本书是以作者在香港大学语言学系的同名博士毕业论文为基础几经修改而成的。本书综合使用语言学、语言人类学、社会学、历史学的理论与方法，首次深入、细敛、全面地讨论了早期香港华人社会形成时期的语言于社会的互动关系，描述了香港华人社会的语言选择进程，揭示了这一进程背后的社会文化因素。

本书综合使用语言学、语言人类学、社会学、历史学的理论与方法，首次深入、细敛、全面地讨论了早期香港华人社会形成时期的语言于社会的互动关系，描述了香港华人社会的语言选择进程，揭示了这一进程背后的社会文化因素。

全书共计六章：导论；香港殖民地与早期香港华人社会的形成；早期香港华人社会与汉语方言；早期香港华人社会与英语；早期香港华人社会与洋泾浜英语；结论。

Abbreviations

Romanization

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 The Colony and the Chinese Community

 2.1 Hong Kong as ' a Part of China'

 2.2 Growing and Floating：Chinese Population

 2.3 The Chinese Community：Social Structure

 2.4 Between the Chinese and the Europeans：a Chasm

Chapter 3 The Chinese Community and the Chinese Dialects

 3.1 The Chinese Ethnic Groups

 3.2 The Chinese Ethnic Groups and the Chinese Ethnic Dialects

 3.3 EV and Cantonese as a Common Language

 3.4 Cantonese and Its Varieties in Early Hong Kong

Chapter 4 The Chinese Community and English

 4.1 Church Schools and Chinese Learning English

 4.2 Government Schools and Chinese Learning English

 4.3 The Government and Chinese Learning English

 4.4 Chinese Rejecting English：Power and Culture

Chapter 5 The Chinese Community and Chinese Pidgin English

 5.1 CPE：from Canton and Macao to Hong Kong

 5.2 The Users of CPE

 5.3 CPE：Language Acquisition

 5.4 Function of CPE

 5.5 The Decline of CPE

Chapter 6 Conclusion

Appendix

Bibliography

后记