Study On English Loan Words In MSC

Communications between countries, nations and social communities are becoming more and more frequent and comprehensive. Consequently, contacts between one language and another have become more and more salient. Since initiation of the Reform and Opening-up policy, Chinese society has undergone a dramatic change in various aspects. With international communications and exchanges, a great number of new concepts, things and cultures are introduced into China. As a major means of communication, Chinese language has been involved in the dynamic process of contact with a number of foreign languages. Among all these foreign languages, English has been the one with which the Chinese language has had the most frequent and comprehensive contact. Through contact between English language and Chinese language, a number of English words have been borrowed into Chinese vocabulary.Under the influence of all these English words, Modern Standard Chinese (MSC) has undergone a process of changes. As the foreign words become more and more popular between Chinese people, some scholars began to worry about the purity of our mother tongue- Chinese. On the other hand, some scholars do not agree with this opinion. They think that loanwords can enrich our vocabulary and they are easy for people to communicate. This may raise several questions deserving our consideration, for example,"what is the current situation of English loanword use in Chinese?";"how should we keep a correct attitude towards English loanwords?";"what are the structures and characteristics of English loan words in Chinese in modern times?";"how do the loanwords in MSC influence Chinese language and what will the influence of English loanwords on MSC tend to be?". Keeping all these questions in mind, the author thinks it is quiet necessary to write an essay to get answers for these questions. Therefore, it will help us to understand using status of English loan words better. Moreover it's also conducive to our language learning. The thesis has theoretical significance as well as practical one. It will help us to hold a correct attitude towards English loan words in Chinese, which is quite necessary to the healthy development of our mother tongue.This thesis tries to divide loan words into five types: phonetic loans, hybrid forms of phonetic loans and Chinese varieties, hybrid forms of phonetic loans and loan translations, loan blends and alphabetic loans, exclusive of loan translations, which are regarded as native words in Chinese by the author.Language attitude influences people's language behaviors. Study on language attitudes is helpful in estimating and forecasting language behaviors and language changes. As alphabetic word is a new kind of English loan words in Modern Chinese, the thesis makes a study on attitudes towards alphabetic words. Statistics show that, in all the 187 students who have been surveyed, 93 people approve of using alphabetic words; 52 hold a neutral attitude; and 42 object to using alphabetic words. Therefore, as for general attitudes on alphabetic word using, language attitudes of university students are as follows: supporting rate is 49.73%; opposing rate is 22.46%; neutralism part accounts for 27.81%. Most people encourage using alphabetic words and a few people are opposed to it. It tells us that psychology of Chinese people is becoming more and more open to accept new things and concepts. There are mainly five reasons for university students to approve of using alphabetic words:①a lphabetic words are outcomes of intense influence of English on Chinese and they are unavoidable;②a lphabetic words are succinct and easy to write;③alphabetic words are easy-understanding;④a lphabetic words are easy to express;⑤alphabetic words is helpful in international communication and cultural exchange. Reasons for university students to object to using alphabetic words are as follows: first, alphabetic words destroy purity of Chinese language; and second, alphabetic words are nondescript. Knowledge which students study in their majors does not significantly influence their attitudes on alphabetic words using. Only students who make use of a lot of abbreviations tend more likely to use alphabetic words. Gender factor does not influence university students'attitudes on alphabetic words using.On basis of quantitative research, this thesis studies structures and characteristics of English loan words used in modern times. Those aspects include: borrowing methods, numbers of syllables, lexical meanings and parts of speech. These detailed analyses could help us to understand formations, developments and changes of English loan words. Compared with borrowing words in 1970s and 1980s, there are many new characters and tendencies for borrowing foreign words into Chinese. These new characters and tendencies are outcomes of mutual effects between language system and social development. As for borrowing methods of English loan words, there are three new characters: number of phonetic loans is decreasing; numbers of hybrid forms of phonetic loans and loan translations, hybrid forms of phonetic loans and Chinese varieties are increasing in some way; number of loan blends is correspondingly increasing. In all of English loan words, three-syllable English loan words are the most. Before 1980s, loan words are mainly from fields of daily life, politics, nature, religion and technology. In modern public media, following daily life, technological words have replaced political loan words and are of the second largest number. Then, loan words from fields of medicine, health and education follow up. As for parts of speech of loan words, number of nouns has always been the largest. Verbs, adjectives and exclamations have also been borrowed into Chinese. No closed words, such as prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary words or connectives have been borrowed into Chinese.Borrowing of foreign words will unavoidably influence development of Chinese. These influences could be summarized as follows: firstly, English loan words increase the number of Chinese words and strengthen expressive force of some Chinese words; secondly, under the influence of English loan words, number of derivational words in Chinese is increasing; thirdly, English loan words influence lexical meanings of Chinese words; and fourthly, English words influence written forms of Chinese words.