新加坡华社双语调查──变项规则分析法在宏观社会语言学中的应用

The use of VRA in bilingual research: A Singapore case

我们在1996年中以新加坡华人人口为范围进行了一项大规模的语言使用情况和语言态度的调查。调查包括了分层抽样的问卷调查和田野调查。调查结果包括2788价收回的问卷和3440位讲话人语言选择情况的现场记录。问卷内容包括答卷人的性别、年龄、职业等社会特征，语言使用情况的自我评估，以及对新加坡几种主要语言的主观评价。现场调查记录内容包括语言选择和转换的情况，讲话人所显现出来的社会特征，交际场合及交际角色，以及具体观察地点等信息。利用上述从数千名答卷人和被观察的讲话人那里所获得的数十项信息，我们采用了变项规则分析法来进行定量分析，使我们对于新加坡华社的双语状况有了全面和深人的了解。一些原来表面上看起来杂乱无章的现象得到了规律性的解释，社会语言学的有关理论得到了充实和发展。

The Singapore Chinese community is a unique bilingual community in that it finds itself a majority group ina multi-ethnic and multilingual society but is affected by language planning measures much more than itsminority counterparts. This unusual outcome of language planning has carried with it many intriguing factsof research interests. Among them, the complex language situation within the community is perhaps themost conspicuous, and it merits academic investigation as well as being an immediate concern of thesociety and the government of the country. In order to address the relevant question in the research ofsocietal bilingualism and at the same time to infirm the society about this complicated language situation,a survey on language use and language attitudes was conducted in the Singapore Chinese community inmid-1996. A questionnaire survey and an observation survey were integral parts of this investigation. Atotal of 2,788 copies of a questionnaire reporting habitual language use and judgmental opinions aboutlanguages together with demographic information were collected. At the same time, 3,440 individuals wereobserved While engaging in verbal interactions in public places, and their language choice and itsethnographically relevant contextual features were reported. It is with a database as the end results of suchendeavors that we applied VRA in the research on societal bilingualism.