In the process of language globalization, English and local languages andcultures are in contact with each other and merge with each other, thus forming aregional English variant with obvious local language features and cultural colors,which plays an important role in intercultural communication. China English is anEnglish variant produced in the Chinese context and is used to express the uniquepolitical, economic and cultural concepts of China. The first thing that attractspeople’s attention in China English is its performance at the lexical level. There fore,from the perspective of Eco-linguistics, this thesis takes the formation of Chineseloanwords in China English lexis as the research object, and uses the combination oftheoretical research and corpus analysis to explore the effect of language factors,social factors and cognitive factors on the composition of loan words.First of all, with the help of the analysis and summary on the theory ofEco-linguistics, it can be seen that the evolution and development of language interactwith the language environment and they are affected by the language environment.The emergence and existence of China English lexis conforms to the basic laws ofecology, so it is reasonable to use the theory of Ecology of Language to guide thestudy of China English lexis. The determining elements of China English are in linewith the two key factors in Ecology of Language. The first factor is that the organismwho learns, uses and spreads China English is a Chinese English learner or an Englishuser with Chinese cognitive background. The second factor, the social environment inwhich China English is used, is Chinese society of different historical periods.Therefore, the emergence and existence of China English lexis is objective andreasonable, and the study of China English lexis is also of theoretical and practical significance.Based on the corpus collected from China Daily, this thesis explores theformation of Chinese loanwords in China English lexis. The main research object isthe formation of loan blends and the formation of loanshift. With the help of Haugen’stheory of Ecology of Language, the following two problems are specificallyaddressed:(1) How are Chinese loanwords in China English lexis formed? What are therules governing the formation of Chinese loanwords in China English(2) What is the effect of ecological environments of language on the formation ofChinese loanwords in China English lexis?This thesis hopes that by solving the above two problems, some rules of wordformation will be drew in order to make the formation of China English lexis morereasonable. At the same time, some inspirations for the translation and teaching ofChina English lexis will be found, which will provide a theoretical reference forEnglish users and English teachers to improve their knowledge of China English lexis,thereby improving the English expression ability and communication ability of thelocal culture, and also improving the creativity and communication power of the localculture.Based on the theory of Eco-linguistics, the thesis mainly uses the method ofqualitative research to combine the Haugen’s theory of Ecology of Language with theexamples from China Daily. Through literature review, corpus collection and analysis,this thesis explores theinfluence of language ecological environment on the formationof loan blends, the formation of loan translations and semantic conversion in ChinaEnglish lexis, from the three dimensions of Ecology of Language --- the symbolicecology environment of language, the sociocultural ecology environment of languageand the cognitive ecology environment of language.
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Chapter 1 Introduction
Many domestic linguists have studied China English lexis from differentperspectives, such as translation, sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics and so on.Based on the corpus collected in China Daily, this thesis will describe the formationof Chinese loanwords in China English lexis, and explain the influence of languagefactors and the impact of language ecological environment on those rules of wordformation from the perspective of Eco-linguistics. From this analysis, some rules thatconstitute China English lexis will be obtained, and this thesis will also consider themeaning of these word formation rules for translation and teaching of China Englishlexis, in order to make the use of China English lexis in future interculturalcommunication more rational. This thesis aims to discuss Chinese loanwords in ChinaEnglish lexis from the perspective of Eco-linguistics, and mainly considers theformation of loan blends, the formation of loan translations and semantic shifts as themain research objects, and the formation of transliterations will be briefly introduced.This thesis will focus on exploring the following two questions (1) How are Chinese loanwords inChina English lexis formed? What are therules governing the formation of Chinese loanwords in China English?(2) What is the effect of ecological environments of language on the formation ofChinese loanwords in China English lexis?Nowadays, many countries around the world are learning Chinese, understandingChina, increasing the demand for communicating with China. Therefore, theemergence of China English lexis fills the vocabulary vacancies and culturalvacancies that express the differences between the East and the West. Those wordformations enrich the way of word formation and expression in English, and enhancethe expressive power of English vocabulary. In addition, Eco-linguistics provides anew perspective for the study of China English lexis, which enables people to payattention to the interaction between language and environment. The emergence andformation of a language variant is closely related to the social environment andhistorical and cultural background of language. Therefore, this thesis has certaintheoretical significance.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Related Researches on Eco-linguistics
With respect to Eco-linguistics, there are two different ways to describe it,metaphor way and non-metaphor way. Originally, the American Norwegian scholar,the professor of American Stanford University, Einar Haugen (1970, 1972) proposedthe metaphor way to describe Eco-linguistics and he compared the relationshipbetween language and speech community to the relationship between biology andnatural environment. The term he used was “Ecology of Language” and pointed outthat the target of Ecology of Language is to study “interactions between any givenlanguage and its environments”; “environment” in Haugen’s description refers to “thesociety that uses a language as one of its codes” (Huang Guowen, 2016:9). The“Haugen’s Approach” believes that language has its own ecological environment, andthat the community in which a language exist and the attitude of language usersdetermine the living environment of a language. Starting from this concept, manylinguists havestudied from the perspectives of language survival and development,biodiversity, as well as ecosystem and cultural system, and so on. From theirresearch, it can be concluded that the ecological environment is the basic foundationof language development, and favorable ecological environment will provide basicguarantees for language development and language protection. The balance ofecology of language will ensure the balance of ecology of culture, which will ensurethe sustainable development of language.Time entered in 1990s. At this time, the western world faced the first global oilcrisis and the pollution of air, water and soil. The global ecological crisis threatenedthe survival and language on environmental degradation andenvironmental protection in his speech at the International Conference on AppliedLinguistics in Thessaloniki, Greece, highlighting the social responsibility of linguistsand reminding linguists to remember their duty and contributions they can do inenvironmental protection. Halliday maintained that classism, growthism, speciesextinction, pollution and other similar issues are not just issues that biologists andphysicists needto care about, but they are also issues that applied linguists should payattention to (Huang Guowen, 2016:10; Halliday, 1990/2003). Halliday views therelationship between language and ecology from a biological perspective. He clearlypointed out “The reality is not pre-existing or waiting to be given meaning. Thereality must be actively constructed, and the language acts as an intermediary andevolves during the construction process” (Halliday, 2003/2007:145). It can be seenthat language does not passively reflect the reality, but actively creates the reality.Human beings use language to reflect the reality and the world, at the same time,language is used to construct the world. Compared with Haugen, Halliday’s view onthe relationship between language and environment opens up a broader perspectivefor the development of Eco-linguistics and forms another research paradigm ofEco-linguistics. Until this time, the field of Eco-linguistics began to show a boomingscene and became an emerging subject distinguished from sociolinguistics. In someEuropean countries such as German, Austria, and Denmark, Eco-linguistics hasreceived much attention from academic circles. Some countries and regions have setup research organizations and courses on Eco-linguistics have been engaged inuniversities. In 1993, Austrian scholar Fill, A. wrote a book to introduceEco-linguistics, which systematically elaborated on the theory, methods and researchobjectives of Eco-linguistics. In 1995, Fill, A. convened an international academicseminar on “Language, ecology and Eco-linguistics”. In the following year, theInternational Society of Applied Linguistics set up a branch specially forEco-linguistics. Many linguists such as A. Fill, R. Alexander, A. Goatly, J. Døør, J.Chr. Bang, P. Mühlhäusler, etc. have become active figures in this emerging discipline.The Eco-linguistics school represented by Danish scholars J. Chr. Bang and J. Døørput forward the dialectical Eco-linguistics. They deemed that language cannot existindependently from the environment. #p#分页标题#e#
2.2 Related Researches on China English at Home andAbroad
When it comes to China English, it seems that it always makes people thinkabout the inappropriate worded, unreasonable and abrupt Chinglish produced byChinese beginners in English learning which is not elegant. This is actually amisunderstanding. China English is normative English. It is an important part ofnternational English. It is neither a “interlanguage” produced by Chinese students inthe process of English learning, nor it refers to the over representation because ofinsufficient mastery of English.In China, the concept of “China English” was first proposed by the Englishadaptation expert Ge Chuangui. He pointed out that English is the language of theEnglish nationand anyone other than the English nation uses English should becertainly in accordance with the idioms of the English nation, however, there arespecial circumstances in each country, and as for our country, no matter the old Chinaor the new China, some things that are unique to China need to be expressed whenspeaking English or writing English (Du Ruiqing, Jiang Yajun, 2001:38; GeChuangui:1980). However, this concept did not seem to attract the attention oflinguists in China in the next decade. Until 1991, Wang Rongpei, an educator in China,said “There is nothing wrong to call English with Chinese characteristics, which areused in local Chinese environment with Standard English as core, as ‘China English’.China English is an objective existence. It will not encourage the ambition of others,nor will it destroy its own prestige” (Wang Rongpei, 1993:3). However, it is notdifficult to find that the concept described by Wang Rongpei is somewhat segmentarydue to the term “local Chinese environment”. He limited the use of China English toChinese and local Chinese environment. In fact, it is inevitable to use China Englishwhen talking about Chinese things abroad, which actually exceeds the scope of“local”. Professor Li Wenzhong further improved the definition of China English as“With the Standard English as the core, vocabulary, sentence and discourse withChinese characteristics which express the unique things in the fields of Chinese socialculture, without the interference and influence of the mother tongue, and it entersEnglish communication through transliteration, loan translation and semanticconversion” (Li Wengzhong, 1993:18). In general, China English is an English variantwith Chinese characteristics and is based on Standard English.
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Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework...25
3.1 Haugen’s Concept: Ecology of Language................25
3.2 The Biological Concept in Haugen’s Approach and Its Correspondence in China English Research ...............26
3.3 The Expansion of Ecology of Language..........................30
Chapter 4 The Definition and Formation of Chinese Loanwords in China EnglishLexis...................37
4.1 Reasons and Processes...........38
4.2 Formation Methods................40
Chapter 5 Analysis on the Formation of Chinese Loanwords in China English Lexis from the Perspective of Eco-linguistics........................46
5.1 The Effect of the Symbolic Ecology Environment of Language on the Formation of Loan Blends and Loan Translations in China English Lexis.............46
5.2 The Effect of the Sociocultural Ecology Environment of Language on the Formation of Loanshift in China English Lexis...............59
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Chapter 5Analysis on the Formation of Chinese Loanwordsin China English Lexis from the Perspective of Eco-linguistics
5.1 The Effect of the Symbolic Ecology Environment of Language on the Formation of Loan Blends and Loan Translations inChina English Lexis
In symbolic theory, the lexical system of language is the smallest unit that bestreflects its language community system. Therefore, China English lexis is the mostintuitive reflection of the ecological environment of China English. This part willreflect the coexistence of Chinese and English in the thinking of Chinese people orEnglish users with Chinese background through the analysis of corpus, and the effectof this thinking process on the formation of loan blends and the formation of loantranslations.Some common examples of derivational blends are listed in Chapter 4, and onlya brief analysis of Red Guardism was done there. In 1966, the Cultural Revolutionbroke out in China. The Red Guards were civil society groups that emerged duringhis period,including workers, farmers, and middle and high school students. Theirtypical dress is dressed in a green military uniform, wearing a red armband on the leftarm, and holding a red book recording the sayings of Mao Zedong in their hands.They use the means of fighting, criticizing, or even looting to claim that they mustdefeat the “power of the capitalist road”. Therefore, such kind of people was named“Red Guard”. As this word entered into English, the first appearance of “RedGuardism” in theNew York Times 1967 was derived from Red Guard+-ism.English words have various forms in vocabulary composition, such as pluralforms, tense changes, and affixes. Therefore, derivational blends “Red Guardism” notonly maintain the original meaning in Chinese, but also have English grammaticalfeatures. So it adapts to the symbolic ecology environment of language because it isresulted from the process of operation between a language and other languages in thebrains of bilingual or multilingual people, and the impact of this process on thelanguage community and culture.(2) Compound blendsWechat and Sina Weibo, two of China’s most popular social media, have beenawash with nostalgia in recent days, as millions of netizens have posted pictures ofthemselves at age 18. (2018-01-02 China Daily)
5.2 The Effect of the Sociocultural Ecology Environment ofLanguage on the Formation of Loanshift in China English Lexis
Compared with transliterations and loan blends, the formation of loantranslations is effected more by the social and cultural ecological environment, andcontains more social and cultural connotations. Some examples of loan translationshave been listed above. The examples of loan translations selected in this section willemphasize the effect of social culture on the formation of these words.Previous studies have also summarized some examples of typical loan translations, such as “iron rice bowls (铁饭碗)”, which refers to a good unit or department, stable work, and worry-free income. This word comes from the early days of reform and opening-up. Most of the enterprises at that time were state-owned, and themanagement system of state-owned enterprises was actually eating “big potrice”, which means, no matter workers work hard or not, they would get the same salary and benefits, so that every enterprise has a large number of idlers, lazy people.They directly affect the enthusiasm of producers and managers, and ultimately lead manycompanies cannot be operated continuously. “fan (饭)” is one of China’s staplefoods and “wan (碗)” is China’s main food container, so the English word “rice” and“bowl” respectively correspond. The word “iron” is used to describe the stability of work. This structure not only reflects the traditional culture of Chinese society, but also reflects the social background of that time. There are some typical examples,such as “oneChina, two systems (一国两制)”, “nail house (钉子户)”, “Long March(长征)”, “Western Development (西部大开发)”, “Four Modenizations (四个现代化)”etc. These words reflect that some important factors determine the cultural andecological environment, such as needs of the subject, national traditions, customs,region, cultural policies, economic level and the level of science and technology education. They explain the interaction between China English and China’s politics,economy and culture.
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