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  • Semiotic Emblems, Indexicality and Eliteness in Hong Kong

    Room CRT-7.45, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

    Jackie Militello - The University of Hong Kong Abstract Scholars in sociolinguistics tend to study inequality by focusing on people at the lower end of the power and economic spectrum, rather than those at the higher end, but by attending to those who are the most privileged and powerful, the so-called ‘elites’, we can better […]

  • Eliteness Strategies: Recognising Eliteness and the Semiotics of ‘Artisanal’ Coffee

    Room CRT-7.45, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

    Andre Joseph Theng - The University of Hong Kong Abstract In recent years, sociolinguistic research has been increasingly concerned with the notion of the discursive construction of eliteness. ‘Elite discourse’ can refer to the ways in which ‘superior’ class identities are represented, stylized and performed in different domains with the effect of reinforcing social, political […]

  • Is Your Child Learning Singlish? Attitudes, Exposure, and Acquisition of Variation Among Local and Expatriate Children in Singapore

    Room CRT-7.45, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

    Dr Rebecca Starr - National University of Singapore (http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/ell/People_Faculty_SRL.html) Abstract Although orientation towards local linguistic norms is increasing in Singapore, Singapore English (SgE) is still perceived by some as a non-native variety. Variation in attitudes towards SgE may shape acquisition of SgE features by both Singaporean and expatriate children, who increasingly attend government schools. The […]

  • Avoidance as Love: Evading Cavell on Dover Cliff

    Room CRT-7.45, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

    Dr Nicholas Luke - The University of Hong Kong (https://englishhkuhk.foarts.hku.hk/people/Faculty/86/Dr%20Nicholas%20Luke) Abstract This paper challenges one of the most influential readings of Shakespeare in the last half-century: that of the “ordinary language” philosopher Stanley Cavell.  It critiques Cavell’s notions of avoidance, acknowledgment, and recognition through an analysis of the discontinuous, fragmentary character of Edgar (King Lear). […]

  • Sociolinguistics not-as-usual: lessons from Victor Klemperer

    Room CRT-7.45, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

    Professor Monica Heller - University of Toronto (https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/sje/People/1615/Monica_Heller.html) Abstract A few years ago, the University of Toronto Press approached me and Bonnie McElhinny with a proposal that we produce a new introductory text to linguistic anthropology and an accompanying reader. Faced with what we were experiencing as a disconnect between the role of language in […]

  • Liquid Power: A Social Semiotics of the Infinity Pool

    Room CRT-7.45, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

    Professor Crispin Thurlow - University of Bern (https://www.ens.unibe.ch/about_us/staff/prof_dr_thurlow_crispin/index_eng.html) Abstract The prime technique of power is now escape, slippage, elision and avoidance … Zygmunt Bauman (2000: 11) The infinity pool is currently an epitomic, ubiquitous marker of distinction and prestige in so-called luxury tourism. Arguably the supreme example of these vanishing-edge illusions is to be found […]