei-wan Keung ◽  
Lancelot Wai-ho Mui ◽  
...  

IntroductionThis study aims to explore the prospective association between the dietary quality (DQ) of preschoolers and their health status in Hong Kong, with the body mass index as the main outcome variable.Methods and analysisThis prospective cohort study has recruited 3539 children aged between 2 and 4 years old, with a follow-up period of 4 years. Their diet was reported by their parents by a 3-day food diary, and their body weight and height were measured yearly with standardised instruments. Questionnaires were administered to parents to acquire information of the children’s prenatal development and dietary intake before their age of 2 years and of their baseline lifestyle and family backgrounds. The DQ was measured by the Healthy Eating Index as a continuous scale, while the exposure was defined as having a higher dietary quality score. Data were analysed using SPSS V.24. Linear and logistic regressions were used to examine the association of those predictive factors to the outcomes. Generalised estimating equations will be used to examine the longitudinal changes of the outcomes. A pilot study has been conducted, the preliminary results from which are presented in this cohort profile.Ethics and disseminationThis study has been approved by the Joint Chinese University of Hong Kong and New Territory East Cluster Clinical Research Ethics Committee (CREC Ref No: 2013–632). Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects. The results will be published in due course.


Linguistics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. S. Li ◽  
Cathy S. P. Wong ◽  
Wai Mun Leung ◽  
Sam T. S. Wong

AbstractDrawing on Clyne’s (


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