Word formation of Chinese English words: Evidence from the Chinese English Dictionary

Abstract

This study aims to cast light on the nature and features of word formation in the lexis of Chinese English and provide a synchronic formational analysis of Chinese English neologisms by adopting a sequential data-driven approach with a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The study has 1) constructed a hierarchical and quantificational four-level structure for Chinese English word formation through meticulous coding, categorization, and calculation of 3522 headwords collected in the Chinese English Dictionary; and 2) revealed departures of the present taxonomy with extant models of indigenized varieties in both qualitative (coherence, inclusiveness, refinedness, adaptability) and quantitative measures (the changing status of formation processes, source languages, and transliteration systems). The study sheds significant insights into the motivation of Chinese English words, the status of the Chinese English variety, the sociolinguistic conditions of the variety, and word formation in the Expanding Circle where a dictionary of the variety is available. INTRODUCTIONLexical innovations that emerged in the historical and contemporary contact between English and indigenous languages have drawn continuous scholarly attention in the paradigm of world Englishes either as embedded sections (or paragraphs) of panoramic monographs aiming at a comprehensive account of new English varieties (Bolton, 2003;

A corpus‐based approach to Chinese English lexis

“…On the other hand, translation and hybrid forms have decreased from 44% to 41% and 18% to 9% respectively. In Qin and Guo (2020) from 0% to 1%. There are altogether seven uncertain terms for the whole dataset and five of them appear in the highfrequency dataset (China, china, coolie, silk and typhoon, the other two items being spelling variants of coolie).…”

“…Table 4 shows that all the six formational mechanisms of Chinese English lexis (Qin & Guo, 2020) have occurred for the 408 high-frequency items. However, their distribution in each formational category displays some interesting differences.…”

“…First, the inclusion of lexical items derives from introspection and intuition of individual lexicographers based on a lexical and citational database collected by the dictionary team, be it paper slips or digital texts. ‘At the end of the day, it would very much depend on the lexicographers’ overall experience and judgment on the inclusion and treatment of these entries in the dictionary.’ (Ooi, 2015, p. 81) Second, dictionaries (except for exclusive dictionaries aiming at regionalisms, for the distinction between inclusive and exclusive dictionaries, please see Görlach, 1985) tend not to include loan translations/translations (see Qin & Guo, 2020 for the distinction between loan translations and translations), encyclopedic terms and multi‐word units while the three categories generally constitute a substantial proportion of the lexical items of nativized Englishes (In Qin & Guo, 2020, 44% of the Chinese English words are formed by translations; in Qin & Gao, 2020, 69% of the Chinese English entries are multi‐word units). These two limitations suggest that ‘a correlation with dictionary coverage and currency’ (Hashim & Leitner, 2011, p. 567) might not supposedly exist.…”

“…Lexical features arising from the historical and contemporary contact ecologies between English and indigenous languages have always been a fruitful area within the paradigm of world Englishes (Baumgardner, 1998;Biermeier, 2014Biermeier, , 2017Cannon, 1988;Chan & Kwok, 1985;Dako, 2001;Tan, 2009;Tent, 2001;Yang, 2009). Commonly delineated structural features of varietal lexis encompass chronology, etymology, semantics, grammar and word-formation (Biermeier, 2008;Cannon, 1988;Evans, 2015;Moody, 1996;Qin & Guo, 2020;Tent, 2001;Yang, 2005Yang, , 2009. Of all these componential dimensions, the vitality of nativized words, as indicated by their currency in various speech communities of world Englishes, seems to be inadequately treated, especially when it comes to research with large reliable datasets and rigorous scientific design.…”

“…'Coinage' is one of the six formational categories I have developed for the word-formation taxonomy of Chinese English lexis in an earlier publication. For further detailed elucidation, please seeQin and Guo (2020).…”