Linguistic Repertoires Embodied and Digitalized: A Computer-Vision-Aided Analysis of the Language Portraits by Multilingual Youth

Siqing Mu (), Aoxuan (Douglas) Li, Lu Shen, Lili Han and Zhisheng (Edward) Wen ()
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Siqing Mu: Faculty of Languages and Translation, Macao Polytechnic University, R. de Luís Gonzaga Gomes, Macao SAR 999078, China
Aoxuan (Douglas) Li: Faculty of Applied Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, R. de Luís Gonzaga Gomes, Macao SAR 999078, China
Lu Shen: Faculty of Applied Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, R. de Luís Gonzaga Gomes, Macao SAR 999078, China
Lili Han: Faculty of Languages and Translation, Macao Polytechnic University, R. de Luís Gonzaga Gomes, Macao SAR 999078, China
Zhisheng (Edward) Wen: Faculty of Languages and Translation, Macao Polytechnic University, R. de Luís Gonzaga Gomes, Macao SAR 999078, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 3, 1-19

Abstract: The present study sets out to investigate how multilingual youth perceive and represent their linguistic repertoires. To achieve this goal, we introduced a computer-vision-aided analytical method to deal with the obtained visual data, which comprised digital images of language portraits created by a group of young multilingual speakers. An OpenCV module is used to build and complete the graphic data processing, enabling quantitative evaluations of participants’ colored clusters and linguistic codes that express their language repertoires. In combination with oral narratives provided in their language portraits, the findings demonstrate that Macanese heritage speakers show a higher degree of “scope” than the Chinese mainland sojourners in Macao but a lower degree of “access”. Follow-up interviews further corroborated the self-perceptions of their linguistic resources across different registers. Overall, the computer-vision-aided analysis of language portraits enhances the current understanding of the “scope” and “access” of multilingual repertoires in lived experience.

Keywords: linguistic repertoires; language portraits; computer vision; multilingual identity; register analysis; Macanese (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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