Language Variation and Social Identity in Beijing
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Language Variation and Social Identity in Beijing Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics Hui Zhao May 2017 School of Languages, Linguistics and Film Queen Mary University of London Declaration I, Hui Zhao, confirm that the research included within this thesis is my own work or that where it has been carried out in collaboration with, or supported by others, that this is duly acknowledged below and my con- tribution indicated. Previously published material is also acknowledged below. I attest that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge break any UK law, infringe any third party's copyright or other Intellectual Property Right, or contain any confidential material. I accept that the College has the right to use plagiarism detection software to check the electronic version of the thesis. I confirm that this thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of a degree by this or any other university. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. Signature: Date: Abstract This thesis investigates language variation among a group of young adults in Beijing, China, with an aim to advance our understanding of social meaning in a language and a society where the topic is understudied. In this thesis, I examine the use of Beijing Mandarin among Beijing- born university students in Beijing in relation to social factors including gender, social class, career plan, and future aspiration. Language variation in this context can further our understanding of Chinese culture in a newly- reformed society while exploring important constructs such as gender and aspiration in China, in part by establishing the social meaning of the local vernacular and its role in identity construction among speakers. The study presents data from both sociolinguistic interviews, conducted with 21 Beijingers who have different class backgrounds, career plans, and future aspiration, and self-recordings, from a subset of 10 Beijingers in conversation with their family and/or friends. I focus on three thus far under-examined linguistic variables { neutral tone, classifier omission, and intensifier te { while incorporating an additional variable { erhua (word- final rhotacisation) in the discussion of stylistic variation in Beijing Man- darin. The results first provide an overview of language variation in Beijing Mandarin, as shown in the use of different features and their linguistic and social constraints. We observe familiar patterns often found in sociolin- guistic literature for some social factors (e.g. gender), while more complex interactions exist for others (e.g. aspiration and career path). The findings suggest that Beijing Mandarin conveys localness and masculinity which is expected for a vernacular variety. Finer distinctions in the social meanings of these variables are found in sub-groups of Beijingers with different gen- der, future career path and/or aspiration. Moreover, speakers are seen to utilise these variables and their meanings in the construction of personae. 3 Dedication To my grandmas, my mum, my sister, and all the fearless and ambitious Chinese women. To Jinxi and Amber, you are my favourite tiny humans. 4 Acknowledgements First, I gratefully acknowledge the financial support I have received from the Economic and Social Research Council and Queen Mary during my PhD. It would not have been possible to start and finish this project without their help. My sincere gratitude also goes to all the people who have helped me during my fieldwork in Beijing, especially my participants who allowed me access to their lives by agreeing to meet me, let me interview and record them, and even record their own private conversations for me. This project would not be possible without your input and I really appreciate you taking time to sit with a random PhD student who was `just interested in Beijing Mandarin'. I also want to thank my friends|Wang Qing, Guan Fei, Wang Fan, Shen Yue, and Xu Yiming for keeping me company and helping me with participant recruitment in Beijing. When I tell people that I have both Devyani Sharma and Erez Levon as my supervisors, the response I get is always something like `Really?! That's so awesome!!' I feel extremely lucky and grateful to have the `dream team' of supervisors throughout my PhD, and they are truly the best supervisors one can hope for. Devyani, thanks for being my advisor/supervisor since the moment I stepped into Queen Mary back in 2011 and inspiring me to research Chinese back then. Thank you for always being supportive and always making time to sit with me for hours discussing my writing. You are such an inspiration. Erez, thanks for being so much more than just a second supervisor. Thank you for all the insightful comments over the years and being my go-to person for any problems/questions I have about stats, experiments, phonetics, etc. I am constantly amazed by your knowledge about everything, how organised you are, and how great you are at presenting and teaching. I have really enjoyed my time at Queen Mary and a huge part of it is because I have the best supervisors. I also owe much of my academic growth and achievement to the linguis- tics department at Queen Mary. Having studied and worked in the same department for over five years, I want to thank the academic staff members 5 6 who have helped me over the years, especially Esther de Leeuw, Colleen Cotter, Linnaea Stockall, Jenny Cheshire, and Jonathan Kasstan. Thanks for your encouragement and help over the years. To all the LingLabbers I have worked/chatted/laughed/mourned with, thanks for being there and maybe I don't say this enough, but having office friends who are going through the same thing with me helps a whole lot. In order of appearance, Dave, Daniella, Fryni, Catherine, Tom Stanton, Panpan, Anne, Reem, Shivonne, Chen, Zoe, Melisa, Christian, Nate, Mo- hammad, Rosie, Andy, Tom Rausch, Maame, Elisa and Scott. Thanks for the snacks, the banter, and the company for the past four years. I also want to thank all the folks in the linguistics department at the Ohio State University, especially my host Kathryn Campbell-Kibler, who has treated me like one of her own students and helped me throughout my visit. I have learned so much from this visit and as I have said before, I think you are really cool. Yuhan, thank you for putting up with me, driving me around sampling all the American cuisine, and most importantly, talking about Chinese sociolinguistics with me all the time. OSU folks|Nandi, Jessi, Zack J, Elena, Daniel L, Willy, Carly, Daniel P, Clint, Rachel, Ellen, Martha, Zack D, Keeta, David, Katya, Evan, Nathan|thank you so much for the company and intellectual conversations. I must also thank Nicola McLelland, my supervisor/mentor/boss at the University of Nottingham, for the support during the first six months of my new job when I was finishing this thesis. Thanks for the encouragement and advice you've given me about my thesis and my research during this transition period. To all the housemates I have had in the past four years in London who have no doubt seen me locking myself in my room, struggling with the balance between writing and living a life, thanks for feeding me at times and reminding me to take care of myself. Special thanks go to my current housemates (who are also my rugby kids)|Nadine Ip Fung Chun, Ruby `Hongbaoshi' Lightfoot, Chelsea Shand, and Ilhan Abdalle|who have re- ally helped me to function like a normal person during the final year of my PhD. I treasure all the moments we have shared chatting, laughing, watch- ing TV, singing karaoke, cooking, eating, drinking, and complaining. I love you all so much for it and I promise I am getting better at this adulting business. To all the present and past (and future?) members of Team China| Christina, Ran, Panpan, Orm, Dave, Fangfang, thanks for the friendship and endless hotpot parties. I miss you guys, wherever you are right now. 7 To my office buddy Shivonne and library buddy Nadine, thanks for putting up with me saying `someone to write my thesis' over and over again when asked `do you need anything from the shop?' and even bringing me back coffee, tea, chocolate and crisps, along with friendship and love. Shivonne, thank you for taking care of me when I'm super stressed and using your weekend to proofread my writing. Nadine, thanks for being the only person who would still help me out and cheer me up after I've been complaining to you all day. I'm ever grateful for having you in my life for this past year and hopefully in the many many years to come. Love you as always. To my QMBL rugby kids, thanks for accepting me into the team and helping me find a balance between working and smashing people. I am so proud of what we have achieved over the past four years|both in our ability to play some excellent rugby and our ability to appreciate our bodies and our spirit. You have made me realise once again that hard work does pay off and those stand by you through the process are your true friends. To my Hackney rugby adults, thanks for teaching me that one can adult and enjoy oneself at the same time. You are all amazing people and your dedication to our beloved sports and team inspires me day in and day out.