Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book focuses on the changing ways of using language— even at the micro level of innovative ways of using sounds and words— can bring about social change. The central theme of the book is about the mutually constitutive relation between language and social change. Linguistic innovation and change are not merely the reflexes and effects of social change but are among the very forces and resources for reconfiguring sociopolitical landscapes. The book expresses that sociolinguistic investigation of language change needs to look beyond the linguistic system to locate it within broader cultural political processes. It expresses that sociolinguistic investigation of language change needs to look beyond the linguistic system to locate it within broader cultural political processes. The book examines language change in China as a tool to dismantle a pre-reform socialist egalitarian society that upheld political and cultural conformity and suppressed expression of difference.