10 July 2026, Volume 11 Issue 4

    

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  Toward a “Linguistics of Social Development”

  Hu Fanzhu

  Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2026, 11(4): 1-1.

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  A Twelve-Scholar Dialogue on the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan

  Li Yuming (Column Editor), He Hongzhi, Wang Chunhui, Zhang Tianwei, Huang Lihe, Li Jiantao, Zhu Yuguo, Liu Chuqun, Shen Qi, Ma Xiaolei, Zheng Xuan, Xu Xinlu and Wang Lining

  Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2026, 11(4): 5-18.

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  Introduction: A Common Intellectual Home for Writers, Literary Scholars, and Linguists

  Guo Xi

  Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2026, 11(4): 19-20.

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  Rhetoric as the Core of Literary Studies

  Wang Binbin

  Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2026, 11(4): 21-28. https://doi.org/10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20260401

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  Rhetoric is both a branch of linguistics and a component of literary studies. From the perspective of literariness, language can be broadly divided into three categories: literary language, quasi-literary language, and functional language. The criterion for distinguishing among these three types is the extent to which rhetorical devices are employed. In ancient China, aestheticians and literary theorists were often also rhetoricians. Classical Chinese literary theory tended to focus more on the rhetorical art of literary works than on their thematic content. In contemporary times, literary scholars rarely express interest in rhetoric, and linguists seldom engage with the language of literary works. Nevertheless, many linguists have shown interest in the rhetorical style of Lu Xun’s works, precisely because of his rich and sophisticated use of rhetoric techniques. As a literary scholar, the author of this paper is often faced with the challenge of understanding the rhetorical features of literary language only superficially, without a deep grasp of the underlying principles. It is argued that literary researchers should cultivate a strong foundation in rhetoric in order to genuinely appreciate and evaluate the literariness of literary works.
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  Literary Works as Resources for Language Life Research

  Zeng Wei and Yang Ziyan

  Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2026, 11(4): 29-41. https://doi.org/10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20260402

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  Literature is a crucial domain of language life. Literary works not only reflect language life, but also actively shape it. Therefore, literary works should be included as an important subject in language life research. The language life represented in literary works can be analyzed on three levels: textual language life, the language life of the subject, and objective language life. Based on the relationship between the time of creation and the era depicted, literary works can be categorized as recording, retrospective, or reconstructive types, with the research value of the textual language life gradually decreasing across these types. The language life presented in literary works is characterized by concreteness, integrity, and continuity, offering human-centered qualitative data for language study. Research on language life in literary works can use speech acts as basic units, constructing a reduction system across three levels (“micro—meso—macro”), three dimensions (“text—writer—society”), and two perspectives  (“internal—external”). Research in this area not only responds to calls in the literary community, but also aligns with the linguistic tradition of focusing on literature, thus redefining the role of literature in language life. Such research broadens the perspective of language research in the literary community, enriches the resources of language life research, and contributes to the construction of both a history and a high-quality practice of language life. The value of studying language life in literary works deserves further recognition and in-depth exploration.
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  Language Life in Xu Zechen’s Fiction

  Hu Mingxiao

  Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2026, 11(4): 42-51. https://doi.org/10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20260403

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  Viewed through a sociolinguistic lens, Xu Zechen’s fiction presents a multi-dimensional portrayal of and profound reflection on “language life”. At the micro level, his perceptual writing transforms a dialect into an aesthetic symbol and an instrument of power that conveys nostalgia, confirms individual existence, and negotiates identity, thereby revealing the deep linguistic identity anxieties of the individual. At the meso level, the Grand Canal-centered narrative space constructs a trans-lingual field integrating ancient and modern times as well as local and global contexts, demonstrating the complex interactions among the social stratification of language, translation ethics, diachronic transmission and multilingual landscapes. At the macro level, his aesthetic construction of “language as method” is particularly prominent, manifested as stylistic awareness based on elegance and propriety, the recognition that language has evolved from a practical tool into a “token of trust” and a “pathway”, as well as methodological support from empirical investigation and knowledge-based intertextuality. Altogether, the three dimensions elevate the aesthetic representation of language life into a paradigmatic literary practice. Xu Zechen’s works not only record the linguistic changes in modern and contemporary China, but also address three core issues at the intersection of literature and linguistics: the value of literary texts as research materials for language life, how fictional narratives transcend empirical research, and the possibility of in-depth interdisciplinary integration to jointly construct the panorama of language life.
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  Shedding and Growth of the “Self”: Lexical Changes in Contemporary Workers’ Poetry#br#

  Mo Haibin

  Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2026, 11(4): 52-62. https://doi.org/10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20260404

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  Literary works constitute a special domain of language life. They record the temporal changes of language life and participate in the construction of sociolinguistic life through emotional and aesthetic expressions. For over a century, Chinese poetry themed on workers has advanced side by side with the times, serving as a spiritual epic of the working class. From the perspectives of language and identity, the narrative persons and personal pronouns in modern worker-themed poetry have undergone a historical shift from the third-person pronoun “he” to the first-person pronoun “we”. Among the four major genres of contemporary workers’ poetry emerging since the reform and opening-up, a prevalent transition from “we” to “I” has emerged. Differences in narrative persons stem from variations in subjective identity, and they also determine how narrators choose their words, organize sentences into coherent texts, and thereby depict a picture of language life imbued with temporal traits and group characteristics. Approaching the subject from this angle enables an in-depth exploration of the spiritual world and emotional structure of the creators of contemporary workers’ poetry. The “I” that has broken away from the collective “we” is regaining strength, piecing together fragmented spirits, and embarking on the reconfirmation and development of a new subjectivity.
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  Human Language Evolution from the Perspective of Philosophy of Language

  Jiang Yi

  Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2026, 11(4): 63-74. https://doi.org/10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20260405

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  Modern linguistics has developed in close connection with the philosophy of language. The emergence of evolutionary linguistics not only challenges the static orientation  of traditional linguistic research but also opens up  a new direction for research on the philosophy of language. Evolutionary linguistics emerged against the backdrop of modern linguistic science, and its fundamental ideas are primarily derived from  the natural sciences. Yet, when evolutionary methods are applied to the origin and development of human language, evolutionary theory itself still faces many unresolved challenges. Language evolution is not a simple biological evolutionary process, nor can its complex process of linguistic evolution  be adequately explained through a purely scientific mode of thought; other explanatory approaches must be employed simultaneously. Modern philosophy of language, with its central concern for how language represents the world, offers particularly profound insights into the evolution of human language. From a philosophical perspective, the archaeological examination of the transition  from signal to symbol represents a significant achievement of evolutionary linguistics and provides crucial scientific grounds for philosophers to advance their study of language toward abstraction and logical analysis.  The transition from signal to symbol is not only a decisive  turning point in the evolution of human language but also a great revolution in humanity’s way of understanding the world.
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  The Social Emergence of Reference

  Lu Deping and Liang Yu

  Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2026, 11(4): 75-86. https://doi.org/10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20260406

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  Reference serves to connect language with reality and constitutes one of the primary notions in the study of sentence meaning and philosophy of language. Drawing on classical discussions by Russell, Strawson, Donnellan and others, this article proposes the perspective of the “social emergence of reference”. From this perspective, reference enters communicative contexts through sentences; it is shaped by context while also reshaping the nature of context. Thus, reference cannot be grounded solely in the identification of referential objects, but must be understood within a communicative framework in which speaker and hearer construct shared meaning. The article argues that definite and indefinite forms of reference reveal a dual orientation between language and reality: identification and interpretation. Definite reference tends to foreground the identification of objects in reality, whereas indefinite reference often foregrounds the interpretation of sentence meaning and the transmission of knowledge. Only in social activity, and in relation to the communicative purpose of an utterance, can referential meaning emerge. On this basis, the article explains the asymmetry between referential forms and referential objects, clarifies the relation between particularity and generality, and outlines the social regularities governing the use of referential expressions.
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  Neurodiversity and Emerging Directions in Research on Language Development in Autistic Children

  Zhou Peng and Gao Zeying

  Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2026, 11(4): 87-96. https://doi.org/10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20260407

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  The neurodiversity framework offers a transformative alternative to the traditional medical models in autism research. The concept of neurodiversity posits that human neurodevelopment is inherently heterogeneous. Although certain neurotypes are more prevalent within the population than others, there is no singular “correct” or normative type. This article begins by introducing the concept of neurodiversity and critically examines existing language and cognitive-behavioural studies on autistic children within traditional medical frameworks. It argues that, from the neurodiversity perspective, the core objective of language research on autistic children is to investigate their natural trajectories of language development so as to identify their strengths and communicative resources, to foster inclusive communicative environments, and to support them in using language for effective communication, and ultimately to enhance their autonomy, agency, and well-being. To achieve this goal, this article proposes a three-level shift in research approaches. First, at the philosophical level, it advocates the construction of an autonomous framework for language research on autism that does not rely on neurotypical traits as a comparative baseline. Second, at the methodological level, it emphasizes the incorporation of first-hand accounts of autistic experiences and taking autistic traits seriously as part of the research design. Finally, in terms of research content, it argues for a focus on pragmatic competence, particularly on how autistic children use language in social interaction, with the goal of empowering them as confident and effective communicators.