Self-bound or boundless? Orthographic strategies on 'borrowing' into Chinese

The following research is concerned with the manner in which the Chinese writing system borrows English loanwords. Specifically, this thesis tested native Chinese readers' understanding of different semantically and phonetically oriented borrowing paradigms in order to investigate the constraints the writing system has placed on the semantics and phonology of the language.;This paper begins with a brief overview of the history of Chinese writing and the diachronic changes involved with its creation and usage. Building on other pertinent qualitative studies which have established that Chinese orthography works as a "morphosyllabic" syllabary (DeFrancis, 1984), this research corroborates that both phonetic and semantic elements are present in the writing system. Seven discrete borrowing strategies were then used to emphasize these opposing elements and incorporate real and invented loanwords into Chinese writing. These new loanwords were tested on native Chinese readers for understanding and faithfulness with respect to their original English phonetics and semantics. Additionally, native Chinese readers were asked to borrow English words into Chinese orthography by any means they chose appropriate.;The results of this study show that both phonetics and semantics are important for native Chinese readers when processing loanwords, but the choice of one element over another is dependent on certain constraints. These constraints are examined through a proposed borrowing continuum. This study also draws attention to the lack of congruity present in Chinese borrowing and the need for orthographic rules and regulations. Conflicting results regarding the creation and processing of loanwords suggest that native Chinese readers are overwhelmed by the numerous borrowing strategies available. This research concludes with three directions the writing system can take: the emergence of an exclusive loanword syllabary, the establishment of explicit lexical categories for specific borrowing strategies, or the adoption of a policy of digraphia.