An Analysis Of China English Lexis As Strong Memes Based On The Corpus Of Contemporary American English

English as a lingua franca is bound to be "nativized"(Kachru,1982) and formsvarious varieties as long as it is integrated into the local cultures of the countries thatuse English. It is the same case of China English which is formed when English isused in Chinese cultural context. As the most conspicuous level of China English,China English lexis, not only spreads unique Chinese culture to the world, but alsocontributes to English language as it greatly enriches English vocabulary. This thesisaims to testify the vitality, prospect and functions of China English lexis and attemptsto input it and its embedded Chinese culture in college English teaching in China fromthe perspective of memetics.Memetics is a new theory for interpreting cultural evolution and transmission."Meme" is a basic unit of cultural transmission (Dawkins,1976). Oxford EnglishDictionary defines it as an element of a culture or system of behavior which might beconsidered to be passed on by non-genetic means, especially imitation. He Ziran(2005) argues that language is a meme of itself in a memetic approach to linguistics.Heylighen (1998) proposes that a meme must experience a life cycle in which someselection criteria of strong memes could generally estimate its vitality. Neo-DarwinistDawkins (1976) put forwards three features of strong memes, copy-fidelity, fecundityand longevity, to testify a meme’s propagation capacity. Based on Heylighen’s andDawkins’ theories, this study constructs a theoretical framework and undertakes atentative research by combining of China English lexis and memes at a micro level.As the Australian China-study expert Prof. Frederics C. Teiwes (2004) states,America plays a leading role in contemporary China studies in western countries andit represents a global trend. This study employs an investigation of China Englishlexis based on the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)(Davies,2008)(425million words). The use frequency of the typical lexis of China English mainlysourced from China Daily Website is searched in COCA according to its Chinesecultural traits. The statistics show that the lexis use frequency (per million) is high ingeneral, not only presenting a balanceable distribution in five genres (SPOK, FIC, MAG,NEWS, ACAD), but also indicating a gradually increasing trend in five overtimeintervals between1990and2011. Then the lexis is analyzed from the memetic perspective and its Chinese culture traits, and it has proved to possess strong vitalityaccording to its satisfaction with some of the selection criteria for strong memes,including simplicity, authority, invariance, utility, conformity and publicity. Moreover,according to the three features of strong memes, namely, copy-fidelity, fecundity andlongevity, the prospect of China English lexis is proved to be prosperous and it wouldbe accepted by more people. In addition, comparison is made on the use frequency inCOCA between typical China English lexis and American English lexis in similarcultural categories. The result indicates that although its use frequency is generallylower than that of the native one both in genres and time intervals, it still witnesses itsobjective existence and strong vitality, and reveals its significant role in faithfullyspreading Chinese culture and bridging in China-America intercultural exchanges.China English lexis as a strong meme has proved to be vital and prosperous, it isof great significance to use China English lexis to express specific Chinese culture inintercultural communication in a global context. He Ziran (2007) states that languagememe could mainly be expressed and transmitted through education, languageapplication and knowledge transmission. This study implicates that in college Englishteaching, China English lexis is necessary to be input as a stimulus to developstudents’ competence in expression and transmission of Chinese culture in the contextof nativization in China. In the light of strong memes’ life cycle, it attempts to apply atentative memetic way of China English lexis input which consists of assimilation,retention, expression and transmission. In the long term, the memetic input would beable to promote students’ China English awareness and gradually turn them intoautonomous China English learners and creative users to confidently express uniqueChinese voices in intercultural communication.