Sentence Final Particles In English-Cantonese Code-Mixing Speech On Computer Mediated Communication

This thesis attempts to discuss the functions of sentence final particles(SFPs)and the functional complementarity between SFPs and intonation by investigating the composition and distribution of SFPs in code-mixing English by Hong Kong bilinguals on current computer mediated communication(CMC).In order to collect targeted CMC materials,a questionnaire is designed for Hong Kong bilinguals in the study and a CMC corpus is built.The corpus data consists of code-mixing English used by Hong Kong bilinguals in instant messaging tools,social networking systems and public online platforms in Hong Kong.It is found that the most frequently occurring Cantonese SFPs in the CMC corpus are aa(?),laa(?/?),me(?),wo(?)and lo(?).These SFPs perform different functions in different context including the ideational,interpersonal and textual metafunctions.Besides,most of the SFPs in the corpus realize the meanings of the interpersonal metafunction which is related to the speaker's personal emotions,judgements and attitudes.As a result,it is suggested that most of the SFPs in the CMC corpus functionally complement English intonation in terms of the interpersonal metafunction.In addition,it is noted that some SFPs such as laa3(?)can be used to perform the ideational metafunction as aspectual markers in the CMC corpus.