School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

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Department: School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics
Qualifications: BA Hons.(Hong Kong Baptist University)
MA (City University of Hong Kong)
Subject: Linguistics
Thesis title: Hong Kong Ideology and Changing Attitudes Towards China Behind COVID-19 News Reports: A Critical Discourse Analysis
Internal Supervisors: Dr Yan JIANG 蔣嚴蒋严 & Professor Lutz Marten

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Liu Congyao (Amber) is currently a PhD Candidate in the Department of Linguistics at SOAS, University of London.

She got her BA with honours in English language and literature in Hong Kong Baptist University in 2021. The foundational theories of linguistics and research methodologies she learned during her undergraduate studies laid the groundwork for her academic journey. During this time, she developed an interest in sociolinguistics and discourse analysis, as these perspectives allow for the interpretation of various interesting social phenomena. For instance, Liu Congyao’s undergraduate thesis, titled An Analysis of Rejections in Mandarin Conversations from the Perspectives of Language, Gender, and Speaker-Hearer Relationship, explored this topic through the lens of discourse analysis.

She came to City University of Hong Kong in September 2021 for the MA in Language Studies (General Linguistics branch) and graduated in 2022. During her postgraduate studies, she took courses in formal syntax, functional syntax, and lexical semantics, further strengthening her linguistic foundation. Her MA thesis, titled A Syntactic and Semantic Analysis of the Internet Trendy Word neijuan 內卷 “Involution”, examined the usage of internet trendy words from the perspectives of functional syntax, lexical semantics, and parts of speech. This paper was later successfully presented and published at the Sixth International Conference on Linguistics and Language Studies (ICLLS 2024).

Now, at the PhD stage, her research is centred on critical discourse analysis, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics. Since the last two years of her undergraduate studies and her entire postgraduate period took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, she has developed an interest in how the pandemic has reshaped human life and language. Living in Hong Kong, she focuses on how the media in Hong Kong reported on the pandemic—examining what can be revealed through discourse. If given the opportunity, she also plans to compare the discourse and topics from the early and later stages of the pandemic, exploring a broader range of COVID-19-related research topics.

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LIU, C., and LIU, M. 2024. A Syntactic and Semantic Analysis of the Internet Trendy Word neijuan 內卷 “Involution”. Sixth International Conference on Linguistics and Language Studies (ICLLS 2024).

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In her master stage, Liu Congyao’s research interests focus on internet trendy word and lexical semantics. Now her research interests are centred on critical discourse analysis, discourse analysis, Covid-19 discourse, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics.