A Study on the Political Function of Language in National Movements and Conflicts

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In order to clarify under which conditions language plays a significant role in nationalism and what functions language plays in which circumstances, nationalism is first defined as a political idea and movement which seeks for the convergence of nation and state. Conclusions drawn from comparative analysis of a variety of cases on the basis of this assumption are ad follows.First, language can be a criterion which distinguishes a nation from other nations. But at this stage, language is only a potential resource for nationalism, and this distinguishing function also imposes a restraint on nationalism. It is because, as a distinguishing criterion, language should satisfy two conditions: internal homogeneity and external difference. Secondly, modern industrial society requires a common written language for its proper economic functioning. This requirement transforms the potential availability of language for nationalism into the necessity. Nationalism is an attempt to satisfy this requirement of a common language by casting a nation into the mold named state. On the one hand, language, distinctive of the nation, confirms their identity and authenticity flowing continuously from time immemorial, an on the other, language common to the nation, assures their individual and collective life chances, that is, their security and interests in modern society. Thus language satisfies both the identity and interests of the nation, and hence it is the key to nationalism.In addition, a research bibliography on the relationship between nationalism and language was comprised. It consists of a little less than 2,000 research titles.