社会语言学视域中的时空体研究综述

A Review of Chronotopic Studies in Sociolinguistics

巴赫金的时空体概念是文学批评中研究文学体裁、复调和人物身份的重要理论概念。近年来,社会语言学中的身份认同研究日益重视时间和空间的研究维度,也因此引入并日趋重视时空体的概念。本文首先介绍巴赫金理论中时空体在微观文本层面和宏观社会历史层面的双重界定,然后总结社会语言学对于时空体的理论定位--时空体作为语境的维度和身份认同的分析范畴--继而综述现有社会语言学时空体的实证研究方法与议题。我们认为,理论探讨与实证研究在时空体概念理解上存在脱节现象,在研究方法上缺乏多模态和科技关注,以及在研究议题上缺乏亚洲场景和全球化视角。

The notion of chronotope ( TimeSpace) is one of Bakhtin’s essential theoretical concepts in literary criticism. Other notions include genre,heteroglossia and images of personhood. In recent years,sociolinguistic studies on identity have put increasing emphasis on the temporal and spatial dimensions,which in turn gives way to the valorization of chronotopic analysis. This paper first introduces the definition and the use of chronotope in Bakhtin’s theory at both the micro-textual level and the macro-sociohistorical level,which is followed by a summary on sociolinguistic positioning of chronotope as an aspect of context and an analytical category of identity. The paper moves on to review identity studies in sociolinguistics that draw on the notion of chronotope. In conclusion,the paper identifies three major limitations of current studies,including (1) the disconnection between theoretical and empirical studies on sociolinguistic chronotopes,(2) the lack of attention to multimodality and technology,and (3) the absence of investigation concerning the Asian context and globalization. The central aim of the paper is to provide an alternative theoretical perspective in view of chronotope for current studies on identity in China.