语言态度研究的情境化转向——以我国大学生的语言学习与方言保持为例

Contextualizing Language Attitudes Research:A Case Study of Chinese College Students’ Attitudes Towards English Learning and Dialect Maintenance

态度是内在的,是隐藏在人们思想中的想法和概念,如何通过客观科学的途径使人们呈现出其真实的态度,成为解释语言态度本质的重要问题。既往的语言态度研究大都使用直接法/间接法或者社会法,难以揭示说话人隐藏的语言态度。基于话语分析的语言态度研究主要从三个层面分析语料,即"基于内容"(content-based)的话语分析、话轮中的语义语用(turn-internal semantic and pragmatic)分析和话语情景互动(interactional)分析。依赖真实情景语境的"互动"研究,秉持动态的语境建构观,分析真实情境中的话语表达,能够把语言态度概念变为可评估的"实践"或"活动",揭示出语言使用者真实的语言态度;把情景语境和社会文化语境相结合,将语言态度和语言行为放在同一语境框架下进行阐释,能够建立语言态度与现实语言行为的有效联系,进而拓宽我国语言态度研究的视角,有助于深入理解语言态度的本质。

Attitudes are innate ideas and concepts which are hidden in people’s thoughts.How to reveal people’s real language attitudes remains a key issue to further understanding the nature of language attitudes.Major existing studies of language attitudes,which have been mainly conducted by adopting"direct"and"indirect"methods or"societal treatment approach",hardly reveal the real hidden language attitudes.Discourse-based analysis of language attitudes,however,provides an analytic framework involving content-based approaches,turn-internal semantic and pragmatic approaches,and interactional approaches.The interactional perspective of contextualizing the language attitude study is based on the dynamic constructive view of language,which analyzes the conversations in real pragmatic contexts,turning the concepts of language attitudes into"practice"or"activities"which could be assessed and measured and help reveal the real language attitudes of speakers.To combine the conversational contexts with social and cultural contexts,we can interpret language attitudes and language behavior in the same contextual framework,and thus connect the language attitudes with the speakers’behaviors.The study shows that language attitudes are dynamic and multidimensional.The paper is expected to shed lights on language attitude studies in China and yield new insights into the understanding of language attitudes.