A Linguistic Ecological Study Of China’s Cross-border Languages’ Planning In The Core Areas Of The Belt And Road

As both a theoretical and a practical social governance activity,language planning plays an important role in the national strategic development.In the past five years,researchers of linguistics in China have achieved much on the study of various language issues,either at present or in the future,related to the advancement of the Belt and Road Initiative,which shows the initiatives of China’s academia towards our country’s strategic needs in the field of language planning.With focus on the application of languages as resources,the previous studies have paid more attention to the exploitation of Chinese and the construction of foreign languages but less to the indigenous minority languages and their realistic difficulties in China.Nowadays,the construction of the core areas of the Belt and Road(hereafter CABR)has initiated new language situations between China and those neighboring Central Asian countries along the Belt and Road,highlighting the cross-border language phenomena worthy of attention in the minorities’ language life of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China.Cross-border languages bind cross-border ethnic groups together,carries multi-cultural inheritance,and are unique national resources.They would play a series of unique social functions,such as international communication,ethnic identity,economic support,security defense,in China’s development under the Belt and Road Initiative.However,there is lack of some scientific and rational planning for the cross-border languages of CABR in China due to the ignorance of their multiple values,which has led to their failure to play an ideal role in serving and promoting our country’s social development and national strategy.Therefore,under the Belt and Road Initiative,the ecological development of cross-border languages in CABR,together with their extended values,social functions and the roles they would play in the building of the national language capacity to handle relationships with the neighboring countries,have all become new and important language issues in the study of China’s language planning.In this sense,China’s language planning practice will necessarily be facing some new situations and tasks.The present research attempts to probe into the cross-border languages’ planning in CABR.It is of the following theoretical significance and practical values.In terms of theoretical significance,this dissertation takes the study of cross-border languages’ planning in CABR as an example,which would be helpful to promote the discipline construction of language planning with Chinese characteristics in China.In terms of practical values,it will contribute to the protection and development of cross-border languages and cultures in China,the improvement of national language capacity to handle relationships with the neighboring countries and the harmony of regional and national language life.In addition,the practical and long-term strategic significance would also lie in safeguarding national language and culture security,developing the ethnic identity and national identity of the minority groups,expanding the international interests of China in CABR,as well as promoting the national ecological civilization and the sustainable development of our Chinese nation.In the 1990 s,the language planning studies are characterized by "ecological turn".As a new paradigm,linguistic ecology pays attention to the function and status of each language as valuable resource in the language ecosystem,advocates linguistic diversity and multilingual capacity,and focuses on the sustainable development of human civilization.It will be applicable in the enrichment of language planning theory,and be directive in the practice of language planning.Therefore,this dissertation proposes to review the local language phenomena in China,develop the cross-border languages,solve the new language problems and guide China’s current language planning from the perspective of linguistic ecology.It would contribute to face up with the current language ecological crisis closely related with the development of globalization to minority languages,and promote the harmony in both China’s regional and national language life in the multilingual situations.In view of this,this dissertation attempts to study the cross-border languages’ planning in CABR from the ecological perspective of language planning with the reference of theories of language planning and linguistic ecology.It is specifically devoted to the following three research questions.(1)What are the realistic basis of the cross-border languages’ planning in CABR? In other words,what are the ecological situations of the cross-border languages in CABR,such as their social functions and vitality levels at home and abroad?(2)Why do we need cross-border languages’ planning in CABR? That is,what the planning motivations are and how to explain them in a linguistic ecological approach.(3)How would and could the cross-border languages’ planning in CABR be made? That is,guided by the ecological perspective of language planning,try to formulate some feasible strategies for the future.The main findings are summarized as follows:Firstly,as the realistic basis of cross-border languages’ planning in CABR,the ecological situations of cross-border languages in CABR are different at home and abroad,but overall,their social functions and vitality levels in China are generally lower than that in Central Asian countries,demonstrating a deepening "strong abroad but weak at home" trend.(1)The social functions of cross-border languages in CABR are quite different from each other in China,showing the diverse status quo and development trends of their language niches.In the regional context,their key social functions are mainly characterized by provincial language,group language and family language.In the context of various fields,they have different performance in the social functions of international communication,cultural inheritance,ethnic identity,economic support and security defense.What’s more,the above-mentioned key social functions of some languages are gradually declining,with the possibility of their loss of the ecological niches.And the cross-border languages in CABR as the heritage languages of the majority have almost the same social functions in Central Asian countries,showing no significant differences between their language niches.But Russian’s language niches in different Central Asian countries are quite different and lack of stability.In the regional context,their key social functions are mainly characterized by international language,national language and official language.In the context of various fields,their social functions of international communication,cultural inheritance,ethnic identity,economic support and security defense are gradually enhanced,but the main social functions of Russian show certain volatility.(2)The vitality levels of cross-border languages in CABR are different in China,with half of them in severe endangerment.However,the vitality levels of cross-border languages in CABR show a few differences in Central Asian countries,and their overall vitality is better than that of China.Secondly,there are three major motivations for cross-border languages’ planning in CABR: current planning motives,national language ideology and national language planning objectives,which will promote the implementation of cross-border languages’ planning in the future from the aspects of necessity and feasibility.(1)The improved value of cross-border languages in CABR for international communication,together with the insecurity they have encountered and their highlighted function of ethnic identity are three main planning motives.Serving as the direct and explicit driving forces for the cross-border languages’ planning in CABR,the above-mentioned motives are closely related to the natural,political,economic,cultural and linguistic elements between China and Central Asian countries.(2)The orientation of languages as resources,cultural soft power,economical elements and service tools shows the language ideology of our country,and is taken as "language culture" to guide the practice of the cross-border languages’ planning in CABR.Moreover,there is a strong correlation between our country’s language ideology and the international and domestic language ecological environments as well.(3)Enhancing national language capacity,improving individual’s language ability,building harmonious language life,serving the overall social development and national strategic development make up the current language planning goals of China.Playing an important leading role in the formulation and implementation of the cross-border languages’ planning in CABR,China’s language planning goals are characterized by multi-variables and fully reflect the connotation and orientation of China’s language planning based on languages rather than just on languages.Thirdly,the measures of cross-border languages’ planning in CABR mainly include three parts: the establishment of ecological value orientation,the building of goals system and the proposing of main contents.The ecological value orientation and goals system are the main lines and directional guidelines followed in the practical implementation.(1)The ecological value orientation of cross-border languages in CABR is building a languages’ community of shared future characterized by diversity,inclusiveness,harmony and sustainability,aiming to expand their social functions and improve their language niches through the practical use as wide as possible.(2)The goals system of cross-border languages’ planning in CABR is characterized with multidimensions,relevance and comprehensiveness,but ultimately directs to the sustainable development of the Chinese nation in the world ecology.In detail,the planning goals related to language and culture focus on the development of language resources,language ecology and national language capacity in China.And the planning goals driven by socio-ecological environmental factors focus on China’s international strategic plan and the realization of its global interests.(3)Status planning,corpus planning,language-in-education planning and service planning are the main contents of the cross-border languages’ planning in CABR,with the focus on the protection of their diversity respectively from the perspective of social status,linguistic structure,learning and instructing,and social demanding.The overall purpose of the above-mentioned measures leads to the maintenance,promotion and performance of the social functions of the cross-border languages’ planning in CABR.The present research boasts the following three major contributions.Firstly,based on the cross-theoretical perspective of linguistic ecology and language planning,the dissertation discusses the ecological development trend,resource values,social functions,etc.of the cross-border languages in CABR,providing a new perspective to the study of China’s language planning.Secondly,with the guidance of ecological language planning,it puts forward a new type of language planning named "language service planning",which enriches the theory of language planning in China.Thirdly,it reshapes language’s social functions and proposes a new approach on the study of the harmony of language’s instrumental and non-instrumental functions in the field of language planning,by demonstrating the integration of the four social functions of cross-border languages in CABR in the fields of international communication,ethnic identity,economic support and security defense.