Language Planning in China

Li Yuming

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781501500398
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Written by a leading scholar who has been closely involved in language planning in China over many decades, this collection of essays is a critical reflection of the work the Chinese government and academics have undertaken in establishing appropriate policies regarding language standard, language use and language education. The essays contain unique insights into the thinking behind much of the language planning work in China today.

Endnotes

Chapter 1

Three major linguistic issues of mankind in contemporary societies

1	On January 10, 1958, Premier Zhou Enlai delivered a report entitled Current Language Reform Tasks at a meeting held by the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. In this report, he pointed out: “The Language reform tasks of our time are: simplification of Chinese characters, promotion of Putonghua, and design and implementation of Hanyu Pinyin.” These three aspects of language work is still in progress up to this day. The simplification of the Chinese characters and the related works includes the sorting and standardization of the characters as well.
2	For detailed discussion on the interaction between the Han language and the Altaic languages, see Aisin Gyoro 2004.
3	According to the statistics of the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, the market size of the translation industry in China is around 21 billion RMB in 2005, and the output value of China's translation market surpassed RMB 30 billion in 2006.
4	The Circular on Printing and Distributing the Seventh Batch of Standards for 14 Professionals (2003, No. 19) issued by the General Office of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, officially stated that stenographers are national professionals, whose status is to be certified by means of training. There are three levels of certification: stenographic clerk, stenographer, and senior stenographer.
5	Master of Engineering programmes in machine translation and language engineering are on offer by the School of Software & Microelectronics of the Peking University.
6	For more on this survey, see Li, 2008b:5–7.
7	In 1956 and 1981, China conducted two national surveys of cultural relics. The third nationwide general survey of cultural relics started in April 2007 and will conclude in December 2011. It will be carried out in three stages. The standard reference time of the survey is December 30, 2007.

Chapter 2

On mother tongue

8	For details, please refer to the Secretariat of China UNESCO. (Zhou 2001:32)
9	The term “mother tongue” is a polysemy in Chinese. Its other meaning, according to the Modern Chinese Dictionary (5th edition), is “the original language that gives rise to a number of languages”. This meaning will not be included in the discussion of this paper.
10	Details can be found in Gai (1986) and The Institute of Ethnology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2000: 176). The Government of the Keno area devised an alphabetic writing system for the Keno language, but has not been successful in promoting it for wider usage.
11	Perhaps historically speaking the Yi written form is supra–dialectal, it recorded the common Yi language, if such a common language did exist somewhere in history.
12	Details can be found in Wang (1985) and The Institute of Ethnology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2000: 66).
13	If a nationality has two or more languages, the situation is a totally different one. This paper treats this kind of situation as a problem to be tackled in the future. Details are given in the concluding session of this paper.
14	“withering bilingualism” and “sprouting bilingualism” are rather different in nature. Strictly speaking, they should not be categorized as “contracting bilingualism”.
15	It is reported that some foster parents in America accompanied the Chinese orphans they adopted to attend local Chinese schools. Their spirit is worth esteemed.
16	Li (1997) points out that some vernaculars of the Chinese language and some minority languages are withering away during the process of constant language contact. The implementation of urgent measures to rescue these endangered languages and vernaculars demands immediate attention. Unlike other objects, a language, once disappears, cannot be restored or duplicated. Language loss will also result in the loss or “fossilization” of the culture and subculture embodied in it. At present, more and more people are conscious of the importance and urgency of environmental protection, species protection, water and soil conservation, and preservation of cultural relics. The resources and efforts spent in the promotion and protection procedures are greater than before. Regrettably, much fewer people are aware of the importance and urgency of language protection. On mother tongue 31
17	Despite the fact that the number of nationalities and languages used in China, Russian and the whole world are recorded differently in different literatures, the number of nationalities being less than the number of languages is an undeniable fact.

Chapter 3

On planning of language function

18	This paper is the revised version of a report delivered at the “2008 National Working Conference on Language” on 28 February 2008.
19	The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language was passed on 31 October 2000, at the 9th meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, and was implemented on 1 January 2001.
20	The Constitution of The People’s Republic of China was passed at the 5th meeting of the 5th National People’s Congress held on 4 December 1982. Four revisions were made afterwards: The Revised Version of the Constitution of The People’s Republic of China passed at the 1st meeting of the 8th National People’s Congress held on 12th April 1988, The Revised Version of the Constitution of The People’s Republic of China passed at the 1st meeting of the 8th National People’s Congress held on 29th March 1993, The Revised Version of the Constitution of The People’s Republic of China passed at the 2nd meeting of the 9th National People’s Congress held on 15th March 1999, and The Revised Version of the Constitution of The People’s Republic of China passed at the 2nd meeting of the 10th National People’s Congress held in 2004.
21	Audiovisual media is also called sound media.
22	Regarding the impact the mass media has on language, see detailed elaboration in Li (2002).
23	This also including foreign languages.
24	The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Ethnic Regional Autonomy was passed at the 2nd meeting of the 6th National People’s Congress on 31st May 1984. It was revised at the 20th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 9th National People’s Congress on 28th February 2001.
25	See Propaganda Department, State Ethnic Affairs Commission Minzu Yuwen Zhengce Fagui Huibian (A Collection of National language Policies and Regulations), and Department of Language Planning and Administration Xin Shiqi Yuyan Wenzi Fagui Zhengce Wenjian Huibian (A Collection of Policies and Regulations on Language in the New Era).
26	There are only 63 minority languages as listed in the Encyclopedia of China (Language and Script) published by the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, 1988 edition.
27	See “Language Situation in China” Taskforce (2006:431–434).

Chapter 4

Some considerations on enhancing the national language capability

28

This paper is based on the academic reports presented in the Annual Meeting and “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” of the Tianjin Language Training and Testing Center 2010 on 15th January, 2011 and the Capital Normal University on 23rd November, 2010. Some contents of this paper have been reported in “Joint Conference of the Language Subject Twelfth Five-Year Plan for the Strategic Experts” at the Nankai University on 19th November, 2010 and the Institute of Applied Linguistics of Ministry of Education on 28th December, 2010. During the compilation of this paper, the author wishes to thank Mr. Shi Feng, Mr. Ma Qingzhu, Mr. Zhou Jianshe and Mr. Liu Xianjun for their encouragement and support. Some information and views in this paper are benefited from Mr. Zhang Xiping, Mr. Zhang Shuguang, Mr. Zhou Qingseng, Mr. Lu Ziwen, Mr.Wang Jianqin, Mr.Wen Qiufang, Mr.Wang Kefei, Mr. Zhao Ronghui and Mr. Zha...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Foreword by Bernard Spolsky
• Three major linguistic issues of mankind in contemporary societies
• On mother tongue
• On planning of language function
• Some considerations on enhancing the national language capability
• Language is also a “hard power”
• On levels of language life
• On field language planning
• Characteristics of language life in contemporary China
• On foreign language planning in China
• The status of authoritative dialect in language standardization
• A supplement to The Status of Authoritative Dialects in Language Standardization
• Building up bilingual and bi-dialectical competence
• On the establishment of Chinese Language Resource Audio Database
• Some thoughts on the standardization of lexical items
• On terminology
• Reflection on the modernization of lexicography in China
• On Zhongguo Yuyan Shenghuo Lüpishu (Green Paper on the Language Situation in China)
• Issues of the Chinese language in the information age
• Language tasks in the information age
• The work of language standardization in the information age
• Constructing the grand platform of China Character Set
• On annotation of language knowledge in the corpus
• The needs for language learning and teaching Chinese as foreign language
• The significance of a study on the history of the international dissemination of Chinese
• Contemporary China: the core of international education of the Chinese language
• The intension and extension of qieyinzi
• The proposition of universal education in the Qieyinzi Movement
• Late Qing script reformers’ view of dialects
• Late Qing script reformers’ views on language unification
• Centenary of the promulgation of the state resolution Proposal for Establishing a Common National Language
• Endnotes
• Index