The disputes on the methods and results of language identification are traced to different definitions of language. The understanding that language is no more than a tool of communication leads to the “over-identification” of languages relying on the method of mutual intelligibility. The method of linguistic and socio-cultural analysis has proven to be successful in China but received criticisms internationally for “being politically motivated”. The theory of speech community contributes to the resolution of the controversy by its defi ning of a language as a tool of communication and identification of a speech community. Under such theoretical perspective, social and cultural gaps make differences in speech communication and language identities, which constitute the boundaries of speech community. The theory renders the co-identification of language and nationality obsolete and thus dissolves the arguments based on such co-identifi cation.
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