Contrastive Analysis Of The Forms And Causes Of Chinglish

It is believed that Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is, to a certain extent, interfered by the learners' native language and the linguistic interference of one's mother tongue always poses an obstacle to one's learning of foreign languages.Chinese and English are two quite different languages that belong to two language families. They are poles apart. However, when native speakers of Chinese learn English, they tend to lose sight of the differences between the two languages. This is particularly the case with writing and translation. When writing, students form the habit of trying to write in English what they would in Chinese; when translating, they just rigidly stick to the original words, and their translation turns out to be obscure and hard to understand. As a result, their compositions and translation practice read more like Chinese than English. They are English in form and Chinese in essence. This is what is usually known as Chinglish. Seen in historical retrospect, a systematic study of Chinglish has never been in existence with respect to the reasons that cause it. This does not mean, of course, that people pay no attention to it. The studies of Chinglish are scattered in books or articles in the field of English teaching and learning, especially at the present time with an unprecedented need of using English for international communication and cooperation. It is under such circumstances that this thesis attempts to categorize and analyze the forms and causes and sub-causes of Chinglish in college students' language output with an aim to eradicate it. Although some scholars argue that "a certain amount of Chinglish is inevitable at certain points of the English-learning process" (Deng & Liu, 1989), it is the writer's belief that Chinglish is one of the major factors adversely affecting the quality of students' writing and translation. It is among the stickiest problems that cry out for solution.This thesis is an attempt to discuss the causes and manifestations of Chinglish by citing a number of examples in students' compositions and translation practice.Through contrastive analysis, that is, cross-linguistic analysis and cross-cultural linguistic analysis, the author of this thesis points out that the occurrence of Chinglish is due to three main factors: the linguistic interference of one's mother tongue, the cultural differences underlying certain language items and the discrepancies between the Chinese and the English thinking patterns.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one is a brief review of Chinglish with its definition and distinctions from China English and varieties of English. Chinglish, produced by Chinese English learners who are interfered by Chinese language, culture and thought patterns, is not in conformity with English usage and culture; while China English expressing things peculiar to China belongs to normative English and can be accepted by people of English-speaking countries. Chapter two is an introduction of the relevant theories. Chapter three and four offer various manifestations of Chinglish due to mother tongue interference, cultural differences and discrepancies between the Chinese and the English thinking patterns. Chapter five is about the pedagogical implications of Chinglish with an aim to reduce or eradicate it.