Author ｜
Yasuda Toshiaki, translated by Li Bichhin
Abstract ｜
In this paper I will explore how national language (國語) in the modern nation-state was utilized as a techniques of state authority. Because it is a techniques, it is necessary for it to be maintained as a system ─ this is where its modernity is represented and where it is linked to the “Question of National Language and Script.” On the other hand, this system incorporates the spiritual and historical elements that constitute“national identity” (國民性) and distinguish it from other nations. When these two constructions come into being we have for the first time the modern conception of “national language.” The language to shoulder this techniques of state authority was regarded as a written style such as that represented by the “genbun itti (言文一致) unification of speech and writing)” which enabled all subjects (國民) to read and write. It is the same“national language” spoken by the same national subjects living in the same historical period. This same “national language” is frequently labeled“standard language,” and comes under increasingly coercive demands to be used as techniques of state authority. In this paper I will describe the process of the construction of “national language” in the modern Japan.
keywords ｜
Mori Arinori, Ueda Kazutoshi, national language as a system, naturalization of national language, standard language and dialects, national language and colonial rule