明代外来词的社会语言学视阈研究

本文是一篇语言学毕业论文，本研究拟从社会语言学的视角来研究明代外来词这一语言现象，将采用社会语言学视角下的语言和社会共变理论来分析明代外来词的社会因素及其对社会的影响，由此可以说明外来词作为一种语言现象，是与社会的变化发展息息相关。

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Background
In the long evolutionary process of all human civilizations, none of the culturescan progress and develop without reciprocal contacts with either neighboring orfar-reaching cultures. Being a pivotal component of human culture, language itselfcannot evade the contact. Once the contact takes place, an inter-linguistic influencewill be generated on account of the exchange among various cultures and languages.This reciprocal influence of languages will first become illumined via lexical changeswith a booming amount of loanwords. Ergo, it is conspicuous, as suggested by Gaoand Liu (1985), that the study of loanwords is an incipient yet quite pivotal part ofgeneral linguistic study.
Chinese loanwords stand out as a vital part of the Chinese language. Theywitness the Chinese-foreign contacts and communication, collectively mirror thedevelopment and changes of the Chinese society, economy and culture, and functionas symbols which elucidate the foreign impacts on the Chinese civilization. Thus astudy of Chinese loanwords can help to illuminate the foreign influences on theChinese civilization, and by elaborating on the influences, China’s commercial, socialand cultural communications with the other sovereigns can be revealed. Furthermore,through the study of the Chinese loanwords, the social structure and status quo of acertain period in China can be reconstructed. By studying these exotic loanwords,scholars can develop a panoramic elaboration and perspective on the social, economicand cultural developments of China during various time spans.
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1.2 Research Questions
It is acknowledged that language and society are intimately connected in theprocess of language development and alternation. Such a relationship, despite its wideacceptance, still needs to be proved by theoretical analysis. By explaining externalfactors from the society, people can be enlightened with the causes of the loanwordsin a sociolinguistic perspective. In order to have a clear understanding of the covariantrelationship between language and society, this paper intends to study the MingChinese loanwords from a Promethean angle by conducting a scrutinizing analysis onthe reciprocal relationship between the societal changes and linguistic modificationson the theoretical ground of the Covariance Theory. The study intends to answer twospecific research questions:
(1) What are the linguistic features of the Ming loanwords in terms of donorlanguages, adoptive methods and semantic categories?
(2) How are the Ming loanwords covariant with the Ming society?
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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Loanwords and Situated Definitions
In this chapter, the author will first clarify numerous terms concerning the studyof linguistic loans. And then a situated definition of the exact terms used in this paperwill be provided and utilized.
The Chinese term “外来词” is used in this study as the equivalent of the Englishterm “loanword”, which itself is a calque from a German word “Lehnwort” (Shi 2013).It refers to “a word taken from another language and at least partly naturalized”(Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary). This definition points out a crucial factthat a loanword is not imported into the receiving language without any alteration. Itmay be partly naturalized to fit the linguistic features of the recipient language. Forexample, the Latin word “philosophia” was introduced into the Chinese language inthe Ming dynasty. However, on account of the discrepancy between the two languages,this word cannot be directly used in Chinese. It must be phonetically naturalized as“斐录琐费亚” with all the letters altered by Chinese characters resembling similarpronunciation.
The subject in this study is the Chinese loanwords, and it is of necessity toprovide situated definitions of the Chinese loanwords before the analysis. Below arenumerous widely-accepted definitions of Chinese loanwords stipulated by the Chinesescholars. For the convenience of reading and avoidance of misinterpretation, thedefinitions will be displayed in the original Chinese language without any translation.

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2.2 The Situated Range of the Ming Loanwords
Since the situated definition of loanwords in this study is clarified, now it is ofpivotal necessity to illuminate the situated range of the Ming loanwords in this study.Based on definitions and methods utilized by other researchers in related researches,the author in present study stipulates that loanwords that appear in authentic literaturewritten or published in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) are qualified as the Mingloanwords. Loanwords that appeared before the Ming dynasty but were still used inthe Ming dynasty are also qualified as the Ming loanwords in this study. Such situatedrange of loanwords is determined on the basis of two facts. First, given the byzantinedevelopmental trajectory of Chinese loanwords, it is always exceedingly difficult todetermine the actual time or period when the loanwords are imported. Furthermore,the primary aim of the study is to find out the correlation between loanwords andsociety, not the exact etymological history of the Ming loanwords. Loanwords thatappeared before the Ming era but were still used in the Ming period evidentlydemonstrates that they were still needed by the Ming people, thus reflecting a certainreciprocal relationship with the Ming society. Therefore, the author defines andcollects the Ming loanwords based on the etymological origins as well as societalfunctions of the loanwords.
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3. Methodology ·····················22
3.1 Research Methods ···············22
3.2 Corpus and Its Collective Conduits ············22
4. Features of the Ming Loanwords·······························26
4.1 Classification of Loanwords in Terms of Donor Languages ·················· 26
4.1.1 Loanwords from Foreign Nations······················29
4.1.2 Loanwords from Minority Nationalities ···············29
5. A Sociolinguistic Analysis of the Ming Loanwords····················54
5.1 The Theory of Covariance Revisited ·····················54
5.2 Societal Causes of the Ming Loanwords ···············55

CHAPTER V SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE MINGLOANWORDS

5.1 The Theory of Covariance Revisited
The Theory of Covariance was put forward by W. Bright. In the Sociolinguistics:Proceedings of the UCLA Sociolinguistics Conference, Bright (1966) opined that“[w]hen social life changes gradually and suddenly, the language, as alanguage of social phenomenon, would change accordingly with the stepsof social life progress. Language is an existing condition of necessity, aspecial kind of social phenomenon, as well as a most importantcommunicating tool in society. On one hand, it relies on society in anabsolute way; on the other hand, it is adaptive to the social development.Language has to change according to the social changing communicativeneeds.”
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CHAPTER VI CONCLUSION

6.1 Findings of the Study
By aggregating lexical data from authentic literature written in the Ming Dynasty,this study has ascertained linguistic features of the Ming loanwords and thencategorized them into different types based on their donor languages, adoptivemethods and semantic contents. After the classification, the author continues toexpound the reciprocal relationship between language and society by analyzingexamples of the Ming loanwords from the perspective of the Covariance Theory.
After the thorough analysis, the thesis reaches to its conclusive part bypinpointing the covariant relationship between the Ming loanwords and society via theutilization of the Theory of Covariance. The causes and influences of the Mingloanwords have been verbally enlightened under the guidance of the Covariant Theory.Through the classification and explanation of the Ming loanwords corpus, it is thenexplicated that the causes of the Ming loanwords are twofold; there are synchronicreasons as well as diachronic reasons. The influences of the Ming loanwords are thenilluminated in five specific aspects. By analyzing the causes and influences of theMing loanwords, the study finally concludes the covariant relationship between theMing loanwords and society by using the Covariant Theory. Ergo, the study is able toshed light on the features of the Ming loanwords in a sociolinguistic approach.
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