A Study Of Language Attitudes Of Chinese Youth Towards Putonghua And Their Respective Dialects

This paper is dedicated to a tentative study of language attitudes in China taken from the perspectives that Beijing and Shanghai youth have demonstrated in their written responses to a questionnaire. This questionnaire was designed to test or elicit their language attitudes towards Putonghua and their respective regional dialects (if not specifically pointed out, dialects in this paper refer to regional dialects). The author holds that in day-to-day use of a language, speakers communicate fluently without consciously going through the linguistic rules that exist. Generally what linguists think about language is different from what laymen think in everyday lives. Hence the necessity of investigating issues relating to language in actual use. As a firm believer of the necessity of investigating language in use and related issues, the author chooses to research on language attitudes among Chinese youth. Quite a few significant findings have been published in this area since 1960s, which encourage researchers to carry out their investigations in specific topics attractive and feasible to them. In this paper the author intends to research on the attitudes Beijing and Shanghai youth hold towards Putonghua and their respective dialects in terms of status and solidarity dimensions, and hopefully expects to shed some light on the study of language attitudes in China as a whole.