发布时间 : 星期六 文章English Loan-words in Chinese更新完毕开始阅读
5 The influence of English loanwords in Chinese
Loanwords not only enlarge the vocabulary of the borrowing language, but also enrich the expressive power of native words and influence the phonological pattern and grammatical structure of the borrowing language. There are four aspects that influence Chinese words and culture.
5.1 The creation of Chinese words
Creation of Chinese words means that people use the English word’s meaning or some feature and take the original Chinese morpheme to create a new word. For example, there are some affixes appear in Chinese with the impact of English such as ―…化‖ to translate –ize and –ify like 现代化——modernize, 国际化——internationalize and so on.
Although this creation in Chinese can derive to long ago, the development of English loanwords promoted the method and made this method more and more important.
5.2 The forms of transliteration and abbreviation
In the English loanwords, the number of transliteration lexicon appears increasing. The number of transliteration lexicon is largely increasing. Besides names, places and countries, other words also use transliteration, such as gene（基因）, E-mail（伊妹儿）and so on. Not only new words, but also some old free translated words use transliteration, such as cartoon（卡通） and taxi（的士）.
In order to make the language succinct, one of the methods is to abbreviate words. It is a universal phenomenon to abbreviate words in modern English, e.g. MTV (Music Television), WHO (World Health Organization), CD (Compact Disk), TOEFL (Test of Foreign as a Foreign Language), CT
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(Cell Therapy), VCD (Video Compact Disk).
5.3 Enlarging words in science, life and entertainment
Language is the symbol for social economy, politics, thought and culture. Some new words in a certain period reflect people’s way of thought and way of life in a certain period. As we all known, with the development of science technology, communication in science field becomes more frequent day by day. In order to communicate more directly and conveniently, there appear a great many of loanwords in science field, such as CPU, DNA, ISO, and so on. Since the computer technology develops by leaps and bounds, some new words about computer produce so quickly that it is hard to translate universally, and then the loanwords are used directly, such as Excel, flash, software, and internet and so on.
With the Reform and Opening, the social life in China has changed rapidly. More and more foreign commodities come into domestic market. At the same time, new loanwords concern different aspects, especially the aspects on life and entertainment.
For example:
The loanwords in entertainment: KTV, bowling, disco, bungee, fans, yoga. The loanwords in life: AA, PC, ATM, SARS, DIY.
The loanwords in commodities and trademarks: pizza, apple pie, hamburger, hotdog, pudding, XO, Benz.
5.4 Deriving and composing many new words
As soon as English loanwords are accepted by people, these words will be prevalent quickly, and be used to derive or compose other new words. For example, talk show derives to fashion show and motor show.
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Some loanwords in modern Chinese are pure original transliteration without any meaning. But during the long period of using, a certain character of transliteration acquires independent character. The part without any meaning is provided with a certain meaning and derives to a new word. Some loanwords tend only to be used as compound words. Take the following expressions for example:E.g. Bar derives to ―吧‖，and derives to吧台，酒吧，网吧; beer derives to 生啤，熟啤，冰啤; bus derives to 大巴，中巴，小巴; pie derives to 蛋黄派，草莓派，蓝莓派。These influences of English loanwords in Chinese not only indicate the improvement of Chinese people’s English and the enduring ability of Chinese to accept loanwords in enhanced, but also reflect the difficulty in translating foreign words into concise Chinese.
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6 Conclusion
The preceding study has mainly discussed the phenomenon of English loanwords in Chinese. English loanwords in Chinese are usually the natural outcome of language contact and a significant part of language promotion. English loanwords in Chinese reflect the cultures and language brought into historical contact tend to assimilate in the long run. Therefore, it can be assumed to be a contact-induced, culture-oriented activity carried out by speakers of English and Chinese. It is normally influenced, as has been discussed above, by factors such as social and historical factors, formation and development of foreign invasion and conquest, the renaissance of inflow of English words and Chinese traditional culture and psychological. It virtually constitutes an important means of culture diffusion and language promotion.
English loanwords in Chinese undergo a process of being assimilated so that they can become permanent members of Chinese. As we discussed in the second section, it was mainly developed during the 30 years of China’s reform and opening up. In 1980s, after 30 years of opening and reform, a lot of English words from different aspects coming into our language lead the tremendous changes in our society. In 1990s, the rise of the Internet in the world greatly advanced the progress of science and technology. In the 21st century, foreign words in economic and other aspects also develop quickly.
Language borrowing normally brings about many consequences It influences the creation of Chinese words. It leads to the mass increasing of forms of transliteration and abbreviation, which takes good advantages in all kinds of loanwords. And the absorption of loanwords is no more limited in science field, which is enlarging in life and entertainment, especially the names of commodities and trademarks. Loanwords can also derive and compose many new words, which present the tendency of morpheme and colloquial.
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