Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 29:1/2 (2002) ► pp.95–119
Gengo seikatsu
The study of language life in Japan, 1945–1995
Published online: 15 August 2002
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.29.1.08hei
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.29.1.08hei
Summary
The indigenous concept of language life developed out of dialectology and attempts to establish a modern standard language. At first, language life existed above all merely as a label for the joint study of Japanese and its speakers and it only became an essential component of Japanese linguistics after 1945. Within the post-war studies a distinction can be drawn between an empirical approach at the National Japanese Language Research Institute and a theoretical approach by Motoki Tokieda (1900–1967). A first wave of language life studies subsided in the 1960s, the empirical approach was, however, revived and further developed in the seventies finding support in sociolinguistics. Language life was finally displaced by sociolinguistics in the mid-eighties.
Résumé
Le concept autochtone de la vie du langage remonte à la dialectologie et aux efforts pour établir une norme du japonais moderne. Au début, la vie du langage designait principalement les recherches portant sur la langue japonaise ainsi que ses locuteurs. C’est seulement après 1945 que la vie du langage est devenue une partie essentielle de la linguistique japonaise. Après la guerre on peut distinguer une approche empirique développée par l’Institut National de Recherche sur la Langue Japonaise et une approche théorique développée par Motoki Tokieda (1900–1967). La première vague de l’étude de la vie du langage s’estompera dans les années soixante, cependant dans les années soixante-dix l’approche empirique effectuera un retour et sera développée davantage, s’inspirant partiellement de la sociolinguistique. La vie du langage sera finalement remplacée dans les années quatre-vingt par la sociolinguistique.
Zusammenfassung
Die indigene Konzeption des Sprachlebens geht neben der Dialektologie auf Bemühungen zur Etablierung einer modernen Standardsprache zurück. Sprachleben existierte anfangs weitestgehend nur als Etikett für eine Erforschung des Japanischen in Verbindung mit seinen Sprechern, wurde allerdings nach 1945 wesentlicher Bestandteil der japanischen Linguistik. In der Nachkriegszeit lässt sich zwischen einem empirischen Ansatz am Staatlichen Forschungsinstitut für die Landessprache und einem theoretischen Ansatz durch Motoki Tokieda (1900–1967) unterscheiden. Eine erste Welle der Sprachleben-Forschung verebbte Anfang der sechziger Jahre, jedoch erfuhr der empirische Ansatz in den siebziger Jahren in Anlehnung an die Soziolinguistik eine Wiederbelebung und Weiterentwicklung. Sprachleben wurde Mitte der achtziger Jahre endgültig von der Soziolinguistik verdrängt.
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