七十年来的中国语言生活

Language Use in the People’s Republic of China in the Past Seven Decades

过去70年中国语言生活不断发展变化,它深受中国政治、经济和文化生活的影响。中国的语言规划、政策成功地引导了中国语言生活,国家通用语言不断普及,第一次在中国历史上实现了“言同音”,全社会语文水平不断提升,语言生活向着多元和谐健康的方向发展。过去70年语言生活的历史是语言生活研究的重要资料,需要我们去搜集、整理和挖掘。

Over the past seven decades, the Chinese language has seen continuous changes that emerged as the result of radical changes that occurred in the socio-political-cultural context of China. Based on an extensive literature review of previous studies on the Chinese language development trajectory, this paper revisits and refl ects on language practice in China and the respective features of language use in several key milestone periods since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. The fi ndings show that in general, China’s language planning and policy implementation have succeeded in managing language use for both the public and institutions. The success is demonstrated in the following aspects: nation-wide popularization of the national common language (Guojia Tongyongyu);realization of the linguistic goal of the unifi cation of speech and writing for the fi rst time in the Chinese history;continuous improvement of overall language use across the whole society;and healthy development of language use towards pluralism and harmony. This paper concludes that the use and development of Chinese over the past seven decades deserve further studies.