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Article published In: Multilingualism and Language Contact in Asia-Pacific
Edited by Shobha Satyanath
[Asia-Pacific Language Variation 11:1/2] 2025
► pp. 142–186

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Detecting paths of change in the heritage context

Directional motion event expression in Cantonese spoken in Toronto and Hong Kong

ORCiD logo with link | University of Toronto
Published online: 9 January 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/aplv.25004.leu
Abstract
This study examines path encoding in motion event expression in Cantonese spoken in Toronto and Hong Kong using a comparative variationist methodology informed by motion event typology. It investigates the linguistic and social factors relevant to variation in directional self-motion event expression in Cantonese as spoken by two generations of speakers in Toronto and homeland speakers in Hong Kong. All relevant examples of self-motion event descriptions found in the spontaneous speech of 23 speakers in sociolinguistic interviews from the Heritage Language Documentation Corpus are compared intergenerationally and diatopically. The results suggest stable variation in Hong Kong but change in Toronto. Changes in Toronto are best explained as language-internal change following universal principles rather than simplification or contact with English. This study contributes to literature on the effect of language contact on motion event expression in multilinguals, while also highlighting the importance of considering first-generation immigrants as the baseline for second-generation speakers in addition to homeland speakers.
Abstract (Cantonese)
本項研究採用比較變異法，並以位移事件類型學為基礎，探討多倫多同香港兩地粵語喺位移事件表達嘅路徑編碼。研究分析咗語言內部因素同社會因素對多倫多兩代港僑同香港本地人粵語趨向自移事件表達變異嘅影響，從「祖裔語言記錄語料庫」(Heritage Language Documentation Corpus) 23位粵語使用者嘅社會語言學面談口語語料挑選所有描述自移事件嘅相關用例，作兩地跨代比較。結果表示香港有穩定變異，而多倫多發生咗變化；多倫多嘅變化應歸為遵循普遍原則嘅語言內部變化，而語言簡化或者同英語嘅接觸都不足以解釋呢啲變化。本研究為關於語言接觸對多語者位移事件表達影響嘅文獻帶嚟新觀點，同時亦強調第一代移民對研究祖裔語言嘅重要性，除咗要將祖地者當做祖裔者嘅比較基準，亦要將第一代移民視為第二代嘅比較基準。
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Heritage linguistics
      • 2.1.1Investigating the structural properties of heritage languages
      • 2.1.2Cantonese in the heritage context
    • 2.2Directional motion events
      • 2.2.1The typology of motion events
      • 2.2.2Methodological approaches to investigating motion event expression
      • 2.2.3Motion event expression in Cantonese and the Chinese languages
      • 2.2.4Motion event expression in multilingual settings
      • 2.2.5Comparing strategies of expressing motion in Cantonese and English
    • 2.3Research questions, hypotheses and predictions
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Data
    • 3.2Data extraction and coding
      • 3.2.1Dependent variable and its variable context
      • 3.2.2Social factors
      • 3.2.3Linguistic constraints
    • 3.3Analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Distributional analysis
      • 4.1.1Linguistic factor effects
      • 4.1.2Social factors
      • 4.1.3Summary
    • 4.2Mixed-effects variable rule analysis
      • 4.2.1Deixis
      • 4.2.2Path
      • 4.2.3Summary
    • 4.3Manner verbs
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
    • 5.1Linguistic factors
      • 5.1.1The locative object and Deixis as Ground
      • 5.1.2Motion and purpose
    • 5.2Forces of change in motion event expression
    • 5.3Typology of motion events
    • 5.4Conclusions and future research
  • Notes
  • Appendices
    • Appendix A.Exclusions
      • A.1Idiosyncratic directional morphemes
      • A.2Multiple path morphemes
      • A.3Caused motion events
      • A.4Grammaticalized uses of directional morphemes
      • A.5Idiomatic uses of directional morphemes
    • Appendix B.List of Manner verbs used in the sample
    • Appendix C.Mixed-effect models
  • References
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