Convergence of Sino.docVIP

Convergence of Sino-Western Cultures from The Perspective of Chinese and English Loan Words Abstract 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. It is a widespread sociolinguistic phenomenon in the development of a language which is brought by language contact. In language-contact situation, the interaction between borrowed and borrowing languages must take place, which will lead to language convergence and language conflict. Language is a key component of culture and it is influenced and shaped by culture. 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 language, and language is embodied and reflected by its vocabulary. Key words: loan words in English and Chinese, language contact, language and culture, cultural convergence, Introduction At present, there are some 6000 different languages spoken on our planet, and speakers of every one of these languages are in contact with the neighbors who speak different languages. Nowadays, everybody is in a position to learn some of the words used by other nations, and very frequently people take a liking to some of foreign words and take those words over into their own speech. Therefore, it is common for one language to take words from other languages and make them part of its own vocabulary. This process is somewhat curiously called “borrowing”. Instructed by the theories of borrowing and language contact, the thesis tries to study loan words in English and Chinese and discover the convergent part of the two languages from several common f