HKIER

摘要

N.A.

Abstract

The common use of English in the conversations among Chinese was analysed as a phenomenon related to social adjustment and functioning in interpersonal communication. A field study was done to examine the phenomenon and related reasons among students in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Students' casual conversations were sampled randomly in different occasions and locations on campus, and the use of English words and phrases in the conversations were recorded and analysed. Results showed that most English words used were nouns, followed by verbs and adjectives. As predicted, data also supported the proposed reasons (e.g. primacy effect, the ease of abbreviation in English) in explaining the phenomenon. The relationship of the phenomenon to the study of Chinese social behaviour was noted.