Academic Paper |
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| Title: | Language and Ethnic Identity - with Particular Reference to Hong Kong and Macao, China |
| Author: | Niu Qiang |
| Email: | click here to access email |
| Institution: | University of Wisconsin Madison |
| Linguistic Field: | General Linguistics |
| Abstract: |
In this presentation we will revisit a well-worn issue, which retains its vitality through relevancy in day-to-day application through our ever-changing social, economic, political and religious stimuli. As Barbour and Carmichael postulate (2000:1), 'There can be no question that nationalism is a highly significant factor on the contemporary world scene.'
Language functions as a symbolic marker of a nation due to the inseparable relationship between language and culture, which is sociolinguistic in nature; while the inseparable relationship between language and culture is to be traced further to the interdependent relationship between language and thought, which is psycholinguistic in origin. In this sense, the present paper is a socio-psycholinguistic analysis of the relationships among language, thought and culture, which provides the theoretical basis for our discussion about the language situation in Hong Kong and Macao, China. The relationship between language and thought has long been a topic of academic controversy and the relationship between language and culture has also been fairly extensively explored. Politics, which is an essential element of culture, has not been brought to the forefront of social consciousness in its relationship to language, although the relationship between language and politics has been brought to the periphery of people's attention quite recently. (Marshall, 1996; Musa, 1996) There are a plethora of examples where language assumes a political role though social changes may not be purely linguistic in nature or in origin. In what follows, two cases are cited to illustrate the point. |
| Type: | Individual Paper |
| Status: | In Progress |
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