“Chinese Character— Chinese Language”——the Regional Linguistic System:Developing Process and Current Situation

Zhang Lü

(School of Foreign Languages Agricultural University of Hunan，Changsha Hunan 410128)

Ⅰ.The inheritance pattern of the regional culture of the Chinese language

All types of languages have experienced the three periods of founding pragmatics，inheriting critical interpretation of ancient texts and classical culture when being passed down from generation to generation，during which the language system of words to language has been gradually integrated into the social civilization modality of a certain region.Chinese character is the only one of its kind that retains the critical interpretation of ancient texts by phonetic transcription of letters，which breaks the narrow stipulation of the critical interpretation of ancient texts，gives the status of ontology to Chinese language and helps to study the interdependence of Chinese lan-guage in the regional culture.

The linguistic development outlook of Chinese character to Chinese language reflects a language mode which is widely accepted in Chinese society.A specific language“sample”has gradually formed，offering important grounds for the linguistic demarcation of Chinese language.But the problem is that the development of modern culture has led to people’s ignorance of the fundamental“sample”，thus neglecting the cultural background of pragmatic mechanism.The analysis of Chinese language shows us the language heritage of certain cultural aim attained by individuals in certain context by means of the integrated cognition of linguistic culture，thus forming a new“cultural mode”of language，promoting the constant updating of linguistic civilization，and maintaining the inner motivation and contextual attribution of human language.Chinese character has become most important carrier of Chinese culture since it has become the written sign of Chinese language.China，as a major contributor of ancient classics，takes the lead in the world in both quantity and quality of works，which helps to attain great achievements of Chinese culture among its kind.

It is the inner structure that supports the lasting prosperity of the Chinese character— Chinese language system.Chinese character is composed of character pattern，pronunciation and meaning，with ideographical expression as its major function.Despite major changes in the historical evolution of Chinese language as well as the different dialects in north and south，people can still understand the meaning by reading the texts.It is universally accepted in the academic circle that the new public language education and the modern context constitute the whole system of pragmatics.The“civil”character of public provides a mass basis for the identification of language capability.The realistic contexts of nature，society，science and industry also show the detailed differentiation routes of contexts.As a result，people of different generations can share written characters and those in different places can communicate by means of characters.Despite the fact that different nationalities have different languages，Chinese character，in its written form，has always been respected and deemed as the common cultural carrier.Various accents have been considered the unified Chinese language in more than 1，000 years after the Tang Dynasty.The 300-year governance of Manchu witnessed the historical transformation period from ancient Chinese to modern Chinese as well as the prime time of Chinese culture when classical Chinese and the written form of modern Chinese prevailed with the typical example of Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature and the Dream of Red Mansion.

Ⅱ.Unity and differentiation:regionalization and integration of the modern Chinese language

Chinese language continues its miracle a“regional language”of culture.As present，Chinese language regions include China(including Hong Kong，Macao and Taiwan)，Singapore，Malaysia，Indonesian，Thailand，Vietnam，Cambodia，Burma and Chinese communities all over the world.There is no doubt that Chinese language is an abundant system of culture and context.In the pluralistic integration of context，the language motivation and behavior of any individual should be fulfilled for the sake of creating best contextual effect.The“motivation-context”property of language includes the whole contextual construction of culture，nationality and nation more than just language itself.It has to be admitted that Chinese language，with its educational system featuring practicality，operability and popularity in the diversified context，has started to build a motivation and viable model.It is because of the inherent fighting spirit and inexhaustible wisdom of Chinese language instead of some sort of magic power or powerful gunboats that it can survive a long history of over thousands of years and be widely spread among many nationalities with different language families.

Humans have experienced three stages of primitive pragmatic hypothesis of states and regions，the feudal pragmatic hypothesis of ethnicity etiquette and custom and modern pragmatic hypothesis of global civilization in the formation process of national language over thousands of years.This may be the common course of the formation of all nations around the world，among which the model of“one nationality，one language and one country”or“one nationality，various languages and one country”is the basic process of the establishment of the model of mass language.The integration of character pattern，pronunciation and meaning of Chinese character contributes to the unification of character and language.

The unified character has not only maintained the unified written language and unified national culture，but also formed the Pacific Chinese character cultural circle.British anthropologist Malinowski proposed“cultural context”and“situational context”in the 1920s.He pointed out that“cultural context”could be referred to as thinking system and in the narrow sense，it is the linguistic situation of language and culture traditions，including objects，texts，theories and customs and other fruits of language.“Situational context”aims at the semantics on site or the restoration of semantics on site，which conforms to the identity of various subjective and objective factors in Malinowski’s view.And we call it the world outlook of language of“Chinese language dream”，which is unique in the whole world.All the above indicates that Chinese character is indeed a priceless treasure in Chinese culture.

Ⅲ.History and reality:the regional linguistic system of the Chinese language

Linguistic civilization orientation is a necessity for all eras，with which the motivation，viable model and pragmatic hypothesis of the language can be formed.“Chinese character— Chinese language”takes on different cultures in different regions，embodying the integration of language and civilization.As a result，in order to analyze linguistics，it is necessary for us to compare the Chinese language at home and abroad，and it is the linguistic construction based on the public.The modern Chinese language inherits the cultural connotation of the Chinese linguistics and answers the regional hypothesis and establishes the new linguistic system for the Chinese language in different regions.

It is known that Chinese character，as the combination of language and thinking pattern，has its own system，which is plainly referred to as“thought”.However，we deem that it is unnecessary to combine language with certain thought.Therefore，establishing a language model is similar to the process of“reproducing”certain situation.Or.We can say that the linguistic behavior is a creative job for each individual.Chinese language is faced with the confusion of the restoration of critical interpretation of ancient texts in the modern broadcast of the language after 3，000-year development.The model of Chinese character to Chinese language has established the linguistic outlook with the characteristics of Chinese historical materialism.Semantics in terms of context refers to，to put it in a simple way，two basic concepts proposed in the old grammar system，namely diachronic semantics and synchronic semantic.The former can be manifested in the system of context construction with the principal line of Chinese history.By integrating Chinese character and local language，the model of synchronic semantic will become evident，thus establishing the text system of historical understanding and the basic model of significance interpretation.

At present，the critical interpretation of ancient texts in Chinese character —Chinese language also system concerns the cultural belonging of people in Taiwan and mainland China，Chinese people in southeast Asia and all round the world.With the rapid development of China’s economy and increasingly frequent contacts between Chinese people home and abroad，it will be extremely beneficial to the communication of all Chinese people，to the cultural heritage and to the economic growth on condition that the goal of“writing the same Chinese character”is in active pursuit.The improvement of economic strength of mainland China has helped it to open the broadest market to the whole world and promote the world economy and tourism.The wave of teaching and learning Chinese character has swept through many countries.Great efforts should be made to make it convenient for international friends to learn Chinese language with its peculiar character.Diversified text books need to be published，various teaching methods need to be experimented，and large quantity of foreign and domestic Chinese language teachers need to be trained to meet the demand of people of different countries，careers and ages.It deserves our further study as to the subject of different features from other languages resulted from the relation between Chinese language and Chinese character and how to arouse learners’attention in textbooks and teaching methodology.

The rapid development of modernization，informatization，digitization and network has also brought the profound change of society，economy and culture，which might be beyond our present imagination.The application of language is closely linked with all levels of society.It is difficult to predict what will become of the interpersonal communication and human-computer dialogue among different nationalities and countries in the next 50 years or 100 years.All cultural phenomena need correspondent evolution with the change of times and social progress.Personally，Chinese character will once again embrace a new reform.Currently，the deconstruction of classical works by mass language via modern media has incurred critics in the academic circle in that the restoration process is only limited to pragmatic motivation of“time，place，situation，topic，identity and status”and contextual restoration of“phycology，culture，propose，manner and content”.Cultural context and situational context have their own interpretation system and many modern media have failed to construct the viable model，particularly the mass media which neglects the precondition of the viable model of modern people，thus being unable to establish the behavior of mass pragmatics.It is a problem of transformation and generation which requires that behavior should be standardized and culture elevated on the premise of perfect joint.Only in this way can we nurture a new culture of Chinese mass.

Apparently，the distribution system home and abroad and historical basis of Chinese character regions are faced up with new historical proposition.According to the development concept and realistic view of“Chinese character— Chineselanguage”，all culture and civilization evolve in the mechanism of whole language.The essence of“Chinese character— Chinese language”system is the identity of mass property，therefore，the strong cohesion value of Chinese language lies in the premise of globalization and popularization.

Notes:

〔1〕费孝通:《中华民族的多元一体格局》，《北京大学学报(哲学社会科学版)》1989年第4期。

〔2〕潘文国:《语言对比研究的哲学基础—— 语言世界观问题的重新考察》，《华东师范大学学报(哲学社会科学版)》1995年第5期。