ResearchontheAttitudetowards Lettered-wordsinChinese

潘正华

（三峡大学 外国语学院，湖北 宜昌 443002）

0 Introduction

1）The phenomenon of lettered-words

Lettered words (henceforth LWs) have been a common phenomenon in Chinese media and all kinds of situations.People can see LWs such as GDP，TNT，WTO，APEC，and so on.Moreover，LWs have penetrated into our daily life，such as BBS，SIM，PK，OK，karaoke，VCD，to name just a few.Before，LWs have almost all come from foreign languages because of introducing new items especially when there are no equivalents in Chinese.But some LWs come into being by combining the initials of pinyin，so LWs have the trend of being growingly popular.As for the appearance of lettered words，different people have different opinions.Whether the phenomenon should be encouraged or eliminated is a heated question.Some believe that it is a necessary trend of globalization and it is good for communication across the world and it has been a realistic existence，needing normalization[1]，but some think it is bad for Chinese language and should be translated into Chinese，for example，Li Guowen[3].Or else，Chinese will be marginalized and will ultimately be overturned and replaced as the leading language.But how about the other people’s opinions? Before we know the attitude，we should know what LWs are.

2）The definition of lettered-words

There are several terms to name those words consisting of foreign letters：non-Chinese characters，acronyms of new loan words and words beginning with Greek or Latin letters and lettered-words.We will have a look at these terms one by one.

Originally the term“non-Chinese characters”is used to name those words with foreign letters and Arabic numerals，such as TCL，WTO，24K金，3G 手 机.There are two drawbacks for this term to name this phenomenon：firstly，the denotation of the term is so broad that some graphs are included;secondly，it is improper to name words consisting of foreign letters and Chinese characters as non-Chinese characters，such as卡拉OK，AA 制，X 光，and 阿Q.

As to the term“acronyms of new loan words”，its denotation is a little too limited.It can only include those LWs borrowed from foreign languages.LWs made up of pinyin are excluded，such as RMB，PSC，and GB.In addition，it is not proper to use this term to name those words reflecting the new ideas and new things in the Chinese society though they are made up of foreign letters，such as CUBA，CCTV.

The term“acronyms and words beginning with Greek or Latin letters”can only refer to those with foreign letters at the initial position.It excludes those words with foreign letters in the middle or at the end of the words and those words beginning with Arabic numerals，such as 阿Q，甲A，3A 服务，3G 手机.Therefore，its denotation is a bit restrictive and can not cover the whole phenomenon.

The term“lettered-words”was firstly formulated by Liu Yongquan(1994)：LWs are words used in Chinese with foreign letters (mainly Latin letters) or expressed wholly with foreign letters [4].The former includes words like B 超，卡拉OK;the latter includes words like CD，DVD，and UFO.Lettered-word is a new kind of borrowing.Generally，this term summarizes this phenomenon.In this definition，Liu Yongquan thinks LWs are loanwords[4].But we think that it is not completely true.As we can see，some LWs are made up of pinyin，and some are coined to express the new ideas and new things though the letters are borrowed from foreign languages.Obviously，LWs are not only loanwords.Secondly，such words (more exactly“symbols”) as $ also included in The Letteredwords Dictionary[5].Therefore，Liu Yongquan (2002) gave a new definition：LWs are words made up of Latin letters (including pinyin) or Greek letters or words mixed with these letters and symbols，numerals or Chinese characters[6].Meanwhile，he gave a new name“Chinese letteredwords”，because“there is not the conception of LWs in English，French，German or Russian，for they are all alphabetic languages”[6].But we do not agree that lettered-word is a term peculiar to the Chinese language，because in Japanese and Korean there also exists the phenomenon of lettered-words.[7]In Hu Mingyang’s (2002) definition of lettered-words，the denotation is very restrictive.According to his viewpoint，only those like GB (Guobiao“National standard”) and HSK (hanyu shuiping kaoshi“Chinese proficiency test”)can be regarded as“Chinese lettered-words”[2].

Though“lettered -words”are accepted by most scholars，the denotations of the term are quite different when it is used by different scholars.All in a1l，one major feature of LWs is that it contains such as Latin letters，Greek letters，Roman letters or pinyin.Most LWs are acronyms，and very few foreign words in their complete forms are regarded as lettered-words.Therefore，the main characteristics of LWs could be captured as follows：LWs are words made up of foreign letters(including pinyin)，or foreign letters and Chinese characters;most LWs are loanwords and acronyms.Foreign words in their complete forms cannot be regarded as LWs unless they are used very frequently and widely.

1 Research design

1.1 The overview of the research

The research will be carried out through a questionnaire.And the questionnaire includes two parts：one is the background research and the other is the attitudinal research.As for the attitudinal research，it can too be subdivided into two：one is the general one，and the other is the specific one.The general one is to support，to oppose，and in-between.And then the following multiple choices just give the reasons why people show the above attitudes.Why we do so is just because the general attitude is too abstract and purely an inclination research and we just want to support them with more details.Some are positive and some are negati ve.The positive ones include：(1) LWs facilitate the intercommunication of Chinese;(2) the appearance of LWs is the trend of the times;(3)LWs are easier to write，more eye-catching，more expressive，and more fashionable，and sometimes even for humorous effect.But the negative ones include：(1) LWs contaminate purity of Chinese language.(2) LWs are not good like English and Chinese.(3) LWs are easy to lead to misunderstanding.(4) LWs should be translated into Chinese.(5) the users do not like lettered words.And the last question concerns another general attitude：do you think LWs will ultimately deconstruct Chinese?

1.2 The selection of informants

In sociolinguistics，age，sex，social class，and educational background are important factors which will influence the attitudes towards languages.In order to find the relationship between all the factors above and the attitudes towards languages，we choose the informants from three places，i.e.BNU，CYU，and the No.1 Middle School of Yidu，ranging widely such as from middle school students to MA students.Because undergraduates and gradates，and even the middle school students cannot represent the common people，we choose the students in the evening school of CYU，who have jobs in non-school time.And in order to reflect the common people in reality，we also pay attention to the balances of ages，sexes，and degrees.

1.3 The carrying out of the research design

In this research we altogether deliver 170 copies of questionnaires，and we get back 164 copies，among which 163 are valid.

2 The analysis of the data

2.1 The general attitudinal analysis between females and males

Altogether，in our research there are 73 males and 90 females，which accounts for 44.8% and 55.2% respectively.Is there any difference between males and females towards the lettered words? Now，we can have a look at Table 1：

According to Table 1，we can find that 39.7% of the male informants support the introduction of LWs into Chinese，31.5% oppose，and 28.8% are in between.As for female informants，21.1% support，30% oppose，and 48.9% are in between.Comparing the two groups，we can find that males are more active in introduction of lettered words，and females show less interest.On the whole，in the aspect of general attitude，30.7% of the informants do not agree on the introduction of LWs and more people are in between.So from this，we can say that males are more interested in the introduction and females are less interested with almost half being in between.As for the frequency of using lettered words，in accordance with the general attitude，males are apt to use more often，with 7.7% more often than females.And more people tend to use LWs occasionally，with males being 53.4% and females being 65.6%，which complies with the fact that more people are just in between on the introduction of lettered words，which occupies 39.9% .And on the question that whether the introduction of LWs will ultimately overturn the position of Chinese language in China，23.3% of males think it will，and 7.8% of females think it will.And 87.8% of the females think it will not change the position of Chinese language and only 7.8% maintain it will，which agrees that only 21.1% of the females support and 30% oppose.

2.2 Some factors influencing the attitudes

2.2.1 Major

Because most of the informants are students on campus，the discipline should be one factor that influences their attitudes towards lettered words.Now，we just use some figures to show their attitudes.

Differences among different majors are not obvious，but data do show that more students who major in foreign languages know lettered words，with the percentage of foreign language majors，Chinese majors and others majors being 70%，60%，and 60% respectively.

Of the students who know the meaning of lettered words，there aremore students that major in foreign languages (89%) or Chinese language(89%)than in other majors (69%)irrelevant to languages.The numbers are approximately the same in foreign language and Chinese major.

Table 1

From the research，we can see that other majors (Other Ms being 28%，Foreign L being 11%，CHN L being 14%) use LWs more often .Of those who oppose the use of lettered words，there are much more Chinese majors than other majors，which amounts to 42%，which is in accordance with the frequency of using LWs (24% opposing，contrasted with foreign L’s 20% and CHN L’s 22%).As for the the reason，it might be that the students have more awareness of protecting the purity of their own language.

All the majors，with an approximately equal percentage，agree on the following ：Using LWs is to facilitate the international communication in Chinese;It is a contamination to the purity of Chinese language;LWs are neither fish nor flesh;LWs are the trend of the times.

Except above，they they think the major reasons for using LWs are that LWs are concise and convenient and LWs facilitate communication and the major reasons for not using letter words are that LWs should be translated correspondingly into Chinese，LWs might easily lead to misunderstanding and that the informants do not know how to use letter words.

All majors agree that LWs will not deconstruct Chinese.

2.2.2 Age

Age is a common variant considered in sociolinguistics，because it is truly a factor that influences the language behavior of language users.

As is shown in the collected statistics，we can see that totally 64%of the students know lettered words，36% of them do not.Each age group takes up a similar percentage.64% of the informants aged from 18-25 know，36% do not，and 63% of students aged from 26-35 know，37% do not，while 67% of students aged above 35 know，33% do not.

But an interesting phenomenon is that even among the informants who can say the meanings of some lettered words，there are some people who do not know the meaning of the term“lettered words”.As is shown，79%know the meaning of the term，21% do not，which means that this term is not familiar to the informants.

Now let us look at people’s attitude towards lettered words.People who are in between account for the largest part，about 41% of the all，people who are against it account for 31% and people supporting it account for 28%.In each age group，there are slight differences.Among people aged 18 to 25，people who support，and oppose occupies 17% and 31% respectively.And for people aged 26 to 35，the respective statistics are 39% and 33%.Supporters and opposers are respectively 38% and 13% of people who are over 35.

To sum up，people from 18 to 25 and people after 35 do not care about the use of lettered words.And with the elapse of time，people who support become more and the percentage changes a little，but the people who show no interest in the use become fewer and then become more again.This might be because，in the course of life，in their early time people do not know too much about LWs and are more individualistic and have a strong sense to stick to and protect their own culture and character.And when they arrive 26 to 35，they have more time to focus on social phenomena and they are more mature in their outlook.And with time going，their enthusiasm diminishes and they say fewer“nos”.

On the reasons of the appearance of LWs in Chinese，the three age groups all agree on the following two aspects：firstly，it is useful for the international communication;secondly，LWs are convenient for people.

According to the investigation，70% of people use LWs sometimes，18% often use them and 12% never.And according to the data in each age group，the people who use LWs occasionally account for the largest part.This illustrates that，in daily life，people just use LWs in some occasions and LWs can not be included into the Chinese vocabulary as general words in strict terms.Generally speaking，LWs are most likely to be found in the net language and oral language.The frequencies of appearance in the two situations are respectively 45%，46%.And only 9% of people might use them in the written language.In the age group of 18-25 and older than 35，there are more people using LWs in net language，which accounts for the biggest proportion.Between 26 and 35，people tend to use them in oral languages.

3 Conclusion

According to the research，on the general attitude，the largest part is in-between，and the second is to oppose，and the small part is to support.But the largest part think LWs will not overturn the position of Chinese.Thus，we can see that growingly more people are becoming increasingly more open and easily accept new ideas.As for whether the general attitude is related to the specific items or reasons as mentioned above，we can find that males are more active than females in introducing and using lettered words，which might be different from the others’research results.

And other majors use LWs more often than English majors and Chinese majors，with Chinese majors being the people who least often use lettered words.

In every age group，the people who are in between account for the most proportion and in the younger group there are more“Oppose”than“Support”.While in the older group，the case is in the other way round.

Finally，there is one more thing we should mention that because the questionnaires are only delivered in the communities of students and do not involve different occupations which might have great influences on the attitudes，the results might not reflect the realty to the core.

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