中西话语权势关系的语言哲学探源——话语学的文化研究视角

Exploring Philosophical Foundations of Doing Critical Discourse Studies in China

批判话语分析是西方现代文明进行反思后出现的一门新兴跨学科社会科学,其目的是通过语言分析来研究和阐释社会文化问题。要了解这门学科对研究中国问题的价值,我们有必要从语言哲学角度来认识今天东西方的话语关系。根据海德格尔、维特根斯坦和庄子等人的语言哲学思想,语言表述的真理性和社会活动的合理性需要从存在论的角度来审视。中国语言在现代化过程中沉淀了一种不平等的东西方话语霸权关系,它以话语体裁的方式支配着不同领域的社会活动,并导致中国传统文化边缘化及其他社会问题,如中医技术化、教育异化、管理语言数字化,等等。在这里,语言作为一种存在的敞开变成了为支配而存在的工具,“他者”话语通过自己的嘴试图从根本上改变中国传统话语的内在结构和文化特征。

Critical discourse analysis emerges as an interdisciplinary social study, attempting to investigate and explain social problems through actual text analysis. Such a study is historically embedded in a particular cultural context, and thus should be elaborated with its own traditions and linguistic worldviews. With the progress of modernization of the Chinese society starting from early 20th century, the Chinese language in terms of discourse has experienced a fundamental change which meanwhile has transformed the mode of Chinese people＇s social practices. Modem Chinese discourses, no matter whether of social or scientific practices or on China＇s intellectual and cultural heritage, are articulated to a large extent in westernized discourse that modem Chinese language that were normalized as their own. This is not merely referring to the fact fills up with new terms translated from the West and that the syntactical structure is appropriated for assimilating the particularities of Western-derived notions, but more importantly to the fact that the ways of doing things with words have been changed. In the interaction and collision of different cultures, today＇s Chinese discourse takes a peculiar form of self-rejection and alienation, in which others＇ discourse strives to transform its inner structure, cultural connotation, ways of practice and essentially the ＂forms of life＂. It is understood that the continuing hegemony of Western discourse interculturaly undermines the roots of Chinese traditions, and internally enacts distorted discursive practices which create many social problems we see in today＇s China, for instance, the deconstruction of traditional Chinese medicine discourse through a positivist language, and the technological transformation of society leading to the loss of human autonomy. From a philosophical perspective of language, the paper examines and explains problematic nature of contemporary Chinese discourse. By doing so I attempt to clarify the theoretical foundations for doing critical discourse study in the context of Chinese society. The essence of this theoretical adventure is to look at language on an ontological base as forms of life rather than the expression of truth and ideas, which is elaborated in the light of the philosophical thoughts of Heidegger, Wittgenstein, and Zhuangzi. The final section of the paper presents some research questions for doing critical discourse analysis in China.