Chapter 8

Chinese language in its social context

In previous chapters we have examined the grammatical aspects of Chinese language. In this chapter we will look at Chinese language from the social perspective. We begin by introducing the concept of context and how it affects the appropriateness of language use. We then look at how Chinese speakers perform certain speech acts. This is followed by an introduction to Chinese language variation, including how gender influences language use. Language contact and the Chinese Internet language will then be discussed. The chapter ends with an introduction to recent research on Chinese pragmatics acquisition and Chinese socialization in L2.