社会文化语境中的语言滥用现象

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3.0 赵德峰 2024-11-19 4 4 535.2KB 48 页 15积分

Contents

Acknowledgements

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction ..............................................................................................1

§1.1 Studies of Language Variation ........................................................................... 1

§1.1.1 Sociolinguistics and Language Variation ................................................. 1

§1.1.2 The Background of Language Variation Studies ..................................... 2

§1.1.3 Previous Studies of Language Variation .................................................. 3

§1.2 Language Deviation ........................................................................................... 5

§1.2.1 The Definition of Deviation ..................................................................... 5

§1.2.2 Positive Deviation .................................................................................... 7

§1.2.3 Negative Deviation .................................................................................. 8

§1.3 The Related Studies of Language Abuse ........................................................... 9

§1.3.1 The Studies in the West ............................................................................9

§1.3.2 The Studies in the East ...........................................................................12

Chapter Two The Recent Conditions of Language Abuse at Home and Abroad ....14

§2.1 Defining Language Abuse ................................................................................14

§2.2 Forms of Language Abuse ............................................................................... 15

§2.2.1 Abuse of Social Terms ........................................................................... 15

§2.2.2 Abuse of Political Jargons ......................................................................22

§2.2.3 Abuse of Daily Expressions ................................................................... 24

§2.2.4 Language Abuse in Literature ................................................................26

Chapter Three The Analysis of Language Abuse .......................................................28

§3.1 Language Abuse at Different Levels ................................................................28

§3.1.1 The Phonetic Level ................................................................................ 28

§3.1.2 The Grammatical Level ......................................................................... 29

§3.1.3 The Semantic Level ............................................................................... 31

§3.1.4 Contextual Level .................................................................................... 33

§3.2 Social Motives for Language Abuse ................................................................ 34

§3.2.1 Economically Eye-Catching Motive ......................................................34

§3.2.2 Political Power Motive .......................................................................... 36

§3.2.3 Individual Novelty Motive .....................................................................37

Chapter Four The Significance of Language Abuse Studies .....................................39

§4.1 The Negative Consequences Caused by Language Abuse ...............................39

§4.1.1 Communication ......................................................................................39

§4.1.2 Speakers’ World-View ............................................................................39

§4.1.3 Native Language Development ..............................................................40

§4.1.4 Cross-Cultural Exchanges ......................................................................41

§4.2 Language Abuse and Language Planning ........................................................ 41

§4.2.1 Language Planning .................................................................................41

§4.2.2 Language Abuse and Language Planning .............................................. 43

Chapter One Introduction

§1.1 Studies of Language Variation

§1.1.1 Sociolinguistics and Language Variation

Sociolinguistics is a branch of linguistics, which mainly studies the relationship

between language and society. Language and society are related. As a social

phenomenon, language has an important social function. In detail, language is a carrier

of information and a tool of communication, and it plays a crucial role in daily life.

Language always reflects social changes. Of course, the society also inevitably

influences the development of language. Social structures may influence or determine

linguistic structures or behaviors. Speakers’ individual differences concerning their

origins, social status, education, age, gender and nationalities can result in the

differences in their language and lead to language variations ultimately. Thus, during the

studies of language variation, social factors cannot be excluded from our descriptions of

language. William Bright (1964) concluded that the duty of sociolinguistics is

describing the co-variation of language and society. He thought that language variation

must be influenced by social changes. Indeed, language as a social action has already

aroused the attention of many linguists, including J. R. Firth (1935) who first put

forward the definition of sociolinguistics and Mario Pei (1949) who mainly discussed

the influences of factors of matter, economy, politics, superstition, literature and science

to language. However, until the 1960s, this branch did not come to be an independent

study, whose representatives were William Labov and Dell Hymes. Language variation

is its main subject of investigation.

During the process of variation studies, more and more sociolinguists pay attention

to “sociality of language”. Although traditional sociolinguists rarely concern themselves

with social factors, they acquiesce the existence of sociality of language to a great

extent. F. de Saussure(2004:77), the pioneer in structural linguistics, points out that

language belongs to the community and exists in the society. Like majority of linguists,

sociolinguists also wish to discover the regularity of language and its variation. In short,

sociality is one basic characteristic of language. The common reason of variations is that

language inescapably exists in a variety of social communities. Therefore, William

Labov escapes from the traditional methods and establishes a large-scale dialect

investigation in the city. He uses sociological methods (sampling and statistics) to

Language Abuse in Social-Cultural Context

confirm the subject of investigation and quantify a lingual variable (sound) and social

variables (status, age, sex, nationality, race and so on), and then discovers the

correlation of them by quantitative analysis. According to the research by Labov, social

changes have great influence on language variation.

§1.1.2 The Background of Language Variation Studies

Variation studies gradually step into their greatness for the following reasons.

Before the beginning of variation studies, structural linguistics has occupied the most

important position in North America. T. G. grammar established by Chomsky has made

great contributions to the studies and development of linguistics. Under many linguists’

efforts, language system is given a clear and systematical description, that is, the theory

of homogeneity of a language system, which is a historical jump in the studies of

language. However, along with further studies in linguistics, many linguists notice a lot

of disadvantages of the theory of homogeneity. The first is that the theory of

homogeneity requires the same language data, which cannot be various. However, in

fact, the absolutely pure language data don’t exist in a speech community, so the studies

are only limited to an individual dialect, in other words, only depend on the dialect of

the ideal speaker and listener in a homogeneous community. The second is that due to

the demand for absolute purity in language data, a language system must be separated

from other systems and turn into a self-sufficient one. Consequently, linguistic

investigations are mainly limited to the internal structure of a language, excluding the

studies of its relationship with surroundings and linguistic structures under the

conditions of time and space. However, as a matter of fact, a language system is

dynamic and lively, so this theory cannot explain speech behaviors in a social

community.

In view of these disadvantages, linguists attempt to explore a new theory to explain

lively language phenomena. The establishment of sociolinguistics arouses the interest of

many linguists and sociologists, who start to study the regularity of language through

social factors and take language variation as their main subject of investigation. During

several years of investigation, sociolinguists are amazed at their discovery that language

variation can mirror social conditions of speakers. Many un-solved problems by the

theory of homogeneity can be easily dealt with on the basis of social factors. Thus, after

the 1960s, based on these important discoveries, variation studies gradually step into

Chapter One Introduction

their prominence.

§1.1.3 Previous Studies of Language Variation

The studies of language variation must be approached from two aspects. One is

from internal structure of a language, which is a multi-level system composed by sound,

grammar, lexis and meaning. Because of the interrelations among them, a variation at

any level can result in variations of the whole language system. Another is from its

social factors, which include age, social status, profession, education, race, sex,

communicative context, topic, the speaker and listener, dialect, movement of population,

attenuation of language, teenagers’ nature of a fad and so on.

It is generally accepted that the studies of language variation begin with William

Labov. He corrects the definition of speech community, and tries his best to discover the

relationships between lingual variables and social variables, and finally concludes the

mechanism of variation by quantitative analysis. Labov’s discovery shows that social

variables have great influence on language variation. Based on differences in their

socio-economic status, members of the society are divided into hierarchical organized

social groups. The lower one’s status and the more informal situation, the more frequent

nonstandard pronunciation is used; on the contrary, the higher one’s status and the more

formal situation, the less frequent nonstandard pronunciation is used. During the whole

investigation, the most compelling discovery is the frequency of standard pronunciation

among the elderly in the lower-middle class towers over that among the congener in the

higher-middle class, this kind of linguistic behavior is called hypercorrection. The

reason for this phenomenon is that the people in lower-middle class are eager to step

into the higher-middle class, so that they hypercorrect their pronunciation. Thus,

linguists conclude that language variation is closely related to social network.

Meanwhile, sex, age, nationality and race also connect with language variation.

According to their consensus, sociolinguists conclude that:

For men, conversations are negotiations in which they try to achieve and

maintain the upper hand if they can, and protecting themselves from others’

attempts to put them down and push them around. Life, then, is a contest, a

struggle to preserve independence and avoid failure. In contrast, for women

conversations are negotiations for closeness in which people try to seek and

give confirmation and support, and to reach consensus. They try to protect

Language Abuse in Social-Cultural Context

themselves from others’ attempts to push them away. Life, then, is a

community, a struggle to preserve intimacy and avoid isolation. Though there

are hierarchies in this world too, they are hierarchies more of friendship than

of power and accomplishment (Tannen 1990:24-25).

Owing to the difference in gender, men and women’s expressions are obviously

different.

As to the age variable, sociolinguists find out two kinds of age differences. One is

generation difference, which refers to a difference between one generation and another.

The other is age-grading, which refers to the differences among different age groups in

the same generation, people do not acquire language all in one swoop.

They behave like sieves: their minds are fitted with a natural filter, which

allows through just enough for them to tackle at each stage, it seems. And they

typically tune in to different aspects of language at different age.

(Jean Aitchison 2001:209)

Generation difference is often used to explain language variation. The people in

different age groups have their corresponding language characteristics. Usually, the

elderly prefer to preserve language characteristics of their young age periods, for

instance, in English the elderly like to use ice-box in place of refrigerator, and in

Chinese they like to use

电棒

(electric stick) in place of

日光灯

(daylight lamp). On the

contrary, owing to having the nature of a fad, the young people usually speak

catchwords. Wolfram (1969) has long investigated Detroit Black English and

discovered that the frequency of double-negative style used by the young black was

very high, which was close to the factor of age or social status of the speaker.

Nationality and race sometimes are synonymous, such as in Singapore. However,

they sometimes are two different concepts, such as in China and America. In China, the

studies of national language basically refer to that of minority language. In America,

more sociolinguists pay attention to the studies of race language, especially the

differences between Black English and White English. One investigation about

language in New York shows that Black English is different from White English and

Standard English in various aspects. Therefore, it can be considered as an independent

language variety, this investigation not only helps to understand the nature of language,

but also plays a very active part in rejecting discrimination against Black English in

American schools. Of course, besides social variables, language variation is also related

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摘要：

ContentsAcknowledgementsAbstract摘要ChapterOneIntroduction..............................................................................................1§1.1StudiesofLanguageVariation...........................................................................1§1.1.1SociolinguisticsandLanguageVariation....

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