Perspectives on Marked Language Choices and Uses in Taiwan

台灣人標記性語言選擇及用法之面面觀

本文探討台灣人標記性語言選擇及用法之類型，語料來自日常交談和線上溝通，即便使用者較為推崇正規國語、英語和日語，他們的日常／線上溝通仍充斥著語言混和（mixing）、跨越（crossing）和類型化（stylizing）。本文主張這類混合語言的使用肇因於台灣在二十世紀先後推行的語言政策，以及由一黨獨大到多黨共治的政治轉變。也就是說，日語和國語之強制推行雖促成了國族發展，但卻讓其他語言無法隨社會進步，也因而無法現代化和系統化（codification）。本文所研究之語言選擇及用法，包含了利用國語以外的語言欠缺書寫形式和標準化的特質、台灣國語（台灣腔的國語）之刻版特徵、不同的語音系統之差異，和以漢字為音符來說英語、國語及日語。這種語言使用超越了功能目的，在真實或虛擬的言談中，被用來暗指禁語或製造幽默。將這些新出現的語言特徵聯結到台灣的歷史－社會變遷，我們便能見到漢字以及中文性（Chineseness）在線上溝通之再運用的新型態。這種發展可助我們反思二十一世紀中口說／書寫之中文的意義。

This paper explores types of marked language choices and their uses in Taiwan, using examples from both everyday and e-generation online communication where language mixing, crossing, and stylizing are rampant despite the fact that most of the same individuals consider conventionally codified Mandarin, English, and Japanese more prestigious. The paper argues that this kind of hybrid language practice owes much to Taiwan’s twice-reformatted national language policies in the 20th century, and to a rapid regime transition from one party dominance to a multi-party society. That is, the historical enforcement of both Japanese and Mandarin helped nation-state development but didn’t leave other linguistic varieties with an equal chance for social advancement, modernization, and codification. Indigenous and ingenious, the language choices and uses in question tap into the lack of codification and standardization of non-Mandarin varieties, into the stereotypical features of Taiwanese-accented Mandarin, and into the incongruities of so many phonetic schemes and use of Chinese characters as phonetic symbols to sound out English, Mandarin, and Japanese. The pragmatics goes beyond immediate functional purposes and are used metaphorically to tap into taboos, for example, or to create humor by adopting a marked choice, in real and virtual discourse. By connecting these emerging language features to broader socio-historical changes in Taiwan, we are able to see the coming of age of a new pattern of reappropriating Chinese characters and therefore Chineseness in online communication. It is a development that may help us reflect on the meanings of speaking/writing Chinese in the 21st century.