"Issues in Bilingualism and Biculturalism" describes the nature and extent of code-mixing in Hong Kong in the 1990s. It is mainly based on written data obtained from the local Chinese press collected systematically over a period of two years since late 1992. While previous studies on code-mixing between Cantonese and English in Hong Kong tend to emphasize sociolinguistic motivations, this book presents evidence that much of the code-mixing behaviour, be it in print or in speech, may be traced back to linguistic motivations at work resulting from sustained contact between Cantonese, modern...

After an in-depth, interpretive analysis of various language contact phenomena, it shows why it is such a tall order for Hongkongers to live up to the Special Administrative Region government's language policy goalpost, `biliteracy and trilingualism'.