Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T09:15:54.677Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Modern Written Chinese in development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2009

Ping Chen
Ping Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Japanese and Chinese Studies, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As a case study in the formation of a new written language in a speech community moving from diglossia toward a “standard-with-dialects”, this article analyzes the development of M[odern] W[ritten] C[hinese] during the past 80 years. After a brief account of the historical background, the article discusses the sources and avenues of influence on the development of MWC, then examines the emergent grammatical and lexical norms, and investigates the variations displayed by the four main Chinese communities: mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The role of language planning is also explored. The similarities and differences between China and Western Europe, in their progress from diglossic to non-diglossic communities, are discussed. (Diglossia, Chinese linguistics, written language, language planning)

Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , December 1993 , pp. 505 - 537
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Atlas, (1987). Language atlas of China. Hong Kong: Longman Group (Far East) Ltd., for the Australian Academy of Humanities and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.Google Scholar
Barnes, Dayle (1974). Language planning in Mainland China: Standardization. In Fishman, Joshua A. (ed.), Advances in language planning, 457–77. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, Dayle (1983). The implementation of language planning in China. In Cobarrubias, & Fishman, (eds.), 291–308.Google Scholar
Beijing, (1986). Xiàndài Hànyǔ pínlü cídiǎn [Dictionary of word frequencies in Modern Chinese]. Beijing: Languages Institute Press.Google Scholar
Bolton, Kingsley, & Kwok, , Helen, , eds. (1992). Sociolinguistics today: International perspectives. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen Ren (1968). Chinese language. Encyclopedia Britannica 5:630–34.Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen Ren (1977). Yǔyán wèntí [Topics on language]. 3rd ed. Taipei: Shangwu yinshuguan.Google Scholar
Chen, Chungyu (1986). Xīnjiāpō Huáyǔ yǔfa tèzhēng [Syntactic features of Singapore Mandarin]. Yǔyán yánjiū [Linguistic studies] 1:138–52.Google Scholar
Chén, Ēnquán, ed. (1989). Shuāngyǔ shuāngfāngyán [Bilingualism and bidialectalism]. Guăngzhōu: Zhōngshān University Press.Google Scholar
Chén, Jiànmín (1989). Yǔyàn wénhuà shèhuì xīntàn [New explorations into language, culture, and society]. Shanghai: Shanghai Educational Press.Google Scholar
Chén, Píng (1992). Diversity and uniformity in Chinese syntax. In Bolton, & Kwok, (eds.), 180–91.Google Scholar
Cheng, Chin-Chuan (1979). Language reform in China in the seventies. Word 3: 45–57.Google Scholar
Cheng, Robert L. (1985). A comparison of Taiwanese, Taiwan Mandarin, and Peking Mandarin. Language 61: 352–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, Robert L. (1990). Cóng Táiwān dāngdài xiǎoshuō kàn Hànyǔ yǔfǎ yǎnbiàn [Change in Chinese grammar as viewed in contemporary novels in Taiwan]. In Singapore 1990, 145–66.Google Scholar
Christian, Donna (1988). Language planning: The view from linguistics. In Newmeyer, Frederick (ed.), Linguistics: The Cambridge survey, IV: The socio-cultural context, 193–209. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cobarrubias, Juan, & Fishman, Joshua A., eds. (1983). Progress in language planning: International perspectives. Berlin: Mouton.Google Scholar
Cooper, Robert L. (1989). Language planning and social change. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Coulmas, Florian (1989). The function of loan translations for the modernization of Japanese during the Meiji period. Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, 4th series, 4:49–65.Google Scholar
Davies, Peter (1992). The non-Beijing dialect component in Modern Standard Chinese. In Bolton, & Kwok, (eds.), 192–206.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Charles A. (1959). Diglossia. Word 15:325–40. Reprinted in Hymes, Dell (ed.), Language in culture and society: A reader in linguistics and anthropology, 429–39. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Charles A. (1968). Language development. In Fishman, Joshua A. et al. (eds.), Language problems of developing nations, 27–35. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Hashimoto, Anne Yue (1988). Hànyǔ fāngyán yǔfǎ de bĭjiào yánjiū [A comparative study of Chinese dialectal syntax]. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology Academia Sinica 59:23–41.Google Scholar
Haugen, Einar (1983). The implementation of corpus planning: Theory and practice. In Cobarrubias, & Fishman, (eds.), 269–89.Google Scholar
Ho, Wai Kit (1989) Yìxué xīnlùn [Translating revisited]. Taipei: Shulin.Google Scholar
Hoosain, Rumjahn (1991). Psycholinguistic implications for linguistic relativity: A case study of Chinese. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Hsu, Raymond S. W. (1979). What is standard Chinese? In Lord, Robert (ed.), Hong Kong language papers, 115–41. Hong Kong: University Press.Google Scholar
Huáng, Guóyíng (1988). Táiwān dāngdài xiǎoshuō de cíhuì yǔfǎ tèdiǎn [Lexical and grammatical features in contemporary novels in Taiwan]. Zhōngguó yǔwén [Chinese language and writing] 3:194–201.Google Scholar
Huang, Shuanfan (1987). A sociolinguistic profile of Taipei (1). In Cheng, Robert L. & Huang, Shuanfan (eds.), 301–33. The structure of Taiwanese. Taipei: Crane.Google Scholar
Kubler, Cornelius C. (1985). The development of Mandarin in Taiwan: A case study of language contact. Taiwan: Student Book Co.Google Scholar
Kuo, Eddie C. Y. (1985). Xīnjiāpō de yǔyán yǔ shèhuì [Language and society in Singapore]. Taipei: Cheng Chung Book Co.Google Scholar
Li, Charles N., & Thompson, Sandra A. (1981). Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Chen-ching (1983). The sociolinguistic context of Mandarin in Taiwan: Trends and developments. In Chu, Chauncey C. et al. (eds.), Papers from the 14th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, 259–78. Taipei: Student Book Co.Google Scholar
Lí, Jnxǐxī (1934). Guóyǔ yùndòng shǐgāng [Outline of history of National Language Movement]. Shanghai: Shāngwù Yìnshūguǎn.Google Scholar
Lǐ, Xíngjiàn (1985). Pǔtōnghuà yǔ fāngyán [Pǔtōnghuà and dialects]. Shanghai: Shanghai Educational Press.Google Scholar
Liú, Yǒngquán (1986). Terminological development and organization in China. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 59:33–46.Google Scholar
Lock, Graham (1989). Aspects of variation and change in the Mandarin Chinese spoken in Singapore. Australian Journal of Linguistics 9:277–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lú, Shàochāng (1990). Xīniāpō HuáyǓ cíhuì de kǎochá [Survey on Chinese vocabulary in Singapore]. In Singapore 1990, 336–41.Google Scholar
Lü, Shùxiāng, & Zhū, Déxī(1952). Yǔfǎ xiūcí jiᾰnghuά [Lectures on grammar and rhetoric]. Beijing: Kaiming Shudian.Google Scholar
Máo, Zédōng (1969). Selected works. Beijing: Rénmí;n Chūbǎnshè.Google Scholar
Newman, John (1988). Singapore's Speaking Mandarin Campaign. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 9: 437–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norman, Jerry (1988). Chinese. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Platt, John T. (1985). Bilingual policies in a multilingual society: Reflections of the Singapore Mandarin Campaign in the English language press. In Bradley, David (ed.), Papers in South-East Asian linguistics 9: Language policy, language planning and sociolinguistics in South-East Asia (Pacific linguistics, A-67), 15–30. Camberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar
Rubin, Joan (1977). Language standardization in Indonesia. In Rubin, Joan et al. (eds.) Language planning processes, 111–29. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singapore (1990). Shìjiè Huáwén jiāoxué yántǎohuí lùnwénjí [Proceedings of the International Symposium on Chinese language teaching]. Singapore: Chinese Language Society of Singapore.Google Scholar
Tián, Xiǎolín (1992). Xiānggǎng dìqū de yǔyán wénzì guīfàn wèntí [The issue of standardization of language and writing system in Hong Kong]. Zhōngguó yǔwén 2:109–12.Google Scholar
Tse, Kwock-Ping J. (1986). Standardization of Chinese in Taiwan. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 59:25–32.Google Scholar
Wāng, Huìdí (1990). Xīnjiāpō Huáyǔ cíhui de tèdiǎn [Features of the vocabulary of Singaporean Chinese]. In Singapore 1990, 346–56.Google Scholar
Wáng, Lì (1954). Lùn Hànzú biāozhǔnyǔ [On standard language of Hàn people]. Zhōngguó yǔwén 1954. Reprinted in Hú, Yùshù (ed.), Xiàndài Hànyǔ cānkǎo zīliào [Reference materials on Modern Chinese], vol. 1, 23–40. Shanghai: Educational Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Wáng, Lì (1980). Hànyǔ shǐgǎo [History of the Chinese language]. Beijing: Zhōnghuá Shūjô.Google Scholar
Wáng, péiguāng (1989). Xiānggǎng Yuèyǔ de dìwèi yǔ mǔyǔ jiàoyù, pὺtōnghuá jiāoxué [The status of Cantonese, teaching of mother tongue, and teaching of pǔtōnghuà in Hong Kong]. In Chén, E.(ed.), 151–59.Google Scholar
Wù, Yīngchéng (1990). Cóng Xīnjiāpō Huáyǔ jǔf shíkuàng diàochá tǎoliin Huáyǔ júfǎ; guīlfànhuà wèntí [Discussion on standardization of Chinese syntax from the perspective of survey on the syntax of Singaporean Chinese]. In Singapore 1990, 118–23.Google Scholar
Xǔ, Bǎ;ohuá, & Zhān, Bóhuì (1988). Hànyǔ fāngyán [Chinese dialects]. In Jì, Xiànlín (ed.), Zhōngguó dà bǎikē qúanshū: Yǔyán wénzì juàn [Encyclopaedia Sinica: Volume on language and writing system], 137–49. Beijing.Google Scholar
Zhǒu, Xiǎobīobīng (1989). Xīnjiāpō Huáyǔ xiǎoshuō de yūfǎ tèdiǎn [Grammatical features in novels in Singaporean Chinese]. In Chén, E. (ed.), 212–22.Google Scholar
Zhū, Déxī (1985). Hànyǔ fāngyán lǐ de liǎng zhǒng fǎnfù wènjù [Two types of yes/no questions in Chinese dialects]. Zhōngguó yǔwén 1:10–20.Google Scholar