Home Investigating the Borrowing of English Inflectional Morphemes Into Chinese Newspapers
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Investigating the Borrowing of English Inflectional Morphemes Into Chinese Newspapers

  • Chuanbin Ni

    Chuanbin Ni is a Professor of English at Nanjing Normal University. His research interests broadly focus on second language acquisition and attrition, psycholinguistics and neurocognitive linguistics.

    and Xiaobing Jin

    Xiaobing Jin is a Lecturer of English at Nanjing Normal University. His research interests have mainly focused on psycholinguistics and foreign language education.

Published/Copyright: April 10, 2024
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

It is controversial whether English inflectional morphemes can be systematically borrowed into written Chinese since English and Chinese are typologically and orthographically different. This paper intends to investigate the borrowing of eight English inflectional morphemes [–’s (possessive), –(e)s (plural), –ed (past tense, past participle), –ing (present participle), –en (past participle),–s (the 3rd person singular), –er (comparative), and –est (superlative)] into Chinese with a corpus of Chinese newspapers collected from 2005 to 2021. The findings of this study suggest a significant presence of the systematically borrowed English inflectional morphemes into Chinese newspapers in terms of borrowability. Based on the analysis of the linguistic features and frequency distribution of the borrowed morphemes into Chinese newspapers, it can be concluded that the English inflectional morphemes borrowed can be well adapted into Chinese.

About the authors

Chuanbin Ni

Chuanbin Ni is a Professor of English at Nanjing Normal University. His research interests broadly focus on second language acquisition and attrition, psycholinguistics and neurocognitive linguistics.

Xiaobing Jin

Xiaobing Jin is a Lecturer of English at Nanjing Normal University. His research interests have mainly focused on psycholinguistics and foreign language education.

References

Bai, B. (2007). New evidence of code-switching from “ing” in Chinese. Journal of Qiqihar Normal University, 18(6), 46-48.Search in Google Scholar

Brown, B. (2003). Code-convergent borrowing in Louisiana French. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(1), 3-23.10.1111/1467-9481.00208Search in Google Scholar

Deng, J. (2009). An analysis of the new expressions “V-ing” in Chinese. Modern Chinese, 46(6), 37-40.Search in Google Scholar

Dimova, S. (2012). English in Macedonian television commercials. World Englishes, 31(1), 15-29.10.1111/j.1467-971X.2011.01731.xSearch in Google Scholar

Field, F. W. (2002). Linguistic borrowing in bilingual contexts. John Benjamins.10.1075/slcs.62Search in Google Scholar

Finegan, E., & Besnier, N. (1989). Language: Its structure and use. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.Search in Google Scholar

Grant, A. (2020). Contact-induced linguistic change: An introduction. In A. Grant (Ed). The Oxford Handbook of Language Contact (pp. 1-61). Oxford University Press.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199945092.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Heath, G. (1984). Language contact and language change. Annual Review of Anthropology, 13(3), 367-384.10.1146/annurev.anthro.13.1.367Search in Google Scholar

Hong, S. (2021). Study on Chinese Internet new idioms, Journal of Literature and Art Studies, 11(4), 232-236.10.17265/2159-5836/2021.04.004Search in Google Scholar

Huang, L. H. (2009). The usage of progressive marker “Zhong” in modern Chinese. Journal of Chinese Studies, 28(8), 166-168.Search in Google Scholar

Hughes, B., Zimmer, B., Wright, K. E., & Carson, C. E. (2022). Among the new words. American Speech, 97(1), 69-90.10.1215/00031283-9767628Search in Google Scholar

Ito, J., & Mester, A. (1993). Japanese phonology: Constraint domains and structure preservation. In J. Goldsmith (Ed). The Handbook of Phonological Theory, (pp. 817-838). Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar

Li, B. J., & Zhen, J. J. (2014). The causes and developmental patterns of “X+ing”. Journal of Chinese Language, 10(9), 10-11.Search in Google Scholar

Li, C., & Thompson, S. (1981). Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. University of California Press.10.1525/9780520352858Search in Google Scholar

Li, S. (2004). The expressions of progressive tense in Chinese used by Singaporean Youth. Language Research, 23(1), 38-39.Search in Google Scholar

Li, Y. (2008). Two new expressions of progressive tense in Chinese. Contemporary Rhetoric, 11(3), 77-78.10.1075/pbns.169.03liSearch in Google Scholar

Liu, H. N. (2006). The present progressive expressions by the young people from China. Language Research, 25(2), 76-77.Search in Google Scholar

Lyu, S. X. (1999). Modern Chinese 800 Words. Beijing: Commercial Press.Search in Google Scholar

Matras, Y. (2014). Why is the borrowing of inflectional morphology dispreferred? In N. Amiridze, Arkadiev, P. & Gardani, F. (Eds.), Borrowed Morphology, (pp. 1-30). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.10.1515/9781614513209.47Search in Google Scholar

Myers-Scotton, C., & Jake, J. L. (2000). Testing the 4-M Model: Introduction. International Journal of Bilingualism, 4(1), 1-8.10.1177/13670069000040010101Search in Google Scholar

Qi, X. G. (2008). A diachronic study on the structure of “Verb + Zhong” in Chinese. Chinese Character Culture, 19(3), 35-37.Search in Google Scholar

Scherling, J. (2016). The creative use of English in Japanese punning. World Englishes, 35(2), 276-292.10.1111/weng.12195Search in Google Scholar

Seifart, F. (2012). The principle of morpho-syntactic subsystem integrity in language contact: evidence from morphological borrowing in Resigaro (Arawakan). Diachronica, 29(4), 471-504.10.1075/dia.29.4.03seiSearch in Google Scholar

Shan, W. (2013). Various kinds of “X-ing”. Language Planning, 47(1), 67-68.Search in Google Scholar

Wang, H. (2007). A comparison of “VP + ing” in Chinese with the progressive tense in English. Journal of Chinese Language, 3(12), 39-40.Search in Google Scholar

Wang, Y. L. (2008). Two English Inflectional Morphemes Borrowed into Informal Mandarin Chinese on the Internet (Unpublished Dissertation for Master Degree). Ball State University.Search in Google Scholar

Winford, D. (2020). Theories of language contact. In A. Grant (Ed). The Oxford Handbook of Language Contact, (pp. 62-89). Oxford University Press.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199945092.013.2Search in Google Scholar

Yule, G. (2006). The Study of Language (3rd edition). Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Zhao, Y. L. (2014). The changes of Chinese morphology based on X-ing. Journal of Changchun University, 23(1), 46-49.Search in Google Scholar

Zhou, J., Yang, H. M., & Liu, Y. (2011). The types and evolution of “X-ing” in Chinese. Journal of Ludong University, 27(6), 48-52.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2024-04-10
Published in Print: 2023-11-27

© 2023 FLTRP, Walter de Gruyter, Cultural and Education Section British Embassy

Downloaded on 20.11.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/CJAL-2023-0406/html
Scroll to top button