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Article published In: Chinese Language and Discourse
Vol. 11:1 (2020) ► pp.31–54

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Little cutie one piece

An innovative human classifier and its social indexicality in Chinese digital culture

 | University of Oregon
 | University of Oregon
Published online: 3 June 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.00023.shi
Abstract
This study investigates emerging usages in Chinese cyberspace of the numeral classifier méi that violate syntactic and semantic conventions of canonical grammar of modern Chinese. We treat these usages as constructional variants of the canonical classifier construction and show how they afford users of Weibo a device of social indexicality in the sense of Silverstein (Silverstein, M. 1976. Shifters, linguistic categories, and cultural description. In K. H. Basso & S. Henry (Eds.), Meaning in anthropology, 11–55. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 1985. Language and the culture of gender: At the intersection of structure, usage, and ideology. In E. Mertz & R. J. Parmentier (Eds.), Semiotic mediation: Sociocultural and psychological perspectives, 219–259. Orlando: Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 2003. Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life. Language and Communication, 23(3), 193–229. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and Eckert (Eckert, P. 2000. Linguistic variation as social practice: The linguistic construction of identity in Belten High. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 2003. The meaning of style. Texas Linguistic Forum, 471, 41–53.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 2008. Variation and the indexical field 1. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 12(4), 453–476. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). We argue that the constructional variants facilitate the creation of a cute, chic, playful, humorous, and youthful online style and that its popularity draws on multiple indexical resources including contrast to canonical grammar, contemporary language contact with Japanese, influence of the cuteness culture and its commodification, and consumerism in the digital economy. This study contributes to research on the linguistic construction of identity and style, linguistic creativity in the new media and digital culture, and usage-based constructionist approaches to language.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Linguistic variation and social indexicality
    • 1.2Chinese classifier constructions
    • 1.3枚 méi: A brief history
  • 2.Data and methods
    • 2.1The Weibo blogpost dataset
    • 2.2Corpus data analysis methods
    • 2.3Survey on language user perceptions
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Productivity
    • 3.2Head noun semantics
    • 3.3Language user perceptions
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations used in this article
  • References
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