The Development of Chinese Language and Social Change

郭亞玲

【Abstract】Language is a mirror of society. It is one of the most important communication tools and social changes or potential social changes can often be reflected in it. We use language as a barometer of social changes and from the perspective of sociolinguistics. Social changes also determine the variations of Chinese language. Based on the former study about the relation between language and society， this paper mainly talks about the catchwords or popular language and social changes during the Cultural Revolution.

【Key words】Chinese language； social changes； Cultural Revolution

Introduction

Language is a special social phenomenon. Social structure， environment and social changes also determine language choice and language variation. Therefore， language development and social changes affect each other. In China， any change of social life， even the smallest change， will more or less be reflected on Chinese language， mainly on vocabularies. In recent several decades， as the rapid change of the society and the enormous progress of science and technology， the development of Chinese language is extremely rapid. New vocabularies on politics， economy， military， culture， society and so on spring up continuously. Especially， the social reform has a great influence on language variation. Catchwords in Cultural Revolution stigmatize the specific stage in the long history.

I. Review of Theory

From a certain time span， the development of language and social changes， involves many sociolinguistic researches. Among them， language variation and the theory of covariance are primary. William Labov who believes that language variation exists in many forms and has a unique feature--orderly heterogeneity is the founder of language variation. In his book， Principles of Linguistic Change： Social Factors， he paid more attention to the social factors affecting variation. Sociolinguistics written by W. Bright in 1964， it shows that language and society are in a relationship of co-variation. That is， language and society are two different variables which affect each other and restrict mutually.

II. Characteristics of Catchwords in Cultural Revolution

Language variation here refers to the vocabulary. And catchwords reflect social fashions. Cultural Revolution is a special period of time in the history. Language in that time is affected by social class， style and other social factors. Chen Jianmin divides “Cultural Revolution words” into three forms. First， they show the social phenomena， such as“Rea Sea” （hong hai yang）、“Revolutionary League”（ge ming hui）and so on. Second， they refer to some new political identify， such as“Capitalist Roader”（zou zi pai）、“Educated Youths”、“the Red Guard” （hong wei bing） and so on. Third， they express the common political words， such as “Little Red Book” （hong bao shu）、“Supreme Instruction” and so on. All off these words spring up and reveal the fierce class struggle. A capitalist roader is someone who takes the road leading to capitalism， which expresses the nihilistic illusion. The Red Guard exposes the tendency toward boasting and exaggeration. More words convey the criticism towards intellectuals. Political factors accelerate the spread of catchwords. Furthermore， the emergence of popular language also accelerates the spread of the social mainstream thoughts. From the perspective of sociolinguistic， we can see that society is always primary and it is the development of society that leads to the language change. And it is also language variation that reflects the social change. The Cultural Revolution is a special period of time， which is in an abnormal and malformed state. Compared with a normal society， the majority of catchwords in this period of time tend to be political. On the contrary， words on economy， culture， and other aspects are extremely rare. However， with the development of society， there is a great change of people's mentality and values. Therefore， a lot of words disappear. Those catchwords are short-lived， because they are not common and stable. That is， language affected by society has its own inevitable evolution.

III. In Conclusion

Whether the abnormal state caused by the Cultural Revolution or prosperity created by other stages， language and society is inseparable. With the development of society， language variation meets the needs of society. And the prosperous society has updated the language. In terms of language variation， mainly on lexical items， it is well- known that in different societies some words have certain social values or stigmas attached to them. However， this paper does not give more details about the function of language variation， such as identifying function and facilitating function. They should be attached great importance.

References：

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