You Speak What They Wear
Social Perception of Subculture Persona and Chinese-English Code-Mixing in the Taiwanese Society
In: Asian Journal of Social ScienceSearch for other papers by Larry Hong-lin Li in
Current site
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Abstract
We manipulated persona features characterising US and Taike subcultures, and examined its impact on preference toward Chinese-English alternated uses among Taiwanese youngsters. We conducted (i) a literature survey to identify the features iconic of US and Taike subcultures, (ii) a norming task to verify the subculture icons obtained, (iii) a multi-choice task to survey preference for six relevant non-/mixed forms of language, (iv) a forced-choice task to inspect “relative” code choices between Chinese versus its code-mix with English elements under the cues of the probe features. We found that visual cues and the stereotypical generalisations thereof play a role in language negotiation in first meeting contexts; cultural personae manifest themselves in the language alternation; with code mixing as an accommodative move, language users self-categorise themselves with the interlocutor that is stereotyped as having a linguistic preference associated to their persona character; linguistic convergence to stereotypes is driven by unconscious need.
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| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 703 | 102 | 14 |
| Full Text Views | 61 | 10 | 1 |
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You Speak What They Wear
Social Perception of Subculture Persona and Chinese-English Code-Mixing in the Taiwanese Society
In: Asian Journal of Social ScienceSearch for other papers by Larry Hong-lin Li in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
We manipulated persona features characterising US and Taike subcultures, and examined its impact on preference toward Chinese-English alternated uses among Taiwanese youngsters. We conducted (i) a literature survey to identify the features iconic of US and Taike subcultures, (ii) a norming task to verify the subculture icons obtained, (iii) a multi-choice task to survey preference for six relevant non-/mixed forms of language, (iv) a forced-choice task to inspect “relative” code choices between Chinese versus its code-mix with English elements under the cues of the probe features. We found that visual cues and the stereotypical generalisations thereof play a role in language negotiation in first meeting contexts; cultural personae manifest themselves in the language alternation; with code mixing as an accommodative move, language users self-categorise themselves with the interlocutor that is stereotyped as having a linguistic preference associated to their persona character; linguistic convergence to stereotypes is driven by unconscious need.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 703 | 102 | 14 |
| Full Text Views | 61 | 10 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 67 | 14 | 0 |