This course introduces to students the cognitive norms of modern Chinese, as well as its developmental history in greater China. Students will learn how Chinese has been made modern as ways of social progressions in relation to a host of cultural-political events and popular thoughts over the past century in various Chinese speech communities. Language planning for a standard pronunciation, grammar, orthography, etc. for China, a linguistically most diverse country where people commonly grow up speaking mutually unintelligible languages, unfolded over a course of socio-political conflicts in the contexts of "progressive," "patriotic," or "scientific" transformations of a country of abject poverty into a major world power again. Special attention will be given to the socio-linguistic changes following language contacts between Chinese and English/Japanese languages. Cultural and societal perspectives and biases in trendy internet neologisms and perpetuated by large language models will be critically analyzed in search of the socio-cultural origins of these human behaviors. Although a student with some knowledge of a modern Chinese language will easily gain much more depth from the course, prior Chinese knowledge is not required.
4-5 units · Letter or Credit/No Credit
This course introduces to students the cognitive norms of modern Chinese, as well as its developmental history in greater China. Students will learn how Chinese has been made modern as ways of social progressions in relation to a host of cultural-political events and popular thoughts over the past century in various Chinese speech communities. Language planning for a standard pronunciation, grammar, orthography, etc. for China, a linguistically most diverse country where people commonly grow up speaking mutually unintelligible languages, unfolded over a course of socio-political conflicts in the contexts of "progressive," "patriotic," or "scientific" transformations of a country of abject poverty into a major world power again. Special attention will be given to the socio-linguistic changes following language contacts between Chinese and English/Japanese languages. Cultural and societal perspectives and biases in trendy internet neologisms and perpetuated by large language models will be critically analyzed in search of the socio-cultural origins of these human behaviors. Although a student with some knowledge of a modern Chinese language will easily gain much more depth from the course, prior Chinese knowledge is not required.