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CCHU9032 Arts and Humanities
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Course Description
In this course we will examine the issues of power and how it relates to language use in various institutions such as law, medicine, and the media, among others. Language presents one of the most important (but not exclusive) power resources. We will learn that language can be both powerful and empowering. We will discuss how people in power can influence the ways in which language is used, and exercise control over access to language by others. We will also examine examples of how these others, in their turn, can contest and negotiate power. In language power can be expressed in a more or less overt ways. To minimize opposition, for example, power is increasingly exercised covertly or indirectly in different institutions. A particular attractive feature of the course is that we will examine real-life language data collected in a number of Hong Kong institutions. We will also discuss similarities and the differences in institutional language practices across different sociocultural contexts including Hong Kong and other countries in Asia and beyond.
Course Learning Outcomes
On completing the course, students will be able to:
- Develop a critical awareness of how language can be employed to enact, negotiate and contest power.
- Engage in the critical analysis of social issues, such as sexism, racism, oppression through examining the language and power interrelation in authentic institutional discourses.
- Apply the knowledge of how language can be both powerful and empowering to novel institutional settings.
- Develop a critical understanding of how language and power interact in various sociocultural contexts.
- Engage in group interaction and communicate their viewpoint by engaging in group discussions.
Offer Semester and Day of Teaching
Second semester (Wed)
Study Load
| Activities | Number of hours |
| Lectures | 24 |
| Tutorials | 12 |
| Reading / Self-study | 60 |
| Assessment: In-class test (incl preparation) | 5 |
| Assessment: Essay / Report writing | 20 |
| Total: | 121 |
Assessment: 100% coursework
| Assessment Tasks | Weighting |
| Group project | 40 |
| Individual presentation | 30 |
| In-class test | 30 |
Required Reading
Topic 1: Introducing key concepts: language and power
- Foucault, M. (1983). The History of Sexuality: The Will to Knowledge. New York: Pantheon Books. [Chap. 1 (pp. 17-35) “The Incitement to Discourse”]
Topic 2: Language, power and media
- Mooney, A., & Evans, B. (2015). Language, society, and power: An introduction (4th ed.). London: Routledge. [Chap. 4 “Language and the media”]
- Simpson, P., Mayr, A., & Statham S. (2019). Language and power: A resource book for students (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. [Chap. A “Introduction: Key topics in the study of language and power”]
- Wong, A. D. (2024). “Gangpu is too funny!”: The mediatization of Hong Kong Mandarin as a jocular register. Language in Society, 53(4), 707–730. From https://doi:10.1017/S0047404523000416
Topic 3: Language, power and the state
- Pak, V. (2023). (De)coupling race and language: The state listening subject and its rearticulation of antiracism as racism in Singapore. Language in Society, 52(1), 151–172. From https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404521000373
Topic 4: Language, power and the law
- Ehrlich, S. (2007). Legal discourse and the cultural intelligiblity of gendered meanings. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11(4), 452–477. From https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2007.00333.x
- Wong, D., & Leung, P. K. (2012). Modernization of Power in Legal and Medical Discourses: The Birth of the (Male) Homosexual in Hong Kong and Its Aftermath. Journal of Homosexuality, 59(10), 1403–1423. From https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2012.724943
Topic 5: Language, power and medicine
- Wilce, J. M. (2009). Medical Discourse,” Annual Review of Anthropology, 38(1), 199–215. From https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-091908-164450
- Zimdars, M. (2023). Medicalized reality weight-loss television and the negotiation of neoliberalism on My 600 Pound Life. Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies, 18(4), 367–384. From https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020221134014
Topic 6: Language, power and education
- Gu, M., Kou, Z., & Guo, X. (2019). Understanding Chinese language teachers’ language ideologies in teaching South Asian students in Hong Kong. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(8), 1030–1047. From https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2017.1332000
Course Co-ordinator and Teacher(s)
| Course Co-ordinator | Contact |
| Professor B.W. King School of English, Faculty of Arts |
Tel: 3917 4474 Email: bwking@hku.hk |
| Teacher(s) | Contact |
| Professor B.W. King School of English, Faculty of Arts |
Tel: 3917 4474 Email: bwking@hku.hk |
| Dr. V.Y. Pak School of English, Faculty of Arts |
Tel: 3917 7281 Email: vpak@hku.hk |