A Study Of Language Transfer From The Perspective Of Chinglish

It is now difficult of judge when Chinglish came about. However, Chinglish is usually inevitable to Chinese native speakers in their attempt of expression in English. This paper intends to explore the most up-to-date Chinglish expression from the perspective of language transfer; specifically positive transfer, negative transfer, overgeneralization, and avoidance. Via quantitative study based on 114 scientific abstract in English extracted from prestigious scientific journal, it was concluded that negative transfer accounts for the great majority in language transfer while positive transfer, overgeneralization, and avoidance cover relatively much smaller percentage in the total items identified in this research, and that might be helpful to provide the guidance of readers'reading and understanding as well as the writing of English abstracts in China. In view of literature review and previous study in the field of language transfer, this paper intends to explore the features of common Chinglish expression that existed not only in general English but also in the English abstracts of EAP (English for Academic Purpose).The whole research has identified 854 items of language transfer from the rough manuscript of a prestigious scientific journal, which is now a member of EI (Engineering Index of United States). The author of each abstract in this research possesses strong academic credential, some of them are PhDs and some are even supervisors of PhD; however there are problems in theirs English abstracts which deserve analysis.Nevertheless previous domestic studies in the field of language transfer or in Chinglish has rarely any linkage with scientific English, this research explored the phenomenon of language transfer, which is inevitable, from Chinglish in EAP in the hope of providing certain insight for further understanding of language transfer.