Neologisms are epidemic: Modeling the life cycle of neologisms in China 2008-2016

Have you ever heard about these Chinese neologisms: 蝸居 wo1ju1 “living within a snail’s shell”, 雷 lei2 “thunder, describing a person getting shocked by something absurd”, and 裸婚 luo3 “marriage without traditional ceremonies”? The new joint paper by our Professor Kathleen Ahrens revealed that the majority of influential Chinese neologisms possess a similar rapidly rising-decaying pattern, based on Google Trends data. Click here for further information.

Replay: From Language to Languaging: Bringing chant and gesture into the picture by Dr Fred Cummins

How is language used to inquire into a profound change in pre-history, birthing modern humans and their activities? This is a replay of the webinar took place on 3 February 2021. In this joint webinar with the International Society for Gesture Studies - Hong Kong, Dr Fred Cummins introduced the term languaging to highlight a range of coordinative and affiliative activities that produced the change we recognise in retrospect and more. Dr Fred Cummins is a cognitive scientist and linguist (PhD Indiana U., 1997) with longstanding interest in developing accounts of human cognition and being that are rooted in the body, rather than just the brain. His work on joint speech (chant) over the last 20 years has generated a novel field of relevance to disciplines from neuroscience to religious studies. His work combines ethnological observation with philosophically motivated use of concepts from the theory of enaction and the formal tools of dynamical systems theory. Abstract: The term “language” is used to motivate inquiry into two very different and important questions. The first is the inquiry into coded message exchange. This underlies almost all of the work within traditional linguistics. The second is to inquire into a profound change that occurred in pre-history, birthing modern humans and their activities. I will argue that the conventional understanding of “language” cannot address this second question and I will introduce the term “languaging” instead, to highlight a range (scope unknown) of coordinative and affiliative activities that produced the change we recognise in retrospect. Working from the empirical observation of chanting (joint speech) and its role in embodied ritual and performative practices, I will illustrate one form of languaging that has hitherto been neglected. This novel focus yokes gesture, speech, and many other aspects of collective embodied activity together and adds to the increasingly motivated drive to develop profoundly embodied theories of our being that avoid the shortcomings of accounts based in the computational metaphor and a reductive neurocentrism. This online seminar was jointly organised by the Department of English, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and International Society for Gesture Studies - Hong Kong.

Media Coverage: Why do we study English and Applied Linguistics? (Sky Post)

Language – particularly the English language in today’s world – is key to understand the motivations, beliefs, and behaviors of peoples and cultures around the world.

READ@PolyU Workshop: Strategies for Expanding Your English Vocablary (3 Mar 2021)

Our Dr Phoebe Lin is invited by Pao Yue-kong Library to give an online talk about expanding English Vocabulary. She will share some research-based facts, figures, and tips about vocabulary learning, as well as Library and online resources, so that we can be smarter at managing our own vocabulary-building activities. It is open to all PolyU staff and students.  About the talk: click here About Dr Phoebe Lin: click here

Online Place Branding: The Case of Hong Kong

Congrats to our Dr Phoenix Lam for her first book! This book examines the online place branding of Hong Kong, one of the most visited cities and well-known spots in the world through an interdisciplinary approach combining the concepts, methods and tools in language and discourse studies and insights from marketing and tourism research. The book compares how the place brand is officially constructed and conveyed by the institutional bodies, as realised on the Brand Hong Kong website online, with how the place brand is publicly experienced and perceived by individuals worldwide, as realised on the TripAdvisor Hong Kong travel forum online. The book also includes a comparative analysis between Singapore and Hong Kong to better understand online place branding and findings from the comparative study. Suggestions are given on how to bridge the gap between the online representation and perception of a place brand and enhance online place branding in general. More details: click here About Dr Phoenix Lam: click here

New look to our MAESP notice board in the Department

A fresh start for 2021! We have also given a new look to our MAESP notice board in the Department! Inspired by the Salvation Mountain, a student from the PolyU School of Design produced this stunning piece of artwork. The “programme streams” represent the joyfulness and richness our Master of Arts in English Studies for the Profession programme is endowed with. The Spring colour tone delivers warmth and hope, and makes our students feel like home! Click here for further information about MA in English Studies for the Professions.

Replay: Analysing university spoken interaction: a CL/CA approach by Prof. Steve Walsh

How to use Corpus Linguistics (CL) and Conversation Analysis (CA) to analyse classroom spoken interactions in highered setting? This is a replay of the webinar took place on 30 Nov 2020 with Prof. Steve Walsh as the speaker. He is Professor of Applied Linguistics, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, UK. From an analysis of the data, he shows how the two approaches can be combined in an iterative process to account for features of spoken discourse at both micro (word) and macro (text) levels. Abstract:  In this talk I consider how corpus linguistics (CL) and conversation analysis (CA)  can be used together to provide ‘thick descriptions’ of spoken interaction in the context of small group teaching in higher education. From an analysis of the data, I show how the two approaches can be combined in an iterative process to account for features of spoken discourse at both micro (word) and macro (text) levels. Beginning with CL and focusing largely on words and combinations of words, CA is then used to highlight pertinent interactional features. This methodology follows an iterative process: from CL to CA, back to CL and so on. This approach to analysis provides powerful insights into the ways in which interactants establish understandings in educational settings and, in particular, highlights the inter-dependency of words, utterances and text in the co-construction of meaning. While CA and CL have both been used on their own to study spoken encounters, each has its limitations. CL, for example, largely ignores context and focuses on large scale analysis, whereas CA offers detailed descriptions but is unable to generalize to larger contexts. Using a combined CL and CA approach (henceforth, CLCA), I argue, cumulatively gives a more ‘up-close’ description of spoken interactions in an educational setting than that offered by using either one on its own.

Good and Bad Reasoning about COVID-19

In her newly-published paper "Good and Bad Reasoning about COVID-19" in Informal Logic, our Prof. Louise Cummings discussed instances of good and bad reasoning observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prof. Cummings examined errors in reasoning in which people, agencies, and governments respond to the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2. Their responses have revealed a range of judgements and decisions, not all of which are rationally warranted, and several of which have reduced the public's compliance with important health measures. She also analysed the rationally warranted reasoning about COVID-19 employed by public health agencies. Click here to read the full article.

Online Workshop Replay: Solving Crime Through Linguistics

How good is your detective skill? In this 40-minutes workshop, our Dr Phoenix Lam introduced us to authorship studies - an area of linguistics, and how authorship studies can help to solve crime in authentic settings.

Replay: Analysing Professional Discourse from a Multimodal Perspective by Dr William Feng

What are the new semiotic possibilities brought by technologies? This is a replay of the webinar took place on 23 Nov 2020 with our Dr William Feng, Associate Professor of the Department as the speaker. He discussed the functions of multimodal resources in knowledge construction and corporate promotion. Check it out if you have missed it! Abstract: As discourse and communication in various professional contexts have become increasingly multimodal, it is important for analysts to look at semiotic resources beyond language. A multimodal approach is therefore needed for understanding how meaning is realised through the deployment of different semiotic resources. In this talk, I will introduce how theories in multimodality can contribute to the analysis of professional discourse, addressing the question “what happens when professional communication moves online?” in particular. Working broadly with the notion of multimodal genre analysis, I will examine two key features of professional discourse on new media, namely, the complexity of communicative purposes and the extensive use of multimodal resources. Using two cases studies of YouTube teaching videos and corporate social media posts, I will discuss the functions of multimodal resources in knowledge construction and corporate promotion, which contribute to the formation of new digital genres. I conclude that professionals and scholars need to understand the new semiotic possibilities brought about by technologies and how multimodal resources are orchestrated for achieving various purposes in digitalised professional communication. This online seminar was jointly organised by the Department of English and Research Centre for Professional Communication in English, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.