Linguistic Imperialism and Chinese Language and Culture Protection

Abstract：Influenced by the English imperialism theory proposed by Danish linguist Robert Philipson，the rapid development and popularity of English in the whole world have aroused debates among English hegemony.Some scholars in China are much concerned about the hegemony’s threat to Chinese language and culture and raised the concept of language and culture protection.Nevertheless，the author maintain that while caring about the adverse impact caused by English hegemony，the Chinese language and culture need to be protected，meanwhile，all-inclusive attitude shall be adopted towards English and western culture to enhance the communication and interaction between Chinese and English languages and cultures.

Key words：linguistic imperialism；Chinese language；culture；protection

Ⅰ.Introduction

In the book Linguistic Imperialism，the well-known Danish linguist Robert Philipson remarked the English teaching’s impact on people’s mind and thinking modes.He also described the cultural identity and cultural assimilation phenomenon caused by the spread of English.The bullying behavior of spreading English in order to weaken local language was called language imperialism.And by using language advantage to spread values，seek national interests and obtain information advantage which helped to obtain political and economic advantages.This kind of promoting the spread of English continuously consolidated and expanded the language advantage，and became a profitable industry behavior called language hegemony.Under the influence，countries around the world feared of their national languages’ loss or assimilation and paid unprecedented attention to hegemony of English.Language had not class nature，and was not equal to ideology or interests of the state，but the worldwide cultures，lifestyles，values and ways of thinking were tremendously affected by English imperialism.

Ⅱ.The formation of English hegemony

In 449，the three Germanic tribes，Angles，Saxons，and Jutes invaded Britain，and their three west Germanic dialects combined with each other's and united into Old English，thus English had just more than 1500 years history.In 1755，Samuel Johnson compiled A Dictionary of the English Language，which marked the formation of full specification of English Language system，which had only 200 years of history.However，English has become the world's most widely used and influential language.At present，there are more than 10 English-speaking countries，including United States，Canada，Britain，Ireland，Australia，New Zealand，South Africa and a few Caribbean nations.There are more than three hundred and fifty million people all over the world speak English as their first language，and more than ten million people speak English as a second language.Besides，about 1 billion people are learning English，2 billion people have daily contact with English，and nearly a third of the people in the world understand or speak English in different degrees.English has become the official language of more than 70 countries.More than 100 countries，including China，choose English as their preferential foreign language.It is estimated that half of the population will speak English fluently by 2050.On the using range，the most frequently used language in fields of science and technology，business and trade，tourism，foreign affairs，culture and law is English.English has become the language and the most important tool of international communication.English becoming a worldwide language is not because of its simpleness or grace，mainly is because of the historical reason that English speaking countries are strong in the international political，economic and cultural fields.To some extent，this kind of language hegemony is like Chinese’s influence on Japan and Korea in Han and Tang dynasties，and it is not because of the superiority of Chinese，but because of the national power of China.English has become a global language，which represents English culture’s mastery of the biggest power in the world.In his book English as a Global Language，David Crystal pointed out that the main reason for English to become a global language is English users’ political，military and economical strength.In the early 19th century，the British government carried out colonial policies strongly and by 1914 its colonies are 110 times larger than its mainland.Due to the power of “the empire on which the sun never sets”，English has been spreading quickly.Although the empire fell since the 20th century，its culture and language influence remains entrenched.And USA replaced UK to become world’s largest economy，science and technology and military power，English forces strengthened with rapid expansion.

Ⅲ.English hegemony’s impact on Chinese language and culture

English hegemony has great impact on other languages and cultures and carries out its cultural rule by its information and cultural influence.Along with China’s reform and opening up policy and for the sake of the country's development，hundreds of millions of Chinese people began to learn and use English in their study and work.Chinese，which has more than 1.3 billion users，is influenced by “English Fever”.Some scholars claim that Chinese language and culture’s purity and integrity shall be defended，and Chinese shall never be replaced by English.At present，English has indeed many impacts on Chinese，but if it has become a crisis there is still no conclusion due to the nature of languages.

Firstly，Hybrid characteristic of language determines that Chinese cannot keep purity.Existence，prosperity and development of any language has always been a contaminated and complex process，the pursuit of the purity of a language is against the social attribute of language.Pure language has no vitality，which means no huge social value，and it will not be concerned owe to its small amount and range of users.English itself has got through homology，variation and splitting.After its birth，it had absorbed many words and expressions from other languages in the following 1500 years.In 1978，Encyclopedia of the English was published，which indicated that English absorbed words of the languages listed below：Greek，Italian，Spanish，Portuguese，Dutch，Russian，Slavic，Persian，Sanskrit，Arabic，Turkish，Malay，Chinese，Egyptian，African aboriginal language and North American aboriginal language，etc.The United States is a typical immigration country which is often called a melting pot.People from all over the world came to the United States with their Also brought the national characteristic of language expression.Those unique expressions were melted with American language and became a part of American English.When Chinese went into other languages，it also absorbed many foreign words，thus it is not a terrible thing that some English words appeared in Chinese.As long as there is communication，there is no not affected language，and keep a language’s purity is a kind of extravagant hope.Secondly，in view of the linguistic theory，Chinese will never be replaced by English.Under the English hegemony discussion，a more pessimistic worry is English will ruin other languages such as Chinese，making other languages endangered or dying.English is nothing but a language，and its relationship with other languages in the future will return to languages.In the essence of languages and according to psycholinguistics，English will never replace Chinese，and it is explainable that why English is so popular in China.With the development of economy and opening up policy，Chinese people are eager to communicate with others in the world.And they deem that it is a fashion of English learning and speaking.Thirdly，according to the microscopic theory of linguistics，English mainly influenced Chinese by words rather than the entire system.Absorption and borrowing foreign words belong to the normal language collision.English words rich Chinese vocabulary but cannot change anything.Some professional vocabularies such as UN，GPS，GDP，GRE，ELTS，etc.are used in abbreviations，but only used by specialists in special

fields，and they do not affect daily communication.Fourthly，the hegemony of English accelerated the non-native English speaking countries’ loss of traditional culture.With the spread of English，a lot of western capitalist countries output the English speaking world culture，value orientation and ideology of capitalism.Many people in China prefer to celebrate the western festivals，speak English words，and treat English speaking as a symbol of status.

Ⅳ.Chinese language and culture protection

The trend for English hegemony and cultural rule is becoming more obvious，and how to protect our Chinese language and culture for their development and perfection in a positive way is the question we have to face.

First of all，the economy shall be developed to enhance the national strength.Economic strength is the foundation of a nation’s power，and language and culture’s spreading widely is a sign of a nation’s strength.Therefore，the development of economy should be enhanced in the long term.Economic development not only make us have more resources to invest on research，development and promoting Chinese language，and enhance national self-confidence and national pride of the Chinese people to make Chinese not only feel proud of their own country，but also for the splendid culture and beautiful language.

Furthermore，cultivating Chinese national cultural value of a scientific concept should be focused on.Under the trend of cultural globalization，to make the Chinese nation cultural development and innovation，the first task is to develop people’s new scientific cultural value outlook.Contemporary China is in a critical period of reform and opening up，the diversity and complexity of the social economic and cultural life determine the diversity of people's values.It is really hard to set up socialistic value judgment standard under the western values’ long-term impact.It is a vital task for China to face the challenge of cultural globalization.Excellent works of Chinese literature and art should be produced to inspire and guide people to influence or resist English cultural hegemony.

Last but not least，Chinese government shall enhance the development and management of ethnic culture industry by macro policies making.including language，words，ethnic culture industry development and management.The Chinese government has made great efforts to maintain the purity of Chinese and promote Chinese language to the world.For instance，long-term efforts were made to eliminate illiteracy，promote mandarin，and build Confucius Institute overseas to promote Chinese language and culture teaching and start Chinese teaching volunteers programs，and these measures have played a positive and obvious effect.

To sum up，absorbing and tolerant attitude should be taken to treat English and western culture，and Chinese language and culture shall be promoted to get into the world language and culture system，and dialogue shall be strengthened between Chinese and western language and culture；meanwhile，we should boldly absorb all active essence of foreign cultures to enrich Chinese language and culture in the cultural communication.

Reference：

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[5].王先霈：《“網(wǎng)語、外來詞與漢語的純潔性問題”筆談》[J]，《湖北大學(xué)學(xué)報(bào)》（哲學(xué)社會(huì)科學(xué)版），2003年第5期。