学期论文Language and Dialect.docx

学期论文Language and Dialect.docx

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学期论文LanguageandDialect

LanguageandDialect

学生：

学院：

高级翻译学院

年级：

2007级

研究方向：

商务翻译研究

课程名称：

语言学理论

任课老师：

莫爱屏教授

论文提交日期：

2008/01/08

Abstract:

Thispaperaimstoprobeintothestudyoflanguageanddialectinthefieldofsociolinguistics.Part1isageneralintroductiontotheissuesbeingcoveredinthepaper.Part2centersontheanalysisofcertaincriteriathatprobablycouldbeappliedastodifferentiatealanguagefromadialect.Part3andPart4introducetwodistinguishedkindsofdialects,namely,regionaldialectandsocialdialectrespectivelythroughdetailedexamples.Part5investigatesthedifferentaspectsofregisterwhichiscloselyrelatedtothestudyoflanguageanddialect.Part6istheconclusion.

Keywords:

variety;regionaldialect;socialdialect;register

【中文摘要】

【关键词】

Contents

1.Introduction

2.Criteriafordifferentiatingalanguagefromadialect

2.1Varietyand“mutualintelligibility”

2.2Othercriteria（includingBell’ssevenaspectsinlanguagesdifferentiation）

3.Regionaldialect

3.1Definitionandcharacteristicsofregionaldialects

3.2Reasonsfortheappearanceofregionaldialects

4.Socialdialects

4.1Socialdialectsinrelationtoagedifferences

4.2Socialdialectsinrelationtosexdifferences

4.3Socialdialectsinrelationtodifferenceofsocialclassmembership

5.Anintroductiontoregister（field,modeandtenor）

5.1Thefieldofdiscourse

5.2Themodeofdiscourse

5.3Thetenorofdiscourse

6.Conclusion

1.Introduction

Insociolinguistics,languageisconsideredasanabstractnotionthatisembodiedintheformofdialects.It’snotclear-cuttodistinguishalanguagefromadialectofalanguage.“Mutualintelligibility”seemstobeanidealcriterionintermsoftellingalanguagefromadialectofalanguage,however,wecancertainlyfindsomecasesthatcounter-arguethisprinciple.Hencesomeothercriteriashouldbeappliedassupplementstodistinguishbetweenalanguageandadialect,amongwhich,Bell’ssevenprinciplesfordiscussingdifferentlanguagesareofgreatinspiration.

Thevarietiesofdialectsaredifferentiatedaccordingtotheplacesinwhichtheyareused,thedifferentsocialfactorsthataffecttheiruses,andfunctionsandstylestheyhavewhenaccommodatingdifferentsituationsinlanguagecommunication.Accordingly,sociolinguistslabelthesedialectsasregional,social,andfunctionaldialectrespectively.Thispaperwilltouchuponthediscussionofthedifferentvarietiesoflanguageinrelationtotheusers,socialfactorsandenvironment.

2.Criteriafordifferentiatingalanguagefromadialect

2.1Varietyand“mutualintelligibility”

Inordertofurtherthediscussionofthedifferencebetweenalanguageandadialect,let’sfirstofallcenteronanimportantterminthefieldofsociolinguistics—variety.Thenwhatisthedefinitionofavariety?

R.A.Hudson,afamouslinguist,definesavarietyoflanguageasasetoflinguisticitemswithsimilarsocialdistribution（1980:

24）.Accordingtothisdefinition,wecancallanyofthefollowingitems“varietiesoflanguage”:

English,French,Chinese,LondonEnglish,orthelanguageusedbyaparticularperson,etc.Itwillbeseenfromthislistthatthegeneralnotion“variety”includesexamplesofwhatwouldnormallybecalledlanguages,dialectsandregisters（atermmeaningroughly“style”）.

Nowweknowthatboth“alanguage”and“adialectofalanguage”arekindofvariety.Thenwhydowecallsomevarietiesdifferentlanguagesandothersdifferentdialectsofthesamelanguage?

Manysociolinguistsagreethatadialectisoneofmostproblematictermstogiveageneraldefinitionto.Someproposedthatlanguageexistsintheformofdialect.What,then,isadialect?

Whatarethecriteriafordistinguishingbetweenalanguageandadialectofalanguage?

Linguistsstartwiththeassumptionthatallhumanbeingsspeaktheirownidiolects.Similaridiolectsmakeupaparticulardialect,andsimilardialectsmakeupaparticularlanguage.Thisstatementinsomesensepresupposesthatalltheidiolectsofadialectandallthedialectsofalanguagearemutuallyintelligible（Wang,1992:

11）.However,wecaneasilyfindcasestocounter-arguethisthesisiftheprincipleofmutualintelligibleserveastheonlycriterionfordifferentiatingalanguagefromadialect.

Takeforexample,theScandinavianlanguages（includingNorwegian,SwedishandDanish）.Speakersofthesethreelanguagescan,withlittleeffort,understandandcommunicatewithoneanother.Theselanguagesaremutuallyintelligible.Accordingtotheprincipleof“mutualintelligibility”,theyaredifferentdialects.Butthefactisthattheyareusuallyassumedtobedifferentlanguages.

IfweturnourattentiontoChina,wewillfindthatspeakersofCantoneseandMandarinwilltellyouthattheyspeakthesamelanguage.PeoplespeakingCantoneseandpeoplespeakingMandarinarenotmutuallyintelligibleatall,yettheyalmostcertainlyinsistthattheyspeakdifferentdialectsofthesamelanguage—Chinese,notdifferentlanguages,fortotheChineseasharedwritingsystemandapowerfulsocialandculturaltraditionformessentialpartsofourdefinitionoflanguage.

Sofortheseandotherreasons,then,wecannotusethetestof“mutualintelligibility”todifferentiatebetweendialectandlanguage.Thefactisthatthereisnoverycleardistinctionbetweenthetermsdialectandlanguage.Thesetwoconceptsare,asamatteroffact,ambiguous.Theabovetwocasesmentionedtellusthatdifferentlanguagesaresometimesmutuallyintelligibleandthatdialectsofthesamelanguagearesometimesnotmutuallyintelligibleatall.

2.2Othercriteria（includingBell’ssevenaspectsinlanguagedifferentiation）

Soapartfrom“mutualintelligibility”,wealsoneedothersupplementarycriteria.Somesociolinguistshavesomeaccountsofdifferentiatingalanguagefromadialect.Oneofthemisbasedontheexistenceofastandardlanguageorofawrittenformsharedbyasetofspeakers.Iftwoormoregroupswhodifferinspeechbutregardthesameformofspeechasastandard,oriftheysharethecommonwrittenform,theytendtoberegardedasspeakingdifferentdialectsratherthandifferentlanguages,whateverdegreeofmutualintelligibility,likedifferentdialectsacrossChina.Onthecontrary,theScandinavianlanguageslikeNorwegian,SwedishandDanishareconsidereddifferentlanguagesbecausetheyhavedistinct,codified,standardizedforms,withtheirowngrammarbooksandliteratures,whichcorrespondtothreeseparatenationstates.

Anotheraccountismadeintermsofsizeandprestige.Thatmeansalanguageislargerthanadialect,sothatalanguagecancontainmoredialects.Forexample,theChineselanguagehassevendialects:

Northern,Wu,Xiang,Gan,Min,Yue,andKejiadialects.Inaddition,theyalsothinkthatthetermlanguageimpliessocialprestige,foritiswrittenaswellasspoken,butdialectalvarietiesaregenerallynotusedinformalwriting,thusisnotcomparablewithmoresociallyvaluablelanguage.

AfamouslinguistBell（1976:

147-57）haslistedsevencriteriathatmaybeusefulindiscussingdifferentkindsoflanguages.AccordingtoBell,thesecriteria,namely,standardization,vitality,historicity,autonomy,reduction,mixtureanddefactonorms,maybeusedtodistinguishcertainlanguagesfromothers.

1）Standardizationreferstotheprocessbywhichalanguagehasbeencodifiedinsomeway.Thatprocessusuallyinvolvesthedevelopmentofsuchthingsasgrammars,dictionariesandpossiblyaliterature,etc.Oncealanguageisstandardizeditbecomespossibletoteachitinadeliberatemanner.Accordingtothesecriteria,bothEnglishandFrencharequiteobviouslystandardized,Italiansomewhatlessso,andthevarietyknownasBlackEnglishnotatall.

2）Vitality,thesecondofBell’ssevencriteria,referstotheexistenceofalivingcommunityofspeakers.Thiscriterioncanbeespeciallyusedtodistinguishlanguagesthatare“alive”fromthosethatare“dead”.Forexample,Latinisdeadinthesensethatnoonespeaksitasnativelanguage;itexistsonlyinawrittenformfrozenintime,pronouncedratherthanspoken,andstudiedratherthanused.

Yetweshouldnotethatalanguagecanremainaconsiderableforceevenafteritisdead,thatis,evenafteritisnolongerspokenasanyone’sfirstlanguageandexistsalmostexclusivelyinoneormorewrittenforms,knowledgeofwhichisacquiredonlythroughformaleducation.ClassicalGreekandLatinstillhaveconsiderableprestigeintheWesternworld,andspeakersofmanymodernlanguagescontinuetodrawontheminavarietyofways.

3）Historicityreferstothefactthataparticulargroupofpeoplefindsasenseofidentitythroughusingaparticularlanguage:

itbelongstothem.Social,political,religious,orethnictiesmayalsobeimportantforthegroup,butthebondprovidedbyacommonlanguagemayprovetobethestrongesttieofall.Historicitycanbelong-standing.Forexample,thespeakersofChinese,thedifferentvarietiesofcolloquialChinesemakemuchofacommonlinguisticancestry.

4）Autonomyisaninterestingconceptbecauseitisreallyoneoffeeling.Alanguagemustbefeltbyitsspeakerstobedifferentfromotherlanguages.However,thisisaverysubjectivecriterion.Forexample,somespeakersofBlackEnglishmaintainthattheirlanguageisnotavarietyofEnglish,butisaseparatelanguageinitsownright.Incontrast,speakersofCantoneseandMandarinarenotautonomouslanguagesbutarejusttwodialectsofChinese.

5）Reductionreferstothefactthataparticularvarietymayberegardedasasub-varietyratherthanasanindependententity.Sometimesthereductionisinthekindsof