英文版Analysis of English and Chinese Word Formation

Analysis of English and Chinese Word Formation

A Thesis Presented to the

Faculty of Foreign Language Department

Xingtai University

By

April，2014

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Acknowledgements

My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to Professor Zhang Yuanyuan, my supervisor, for her constant encouragement and guidance. She led me into the world of linguistics. Without her consistent and illuminating instruction, this thesis could not have reached its present form.

Second, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the professors and teachers at the Department of English: Professor Yang Guixia, Professor Zhang Shaojuan, who have instructed and helped me a lot in the past four years.

Last my thanks would go to my beloved family for their loving considerations and great confidence in me all through these years. I also owe my sincere gratitude to my friends and my fellow classmates who gave me their help and time in listening to me and helping me work out my problems during the difficult course of the thesis.

Contents

Abstract (in Chinese) ................................................................................. 4

Abstract (in English) ................................................................................. 5

Introduction................................................................................................ 6

I. The current situation of the study of the English and Chinese vocabulary .......... 7

II. The comparison between English and Chinese words .......................................... 8

A. The different language systems of English and Chinese. ................................. 8

B. The way of thinking in words .............................................................................. 8

III. The comparison of English and Chinese word formation ................................... 9

A. Similar word formation ..................................................................................... 9

1. Conversion. .................................................................................................... 9

2. Sounding-changing ..................................................................................... 9

3. Affixation .................................................................................................... 9

4. Compounding ........................................................................................... 10

5. Abbreviation ............................................................................................. 10

B. Unique word-formation of English and Chinese ............................................ 10

1. The unique word-formation in English: blending and inversion. ............. 10

2. The unique word formation in Chinese: reduplication ............................. 10

Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 12

Bibliography ................................................................................................................. 13

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摘 要

英语和汉语作为世界上两种重要的语言，在词的构成方面有许多共同点，同时也有各自比较独特的构成方式。通过大量的语言实例分析英汉词语来源，比较和归纳出英汉构词法的异同，对扩充词汇量、理解词意、进行英汉语言研究、创造新译词以及进行英汉翻译都有一定帮助。

关键词：词；英汉构词法；比较

Abstract

Both English and Chinese are very important languages in the world. They share many similarities with each other in word formation, meanwhile they each have their own unique forms. Then we can compare and sum up the similarities and differences between English and Chinese word formation through a lot of analyses of English and Chinese words examples to help us enlarge our vocabulary, understand the meaning of words, do research on Chinese and English languages, create new translated words and do translation between English and Chinese .

Key words: word; English and Chinese word formation; comparison

Introduction

Word is the smallest unit of language. It is analyzed from the phrases or sentences representing certain significance with a fixed speech form. And it is the smallest structure unit for independent operation. Vocabulary is the expression of language.

I. The current situation of the study of the English and Chinese vocabulary

A lot of traditional study between Chinese words and English words has been done ever before, but articles on Chinese characters and English word formation are few. And there is less research on methods of word formation between English and Chinese and also less qualitative analyses of them. This article uses some relevant theories of linguistics, by analysing Chinese and English vocabulary structure characteristics, similarities and differences in morphology, to learn English effectively and accurately. And for further research on Chinese and English, it also plays a valuable role in English learning.

II. The comparison between English and Chinese words

A. The different language systems of English and Chinese. According to their morphological characteristics, vocabulary system can be divided into: isolating language, agglutinative and inflectional language. Isolated language is also called the analytic language or the root language. This kind of language expresses grammatical meanings through independent function and fixed word order .And isolating language lacks most declension. Chinese is an isolated language. While English is not .And English is a typical inflectional language, which is expressed using a morphological change as a major means of grammatical relations .And to a certain extent, most of the Indo European languages are inflectional languages.

B. The way of thinking in words

The westerners used to think in a linear way. That is to express the central idea, namely the layers of deduction. For example: Care → careful → carefully → careless. While the spiral mode of thinking in Chinese is that first claim the theme, then repeatedly discuss, and finally return to the Lord with repeated stress. For example, 看看、毛毛雨、心心相印and so on. So both western linear thinking and Chinese spiral thinking directly influence its form and connotation of vocabulary.

III. The comparison of English and Chinese word formation There are such a large number of English and Chinese words that make the meaning of words so complicated. Word formation is a way to produce new words. English word formation includes sounding-changing, conversion, affixation, composition, shortening, blending, back-formation; while Chinese word formation includes sounding-changing, conversion, affixation, compounding, abbreviation and reduplication. By comparison of both English and Chinese word formation, we have summarized their similarities and differences.

A. Similar word formation

1. Conversion.

It does not add any ingredients, does not change the morphology, but takes a word from a part of speech into another part. This is called the conversion. Many English words expand their significance in this way, such as: "match". As a noun, such as this sentence: Who won the tennis match? It is used as a transitive verb. Anther sentence: The color of the shirt does not match that of the coat. It is used as an intransitive verb. And conversion phenomena in Chinese is more flexible than English. This is because of a strong function of Chinese sentences. Since the ancient Chinese ,most words not only have had the function of transformation , but also have had the transformation function. For example: “美”, its adjective meaning好的、善的，like美德、美丽; as a verb:美容、美言、美誉;as an adverb:美滋滋 and so on.

2. Sounding-changing

It is a new method by changing the composition of word pronunciation. English form new words by changing the consonants and vowels, and Chinese change initial consonants and compound vowels to form new words. For example : Chinese "和 (H é)" is an adjective, meaning "peace, harmony”. Like" 和睦、和谐 "; when"和" is a verb pronunciation (H è), in "一唱一和 meaning "harmony singing along". While in English, "refuse" word pronunciation of ’refuse (waste); when the verb is read into re’fuse (refuse). Also there are compound words in Chinese, such as "director", part of speech is a verb, meaning "to organize and guide the work", and "director" meaning "role play or film, to organize and guide the work as a director working people, to express their thought with an actors".

3. Affixation

Affixation method is a new method that consists of a root or words and affixes. It exists in both English and Chinese word formation. From the grapheme, there is no difference between Chinese affixes and roots; while in English, the difference is very big, but easy to distinguish. Both English and Chinese words have the prefixes and suffixes. Some common English prefixes are: meaning antisense, anti-, dis-, il-, im-, in-; meaning common :co-, col-, com-, con-; table "outward", extra-, over-; table

"beyond, too," and then, back to the "re-" - "semi-. While the Chinese are: old -, small -, O -, first -, second -, and - to -, etc. Suffixes in English and Chinese are also very large, such as occupation suffix in English: -an, -ant, -ar, -er, -ian; said: -ain, -al, meaning posts; -ary; says people from somewhere; -an, -er, -ese, people who do some action; -al, -ar, -or, ster; -ess, -ette, -ine ,meaning negative, etc. At the same Chinese also has the similar word suffixes, such as occupation: 师，士，员; relatives:人,夫,头;action: 者，人，徒;meaning of general people:子,生,友, etc.

4. Compounding

Two or more than two independent words are compounded in a certain order to form a new word, and this word formation is called compounding method. English compounds are mainly used to form nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, such as himself, everything, inside, sunshine, blackbird, football etc .For the Chinese, words can be said to be the main methods of word formation, which is mainly composed of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs, but it is generally through the subject verb, verb, verb complement, coordinate and partial positive relationship, such as :subject predicate relationship:心疼、日出; verb object relationship:读书、拼图; verb complement relationship: 提高、揭露; parallel relationship: 长短、好坏; partial positive relationship: 冰箱、内衣.

5. Abbreviation

Abbreviation is the word shortening, which is characterized with strong new creative ability, especially prominent in scientific style and the style of newspapers and periodicals. In Chinese, for example: 地下铁路→地铁、高等学校→高校、北京大学→北大、中央电视台→央视、国有企业→国企etc. And English abbreviations mainly use letters of initials or extracting words. For example: Voice of America, VOA, World Trade Organization → WTO, December → Dec., address → ad., United Nations → UN, very important person, VIP etc.

B. Unique word-formation of English and Chinese

1. The unique word-formation in English: blending and inversion. Blending refers to cutting two original words,choosing one of the head or tail, and then splicing into a new word, such as SICOM (situation + comedy),psywar (psychological + war ) sitcom, psychological warfare, Motel (motor + hotel), Autolodge (auto + lodge ) . The inversion and the affixation are just the opposite. Affix affixes to form new words, and inversion is to get rid of the suffix to form new words. The using of inversion of words are mainly verbs, such as: Editor→ edit, peddler → peddle, beggar → beg etc.

2. The unique word formation in Chinese: reduplication

The reduplication is one of the common means of grammar in Sino Tibetan

Languages .It is by overlapping part or all of morphemes words. Nouns, pronouns, quantifiers in modern Chinese, verbs, adjectives and adverbs can form new words according to a certain format overlap.

For example: AA type想想、年年; AAB type --毛毛雨、悄悄话;

BAA type --热乎乎、黄澄澄; AABC type --历历在目、丝丝入扣;

BCAA --可怜兮兮、衣冠楚楚; AABB type -高高兴兴、规规矩矩;

ABAC --一言一行、各种各样; ABAB type -分析分析、痛快痛快;

AA -- 练一练、挑一挑etc.

Conclusion

From the analyses and comparison above, we can see that English and Chinese languages have many similarities in word formation. English belongs to the Indo European languages. It is alphabetic writing. Letters combine and generate syllables; Chinese belongs to the Sino Tibetan language family, which is an expressive tendency of syllable words. The morpheme is mostly monosyllabic morpheme, and it can be freely combined into words. Their differences make them have their own unique characters in word formation. But from a look on the whole, the similarities are still the mainstream in English and Chinese word formation. Mastering the similarities and differences between the two languages in word formation, is not only conducive to the expansion of vocabulary, but also beneficial to English and Chinese language study.

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