On the actuation of semantic change: The case of tongzhi

This article addresses a lacuna in research on the actuation of semantic change by shedding new light on speakers’ motivation. Focusing on the semantic change of tongzhi from ‘comrade’ to ‘sexual minorities’ in Hong Kong, it argues that the semantic change of social category labels is sometimes actuated by speakers’ desire to index different stances and to project different personae. Yet the speakers’ agency involved is both enabled and constrained by the discursive history of the term and larger socio-historical processes. This study also demonstrates the importance of uncovering speakers’ motivations through the use of different data collection methods.