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After reading Chen Yuan's Language and Social Life: Lv Shuxiang

Source: Reading No.4, 198

I

I have recently read Comrade Chen Yuan's Language and Social Life, and I have gained a lot of new knowledge and reviewed a lot of old knowledge. I am very happy and want to take this opportunity to say something about myself.

Speaking is the most common and frequent activity of people, but it is also a very mysterious activity. Why does one person understand what he says, and the other person only hears a burst of gibberish, which is puzzling? How can one sentence cause laughter and another sentence make people angry or worried? It is supposed that this should be everyone's interest, and if you want to understand the mystery, however, most people really don't know much about language. Even if you want to know, it's a bit like you can't get in through the door. There are books that speak languages, but the reader's reaction is "boring!" "cumbersome!" Nobody wants to watch except for the exam. A friend said to me one day, "The books written by your linguists are useful to me." I said, "How does it work?" He said, "I grab a book after bed every night and watch it and fall asleep." You see, enough damage! Now, I can say to him, "Take Comrade Chen Yuan's new book and read it. You can't sleep!" -Hey, I have to declare that Comrade Chen Yuan's book, Language and Social Life, is only available in Hong Kong, and the Beijing version is still being printed, but it will be available soon.

what is the language? Say it's a tool. What tools? It is said to be "a tool for people to exchange ideas." But when you open any book that speaks a language, you only see "tools" and "people" are gone. Phonetics, grammar, vocabulary, and so on, but they all talk about the parts and structure of this tool, not how people use it. As soon as people are contacted, the situation is complicated. Speaking (and writing articles) is a social activity, and language is the product of social activities; Society is complicated, so language can't be uncomplicated. People of different nationalities speak different languages, and people in different regions speak different dialects. People in this nation and region often speak the words of that nation and region. In a language, what is written is not exactly the same as what is said in the mouth; In some areas, in a certain era, it is even completely different. There are various styles in written language and more than one style in spoken language. Every industry has its own jargon, and the phrase "interlacing is like a mountain" applies not only to business, but also to language in part. Even age, gender, will be more or less reflected in the language. There was a popular theory in foreign linguists in the early years, saying that because of the internal inconsistency of languages, the analysis of languages cannot take "language" or "dialect" as the object, but only "idiolect" as the object. In fact, personal language does not guarantee complete internal consistency. As far as language is concerned, most people are "generalists", and they all have a "repertoire", big or small. On different occasions, they are with different people and speak different words. Not only the words used are different, but also the syntax will be different, and even the pronunciation will change, which can be said to be "taking and using as appropriate, not sticking to one pattern." This is still the case for a person, not to mention a society. In a word, language is not a simple thing. The language in Chinese textbooks and linguistics works is an abstraction, although it is an essential and extremely useful abstraction. In the real society, people's language activities and language as a tool of such activities are extremely complicated. Studying this complicated and numerous knowledge is called sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics does not deny the traditional linguistics-"traditional" here refers to the linguistics before sociolinguistics was officially listed, but it thinks that this kind of research is not comprehensive enough, and predicts that with the expansion of the research scope, its various theories, including phonetics, grammar and even semantics, will be reformed to some extent.

Looking back at the history of linguistics, it was originally for reading ancient books and learning composition. It was not until the mid-19th century that historical comparative linguistics emerged that it got rid of the narrow practical purpose and called for the law of language development, which can be said to be a great liberation. But linguistics is still regarded as a branch of historical science. In the early 2th century, Saussure, as the representative, advocated the study of language for the sake of language itself, which was the second liberation of linguistics. For more than half a century, although many schools have been formed one after another, the purpose is still only one, that is, taking language itself as the research object and exploring the internal regularity of language as the only task. It was not until the 195s, especially in the 196s, that some scholars were unwilling to be satisfied with this and asked to study language as a social phenomenon, which can be said to be another liberation of linguistics. China's linguistics used to be called "primary school", which is a vassal of Confucian classics, and its situation is quite similar to that of the west. Western linguistics was introduced into China less than 1 years ago, and it is still being absorbed and digested, but it has yet to bear fruit.

Linguistics before the 19th century aimed at practicality, but its achievements were not remarkable. For a century and a half, linguistics has not taken practicality as its direct purpose, but its achievements are very beneficial to practicality (for example, in language teaching). There seems to be a bit of dialectics in here. Now the scope of research is broader, researchers' horizons are broader, research methods are more detailed and diverse, and more abundant gains can be expected.

Second

Comrade Chen Yuan talked about "Pidgin English" in his book. This is an old thing that has disappeared with the disappearance of the old times. Modern people probably only know that there is such a name, but they don't know what it is actually like. I have no personal experience with this thing either. It's not that "the rest of my life is too late", but that I was lucky not to be born in that deformed social stratum, so I didn't have the possibility of touching it. I met it for the first time by accident. I heard it indirectly from my friends in Kunming during the Anti-Japanese War. A family who fled from Shanghai to the mainland brought a nanny (called "Aunt Niang" in Shanghai dialect). After a year and a half, the hostess dismissed her. She said "Fashion come, fashion go", which translated as "how to get there", which means "you have to give me the passage back to Shanghai". (Nanny and hostess, of course, both speak Shanghainese. At this moment, there suddenly comes a pidgin, which is just like quoting ancient books in the middle of a scholar's speech. This is also an example in sociolinguistics. )

A few years ago, when I was forced to be idle, I sometimes went into a secondhand bookstore and came across a book entitled "Piggin-English Sing-Song", which was printed by a bookstore in London in 1876. Now copy the shortest crooked poem from it to make up for the fragmentary examples cited in Comrade Chen Yuan's book.

The Rat

One－time one piecee lat

Pull hard to catchee nail，

And talkee when he come：

“Look－see what largey tail！

“But now my gettee out

T’his ting no good－no how！

One piecee olo iron

No blongey good chow－chow.”

Supposey man lose tim

’Bout one long foolo tale，

He take you in－P’ho！

it's all-same an' nail.

(Once a mouse

pulled a nail hard, and the nail came out, and the mouse said,

"Look, what a big tail!

but this thing I got out

is useless at all!

It's just a piece of rotten iron.

There's really nothing to eat! "

If a person wastes his time

listening to people's idle nonsense,

he will be taken in,

like a mouse pulling out a nail. )

"pidgin English" was once popular in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai and other places. If we take "Pidgin" as the translation of Pidgin, there are (or have been) other kinds of "Pidgin English" in many places on earth. The following is an example of pidgin English in Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Mifele i－go go long salwater，lookoutim fish，now win i－kem.Now mi－fele i－go alabout long kino，now bigfele win i－kem now， Mifele I-fafasi alaboute, rong tumes.

(We were sailing and fishing at sea, and the wind came. We were in a canoe, and there was a strong wind. We were blown around and drifted quickly. )

It is not difficult to see that this kind of pidgin English is different from the pidgin English in Shanghai and other places.

besides pidgin English, there are pidgin French and pidgin Portuguese. All these "Pidgin" languages are scattered on the shipping lanes frequented by colonial merchant ships.

besides the pidgin language, there is also the so-called creole language, which is the further development of the pidgin language. The difference between them is that "Pidgin" is a mixed language that no one takes it as their mother tongue, and "Creole" is a mixed language that some people take it as their mother tongue. Most of the people who say this are descendants of colonialists, especially hybrids, but there are also aborigines. This language is not only what they have learned since childhood, but also often the only thing they can say. The following is "Creole" English (with a few words from Dutch) in Sranan, which is popular in the coastal areas of Suriname (Netherlands Guyana). Sample:

Ala den bigi bigiman de nadal con e waktien. a konnanga en bukuna on droenanu. a puru en atina enede, En a meki kosi gi den, Dan a waka go na a djari, pe den gansi de.

(All the important people are waiting for him on the balcony. He came with a book under his arm. He took off his hat and bowed to them. Then he went to the garden where there were geese. )

3

Comrade Chen Yuan's book talks about language fetishism, from folk superstition to modern superstition, which is enlightening in humor. I also want to add some examples here. Comrade Chen Yuan quoted a poster posted on the light pole beside the road to send "crying at night", which I have seen in my hometown, and besides sending "crying at night", there are also people who send "urinating at night". The words and expressions are basically the same:

Emperor Huang, Emperor Dihuang,

There is a doctor who shoots (za) urine (xu) in my home.

say it once for passers-by,

children get well when they are ill.

it is not difficult for barbarians to understand that language has mysterious power. One person said, "Gather around!" A group of people stood in a row; The man said, "Attention!" "Turn right!" Quick march!' Every time you say it, the group of people will make an action, so that people in a "primitive" era can see this scene for the first time. How can they not think that this string of voices has irresistible power? All blessings (such as "Long live! Hooray! Long live! " ), all curses (such as "kill a thousand knives!" ), at the beginning, the root is to believe that language can cause some changes in the objective world, although it later became a form.

among all the blessings and curses, the name is the key. A person's name is mysteriously linked to his person or soul, so it must be carefully protected. In the thirty-sixth chapter of the Romance of the Gods, Huang Feihu said: Zhang Guifang, a man, "must first give his first name when fighting with others.". If he will be called Huang at the end, he will be called' When will Huang Feihu not dismount?' and he will naturally dismount at the end. " On the thirty-seventh occasion, Jiang Ziya said goodbye to Yuan Shi Tian Zun when he went down the mountain. Yuan Shi Tian Zun said, "If anyone calls you, don't answer him. If you answer him, there are thirty-six ways to conquer you. " Jiang Ziya was on his way, and Shen Gongbao called him after him. At first, he should not, but later he should. Sure enough, as the Buddha said at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, it attracted thirty-six road expeditions.

therefore, names should be taboo, and the names of emperors and ancestors and elders should not be called. In the later generations, it is considered polite; In ancient times, this was protective. "Historical taboo" is a small knowledge in the collation of ancient books in China; The custom of "anonymity" also left many famous stories in historical records. The most famous one is "only state officials can set fires, but people are not allowed to light lamps".-People who don't know this allusion always think that "setting fires" is a big metaphor, while "lighting lamps" is a small metaphor, as if it were a general privilege against it. I don't know that there is a story here: in the Song Dynasty, there was a zhizhou (a modest leader) whose surname was Tian Mingdeng, so he didn't allow people to say "lighting lamps" and told them to do so.

Because "name" is taboo, there is a word besides "name". "Name" is a genuine product, so it is not easy to use it casually. "Word" is a secondary card, which is used to facilitate circulation (just like real antiques are not put out for exhibition, but are replaced by replicas).

for the same reason, the opposite form is to give children a despicable name. There is an entry in the notes of the Song Dynasty that there is a child named "Augus" in Ouyang Xiu's family. A monk asked Ouyang Xiu, "You don't believe in Buddhism. Why did you get such a name?" Ouyang Xiu said: "In order to make it easy for him to feed, just like some children are called' dogs' and' sheep'." I'm afraid Ouyang Xiu's words are only half right. He is called "dog" and "sheep".