Chinese-English code-mixing among Chinese netizens.pdf

《Chinese-English code-mixing among Chinese netizens.pdf》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《Chinese-English code-mixing among Chinese netizens.pdf（14页珍藏版）》请在得力文库 - 分享文档赚钱的网站上搜索。

1、English Today http:/journals.cambridge.org/ENG Additional services for English Today: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here Chinese-English code-mixing among Chinas netizens Wei Zhang English Today / Volume 28 / Issue 03 / Septem

2、ber 2012, pp 40 - 52 DOI: 10.1017/S0266078412000260, Published online: 13 September 2012 Link to this article: http:/journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0266078412000260 How to cite this article: Wei Zhang (2012). Chinese-English code-mixing among Chinas netizens. English Today, 28, pp 40-52 doi:10.101

3、7/S0266078412000260 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http:/journals.cambridge.org/ENG, IP address: 130.160.4.77 on 30 Mar 2015 http:/journals.cambridge.orgDownloaded: 30 Mar 2015IP address: 130.160.4.77 Chinese-English code-mixing among Chinas netizens WEI ZHANG Chinese-English mixed

4、-code communication is gaining popularity on the Internet Introduction One of the most fascinating aspects of Chinese English in the contemporary age is the growing practice of code-mixing on Chinas Internet. This study uses participant observation to explore the mixing practices of Chinese netizens

5、 in online social networking communities, by focusing on code-mixing in domains of government adminis- tration, pop culture and social interaction. The results of the study suggest that a mixed-code var- iety of Chinese English is gaining popularity in Chinas homegrown social networks. For the young

6、 generation in mainland China, mixing has become part of their everyday communication practices as they build multicultural identities, transform the traditional social relationships and practice their social responsibilities, using new communication technologies as well as their lin- guistic and cu

7、ltural repertoires. OnDecember20,2010,theGeneralAdministration of Press and Publication of the Peoples Republic of China announced that no random mixing of words or acronyms from English or other foreign languages is allowed in Chinese publications in mainland China. GAPP then went on to explain tha

8、t the increased abusive use of language, such as random English mixing, direct use of English words or acro- nyms, and coined expressions mixed with English or other foreign languages in print and digital publi- cations, have seriously damaged the purity of Chinese and destroyed the harmonious and h

9、ealthy linguisticandculturalenvironment(GAPP, December 20, 2010). While authorities and linguistic purists fi nd mixing threatening, the 513 million Chinese neti- zens, among whom 90% have received vocational or higher education (CNNIC, 2012), are enjoying a national carnival of English mixing. A te

10、lling episode: hold 住,1a mixed-code expression orig- inating from a Taiwan TV show, ranks the fi rst in the top ten hot net words of the year 2011 in China (Sina Tech, December 13, 2011). Started from a comic line 就算搞错 party, 整个场面我 hold 住 Even if I found myself in a wrong party, I am still able to h

11、old by a female college student from Taiwan, the expression quickly spread over the social networks in mainland China.2 Mostly adapted as 你 hold 住吗? Can you hold it? by mainland netizens, the mixed expression hold 住 means the ability to sustain pressure as in 油价再创新高，你 hold 住吗? Oil price has surged t

12、o a new high, can you hold it?, to bear the undesirable as in 雷人两会提案, 你 hold 住吗 Shocking NPC and CPPCC propo- sals, can you hold it? or to resist the temptation as in the innovative notice of the wanted from the police每人惊爆价：500010000元。你还 WEI ZHANG is an associate professor of English at the English

13、Department, Peking University, China. She received a PhD from Teachers College, Columbia University. She has published internationally on topics related to gender, language and technology as well as digital literacy in journals such as Women Xue Xiangmei and the mixed-code interactions, both written

14、 and oral, with the colleague. In the story by Lu Maomao, the English lexical insertions, such as fashion, company, foregrounded the context of the story and the verb joking in the end emphasized the dramatic effect of her story. As for the interaction with her colleague, which involved email and vo

15、ice messaging, the English mixing extends from lexical insertions (e.g. con- venient, red) to the direct English translation of a Chinese clause (e.g. give me use use). The seamless mixture of English and Chinese resembles Chinese Pidgin English the origins of Chinese English, once popular in southe

16、rn China three hundred years ago. The group members expressed their love of mixing in various posts. For some, mixing bringsthemexcitementasthey playwith languages; for others, mixing, as they have observed from friends and colleagues, is the fashion among professionals and carries a high- end feel

17、高端的 feel, as in Examples 7 and 8 below: (7.) Sunny-days-sometimes-rain-oranges: I totally support this team. At my friends offi ce, everybody has an English name. They speak just like this; none of them speaks a complete sentence. So bourgeois and so fashion. (8.) Bai：marke In collaborative spirit,

18、Bai (a self-identifi ed par- ticipant from Beijing) contributed a hybridized word mar 克, which can be interpreted either as the verb mark, marking the above post, or the male name Mark, preserving its English ori- gin and its Chinese fl avor, and vividly captured the multicultural identities the bil

19、ingual white- collars identify with. It is worth noting that the participants attitudes towards mixing are not fi xed. In Example 9 below, Linlinsansan admits that she used to regard English mixing as a kind of show-off, but now, the feel of ChinesedoesnotexistwithoutEnglish insertions: 44ENGLISH TO

20、DAY 111September 2012 http:/journals.cambridge.orgDownloaded: 30 Mar 2015IP address: 130.160.4.77 (9.) I used to despise those people who speak with en, excuse me are you the only person who can speak en? But now I think Chinese does not have a feel without en, often imitate Xiao S words: I dont car

21、e! As the participants practice the art of mixing togetherthroughsharingtheirmixed-code posts, their mixing strategies, and their experi- ences and opinions about mixing practices, they are slowly evolving into an online community of practice with a common goal of enjoying the high- end feel of Engl

22、ish mixing, a state of living for the bilingual urbanites. The government Weibo where Hundred groups happy-go The practice of mixing, popular in the online interactions among college students and white- collars, is gradually spreading to the domain of government, as various branches and levels of Ch

23、inese governments start to use new social net- working technologies to communicate with the general public.11On December 9, 2011, the Tiannin Branch of Changzhou Police Department started a fugitive hunt campaign with a Taobao12 style tweet at their offi cial Sina Weibo site, which has more than 110

24、,000 followers. CHINESE-ENGLISH CODE-MIXING AMONG CHINAS NETIZENS45 http:/journals.cambridge.orgDownloaded: 30 Mar 2015IP address: 130.160.4.77 (10.) Hundred groups happy-go: To thank the general netizens, Clear Heaven and Peaceful Land offers surprise fugitive hunting price! SecKill! Geili！ Can you

25、 hold it? List of items: 1. Wu Xiaohang, male, born in 1977, Sihong county, Suqian city, Jiangsu Province. 2. Cui Hongbing (nickname Cui Erniu, Cui Qiang), male, born in 1971, Qingpu District, Huaian City, Jiangsu Province. 3. Zhu Qi, male, born in 1977, Tiannin District, Changzhou City, Jiangsu Pro

26、vince. Surprise price per head: 500010000! Instead of describing the fugitive hunt campaign as a traditional legal action with the offi cial legal term通缉令wantednotice,theTiannin Police chose to use a hybridized noun phrase as the rubric 百团乐 go Hundred groups happy- go. The English verb go, which has

27、 the same pronunciation of 购 buy in Chinese, carrying both the sense of the action in go as well as the sense of group buy in 购 buy, creates a bilin- gual pun. Of course, an online group buy13event is much more appealing to the netizens than a fugi- tive hunt. Meanwhile, the replacement of buy with

28、go distinguishes the wanted notice from a real group buy advertisement. Before detailing thecashrewardforeachfugitiveandthe informationaboutthefugitives,theTiannin Police appropriate the hot mixed-code expression 你还 hold 住吗？Can you resist the tempta- tion? to signal a trendy new identity for the pol

29、ice force and their solidarity with the netizens who share similarly trendy practices of interaction. Sophisticated tweeters at SinaWeibo often add visuals to enhance the linguistic content of the tweet. The incorporated image of the notice of the wanted people resembles the structure of the web- pa

30、ge for merchandise to be sold at Taobao. Below the introduction of the campaign, which repeats the key information in the tweet, are the photos of the three fugitives, displayed as items for sale. The pur- chase button, whichisoften located onthe right side of a Taobao page, has been moved to the le

31、ft side, foregrounding the new information on the right side:photosofthethreefugitives.Mixingandblend- ing the legal genre with the genre of advertising, the Tiannin Police successfully transformed a tra- ditional, straight-faced fugitive hunt campaign into a happy group-hunting event. The innovativ

32、e wanted notice proved to be quite effective. One day later, Cui Hongbing, one of the three fugitives, turned himself over to the police after reading the tweet. In a follow-up tweet, the Tiannin Police ended the tweet with 百团乐go. ingHundredgroupshappy-go.ing.The English morpheme ing, inserted after

33、 the ellipsis dots in English and Chinese style, suggested the continuation of the fugitive hunt campaign and invited the netizens continued participation. Five days later, a second fugitive was captured. The four related tweets by the Tiannin Police on thefugitivehuntwerethenretweetedand commented

34、on over a hundred times by the general public, journalists, as well as other government agencies from various parts of China. In general, netizens reacted positively to this innovative use 46ENGLISH TODAY 111September 2012 http:/journals.cambridge.orgDownloaded: 30 Mar 2015IP address: 130.160.4.77 o

35、f the Internet by the police. Xiamen Anti-theft Online, a branch of the Xiamen police, wrote: (12) Xiamen Anti-theft Online: Cool! Innovative fugitive hunting. Will learn from you. Probably encouraged by the playful spirit of the Tiannin Police, several netizens addressed the police offi cers in the

36、ir comments as 阿 Sir Ah Sir, a friendly mixed-code address term, originat- ing from Hong Kong, but rarely used in offl ine encounters with policemen in mainland China. Through these joint mixing and blending activities mediated with the new social networking technol- ogies, the netizens and the Tian

37、nin Police have not only transformed the traditional fugitive hunt campaign but also established a closer and more equal social relationship. Pop culture creativity: Welcome to China! The national carnival of mixing practices reached a new high point at the appearance of an English-based one-man sho

38、w in Chinas social net- working spaces. In February 2011, a nearly seven- minute video Introducing nine countries in nine Englishes by Northeast English Brother, fi rst uploaded by Nick张旭 (screen name) at YouKu (the Chinese equivalent of YouTube), has been played at YouKu over 3 million times, retwe

39、eted over 60,000 times, and commented on over 10,000 times at Sina Weibo (Figure 1). Even Yao Figure 1. Screenshot of the Weibo-nested one-man show CHINESE-ENGLISH CODE-MIXING AMONG CHINAS NETIZENS47 http:/journals.cambridge.orgDownloaded: 30 Mar 2015IP address: 130.160.4.77 Chen, a popular Chinese

40、actress and Weibo Queen, praised the creativity of the video. An analysis of the mixing practices in and around the show, par- ticipated in by Nick张旭 as well as his fans, illus- trates the status of English in mainland China and reveals the attitudes of the general public towards a new variety withi

41、n the varietyof Chinese English. Nick张旭, the producer, screenwriter, and actor of this one-man show, is an employee of an inter- national company located in Dalian, a harbor city in Chinas northeast Liaoning Province. Born in 1983, Nick张旭 graduated from the English Department at Dalian University. H

42、e passed TEM 8, a higher-level English profi ciency test for English majors, and is now working as an auditor of international orders at the company. He said in an interview that he often consulted his colleagues, whose work requires communication with clients all over the world, about the character

43、istics of the Englishes in different countries (Hu Tingting 42% of the users hold a Bachelors degree and 25% are college students (CIC and Sina, October, 2011). 6 Kachru (1992) listed thirteen functional domains of English, which include advertising, government, lit- erarycreativityetc.Whatdifferent

44、iatesan Expanding-circle country and an Inner or Outer circle country is the use of English in domains of government and literary creativity (Kachru, 1992; Kachru, 2008:7). I add the domain of pop culture creativity in this study since English-based video shows, blogs and microfi c- tion are emergin

45、g in Chinas homegrown networking spaces, although printed English literary works by mainland writers for Chinese readers have not yet appeared in mainland China. 7 Baihua,thevernacularlanguageusedinliteraryworks duringtheNewCulturemovementinthe1920s,servesas the basis of the grammatical forms of Put

46、onghua. 8 It is hard to establish any identity of individual mem- bers other than their self-identifi ed locations. 9 A playful net expression for poor, unattractive, and short young men as a reaction to the mainstream type of rich, attractive, and tall men. 10 A Taiwanese model, actress, and TV hos

47、tess famous for her baby voice. 11 Up to November 5, 2011, morethan 10,000 govern- ment Weibo sites have been set up at Sina Weibo (Shanghai Jiaotong University, 2012). 12 Taobao, theChinese equivalent of Ebay, isthe largest homegrownonlineshoppingplatforminmainlandChina. 13 Accordingtothelatestrepo

48、rtfromPrice Waterhouse Coopers, 70% of Chinese netizens will shop at least once online, which is double the frequency of online shopping for British and American consumers CHINESE-ENGLISH CODE-MIXING AMONG CHINAS NETIZENS51 http:/journals.cambridge.orgDownloaded: 30 Mar 2015IP address: 130.160.4.77

49、and is four times more than European consumers (Peoples Net, April 5, 2012). 14 See complete script of the video at http:/blog.sina. 15 See Boltons (2002) discussion of Li Yang. 16 Be harmonized is a popular expression that refers to the governments practice of deleting online mess- ages which are not considered conducive to the con- struction of a harmonious society. 17 Kachru (1983:224) cautioned thirty years ago that it would be misleading to regard the non-native varieties of English as homogeneous. References Bolton, K. 2002. Chinese Englishes: from “Canton jargon”