INVITED SPEAKERS: PLENARY

Linguistic variation is central to understanding how language is structured, practiced, and ideologized in everyday life. Variation plays a central, rather than incidental, role in language, revealing the patterned ways in which speakers navigate competing linguistic norms, social expectations, and identity positions (Weinreich et al. 1968; Labov 1972). In multilingual postcolonial contexts, where English often functions as both an institutional standard and a site of sociolinguistic contestation, examining variation becomes particularly salient. This is true not only for theoretical accounts of language change and contact, but also for applied domains such as language education, policy, and assessment. This study adopts a comparative variationist approach to examine morphosyntactic variability in two Asian Englishes, Hong Kong English (HKE) and Philippine English (PhilE). It aims to trace how social and structural factors jointly shape linguistic practice in digitally mediated discourse.

 

Drawing on two large-scale Twitter corpora, the TCOEHK (123 million words) and TCOPE (135 million words), the study focuses on two variables: (1) the alternation between -t and -ed forms in irregular verbs (e.g., burnt vs burned) in PhilE, and (2) the orthographic variation between -ize and -ise suffixes in HKE (e.g., summarize vs summarise). Using Bayesian regression modeling, the analysis assesses the extent to which diachronic, geographical, and stylistic factors condition variation within and across the two varieties. Results indicate that EYES word usage in HKE is significantly patterned by time (median = -0.05, SD = 0.01, CI = -0.07 to -0.03, pd = 100 percent) and geography (median = 0.24, SD = 0.06, CI = 0.14 to 0.34, pd = 100 percent). Suffix variation in PhilE shows more modest but credible effects of temporal (median = 0.02, SD = 0.01, CI = -0.01 to 0.04, pd = 89 percent) and spatial conditioning (median = 0.13, SD = 0.19, CI = -0.01 to 0.28, pd = 93 percent). These patterns are further shaped by stylistic dimensions, such as lexical context and domain.

 

The comparative framework reveals both convergence and divergence in how global, regional, and local forces interact in shaping morphosyntactic norms. While HKE exhibits increased localization amidst longstanding tensions between British and American standards, PhilE continues to reflect dominant American orientations despite emerging internal differentiation. These findings carry significant implications for language education in both contexts. Specifically, they underscore the pedagogical value of incorporating variationist insights into English curricula. Doing so challenges prescriptive models that marginalize local forms and obscures the dynamic nature of English in use. The data suggest that teaching about variation, rather than against it, can more accurately reflect linguistic realities, foster critical awareness of normativity, and legitimize locally embedded practices as linguistically valid.

 

In advancing a variation-aware approach to English language education, this study contributes to broader debates on linguistic legitimacy, pedagogical equity, and the politics of standardization in postcolonial settings. It argues for the integration of empirical sociolinguistic evidence into language teaching and policy-making. This approach reflects the shifting contours of English in Asia and promotes more inclusive and socially responsive educational practices.

 

References

• Labov, William. 1972. The social motivation of a sound change. Sociolinguistic patterns, 251–265. New York: Academic.

• Setter, Jane.; Cathy S. P. Wong.; and Brian Hok-Shing Chan. 2010. Hong Kong English. Dialects of English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

• Wang, Zijian.; Scott A. Hale.; David Adelani.; Przemyslaw A. Grabowicz.; Timo Hartmann.; Fabian Flöck.; and David Jurgens. 2019. Demographic Inference and Representative Population Estimates from Multilingual Social Media Data. The World Wide Web Conference.2056–2067.

• Weinreich, Uriel.; William Labov.; and Marvin I. Herzog. 1968. Empirical foundations for a theory of language change. Directions for historical linguistics, ed. by Winfred P. Lehmann, 100. Austin: University of Texas Press.