このところ,英語の標準化 (standardisation) の歴史のみならず,言語の標準化について一般的に考える機会を多くもっている.この問題に関連する術語と概念を整理しようと,社会言語学の用語集 (Trudgill) を開いてみた.そこから集めたいくつかの術語とその定義・説明を,備忘のために記しておきたい.
まずは,英語に関してずばり "Standard English" という用語から(「#1396. "Standard English" とは何か」 ([2013-02-21-1]),「#2116. 「英語」の虚構性と曖昧性」 ([2015-02-11-1]) も参照).
Standard English The dialect of English which is normally used in writing, is spoken by educated native speakers, and is taught to non-native speakers studying the language. There is no single accent associated with this dialect, but the lexicon and grammar of the dialect have been subject to codification in numerous dictionaries and grammars of the English language. Standard English is a polycentric standard variety, with English, Scottish, American, Australian and other standard varieties differing somewhat from one another. All other dialects can be referred to collectively as nonstandard English.
ここで使われている "polycentric" という用語については,「#2384. polycentric language」 ([2015-11-06-1]) と「#2402. polycentric language (2)」 ([2015-11-24-1]) も参照.
次に,"standardisation" という用語から芋づる式にいくつかの用語をたどってみた.
standardisation The process by which a particular variety of a language is subject to language determination, codification and stabilisation. These processes, which lead to the development of a standard language, may be the result of deliberate language planning activities, as with the standardisation of Indonesia, or not, as with the standardisation of English.
status planning [≒language determination] In language planning, status planning refers to decisions which have to be taken concerning the selection of particular languages or varieties of language for particular purposes in the society or nation in question. Decisions about which language or languages are to be the national or official languages of particular nation-states are among the more important of status planning issues. Status planning is often contrasted with corpus planning or language development. In the use of most writers, status planning is not significantly different from language determination.
codification The process whereby a variety of a language, often as part of a standardisation process, acquires a publicly recognised and fixed form in which norms are laid down for 'correct' usage as far as grammar, vocabulary, spelling and perhaps pronunciation are concerned. This codification can take place over time without involvement of official bodies, as happened with Standard English, or it can take place quite rapidly, as a result of conscious decisions by governmental or other official planning agencies, as happened with Swahili in Tanzania. The results of codification are usually enshrined in dictionaries and grammar books, as well as, sometimes, in government publications.
stabilisation A process whereby a formerly diffuse language variety that has been in a state of flux undergoes focusing . . . and takes on a more fixed and stable form that is shared by all its speakers. Pidginised jargons become pidgins through the process of stabilisation. Dialect mixtures may become koinés as a result of stabilisation. Stabilisation is also a component of language standardisation.
focused According to a typology of language varieties developed by the British sociolinguist Robert B. LePage, some language communities and thus language varieties are relatively more diffuse, while others are relatively more focused. Any speech act performed by an individual constitutes an act of identity. If only a narrow range of identities is available for enactment in a speech community, that community can be regarded as focused. Focused linguistic communities tend to be those where considerable standardisation and codification have taken place, where there is a high degree of agreement about norms of usage, where speakers tend to show concern for 'purity' and marking their language variety off from other varieties, and where everyone agrees about what the language is called. European language communities tend to be heavily focused. LePage points out that notions such as admixture, code-mixing, code-switching, semilingualism and multilingualism depend on a focused-language-centred point of view of the separate status of language varieties.
diffuse According to a typology of language varieties developed by the British sociolinguist Robert B. LePage, a characteristic of certain language communities, and thus language varieties. Some communities are relatively more diffuse, while others are relatively more focused. Any speech act performed by an individual constitutes an act of identity. If a wide range of identities is available for enactment in a speech community, that community can be regarded as diffuse. Diffuse linguistic communities tend to be those where little standardisation or codification have taken place, where there is relatively little agreement about norms of usage, where speakers show little concern for marking off their language variety from other varieties, and where they may accord relatively little importance even to what their language is called.
最後に挙げた2つ "focused" と "diffuse" は言語共同体や言語変種について用いられる対義の形容詞で,実に便利な概念だと感心した.光の反射の比喩だろうか,集中と散乱という直感的な表現で,標準化の程度の高低を指している.英語史の文脈でいえば,中英語は a diffuse variety であり,(近)現代英語や後期古英語は focused varieties であると概ね表現できる."focused" のなかでも程度があり,程度の高いものを "fixed",低いものを狭い意味での "focused" とするならば,(近)現代英語は前者,後期古英語は後者と表現できるだろう.fixed と focused の区別については,「#929. 中英語後期,イングランド中部方言が標準語の基盤となった理由」 ([2011-11-12-1]) も参照.
・ Trudgill, Peter. A Glossary of Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
18--19世紀の Industrial Revolution (産業革命)は,英国社会の構造を大きく変えた.その社会言語学的な帰結は,端的にいえば伝統方言 (traditional dialects) から都市変種 (urban varieties) への移行といってよい.交通・輸送手段の発達により,人々の行動様式や社会的ネットワークが様変わりし,各地域の内部における伝統的な人間関係が前の時代よりも弱まり,伝統方言の水平化 (dialect_levelling) と共通語化 (koinéization) が進行した.一方で,各地に現われた近代型の都市が地域社会の求心力となり,新しい方言,すなわち都市変種が生まれてきた.都市変種は地域性よりも所属する社会階級をより強く反映する傾向がある点で,伝統方言とは異なる存在である.
Gramley (181) が,この辺りの事情を以下のように説明している.
[The Industrial Revolution and the transportation revolution] were among the most significant social changes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Partly as a prerequisite for and partly as an effect of industrialization there were fundamental changes in transportation. First, in the period after 1750 there was the establishment of turnpikes, then canals, and finally railroads. Among their consequences was the development of regional and supra-regional markets and, concomitant with this, greater labor force mobility in a money rather than barter economy with the potential for consumption. It hardly seems necessary to point out that this led to a weakening of the rural traditional dialects and an upsurge of new urban varieties in the process of dialect leveling or koinéization.
As industrialization continued, new centers in the Northeast (mining) and in the Western Midlands (textiles in Manchester and Birmingham and commerce in Liverpool) began to emerge. Immigration of labor from "abroad" also ensured further language and dialect contact as Irish workers found jobs in the major projects of canal building in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and then in the building of the railways. Enclaves of Irish came into being, especially in Liverpool. Despite linguistic leveling the general distinctions were retained between the North (now divided more clearly than ever between the English North and Scotland), the East Midlands and the now industrializing West Midlands, and the South. The emergence of a new, mostly working-class, urban population in the North in the nineteenth century was accompanied by a literature of its own. Pamphlets, broadsides, and almanacs showed local consciousness and pride in vernacular culture and language. As the novels of Elizabeth Gaskel demonstrate, language --- be it traditional dialect or working-class koiné --- was a marker of class solidarity.
このように,英国の近現代的な社会言語学的変種のあり方は,主として産業革命期の産物といってよい.
関連する話題として,「#1671. dialect contact, dialect mixture, dialect levelling, koineization」 ([2013-11-23-1]),「#2028. 日本とイングランドにおける方言の将来」 ([2014-11-15-1]),「#2023. England の現代英語方言区分 (3) --- Modern Dialects」 ([2014-11-10-1]) も参照.
・ Gramley, Stephan. The History of English: An Introduction. Abingdon: Routledge, 2012.
大英帝国の拡大という世界史的展開は,現代英語と英語の未来を論じる上で避けて通ることのできないトピックです.その英語史上の意義について,スライド (HTML) にまとめてみました.こちらからどうぞ.結論としては次のように述べました.
大英帝国の発展は
(1) 英語の標準化・規範化を後押しして,英語に「求心力」をもたらした一方で,
(2) 英語の多様化を招き,英語に「遠心力」をもたらし,
現在および未来の英語のあり方の基礎を築いた.
詳細は各々のページをご覧ください.本ブログの記事や各種画像へのリンクも豊富に張っています.
1. 大英帝国の拡大と英語
2. 要点
3. (1) 大英帝国の発展
4. 関連年表 (#777, #1377, #2562)
5. (2) 英語の求心力 --- 標準化・規範化
6. 標準化と規範化
7. 18世紀の規範主義
8. 辞書,文法書,発音指南書
9. 規範文法の例
10. (3) 英語の遠心力 --- 世界の様々な英語
11. 様々な英語変種の例
12. 英語変種の諸分類法
13. 21世紀,求心力と遠心力のせめぎ合い
14. まとめ
15. 参考文献
他の「まとめスライド」として,「#3058. 「英語史における黒死病の意義」のまとめスライド」 ([2017-09-10-1]),「#3068. 「宗教改革と英語史」のまとめスライド」 ([2017-09-20-1]),「#3089. 「アメリカ独立戦争と英語」のまとめスライド」 ([2017-10-11-1]),「#3102. 「キリスト教伝来と英語」のまとめスライド」 ([2017-10-24-1]),「#3107. 「ノルマン征服と英語」のまとめスライド」 ([2017-10-29-1]),「#3121. 「印刷術の発明と英語」のまとめ」 ([2017-11-12-1]) もどうぞ.
Kretzschmar は,言語を複雑系としてとらえ,言語変化を論じる研究者である.最近の論文で,複雑系の概念を用いて,アメリカ英語の諸変種がいかにして生じてきたかという問題を論じている.論文の冒頭 (251) で,発話を複雑系としてとらえる見方が端的に述べられている.
. . . language in use, speech as opposed to linguistic systems as usually described by linguists, satisfies the conditions for complex systems as defined in sciences such as physics, evolutionary biology, and economics . . . .
言語は複雑系とみなされるべき2つの特徴,すなわち "non-linear distribution" と "scaling" を備えているという (253) .前者 "non-linear distribution" は,具体的にいえば,漸近双曲線 (A-curve) の分布を指している.例としてすぐに思い浮かぶのは,「#1103. GSL による Zipf's law の検証」 ([2012-05-04-1]) や「#1101. Zipf's law」 ([2012-05-02-1]) で紹介した zipfs_law のグラフである.少数の高頻度語と多数の低頻度語により,右下へ長い尾を引くグラフが描かれる.Kretzschmar は,言語に関わる他の現象でもこのようなグラフが得られると主張する.
「言語=複雑系」に関するもう1つの特徴である "scaling" は,A-curve のような分布が言語の異なるレベルにおいて繰り返し現われる状況を指している.アメリカ東部諸州における方言単語(訛語)の頻度調査で,各形態について頻度順位の高い順に並べて頻度をプロットしていくと A-curve となるが,New York 州に限って同様のグラフを作成しても類似した曲線が得られるし,女性話者に限ったグラフでもやはり同様の曲線が得られるという (255) .
グラフが非線形でありスケール・フリーということになれば,当然ながら「#3123. カオスとフラクタル」 ([2017-11-14-1]) が想起される.関連して,「#3111. カオス理論と言語変化 (1)」 ([2017-11-02-1]),「#3112. カオス理論と言語変化 (2)」 ([2017-11-03-1]),「#3122. 言語体系は「カオスの辺縁」にある」 ([2017-11-13-1]) も参照されたい.
Kretzschmar (263--64) は論文の最後で,言語変種の生起・拡大を説明するのに複雑系の考え方が有用であると結論づけ,複雑系言語学を唱える.
Complexity science is the model that can cope successfully with the problems of language variation and change that we are interested in solving for the history of American English. Complexity science addresses the emergence of a new American variety, along with its component regional varieties, more adequately than traditional approaches. Complex systems replace the notion of monolithic "language contact" or Fischer's "cultural shift" with interaction between speakers. Complex systems can deal with the extension of existing varieties into new areas, and still account for the evident acquisition of new variants from important cultural groups in different areas. Finally, complex systems can cope with contemporary American cultural change and attendant language change, again without recourse to monolithic thinking. We are just at the beginning of research to understand the operation of the complex system of speech, but it is already clear that it gives us a good way to describe how the process of emergence and change really works.
従来のような "monolithic" な言語接触に基づいた理論ではなく,それを内に含み込むような複雑系の理論こそが,これからの言語変化研究を支えていくのではないかというわけだ.確かに刺激的な話題である.
・ Kretzschmar, William A., Jr. "Complex Systems in the History of American English." Chapter 4 of Developments in English: Expanding Electronic Evidence. Ed. Irma Taavitsainen, Merja Kytö, Claudia Claridge, and Jeremy Smith. Cambridge, 2015. 251--64.
アメリカ人でモルモン教徒の宣教師が,若い頃,2年間ほど九州と沖縄に滞在していたときに用いていたという「宣教師語」こと "Senkyoshigo" に関する論文を読む機会があった.Senkyoshigo は宣教師仲間のあいだで常用される言葉であり,日本語由来の内容語を多用する点に特徴がある.Senkyoshigo 使いだった論文執筆者の Smout 氏は,当初その奇妙な言葉に驚いたが,やがてすっかり慣れてしまい,標準英語を話すのが難しくなってしまったという.例えば,次のような1節を見てみよう.文中の fud は「お風呂」,dish-chan とは「お皿ちゃん」ということで「皿洗い係」を指すようだ.
Hey dode, okinasai! It's time I got a start on asagohan so we can have some oishii muffins before benkyokai. You're dish-chan this week, so you go take the first fud. Come on in and I'll show you how to tsukeru the mono.
これは (1) 日本語を lexifier とするピジン語のようでもあり,(2) 日英両言語のバイリンガルによる code-switching のようでもあり,(3) 遊び心で作り上げた遊戯言語のようでもある.実際,「宣教師語」を3種類のいずれかに的確に区分することはできそうになく,(社会)言語学的にはこれらの中間に位置するというほかない珍妙な言語変種,あるいは言語使用である.
論文ではこの中間的な位置づけが議論されていくのだが,最終的には次のように述べられる.
Senkyoshigo is clearly a phenomenon that cannot be adequately categorized within current linguistic terms. In terms of its origin and its similarity to varieties that have been previously classified as pidgins, it is a pidgin. In terms of the rule that govern its interface with Japanese and English, it is bilingual code-switching. In terms of its rather ordinary English grammar, its lack of speakers who rely on it as a sole means of communication, and the playful exuberance with which it is used, it is is (sic) a recreational language. In the final analysis, the most important factors that determine the label one affixs (sic) to this variety will probably be social and political. Those who think the phenomenon is significant and interesting will tend not to equate it with a child's language game but will see in it examples of other linguistic processes at work. They may classify it as a near-pidgin which has not stabilized because it remains in the presence of its lexifier language and because its most proficient speakers use it for only two years of their lives. Alternately, they may classify it as early bilingualism that would stabilize and regularize in a society that allowed continuing roles to emerge for each variety. For those who do not particularly value the language or find it interesting, it will probably seem to be a recreational language which in some minds ought to be suppressed but in most deserves only to be ignored.
No matter how we label it, this missionary English of Japan is an unusual language phenomenon.
英語と日本語という2つの言語の狭間にあって,宣教という目的のために2年ほどで成員が入れ替わり続けるという,類いまれな社会言語学的環境をもつ言語共同体.まさに社会言語学の生きた実験場である.確かに名状しがたい言語変種だが,第4の視点として,日本語の語句を著しく借用した英語変種と見ることもできそうだ.
関連して借用と code-switching の差異を巡っては,「#1661. 借用と code-switching の狭間」 ([2013-11-13-1]),「#1985. 借用と接触による干渉の狭間」 ([2014-10-03-1]),「#2009. 言語学における接触,干渉,2言語使用,借用」 ([2014-10-27-1]) を参照.日本におけるピジン語については,「#2596. 「小笠原ことば」の変遷」 ([2016-06-05-1]) をどうぞ.
ちなみに,この論文は東北大学の長野明子先生に「気分転換に」とご紹介いただいたものでした(長野先生ありがとうございます,まさに気分転換!).
・ Smout, Kary D. "Senkyoshigo: A Missionary English of Japan." American Speech 63.2 (1988): 137--49.
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