The influence of neologisms from Mainland China on changes in the lexical semantics of Hong Kong Cantonese

Abstract

Numerous mainland Chinese neologisms have been introduced to Hong Kong due to the increased communication between Hong Kong and mainland China. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of neologisms from mainland China on Hong Kong Cantonese by observing the use of these neologisms in local newspapers in Hong Kong. It has been shown that the local newspapers began to use the mainland neologisms at an early stage, which has resulted in semantic changes in Cantonese lexical items. There are three ways in which lexical semantic change can occur: 1) redefining the Cantonese-Mandarin homographs to make the senses conveyed by the mainland neologisms the only interpretation; 2) replacing the Cantonese synonyms with mainland neologisms; and 3) providing new senses for the mainland neologisms to transform them into local neologisms.