On the Reciprocal Mechanism of English as a Lingua Franca Participating in the Re-Generation of Sinitic Culture

The spread of English from a foreign language (EFL) to a lingua franca (ELF), underpinned by American culture, Anglophone culture, Western culture and the orientation of cultural universalism within the sphere of China and the Sinitic world, has been producing three linguistic-cultural circles: the outer is ELF and the culture; the superficial is the official Mandarin Chinese as a lingua franca (CLF) that represents the mainstream/dominant culture and political unification; and the inner, the vernacular/indigenous dialects/languages (VDL) that stand for sub/co-cultures and multi-culturalism. The movements, including clash and co-existence, of the three circles have generated two dynamic mechanisms within the re-generative paradigm of Sinitic cultural ecology: one is the assimilative mechanism and the other is the rejective mechanism. The two mechanisms, in turn, have operated among the three circles. The three circles and two mechanisms are functioning and re-shaping the on-going Sinitic cultural morphology. The current linguistic diversity and the dual lingua fracas of English and Mandarin, having caused the current split state of the Sinitic cultural morphology, demonstrate the evolving orientations toward multi-culturalism and universalism.