This research project website seeks to explore linguistic relativism in its weak form, specifically in the phenomena of Politically Correct ("PC") language and bilingualism: in particular Cantonese/English bilingualism in Hong Kong, to ultimately study the effect of our language on our prejudice and behaviour.
The investigation of linguistic relativism with the examples of PC language and bilingualism can shed light on very controversial and divisive issues relating to language in our culture.
1. Politically Correct Language is a highly discussed, observed and advocated social practice in today’s world. Its use is both promoted and criticised. There is great social interest and public policy at stake regarding use of PC language and PC culture at large, and the critical understanding and study of its usefulness, effects and impacts will directly affect how our society progresses and moves forward with dealing with various social issue and discourse.
2. Understanding how and to what extent the language we use affects our cognition is a vital introspective study of human behaviour. It is undoubtable that language we use everyday must have some effect on our behaviour, but to what degree? This introspective study can help provide clarity on why we behave the way we do, and possible suggest solutions to unsolved issues, or alleviate the severity of some problems.
3. Bilingualism, according to some research, can help reduce or counteract prejudice. There are various theories to explain why this might be the case, and continuing research to determine how exactly bilingualism interacts with prejudice. As bilinguals living in an officially bilingual region, bilingualism has been a core component of our education and upbringing. Arguably, this is applicable to not only bilinguals living in Hong Kong, but also for bilinguals around the world. In a globalised era, bilingualism and multilingualism seems to be a growing norm and an ideal many strive towards. Researching how bilingualism interacts with prejudice can help improve our language use and education to combat prejudice implicit in language, but also bridge gaps to reduce division and discrimination by diversifying individuals' identities through their language acquisition.
The focus of the research revolves around the ways in which our language constructs our cognition, specifically in terms of prejudicial thought and discriminatory behaviour.
Gordon Allport, American psychologist, defines prejudice as 'an antipathy based upon a faulty and inflexible generalization. It may be felt or expressed. It may be directed toward a group as a whole, or toward an individual because he is a member of that group' (Allport, 1954, p. 9).
The scope of our research applies to everyone and anyone, as language is pervasive in our culture, thoughts, and knowledge, and is the primary means in which we interact and communicate with one another. Language being such a core component to our existence and actions, it is a fundamental aspect to all forms of prejudice, and in turn, prejudice itself can be built into or implicitly found in language itself. Therefore, the scope of this project is wide, and perhaps verging on totalising, but it very aware that the key focus is how language and prejudice interact at a base level, and is not to consider language to be the cause and sole determinant of prejudice. Arguably, prejudice can exist without language, and language without prejudice. Simple examples are many animals who have natural prejudice against other species or conditions of nature and do not use a language, and computers or Artificial Intelligence which use language but ostensibly have no prejudice. (The coding and programming structure of AIs and computer engines can be argued as prejudicial, but given that we define prejudice in a more social context of involving humans and emotions and treatment of others, the treatment of data and processing falls outside the scope of this definition.)
Many are discriminated against, and prejudice has never been more relevant in our sociopolitical discourse, and as explained above, language is at the centre of the discourse - present in every dimension of it. Therefore, our project tries to approach the issue at its roots, and extrapolate the findings to all human beings.
In this research project, we will explore the question: to what extent does our language prescribe , construct, and reinforce our prejudice? In doing so, we aim to understand the functions and the power of language on our thought, in order to uncover prejudice at a more fundamental level and whilst explaining why language is such a pervasive mechanism of prejudice, suggesting how we may overcome or counter its effects by better understanding the nuanced and subtle influences language have on our thoughts.
The website will serve as a medium and structure to present our findings, arguments, and comments on research question and aim. The website will first present a collection of literature review from the secondary sources we have reviewed for our research. The literature ranges amongst disciplines of psychology, linguistics, sociology, anthropological linguistics and sociolinguistics and philosophy in order to take a interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to understanding the complex subject matter we wish to tackle. The literature review will both summarise, explain, relate and evaluate the readings to our research focus and give readers an insight into the context and theoretical foundation we are building our arguments on. Followed by this, the website will present some informal and non-academic examples - mostly YouTube videos - which displays the discourse and commentary on the topics of linguistic relativity, political correctness, and bilingualism to provide readers with some other mediums and platforms to consider the significance and application of the research. Continuing from this, we present our arguments and exploration in the discussion page. Our references are given at the end to all of our sources for further reading and review.