语言与社会身份(989)

1、语言与社会身份一个人的语言与其在社会屮的身份其实密不可分。记得我在澳大利亚生活 时，一位邻居要竞选议员，他便每天早上起來练习发咅，以令口己的讲话让人听 起来悦耳、有身份。的确，语言是一个人社会身份的标志，特别是在多民族、多元文化的社会里。 所谓“身份”，也是一种知识结构，表明你来口那个社会群体的文化背景、知识 程度其至地理位置等。语言会影响对于相应文化的认知。例如，有人调查发现，对于讲双语的中国 人，在用屮文问到其关于文化观念等问题吋，他们的回答显然比用英文问他们此 类问题时显示出更多的中国人的做派。有意思的是，当讲广东话的港澳人被用普 通话问到关于中国的文化、信仰等问题时，他们的回答往往比听

2、到用广东话问到 此类问题时的回答更接近西方人的表达方式。其实，对于学习外语的华人來讲，大部分的还不是真止意义上的所谓“双语 人”，而是“双语使用者”；后者是在语言与表达层次，而前者则是思维与生活 习性。但是，这个过程并不是静止的，而是可以转换的。所以，语言学习者所学习的实际上是一种社会关系，一种他所理解的跨越时 空所形成的关系。因而，他所而对的不仅仅是语言学的，而更是多重、变换着的 社会身份问题。研究还表明，一个人的讲话风格并非是固定不变的，而是随着社会环境和讲 话对象而变化的。i般來讲，个人讲话有一种趋同的倾时（即随大流），但冇时 也会有趋异倾向（即显示自己的特征）。譬如，我回到北京时，我的

3、“北京腔” 自觉就浓了很多；而我的英国朋友在澳大利亚时，其“英国腔”保持得更为明显, 不知是否有意显岀其身份。人们在适应异国文化的过程中，对丁自己母语的态度，也会有积极或消极两 种选择。有的人，在积极投入其他主流文化的同时，有意消弱自c的母语能力； 有的人，反而更加强、突岀了这方面，认为是一种优势。一般来讲，若某一社会群体所讲、所用的语言是为社会所尊敬的那一种（如 在英国，以女王为代表的贵族所讲的语言），会有更高的社会优越感，而其成员 也会有意显示出与众不同，以保持其正面的群体特性。当然，也难免会有他人向 这一群体的讲话方式靠拢。一个人的语言，还可成为他人对其进行评判的对象。据研究，可以从中判

4、断 出其社会地位、教育程度、善良与否、智力、能力其至财富等。可见，语言对个人z意义。如果说服装是人的形体修饰，那么语言便是人的 综合价值的外在体现。所以，语言就不应当被视为仅仅是一种工具，而应是i种 素质。language and social statusan inseparable relation exists between a man" s language and his social status. when i was living in australia, a neighbor, standing for pariiament, worked on pronunc

5、iation every morning to make himself sound sweet and dignity.language is, indeed, a label of one person s social identity, especially in a society with multi-nationalities and multi-cultures. the so-called social status, also a knowledge structure, is a symptom of cultural background, knowledge degr

6、ee and geographic position in the society you come from.the corresponding cog nition in culture is influcn cod by lan guagc. for example, a survey shows that when asked about cultural conception and other questions in chinese, a bilingual chinese person is more prone to act in a st ere otype of chin

7、ese t han asked in english. interestingly, whe n a man of hong kong or macao speakin百 cantonese is asked about chinese culture, belief emd somcthing like this in putonghua，compared with being queried in cantonese their answers are more similar to the expression way of westerners.actual 1y, most of c

8、hinese people who are learning foreign language are not literally bilingual person” but "the user of two languagesv ; the latter one is in a verbal and expressive level, while the former one emphasizes thinking and living habits. this process, however, is convertible instead of being static.hen

9、ce, what a language learnet studies actually, is a social relati on ship, which is shaped by hi s understanding t hrough t ime and space. consequently, the problem confronting him involves not just linguistics but multiple and changeable social statusthe survey also indicates that the speaking style

10、 of one person is not fixed but changes with the different social environment and people whom he or she speaks to. general ly, in di vi dual speak ing shows a tendency to convergence (namcly follows the majority), but it is somctimes inclined to divergence (unfold his or her individuality). for inst

11、ance, my beijing accent is naturally stronger when i return to beijing; while an english friend of mine in australia, speaks english with a clear british accent. t wonder if he intentionally memifests his status by doing so.people" s attitude to mother tongue, during the course of exotic cultur

12、e adaptation, has two choices, one is positive and the other is negative. some actively pitch into other mainstream cultures, andsimultaneously weaken their capacity in mother tonguc on purpose. while regarding native language as an advantage, some people strengthen and make it stand out.generally s

13、peaking, if a 1anguage spoken by a ceriain social group is one respectable in society (e. g. language used by nobles in britain, taking the queen as a representativc). this kind of language will enjoy a higher social position. its users wi 11 be disposed to demonstrate their distinction to maintain

14、the positive character of group. it is hard to avoid, of course, other people imitating the speaking style of this group.furthermore, one person al so can be judged on his or her language- according to the research, somconc，s language reflccts his or her social status, educational level, kindness or not, intelligence, ability, even wealth.it，s thus evide nt t hat lan guage is of impor