Gender variation in signs of sexual behaviour in Hong Kong Sign Language

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Abstract

This paper discusses possible gender variation in the signs of sexual behaviour in Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL). The data comes from a research project that aims at documenting and analyzing sex-related signs in this sign language for the sake of producing materials for sex education and interpreter training programs. Since sex is a highly taboo topic, euphemistic signs for the target concepts were collected and analyzed. This paper presents evidence that linguistic variation of neutral and euphemistic expressions of sex-related concepts exists in HKSL, and that gender plays a role in the choice of some but not all variants and their euphemistic counterparts.