IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v11y2024i1d10.1057_s41599-023-02556-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the Chinese resistance to lexical borrowing: a writing-driven self-purification system

Author

Listed:
  • Liulin Zhang

    (Soochow University)

Abstract

The Chinese language is known for its resistance to lexical borrowing. Transliterations can hardly be retained in this language that use pre-existing characters to simply transcribe the pronunciation of the source word in the donor language. This exclusion can be attributed to the ideographic nature of Chinese characters. Given the stable graphic-meaning correspondence, novel use of characters is expected to be consistent with their usage in previous literature, while the association between the graphic form and the phonetic form has always been loose, rendering it meaningless to use characters as a mere phonetic representation. Here writing is having an effect on the assimilation of loanwords, and more generally, the purist language ideology, which runs counter to the traditionally assumed derivative position of writing, thus shedding light on the implicit effect of writing on language ideology.

Suggested Citation

  • Liulin Zhang, 2024. "On the Chinese resistance to lexical borrowing: a writing-driven self-purification system," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02556-3
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-02556-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-023-02556-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-023-02556-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02556-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.