Andrew Sewell
Biographic Data
| ID | 649851 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Andrew Sewell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Andrew |
| FAMILY NAME | Sewell |
| SIGNATURE | SEWELL A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lingnan University, Hong Kong |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3797-1025 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The semiotic construction of cha chaan teng tea cafés in Hong Kong
The Hong Kong-style cha chaan teng ( 茶餐廳 ), or tea cafés, are a key feature of the local foodscape and they are internationally known and recognised. However, their semiotic aspects have received little scholarly attention. This paper combines a geosemiotic analysis of cha chaan tengs with a historical perspective on their development. The theoretical approach also draws on the concept of the semiotic register as an aspect of enregisterment, high…
Functional Load in L2 Phonology
The concept of functional load (FL) has a long history in linguistics. It refers to the fact that contrasts within a language system are not equal in terms of the amount of work that they perform. For example, in English, the FL of the /t/‐/d/ phonemic contrast is greater than that of the /t/‐/θ/ contrast, based on the larger number of minimal pairs (such as time , dime and hit , hid ) that the former serves to differentiate. There are several ap…
The discourse of ‘falling standards’ of English in Hong Kong
The phenomenon of the ‘complaint tradition’, expressing the belief that language standards are deteriorating in some way, has had a long and vibrant existence in discussions of English in Hong Kong. The contribution of a Cultural Linguistics perspective here highlights the nature and significance of the cultural conceptualisations of language, for example, those that are revealed by the use of metaphor. The article begins with an overview of the …
The Hong Kong English accent continuum
The concept of the accent continuum is widely accepted in the study of new Englishes, yet relatively little is known about how distinctions such as educated versus broad accents are related to the presence or absence of accent features. This study applies the technique of implicational scaling to show how six key consonantal features are distributed across the HKE accent continuum. The basic principle is that the presence of certain features impl…
Exploring mediated representations of migrant domestic workers in the Chinese-language media in Hong Kong
Since the 1970s, local residents in Hong Kong have been employing migrant domestic workers (MDWs) for caregiving, cooking, and housekeeping. The vast majority of MDWs are women from the Philippines and Indonesia. Despite their long-standing and numerically significant presence in Hong Kong, many MDWs are still experiencing prejudice or being mistreated. This study focuses on Chinese media coverage of MDW mistreatment cases in Hong Kong and contri…
Functional Load and the Teaching-Learning Relationship in L2 Pronunciation
Though frequent recourse has been made to the functional load (or FL) principle in establishing priorities for L2 pronunciation teaching, it remains an under-theorized and relatively under-utilized concept. This is despite the existence of empirical evidence pointing to correlations between the FL ranking of phonemic contrasts and a) the effect that the absence of particular contrasts has on the comprehensibility of speech, and b) their occurrenc…
Hong Kong English, but not as we know it
In 2015 a new term appeared in public discourse regarding English in Hong Kong: Kongish, which refers to a hybrid form of English and Cantonese used in online communication. This article outlines some of the features of Kongish and assesses its status in Hong Kong, comparing and contrasting it with previous conceptualisations of ‘Hong Kong English’ as a local variety. We argue that the Kongish phenomenon is interesting for two main reasons: first…
The intranational intelligibility of Hong Kong English accents
Phonological Features of China English
This article builds on previous studies of China English by investigating the use of a number of phonological features by twelve students from mainland China. The students were studying at a university in Hong Kong, and came from different regions of China. They were recorded reading a standardized passage and certain aspects of feature use were analyzed. Patterns of variation in some of the features identified in previous studies, such as the su…
Patterns of variation in the consonantal phonology of Hong Kong English
This paper examines inter-speaker phonological variation within a mini-corpus of spoken Hong Kong English. The study focuses on consonantal features, and indicates that variation in the use of these features follows patterns that are implicational or hierarchical in nature. The findings are presented in the form of an implicational scale, in which the use of a particular feature by a speaker implies the use of other features by that speaker. The …
Research methods and intelligibility studies
This paper first briefly reviews the concept of intelligibility as it has been employed in both English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and world Englishes (WE) research. It then examines the findings of the Lingua Franca Core (LFC), a list of phonological features that empirical research has shown to be important for safeguarding mutual intelligibility between non-native speakers of English. The main point of the paper is to analyse these findings and …
World Englishes, English as a Lingua Franca, and the case of Hong Kong English
Perspectives from both World Englishes (WE) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) can assist in the description of Hong Kong English phonology. Mario Saraceni's article ( English Today 94) provides some useful insights into the current debates about English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). His discussion of the background to this debate identifies three viewpoints: a traditional ENL view with its adherence to native-speaker models; the WE (World Englishe…
Hong Kong English, but not as we know it
In 2015 a new term appeared in public discourse regarding English in Hong Kong: Kongish, which refers to a hybrid form of English and Cantonese used in online communication. This article outlines some of the features of Kongish and assesses its status in Hong Kong, comparing and contrasting it with previous conceptualisations of ‘Hong Kong English’ as a local variety. We argue that the Kongish phenomenon is interesting for two main reasons: first…
Patterns of variation in the consonantal phonology of Hong Kong English
This paper examines inter-speaker phonological variation within a mini-corpus of spoken Hong Kong English. The study focuses on consonantal features, and indicates that variation in the use of these features follows patterns that are implicational or hierarchical in nature. The findings are presented in the form of an implicational scale, in which the use of a particular feature by a speaker implies the use of other features by that speaker. The …
Research methods and intelligibility studies
This paper first briefly reviews the concept of intelligibility as it has been employed in both English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and world Englishes (WE) research. It then examines the findings of the Lingua Franca Core (LFC), a list of phonological features that empirical research has shown to be important for safeguarding mutual intelligibility between non-native speakers of English. The main point of the paper is to analyse these findings and …
Exploring mediated representations of migrant domestic workers in the Chinese-language media in Hong Kong
Since the 1970s, local residents in Hong Kong have been employing migrant domestic workers (MDWs) for caregiving, cooking, and housekeeping. The vast majority of MDWs are women from the Philippines and Indonesia. Despite their long-standing and numerically significant presence in Hong Kong, many MDWs are still experiencing prejudice or being mistreated. This study focuses on Chinese media coverage of MDW mistreatment cases in Hong Kong and contri…
The intranational intelligibility of Hong Kong English accents
World Englishes, English as a Lingua Franca, and the case of Hong Kong English
Perspectives from both World Englishes (WE) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) can assist in the description of Hong Kong English phonology. Mario Saraceni's article ( English Today 94) provides some useful insights into the current debates about English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). His discussion of the background to this debate identifies three viewpoints: a traditional ENL view with its adherence to native-speaker models; the WE (World Englishe…
Patterns of variation in the consonantal phonology of Hong Kong English
This paper examines inter-speaker phonological variation within a mini-corpus of spoken Hong Kong English. The study focuses on consonantal features, and indicates that variation in the use of these features follows patterns that are implicational or hierarchical in nature. The findings are presented in the form of an implicational scale, in which the use of a particular feature by a speaker implies the use of other features by that speaker. The …
Research methods and intelligibility studies
This paper first briefly reviews the concept of intelligibility as it has been employed in both English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and world Englishes (WE) research. It then examines the findings of the Lingua Franca Core (LFC), a list of phonological features that empirical research has shown to be important for safeguarding mutual intelligibility between non-native speakers of English. The main point of the paper is to analyse these findings and …
Phonological Features of China English
This article builds on previous studies of China English by investigating the use of a number of phonological features by twelve students from mainland China. The students were studying at a university in Hong Kong, and came from different regions of China. They were recorded reading a standardized passage and certain aspects of feature use were analyzed. Patterns of variation in some of the features identified in previous studies, such as the su…
The intranational intelligibility of Hong Kong English accents
Hong Kong English, but not as we know it
In 2015 a new term appeared in public discourse regarding English in Hong Kong: Kongish, which refers to a hybrid form of English and Cantonese used in online communication. This article outlines some of the features of Kongish and assesses its status in Hong Kong, comparing and contrasting it with previous conceptualisations of ‘Hong Kong English’ as a local variety. We argue that the Kongish phenomenon is interesting for two main reasons: first…
Functional Load and the Teaching-Learning Relationship in L2 Pronunciation
Though frequent recourse has been made to the functional load (or FL) principle in establishing priorities for L2 pronunciation teaching, it remains an under-theorized and relatively under-utilized concept. This is despite the existence of empirical evidence pointing to correlations between the FL ranking of phonemic contrasts and a) the effect that the absence of particular contrasts has on the comprehensibility of speech, and b) their occurrenc…
The Hong Kong English accent continuum
The concept of the accent continuum is widely accepted in the study of new Englishes, yet relatively little is known about how distinctions such as educated versus broad accents are related to the presence or absence of accent features. This study applies the technique of implicational scaling to show how six key consonantal features are distributed across the HKE accent continuum. The basic principle is that the presence of certain features impl…
Exploring mediated representations of migrant domestic workers in the Chinese-language media in Hong Kong
Since the 1970s, local residents in Hong Kong have been employing migrant domestic workers (MDWs) for caregiving, cooking, and housekeeping. The vast majority of MDWs are women from the Philippines and Indonesia. Despite their long-standing and numerically significant presence in Hong Kong, many MDWs are still experiencing prejudice or being mistreated. This study focuses on Chinese media coverage of MDW mistreatment cases in Hong Kong and contri…
The discourse of ‘falling standards’ of English in Hong Kong
The phenomenon of the ‘complaint tradition’, expressing the belief that language standards are deteriorating in some way, has had a long and vibrant existence in discussions of English in Hong Kong. The contribution of a Cultural Linguistics perspective here highlights the nature and significance of the cultural conceptualisations of language, for example, those that are revealed by the use of metaphor. The article begins with an overview of the …
Functional Load in L2 Phonology
The concept of functional load (FL) has a long history in linguistics. It refers to the fact that contrasts within a language system are not equal in terms of the amount of work that they perform. For example, in English, the FL of the /t/‐/d/ phonemic contrast is greater than that of the /t/‐/θ/ contrast, based on the larger number of minimal pairs (such as time , dime and hit , hid ) that the former serves to differentiate. There are several ap…
The semiotic construction of cha chaan teng tea cafés in Hong Kong
The Hong Kong-style cha chaan teng ( 茶餐廳 ), or tea cafés, are a key feature of the local foodscape and they are internationally known and recognised. However, their semiotic aspects have received little scholarly attention. This paper combines a geosemiotic analysis of cha chaan tengs with a historical perspective on their development. The theoretical approach also draws on the concept of the semiotic register as an aspect of enregisterment, high…
Linguistic Variation and Morphology (9 works) · Linguistics (9 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (8 works) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Pronunciation (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · English as a lingua franca (3 works)