Positioning and repositioning: Linguistic practices and identity negotiation of overseas returning bilinguals in Hong Kong

Abstract

Li Wei (1995) notes that relatively little sociolinguistic work on bilingualism has attempted to analyze and compare the complex relationships between aspects of language choice and code-switching among subgroups of the same community. This study aims to investigate the co-existence of two structurally different Cantonese-English code-switching patterns used by two distinctive groups (a returnee and a local group) in a single community: Hong Kong. It focuses on how overseas returning bilinguals negotiate, reposition, and reconstruct their identities through the use of distinctive code-switching styles (Irvine 2001). This paper demonstrates, through a discussion of the tactics of inter subjectivity proposed by Bucholtz and Hall (2005), how the interplay of language, identity and ideology inform the linguistic practices, social networks, and self (re) positioning of these social participants. Specifically, the paper examines how the returnees position and reposition themselves when they are discriminated against as outsiders, and their ethnic and cultural identity as Hong Kong Chinese are deauthenticated and delegitimated. Data include ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and recorded natural conversation.