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

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.