本文首先說明語言發生和發展的社會因素,繼而舉例介紹語言社群、語體、雙語、雙言、多語等社會語言學的基本概念,最後再利用這些概念檢討台灣的語言生態。結論指出:台灣近四百年來,經歷了從多語到雙語,再到多語的三個發展階段。
This paper deals with the social ecology of the languages of Taiwan. Several sociolinguistic concepts such as linguistic community, bilingualism, diglossia, multilingualism, and the socio-biological foundations for language evolution are briefly introduced. It is pointed out in the conclusion that Taiwan, during the last four hundred years, has been experienced three stages of sociolinguistic development from a society of multilingualism, through diglossia, and back to multilingualism again.