Different languages, different cultures, different language ideologies, different linguistic models

Abstract

In this paper it is argued that different languages and different cultures have different language ideologies. Language ideologies are pervasive in all forms of thinking and particularly in linguistic models, bringing to bear upon the way how language is studied. Culturally varied and socio-historically specific, they cannot be superseded by the dominating language ideology of Western culture, which claims that linguistics, as an autonomous and objective science, should be valueneutral and ideology-free. In view of the study of the Chinese language, any theorizing in the distinctive Chinese way must take as the starting point the language vision specific to Chinese culture, and it should be deeply embedded in the socio-historical matrix and firmly anchored in the empirical data. © 2009 Taylor & Francis.