浅析影响人们语言态度的因素

任璐

【摘要】人们经常习惯于通过一个人所说的语言来对其进行评价。之所以会产生这种现象是由于人们对标准语言、方言和口音有自己的态度。因为种种原因，词汇作为语言的最基本要素可以另人们产生积极的或者消极的态度。本文主分析了影响人们语言态度的因素。主要包括语言变化、语言使用环境和性别区别三个方面。

【关键词】 态度 语言态度 语言变化

【中图分类号】H0 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】2095-3089（2016）05-0012-01C

Listeners always categorize the majority of speakers by the language they speak or whether they have strong local accents， the reason being that people always have their own attitudes to language， variety or accents. The attitude will be influenced by the factors of language change， using context difference and gender difference.

Language change as a not uncommon phenomenon has been a subject of research for many years. Language change is merely an umbrella term and it includes various changes， such as vocabulary change， pronunciation change， or word spelling change. McMahon （1994） categorized these changes into sound change， syntactic change， semantic changes etc.

Some particular words have acquired additional or new meanings in addition to the original， for example the Chinese word ‘gouzai ，（it can be directly translated into ‘paparazzi）， which was used to describe cute dogs in the past. Nowadays， people have a negative attitude to this word in China as it usually refers to entertainment reporters who are devoted to reporting scandals about stars. Thus the function of this word has been transformed from a commendatory to a derogatory word.

In addition to language change， the context in which a word is spoken also influences how people perceive this word. The Chinese word ‘zouhou men ，（it can be directly translated into the phrase ‘through the back door）， can also be perceived differently according to its application settings. The denotative meaning of this word means ‘entering some places through the back door， and it is a neuter word without negative or positive emotion. However， when used to describe people applying unethical methods to obtain personal interests， it possesses almost the same meaning as the English word ‘bribery， therefore people will perceive ‘zouhoumen negatively in this context.

People always categorise particular words as female and male， in other words the attitudes towards these words will be different. For instance， some adjectives such as ‘cute， ‘beautiful or ‘pretty are usually used to describe women whilst in contrast， the words ‘handsome， ‘gentleman or ‘energy are always used to describe men. Furthermore， people perceive words with soft or polite features as being feminine， whilst masculine words are associated with the characteristics of hardness or power. Therefore people evaluate these two groups of words from a different perception.

If a person uses a word like ‘cute to describe an adult man or boy， he will be perceived negatively as he is applying an unsuitable word； at the same time， people will have a negative attitude towards the word as it has not been used appropriately. People associate words such as ‘lipstick， ‘cosmetic， or ‘handbag with women， but never link them to men.

This paper has discussed the factors which may determine a persons attitude towards some particular words from factors such as language change， context， gender difference.In fact， these factors are not separate and they can interact with each other. Attitudes to a word as a complex subject may be influenced by various reasons instead of simply one factor.