A Study Of English Loanwords In Contemporary Chinese

Linguistic borrowing is the most usual effect of language contact and lexical borrowing is a typical type of linguistic borrowing. Since language contact was intensified in depth and breadth after the economic reforms and opening to the West, English loanwords in contemporary Chinese have been on the increase and become a part of the Chinese language. The analysis of English loanwords in contemporary Chinese is of great significance to the research on Chinese vocabulary system, and it is helpful to comprehend the development of the Chinese language in Chinese-English contacts.In the thesis, first of all, English loanwords are classified into "semantic loans", "phonetic loans", "hybrids", "loan blends" and "letter words". Every type of loanwords is explored in detail. And then based on the linguistic materials, the influences of English loan words on contemporary Chinese are discussed from lexical, semantic and word-formation aspects. At last, two kinds of attitudes toward English loanwords are mentioned and the positive attitude is retained in this thesis. The whole thesis consists of seven chapters, the main part of which contains five chapters. The second chapter deals with the theory of language contact and linguistic borrowing. The third chapter examines the influences of English loanwords on contemporary Chinese lexicon. The fourth chapter discusses the influences of English loanwords on the semantics in contemporary Chinese. The fifth chapter points out the influences of English loanwords on Chinese word-formation. The sixth chapter explores the different attitudes towards English loanwords.There are some findings in this study. Firstly, English loanwords enrich contemporary Chinese vocabulary greatly and change the features of Chinese lexicon. Secondly, English loanwords have brought about semantic changes of some Chinese words. The changes manifest themselves mainly in the following aspects: the semantic change of English words contributes to the changes in the meaning of the relative Chinese words, and the semantic differentiation between English and Chinese leads to the change of meanings of Chinese word. Thirdly, English loan words bring new morphemes to contemporary Chinese. The new morphemes include the new word-forming components which are detached from English loanwords, the English loans which themselves become active components in word building, and the new affixes which have appeared in Chinese due to the borrowings from English. It is clear that English loanwords have positive influence on contemporary Chinese and promote the development of the Chinese language.