Convergence Of Sino-western Cultures From The Perspective Of Chinese And English Loan Words

Language is a cultural carrier and a communication tool, and it is an important factor of culture. Language is not isolated, but changes and develops continuously along with the cultural communication. With language contact, language borrowing exists universally. A loan word is a lexical item, which has been taken into one language from another. Language borrowing is a widespread sociolinguistic phenomenon in the development of a language which is brought by language contact. It is one of the most significant ways of acquiring new words and enriching the vocabulary of a language. If the right research has been done to the phenomenon, the internal organization of language and relations of language to society may, to a great extent, be revealed. Among various borrowings, lexical borrowing is the most universal. In language-contact situation, the interaction between borrowed and borrowing languages must take place, which will lead to language convergence and language conflict.The phenomenon of loan words is a manner in which a language culture stands in another language culture, and the foreign language culture factor brought by the loan words makes the loan words localize through the blending with the native language culture factor. The loan words bring not only lexical enlargement but also cultural communication, and they are even called"Emissary of foreign culture"by Shi Youwei.Language is a key component of culture. It is the primary medium for transmitting much of culture. Without language, culture would not be possible. On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture. It reflects culture. Cultural differences are the most serious areas causing misunderstanding, unpleasantness and even conflict in cross-cultural communication. The relation between culture and language is like that of content and form. The form is determined by the content which, in turn, is reflected by the form. Culture development needs to absorb various cultures of different nations. So does the language development. Consequently, English and Chinese loan words are a natural product of such language and culture needs. Therefore, English and Chinese loan words are essentially the borrowing phenomena of western culture (American culture in this paper) and Chinese culture mutually.Cultural convergence is reflected by borrowing and convergence of languages, and language is embodied and reflected by its vocabulary. Culture and language are closely related with each other, language and vocabulary are as close as flesh and blood, and vocabulary is the most active and unstable factor in language; the development of language is firstly reflected in vocabulary. Chen Yuan, a famous linguist in China, has pointed out that the most active factor in language, vocabulary, often reflects the change of social life and thoughts the most sensitively. In order to keep communicating, the language uses the change of vocabulary and meanings to reflect the change of social life, and therefore, only being suitable for the living environment and reflecting the social thoughts can the language be alive.At present, the study of loan words at home and board is mostly descriptive and short of systematic theory and guidance. Instructed by the theories of borrowing and language contact, the thesis aims at loan words in English and Chinese from each other and tries to study loan words in Chinese and American English comprehensively and systematically, which is a result of an careful research and sorting of historical literature as well as language data. From these loan words, the study discovers the convergent part of the two languages from several common fields. As the convergence and change of the language mark the evolvement process of cultural convergence, the cultural convergence between China and America can be found, and then the author analyzes the concrete convergence in the several common fields, that is to say, what is the convergence of Chinese and American cultures in these several fields. Moreover, the thesis further excavates the deep reasons why the cultural convergence appears and the principles of loan word use in order to provide the foundation for the language development trend and research in the future.