专题纳入调查问卷时，会根据需要采用专门测定手段，但他们很少描述这些手段是如何开发出来的。人口普查中与语言相关的问题会采用不同的表述方式、问题形式或答题方案，这些差异所带来的问题使普查数据在信度和效度上都受到质疑。本文旨在研究人口普查中有關语言水平测定问题的设计和措辞方式对受访者的影响，案例来自爱尔兰共和国和英国北爱尔兰地区对于爱尔兰语的一系列普查。本文的分析借鉴了前期相关研究成果，不过也基于近年来调查方法和应用语言学研究的理论发展，对前人探讨范围有所扩展。
关键词 语言人口学;调查方法;语言水平问题;人口普查;爱尔兰
中图分类号 H002 文献标识码 A 文章编号 2096-1014（2019）06-0042-13
DOI 10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20190604
Measurement Issues with Language Proficiency Data in Censuses of Population
Pádraig Ó Riagáin
Abstract Demography of Language is an inter-disciplinary research area that draws on the methodology and data of demography as well as sociology and linguistics. Its basic methodology is survey based and it relies on data collected by means of censuses of population and large-scale surveys. Despite the widespread use of language-related census and survey data in research and policy studies， their methodological underpinnings have not been systematically evaluated. In this paper， it is argued that census agencies， when they chose to include sociolinguistic topics in their questionnaires， use their own ad hoc measures， and provide little description of how they were developed. Problems arising from the variable wording， format or response categories of language related questions in censuses call into question the reliability and validity of data collected with census methods. The objective of this paper is to investigate the way in which respondents are influenced by the way language proficiency questions in censuses are shaped and worded in a large set of censuses relating to one language （Irish） in the Republic of Ireland and the Northern Ireland region of the UK. The analysis draws on earlier research on this topic， but expands the analytical scope of previous work by applying the theoretical insights of recent methodological advances in social research and applied linguistic research.
Key words Demography of Language; survey methodology; language proficiency questions; census of population; Ireland
一、引 言
语言人口学是一个跨学科的研究领域，在研究方法上一般借鉴人口学（Rallu，Piché & Simon 2006）、社会学和语言学等学科，并采用这些领域的成果和数据。作为人口学的一个分支，其基本方法是进行大规模调查，而非像民族志那样进行参与式观察。该领域所采用的数据大多来自人口普查和大范围调查，而这两种数据采集方法密切相关，两者都追求：（1）标准化的测定方法，即对所有受访者采用相同的调查方式以确保所有个体的信息具有可比性;（2）广泛覆盖目标人口（如人口普查）及该人群可靠的、有代表性的样本（抽样调查）（Fowler 2014：3）。尽管人口覆盖率有所不同，但典型的人口普查问卷与一般情况下邮寄调查和网络调查中使用的自填问卷在很大程度上是一样的，这一点在当前社会学文献中也是得到认可的（例如Dillman（2000：288～322）“政府实施的家庭和个人调查”一章）。