Wang Rui - Language policy : a systemic functional linguistic approach

In recent years, research has prospered in the study of language policy. However, there are still many problems behind this prosperity. For example, much of the research lacks theoretical intervention and neglects perspectives of linguistic theories. This book, a trailblazer for academic researchers in the fields of language policy and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as appliable linguistics, examines language policy from the perspective of SFL, which could provide different angles for language policy and offer a valuable attempt to test SFL as appliable linguistics.

This book also explores many typical controversial issues in Chinese language policy with an SFL approach, such as ongoing conflicts between Putonghua and dialects. It not only addresses authentic problems emerging from the implementation process of Chinese language policy, but also has produced some feasible and customized suggestions to improve Chinese language policy.

Prof. Bingjun Yang is a Ph.D. advisor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His publications include Absolute Clauses in English from the Systemic Functional Perspective (Springer, 2015) and research articles in Language Sciences, Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, etc. His academic interests include SFL and translation studies.

Dr. Rui Wang has been working as an English lecturer at Chinas Southwest University of Political Science and Law since 2007. His academic interests include Language Policy, SFL as appliable linguistics and translation studies.

The China Perspectives series focuses on translating and publishing works by leading Chinese scholars writing about both global topics and China-related themes. It covers Humanities and Social Sciences, Education, Media and Psychology, as well as many interdisciplinary themes.

This is the first time any of these books has been published in English for international readers. The series aims to put forward a Chinese perspective, give insights into cutting-edge academic thinking in China, and inspire researchers globally.

For more information, please visit https://www.routledge.com/series/CPH

Complementarity between Lexis and Grammar in the System of Person

A Systemic Typological Approach

Wang Pin

Language Policy

A Systematic Functional Linguistic Appproach

Bingjun Yang and Rui Wang

Forthcoming titles:

A Study of Academic English Genre

Lei Xiuyun

Patterns and Meanings of Intensifiers in Chinese Learner Corpora

Wang Chunyan

Assessing Listening for Chinese College English Learners: Developing a Communicative Listening Comprehension Test Suite for CET

Pan Zhixin

On Aesthetic and Cultural Issues in Pragmatic Translation

Feng Xiuwen

The Use of L1 Cognitive Resources in L2 Reading by Chinese EFL Learners

Wu Shiyu

First published 2017

by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2017 Bingjun Yang and Rui Wang

The right of Bingjun Yang and Rui Wang to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Names: Yang, Bingjun, author. | Wang, Rui, 1983 author.
Title: Language Policy : A Systemic Functional Linguistic Approach /
Bingjun Yang, Rui Wang.
Description: London ; New York : Routledge, [2017] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016021348 | ISBN 9781138218840 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9781315436937 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Language and languagesStudy and teachingChina. |
Language policyChinaHistory. | Language and educationChina. |
Functionalism (Linguistics)China. | ChinaLanguagesPolitical
aspects.
Classification: LCC P119.32.C6 Y26 2017 | DDC 306.44/951dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016021348

ISBN: 978-1-138-21884-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-43693-7 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Apex CoVantage, LLC

This research couldnt have been completed without the help of many colleagues and friends, among whom we are particularly grateful to Prof. Kaibao Hu from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. We also would like to thank Prof. Miriam A. Locher for granting Bingjun Yang an opportunity to study at Basel University in Switzerland, which largely facilitated the work on the book. Many thanks also go to Prof. Guowen Huang at Sun Yat-sen University and Prof. Shaoquan Zhang at Southwest University of Political Sciences and Law for their support in many ways.

This research is supported by China Social Science Foundation (Project No.: 15BYY016).

Bingjun Yang (yangbingjun@sjtu.edu.cn)

In 2010, Guangzhou municipal government in South China made a formal proposal to the public that in order to facilitate communication among the participants in the 16th Asian Games, the use of standard Mandarin (Putonghua) in TV channels should be greatly promoted. The proposal triggered heated debates as soon as it was announced. According to a survey published one month earlier, the majority of interviewees were against such an idea, which amounted to 79.5% of the interviewees. The incident reveals a dilemma in language policy: disagreement frequently occurs between language users and policy-makers. What can we do to get out of the dilemma? How can we design language policy with effectiveness and appropriateness? What factors should we take into consideration when arranging language measures? Questions such as these keep emerging when we examine the issue closely.

In recent years, research has prospered in the study of language policy. In China for example, hundreds of journal articles could be found, directly or indirectly dedicated to this thriving field. In places other than China, in Western countries in particular, numerous journal articles, academic papers and monographs have been published to discuss topics related to language policy. However, there are still many problems behind this productivity. First, much of language policy research is carried out in the form of survey and summary, lacking theoretical intervention into the field. Second, scholars often conduct their language policy research from an external perspective, focusing mainly on the examination of social factors involved, which ignores perspectives of linguistic theories. Third, language policy researchers have scarcely paid attention to the implementation process of language policy, and problems which have arisen in this process have also been largely neglected.