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Language and revolution: Formulae of the Cultural Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Ji Feng Yuan ,
Koenraad Kuiper  and
Shu Shaogu
Ji Feng Yuan
Affiliation:
Department of English Language and Literature, University of Canterbury
Koenraad Kuiper
Affiliation:
Department of English Language and Literature, University of Canterbury
Shu Shaogu
Affiliation:
Department of English Language and Literature, University of Canterbury
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Abstract

From the hypothesis that routine formulae code cultural norms, it follows that social change will reveal itself in the formulaic inventory of a language. We test this prediction by looking at some of the changes to formulaic speech which took place in postrevolutionary China, particularly during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. We first examine some generally used politeness formulae, comparing them with prerevolutionary equivalents. We then examine the Public Criticism Meeting as a revolutionary ritual and show that its structure and formulaic language arose directly out of revolutionary imperatives. We attribute the changes in the formulaic inventory of Chinese directly to the need to code new social facts, although old social norms can also be discerned in the new formulae, thus showing that social changes are built on a previous social order. (Oral formulaic performance, routine formulae, situational constraints, Cultural Revolution)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , March 1990 , pp. 61 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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