Emergent China and Chinese: Language Planning Categories

Abstract

This article extends a taxonomic system initially developed by Kloss to describe constitutional and more broadly legal-political categories for language policy in the United States to the Chinese situation. The article extends the taxonomy of spheres of language planning action from sovereignty and jurisdiction to include influence, acquisition, and retention and recovery. These categories are applied to the wide framework of learning and teaching Chinese that is following in the wake of the vast expansion of the economic and the emergent geo-political presence of China. The taxonomy is used as the basis for discussion of the articles comprised in this special issue of Language Policy whose content and key arguments are incorporated in the present article.