status, demographic, and institutional support to be combined into one general category which they call “ethnolinguistic vitality.” According to Giles et al. (1977:
308), high ethnolinguistic vitality will lead minority language to maintenance or even towards extended use, and low vitality will result in shift towards the majority or more prestigious language.
In the following discussion, the vitality model proposed by Giles et al. (1977) will be dealt with.35
The status factor can be divided into four types.
1. Economic status: if a group of minority language speakers possess low economic status, it is highly likely that they would shift towards the use of the majority language.
2. Social status: social status refers to a group’s self-esteem and is intertwined with economic status. Those who consider themselves to Figure 2-2: Schema Representing the Formation of Attitudes
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have lower social status tend to shift towards using languages with higher social status.
3. Sociohistorical status: this concept is regarded as a mobilizing symbol that inspires individual speakers to defend their memberships as an ethnolinguistic group.
4. Language status: this concept is determined by its exchange value and is closely associated with social status.
The demographic factor puts emphasis on the number of members of a linguistic group and their geographical distribution. The absolute number of speakers is undoubtedly important to the vitality and survival of a language. Furthermore, if the speakers could concentrate in one particular area, the minority ethnolinguistic group might have better chances of maintaining their language.
The third factor formulated by Giles et al. (1977) is institutional support. It refers to the extent to which the language of a minority group is represented in the various institutions of a nation, a region or a community. Mass media plays an important role in language maintenance. TV and radio programs that use minority languages help boost these languages, and so do newspapers and books. Besides, mother tongue services provided by governmental sectors increase the usefulness of minority languages. Most important of all, language education should be formally introduced at schools.
Although the aforementioned factors and sub-factors are discussed separately, they have strong correlations with one another. As Figure 2-3 shows, all the factors should be taken as a whole to be able to fully explain the phenomenon of language maintenance.
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resultant contraction in actual numbers of speakers of a given language which results when the language is no longer used as a language of child-raising or intergenerational transmission.37 Language shift, a progressive process, could also be defined as the shift by a group of speakers toward another language, while abandoning the native language.38The notion of “shift” here thus means the redistribution of languages over different linguistic domains. When the majority language is spoken in more domains, its value increases and thus has more opportunities to thrive; on the other hand, when the minority language is spoken in fewer domains, its value decreases and would be left in a disadvantaged position. Language shift might come about at a slow pace, but it might carry on for several generations.39
Language shift generally involves bilingualism (often with diglossia) that is usually argued as the transitional stage to eventual monolingualism in a new language.
When a speech community, once monolingual, is in contact with another language
36 This figure shows three major factors (need to be considered as a whole) affecting language maintenance, and is made by the author of the thesis.
37 For more details, please refer to
http://www.sgrud.org.uk/anfy/celtic/aberystwyth/reversing_language_shift.htm
38 Stewart, Thomas W. Jr., and Nathan Vaillette (ed.). 2001. Language Files: Materials for an Introduction to Language and Linguistics. Taipei: Bookman Books, Ltd, p. 353.
39 Appel, Rene, and Pieter Muysken. 1987. Language Contact and Bilingualism. New York: Routledge, p.41.
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group with better socio-economic backgrounds, the speakers gradually become bilingual until their own language is given up altogether.40
Factors that are strong predictors for language shift include a literary-cultural value that would maintain the prestige of the minority group’s native language, the function of each language in social advancement, and the relative usefulness of each language (Hasson 2005: 982).
It is widely agreed that language maintenance and shift are the long-term and collective consequences of consistent patterns of language choice.41 These two phenomena could happen with intentional involvement from the society. It is evident that as long as each language in a bilingual community retains a specific function, native language maintenance will continue; if the dominant language displaces the native language, there will be language shift (Hasson 2005: 982).
40 Romaine, Suzanne. 2000. Language in Society: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. New York:
Oxford University Press, p. 51.
41 Fasold, R. W. 1984. The Sociolinguistics of Society. New York: Blackwell, p. 239.
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approximately 36,000 square kilometers (13,900 square miles), making it slightly smaller than the Netherlands.42 Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, and close to the southeastern coast of mainland China. Although relatively small and not rich in natural resources, Taiwan has always been a destination of immigrations and a coveted island for military and economic purposes due to its strategic location.Frequent transitions of ruling regimes have further diversified the ethnic structure and complicated ethnic relations. As a consequence, linguistic struggles have always been a common phenomenon throughout the history of Taiwan.
Table 3-1: Relation between Language and Political Status in Taiwan43 Period Political
43 Adapted from: Chiung, W.T. 2002. Language, literacy and power: a comparative study of Taiwan and Vietnam. Paper presented at the 8th Annual North American Taiwan Studies Conference, University of Chicago, June 27-30, 2002, as well as at the International Conference on Language and Empowerment, Kuala Lumpur, April 11-13, 2002, p. 15.
44 Hunting and gathering society in terms of economic activities.
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regimes, and thus the major spoken languages and writing systems have also been on a constant change.The following sections will further discuss the ethnolinguistic settings, different language varieties, and the evolutions of spoken and written languages of Taiwan.
Section 3.1 elaborates different ethnolinguistic groups; section 3.2 introduces the diverse language varieties; section 3.3 and 3.4 expound the evolutions of spoken and written languages of Taiwan.