This paper introduces language documentation supportive of language revitalization as a new paradigm for the study of endangered languages. It is necessitated by the unprecedented endangerment of linguistic plurality and is facilitated by new technical developments. The research of endangered languages as proposed in our paper requires a shift from a 'language-as-a-system' to a 'language-as-practice' perspective, a shift from descriptive linguistics to interactional linguistics and a shift of focus from monolingualism to multilingualism. The present paper delineates these shifts and is thus theoretical in nature. It is important to note, however, that the integrated approach of language documentation which is supportive of language revitalization is all about application. It is interdisciplinary and involves members of the speech community. In view of current language endangerment, there are no alternatives if we are to document the linguistic ecology, i.e. more than just linguistic structures. We argue for an approach which connects two fields of study which have remained largely isolated until present, language documentation and studies in language revitalization. Connecting these two fields is beneficial for the discipline of linguistics as well as for the respective speech communities. Such an integrated approach can thus be regarded as a branch of welfare linguistics.

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Researchers of Japanese generally divide the function of desho into "supposition" and "confirmation request". However, this paper, which is based on an examination of the remnants of Japanese in Taiwan, reveals a potentially new function: "cognitive request for new information". "Confirmation request" is used to request confirmation or agreement about something supposedly known by the listener. In contrast, "cognitive request for new information" is used to introduce new information to the listener, thereby providing a foundation for the utterance that follows. In this sense "cognitive request for new information" can be viewed as an expansion of "confirmation request". This paper indicates the wide use of desho as a "cognitive request for new information" among Japanese varieties outside Japan (e.g., Saipan, Korea and Sakhalin) and a similar usage is noted amongst the younger generation in Japan. Based on those facts, this paper argues that "cognitive request for new information" is a new function of desho-not only in the remnants of Japanese in the Pacific Rim, but also in the contemporary Japanese language as used within Japan.

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In this paper, I examine the trends of place names of Beijing's Hutongs, which have survived from the Ming and Qing periods into the modern era, and the manner in which these place names have changed during the Republican period, the Cultural Revolution period, and since the 1990s. My findings are as follows: firstly, in all periods, the place names of Hutongs have tended to be of 'expressive-form' type; secondly, the changed names have tended to be of 'ideographic-form' type; and thirdly, in recent years place names face the threat of obliteration due to urban development. In spite of government policy to conserve traditional Hutong place names and conservation action taken by citizens, there is an increase in use of mammonistic place names, that is, names incorporating the characters for "gold" or "silver", and of place names modeled on fashionable loan-words. These new trends are said to be threatening the identity which Beijing citizens have established over centuries of history and so, there is an urgent need to conserve the place names of Hutongs in order to preserve this traditional identity.

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This study is based on a survey conducted of 601 university students from four areas of China. The purposes of this study are: (1) to elucidate what kind of evaluations and images these students have of standard Chinese and local dialects; (2) to investigate what factors influence the formation of these images; and (3) according to factor analysis, explore the latent factors behind each evaluation item. The results indicated that almost all of the informants evaluated standard Chinese highly; and that the informants from Shanghai had a different image of Shanghai dialect to students from other areas.

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From a linguistic anthropological perspective, this paper analyses "nature interpretation", as a communicative event mediating "humans" and "nature". Firstly, the paper reveals that the nature interpretation constructs highly stylized "interactional text" with the distinct multi-layered "poetic structures" through the three aspects: the linguistic description of animals using onomatopoeia by the interpreter (IP), the "mimicry" of animals using bodily movements, and the entire discourse structure formed by a series of segments throughout the nature interpretation program. In this endeavor, the paper attempts to integrate the two dichotomized disciplinary areas of "environmental studies" and "communication studies" and contributes to the understanding of the environmental discourse as a sociocultural interaction to further enhance interdisciplinary approaches in communication studies. Secondly, through these examinations, the paper investigates the process in which the nature interpretation "poetically" (iconically) mediates "here and now" and "there and then", that is, "humans" and "nature". This process allows the nature interpretation to achieve three tasks: metaphorically evoking the notion of "mother nature", vividly enacting the "direct experience" with nature by the IP as a "shaman", and "ritualizing" the entire interaction.

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In the following paper, the author uses statistical data from Chinese international students residing in Japan to examine the role that language consciousness and proficiency play in language use. The following tendencies were found: 1) An Individual's disposition towards the Japanese language plays an important role in language use. In other words, the more an individual enjoys speaking in Japanese, the more likely he/she is to actively enagae in conversation. However, perception of language difficulty does not seem to affect language use. 2) Japanese proficiency affects the use of Japanese-the higher the proficiency level, the more the individual is likely to converse in Japanese. 3) The influence of Japanese language consciousness and proficiency on language use is affected by situation. The following paper is the first of its kind in the sociolinguistics field to take a scientific approach using statistics and physical data to analyze the bilingual language use of Chinese living in Japan. Moreover, most previous related studies have not taken situation into account, however, this paper illustrates how language consciousness and proficiency affect language use according to situation.

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