Human capital is an important economic attribute of languages. Generally speaking, a language has an impact on economy when it is combined with human activities. The capitalization of human power is an important way for the transformation from language skills into language economy. At the same time, this transformation is the main leverage for economic function of language. This paper analyzes the connotation and characteristics of language as a kind of human capital, and endeavors to clarify the relationship between language as human capital, language ability and language capital. The paper also discusses two mechanisms of how language as human capital effects economic development. On the one side, language as human capital has an immediate impact on the economic growth through “internal effect” (individual investment) and “external effect” (society). On the other side, it leads to technical advance that infl uences economic growth indirectly. The paper argues that, to study language capability from the perspective of human capital, and to establish the correlation of language education, language capability and the national economic development are conducive to understand the economic attribute of language, as well as to provide theoretical ground for the authorities to develop language education.
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