Presentation Schedule
Linguistic Preferism: Relativity or Universalism (79470)
Session Chair: Cheng Luo
Monday, 6 January 2025 12:15
Session: Session 2
Room: Room 323A
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
As a popular yet rarely studied ethnolinguistic phenomenon, linguistic preferism (LP) is defined as a linguistic expression which is sociolinguistically favored by being (near) homophonous with another expression whose meaning is socio-culturally propitious. As linguistic and cultural memes, not only does LP carry on heritage of traditional cultural values and wisdom, but knowledge of its connotations and usage also helps understanding and appreciation of the relationship between a culture and its language. In this study, ethnographical data are collected from Chinese and English via observation, interviews and documentary research, and analyzed in terms of the forms, ways and domains of LP usage in traditional ritual celebrations, person naming, translation of product names, advertising, and abbreviations, along with the linguistic, semantic and pragmatic properties of LP. It is found that while LP seems to be a universal ethnolinguistic phenomenon, crosslinguistic variation constrains the extent and domain of its use in a language. Such variation depends largely on the typological features of a language’s phonological structure resulting in proliferation of homophones as a “seedbed” for creation and use of LP. This relationship between linguistic structure and sociolinguistic behaviour apparently demonstrates a case of linguistic relativity. However, crosslinguistic evidence in using LP suggests that cultural universalism may actually be at play, i.e. it is the cultural beliefs that take precedence and motivates the use of LP, with linguistic structure playing a facilitating role.
Authors:
Cheng Luo, Brock University, Canada
About the Presenter(s)
Dr Cheng Luo is a University Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer at Brock University in Canada
See this presentation on the full schedule – Monday Schedule
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