客观看待中国式英语.doc

An Objective Look at Chinglish

Contents:

Abstract …………………………………………………… 1
1. What is Chinglish? ………………………………………1
2. Chinglish and Chinese English …………………………2
3. The causes of Chinglish ………………………………2
4. The representation of Chinglish ………………………2
4.1 Glossary aspect ………………………………… 3
4.2 Culture aspect ……………………………………3
5. Ways to avoid or reduce Chinglish ……………………4
6. Conclusion ……………………………………………4
Bibliography …………………………………………………5

An Objective Look at Chinglish

Abstract: Chinglish is speech or writing in English that shows the interferences of Chinese language or the influence of Chinese culture. This essay introduced Chinglish in an objective looks.
Key words: Chinglish Chinese English representation

On the way of second language learning, learner's first language knowledge can serve as one of the inputs into the process of hypothesis generation. The learners process and use the second language on the basis of the first language. The effect of the mother tongue will manifest itself in the process of foreign language learning. Chinese students have no way to dismiss the effect of native language and culture when learning English. We call it Chinglish.
Chinglish are paid more and more attentions these years by language expert. At the same time, chinglish are disputed by many people.

1. What is Chinglish?
Chinglish is a kind of pidgin English. A pidgin is a special language variety that mixes or blends languages and it is used by people who speak different languages for restricted purposes such as trading. Usually a European language serves as the basis of the pidgin in the sense that some of its grammar and vocabulary is derived from the European language used by traders and missionaries in order to communicate with peoples whose languages they did not know.
According to Professor Deng Changyan, Chinglish is speech or writing in English that shows the interference of Chinese language or the influence of Chinese culture. Since the implementation of the reform and open policy, China has had more and more contact with outside world and English has also become the most important communicating means berween Chinese and foreigners. However, in contacting with the outside world, it is discovered that the “English” learned in China is not efficient in bringing about mutual understanding berween China and foreign countries. The “English” many Chinese people learned and used is stained with the color of Chinese culture. For the native English speskers, these English said by Chinese learners looks very strange. These are “Chinglish”.

2. Chinglish and Chinese English
Before research into the causes of Chinglish and it forms, it is necessary to distinguish Chinglish from another concept --- China English.
China English, as a branch of the expanding circle, constitutes a variety of English languages. With its Chinese
feature, it enriches the vocabulary of the language, broadening its range of appliance. As a matter of fact, every language, like culture, is not self-sufficient. On the contrary, it is under the stimuli outside its own domain.
Through conflicting, assimilating and absorbing, new and energetic factors enters the old entity and change it constantly as the process repeats with time passing by. And actually, some Chinese expressions have become part of English, for example “jiaozi”, “long time no see”, “chop suey”, and “dim sum” and so on. They have been well acknowledged by native speakers and encounter no problem in everyday use.
A definition of China English would be proposed here based on the analysis above, which is the vocabulary, sentences, and discourses cored with Standard English, with Chinese characteristics that enter communication in English by means of transliteration, interpretation and semantic regeneration.
Chinglish, however, is different. As is defined by Pinkham, it falls into the category of interlanguage and needs improving. From time to time we can hear English teachers complain that the speech or paper by some students is delivered or made in English but the construction or thinking clue is typical Chinese. Listeners from another linguistic background would be at loss. Consequently, in an intercultural communication, the construction or clue is most likely to barrier further interaction. Therefore, Chinglish does not belong to appropriate English.

3. The causes of Chinglish
The most acceptable idea of the cause of Chinglish is negative transference of the mother tongue.
Language educators and linguists have assumed that habits firmly established out of people’s native language will influence their learning of a foreign language will influence their learning of a foreign language. They need to practice hard to “forget” the familiar native language pattern and internalize the correct one.
It is well known that Chinese and English are poles apart. The differences between the two languages in word choices, syntactic structures, and thought patterns have brought great trouble to Chinese learners. They aim to acquire standard international English, but without a “real” English environment, they are apt to ignore the differences between the two languages, and the result is the so-called Chinglish, an awkward mixture in which ideas conceived in Chinese are ungrammatically or unidionmatically expressed in English.
Beside that, the cultural differences between China and English-speaking countries is also an important part of result in Chinglish.
Language is the principal means whereby we conduct our social lives. It is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways. “Without the culture dimension, successful communication is often difficult: comprehension of approximate is often difficult: comprehension of even basic words and speakers and writers may fall to convery their meaning adequately or may even cause offence.”(Michael Fleming & Michael Bryan, 1998:4) The Chinese and Western culture have stemmed from two completely different civilizations. Their discrepancies in history, religion and custom have determined their distinct modes of thinking. When using English, Chinese speakers and writers are prone to carry the communicative habits of their native culture over into English. As a result, misconception and even offence often occur.

4. The representation of Chinglish
Because of the influence of Chinese, Chinglish often represent in the glossary and culture.
4.1 Glossary aspect
The phenomenon that the glossary issues lead to Chinglish is the most extrusive. In conclusion, they represent as follows:
(i) The learners mix up the thesaurus and they do not really understand the meaning of the word. So they make the relationship between Chinese word and English word only based on the dictionaries of Chinese to English or English to Chinese. The result is that the learners interpret without real understanding. For example, a highly respectful linguist (the correct one is “a highly respectable linguist”); She has a considerable husband (The correct one is “She has a considerate husband”).
(ii) The learners arrange the words in pairs or groups improperly. For instance:
(5) Let’s go and eat our meals.
(6) He is going to sing songs at the concert.
The verbs in the above sentences contain the meanings of the object parts. So these sentences should be put right as follows:
(7) Let's go and eat.
(8) He is going to sing at the concert.
Take more examples, a good friend instead of a close friend, youth crime instead of juvenile delinquency, sport suit instead of sweat suit and so on.
(iii) The learners cannot understand the connotations of the words because of the extensions of the words. The extension is the meaning of word, and the connotation is the accessional sense or concealed intension of the word. Chinglish only catches hold of the extensions of the words, ignoring the connotations of the words and uncomprehending the types of the words which are commendatory or derogatory, formal or informal, written language or spoken language and so on, such as “政治家” can be translated into “politician” and “statesman”. But the difference between the two words is that they have different types of writing. Politician is a derogatory sense word which means “政客”. And statesman is a commendatory word which means honest and judicious. Take more examples, the sentence: Those who are fat should do plenty of exercise(胖子需要多锻炼), some people have a look at it and consider it is right. But according to the native speakers, it is unacceptable. The reason is that fat is an obviously derogatory word when it is used as an adjective. During affiliating with others, people should avoid to use it. This sentence can be corrected into “Those who are over-weighted should do plenty of exercise(体重超常的人应该多锻炼)! Another example is that hen can be realized as “母鸡”. And then “A black hen lays a white egg” can be translated into “黑母鸡下白蛋”. Maybe people cannot understand what it means. Hen also refers to “女人、老婆”. For example, a henpecked husband(妻管严的丈夫). The previous sentence can be translated into “丑妇生俊儿” or “鸡窝里飞出金凤凰”.
4.2 Culture aspect
The final aim to learn foreign language is to master the trueborn language and combine it with the culture of the target language country to apply the language well, truly and decently. But the native cultures are different in value conception, thinking pattern, psychology and so on. The learner is automatically, uncontrollably and subconsciously using past learned behaviour in the attempt to produce new responses. Accordingly, it appears as negative transfer. In other words, the differences between the Chinese and Western cultures in value conception, thinking pattern, psychology straight determine and have influence on the language expression manners. They also have influence on the cognition and mastering of the target language and cultures. So the fundamental way to prove the language colligate diathesis is that the learners should perceive the world as a native person. Chinglish mainly refers that the learners do not understand the specifically historic culture of the native country.
(i) The learners do not understand the culture and habit of the English society in daily lives. For example: Are you married? How much can you earn in one month? How old are you? The questions like these may arouse the westerners’ misapprehending about nosing for others’ a nigger in the woodpile. They will consider these as bad tastes. Other examples, the error responses as follow:
A: Your English is excellent.
B: No, no. My English is very poor.
(ii) The learners do not understand the traditional culture of English society, so they make misunderstanding of the creation and usage of the comparisons and idioms in English. Some people translate “胆小如鼠” into “as timid as a mouse” (It should be translated into “chicken hearted” or “as timid as a hare”). Some people translate “牛饮” into “drink like an ox” (It should be translated into “drink like a fish”). Some people translate “坏蛋” into “bad eggs” (It should be translated into “villains”).
(iii) The learners are devoid of the understanding of the English literary quotations. Most of the English words are from the English literary quotations. Some of them are from Bible and Achaean fables and fames; others are from literature works, for example, Odyssey, Quixotic, and Frankenstein and so on. All of these words have history cultural background. The weekly Times has reported that Nixon’s Odyssey to China. It means that Nixon visited China. Originally, Odyssey is an epic written by an ancient Achaean. It describes a long and difficult course that Odyssey had gone through after the ancient city Troy was downthrown. Here it refers to the long and difficult course of the normalization of the Chinese and American relationship. If the learners do not know the history background of Odyssey, it will be difficult for them to catch on the meaning of it.

5. Ways to avoid or reduce Chinglish
The twenty years of reform and opening-up to the outside world have witnessed a rapid growth in China’s economy. As the process of the global economic integration is being accelerated and the knowledge-based economy is coming up, we are confronted with new challenges of English proficiency. International contacts through the medium of English are widening and intercultural communication becomes more frequent. More and more international corporations have come to invest in China. English is required for international economic & technological co-operation and cultural exchanges between China and English-speaking countries. Therefore, Chinese learners of English are required to have qualified communicative competence.
Non-English majors make up the majority of English learners in China, and they are fated to shoulder the arduous tasks of co-operations and exchanges with foreign countries. Their jobs will bring them into direct or indirect contacts with English-speaking people and their cultures, so they will face the challenge to use English both accurately and appropriately. In this sense, it is reasonable for the learners to avoid and reduce Chinglish which is the embodiment of the Chinese language negative transfer in studying English.

6. Conclusion
When using English, Chinese people often make “Chinglish” mistakes. The cause of these grammatically correct but unidiomatic mistakes is due to an ignorance of the difference in meaning, in styles of language and thinking,and in cultural background. These kinds of mistakes have brought about misunderstandings, rather than mutual comprehension in communication between the two cultures. Therefore, Chinese learners and users of English should take the problems caused by Chinglish seriously and find out measures to cope with them.

Bibliography：

[1] Li Xiaoling. 2006. A Brief Account of Chinglish[A]. Crazy English Teachers.
[2] Chen Shen. The Teaching of Cultures in Foreign Language Education[M].Beingjing:北京语言文化大学出版社。
[3] Pinkham,J. The Translator’s Guide to Chinglish[M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press,2000.
[4] 李然，2007，中式英语成因浅析及性质分析[A]，语文学刊（高教·外文版）
[5] 章国军，2005，透视中式英语[A]，韶关学院学报·社会科学。
[6] 郑玮，2008，如何客观看待中式英语[B]，杭州电子科技大学学报（社会科学版）。
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