Editors-in-Chief: Hu Fanzhu
Publication Date:October 2025
Publisher: Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press
ISBN: 9787552048612
The latest work by Hu Fanzhu, a second-level professor at East China Normal University, Sociolinguistics of Social Development, has recently been published. This book encompasses the author's reflections and explorations in recent years on the theories, issues, and methodologies of sociolinguistic research in China.
Social sciences have traditionally focused either on "description" or "interpretation." The title Sociolinguistics of Social Development proposes and seeks to practice a new research paradigm: consciously using linguistic analysis as a pathway to promote the harmonious development of society. The book begins with a discussion of "What is linguistics?" and, based on a re-examination of the linguistic knowledge system, proceeds to explore a series of questions: What is "language institution"? How can language rights, as a component of human rights, be appropriately arranged within social institutions? What is "language competence"? How do different subjects acquire, develop, and maintain their language competence? What is "language governance"? What are the fundamental principles of language governance? What are "social appellations"? How are social appellations socially constructed, and in turn, what kind of Chinese society do they construct? What is "linguistic landscape"? How should we understand "buzzwords" as typical examples of contemporary linguistic landscapes? What is "domain-specific language"? How can discourses in different domains be analyzed? What is "language dissemination"? In the context of today's globalization, why, how, and what do languages disseminate? What is the fundamental purpose of international Chinese language education? …and so on.
This book is the first volume of the Collected Works of Hu Fanzhu. It consists of seven parts with 21 chapters, totaling 321,000 words, and is published by Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press.
