Figuratively Speaking: A Study of the Cantonese-Speaking Undergraduate's Response to Figures of Speech in Shakespeare

Abstract

English literature is a fairly popular option in the Arts Faculty of the University of Hong Kong, where over ninety percent of the student population is Chinese. It is a cliche to state that the study of a literature written in a second language is no easy matter. Not the least of the average student's difficulties is the problem of understanding the finer shades of meaning and nuances of literary language. We shall not presume to tackle the entire problem of the understanding of various English writers by the average educated person in Hong Kong. The subject would be far too enormous and would involve too many sociological considerations. Instead, we wish to confine ourselves to the problems of understanding figurative language which confront students reading English Literature in the University of Hong Kong. In the following discussion emphasis is placed on the works of Shakespeare, although our observations may apply equally to other English writers. All metaphors suggest a resemblance or analogy between two objects, concepts or events. People with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds may view the 'real world' differently, and a comparison which may strike one group of speakers as 'apt' may not seem so to others. A person with a barely adequate ability in the use of a foreign language may well be troubled by meanings which are not strictly 'literal', and figurative extensions of meaning are frequently beyond his comprehension. However, when the metaphor in the foreign language is based on some concept familiar to him in his own language, it is much more easily understood and appreciated. Our undergraduates are mostly native speakers of Cantonese and are familiar with a whole stock of metaphorical expressions in colloquial Cantonese as well as some found in literary Chinese. They come to the study of English Literature, then, with a whole set-of associations learned through their own language, and although we would not like to minimize the difficulties of understanding figurative expressions in Shakespeare and other English literary works, it does seem that the cultural 'barrier' is not as impregnable as it is sometimes claimed to be. It is found that many figurative expressions in Shakespeare and