Conversational Repair in Spoken Hong Kong Cantonese

Adrian K. Ho, The New York Public Library
Bjorn H. Jernudd, Hong Kong Baptist University

Article comments

This paper is the abridged version of my undergraduate honours project for a B.A. in Humanities (Language and Communication) from Hong Kong Baptist University.

Abstract

This paper examines the process and mechanism of conversational repair in spoken Hong Kong Cantonese. Levelt calls for accounts of conversational repair from diverse languages; this paper helps test his supposition that “the organization of repair is quite invariant across languages and cultures” (1989: 497). The paper also raises the hypothesis that personal and contextual factors are crucial variables which determine which type of repair will be socially acceptable (and therefore prominent) in a particular conversational setting.