A Study Of The Spread Of English In China During The Late Qing Dynasty

English,with the spread all over the world,has become the international lingua franca today.English also has its own place in China,while the status is not formed overnight,but comes from time-honored history.Language is the carrier of culture,and cultural exchanges inevitably bring about language contact.The social unrest and large arriving of Westerners in the late Qing Dynasty caused the prevalence of Western learning.English began to spread widely in China after the outbreak of the Opium War.Accordingly,the late Qing Dynasty can be regarded as the initial period of English’s large-scale spread in China.Relative Studies on English spread of the late Qing Dynasty usually focus on education and Western learning.Although there are some articles of the contact between Chinese and English,the studies at present are fragmentary,lack of systematic analysis as well.Accordingly,this study takes the late Qing Dynasty as the background,analyzes the situation and effect of English spread through path,motivation,influence,and laws with the help of relevant theories and methods,such as theories of Linguistic,History and so on based on the arrangement of “historical materials” and “basic data”,in terms to build a research model for the study of language spread.The specific research questions are as follows:1.What was the path of the English spread in China during the late Qing Dynasty? What kind of language spread mechanism does it embody?2.Under the social background at that time,how did this language spread mechanism came into being? What is the result?3.What general language spread laws did the study reveal? How the laws inspire and warns the current language policy and planning in China?The spread of language is social,the study of a certain language spread period needs to be adopted in an interdisciplinary perspective hence.Based on the theoretical framework of Cooper’s language spread variables,Quark’s language spread pattern and language selectionism,the paper constructs a language spread research model composed of path,motivation,influence,and law,and makes a full discussion on the spread of English in China during the late Qing Dynasty.Through literature review,the author sort out numerous materials(including memorials,local chronicles and newspapers published at that time),modern works(including the works of those who experienced the English spread during the late Qing Dynasty),and contemporary works(including journal papers,monographs,etc.)related to English spread during the late Qing Dynasty.With the method of qualitative interpretation of literature,the paper extract relevant data and information from historical references for mutual support as well as statistics and analysis.The findings are as follows:First,influenced by the historical background of the late Qing Dynasty,the spread of English in Chinese society at that time was mainly dominated by the Westerners in China and the Westernization Group of the late Qing government.Among them,the Westerners in China refer to “the group of British and American missionaries” and “the group of British and American businessmen”.The English spread activities dominated by the group of British and American missionaries focus on missionary education,translation,and publication,which reflects the cultural path of communication.Driven by economic interests,the group of British and American businessmen dominated the flourish of unofficial education services of English,which generates the emergence of “pidgin English” in the communication between Chinese and Westerns,revealing the influence of economy on language spread.The Westernization Group of the late Qing government promoted the spread of English from the political path of government supports.In conclusion,cultural,economic,and political spread paths dominated by different groups constituted the main mechanism of English spread in China during the late Qing Dynasty.Secondly,as the subject of language spread,people evoke different motives and purposes based on the stimulation of living environment,then engaged in activities of language spread.Under the influence of the environment at that time,the dominant group of English spread led English prevailed over China both actively or passively,generated the spread mechanism of cultural,economic and political path,the Chinese incorporated quantity of English loanwords accordingly.In a word,the spread of English in the period promoted the perfection of Chinese Grammar research,as well as laid the foundation for the foreign language education planning in the next age,which brought impact both on language and society to later times.Finally,the English spread in the cultural,economic,and political path during the late Qing Dynasty reveals the general laws of language spread.(1)The dominance of English in foreign language spread during the late Qing Dynasty reflects the law of competition in language spread;(2)In the late Qing Dynasty,the westerners in China constantly adjusted their spread ways without policy support,which uncovered the law of “path-dependence” of language spread;(3)The influence of English spread on later generations shows that a language usually spread from the bottom of the society to the very top,and then return to common people;(4)the English spread during the late Qing Dynasty reveals the parallel and interactive spread law of language on cultural,economic and political levels.To sum up,driven by the objective environment and their own purposes,different groups in late Qing Dynasty dominated the spread of English in China through cultural,economic,and political paths,which profoundly impact the language and society of later China,meanwhile reveals certain laws of language spread.This reminds us that we should pay attention to the foreign language competition law and the receiver law when formulating Chinese promotion policies,then make full use of the “path-dependence” law to adjust Chinese language policies on the target countries.The study is expected to provide some reference and revelation for the formulation and implementation of language policy under the“Belt and Road” initiative in China.