Chinese-english Code-mixing In Netspeak From Prospective Of Prototype Category Theory And Memetics

With the wide application of computer and internet, netspeak as an Internet communication tool comes into being. It is a variant form of language in Internet and has both oral features and written properties. At present, more and more linguists begin to make research on it. As one of the most important forms of netspeak, the use of code-mixing tends to be more frequent. Although the code-mixing in digital context has some similar characteristics with the one in natural context, it still has some distinctive features. Many scholars have studied code-mixing deeply and completely from the viewpoints of social linguistics, conversational analysis, psycholinguistics and syntax. The code-mixing in digital context is, however, studied little. The present thesis goes to find out the features of Chinese-English code-mixing in Internet. Furthermore, the replication and transmission of Chinese-English code-mixing has been explored from the perspectives of memetics and prototype category theory.The thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter One is an introduction focusing on research background, research aims and significances, research objects and questions and etc. Chapter Two concerns itself with the literature review on the previous studies abroad and at home on code-mixing. The concepts of code-mixing, code-switching and borrowings have also been distinguished.Chapter Three is the theoretical framework about memetics and prototype category theory. Language Memetics is a new linguistic theory, which is used to explain cultural evolution law based on Darwin's Theory of Evolution. It is a convincing theory to elaborate language variation. As a classic cognitive theory, prototype category has ties to memetics. Prototype theory provides a strong theoretical support for explaining memes while memes are abundant language materials for prototype theory. The two are complementary to each other and develop harmoniously. Code-mixing is also a kind of meme, which is an important way to transmit language and cultural information. Taking advantage of the fruits of prototype theory and language memetics, we can find out the reasons why so large amount of code-mixings transmit in such a high speed.In Chapter Four, the author classifies the code-mixing forms. The results show that English words and acronyms or abbreviations are the most embedded forms in netspeak. From the analysis of examples, we can see that the embedded forms will change in terms of forms, semantic and the part of speech. The outstanding feature is that the semantic meanings of some nouns and verbs is extended or narrowed. Meanwhile nouns are often used as verbs, and adjective are employed as verbs.Chapter Five is the analysis of the above characteristics through theories. As to the reason of the birth and transmission of English-Chinese code-mixing, the details are probed into. The reason why strong memes get success is that the process of interaction between memes is activated. In the cognitive process, the highly activated words are highlighted and prominent. Thus, the hosts can cognate this prototype in his own cognition system and associate it with other language phenomenon. At last, more and more memes are produced. In addition to this, the memes which have family similarities will be altered through the cognitive ways: metaphor and metonymy. Both of them play an important role in the process of semantic narrowing and extension while the prominent viewpoint of metonymy leads to conversion. Besides, the embedded English words are constrained by prototypes and follow morphosyntactic features of Chinese grammar.Chapter Six is the conclusion. With the analysis of data, the author finds some characteristics of Chinese-English code-mixing in netspeak. For example, acronyms are popular in netspeak; the semantic meaning of some netspeak words has been changed and the change is not stable; some nouns tend to be changed as verbs and adjectives while adjectives are often used as verbs and adverbs. Based on the above findings, acronyms become strong memes is that acronyms are easy to be remembered. Meanwhile, metaphor and metonymy take charge of semantic change and conversion. Besides, the limitations of the thesis and the further study suggestions are also listed.