ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B

Acta Psychologica Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (9): 944-959.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00944

• Reports of Empirical Studies • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Language evolution and ethnic group/dialect name affecting ethnic information processing: Three major Chinese dialects in Guangdong

WU Limei1, ZHANG Jijia2,1(), MENG Le3, ZHANG Xiaolin1, HUANG Nanxin1, ZHANG Jinqiao1   

  1. 1College of Chinese Language and Culture, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510610, China
    2Faculty of Education, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China
    3Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China; Beijing 100872, China
  • Received:2020-09-13 Published:2021-09-25 Online:2021-07-22
  • Contact: ZHANG Jijia E-mail:zhangjj1955@163.com
  • Supported by:
    National research key project of the National People’s Commission of the People’s Republic of China: “Research on the cognitive law of bilingual learning of ethnic minority students”(2017-GMA-004);special research project of the united front of Jinan University: “Research on the relationship between language education and national identity of youth from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas Chinese”(12620821)

Abstract:

Language is one of the important cultural characteristics of ethnic groups. Based on the historical facts that the three dialects in Guangdong are immigrants from the Central Plains, the paper discusses the differences of language evolution among the three dialects and the influence of ethnic / dialect names on the information processing of the three dialects. Guangdong college students who use dialect as Hakka, Cantonese and Teochew dialect were selected as subjects. Experiment 1 used the R/K model of group reference to investigate the memory of the information of the Central Plains ethnic groups by different dialect speakers; Experiment 2 used the Stroop paradigm to investigate the attention bias of different dialect speakers to the information of the Central Plains ethnic group. The results show that the differences of language evolution and the names of ethnic groups / dialects affect the information retention of different dialects speakers to the Central Plains ethnic groups, and the Hakka dialect groups who tenaciously maintain the ancestral language have group reference effect on the information processing of the Central Plains ethnic groups. The differences of language evolution and the names of ethnic groups / dialects affect the attention bias of dialect speakers to the information of the Central Plains ethnic groups, while the Hakka dialect groups have a tendency to pay attention to the information processing of the Central Plains ethnic groups. The whole study shows that the differences of language evolution and the influence of ethnic / dialect names on the information processing of the same ancestor group can fully preserve the characteristics of the Han ancestral language, strengthen the relationship between dialect and Han ancestral language, and enhance the sense of root ancestor and the identity of the same root group. The results of the study have important implications for the construction of the consciousness of the Chinese community.

Key words: language evolution, ethnic group name, dialect