Aestheticizing Language: Metapragmatic Distance and Unequal Englishes in Hong Kong

Scholars have long acknowledged the inherent equality of languages, including the view that the many varieties of Englishes spoken within and across nations should be viewed equally. Despite these proclamations, the unequal... [ view full abstract ]

Scholars have long acknowledged the inherent equality of languages, including the view that the many varieties of Englishes spoken within and across nations should be viewed equally. Despite these proclamations, the unequal relations across Englishes persist through various means.  One such way, as will be discussed in this paper, is through the aestheticization of language, which we define as a process in which individuals evaluate a language resource or usage as aesthetically appealing on the basis of its stylistic, grammatical, or phonological “appearance.”  This study demonstrates that language aestheticization is an ideological commitment that sustains a speaker’s metapragmatic distance from English.  Our analysis shows how aesthetic evaluations of language represent, and can exacerbate, social and linguistic inequalities. These findings contribute to current understandings of world Englishes in that metapragmatic distance is reflective of a complex interplay of ideology and access to dominant language resources, and thus useful in exploring the continued inequality across Englishes in various global contexts.