Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-01T21:01:04.040Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is ‘NBA’ Chinese or English?

The current situation of English lettered words in Chinese

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2017

Mingwu Xu  and
Chuanmao Tian
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In recent years, the use of foreign loanwords in Chinese has increased significantly. It has been estimated that there are currently about 3,000 foreign words in Chinese, most of which are related to English (Zhang, 2006). Of these, more than 500 words are frequently used, together with their abbreviations and translations. In response to this situation, the Chinese government established the Inter-ministerial Joint Meeting on Chinese Language Translation and Writing Specifications (IJM-CLTWS) in 2012, consisting of ten state-level ministries and institutions such as the State Language Commission, the Central Compilation & Translation Bureau, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education. Thus far, the expert committee of the IJM-CLTWS has identified four groups of foreign words and their standard Chinese translations.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , December 2017 , pp. 33 - 39
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baskeran, L. 1994/2008. ‘The Malaysian English mosaic.’ English Today, 10(1), 27–32.Google Scholar
Dong, H. et al. 2014. ‘Why “zero translation” gets so popular.’ People's Daily, April 25, 12.Google Scholar
Duan, Y. & Liu, S. 2014. ‘A survey of the use of lettered words in authoritative media.’ Applied Linguistics, 23(1), 60–7.Google Scholar
Hou, M. (ed.) 2014. A Practical Dictionary of Lettered Words. Beijing: The Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Hou, M. & Teng, Y. 2016. ‘Sixty years of use of lettered words.’ Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning, 1(3), 34–42.Google Scholar
Liu, Y. 2013. ‘Chinese pinyin, lettered words and globalisation.’ Studies of the Chinese Language, 62(1), 79–80.Google Scholar
McArthur, T. 1995. ‘The Anglo-hybrids.’ English Today, 11(4), 2.Google Scholar
Meakins, F. 2013. ‘Mixed languages.’ In Bakker, P. & Matras, Y. (eds.), Contact Languages: A Comprehensive Guide. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 159–228.Google Scholar
Pan, W. 2012. ‘Letters are not Chinese characters and lettered words can be recorded in a limited way.’ Contemporary Rhetoric, 31(5), 92–4.Google Scholar
Seidlhofer, B. & Berns, M. 2009. ‘Perspectives on English as a lingua franca: Introduction.’ World Englishes, 28(2), 190–1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Q. 2016a. ‘Tracking the steady state and dynamic state of lettered words’ use in written Chinese.’ Journal of Shenyang University, 18(2), 221–7.Google Scholar
Wang, Q. 2016b. ‘Research on lettered words in the Modern Chinese Dictionary .’ Journal of Shenyang Normal University, 34(2), 81–6.Google Scholar
Wu, D. 2001. ‘Some more remarks on the effects of English loan words on modern Chinese morphology.’ Contemporary Linguistics, 3(2), 81–9.Google Scholar
Wu, Y. 2012. ‘Scholars claim that the Chinese purity is easy to be misunderstood and there are many foreign words in Chinese.’ Wenhui Newspaper, August 31, 8.Google Scholar
Yu, P. & Zhu, J. 2003. ‘Original loan words: The new developments of modern Chinese absorbing foreign words.’ Studies of the Chinese Language, 52(6), 559–63.Google Scholar
Zhang, T. 2006. ‘The revision of the section “Words Beginning with Western-language Letters” in the Modern Chinese Dictionary .’ Applied Linguistics, 15(4), 131–8.Google Scholar
Zhang, Z. 2012. ‘Notes on the issue of lettered words in the Chinese dictionary.’ Wenhui Newspaper, September 14, 8.Google Scholar