The Changing of Chinese Loanwords in English英语中汉语借词的变迁.doc

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1、毕业设计(论文)题目：The Changing of Chinese Loanwords in English英语中汉语借词的变迁学 院： 外国语学院 _专 业： 英 语 _ _班 级： _ 学 号： _姓 名： _ _指导老师： _二0 一0年五月十七号 英语中汉语借词的变迁摘要在世界文明相互交流的历史中，借词现象由来已久。英语的特点之一就是善于吸收各民族语言的词汇，这些词汇与本土词汇一起丰富了英语的表现力。虽然相隔遥远，并且远古时代直接交往困难，然而在中西方文明漫长交汇融合的历史中，英语也从汉语里吸收了为数不少的汉语借词。这些借词在不同时代有着不同的时代特征，反映了当时中西方交往的时代特色

2、。本文从历时的角度，考证英语中现有的汉语借词，首先介绍了英语中借词的历史，指出历史上，早在Anglo-Saxon时代，英语就曾从拉丁语和希腊语里借用了大量词汇；诺曼王朝时，又从法语里吸收了数量客观的词汇；其次，阐述了汉语借词进入英语的历史以及每个历史阶段的背景、借词情况、时代特征；然后从构词法、使用者心理、文化交流与中国文化的影响力等角度分析，探寻不同种类借词存在方式的原因，捕捉同一时代借词的共性，并得出结论，在不同时代，英语里的汉语借词的数量与分布范围分别受怎样的客观与主观因素的影响。最后找出汉语借词在英语中的变迁规律，并尝试预言在未来英语中汉语借词的流变方向。关键词：中文借词； 英语； 历

3、时角度； 文化交流 The Changing of Chinese Loanwords in EnglishAbstractIn the history of communication among many civilizations, the phenomenon of loanwords had already been appeared in many language long before. One of the typical features of English is the large quantities of loanwords from other languages

4、. Likewise, in the history of the communication between Western and Eastern civilizations, as one of the most typical eastern civilization, China also has supplied considerable Chinese words into English in spite of the two nations are far apart. The Chinese loanwords were together with stamps of ag

5、es and features of Chinese culture in that time because a language can be the reflection of a culture. This thesis focuses on the Chinese loanwords in English in a diachronic way. In the beginning, the thesis introduces the history of loanwords in English, pointing out that as early as the time of A

6、nglo-Saxon, English had already borrowed lots of loanwords from Greek and Latin. Furthermore, in the time of Normans ruling, English had absorbed numerous loanwords from Norman French, too. And then, there is the detail description of the historical processes of Chinese loanwords in different histor

7、ical stages, including the historical backgrounds, the situations, and the features of loanwords at that time. Following is the deep analysis from three aspects of word-formation, psychologist, culture communication and the influence of China in the world, in that part, causes of the existence of lo

8、anwords in various forms are chased down, and the generalities of contemporary loanwords are summed up. After that, the thesis draws a conclusion about the causes which have influenced the Chinese loanwords in number and the semantic fields during a specific period. Finally, the thesis tries to anal

9、ysis the changing trends of Chinese loanwords in English and predicts the probable changing direction of Chinese loanwords. Key words: Chinese loanwords; English; diachronic; cultural communicatioiii ContentsAbstract in Chinese.iAbstract in English.iiPart I. Introduction. 1Part II. The Phenomenon of

10、 Loanwords. 2Part III. Chinese Loanwords in English during Different Periods3 3.1 Before 17th century . 43.2 Around 17th century.6 3.3 After the Opium War.83.4 The Revolution of 1911 to Reform and Opening up 103.5 After Reform and Opening up. 12Part IV. The Analysis on the Changing of Chinese Loanwo

11、rds144.1 From the Viewpoint of Word-Formation in English144.2 From the Viewpoint of Psychologist.164.3 From the Viewpoint of Cultural Communication And the Influence of China in the World17Part V. Conclusion. .21Bibliography.22Acknowledgements.24Part. IntroductionLanguage is an important tool of com

12、munication for humans. Therefore, in order to communicate efficiently, humans would create many words in common. With the development of the society, communications between different nationalities which use different languages are becoming more and more frequent. To communicate well, the phenomenon

13、of loanwords is inevasible. Given to the history, English is an open language that used to borrow words from other languages. English absorbed a large quantity of loanwords from Greek, Latin and France in early time to perfect its language system and it also borrowed a lot of words from its colonies

14、. There are about 1000 Chinese loanwords in English in total. They are introduced in different period and exist in different styles. Some are completely accepted by English people while some are still considered as exotic words. As American linguist Sapir went, “Culture can be realized as what have

15、been done and thought for the society; on the other hand, languages are the practical expression of cultures.” It proves that a language has a tight connection with culture as the content and form. The form is depended by the content. As a result, what have been borrowed from Chinese into English ar

16、e not only the loanwords, but also the contents of two nations cultures. The process of Chinese loanwords borrowing in fact is a process for Chinese culture borrowing. This thesis attempts to research the changing of Chinese loanwords during different periods in English in the diachronicle way, obse

17、rves five periods of Chinese borrowing, trying to find and conclude the inherent laws from the political, economical and cultural backgrounds, and predicts the trends of Chinese loanwords in the future. Part II. The Phenomenon of LoanwordsDuring the whole history, languages, including English and Ch

18、inese, always exist with the existence of loanwords. With progress of the human history, development of society, communications among nationalities and cultures, and the mutual influences between each two languages are growing deeper and deeper. Therefore, the speakers of a language tend to borrow n

19、ew words from other languages if counterparts in their language are absence. This type of phenomenon is depended by two elements: one is the unequal level of development of different countries, so some new terms in high technology cannot be translated into the target language directly; the other is

20、because of the varied social forms, cultural background, life styles and customs of different countries that speak different language. Even in China, there is also phenomenon of loanwords which occurs frequently among Chinese Han people and the ethnic groups. For instance, Hutong胡同(alley) is from Mo

21、ngolian, and Gege格格(Lady) is from Manchu, both words are accepted completely and used openly by Han Chinese in daily life. There are three ways to borrow words from other languages: one is transliteration, another is free translation, and the last way is to combine both two ways above. Generally spe

22、aking, loanwords are used by specified people to refer to the specified objects in the limited ranges. In every historical stage, there are always considerable number of loanwords entering into a language, however, most of them are bound to died out within a period of time, only those have endured t

23、he test of time and accepted by speakers can be alive and finally change into the elements of the target language, or even enter the core of the target language. English, as a vivid and active language, has a feature that is good at absorbing large numbers of words from other languages. It is estima

24、ted that the number of vocabulary of English is over one million, in advance of any other language around the world. English tends to receive words from anywhere in the world because it is an open language.Reviewing the history, various words from various languages absorbed by English can be found.

25、Anglo-Saxon words, French words and Latin words are three main parts in English words. From the middle age to Renaissance, academic sector was full of Latin words, involving medical, laws, theology, science and literature. Also, as the result of Norman conquest, French became the official language o

26、f royal family, for this reason, a series of words centering on the lifestyle of royalty had came from French, ranging from arts, literature, cuisine to government system, diplomacy and military, such as government, empire, authority, parliament, court and tax. Compared with the two ways above, Engl

27、ish has absorbed Indian words in another way. In the last several centuries, England had conquest India and made the latter one became one of its colonies. During that time, words describing every aspect of India have been continuously imported into the United Kingdom. Until now, there are still a l

28、ot of Indian words appeared in English, take “tank” as an instance.English is such an open language that it tends to receive words not caring where the words are from. For example, walkman, which created by Japanese people, already has been used widely by native speakers of English. Loanword is a li

29、nguistic phenomenon, but a language would never leave its culture apart. Loanword is the fruit cultivated by the communications among different nationalities and cultures; all these have reflected the influence people of target language have received, to the people of resource language. The higher s

30、peed of the development of economy, politics, technology and culture, the deeper connections countries in the world will have. Moreover, thanks to the popularity of Internet, numbers of loanwords will more and more uprisingPart III. Chinese Loanwords in English during Different PeriodsGiven the abil

31、ity of reflecting culture, language can also influence back on culture. As a cultural container, language is able to represent many aspects of culturepolitics, economy, technology, arts and religion. Therefore, it is considered as a process importing the cultural elements when a type of culture impo

32、rts the loanwords from other cultures. These cultural elements, as we known, can also place cultural influence on the target language. The loanwords of a resource language would reflect the reality of communication between the two languages, further more, it is also available that we can see the inf

33、luence of resource language had on the target language and where the main field is that the influence lies in. Estimation said that there are more than 1000 Chinese loanwords in English, on the 11th among all loanwords in English. According to the time those loanwords entered into English, they can

34、be classified into 5 stages.3.1 Before 17th CenturyIn 4th century B.C, Alexander the Great has arrived India, making India the channel from west to east. Later, from Qin dynasty to Han dynasty, Chinese army pursued and attacked the Xiongnu匈奴, an ancient nationality in China, to the northwest part of

35、 Asia, building a big path from east to west, too. During that time, from 192 B.C to 124 B.C, Zhang Qian was sent to Xuyu, the western regions, as the ambassador of Han dynasty, all these had formulated the so-call silk roads in history. Following, Ban Chao, a famous general of Han dynasty, opened t

36、he south road of the silk roads in 87 A. D , and opened the north road in 94 A. D. Follow on, the Roman sailors had finished the voyage from European to Indian ocean and thus built the early silk road in the sea. The foundation of south way and north way of the Silk Road is considered as the first o

37、pening in the world, opening up a regular channel from east to west. The advanced iron-casting technologies, agriculture, livestock farming, even the culture and manners continuously entered west then. In Tang Dynasty, China enjoyed a huge influence in Byzantium. Then, In Song Dynasty, the governmen

38、t set up special organizations in coastal areas in order to improve relations with other countries and expand overseas business.The communication between China and England began in an indirect way. On one hand, the two countries were separated by vast oceans, so it was hard to contact directly. In t

39、he old days, China would communicate with other states via India, Korea, Japan and so on. On the other hand, considering themselves as the people of the center kingdom, Chinese people, who also paid more attention on the agriculture field other than in the trading field that needs to go out to conta

40、ct with foreign people. Meanwhile, England, or even the whole Europe, was enduring the darkest and most cruel age in history. There were only Persians and Arabs acted as go-betweens, forming the early connection between China and Europe. They made a huge contribution to the opening of the Silk Road,

41、 which provides the necessary condition to the China-West communication.According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “silk” entered into English from China in 888 and via Latin (sericus) and Greek (seres), together with the form of “seolc” at that time. Then, the word “serge” also derived fr

42、om silk via Latin and ancient French. At the same time, “satin” (with the pronunciation in Ho-Chan) entered English via Arab and ancient French. So it can be seen the influence of silk culture of ancient China on the west world.As the Oxford English Dictionarys recording, china was called as chn by

43、Persians in early days. Being introduced into English by the time of 17th century, the word china has undergone varied pronunciation and spelling, such as chiney, cheny, chenea, chainy. In all kinds of names, on one hand, for the resource of china is China, on the other hand, all these owned a simil

44、ar pronunciation and spelling to China, therefore, the name China was used as the name of china. In terms of the resource of the word China, as the OED said, it is originated from the first feudal dynasty of ChinaQin dynasty, Chin (pronounced the same as Qin) transferred itself into China and entere

45、d English in 1555 A. D. Moreover, according to many scholars view, “Chin” entered Arab as Sin, and then entered Greek, transforming itself into Sinai, followed into Latin, becoming Sinae, Finally, it entered French, as the writing form of Sino that what we know today.Another typical example is tea.

46、In the beginning, tea spread into Japan, and then Java, finally into the west world. According to OED, Portuguese had brought tea from Macaw into Europe in 16th century, together with the name of Cha, which entered English in 1598 A. D. The word of tea was brought by Dutch from Java, together with t

47、he pronunciation in Ho-Chan. The word of tea entered English in 1601 A.D. After that, tea became very popular in England, and various words originated from tea appeared in English vocabulary continuously. At this stage, beside silk and tea, there were still other Chinese words entered English, such

48、as galingale(1578)良姜，bonze(1588)和尚, litchi(1588)荔枝, typhoon(1588)台风, mandarin(1589)官话, sampan(1620)舢板, li(1588) and so on.(The numbers in the bracket are the years that loanwords entered English)Among all the words above, the resources are various, for example, the word of bonze entered English via Japanese. Another, the word of galingale was along a way of Chinese, Arabic, and French. Next, typhoon was by a way of Cantonese, Arabic, East Hindi and G