Doctoral Dissertation Research: Language Standardization and Modern State-Building

SES-1603086约翰LieJeffrey Weng加州大学伯克利分校本论文项目探讨国家如何塑造社会语言实践。在过去的几十年里，对国家形成的研究稳步增长，特别是对国家对普通人生活日益增长的影响的研究。尽管语言在社会生活中起着基础性的作用，但这种研究，以及一般的社会学研究，往往忽视了语言问题。这个项目通过提出这样一个问题来解决文学中的这一空白：国家采用什么策略来积累语言领域的象征力量？这个项目将通过关注中国从古典到现代汉语的转变来回答这个问题，这发生在20世纪10年代和30年代之间。在此之前，古典汉语就像欧洲的拉丁语一样，是学术和政府的超国家语言。世纪后半叶的民族主义运动促使朝鲜、日本、越南和中国的民族方言兴起。本论文将通过对中国的案例进行更深入的研究，来阐明语言的社会理论。为了回答国家如何塑造语言实践的问题，本论文将研究位于美国、台湾和中国大陆的中国政府档案材料。国家形成的文献在很大程度上是以西欧的情况为基础的，在这些情况下，语言的变化发生了几个世纪，并且倾向于将非欧洲或后殖民的情况分开对待，作为国家主导的发展或现代化的例子。另一方面，研究中国的历史学倾向于把语言实践的变化看作是各种知识分子“运动”的结果，这使知识分子与国家处于一种矛盾的关系。该项目依靠档案文件，包括官僚备忘录、法令、条例、会议记录以及官方和个人信件，试图澄清语言改革知识分子与国家之间的关系，从而澄清国家在影响语言实践中的作用。通过这样做，该项目将有助于当代关于政府语言和教育政策的社会影响的辩论，特别是由于获得文化资本的机会不平等而产生的社会分层。

SES-1603086John LieJeffrey WengUniversity of California, BerkeleyThis dissertation project examines how states shape societal language practices. The past few decades have witnessed steady growth in studies of state-formation, particularly research on the state's increasing influence on the lives of ordinary people. This research, and much of sociology in general, has tended to neglect questions of language, in spite of language's foundational role in social life. This project addresses this gap in the literature by asking: What strategies does the state employ to accumulate symbolic power in the realm of language? This project will answer this question by focusing on the case of the Chinese transition from Classical to Modern Chinese, which occurred between the 1910s and 1930s. Previously, Classical Chinese had, much like Latin in Europe, functioned as a supranational language of scholarship and government. Nationalist movements in the latter half of the 19th century spurred the rise of national vernaculars in Korea, Japan, Vietnam, as well as in China. This project's closer examination of the Chinese case will clarify the social theory of language by looking at a state that in three decades accomplished what took place in Europe over several centuries.To answer the question about how states shape language practices, this dissertation will examine Chinese government archival material located in the United States, Taiwan, and mainland China. The state-formation literature has largely been grounded in Western European cases, in which language change took place over centuries, and tends to treat non-European or postcolonial cases separately, as instances of state-led development or modernization. On the other hand, historical scholarship on China tends to look at changes in language practices as the result of various intellectual "movements," which places intellectuals in an ambivalent relationship with the state. Relying on archival documents, including bureaucratic memoranda, statutes, regulations, meeting minutes, as well as official and personal correspondence, this project seeks to clarify the relationship between language-reforming intellectuals and the state, and thus clarify the state's role in influencing language practices. In so doing, this project will contribute to contemporary debates on the social implications of government policies on language and education, particularly social stratification stemming from unequal access to cultural capital.