Generally speaking, China's sociolinguistics is an exotic product, which originated in the United States in the 1960s. Chen Principle, one of the earliest scholars who put forward sociolinguistics in China, pointed out that sociolinguistics originated earlier. Since ancient times, Chinese and foreign linguists have discussed the differences in social functions between ancient languages and modern languages, literary languages and spoken languages, and standard languages and dialects. European dialectologists investigated various varieties of their national languages in the early19th century. In fact, this is the work of sociolinguistics. In fact, the birth of sociolinguistics and the existence of sociolinguistic research are two different things. Studying a certain aspect does not mean establishing a certain discipline. Of course, the emergence of a discipline is by no means a drop from the sky. It must be the result of long-term accumulation of disciplines. Many language movements in China's modern history, such as the Putonghua Movement in the early 20th century, the Vernacular Movement in the 20th century, the popular language discussion in the 1930s and the Latinization Movement in the North, as well as the promotion of the standardization of Putonghua and modern Chinese in the 1950s, can all be regarded as sociolinguistic works. However, these actions or jobs can be said to be spontaneous, not conscious. At the end of 1970s, with the appearance of the word "sociolinguistics", people's research on sociolinguistics moved from spontaneous to conscious [7].
At present, China's achievements in sociolinguistics are mainly manifested in the translation of general works and theories. The former includes Introduction to Sociolinguistics by Chen Songcen (Peking University Publishing House, 1985) and Dialects and China Culture by You Rujie and Zhou (Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1986). Xu Guozhang is early. Related papers were later included in Xu Guozhang on Language (Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 199 1). From 1980 to 1982, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics by British linguist Trujiler was translated by Lin et al. Serial of foreign linguistics. 1987, Peking University Publishing House published a translation of Sociolinguistics edited by Zhu and Modern Sociolinguistics edited by Vitzel of the former Soviet Union. In addition, the International Journal of Social Sciences (No.5, 1985) published Language and Communication: Society.
There were two shortcomings in this period: first, it was not integrated with the social reality of China; Second, the understanding of the object and scope of sociolinguistics is still quite vague. For example, some scholars put the relationship between language and thinking into sociolinguistics, which is obviously inappropriate. In addition, influenced by foreign countries, there are also phenomena that people are keen on meaningless fame and fortune.
(2) Rapid development stage (1987- 1993): from introduction to integration with China's reality.
On June 5th,1987,65438+February 65438, the Institute of Language Application of China Academy of Social Sciences held the first sociolinguistic seminar in Beijing. The conference showed the present situation and level of sociolinguistic research in China since 1970s, which marked that the sociolanguage in China has entered a hot stage and is of great significance for promoting the sociolinguistic research in China. 100000000606 The Shenzhen Institute of Linguistics of Shenzhen Institute of Education hosted the first seminar on "Bilingualism and Bilingual Phenomenon". 10 In October, the Institute of Linguistic Application of China Academy of Social Sciences and Soochow University held the first seminar on applied linguistics, many of which were also about sociolinguistics.
During this period, there were many special studies on sociolinguistics, including Zhang's Hutong and Other Sociolinguistics Exploration (Beijing Language Institute Press, 1990) and Gao's Theory and Practice of Modern Language Planning in China (Fudan University Press, 1993). Collected publications include Bilingual Dialect (set 1-4) (published by Sun Yat-sen University Press) and so on. ) Language, Society and Culture-Proceedings of the First Sociolinguistics Symposium (Language Press, 199 1), etc.
At this stage, some translations, introductory works and textbooks on sociolinguistics continue to be published. In terms of translating and introducing foreign sociolinguistic research achievements, in addition to the translated articles published in foreign linguistics (such as Lesley Milroy's Language and Social Network), there are Zaiki's Lectures on Sociolinguistics (translated by Liu Mingxia and others, Beijing Language and Culture College Press, 1989) and Hudson's Sociolinguistics (translated by Ding Xinshan) Some of them have more than one Chinese translation. His works mainly include Four Lectures on Chen Yuan's Sociolinguistics (Chinese Publishing House, 1988) and Essays on Sociolinguistics. 199 1) and Language and People-Some Explorations in Applied Sociolinguistics (Shanghai Education Press, 1992), New Exploration of Language and Cultural Society (Shanghai Education Press, 1989) and China Sociolinguistics (Sun's). The textbooks mainly include Zhu's Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Hunan Education Press, 1992), Dai's Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Beijing Language Institute Press, 1992, English version).
According to rough statistics, there are more than 60 kinds of books (including textbooks, translations and papers) published in this issue, and the related papers published in various journals at all levels are even more difficult to count. It is rare that a subject is so popular.
In addition, many schools have gradually set up sociolinguistics courses, and some schools have begun to recruit master students and doctoral students with sociolinguistics as their research direction. Sociolinguistics is also classified as a third-level discipline by the National Academic Degrees Office.
This period also had some obvious shortcomings. In addition to the lack of theoretical generalization and material accumulation, there is a lack of methods (such as skills of material collection and analysis, quantitative research is more than qualitative research, etc.). ) is more prominent.
(3) Steady and in-depth development stage (1994-): from upsurge to calm and mature.
From the late 1980s to the first half of 1990s, sociolinguistics flourished in China. However, after 1995, sociolinguistic research in China was relatively deserted. Apart from the biennial "Bilingual" seminar, which continues to be held as usual with the unremitting efforts of the organizers, and some people continue to pay attention to sociolinguistic issues in the applied linguistics seminar, no special sociolinguistic seminar has been held since 1992. The number of papers in this field has also decreased, so that some friends are worried about the future of China's sociolinguistics, and even compare it to the declining "cultural craze" and propose to revive China's sociolinguistics.
In fact, China's sociolinguistics did not decline during this period, on the contrary, it became mature.
On the one hand, the academic circles began to sort out the research achievements of China's sociolinguistics since its formation, and pointed out its shortcomings. Rugao (1996) put forward profound insights on the research methods of China's sociolinguistics.
On the other hand, most of the new books published in this period pay great attention to the close integration with the social reality in China. The issues discussed are more profound and extensive than those in the previous two periods. Among them, Chen Baoya's On Language Contact and Language Alliance-An Interpretation of the Etymological Relationship between China and (Language Publishing House, 1996), Guo's Sociolinguistics of China (Nanjing University Press, 1999), Zhou Qingsheng's Language and Humanity (Central University for Nationalities Press, 2000), Zou. 200 1200 1) Yan Yuan's Language Contact and Language Evolution (Ethnic Publishing House, 200 1), Yu Genyuan's Network Language Research (China Economic Publishing House, 200 1), etc. In addition, Bilingual continues to be published as planned (5-6 episodes). Other essays. 1999) and "Chinese Studies in Southeast Asia" edited by Li Rulong (Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2000) have also opened up new horizons for related research.
In addition, a number of original sociolinguistics works in English were published during this period, including Selected Works of Linguistics by William Labauve, an important founder of sociolinguistics (Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 200 1), which provided theoretical "foreign aid" for China's sociolinguistics.
It is not unreasonable to say that sociolinguistics changed from "hot" to "cold" during this period. The middle and late 1980s was a difficult period for China's linguistics (Guo, 1996)[9]. The emergence of sociolinguistics has undoubtedly given it new hope. Like the cultural upsurge, it has become the goal pursued by scholars. It must be "cultural" and "social". With the rise of cognitive linguistics and the demand of computer science for linguistic achievements, returning to ontology has become a trend in China linguistics. It may be said that people who have worked hard in the field of sociolinguistics today have probably really recognized this path.