Terminology of Snooker in Hong Kong

Terminology of Snooker in Hong Kong

Research Project on Terminology of Snooker in Hong Kong
Different sport has different set of terminology. Terminology of sport, such as soccer, basketball, volleyball, and snooker, etc., has been life-stylized to fit the society of Hong Kong. This research project aims to analyze the linguistic feature of the terminology of snooker in order to understand how the culture of Hong Kong has affected the formation of this language.
Before our discussion, we should first analyze the effect of the society on this type of language. The term "sociolinguistic" refers to a study of the relationship between the society and the language (Nordquist, 2013). Social factors, such as social class, occupation, ethnicity, sex and age, play an important role in the formation of the language. In the case of snooker terminology, the language is closely linked to people's social status, occupation and gender. Snooker activities became active in Hong Kong around 1982 - 1986 when some international contests were hosted in Hong Kong. Players of snookers were mostly people from lower middle and low class, particularly construction site workers and low rank office clerks. Since their social status and occupation could not be compared with the upper class or upper middle class, the terminology of snooker was thus affected accordingly. This can be proved by their lexical relation as explained below.
Firstly, we can see that there is no direct or perceivable relationship between the word itself and the idea or the concept referred to in snooker. Secondly, we can see the clear relationship between the words and the mixed Hong Kong culture in terms such as “Pot波”, “噠死”, “食屎” and “食蕉”. These terms sound rude because users of this language are from the middle lower and low class. The “Pot” from “Pot波” is the action of playing snooker, and “噠死” refers to the falling of the white ball into the net by mistake resulting in the loss of marks. The speech community put the spoken language into the...

Similar Essays