Standardization of Mandarin

Trustees of Indiana University
Anthropological Linguistics
Problems and Trends of Standardization of Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan

Author(s): David Chen-ching Li
Source: Anthropological Linguistics, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer, 1985), pp. 122-140
Published by: The Trustees of Indiana University on behalf of Anthropological Linguistics
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PROBLEMSAND TRENDS OF STANDARDIZATIONOF
MANDARINCHINESE IN TAIWAN
David Chen-ching Li
National Taiwan Normal University
"What is correct depends upon what is appropriate to the

situation and the status of the speaker or writer" (Chao
1976) .
Abstract. Taiwan is a linguistically enriched geographical

location where standard Mandarin Chinese has developed to the
extent that it gradually deviates from the linguistic norm of
Peking Mandarin. The so-called standard Mandarin Chinese in
Taiwan has been accepted by the great majority of the people
regardless of their ancestral origins. The differences in many
new lexical and phonetic, and even syntactic features have been
reconciled by speakers of all levels, thus, not jeopardizing any
communication efficiency.
I. Introduction. It has often been asserted that language
is always changing. This is particularly true from a social
ethnolinguistic point of view. The Anglo-Saxon language has
evolved drastically into contemporary English after a span of
approximately 1,400 years. Due to geographical, political, and
social development, English spoken in different parts of the
world varies in some phonetic and syntactic features, despite the
fact that it is today a lingua franca. This linguistic
phenomenon of the English language will persist, as Butchfield of
the Oxford English Dictionary argues that English is gradually
breaking up into unintelligible varieties (Newsweek 1982).
With regard to linguistic change in connection with
communication, Greenberg (1971:86) specifically points out that
language plays a unique role in communication, which, aside from
all other considerations, doubtlessly assures its future. This
argument is compatible with the current development of Mandarin
Chinese spoken in Taiwan, in relation to its gradual deviation
from the course of Peking Mandarin, which has been officially
designated as the standard national language since 1930.
The trends and development of Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan
(henceforth MCT) are compatible with those of English and many
other languages of the world in terms of linguistic changes and
variation. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to specify
the problems and trends of standardization of Mandarin Chinese in
Taiwan in relation to its counterpart, Mandarin Chinese in Peking
(henceforth MCP) and elsewhere, so as to justify the claim that
122

Problems and Trends of Standardization 123
MCT is developing along a linguistically significant course. It

is the hope of the author that this synchronic study will shed
some light on linguistic change in general, and Chinese
dialectology in particular. My claim is that changes occur due
to social, economic, and political development and that the
linguistic differences between MCT and MCP will be widened to the
extent that people from both sides of the Taiwan Straits will
have greater difficulty in attaining mutual intelligibility
without effort.1
The development of "Standard Mandarin spoken in Taiwan" used
extensively by the intelligentsia at home and abroad for the
purpose of efficient communication has encountered some
resistance. One goal of this paper is to justify the validity of
the type of Mandarin (e.g., MCT) from the viewpoint of socio-
linguistics and communication so as to render it acceptable in
academe, which has some bearing on the pragmatic attitude of the
majority of the people in general.
2. The development ot standardized Mandarin Chinese in

Taiwan. Taiwan has made gigantic strides in standardizing
Mandarin as a unified language since 1949. Prior to that time,
Taiwanese, or Southern Min, was the major language variety for
communication together with Hakka, spoken by the minority. The
influx of mainlanders from the Chinese mainland brought to Taiwan
Cantonese and Mandarin with Santong, Sichuan, and Hunan
varieties, etc. The campaign of promoting Mandarin Chinese (MCP)
as the sole means of communication and instruction at school was
very intense from 1949 to 1960. Achievement was remarkable
during that period as teachers and students were encouraged to
learn Mandarin and to use MCPin school programs. This campaign,
initiated by the Taiwan provincial government and supported by
the Ministry of Education, has attained considerable achievements
in converting Mandarin into the lingua franca in Taiwan. In his
annual report of administrative accomplishments, Yung Wei,
director of the Research and Development Council, the Executive
Yuan, proudly proclaimed that the promotion of Mandarin Chinese
in Taiwan is one of the acclaimed governmental administrative
successes since 1949.
As a matter of fact, Mandarin Chinese is now a genuinely
universal language spoken in Taiwan not only by school children
but by people anywhere regardless of age and social status (Li
1983) . Although Taiwanese and Hakka are used interchangeably by
many people, Mandarin is dominant and understood by all,
including aged farmers and fishermen.
The linguistic changes of MCTfrom MCPcan be marked by the
salient features of the gradual loss of the nonsyllabic final -r
and retroflexivization, both of which characterize MCP. Except
for those born or reared in Peking, speakers of Mandarin Chinese
in Taiwan today hardly retain utterances with the final -r:
idian-r A little ht, fanwrn-r rice bo~wI, jizi-r egg, pilo-r
scoop, ni~opihn-r xiangwhi-r fragrance, t6u-r head, etc.
diapej,

124 Anthropological Linguistics, Vol. 27, No. 2
The loss of nonsyllabic -r in MCT is due primarily to ease of

articulation, since it takes more effort to utter the final -r
than otherwise. Secondly, the mutual influence of dialects has
some bearing on the loss of -r in Mandarin Chinese spoken in
Taiwan after 1949. Chao's comments (1976:75) justified the new
development of MCT and diluted some diehard scholars' insistence
that the MCP, together with its unique phonological features, be
the one to be exemplified in the Mandarin spoken in Taiwan:
But the illusion of no change from the old tradition could

be kept up by turning one's eyes away from the fact of
change in language, whether regularly by phonetic law or
irregularly through interdialectal borrowing, whether
consciously by setting up new norms or unconsciously through
incorrect reading or misinterpretation of recorus.
Chao's arguments, together with those of many other socio-

linguists, asserted that language is bound to change, and
Mandarin Chinese is no exception. This phenomenon can further be
justified in the syntactic development of MCP characterized by
the use of y6ng use, yu a, and yko , as seen in the
following examples:
(la) Wo yong cai de.

I use guess de-particle
I got it by guessing.
(2a) Ta y*ng pao de.

he use run de-particle
He came running.
(3a) Ni didi y6um iy6u 1 i?

you brother have-not-have come
Dia your (younger) brother come?
(4a) Tmeln you lai.

they have come
They came.
(5a) Nvmen yaobuyao qu?
you (pl.) want-not-want go
Do you want to go?
(6a) Zh~ng Xiansheng yhob6yao gen ni qu Tainan?

Zhang Mr. want-not-want with you go Tainan
Does Mr. Zhang want to go to Tainan with you?
Acceptable sentences indicated in (la) to (6a) are frequently
used by MCT speakers, although regarded as substandard in MCP.
Speakers with parents from the Peking area have also regarded
these sentences in MCTas well structured and acceptable,

although their parents who speak Peking Mandarin prefer saying

these sentences alternatively:
(ib) W6 shl cai de.

I be guess de-particle
I got it by guessing.
(2b) Ta shl pao lai de.

he be run come de-particle
He came running.
(3b) didi laile ma?

NM
your brother come-le ma-particle
Did your (younger) brother come?
(4b) Tamen lali (go) le.

they come (over) le-particle
They came.
(5b) Nimen yao qu ma?
you (pl.) want go ma-particle
Do you want to go?
(6b) Zhing Xidnsheng yao gen ni qu Tainan ma?

Zhang Mr. want with you go Tainan ma-particle
Will Mr. Zhang go to Tainan with you?
While yong use, you have, and yao want prevail in MCT, they are
replaced by, respectively, shi be, le/gao (aspect markers), and
question marker ma in MCP. Thus, in addition to the deletion of
nonsyllabic -r and loss of retroflexivization in MCT, we can
readily distinguish the syntactic features of MCT from those of
MCP.
The development of the so-called standard Mandarin Chinese
in Taiwan, with its de facto linguistic characteristics, has
gradually been recognized by speakers from the Chinese mainland,
including those from the Peking area. Their recognition of the
once-substandard MCT has indicated not only the acceptance of the
Taiwanese-colored Mandarin, but also demonstrated the mentality
for accepting Taiwan as a home for reestablishing ethnolinguistic
homogeneity and for developing positive linguistic tolerance.2
The result of this linguistic development of Mandarin Chinese in
Taiwan has led to other significant developments in the past two
decades.
3. Grouping of Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan. The development

of Mandarin Chinese has created numerous varieties through
interdialectal borrowing and merging. Mandarin spoken in Taiwan
can be grouped into three basic categories. Discussions of this
issue can serve as a follow-up to the development of standardized
Mandarin in Taiwan. It can also implement current investigation

into the more interesting social and political problems.

3L. Standard Peking Mandarin (M~P1. Standard Peking
Mandarin (MCP) has enjoyed prestige as the standard national
language which has been implemented as the model for all
nationals since 1933. However, with its peculiar phonetic
features, such as nonsyllabic -r, retroflexes, and its unique
lexicon (see Appendix I), it has encountereu some challenges as
mentioned in Section 2.
The only institutions that still teach and apply MCPare
those schools and institutions that teach Mandarin Chinese as a
second language to foreigners. Among these, the Mandarin
Training Center at the National Taiwan Normal University in
Taipei is the best known. Most of the Center's 180 teachers were
either born in Peking or speak MCP. There is a new tendency,
however, that teachers who do not speak MCPare gradually
replacing them. It is my belief that the number of speakers of
MCPwill eventually decrease, and as a natural result, the
standard Mandarin (MCT) without nonsyllabic -r will substitute
for the MCP.
For all the Mandarin speakers in Taiwan, MCPhas become part
of a social register identifying social status or geographical
identity. Thus, a person who can speak both MCPand MCTfluently
and naturally tends to speak MCTin a non-Peking speaker's
situation and will switch to MCPin a gathering of Peking
friends. Failure to do so will invite discomfort of the fellow
participants. This bidialectal situation is3growing popular
among intellectuals and in academic circles.3
3,2. Standard Taiwanese Mandarin (MCT). What makes the
standard Taiwanese Mandarin acceptable (or Mandarin Chinese
spoken in Taiwan) is the disuse of the nonsyllabic final -r
characterizing the Peking Mandarin. The enriched repertoire of
lexicons created in the context of contemporary science and
technology as well as modern culture developed through the effort
of the new generation Chinese living on Taiwan. Also, the
educational and economic boom, which has enabled the Chinese on
Taiwan to broaden their horizon of contact with people from the
rest of the world, and the upgrading of living standards have led
these people not only to pursue materialistic improvement but
also to develop their own cultural and linguistic identity.
The lexicons and idiomatic expressions used in the Chinese
mainland and in Taiwan are so drastically different from each
other that intelligibility has become a crucial problem. Chi
(1981:17-33) has listed a series of expressions popularly used on
the Chinese mainland that are not intelligible in Taiwan. And
the Chinese-English dictionary edited by the Department of
English at the Peking Foreign Language Institute in 1979
collected a great number of phrases not intelligible to the MTC
speakers on Taiwan, not to mention the newly developed
expressions created after 1979. One of the best examples
complying with Chi's claim is the fact that SUn Ti~n-chin1 had to
turn to others for help when he heard the expression kingzh6ng

xiaojie stewardess. And when Sun used expressions such as

zhangwo get 1 , understand and cuant6ng exchange (of items
or information) during the press conference on August 24, 1983,
many TV viewers could hardly understand him without interpre-
tation in terms of the context.
The standard Taiwanese Mandarin has become a characteristic,
acceptable, standard Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan used not only in
school at all different levels, but also by TV and radio
announcers through whom viewers and listeners imitate and acquire
both pronunciation and idiomatic expressions for daily use.
Since 1949, the nonsyllabic final -r suffix has been gradually
lost, and retroflex is no longer as salient a phonetic feature in
speech as it used to be. New syntactic structures have been
accepted as a result of interdialectal and intercultural
contacts.
Another factor that has caused the MCTto be partially
alienated from MCPis the new successful instruction of the
Chinese National Phonetic Alphabet (henceforth CNPA) starting
from kindergarten. This phonetic spelling based on 37 vowels and
consonants has helped not only the children but also adults and
foreign students in Taiwan readily grasp the authentic
pronunciation, which is partially different from that of the
Peking dialect. The unprecedented success in the teaching of the
CNPAhas thus helped promotion of MCTin all levels of school.
It is essential to note that people under 30 in Taiwan,
regardless of their province of origin, are characterized by this
newly developed type of Mandarin Chinese. They find it most
comfortable to use this type of Mandarin. As a matter of fact,
this type of Mandarin Chinese, borrowing heavily from MCPbut
drastically modified, has become the standard Mandarin Chinese of
Taiwan, spoken by the educated and social elites. It is standard
in the sense of being the most acceptable type of Mandarin in
Taiwan.
33. Substandard Taiwaneseg Mandari. The borrowing from
various dialects from the Chinese mainland before and after 1949
has had a great impact on both Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese
spoken in Taiwan. In 1949, the number of people speaking
Mandarin was very limited. Thereafter, there was a drastic
increase of popularity of Mandarin due to the active governmental
campaign for promoting Mandarin as well as the teaching of it in
schools at all levels. Interdialectal loans, as Chao (1976:75)
indicated, have resulted in so-called "Taiwanese Mandarin," which
is characterized by substituting Taiwanese phonetic and syntactic
features for the Mandarin counterparts. This type of substandard
language, unacceptable to the educated, was often ridiculed
between 1949 and 1975. It differentiates from MCTby failing to
comply with some phonological rules of Mandarin, the most salient
of which are failure to articulate retroflexes, unrounding of the
rounded vowels or semi-vowels; undue vowel insertion (epenthe-
sis), such as zhido _kgQ~about being pronounced as zudho and
chrfan a_ j~jL as cufan or cuhban; failure to articulate labial

dental sounds, such as nunYfu farli (which is frequently

mispronounced as "nunyh"; and tensing of the lax vowel such as
h yy good being mispronounced as "hienhgo." Finally, sonie
tense vowels have become lax by unduly deleting the high vowel
/u/ such as in guojia natj.n, which is mispronounced as "g6jia,"
and woinen we mispronounced as "6nien."
Syntactically speaking, a great number of ill-formed
sentences are generated, such as:
(7a) N y6u chrfan le m4iy6u?
you have eat-meal le not-have
Have you eaten (meal) yet?
(8a) Nl baba youmaeiyou z ijid?

you father have-not-have at-home
Is your dad home?
Both in MCTand MCP, sentences (7a) and (8a) should be:
(7b) Ni chiguofn le ma?

you eat-over le Q-particle
Have you eaten yet?
(8b) Ny bhba zaijia ma?

you father at-home Q-particle
Is your dad home?
Again, the overuse of y6u ha~Y prevails, causing many

able sentences based on A-not-A questions in Taiwanese 0naccept-
and
characterizes Taiwanese (substandard) Mandarin syntactically.
This type of substandard Mandarin Chinese, colored with
Taiwanese and vernacular varieties, used to be ridiculed before
the 1970s despite the fact that communication was made possible
even through this type of Mandarin.
As the social and economic status of Taiwan has been dras-
tically upgraded, educational opportunity and its achievement
have gradually reinforced the promotion of standard Mandarin
Chinese, regardless of MCTor MCP, such that the aforementioned
problems of the substandard Taiwanese Mandarin were gradually
eliminated, and interpersonal communication has been commen-
surably elevated to the maximal extent.
On the other hand, linguistic tolerance has developed in the
past decade and has made substandard Mandarin spoken in Taiwan a
lovable variety of Mandarin enjoyed significantly by the great
majority of the people, including those who are monolingual and
speak only Mandarin Chinese. This change of attitude toward
another dialect is positive and brings forth greater social
consolidation of the nation.
a. ProbIlems of standahtrdizati of Mandarin Chinese d

Taiwan. In spite of the three types of Mandarin Chinese spoken

in Taiwan, we are positive that the Mandarin Chinese spoken in

Taiwan has attained considerable standardization, regardless of
the various vernacular or dialectal differences. This has been
justified by the possibility of efticient communication in
Mandarin in this country. As for the similarities and dissimi-
larities of the Mandarin in Taiwan and that of the Chinese
mainland or Singapore, Hong Kong, and other Chinese-speaking
communities, there should be more exhaustive discussion from
sociolinguistic and other viewpoints.
4,1. Development of the youngsters' slans and its impact oQ
MCT. There are some problems in Taiwan regarding the standardi-
zation of Mandarin Chinese as spoken here, one of which is the
rapid production of newly developed slang, which is popular among
the young people. These new slang expressions (see Appendix II
for reference) are also popularly used at all levels of school,
particularly at the secondary and post-secondary levels, and have
created communication gaps between parents and children. A well-
written article by the promising young writer Ts'ai Hao-ch'i,
which was published in the Literary Supplement Edition of the
United Daily News on August 30, 1983, was entitled kaizi (U +)
boys, and people over fifty years of age will have difficulty
understanding it. No wonder that professor Huang Kuo-yen of the
National Chengchi University Psychology Department warned all
parents in a PTA Symposium of the danger of not knowing chil-
dren's "secret language." In other words, Professor Huang
claimed that it is imperative that parents learn the new slang so
as to render communication possible across generations. Huang
further pointed out that failure to do so will lead to more
social problems, such as juvenile delinquency, as a result of
linguistic anomalies.
Efforts to resist the wide spreading of youngsters' new
slang have turned out to be futile. Some of the expressions have
already been adopted in the dictionary published by the Mandarin
Daily in Taipei. The word gai to ca is used so often that even
the older generation can comprehend it with ease. This socio-
linguistic phenomenon has created more problems than solutions
for the standardization of Mandarin Chinese. As more and more
unsystematic lexicons are generated, it takes time for these new
slang words to be accepted in the regular Mandarin spoken by
various age groups. Thus, it turns out that there is a competi-
tive linguistic phenomenon going on in the process of the
development of Mandarin in Taiwan. The result of this will lead
to greater anomaly among the various types of Mandarin Chinese
spoken in different geographical locations.
4,2. Inconsistency oA pronunciation jn MCT. The formiaable
irregularity of pronunciation of the same character with
different semantic interpretations in the standard Mandarin
Chinese spoken in Taiwan confronts the Chinese in Taiwan,
including the educated people, with great problems. Chen
Chi-ying (1982) started a campaign urging the Chinese to unify
the Chinese pronunciation of i as /han/ when used as a

130 Anrthropolog:ical Linguistics, Vol. 27, No. 2
connective and as /he/ as used elsewhere. Prior to his active

campaign, many TV aind radio announcers used to pronounce it as
/he/. This pronunciation has been acceptea on a large scale by a
great many educated intellectuals. In fact, I was taught to
pronounce this connective as /han/ when I was in elementary
school (1947-1953), but again it became /he/ in high school days
(1953-1959). The diversification of pronunciations of this
character, along with Chen's campaign, has been gradually
unified, and /han/ instead of /he/ is now the standardized
pronunciation in MCT. The MCP speakers, however, insisted that
they do not use /han/ as a connective. Gen together with is the
right lexicon for the word in question in MCT,
The character F1 is not the only one possessing diversified
pronunciations in MCT. Two more striking examples of this sort
are the controversial standard pronunciations of xie blood and
g6j f uiny, bizarj according to the contemporary publication of
the dictionary. The popular pronunciations of these two expres-
sions accepted by the great majority of the people, however, are
xie and h6aji respectively. Ting Pang-hsing (1982) and Mei Kuang
(1982) both argued against this reversed standardization,
claiming that "a quarter of the most frequently used words are
listed in the 1,300-odd "split readings" dictionary of irregular
pronunciation, published by the Mand4in Daily. In other words,
one-fourth of the words we use frequently have two different
pronunciations at least, depending on the various semantic
interpretations. This phenomenon has constituted a heavy burden
to the student's learning of language (Mei 1982:26). Some
dictionaries, moreover, have been published recently reminding
the learners of these various "correct, standard" pronunciations
of the same character in different semantic contexts. This
practice has put the learners, young and old, in a dilemma. It
is a question worth detailed discussion: should the pronuncia-
tions of the same word be standardized and variation minimized so
as to enhance communication and eliminate the learner's mental
burden?
4.3. Tf newly od expAessions. Newly
developed expressions under the influence of science and
technology as well as the dissemination of contemporary informa-
tion through the mass media have created a great number of
phrases not intelligible to the people of two decades ago.
Phrases such as diinnao computer, xinxiing i~ang, rintinq
identitr, sullg~n detachmen, zhimlndu poIpFularity, zuoxiu show
hiZ, giqoding Slate, scheduled dnl~iigy, plichu...de kelengxing
the possibility of jgioinl QUtg..., etc., are gradually built into
the lexicons of adults due primarily to the popular application
of science and technology, as well as ready access to the mass
media, which provide a large stock of innovative expressions for
unconscious perception. The result of this phenomenon has
initiated a new era of linguistic development of the Mandarin
Chinese spoken in Taiwan. No wonder people from Hong Kong,
Singapore, and the Chinese mainland encounter the problem of

mutual intelligibility upon arriving in Taipei, although they all

speak Mandarin Chinese.
The aforementioned of these morphological constructions has
confused many people in their process of language acquisition.
It does, however, provide a shortcut for enriching the Chinese
language, Mandarin Chinese in particular. For instance, by
employing the morphological prefix and suffix such as dianqihoa
electrification, t hoa wast gaoshugonglu expregs
liquidized s,
hiqhway, tinranci natural gas, taik6ngsuo shuttle, dzIzj
typewriter, printer, etc. These spac0
naturally produced
yingbiaoji
linguistic expressions are the ones that often discourage
intelligibility between two different generations, despite the
fact that they are easy to learn. Moreover, the problem in this
connection is for broad-minded scholars to introduce the new
Chinese expressions as standard in textbook and daily use.
Failure to do so will only lead to more semantic confusion among
speakers of different generations.
5. The trends of standardization of Mandarin Chinese in
Taiwan. It seems to me that the development of the microcomputer
has revolutionized the standardization of MCTalong the lines of
natural linguistic evolution, namely, simplicity, economy, and
generality (Hyman 1975:99-100) . These three criteria comply with
our aforementioned discussions on simplifying and economizing the
phonetic representation as the future trend of the Mandarin
Chinese in Taiwan. With this in mind, the following hypotheses
can be justified.
5.1. Substitution as a factor for standardization. In a
well-justified article, Luo Chao-ching (1983) argued that many
Chinese cannot pronounce the retroflex because of the influence
of their local dialects, which have some historical significance.
The fact that the retroflex in MCTis different from that in MCP
has confirmed that there is no such thing as standard Mandarin,
just as it is impossible to argue what kind of American English
is the standard English.
The loss of the final nonsyllabic -r and gradual and partial
loss of the retroflex will probably characterize the MCT. Also,
the syntactic change found in MCTas opposed to its MCPcounter-
part will eventually characterize the Mandarin Chinese spoken in
Taiwan, due to the influences of various factors. This argument
is well taken by Wang Huan (1982:35), who claims that the change
of language has been possible through the need for social
modification. This is particularly true in the syntactic and
semantic changes on the Chinese mainland. In MCT, it is not
feasible to see the complete loss of the retroflex in the
foreseeable future. However, few will regard the undistinctive
retroflex as an intolerable blunder even in the standard Mandarin
Chinese, since as reality indicates, the mispronunciation or
misused semantic units will be acceptable to construct another
communicable linguistic message along with the norm of simpli-
city, economy, and generality. This is an inevitable trend in

the development of human language (Huang Chung-shen 1983).

5.2. Simplification Agn inevitable trend. The simplifi-
cation of the Mandarin Chinese both in Taiwan and on the Chinese
mainland has characterized the contemporary development of this
language, although the two areas have followed different paths of
simplifying the means of communication. The Mainland's putonghua
cmmon speech is extremely politically oriented, whereas the
Taiwan Mandarin is more pragmatically oriented for communication
needed in a highly commercially and technologically developed
society. Combined with the dialectal influences, the Mandarin
Chinese spoken in Taiwan will be drastically different from
Mainland Mandarin, both in contents and features. It is feasible
that there will be phonetic, semantic, and syntactic differences
between the two types of Mandarin and intelligibility will be
reduced drastically. This hypothesis is justified by the fact
that STUn had difficulty understanding part of the
conversationTian-chln
in Taipei. In fact, the two types of Mandarin will
develop along different courses.
For efficient communication and more practical language
acquisition, simplification of the Chinese language is necessary.
Thus, more new practical lexicons will emerge, and the variety of
pronunciation of the same words will be reduced. It is my belief
that the argument whether j' -funny, bizarre should be pro-
nounced as /h6aji/ or /gilj/ will no more be a problem, because
by then the former instead of the latter as claimed by some
scholars will be the pragmatic and acceptable standaro one.
5J1. Conformity ad dissimilarity btween MCT putonqg0ua.
Interestingly, the pronunciation of both MCT ana putonghua a_ follow
similar rules for their development, namely, deviation from the
strict observation of the nonsyllabic final -r and retroflex of
the MCP.
Syntactically, there are new morphological units shared both
by MCT and putonghua. Examples such as shuipin 19ey, luoshi
solidify, accomplish thoroughly, zhangwo uphol, get ild onf,
etc., are popular in daily conversation and written Chinese in
both areas regardless of the totally different social and
political situations.
There are diversified differences between the Mandarin of
the two sides, however. The politically oriented expressions
cited by Chi (1981:17-33) are not intelligible to the Chinese on
Taiwan. Continuity of this phenomenon will eventually make the
two kinds of Mandarin somewhat like the American English and
British English of A.D. 2500.
6. Conclusion. It is commonly agreed that the mass media

play a major role in the development of promotion of Mandarin
Chinese in Taiwan, for better or for worse (Ting 1982:13). The
rapid advancement of science and technology, combined with the
miraculous economic boom, has made the dissemination of informa-
tion together with language instruction progress rapidly. With
t~c dialectal differences, however, MCT is leading a course not

thoroughly identical to that of either MCPor putonghua semanti-

cally and syntactically. As a result, new scientifically and
technologically oriented lexicons and expressions are developed,
as opposed to the politically oriented counterparts in putonghua.
As tolerance of deviation from the standard MCPis growing,
the standard Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan is gradually becoming
different from the designated national language, MCP, both in
phonological and syntactic features. However, the government has
claimed drastic success in making it possible for all people in
Taiwan to be able to communicate with one another through
Mandarin despite age differences.
With its unique phonological and syntactic features
influenced by the Southern Min dialect, MCThas replaced MCPand
is becoming the lingua franca in Taiwan. As a result, MCThas
been regarded and accepted as the standard Mandarin in Taiwan.
It is so popular that the children whose parents possess Southern
Min as a mother tongue tend to prefer MCTto the parents' dialect
in order to attain better communication. This is particularly
true in northern Taiwan. Furthermore, the increase of scientifi-
cally and technologically oriented phrases, combined with the
generation of expressions in different social and political
contexts, has widened the gap between MCT, MCP, and putonghua,
making mutual intelligibility more and more difficult among
people from different areas.
The development of the youngsters' slang has been added to
the linguistic features of MCTand will have considerable
influence in future linguistic as well as sociolinguistic
development in Taiwan. This trend will create even greater
difference between MCTand putonghua or MCPin a natural
evolution.
QRKSCITED
Chao, Yuen Ren. 1976. What is correct in Chinese. Aspects of
Chinese Sociolinguistics, ed. Anwar S. Dil. Stanford:
Stanford University Press.
Chen, Chi-ying. 1982. The campaign of promoting one character: on
Chinese connective "han" which should be read as /han/.
Mandarin Daily, September 2-4.
Cheng, Robert L. 1978. Taiwanese morphemes in search of Chinese

characters. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 6.2:306-15.
Chi, Wen-shun. 1981. Some semantic changes of the Chinese

language since 1949. Journal of the Chinese Language
Teachers Association 16.4:17-33.

Greenberg, Joseph H. 1971. Language, Culture, and Communication.

Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Huang, Chung-shen. 1983. On the habitual formation of Language.

The China Times. May 18.
Hyman, Larry M. 1975. Phonology Theory and Analysis. New York:

Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Li, Chen-ching. 1983. The sociolinguistic context of Mandarin in

Taiwan: trends and development. Papers from the Fourteenth
International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Language and
Linguistics, ed. C. Chu, S. Coblin, and F. Tsao. Taipei:
Student Book Co., Ltd.
Li, Paul J.-K. 1982. Chinese language and modern society, pt. 1.
China Tribune. 14.3:19-21.
Luo, Chao-ching. 1983. Accumulation of false can become truth.

The China Times, May 6.
Mei, Kuang. 1982. Chinese language and modern society, pt. 3.

Newsweek. 1982. English, English everywhere. Nov. 15. pp. 32-7.
Ting, Pang-hsing. 1982. Chinese language and society, pt. 1.

Wang, Huan. 1982. Changes in Mandarin since 1949. Journal of
Chinese Language Teachers Association 17.2:35-43.
NOTES
1. Cases as such are exemplified by speakers from the

Chinese mainland who can hardly understand the expressions
popularly used in Taiwan and overseas. When Sun Tian-chin, a
mainland lieutenant colonel who arrived in Taipei on August 24,
1983, was asked whether or not he was given warm and excellent
service by any kdngzhohng xiaojii stewardess, he could not
comprehend it at all. Thus, he was obliged to turn to others for
illustration. Only by doing so did he realize that k*ngzhUng
xiaoji used by the Chinese in Taiwan is equivalent to k6ngzhong
fuwuyuan in the Chinese mainland.
Likewise, Sun Tian-chin used some expressions hardly
understandable to the Chinese in Taiwan, particularly the young
generations. Examples such as zhgngw6 Af,
O0hold
realize, cuantong exchang are expressions Sun used during
the press conference on August 24, 1983, as in:

(a) W6 meiyou zhangwo.

I not-have control/hold
I have no idea.
(b) Nianqinren bidc ba zhexie luyindai huxiang cuantong.
youngsters each other ba these tapes with exchange
The young people exchange their tapes with each other.
2. Linguistic tolerance and assimilation can be evidenced
in the speech of Mr. Lin Yang-kang, former governor of Taiwan.
Mr. Lin's speech delivery, colored with very strong and heavy
vernacular accents such as the loss of retroflexivization, the
unrounding of some rounded vowels, the delabialization of the
labial dentals, tensifying of the lax vowels, and undue rounding,
etc., made some MCPspeakers uncomfortable and thus invited some
criticism. After the lapse of about ten years, Mr. Lin's
utterances, despite the usual substandard pronunciation, have
become symbols of candidness, sincerity, and amicability. This
phenomenon reflected from Mr. Lin's speech is an extension of MCP
speakers' gradual acceptance of MCT.
3. Some scholars tend to interpret "bidialectal" as
"bilingual." Both are used to account for the same situation in
relation to the acquisition of MCT, MCP, and Southern Min. Cheng
(1978:308) has claimed:
The sociolinguistic situation of contemporary Taiwanese
language users differs drastically from that of earlier
periods. In the past, most people were monolingual. Today
in Taiwan, more than 80 percent of the population is
bilingual, speaking both Taiwanese and Mandarin.
Exposures to various dialects/languages make different learning.
4. The A-not-A (disjunctive) questions in Mandarin Chinese
are exemplified as follows:
(a) Tamen qu-bu-qu.
they go-not-go
Are they going? (Will they go?)
(b) Qingwun ni sh%-b6-sh'i L' Guo-xiu?
please-ask you be-not-be Li Guo-xiu
Excuse me. Are you Mr. Li Guo-xiu?
The generalization of Mandarin A-not-A questions exemplified
above has led Taiwanese speakers to generate sentences such as:
(c) N( you-mei-you chifin?
you have-not-have eat-rice
Have you eaten yet?

Sentence (c) is not regarded as an acceptable sentence in

standard Mandarin such as MCP. This type of sentence has
gradually become popular in MCT, since sentence (d) is
acceptable.
(d) Ta shi -bu-shi nyde haopengy ou ?
he be-not-be your good friend
Is he your good friend?

Appendix I: Vocabulary items used differently in Peking Mandarin

and Taiwan Mandarin*
Taiwan Mandarin Peking Mandarin Glossary

9 ( IT )
JRUM match
(OT)M F soap
cigarette
flashlight
mop
phonograph;
record player
vest
short pants
scarf
Chinese hat
overcoat
;T98 earrings
necklace
ring
egg
bean sprout
Ill
0rfIIk bean
Al
Ssfi
string bean
snake
rat
b'
J :Cko
SgeC
,
i!j cr ow
,i

Taiwan Mandarin Peking Mandarin Glossary
sparrow
rascal
bother
comfortable
gi sl
(mouth) watering
gi take a walk
N 2f
(~i-pft corner
AiJ cheat
mean; vile
bend (one's body)
sesame oil
jfilk
n k
(store) closed
sm~t
chop; stamp
find fault with
bother; trouble
iN m
shoot (to death)
almost; nearly
virtually
place; display
nylon material
*The above list of vocabulary items was prepared with the

assistance of Fang Mu-lian, Pin Chi-yuan, Chian Ching-min, Kao
Ying-hua, and Ku Chen-sheng. All of them are native speakers of
Peking Mandarin and are currently teachers of the Mandarin
Training Center, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei.

Appendix 1: Newly developed slang in Taiwan

The following are slang expressions often used by youngsters,
especially those in the secondary and post-secondary schools:
shaobdo k (Ei show off
lu silly; clumsy; stupid
bao funny; awkward
laf eng handsome; attractive; good-looking

kaizi boy; man
I f
maz i girl; female
Ri BR
diao k izi chasing boys/males
gaogan skillful; remarkable

ciu embarrass; causing embarrassed
cai poorly done/performed; terrible
%. .%
alslan enjoy showing off to people
piaodren PEf a group of people; gang

1 an pol- very; to a certain extent
1e overjoyed; overwhelmed by excitement
ti4 definitely; for sure
pa oniu having fun with girls
sihuli married people

sihui huobiao jit A dating others despite being married
cidib n dancing
tiaoozi cigarette
hca o smoking cigarette
knowing what to do; skillful
sh4ngdao
ul aide swindle; got it by trick

"I
(gal gab; idle talk
qiaoding have an appointment fixed; slate

laowai foreigners
laozhong Chinese
laogong husband
cuanbang unduly exposed

xinslanren freshman
kaoguti S ,I old, repeated exam questions

keishu reading; working hard on reading
dang 'i
l
flunk
sidang x l squarely/definitely flunked
huodang partially flunked with hope of
having a make-up exam

qioke skipping classes
sansande in low spirits; gloomy

Ipuo talkative
xian rare; hardly heard about

3ue funny; incredible
III ~~i
zhaodezh' II i be able to dominate
IV v
gaobuhao the odds are...
wen unmanly
puo
E,. terrible; awful; lousy
genhao coquettish
sh ob bad luck
b mazi having fun with girls/female
uyaz ue bring bad luck orally


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Standardization of Mandarin

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Trustees of Indiana University

Problems and Trends of Standardization of Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan

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"What is correct depends upon what is appropriate to the

Abstract. Taiwan is a linguistically enriched geographical

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MCT is developing along a linguistically significant course. It

2. The development ot standardized Mandarin Chinese in

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The loss of nonsyllabic -r in MCT is due primarily to ease of

But the illusion of no change from the old tradition could

Chao's arguments, together with those of many other socio-

(la) Wo yong cai de.

(2a) Ta y*ng pao de.

(3a) Ni didi y6um iy6u 1 i?

(4a) Tmeln you lai.

(6a) Zh~ng Xiansheng yhob6yao gen ni qu Tainan?

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although their parents who speak Peking Mandarin prefer saying

(ib) W6 shl cai de.

(2b) Ta shl pao lai de.

(3b) didi laile ma?

(4b) Tamen lali (go) le.

(6b) Zhing Xidnsheng yao gen ni qu Tainan ma?

3. Grouping of Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan. The development

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into the more interesting social and political problems.

This content downloaded from 129.15.14.53 on Mon, 14 Oct 2013 20:02:05 PM

xiaojie stewardess. And when Sun used expressions such as

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dental sounds, such as nunYfu farli (which is frequently

(8a) Nl baba youmaeiyou z ijid?

(7b) Ni chiguofn le ma?

(8b) Ny bhba zaijia ma?

Again, the overuse of y6u ha~Y prevails, causing many

a. ProbIlems of standahtrdizati of Mandarin Chinese d

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in Taiwan, we are positive that the Mandarin Chinese spoken in

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connective and as /he/ as used elsewhere. Prior to his active

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mutual intelligibility upon arriving in Taipei, although they all

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the development of human language (Huang Chung-shen 1983).

6. Conclusion. It is commonly agreed that the mass media

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thoroughly identical to that of either MCPor putonghua semanti-

Cheng, Robert L. 1978. Taiwanese morphemes in search of Chinese

Chi, Wen-shun. 1981. Some semantic changes of the Chinese

This content downloaded from 129.15.14.53 on Mon, 14 Oct 2013 20:02:05 PM

Greenberg, Joseph H. 1971. Language, Culture, and Communication.

Huang, Chung-shen. 1983. On the habitual formation of Language.

Hyman, Larry M. 1975. Phonology Theory and Analysis. New York:

Li, Chen-ching. 1983. The sociolinguistic context of Mandarin in

Luo, Chao-ching. 1983. Accumulation of false can become truth.

Mei, Kuang. 1982. Chinese language and modern society, pt. 3.

Newsweek. 1982. English, English everywhere. Nov. 15. pp. 32-7.

Ting, Pang-hsing. 1982. Chinese language and society, pt. 1.

1. Cases as such are exemplified by speakers from the

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(a) W6 meiyou zhangwo.

This content downloaded from 129.15.14.53 on Mon, 14 Oct 2013 20:02:05 PM

Sentence (c) is not regarded as an acceptable sentence in

This content downloaded from 129.15.14.53 on Mon, 14 Oct 2013 20:02:05 PM