The Asymmetry Of Borrowings Between English Language And Chinese Language

Borrowing is a universal linguistic phenomenon. In language contact, one language, more or less, borrows words from other languages to enrich its vocabulary and enhance its expressive power. New transport and new science and technology have created various channels through which we may view other societies and cultures. In addition, in modern times, people speaking different languages from different parts of the world interact with each other even more frequently than ever before. Accordingly, languages come into contact even more closely than ever before. Language contact inevitably results in borrowing. English language and Chinese language have borrowed numbers of words from each other and a multitude of words from other languages in contact.The borrowing of words from other languages into English and Chinese was influenced not only by the writing systems of these two languages, but also by social and historical factors. China is a country with a very long history and the Han people has attained great achievements in the course of its historical development. Comparatively, China and the Han people had attained much greater achievements than other countries and peoples had for a long time. As a result, some of these great achievements, along withtheir Chinese names, were borrowed by other countries and peoples. These great achievements brought Chinese people, especially the Han people, a strong sense of pride. This strong sense of pride, however, to a great extent hindered the rapid development of China, the introduction of foreign advanced useful science and technology into China as well as the borrowing of foreign words into the Chinese vocabulary. England and the English people, however, are quite different from China and the Chinese people especially the Han people respectively. In its history, England was invaded several times, and in the late centuries the English people invaded many other countries and regions. These factors to a great extent shaped the psychologically open state of the English people. As a result, some words of the languages in contact were willingly and quickly borrowed into the English vocabulary. On the other hand, some English words were taken into the vocabulary of other languages.Are there any asymmetries of borrowings between English language and Chinese language?This question brings us to the exploration of a definition of borrowing, a respective brief history of English language and Chinese language accompanied by borrowings, factors resulting in borrowing as well as processes of borrowing foreign words into the respective vocabulary of English and Chinese. On the basis of the exploration, we make a contrastive study of the borrowings in English and Chinese and a contrastive study of the borrowings between English and Chinese. It is based on these contrastive studies that we reach the conclusion that there are asymmetries of borrowings between English language and Chinese language. We hope that useful foreign words can be willingly and quickly borrowed into the Chinese vocabulary owing to the fact that borrowings can not only enrich the Chinese vocabulary and enhance the expressive power of Chinese language, but also to a great extent contribute their share to the enlivening of China.This dissertation consists of seven chapters.Chapter One is an introduction.Chapter Two gives an account of a respective brief history of English language and Chinese language accompanied by borrowings.Chapter Three deals with factors contributing to borrowing.Chapter Four looks at processes of borrowing words from other languages into English and Chinese respectively.Chapter Five makes a contrastive study of the borrowings in English and the borrowings in Chinese from the perspectives of range of source languages, number and influence.Chapter Six makes a contrastive study of the borrowings between English and Chinese from the perspectives of category, number and influence.Chapter Seven is a conclusion.