American College Students' Attitude Toward And Motivations Of Using Chinese Loanwords In English

Lexical borrowing is the basic form of linguistic borrowing. Since word borrowing causes language change, and thus influences the intercultural exchange, more and more researches have been done on loanwords, including studies on Chinese loanwords in English. However, most studies concerning Chinese loanwords in English focus on historical records and word origins, neglecting a very important factor in the process of language borrowing---the language speakers. The author of the present thesis holds that only the language used by speakers is alive, and only the language alive can affect people's life to the most extent. This thesis is to research American college students' knowledge of Chinese loanwords in English, aiming to decode their motivation of using the Chinese borrowings and to interpret their attitude towards Chinese loanwords in English.A questionnaire survey designed on the basis of previous researches on loanwords is conducted in this thesis under four assumptions:(1) subjects are more familiar with words with semantic meaning that can be used in daily life, such as food and drink, arts, and geography, etc.; (2) the attitude of American college students towards Chinese loanwords in English is positive in general and they may welcome Chinese loanwords to enrich English lexicon; (3) need-filling motive is more common than prestige motive when English speakers use Chinese loanwords in English; (4) the newly accepted Chinese loanwords in English which are listed by the participants may focus mainly on economy, customs, politics and sports.Based on the previous researches and the present study, discussions are made about attitude and motivations of lexical borrowing from Chinese to English and the development tendency of Chinese loanwords in English. Finally, four suggestions are made on making use of Chinese loanwords to facilitate the intercultural communication between China and English-speaking countries.