The Reassessment Of The Value Of Chinese Written Language

Serving as an indispensable form of language, written language is important in both function and pragmatic value. Alongside spoken language, they form the outlook of language. Considering this, it’s imperative to clarify the relationship between written language and spoken language, for which is the basis of further study of written language. The study of the relationship between spoken language and written language never cools down, and the research develops as the guiding theory changes. A growing number of language scholars have come to the same conclusion that written language and spoken language interacts with each other.Based the relationship between spoken language and written language, the dissertation restudy the value of written language, and it consists of five chapters.The first chapter reviews the representative perspectives of linguists, and classifies them by their priorities. Some scholars, like Aristotle, Plato and Saussure, prioritize spoken language, for written language is nothing but the copy of spoken language. Others like Coulmas, Halliday argue that written language deserve more attention. In China, researchers have done lots of useful work and gone so far since the period of the Republic of China. Yet, some problems remain unsolved, and that leaves enough room for this paper.The second chapter analyzes the characteristics of spoken language and written language, and separate scripts from typical spoken language and the written form of spoken language. After that we compare to spot the differences between the spoken language and written language from four angles.The third chapter argues that written language is not a mere copy of spoken language and confirms that written language interacts with spoken language in many cases. And written language exists in a relatively individual way. Under some circumstances it poses inevitable effects on spoken language.The forth chapter reassess the value of written language due to reality. First and foremost, written language devotes a great deal to the formation, development and specification of Chinese mandarin from a synchronic perspective. Then written language, consisting of classical Chinese and modern Chinese, supports the research of the evolution of the Chinese language, and reinforces the study of local dialects. Last but not least, judging from its actual use, the capability of written language is key to the development of Chinese language, and it also affects language acquisition. So, cultivation of written language deserves much more attention due to our study.The final chapter concludes the whole dissertation. It introduces the work we’ve done, points out the shortcoming of the paper, and describes the future plan for further study.