English And Chinese Loan Words And The Infiltration Of Chinese And Western Cultures

The relation between culture and language is like that of content and form. The form is determined by the content which, in turn, is reflected by the form. Culture development needs to absorb various cultures of different nations. So does the language development. Consequently, English and Chinese Loan Words are a natural product of such language and culture needs. Therefore, English and Chinese Loan Words are essentially the borrowing phenomena of western culture (English culture in this paper) and Chinese culture mutually.English and Chinese Loan Words are a process of the absorbing and merging of western and Chinese cultures and this process has been carried on over human history with four clear stages: before the early 17^th century, from the early 17^th century to the early 19^th century, from the middle 19^th century to the 20^th century and from the early 20^th century to the present time. During the first stage, China takes the lead culturally and foreign countries like Britain and America carry out cross-cultural communication with attitudes of admiration and study for reference. During the second stage, both sides respect and learn from each other and cross-cultural communication is done equally. The third stage witnesses a sharp comparison of the fading of China with the booming of western countries. The unbalanced culture development between China and western countries makes discrimination and prejudice against China deeply rooted in western cultures and they do nothing but teasing and beating Chinese culture. Furthermore, the unequal culture relationship still goes on over the fourth stage. However, facing globalization and China's imposing presence in the world, western powers like Britain and America are forced to adjust -their ideologies and come to know China as an equal counterpart, although they still insist in hegemony over the world.The numbers of loan words are directly decided by comprehensive national strength, international status, national psychology, culture infiltration and culture globalization, etc. Most loan words come into Chinese and English after the Opium War, especially the May 4th Movement. There are much more English Loan Words than Chinese Loan Words, which is quite obvious in the semi-colonial and semi-feudal China. Most Chinese Loan Words come from China's regional culture and unique goods with local specialties. Simply speaking, they are from politics, religion, historical characters, geography and folk-custom. Among them, Chinese food, as one of the most important cultural elements, plays a dominant role in western countries. They mainly reflect Chinese traditional culture and have nothing to do with science and technology. Most English Loan Words reflect the advanced science and technology of western countries. Some of them tell us the institutional and spiritual culture of western countries. From the Opium War to the Revolution of 1911, loan words obviously show an intimate borrowing. Cultural borrowing plays a dominant role over the history. English culture is in the leading position over cross-cultural communication. The influence and infiltration of English language and culture to Chinese language and culture is much stronger and deeper than that of Chinese language and culture to English language and culture.Being "a messenger of foreign culture", loan words act as a bridge in cross-cultural communication. Nowadays, the world has witnessed a trend of globalization of national cultures and nationalization of global cultures. Loan words are bound to play more and more important role in this globalization drive.