The Chinese language, spoken by over one billion people, has undergone drastic changes over the past century. This book presents a comprehensive, up-to-date account of the development of Modern Chinese from the late nineteenth century to the 1990s. It describes and analyzes in detail, from historical and sociolinguistic perspectives, the establishment and promotion of Modern Spoken Chinese and Modern Written Chinese, and the reform of the Chinese script, and reveals the interaction of linguistic, historical and social factors in the recent development of the language.
Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
FREE Two-Day Shipping for Students. Learn more |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
"...Ping Chen's account of the history of standard Chinese is interesting and thought-provoking...a rich, valuable, and important addition to the basic literature in the field of Chinese linguistics. The book will be of great interest both to students who seek an introduction to the nature of Modern Chinese in its sociolinguistic aspects and to specialists who wish to delve further into any of those aspects." Anthropological Linguistics
"Modern Chinese whets our appetite for more and better analysis of language change. Until recently, the study of Chinese sociolinguistics has beed neglected because of politics. Chen's unprecedented attention to sociolinguistics opens up insights on language and social relationships that are just now beginning to be explored." Language in Society
"Modern Chinese whets our appetite for more and better analysis of language change. Until recently, the study of Chinese sociolinguistics has beed neglected because of politics. Chen's unprecedented attention to sociolinguistics opens up insights on language and social relationships that are just now beginning to be explored." Language in Society
Book Description
The Chinese language, spoken by over one billion people, has undergone drastic changes over the past century. This book presents a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the development of Modern Chinese from the late nineteenth century up to the 1990s. It describes and analyses in detail, from historical and sociolinguistic perspectives, the establishment and promotion of Modern Spoken Chinese and Modern Written Chinese, and the reform of the Chinese script, and reveals the interaction of linguistic, historical and social factors in the recent development of the language.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good overview of the history of the language,
By
This review is from: Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics (Paperback)
Chen does an excellent job of tracking the development of Modern Chinese not only in the mainland - where language policy reform, character simplification, and drives to increase national literacy rates make for interesting reading - but also in Taiwan, Singapore and overseas Chinese-speaking communities. The author is clear and thorough in his analysis of dialects as well as Standard Mandarin, and disparate influences (such as Japan) are discussed in detail. While I am happy to see that the book uses proper pinyin romanization for Chinese terms, the only improvement I could suggest would be to include the hanzi (character) equivalent as well to assist second-language learners of Chinese. A good resource for both linguists and students of the language.
Nathan Dummitt author of Chinese Through Tone & Color
11 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
History of Modern Chinese,
By
This review is from: Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics (Paperback)
Those interested in the history and development of modern Chinese will find this a must read. It covers the written and spoken language and has some interesting, little known points, such as the influence of Japanese on modern Chinese and the liberal policies of Beijing towards dialects. He also talks about Taiwan and Singapore and the status of the various Chinese "languages". Reading this book you realize what a modern language Putonghua or Guoyu is in many ways. Informative yet easy to read this belongs on the bookshelf of any serious Chinese student. I hope Chen Ping is working on a follow up devoted to the spoken language and it's varieties.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
Chinese is the native language of approximately a billion people distributed over vast geographical areas of the world. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
language planning institutions, latinxua sin wenz, national pronunciation, phonographic writing system, lexical norms, distinct writing systems, phonetic determinatives, phonographic system, dialectal base, semantic determinatives, script reform, other dialect areas, homophonous morphemes, standard writing system, traditional writing system, dialect writing, simplified characters, standard written language, literary pronunciation, phonetic scheme, base dialect, logographic writing system, grammatical norms, dental sibilants, simplified script Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Northern Mandarin, Southern Min, Hong Kong, Ministry of Education, Second Scheme, National Language Movement, Qian Xuantong, Medieval Chinese, Modern Spoken Chinese, New Culture Movement, National Conference, People's Republic of China, Eastern Han, State Language Commission, Chao Yuen Ren, Opium War, Southern Song, Wang Zhao, Chen Duxiu, Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong, Soviet Union, Taiwan Mandarin, Yellow River, Zhou Youguang New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Chinese is the native language of approximately a billion people distributed over vast geographical areas of the world. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
language planning institutions, latinxua sin wenz, national pronunciation, phonographic writing system, lexical norms, distinct writing systems, phonetic determinatives, phonographic system, dialectal base, semantic determinatives, script reform, other dialect areas, homophonous morphemes, standard writing system, traditional writing system, dialect writing, simplified characters, standard written language, literary pronunciation, phonetic scheme, base dialect, logographic writing system, grammatical norms, dental sibilants, simplified script Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Northern Mandarin, Southern Min, Hong Kong, Ministry of Education, Second Scheme, National Language Movement, Qian Xuantong, Medieval Chinese, Modern Spoken Chinese, New Culture Movement, National Conference, People's Republic of China, Eastern Han, State Language Commission, Chao Yuen Ren, Opium War, Southern Song, Wang Zhao, Chen Duxiu, Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong, Soviet Union, Taiwan Mandarin, Yellow River, Zhou Youguang New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 2
books:
7
books
cite this book:
See all 7 books citing this book
- Writing in Focus (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs) by Florian Coulmas in Back Matter
- The Middle Kingdom: A Survey of the Geography, Government, Literature, Social Life, Arts, and History of the Chinese Empire and Its Inhabi by S. Wells Williams in Back Matter
- Personal Liberty and Public Good: The Introduction of John Stuart Mill to Japan and China by Douglas Howland in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics) by Henry Rogers in Back Matter
- Language, Education, and Ideology: Mapping the Linguistic Landscape of U.S. Schools by Timothy Reagan on page 54
- Multilingualism in China: The Politics of Writing Reforms for Minority Languages, 1949-2002 (Contributions to the Society of Language, 89) by Minglang Zhou in Back Matter
- Language Change in East Asia by T. E. McAuley on page 203
See all 7 books citing this book
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
So You'd Like to...
|
|
