A Comparative Study Of Lexical Borrowing In Chinese And English

As a vehicle of communication, language is an indispensable part of cultures. Few languages are completely isolated from other languages, just as few societies are totally isolated from others. Every living language is in a consistent state of change at various times, in various regions, and at various levels. Where there is language contact and cultural communications, there is linguistic borrowing. Linguistic borrowings is the most usual effect of language contact, and words, the most active part of language, are considered as the major subject of linguistic borrowing. Lexical borrowing is the result of cultural contact between two different languages. Borrowed words, which are known as the brand of the native language and culture, are endowed with the new features of a different language and culture, and thus gained "localization". Therefore, the borrowed words are regarded as "envoy of different cultures", and the exchange of lexical borrowing can enrich both the vocabulary and the culture.Lexical borrowing shows the cultural and social development of different nationalities. Generally speaking, a language can borrow words mainly from the ones that are in the same language family, or in close geographical, political and economical connections. What's more, words are always borrowed from the language of the higher prestige into the one of the lower prestige, aiming to fill in the lexical gap, or provide professional terms about technology, art and so on.The exchange between Chinese and English has a long history, and they both borrowed numerous words along with the long-term language contact. China has a long history and bred magnificent cultures, especially in ancient times. Chinese words, accordingly, have been borrowed and absorbed into the other languages, including English. These great achievements brought Chinese people a strong sense of pride. This strong sense of pride, however, to a great extent hindered the rapid development of China and the borrowing of foreign words into the Chinese language as well. England and the English people, however, are completely different. England had invaded other countries and regions as well as been invaded by the others in its comparatively short history. These factors help shape the psychologically open state of the English language. The English language, therefore, has become the language which has taken the mostborrowed words in the world.This thesis makes a comparative study of the borrowings in English and Chinese on the perspectives of ranges, part of speech, and ways of borrowing. It makes a contrastive study of the borrowings between English and Chinese as well on the perspectives of borrowing ranges, quantity and influences of languages. On the basis of the exploration, we reach the conclusion that there are asymmetries of borrowings between the English and Chinese languages. Both Chinese and English possess a stock of borrowed words owing to such factors as international trade, cultural communication, invasion and immigration. But the assimilation capacity of Chinese and English varies. While English has a great power of assimilation, the Chinese is resistant to borrowing. Analysis of such asymmetries are made then on the basis of different linguistic structures between Chinese and English, cultural background and historical events that have shaped the two languages, and the influences of traditional philosophy of the Chinese people and western people. The Chinese subjective thinking and humanistic spirit lead to the resistance to borrowing, while the liberalness of the English people and the western philosophy result in the openness of borrowing. This sharp contrast serves as the root cause of the asymmetries between lexical borrowings in the two languages.As time goes, lexical borrowings have performed and will continue to perform much greater effect culturally, linguistically and semantically. They are beneficial to both languages and cultures. In addition, necessary measures should be taken to intensify the simplification, standardization and internationalization of borrowed words. These will contribute to a healthy development of the Chinese language.