SOCIOLINGUISTIC PHENOMENON OF CODE MIXING IN HONG KONG: FROM A PERSPECTIVE OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Code mixing is an interesting sociolinguistic phenomenon in Hong Kong, where people integrate English words into their host language (Cantonese) for more effective communication. This paper first reviewed the previous research findings on code mixing and then discussed the results of a recent study on the usage of code mixing between English and Cantonese in Hong Kong particularly from the perspective of the marketing communications. The research results revealed various reasons of applying code mixing in marketing communications, including awareness, impression, referential usage, pun/joke, original quotation, emphasis, convenience, euphemism, and cyberspace convention. At the end of the paper, sociolinguistic implications are discussed