“一带一路”国家语言“软实力”的实证分析

An Empirical Analysis on the Language“Soft Power”of the Belt and Road Countries

本文通过对世界235个国家和地区及其中65个"一带一路"沿线国家主要官方语言的分析,得到以下信息:(1)虽然有11个"一带一路"沿线国家官方使用国际通用语英语,但在全球90个官方英语国家中只占很小的比重,法语、德语、西班牙语、葡萄牙语、意大利语、荷兰语等西方较强势的通用语在"一带一路"沿线国家中基本没有分布;(2)"国语"几乎不见于单语国家,仅为强调国家语言主权时偶用于多语国家,且"官方语言"是比"国语"使用更广泛和功能更强大的国家语言称谓;(3)语言使用人口反映语言实力,主要不是体现在第一语言人口的绝对数,而是体现在第二语言/第一语言人口的比值上,英语的影响力之所以是全球性的,就在于它的"二语"人数显著大于"一语",并且"二语"人口主要在国际而不是在国内。因此,"一带一路"沿线国家语言"软实力"的国际吸引力、传播力和影响力,以及"一带一路"建设中的国际中文教育,仍存在较大的提升和发展的空间。

This article analyses the main official languages of 235 countries and regions in the world and 65 countries along the Belt and Road.The results show that:(1)11 countries along the Belt and Road use English as their official language,but they account for only a small proportion of the 90 countries taking English as official language in the world.The dominant common languages in the west,such as French,German,Spanish,Portuguese,Italian and Dutch are rarely-distributed in the Belt and Road countries;(2)The term"National language"is hardly seen in monolingual countries,and is only used in multilingual countries when emphasizing national language sovereignty."official language"is more widely-used and more powerful than"national language".(3)The language strength reflected by its population is not decided by the absolute number of first language users,but the ratio of second language population to the first.The reason why English is globally influential is that it owns a larger number of second language users than that of the first,and its second language users are globally-distributed rather than domestically-limited.Therefore,there is still space for the promotion in language"soft power"of the Belt and Road countries,including international attractiveness,communication and influence,as well as for international Chinese language education in the Belt and Road initiative.