A Diachronic Study of the Discourse of Chinese Language Policy:The Perspective of Language Legislation
Based on individuation research from Positive Discourse Analysis and predication strategy from Critical Discourse Analysis,this paper presents an analytical framework for understanding meaning-making in language legislation.It probes into the characteristics of language policies in different periods since the en-actment of Chinese language legislation(1982-2023)through a diachronic discourse analysis.It is found that,from the dimension of ideational meaning,the government mainly constructs experiential meaning using four major kinds of verbal predicates,which are dynamic over three different periods in language legislation,reflecting the regulatory and guiding functions of language practices.From the dimension of interpersonal meaning,the evaluative instances towards government agencies,primarily the category of social esteem,in-variably imply a positive judgement of their importance in implementing language policy.From the dimension of cultural context,the cultural exchange of various language communities,including ethnic/regional,do-mestic,and international levels,is respectively focused in different periods of language legislation,reflecting the Chinese cultural tradition of harmony in diversity.It may provide insights for the exploration of meaning construction in the discourse of language policy,and help with language legislation under the rule of law in the era of big data.
language policydiscourse analysisdiachronic studylanguage legislation
万方数据
维普
