Lexical Borrowing in the Chinese Context: Examples from Two English
Newspapers in China
In the research on World Englishes, borrowing has been long recognized as an
important part of the nativization that English has undergone in Asia and Africa. In
comparison with the borrowing in syntax and morphology, lexical items have the highest
ease of borrowing and seem the most likely to occur (Brutt-Griffler, 2002; Romaine,
1995). This is because they carry the highest content of meaning, and refer to aspects of
life unique to one or several adjoining countries, which are either in the Outer Circle or
the Expanding Circle. Many of these lexical items have been documented in the more
recognized nativized varieties, including Indian English (D’souza, 1996; Kachru, 1992;
McArthur, 2002), Singapore English (Butler, 1996; D’souza, 1996; Wee, 1998), and
Hong Kong English (Benson, 2002; Bolton, 2003; Butler, 1996; Carless, 1995).
Compared with the study of the abovementioned nonnative varieties, the study of
China English has a shorter history, as the nativization of English in the world’s most
populous country may have started only in the early 1980s. The literature on China
English available seems to focus mostly on the attitudes toward English, the history and
use of English, or the eagerness to study English in this country (e.g. Bolton, 2002; Hu,
2004; Jiang 1995, 2003). Lexical borrowing is either briefly mentioned in passing, or left
out of the discussion. Gao’s study (2001) of China English vocabulary in two
newspapers may have been the only one devoted primarily to lexical borrowing. While
successfully describing loan translations and words having undergone semantic shifts,
Gao excluded from his paper any loanwords, which in fact are sometimes considered the
only category in lexical borrowing (Li, 2001; Poplack, Sankoff, & Miller, 1988).
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