Folk language, such as those written in the Spring Festival couplets, is one important aspect of folk culture studies.

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Folk linguistics is define by Qu Yanbin, a research fellow from the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, as the science focused on the language in folk culture, folklore and related phenomena. Folk linguistics adopts the methodologies of linguistics and folklore studies to examine the forms, nature, laws, mechanisms and origins of elements of folk culture such as language, speech and social customs.

“Studies of folk language have grown popular due to scholars’ growing interest in folk culture,” said Zhao Xueqing, a professor from the School of Arts at Shaanxi Normal University. Zhao said that although folk culture is an integral part of Chinese culture, it was not taken seriously for more than 2,000 years in ancient society. In the past 30 years, studies of folk language have achieved a great deal of results under the guidance of the folklorist Zhong Jingwen. Though it has not become an independent discipline. The study of folk language is of great significance to the development of Chinese folk culture and linguistics. It is also a sign of the constant deepening of traditional Chinese cultural studies. It is based on the intersection of linguistics, folklore and sociology, which is both a deepened development of folklore research and an extension of the scope of linguistic research.

Qu said that recent developments include a special session on folk language studies at the 16th World Congress of the International Association for Anthropology and Ethnology. The conference focused on folklore language and social life, folklore language issues in cross-cultural communication, research on folk argot jargon and other related cross-disciplinary studies, which have remained subjects of constant attention in this field.

Zhao pointed out that adopting a multi-perspective and multi-disciplinary approach is essential to promoting innovation in folk language research. Currently in this field, some scholars continue to collect and collate folk linguistic materials, and some other scholars have achieved new breakthroughs by researching oral poetic theories. Zhao advocates putting the study of folk language under the perspective of sociolinguistics, arguing that due to the orality, anonymity, inheritance, and variability of the language in folklore, targeted research methods must be adopted.

New folk research talent is being cultivated. Qu said that since the 1990s, more than 10 universities in Liaoning, Sichuan, and Hong Kong have successively set up courses in folk linguistics, recruiting nearly 100 graduate students in the field of folk linguistic studies.

Qu added that the main guiding principle of the methodology of folk linguistics is the organic combination of demonstration and speculation, that is, to give an abstract summary based on empirical research and a scientific interpretation of seeking truth from facts. Specifically, it is a method that emphasizes the balance between fieldwork and literature research, quantitative and qualitative analysis and comparative research, macroscopic and microscopic research, and spiritual and physical research.

Tan Ru, a professor from Tianjin Normal University, said folk linguistics is still in its infancy in basic theoretical construction and applied research, but the protection of folk language and culture is an urgent task. Therefore, the research methods of folk linguistics need to be improved, especially the basic theories of folk linguistics need to be promoted. It is imperative to make them to be more complete, strict and systematic. Qu said that the research content and methods of folk linguistics should be further expanded and innovated on the basis of absorbing the results of multidisciplinary theories. The big-data era has opened up a broader perspective for the development of this research and also provided great convenience for information acquisition and exchange. To this end, setting up multiple types of corpus texts and research databases of folk language is the top priority for accelerating the study of folk languages.

Zhao argued that folk language research requires professional knowledge of linguistics as well as academic literacy in folklore and cultural studies. Folk linguistic studies must pay special attention to the integration of folklore research with anthropology, sociology and field investigations. Because folk language researchers must focus on the originality of the research object, written records alone are not sufficient as research materials. In the future, it will be necessary to fully draw lessons from the theories and methods of folk research, anthropology, sociology and culturology, to comprehensively and objectively understand the characteristics of folk language.

 

(edited by SUI JINGJING)