An Analysis Of The Lexical Features Of China English In The Novel The Joy Luck Club

Ever since World War II,English has been widely used and become the most important international language in the world.In its frequent contact with different languages,not only does English maintain its own characteristics,it also absorbs elements from other cultures,gradually developing into a language with strong compatibility.As a result,non-native English varieties loom large,one of which is China English.At present,a lot of studies have been made on China English both at home and broad,covering a range of subjects.Many scholars have acknowledged the actual existence of China English and explored its characteristics at different linguistic levels.However,most of the studies tend to analyze China English in the political articles,newspapers and speeches.Few focus on the lexical features of China English in English literature works.This thesis,therefore,aims to explore the lexical features of China English by examining the language in the novel The Joy Luck Club written by the famous Chinese American writer Amy Tan.When it comes to things typically Chinese,Amy Tan has to localize her English into the Chinese context.Thus the novel is rich in expressions bearing Chinese culture,which provides abundant data for the study of China English lexis.Based on careful text reading of the novel,230 culture-specific expressions are collected in all and the study focuses on the quantitative features,semantic features and constructional patterns of them.At first,the proportion of China English in each story and each part of the novel is calculated on the basis of corpus analysis with the help of software AntConc 3.2.4.In addition,the relationship between language and culture is laid as the basis for the analysis of the semantic features of China English in the novel.At last,the translation strategies of Chinese borrowings are referred to in identifying the constructional patterns of them.The major findings can be summarized as follows: 1)China English takes a larger proportion in stories that are set in the Chinese context.2)Chinese flavor is most obvious incertain semantic fields including terms of foods,terms of places,terms of objects,terms of addresses,marriage customs,folk culture,fairy tales,four-character idioms and old sayings.They cover every corner of Chinese social life and the analysis of their associative meaning reflects the close relationship between language and culture.3)the localization of lexical terms in the novel is not dull translation,but presented by different lexical constructional patterns,namely transliteration,transliteration plus paraphrase as well as loan translation,which is slightly different from previous studies.It is suggested that China English should draw the concern of English teachers and come into English class.English learners in China should conduct systematic study of China English to equip themselves with necessary ability to express things uniquely Chinese and spread Chinese culture in English in intercultural communication.