A study of the use of written Cantonese in the print MTR notices in Hong Kong

Abstract

This research study aims to examine one public area in which written Cantonese is now increasingly used: the print MTR notices found in the MTR stations. The main reason for conducting this research is to investigate how MTR, as a formal institution, makes use of the written form of Cantonese in its publications. The present study particularly looks at the orthographic representations of the Cantonese graphs shown in the MTR notices, the relationship between the use of written Cantonese and the nature of the MTR notices, as well as the extent to which written Cantonese is used alongside standard written Chinese in the MTR notices.

There are three research hypotheses in this study, which are: 1) there will be variations in the written form of some Cantonese morphosyllables found in the MTR notices; 2) written Cantonese will not be found in the MTR notices which are regulatory in nature, but it will be found in notices which are informative, advisory and promotional in nature; and 3) all MTR notices will mainly be written in standard written Chinese with written Cantonese occasionally and randomly found in the texts. The analyses of the MTR notices collected in this study show that only the first hypothesis remains valid while the second and third research hypotheses are, to a certain extent, rejected. Based on the findings of this study, some implications regarding the current status of written Cantonese in Hong Kong are also suggested.