LINGUIST List 14.2081

Tue Aug 5 2003

Calls: Chinese Linguistics/Sociolinguistics

Editor for this issue: Marie Klopfenstein <marielinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. zhoum, Journal of Asian Pacific Communication

Journal of Asian Pacific Communication	

Call Deadline: 01-Dec-2003 

A special issue of the Journal of Asian Pacific Communication (JAPC)
will be devoted to the topic ''Standard modern Chinese
(Mandarin/Putonghua) and its varieties in a multilingual Chinese
society''. In the past half-century's promotion of the standard modern
Chinese, varieties of the standard language have arisen. It is well
known to linguists and the public that there are ''Shanghai
Putonghua'', ''Guangzhou Putonghua'', ''Zhuang Putonghua'', ''Taiwan
Guoyu'', etc. Amid China's rapid modernization drive, more and more
people have been speaking the ''standard'' language and have been more
and more affected by their standard language ability in their daily
communication and socio-economic advancement. Thus, we believe that a
systematic study of standard modern Chinese and its varieties is now
more warranted than ever.

A paper may address one of the questions below, a combination of these
questions or more important questions not raised above as well as the
theoretical significance of the Chinese case to any multilingual
society that engages in status planning. The focus of this special
issue is on standard modern Chinese and its varieties in the PRC, but
papers on the topic in other Chinese speaking societies will also be
considered.

1. How should varieties of standard modern Chinese be (linguistically)
defined?
2. Are varieties of standard modern Chinese
transitional/interlanguages (see C. Saillard, forthcoming) or like
varieties of English (e.g. British English vs. American English, etc)
and other languages (e.g. Spanish vs. Catalan, Japanese vs. Okinawan,
Czech vs. Slovakian, etc.)?
3. Do the People's Republic of China's legislation and practice that
recognize different levels of the standard language have any
implication for theories of language (status) planning?
4. In the linguistic repertoire of a speech community may exist a
more-standard version of modern Chinese, less-standard varieties of
modern Chinese, and dialects/minority languages. In what domains are
these three forms respectively allocated in everyday communication in
such a community?
5. An individual speaker may also have these three forms of
languages/varieties in his/her repertoire. How does s/he switch from
one code to another in actual communication? What communicative
functions do the switch and/or each of the three codes serve?
6. Early studies (J. Bai, 1994; I. Kalmer, Y. Zhong and H. Xiao, 1987)
of small samples suggest different attitudes towards these three forms
of languages/varieties in a speech community. What are current
attitudes (of larger and more representative samples) towards these
three languages/varieties in speech communities where they are all
used?

Submission deadlines: 

An abstract of 250 words is due on December 1, 2003. 
The complete paper is due on July 1, 2004. 

The editorial board will review submitted abstracts and give helpful
comments to submitters in order to ensure the success of abstract
submitters and the success of this special issue. Thus, abstract
submission is highly encouraged, but it does not guarantee the
acceptance of the complete paper nor does it exclude consideration of
any submitted complete paper. All papers will be peer-reviewed.

Send abstracts and complete papers to the special issue editor,
Minglang Zhou (zhoumdickinson.edu), in a MS word document in an
attachment.

The complete paper (no more than 20 double-spaced pages, including all
notes and references) should follow the JAPC style and, if written by
a non-native speaker of English, be proofread by a native speaker of
English. The style sheet and samples are available at
http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_seriesview.cgi?series=JAPC or from
the special issue editor. In the text, examples and terms may be
represented in Pinyin alone if Pinyin is sufficient to show the
difference or in combination of Pinyin and Chinese characters if
Pinyin is not sufficient.