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

为了弄清语言在什么条件下对民族主义起着重要作用，以及语言在什么情况下发挥什么作用，民族主义首先被定义为一种寻求民族和国家趋同的政治理念和运动。根据这一假设，通过对各种案例的比较分析，得出以下结论：第一，语言可以成为区分一个国家和其他国家的标准。但在现阶段，语言只是民族主义的潜在资源，这种区分功能也对民族主义施加了限制。这是因为，作为区分标准，语言应该满足两个条件：内部同质性和外部差异性。其次，现代工业社会需要一种通用的书面语言来保证其正常的经济运行。这一要求将民族主义语言的潜在可用性转化为必然性。民族主义是一种试图通过将一个民族塑造成命名为国家的模式来满足这种共同语言的要求。一方面，语言作为民族的特色，确认了他们自古以来源源不断的身份和真实性；另一方面，语言作为民族的共同语言，确保了他们的个人和集体的生活机会，即他们在现代社会中的安全和利益。因此，语言既满足国家的身份，又满足国家的利益，因此，它是民族主义的关键。此外，还编制了一本民族主义与语言关系的研究书目。它由不到2000个研究标题组成。

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.