general-futures-of-english-lexicon-in-postmodernism-culture--英语专业语言学.doc

本科毕业论文（设计）
（ 2013届 ）

题 目：General Features of English Lexicon
in Postmodernism Culture
学 院： 外国语学院
专 业： 英 语
学生姓名： 学号：
指导教师： 职称（学位）：
合作导师： 职称（学位）：
完成时间： 2013 年 月 日
成 绩：

14

Acknowledgments

In writing this paper, I have benefited from the presence of my teachers and my classmates. They generously helped me collect materials I needed and made many invaluable suggestions. I hereby extend my grateful thanks to them for their kind help, without which the paper would not have been what it is. Particularly, I am deeply indebted to Professor Huang, my supervisor, who guided me throughout my writing of this thesis. He carefully read the whole draft and offered painstaking and precious criticism. His standards of academic excellence have made my revision an exciting and gratifying experience. I also wish to sincerely thank my classmates and friends Mina and Sophia, whose brilliant ideas and perceptive observations have proved immensely constructive. My parents took good care of my life and gave me a lot of encouragement when I was working at this thesis. They always share my weal and woe. I feel much grateful and heartily owe my achievement to them. Furthermore, none of this would have been possible without the help of those individuals and the library of Huangshan University and its staff.

Abstract

The postmodern culture is affecting the theory thinking and practical reformation of our language pattern in its own way. However, the mixture of blur narration and views hinders its permeability into the study of modern language system. Only through grasping its clear logic and ideological quintessence, can postmodern culture benefit the innovation of modern language system. In this paper, I will analyze the general features of modern English lexicon in the atmosphere of postmodernism from the following four aspects: more brief, new meaning for old words, foreign words, coinage so as to offer enlightenments for English learners to know the relationship between language and culture and the essence of the English language.
Key Words: postmodernism；language；influence；society development

摘要
后现代主义文化正在以自己独特的方式影响人们的思维方式和语言的形成。然而叙述和观点的模糊性阻碍了对语言系统研究的渗透性。只有真正抓住后现代文化的本质逻辑，后现代文化才能真正有利于语言系统的创新。本文将从后现代文化的角度出发，从四个方面总结现代英语词汇的基本特征：英语词汇的简洁性，旧词新意，外来词及新造词。本文的目的是希望可以启发英语学习者，帮助听他们了解语言与文化的关系，从而更好得把我英语语言的精髓。

关键词：后现代文化主义；语言；影响；社会发展
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements i
Abstract ii
摘要 iii
1. Introduction 1
1.1 A brief introduction to the postmodern culture 1
1.2 Research motives 2
2. Relationship between language and culture 3
2.1 The influence of culture on language 3
2.2 Influence exerted by language on culture 4
2.3 Shaping each other 5
3. General features of the English lexicon in postmodern culture 5
3.1 More brief 5
3.2 New meanings for old words 6
3.3 Foreign words 6
3.4 Coinage 7
4. Causes for the features 7
4.1 Rapid development in science and technology 7
4.1.1 Scientific development 7
4.1.2 Advancement in technique 8
4.2 Change in economy and politics 9
4.2.1 Economic change 9
4.2.2 Political influence 9
5. Conclusion 11
Bibliography 12

General Futures of English Lexicon in Postmodernism Culture

1. Introduction
1.1 A brief introduction to the postmodern culture
Currently, due to the swarming of globalization trend and the expansion of multi-culture, the postmodern culture is widely known by more and more people in a wider field. Nevertheless, in the process of application, postmodern culture is either misunderstood or too generalized. Not all people can grasp the authentic meaning of postmodern culture. Some of them just follow the trend, not really understanding what postmodern culture implies and how it affects us, our thought pattern, our interpersonal relationship, and our moral values, etc. Some explanation for postmodern culture is ambiguous and confusing. This situation can be attributed to two facts as following. On the one hand, the postmodern culture itself does not have a fixed theme. Its casual expression, paradoxical viewpoint and extensive arguments all result in people’s misunderstanding in postmodern culture（陶水平，1995）. On the other hand, as it is a comparatively new concept, people’s understanding level, viewpoint angle and subjectivity and casualness in application all contribute to the inappropriate understanding of postmodern culture(凯尔纳.贝斯特,1999). Consequently, never will we reveal its influence in other field, like language, until we authentically understand the essence of postmodern culture. Postmodern culture is a term describing large-scale changes in intellectual thought, cultural production, and global societies arising in the middle 20th century. Postmodernist thought has had large implication in philosophy, art, critical theory, literature, architecture, history, and culture. The term has been stretched over numerous heated debates, and many would argue that any single cohesive definition is impossible. Nevertheless, the major definitions of the term, undoubtedly, are related and a basic summary is possible.
Postmodernist scholars tend to emphasize the cultural contingency or relativity of different forms of intellectual production, claiming that there is no way for human beings to communicate in a language completely emptied of myth, metaphor, or cultural bias. Thus postmodernists portray all communication and analysis as inherently politicized and criticize those who attempt “pure”, “objective”, or “disinterested” intellectual endeavors. Postmodernist artworks in various disciplines tend to recognize the inherently politicized nature of communication, calling attention to the ideological underpinning of their own representation through a lot of representational plays and irony. Postmodernist scholarship and artworks, although often meant for a small audience, are frequently understood as merely one reflection of the large collective culture of postmodernity. Scholars argue that the postmodern era, or postmodernity, is characterized by a culturally pluralistic and profoundly interconnected global society lacking any single dominant center of political power, communication, or intellectual production. Other scholars understand postmodernism as a product of late capitalism, arguing that the economic and technological conditions of our age have given rise to a media dominated society in which there are only interferential representations with no real original referent. For these scholars postmodernism emphasizes the lack of any stable or objective referent for communication and is often a profoundly negative historical development.
1.2 Research motives
This paper discusses the common features and explores the causes of word formation for modern English vocabulary. As it is known，the English language has become a world language, which, as the carrier of cultures and customs of human society, changes with society. Vocabulary of language is the most sensitive part to reflect human activities and thinking patterns. English enlarges its vocabulary by such means as word borrowing, word combination, word imitation, the shift of meaning and abbreviation. Many authors overseas or in Asia have made researches to analyze the general features of the English lexicon. However, seldom did they consider about the postmodern culture. The motive of the paper is to arouse people’s attention to postmodern culture. And this paper aims to remind people that postmodernism is affecting people’s daily life, including English lexicon, the frequently used language. Postmodernism, though invisible, casts wider and wider influence on many aspects of our daily life in such aspects as thoughts, language, moral sense, etc. This paper attempts to find out how postmodern culture affects the current society so that we can better adapt to the 21st century and better our life.

2. Relationship between language and culture
2.1 The influence of culture on language
Language is part of culture. For example，Chinese is part of Chinese culture. There is no culture that has no language as its part. Language and culture are not separable.
The relationship between language and culture is not just that between a part and a whole. It is much more complex than that. Language is the carrier and container of culture because culture is expressed by language and also passed on from one generation to another by written language. Early in ancient ape era, human beings did not know modern language. Still they used gesture language or signs made by stone or sticks to express their thought, their experience. For an individual, customs, habits, and behavioral patterns can be described and analyzed in language. For society, value system, social institution, world views, belief, can also be described and summarized in language. But language as the medium of communication is indispensable in their production and use. Without the cooperation between designers and engineers, modern communication medium such as television, computer and newspaper, could never have been produced. Neither could I write my paper in this computer. Without language, even cooperation is a hard thing. So we can say, language is the mirror of culture, which strongly influences and shapes language. Eskimo tribes, who are famous for living in houses made by ice, commonly have more different expressions to distinguish among diverse types of snow: falling snow, snow on the ground, fluffy snow, wet snow, etc. Why they can create more words than people in other parts of the world to describe snow. The answer is they live in a world surrounded by snow. Even their house is made of solid snow. Undoubtedly, it is necessarily important for them to be able to distinguish among and refer to different types of snow. By contrast, people living in tropical zone, such as Africa, seldom or never have the chance to see snow in their life. So they do not have so many expression ways for the single word-snow. There is no need for them. Nevertheless, they have camel, which is an important part of their daily life, dealing with most of the transportation work for people in desert area. It is said that there are more than four hundred words for camel in Arabic countries while there is only one word for it in Chinese or English. Eskimos use different words to distinguish different types of snow. Similarly, Arabic speaking people created many different words of camel to show difference in camel age. The case is in another example. In English, we call father’s brother or other man who is younger than your father “Uncle”. By contrast we Chinese have four different counterparts for the word “Uncle”: “叔叔”, “伯伯”, “姨父”, “舅舅”. This is because familial relationship is traditionally important to Chinese people. So we Chinese have more kinship terms for the same relative than English speaking people in China. Perhaps we should not go so far as to state that language is entirely determined by culture. Each existing has its own reason. So it is with the item. Each language is a system in its own right. Some language features, to some extent, may reflect the development of language as a system.
2.2 Influence exerted by language on culture
Language also exerts its influence on culture. An example can exemplify the meaning of this statement. We know that each language can be used to express whatever its speakers want to express. For example, both Chinese and English have their own terms to express kinship relation. But in China, kinship relation can be expressed more easily and accurately compared with English expression. In kinship relations, the woman, who is your father or mother’s sister, or your uncle’s wife, is called “Aunt”. The English term “Aunt” has three counterparts in Chinese: “阿姨”，“婶婶”，“舅妈”. “阿姨”is the wife of your uncle, who is the younger brother of your father. In China, you can also call your mother’s sister “阿姨”. The wife of your father’s elder brother is called “婶婶”. “舅妈” is the wife of your mother’s brother’s wife. Really, the expression for “Aunt” is more complex in Chinese than that in English. This expression reflects the fact that the kinship relation is more important in China than that in other English speaking countries. And also, such expression helps to reinforce the concept of kinship between relatives. For us Chinese, each time we call someone “婶婶” or“舅妈”, we can feel the different kinship relations. So these kinship items help to reinforce the relation between family members.
2.3 Shaping each other
Generally, we can state that language develops at the same step with culture. Without culture there would be no language. The same goes to language. Language is the premise for the formation and development of culture. The development of culture, in return, helps to enrich the development of language. Thanks to language, human beings have their own culture. It is language that sets people apart from animals. From the viewpoint of biology, primitive man resembles animal to a large extent, but only human beings can speak language. That is because only men have culture, such as religion, belief, morality, customs, which stimulates the appearance of language. In a word, culture and language shape and promote each other.

3. General features of the English lexicon in postmodern culture
3.1 More brief
Today the English language has been more concise than before partly because we live in a fast-paced society. We want to grasps the meaning of language as soon as possible. So the more concise the language is, the quicker it will be for us to understand the meaning. Besides，we wish to save time in writing. So, we use the short form, for the most time, to replace the long words or expressions. For example, we use “AD” to refer to “advertisement”; “USA” for “the United States”; “TB” for “tuberculosis”; “GM” for “gymnastic”; “asap” for “as soon as possible”(汪榕培,2000). In newspaper, the language should be as concise as possible as the place for each word is limited and the cost for publication is expensive. Besides, if the words are too long and complicated, it will be time-consuming for readers to read the newspaper in short time, for example, when in bus. With the popularity of English, it has been applied to more and more fields. More and more people have to understand English, in this case, the more brief the lexicon is, the easier it is for them to better handle this language. Currently, people think that the main purpose of learning language is to communicate. So as long as we understand each other, why not make the language easier. So it is the world trend to make the language more concise(陈建生,2000).
3.2 New meanings