A Translation Study Of Loanwords In Chinese Media

Loanwords have long been recognized as an important part of Chinese vocabulary.With the advancement of China’s launch reform and opening-up drive, and theever increasing exchanges between China and the West, many new concepts andnew things have been introduced into China, giving rise to immense numbers ofloanwords swarming into Chinese with unprecedented speed and scale. Theemergence of loanwords is the natural phenomenon and result of language contactand linguistic diversity. The emergence, changes and disappearance of loanwordsare similar to the evolution of the natural world with the features and ecologicalrules of its own. Moreover, the existence and development of language sharesome intrinsic similarities to some degree with the ecology of natural beings.Language is a chief vehicle of culture, and is also an integral part of culture, aswell as the carrier and representation of national spirit. In the recent years, thelanguage environment of Chinese has caused wide concerns over Chineselanguage pollution and there has been an increasingly louder outcry demandingthe conservation of Chinese language purity. Over the past decades, particularlyafter China’s reform and opening up in1978, loanwords have flooded intoChinese and penetrated every social aspect. Loanwords have, to a certain extent,altered the linguistic landscape of modern Chinese. The research on the loanwordsused in modern Chinese can help us to have a better understanding of modernChinese language and have a dynamic approach to the development of modernChinese language. Meanwhile, loanwords have run rampant in Chinese, andlinguists have paid due attention to such a prominent issue.By collecting and analyzing the loanwords used in China’s most influentialmain-stream newspaper People’s Daily, the author has taken both synchronic anddiachronic approaches and conducted a systematic research on loanwords in modern Chinese, particularly those adopted since China’s reform and opening up.Among my research questions are the following:1) How is the current situationof loanwords in Chinese language ecology?2) What particular problems areexisting?3) What loanwords are able to survive in Chinese language ecology?4)How can we construct the survival model for loanwords in Chinese?5) What arethe criteria for standardizing the translation of loanwords into Chinese?Ecolinguistics is a newly emerging linguistic science which integrates ecologyand linguistics; while memetics, based on Darwin’s theory of evolution, is a newtheory to interpret the evolution of culture and language. As a new linguisticperspective, ecolinguistics and memetics can be demonstrated and justified in thetranslation study of loanwords. The author argues that the evolutionary principle“Survival of the Fittest” also holds true for the explaining the phenomenon ofloanwords in a language.This dissertation attempts to examine the current situation of loanwords inChinese mainstream media and their impact on Chinese language ecology fromthe perspective of language ecology and memetics, and by researching theformation, varieties, spreading, effects and extinction of loanword memes inChinese vocabulary, this study is mainly concerned with the establishment ofsurvival model for the successful memes of loanwords.