Language policy research tends to be conducted from an external perspective, focusing predominantly on the social factors involved. Seldom does language policy engage with linguistic theory to examine its internal structure. Bingjun Yang & Rui Wang's Language policy brilliantly addresses this gap. Proceeding from the premise that there is striking correspondence between language policy as a science about language choice, and systemic functional linguistics’ (SFL) conception of language as meaning potential, Yang & Wang set out to establish an SFL approach to language policy. To do so, they draw upon SFL's core ideas to address the tripartite components of language policy: language practice, language ideology, and language management. By exploring the interface between language policy and SFL, the authors develop SFL within an applied linguistic framework capable of addressing unsolved research problems in sociolinguistics and other fields.
The book consists of eight chapters. Chapter 1 introduces important background research. Chapter 2 builds upon this, presenting an overview of language policy research history and an account of influential thoughts and ideas on language policy. It does so by keeping in mind the limitations of traditional language policy research, including its failure to see the tripartite components of language policy as a unified whole. Based upon the ideas of established scholars such as Bernard Spolsky and Richard Ruiz, in chapter 3 the authors justify language policy as social semiotic, meaning potential, and as a system, thus demonstrating the suitability of approaching language policy from an SFL approach.
Chapter 4 builds a theoretical foundation for the study. The authors propose the rank scale model for both language itself and for language users—the two essential objects of language policy practice and research. They argue that language policy mainly concerns linguistic choices above the lexicogrammatical level. Furthermore, in the rank scale system of language users that consists of individuals, families, and social institutions, they strongly emphasize the individual as the key element.
In chapter 5, the authors go on to examine to what extent the SFL model can be applied to language-policy research. They probe not only into function, system, and stratification in language policy (its internal structure), but also context and probability in language policy (its external structure). In exploring these fundamental elements, the authors first succinctly explain what each element in SFL is about and then adeptly apply it to the analysis of language policy. While investigating each element for each of the tripartite components of language policy, they point out where traditional approaches to language policy have fallen short and where their approach can fit in. For example, unlike Spolsky, they hold that individual language users’ ideologies also matter and that individual language users are also powerful language managers; if language policy is to be successfully implemented, language managers at higher levels cannot afford to contradict the power of individual language managers.
Chapters 6 and 7 apply the discussion so far to case studies of Chinese language policy, dealing with policies on cyber words and pure lettered words and on the translation of Chinese names. Chapter 8, the conclusion, sums up the main findings and proposes avenues for future study.
This pioneering work makes a good read for researchers interested in language policy, SFL as applied linguistics and sociolinguistics.
