Abstract
This paper presents data from a quantitative survey based on 746 written questionnaires and 23 semi-structured interviews. The main purpose of the study was to measure Southern Min and Mandarin lower domain language use among a cross-section of Taiwan’s multilingual population. As organizing elements for our discussion of Taiwan’s current language situation, we made use of Sridhar’s notion of societal multilingualism as well as Ó Riagáin’s idea that the home is possibly the first domain to exhibit language shift. This study followed Ó Riagáin by focusing our research on lower domain language use as well as relevant political determinants. We investigated whether Southern Min speakers tend to prefer a Taiwanese rather than Chinese identity, and whether the Taiwanese link their language choice to age, gender, and region of origin. Political improvements in Taiwan for the past two decades did enable the Taiwanese to compete with the Mainlanders who moved to Taiwan and they now have a stronger case to promote the status of Southern Min and maintain it. Evidence of language shift was discovered: proficiency in Mandarin by the Taiwanese is increasing, while that in Southern Min is decreasing. It is predicted that this language shift will continue, but that the attitudes held by Taiwanese toward their ethnic identity might slow down such a process considerably.
References
Appel, René & Pieter Muysken. 2005. Language contact and bilingualism. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.10.5117/9789053568576Search in Google Scholar
Beaser, Deborah 2006. The outlook for Taiwanese language preservation. Sino-Platonic Papers 172. http://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp172_taiwanese_language.pdf (accessed 30 September 2014)Search in Google Scholar
Census Bureau, Republic of China (Taiwan). 2000. National statistics Republic of China (Taiwan). http://eng.stat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=8465&ctNode=1629 (accessed 28 September 2014)Search in Google Scholar
Chambers, Jack K. 2003. Sociolinguistic theory. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.Search in Google Scholar
Chan, Hui-chen. 1994. Language shift in Taiwan: Social and political determinants. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University PhD dissertation. www.multilingualmatters.net/ jmmd/022/0502/ jmmd0220502.pdf (accessed 8 December 2014)Search in Google Scholar
Chen, Su-chiao 2003. The spread of English in Taiwan: Changing uses and shifting attitudes. Taipei: Crane Publishing Co., Ltd.Search in Google Scholar
Chen, Su-chiao. 2009. The growth and decline of Taiwan Mandarin and Taiwanese: A case study of language ability of middle-aged people in Nantou. Journal of Kaoshiung Normal University 26. 65−80.Search in Google Scholar
Cheng, Robert L. 1979. Language unification in Taiwan: Present and future. In Murray A. Rubenstein (ed.), The other Taiwan: 1945 to the present, 557−591. New York: M.E. Sharpe.10.1515/9783110806489.541Search in Google Scholar
Cheshire, Jenny. 2002. Sex and gender in variationist research. In Jack Chambers, Natalie Schilling-Estes & Peter Trudgill (ed.), The handbook of language variation and change, 423−443. Oxford: Blackwell.10.1111/b.9781405116923.2003.00024.xSearch in Google Scholar
China Post. 2006. Taiwan parents want English as second official language. China Post, 12 January. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2006/01/12/75184/ Taiwan-parents.htm (accessed 28 August 2014).Search in Google Scholar
Corcuff, Stéphane. 2002. Taiwan’s ‘Mainlanders,’ New Taiwanese? In Stéphane Corcuff (ed.), Memories of the future: National identity issues and the search for a New Taiwan, 163−195. New York: M. E. Sharpe.Search in Google Scholar
Corcuff, Stéphane. 2011. Liminality and Taiwan tropism in a postcolonial context: Schemes of national identification among Taiwan’s ‘Mainlanders’ on the eve of Kuomintang’s return to power. In Tak-Wing Ngo & Hong-zen Wang (ed.), Politics of difference in Taiwan, 34−63. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Coupland, Justine, Nicolas Coupland, Howard Giles & Karen Henwood. 1991. Formulating age: Dimensions of age identity in elderly talk. Discourse processes 14. 87–106.10.1080/01638539109544776Search in Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. 1997. Gender and sociolinguistic variation. In Jennifer Coates (ed.), Readings in language and gender, 153−176. Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. 1998. Gender, social engagement, and linguistic style. In Inge-Lise Pedersen & Jann Scheuer (ed.), Sprog og kommunikation: Rapport fra 3. Nordiske konference om Sproeg og koen [Languages and communication: Report from the 3rd Nordic conference], Copenhagen, 11−13 October 1997. Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzels Forlag.Search in Google Scholar
Eisikovits, Edina. 1998. Girl-talk/boy-talk: Sex differences in adolescent speech. In Jennifer Coates (ed.), Language and gender: A reader, 42–54. Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Fan, Ya-wen. 2013. Gender influences on the use of Mandarin varieties in Taiwan. Taipei: Fu Jen Catholic University MA thesis. http://dscholarship.pitt.edu/ 18484/1/fanyw_etd2013_1.pdf (accessed 10 October 2014).Search in Google Scholar
Fasold, Ralph. 1984. The sociolinguistics of society. Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua. 1964. Language maintenance and language shift as fields of inquiry. Journal of Linguistics 9. 32−70.Search in Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua. 1972. Language in sociocultural change. In Anwar S. Dill (ed.). Essays by Joshua A. Fishman, 376. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua. 1991. Reversing language shift. Multilingual Matters. Clevedon.Search in Google Scholar
Friedman, Kerim. 2005. Learning “local” languages: Passive revolution, language markets, and Aborigine education in Taiwan. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University PhD dissertation. http://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/ 10524/1516/Learning_Local_Languages.pdf?sequence=1 (accessed 17 December 2014).Search in Google Scholar
Gates, Hill. 1981. The anthropology of Taiwanese society. In Emily Martin Ahern & Hill Gates (ed.), Ethnicity and social class, 241−281. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Giles, Howard, Kim Noels & Hiroshi Ota. 2000. Age vitality across eleven nations. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 21. 308–323.10.1080/01434630008666407Search in Google Scholar
Hamers, J. F. & Blanc, M. 2000. Bilinguality and Bilingualism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511605796Search in Google Scholar
Holms, Janet. 1992. An introduction to sociolinguistics. London: Longman.Search in Google Scholar
Hsiau, A-chin. 1997. Language ideology in Taiwan: The KMT’s language policy, the Tai-Yu language movement and ethnic politics. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 18. 302−315.10.1080/01434639708666322Search in Google Scholar
Huang, Shuanfang. 1988. A sociolinguistic profile of Taipei (1). In Robert Cheng & Shuanfang Huang (eds.), The structure of Minnanyu: A modern synthesis. 301−335. Taipei: Crane.Search in Google Scholar
Huang, Shuanfang. 1994. Yuyan, shehui yu zuqunyishi: Taiwan yuyan shehuixue di yan jiu [Language, society and ethnic ideology: A survey of sociolinguistic studies in Taiwan]. Taipei: Crane.Search in Google Scholar
Huang, Li-Li, James H. Liu & Maanling Chang. 2004. The double identity of Taiwanese Chinese: A dilemma of politics and culture rooted in history. Asian Journal of Social Psychology 7(2). 149−168.10.1111/j.1467-839x.2004.00141.xSearch in Google Scholar
Humphreys, Lloyd H. 1979. La langue Galloise: Une présentation, 2Vols. (Studi 13−14). Brest: Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Faculté des Lettres de Brest.Search in Google Scholar
Hyltenstam, Kenneth, Christopher Stroud & Mikael Svonni. 1999. Language shift, language maintenance and revitalization: The position of Sámi in Swedish Sámiland. In Kenneth Hyltenstam (ed.), Sveriges sju inhemska språk: Ett minoritetsspråsk perspecktive [Sweden’s seven indigenous languages – A minority perspective], 49−97. Lund: Student Literature.Search in Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1966. The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. (Second Edition, 2006, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Search in Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1972. Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Search in Google Scholar
Labov, William. 2001. Principles of linguistic change. Vol. 2: Social factors. Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Liang, Chung-Hui, Todd Sandel & Wen-Yu Chao. 2006. Language shift and language accommodation across family generations in Taiwan. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 27(2). 126−147.10.1080/01434630608668544Search in Google Scholar
Liao, Sze-Wei. 2010. Identity, ideology, and language variation: A sociolinguistic study of Mandarin in central Taiwan. Davis: CA: University of California Davis PhD dissertation. http://linguistics.ucdavis.edu/pics, and http://www.pdfs/DissertationLiao.pdf (accessed 8 January 2015).Search in Google Scholar
Liu, Meihui & Li-Ching Hung. 2002. Identity issues in Taiwan’s history curriculum. International Journal of Educational Research 37. 567–586.10.1016/S0883-0355(03)00051-XSearch in Google Scholar
Liu, Yu-Chang, Johan Gijsen & Chung-Yin Tsai 2013. An empirical evaluation of ethnolinguistic vitality and language loss: The case of Southern Min in Taiwan. Folia Linguistica 47(2). 425–447. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.10.1515/flin.2013.016Search in Google Scholar
Milroy, James. 1981. Regional accents of English. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.Search in Google Scholar
Ó Gliasáin, Michael. 1990. Language shift among schoolchildren in Gaeltacht areas 1974–1984. Dublin: Institiuid Teangeolaiochta Eireann.Search in Google Scholar
Ó Riagáin, Padraig. 1997. Language policy and social reproduction: Ireland 1893–1993. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Pandit, Prabodh Bechardas. 1972. India as a Sociolinguistic Area. Poona: University of Poona Press.Search in Google Scholar
Parasher, Nivedita 1980. Mother tongue English diglossia: A case study of educated Indian bilinguals’ language use. Anthropological Linguistics 22(4). 151–168.Search in Google Scholar
Sandel, Todd 2003. Linguistic capital in Taiwan: The KMT’s Mandarin language policy and its perceived impact on language practices of bilingual Mandarin and Tai-Gi speakers. Language in Society 32(4). 523–551.10.1017/S0047404503324030Search in Google Scholar
Sridhar, Kamal. 1996. Societal multilingualism. In Sandra McKay & Nancy Hornberger (ed.), Sociolinguistics and language teaching, 47–70. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511551185.005Search in Google Scholar
Su, Ya-Chen. 2006. Political ideology and Taiwanese school curricula. Asia Pacific Education Review 7(1). 41–50.10.1007/BF03036783Search in Google Scholar
Su, Ya-Chen. 2007. Ideological representations of Taiwan’s history: An analysis of elementary social studies textbook, 1978–1995. Curriculum Inquiry 37(3). 205–237.10.1111/j.1467-873X.2007.00383.xSearch in Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. 1974. The social differentiation of English in Norwich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Tsao, Feng-Fu. 1999. Ethnic language policies: A comparison across the Taiwan Strait. Taipei: Crane.Search in Google Scholar
Tsao, Feng-Fu. 2008. The language planning situation in Taiwan. In Robert Kaplan & Richard Baldauf (eds.), Language planning and policy in Asia. Vol. 1: Japan, Nepal, Taiwan and Chinese characters, 237–285. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781847690968-007Search in Google Scholar
Tse, John Kwok-ping. 1986. Standardization of Chinese in Taiwan. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 59. 25–32.10.1515/ijsl.1986.59.25Search in Google Scholar
Van den Berg, Martinus. 1988. Long-term accommodation of (ethno)linguistic groups toward a societal language norm. Language and Communication 8 (4). 251–269.10.1016/0271-5309(88)90021-3Search in Google Scholar
Van den Berg, Martinus. 1992. Ethnolinguistic identities and accommodation across generations in Taiwan. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 3(1). 145–164.Search in Google Scholar
Wang, Fu-Chang. 2005. Yiu zhongguoshenji dao taiwanzuqun: hukoupucha jibie leishu zhuanbien zhi fenci [From Chinese original domicile to Taiwanese ethnicity: An analysis of census category transformation in Taiwan]. Taiwanese Sociology 9. 59–117.Search in Google Scholar
Wei, Jennifer M. 2008. Language choice and identity politics in Taiwan. Maryland: Lexington Books.Search in Google Scholar
White, Benjamin. 2013. English language policy for elementary schools in Taiwan: What parents think. Philippine ESL Journal 11. 25–47.Search in Google Scholar
Williams, Ann & Paul Kerswill. 1999. Dialect leveling: Change and continuity in Milton Keynes, Reading and Hull. In Paul Foulkes & Gerard Docherty (ed.), Urban Voices, 141–162. London: Arnold.Search in Google Scholar
Xue, Huayuan, Baocun Dai & Mei-li Chow. 2005. Is Taiwan Chinese?A history of Taiwanese nationality. Hsinpei, Taiwan: Taiwan Advocates.Search in Google Scholar
Yeh, Hsi-Nan, Hui-Chen, Chan & Yu-Chow Cheng. 2004. Language use in Taiwan: Language proficiency and domain analysis. Journal of Taiwan Normal University: Humanities and Social Sciences 49(1). 75–108.Search in Google Scholar
Young, Russell L. 1988. Language maintenance and language shift in Taiwan. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 9(4). 323–338.10.1080/01434632.1988.9994340Search in Google Scholar
©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton