Memetic Approach To Loanwords In Intercultural Communication Contexts

With the prosperous development of intercultural communication, loanwords in different languages spring up in large quantities. Many scholars at home and aboard have attached importance to the study of loanwords and have made great achievements. By both synchrbnic and diachronic approaches to loanwords, they have dwelled on the types, causes, climaxes and translation methods of loanwords from different perspectives, combining the study of loanwords with etymology, lexicology, cultural anthropology, sociolinguistics and historical linguistics. In this paper, the author aims at examining loanwords in Chinese and English in intercultural communication contexts from a memetic perspective. The author gives a tentative study of loanwords within the combined framework of memetics, intercultural communication and loanwords, which has seldom been involved in previous studies.In this thesis, based on a diachronic approach to loanwords in Chinese and English, the author initially makes a macro-analysis of loanwords by discussing the cultural fitness of memes and national mentality, together with the relationship between loanwords and the prosperity of intercultural communication.Then the author tries to introduce some notions of meme selection including hosts, vectors, strong and weak memes, and four stages of meme selection. In the meanwhile, the author intends to give a micro-analysis of loanwords by examining the three quality standards of loanwords. Finally, the author presumes the developmental tendency of loanwords in the future.By both macro and micro analyses of loanwords, the author concludes that during the spreading of memes in intercultural communication contexts, winners must be those strong ones with high fidelity, fecundity, and longevity. Similarly, during the competition of loanwords, the final winners are likewise strong ones with high fidelity, fecundity, and longevity, and the ones conforming to certain national mentality. The author considers memetics, intercultural communication and loanwords in one framework, explaining loanwords in intercultural communication contexts from memetics, a brand new perspective.