英语专业语言学毕业论文

本科毕业论文（设计）

（ 2013届 ）

题 目 in Postmodernism Culture 学 院： 外国语学院 专 业： 英 语 学生姓名： 学号： „„„„. 指导教师： „„. 职称（学位）： „„„. 合作导师： 职称（学位）： 完成时间： 2013 年 月 日

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2013年 月 日

Acknowledgements

In writing this paper, I have benefited from the presence of my teachers and my classmates. They generously helped me collect materials I needed and made many invaluable suggestions. I hereby extend my grateful thanks to them for their kind help, without which the paper would not have been what it is. Particularly, I am deeply indebted to Professor Huang, my supervisor, who guided me throughout my writing of this thesis. He carefully read the whole draft and offered painstaking and precious criticism. His standards of academic excellence have made my revision an exciting and gratifying experience. I also wish to sincerely thank my classmates and friends Mina and Sophia, whose brilliant ideas and perceptive observations have proved immensely constructive. My parents took good care of my life and gave me a lot of encouragement when I was working at this thesis. They always share my weal and woe. I feel much grateful and heartily owe my achievement to them. Furthermore, none of this would have been possible without the help of those individuals and the library of Huangshan University and its staff.

Abstract

The postmodern culture is affecting the theory thinking and practical reformation of our language pattern in its own way. However, the mixture of blur narration and views hinders its permeability into the study of modern language system. Only through grasping its clear logic and ideological quintessence, can postmodern culture benefit the innovation of modern language system. In this paper, I will analyze the general features of modern English lexicon in the atmosphere of postmodernism from the following four aspects: more brief, new meaning for old words, foreign words, coinage so as to offer enlightenments for English learners to know the relationship between language and culture and the essence of the English language.

Key Words: postmodernism；language；influence；society development

摘要

后现代主义文化正在以自己独特的方式影响人们的思维方式和语言的形成。然而叙述和观点的模糊性阻碍了对语言系统研究的渗透性。只有真正抓住后现代文化的本质逻辑，后现代文化才能真正有利于语言系统的创新。本文将从后现代文化的角度出发，从四个方面总结现代英语词汇的基本特征：英语词汇的简洁性，旧词新意，外来词及新造词。本文的目的是希望可以启发英语学习者，帮助听他们了解语言与文化的关系，从而更好得把我英语语言的精髓。

关键词：后现代文化主义；语言；影响；社会发展

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ i Abstract ............................................................................................................................ iii 摘要 ................................................................................................................................. iv

1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 A brief introduction to the postmodern culture ....................................................... 1

1.2 Research motives ..................................................................................................... 2

2. Relationship between language and culture .................................................................. 3

2.1 The influence of culture on language ...................................................................... 3

2.2 Influence exerted by language on culture ............................................................... 4

2.3 Shaping each other .................................................................................................. 5

3. General features of the English lexicon in postmodern culture .................................... 5

3.1 More brief ................................................................................................................ 5

3.2 New meanings for old words .................................................................................. 6

3.3 Foreign words .......................................................................................................... 6

3.4 Coinage .................................................................................................................... 7

4. Causes for the features .................................................................................................. 7

4.1 Rapid development in science and technology ....................................................... 7

4.1.1 Scientific development ..................................................................................... 7

4.1.2 Advancement in technique ................................................................................ 8

4.2 Change in economy and politics ............................................................................. 9

4.2.1 Economic change .............................................................................................. 9

4.2.2 Political influence ............................................................................................. 9

5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 11

Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 12

General Futures of English Lexicon in

Postmodernism Culture

1. Introduction

1.1 A brief introduction to the postmodern culture

Currently, due to the swarming of globalization trend and the expansion of multi-culture, the postmodern culture is widely known by more and more people in a wider field. Nevertheless, in the process of application, postmodern culture is either misunderstood or too generalized. Not all people can grasp the authentic meaning of postmodern culture. Some of them just follow the trend, not really understanding what postmodern culture implies and how it affects us, our thought pattern, our interpersonal relationship, and our moral values, etc. Some explanation for postmodern culture is ambiguous and confusing. This situation can be attributed to two facts as following. On the one hand, the postmodern culture itself does not have a fixed theme. Its casual expression, paradoxical viewpoint and extensive arguments all result in people’s misunderstanding in postmodern culture（陶水平，1995）. On the other hand, as it is a comparatively new concept, people’s understanding level, viewpoint angle and subjectivity and casualness in application all contribute to the inappropriate understanding of postmodern culture(凯尔纳.贝斯特,1999). Consequently, never will we reveal its influence in other field, like language, until we authentically understand the essence of postmodern culture. Postmodern culture is a term describing large-scale changes in intellectual thought, cultural production, and global societies arising in the middle 20th century. Postmodernist thought has had large implication in philosophy, art, critical theory, literature, architecture, history, and culture. The term has been stretched over numerous heated debates, and many would argue that any single cohesive definition is impossible. Nevertheless, the major definitions of the term, undoubtedly, are related and a basic summary is possible.

Postmodernist scholars tend to emphasize the cultural contingency or relativity of

different forms of intellectual production, claiming that there is no way for human beings to communicate in a language completely emptied of myth, metaphor, or cultural bias. Thus postmodernists portray all communication and analysis as inherently politicized and criticize those who attempt “pure”, “objective”, or “disinterested” intellectual endeavors. Postmodernist artworks in various disciplines tend to recognize the inherently politicized nature of communication, calling attention to the ideological underpinning of their own representation through a lot of representational plays and irony. Postmodernist scholarship and artworks, although often meant for a small audience, are frequently understood as merely one reflection of the large collective culture of postmodernity. Scholars argue that the postmodern era, or postmodernity, is characterized by a culturally pluralistic and profoundly interconnected global society lacking any single dominant center of political power, communication, or intellectual production. Other scholars understand postmodernism as a product of late capitalism, arguing that the economic and technological conditions of our age have given rise to a media dominated society in which there are only interferential representations with no real original referent. For these scholars postmodernism emphasizes the lack of any stable or objective referent for communication and is often a profoundly negative historical development.

1.2 Research motives

This paper discusses the common features and explores the causes of word formation for modern English vocabulary. As it is known，the English language has become a world language, which, as the carrier of cultures and customs of human society, changes with society. Vocabulary of language is the most sensitive part to reflect human activities and thinking patterns. English enlarges its vocabulary by such means as word borrowing, word combination, word imitation, the shift of meaning and abbreviation. Many authors overseas or in Asia have made researches to analyze the general features of the English lexicon. However, seldom did they consider about the postmodern culture. The motive of the paper is to arouse people’s attention to postmodern culture. And this paper aims to remind people that postmodernism is affecting people’s daily life, including English lexicon, the frequently used language.

Postmodernism, though invisible, casts wider and wider influence on many aspects of our daily life in such aspects as thoughts, language, moral sense, etc. This paper attempts to find out how postmodern culture affects the current society so that we can better adapt to the 21st century and better our life.

2. Relationship between language and culture

2.1 The influence of culture on language

Language is part of culture. For example，Chinese is part of Chinese culture. There is no culture that has no language as its part. Language and culture are not separable.

The relationship between language and culture is not just that between a part and a whole. It is much more complex than that. Language is the carrier and container of culture because culture is expressed by language and also passed on from one generation to another by written language. Early in ancient ape era, human beings did not know modern language. Still they used gesture language or signs made by stone or sticks to express their thought, their experience. For an individual, customs, habits, and behavioral patterns can be described and analyzed in language. For society, value system, social institution, world views, belief, can also be described and summarized in language. But language as the medium of communication is indispensable in their production and use. Without the cooperation between designers and engineers, modern communication medium such as television, computer and newspaper, could never have been produced. Neither could I write my paper in this computer. Without language, even cooperation is a hard thing. So we can say, language is the mirror of culture, which strongly influences and shapes language. Eskimo tribes, who are famous for living in houses made by ice, commonly have more different expressions to distinguish among diverse types of snow: falling snow, snow on the ground, fluffy snow, wet snow, etc. Why they can create more words than people in other parts of the world to describe snow. The answer is they live in a world surrounded by snow. Even their house is made of solid snow. Undoubtedly, it is necessarily important for them to be able to distinguish among and refer to different types of snow. By contrast, people living in tropical zone,

such as Africa, seldom or never have the chance to see snow in their life. So they do not

have so many expression ways for the single word-snow. There is no need for them.

Nevertheless, they have camel, which is an important part of their daily life, dealing

with most of the transportation work for people in desert area. It is said that there are

more than four hundred words for camel in Arabic countries while there is only one

word for it in Chinese or English. Eskimos use different words to distinguish different

types of snow. Similarly, Arabic speaking people created many different words of camel

to show difference in camel age. The case is in another example. In English, we call

father’s brother or other man who is younger than your father “Uncle”. By contrast we

Chinese have four different counterparts for the word “Uncle”: “叔叔”, “伯伯”, “姨父”,

“舅舅”. This is because familial relationship is traditionally important to Chinese people.

So we Chinese have more kinship terms for the same relative than English speaking

people in China. Perhaps we should not go so far as to state that language is entirely

determined by culture. Each existing has its own reason. So it is with the item. Each

language is a system in its own right. Some language features, to some extent, may

reflect the development of language as a system.

2.2 Influence exerted by language on culture

Language also exerts its influence on culture. An example can exemplify the

meaning of this statement. We know that each language can be used to express whatever

its speakers want to express. For example, both Chinese and English have their own

terms to express kinship relation. But in China, kinship relation can be expressed more

easily and accurately compared with English expression. In kinship relations, the woman,

who is your father or mother’s sister, or your uncle’s wife, is called “Aunt”. The English

term “Aunt” has three counterparts in Chinese: “阿姨”，“婶婶”，“舅妈”. “阿姨”

is the wife of your uncle, who is the younger brother of your father. In China, you can

also call your mother’s sister “阿姨”. The wife of your father’s elder brother is called

“婶婶”. “舅妈” is the wife of your mother’s brother’s wife. Really, the expression

for “Aunt” is more complex in Chinese than that in English. This expression reflects the

fact that the kinship relation is more important in China than that in other English

speaking countries. And also, such expression helps to reinforce the concept of kinship

between relatives. For us Chinese, each time we call someone “婶婶” or“舅妈”, we

can feel the different kinship relations. So these kinship items help to reinforce the

relation between family members.

2.3 Shaping each other

Generally, we can state that language develops at the same step with culture.

Without culture there would be no language. The same goes to language. Language is the

premise for the formation and development of culture. The development of culture, in

return, helps to enrich the development of language. Thanks to language, human beings

have their own culture. It is language that sets people apart from animals. From the

viewpoint of biology, primitive man resembles animal to a large extent, but only human

beings can speak language. That is because only men have culture, such as religion,

belief, morality, customs, which stimulates the appearance of language. In a word,

culture and language shape and promote each other.

3. General features of the English lexicon in postmodern culture

3.1 More brief

Today the English language has been more concise than before partly because we

live in a fast-paced society. We want to grasps the meaning of language as soon as

possible. So the more concise the language is, the quicker it will be for us to understand

the meaning. Besides，we wish to save time in writing. So, we use the short form, for

the most time, to replace the long words or expressions. For example, we use “AD” to

refer to “advertisement”; “USA” for “the United States”; “TB” for “tuberculosis”;

“GM” for “gymnastic”; “asap” for “as soon as possible”(汪榕培,2000). In newspaper,

the language should be as concise as possible as the place for each word is limited and

the cost for publication is expensive. Besides, if the words are too long and complicated,

it will be time-consuming for readers to read the newspaper in short time, for example,

when in bus. With the popularity of English, it has been applied to more and more fields.

More and more people have to understand English, in this case, the more brief the

lexicon is, the easier it is for them to better handle this language. Currently, people think

that the main purpose of learning language is to communicate. So as long as we

understand each other, why not make the language easier. So it is the world trend to

make the language more concise(陈建生,2000).

3.2 New meanings for old words

Since 20st century, especially the late 50 years, more and more new words and old

words are endowed with new meanings, just as the English old proverb says, clothes

make the man, words make the culture”. New meanings come into being from the

following ways. First, the fluctuation in society and revolution in politics both introduce

new meanings. After World War Two, significant political things, such as war have

successively taken place. For example, the original meaning of “dove” is a kind of bird

which symbolizes “peace”. But now it can refer to people who love world peace.

“hawk” , the original meaning of which is a ferocious bird, now refers to people who

prefer to deal with political confliction with violence. Second, new meaning comes

from economic development. Due to the world economic integration, the international

trade has been more frequent, which brings new meanings. For instance, “special”

which, in the first place, means something unusual now refers to on-sale goods in

supermarket. In American supermarket, the word “special” printed with red color

reminds people that the goods are on a lowered price. Third, the new meaning derives

from the scientific advancement. For example, “bird” now not only refers to a kind of

bird but also “girl” in oral language. “set sail” originally means a kind of sports in the

sea but now it can also expand to the meaning of “start doing something”. Other factors

like new subject, new idea all drive the generation of new meanings for old words.

3.3 Foreign words

More and more foreign words are compiled into English dictionary partly because

of immigrants who bring their language and culture together to the country where they

moved in. Meanwhile, Western countries in general are open minded and are willing to

accept new things, including new language American English is a typical case(吴光亭，

2006) There is a common suffix:-eria in modern American English. This suffix actually

originated from the Spanish word “cafeteria”. When walking in the place assembled by

Spanish immigrants in America, you can see numerous buffet stores, such as

“carniceria”, “tintoreria”, “abarroteria”, etc. The suffix from Spanish word now has been

widely used in English. In addition, wars between countries also bring foreign words

into English. Again take America for example. When America intervened with Mid-east

Affairs, assisted to mediate the confliction between Israel and Palestine, many Arabic

words have been imported into English, such as Al-Jazeera, al-qaeda, jihad, hezbol lah,

etc. Now foreign words are part of English lexicon. And with the integration of the

whole world, more foreign words from Asia, Africa, will be added to the English

lexicon to make it richer

3.4 Coinage

The world is moving forward; the science is developing; the civilization is also

progressing. People who live in this circumstance unquestionably need to update their

language to reflect the new change or advancement of the society. In language factors,

lexicon is most sensitive to new things. Once a new object appears, the counterpart

language will be correspondently coined. In recent years, an increasing number of people

make use of Internet to commit a crime. Some new words like “cyberporn”,

“cybercrime”, “cybercop” are coined(陶水平，1995,(01)) New science stimulates the

coinage of new words. 21st century has seen a new technology named “Clone”. The

technology is new, and the word expression of it is of course new too. Today, we have

“computer”, ”Internet”, etc. All these inventions are new and the words for them need to

be coined by linguists or other people in other field.

4. Causes for the features

4.1 Rapid development in science and technology

4.1.1 Scientific development

In the latter half of the 20th century, great change took place in science. Just take

new subjects for example. The 20th century has seen many new subjects, such as

behavior science(行为科学), cybernetics(控制论), bionics(仿生学), sociolinguistics(社

会语言学)，etc. With the development of new science, we need to create new items to

express new inventions, new discoveries, and new theories. Consequently, many new

items have been coined. The way to create new words is diverse. Some words are

created by combining part of two different words together. For instance,

“sociolinguistics” is combined by “society” and “linguistics”. Some words are produced

by making small change in existing words, such as, “movement”, which is formed by

adding suffix “ment” after “move”. For some other words, their spelling is not changed,

but they have been endowed with new meanings. Take “coin” for example. Its original

common meaning is “硬币”， but now it has a new meaning “创造”，new change both

in meaning and speech. The 20th century has seen unprecedented progress in many

fields especially in space, which is unreachable and mysterious in the past. In my

father’s time never did he imagine that human beings could fly to space, to moon, which

could only be achieved by “hanger”, an imaginary legendary figure in Chinese folklore.

Nevertheless it has been a fact that, indeed, people are able to fly to the moon to explore

whether or not there is a “Guanghan Gong”(广寒宫) in the moon. Of course this is

just a joke. Astronauts went to the moon to explore what really the moon is and to do

experiments there. All these explorations stimulate the creation of new words, such as

space-age(太空时代)，space-station(太空站)，satellite(卫星), etc. These words have

already been used by ordinary people, not just scientists, in daily life. Additionally,

more terminology about moon has been made with the development of moon

exploration project. Meantime, other scientists are excavating mysteries in the earth,

where we human beings are living. Thanks to their hard work, numerous new findings

both in substance and theory have been known, together with new items to express these

new phenomena. You maybe ever heard “quasars(类星体)”, “plusars(脉冲星)”,

“neutron stars(中子星)” and the mysterious “black hole(黑洞)”. New theories, such as

“big bang theory(宇宙大爆炸理论)” and “steady state theory(恒稳态状态理论)”

provide two different explanations for cosmogenic origin.

4.1.2 Advancement in technique

Except for scientific development, advancement in technology has also exerted

stimulant on new words creation. Sooner or later, the development in scientific theory

will be reflected or visualized in practice. Thanks to the unremitting efforts of many

inventors, we presently have the honor to see new technical machines, such as

lasercomp (电脑激光照排), fax(传真), camcorder(手提摄像机), flat screen

television(液晶显示超薄电视机), transistor radio(半导体收音机), cassette recorder(盒

式录音机), washing machine(洗衣机), egg-timer(煮鸡蛋计时器), immersion heater(浸

没式加热器), hovercraft(气垫船), etc. All these machines can not be seen, even cannot

be imagined how they like, several decades ago. Due to the emergence of electronic book,

the paper materials printed on paper were mocked as “dead tree edition(死树版)”. New

invention comes into being, so new words are needed to name it.

4.2 Change in economy and politics

4.2.1 Economic change

Since World War Two, the whole world has seen huge change in society, economic

situation, and politics, especially in politics. Since 1972 when Richard Nixon was

running for president, several committee members from the Republican Party who were

striving for president’s re-election sneaked into Watergate of Washington, the

headquarter of Democratic National Committee and ended up being arrested. This

scandal resulted in the resign of president, who was unlucky to be the first president to

quit in American history. Since then Watergate has been a famous word which means “a

political scandal reminiscent of the Watergate incident”. Later the item was given new

meaning: to deal with in a covert or criminal manner. Even “gate” itself has the meaning

of “similar to the scandal of Watergate”. The counterpart of “gate” is even widely

known in China. The new meaning of gate has been put into new compiled dictionary,

such as Briefing-gate, Contragate, copygate, Debategate, etc. Each word combined with

“gate” has its unique story as a background. Time passed by, but people still remember

the story behind them.

4.2.2 Political influence

The change in society gives expression to new words. For example, in America,

young people in different generations were marked by different labels. In the 1960s, they

were marked as “hippies” who reject the existing value system and customs. Instead

they looked forward to and strived for natural and direct relationship in interpersonal

communication. Just do what you want and do not be restrained by old values. Most of

the hippies wore bizarre clothes and strange accessories. In the 1970s, we hear

“yuppies” who are the members of Youth International party. These yuppies were

politically radical, against mainstream culture. Similar to hippies, they also took drug.

Additionally, “yippies” performed “political play” to mock and criticize political

authority and the values of Middle Class in 1970s. The 1980s saw “yuppies” which is

short for young urban professional. Opposite to “hippies” and “yippies”, “yuppies”

agree with the Middle Class, highly appraising their life style, which advocates luxury

consumption patterns. These “yuppies” even comply with capitalist system instead of

proposing their own society system. After World War One, these young people who felt

depressed about the society and their new life after war were labeled as “lost

generation”. The famous American writer Hemingway even wrote a book named “lost

generation” to reflect the life situation and values of this generation. After World War

Two, another new generation “the beat generation” turned up. These young people who

experienced or witnessed the cruelty of war felt unsatisfied about the society, including

the existing traditional values. The 1940s saw “the World War Two generation”. In

1950s, young people were mocked as “the silent generation”. During 1947 and 1961,

American society saw a baby boom. People who were born in that period were called

“baby boomers” who, later, turned into the “Vietnam generation” and the “me

generation”. In 1990s, another new generation “the generation X” grew up. “Cynical,

lazy. These are some of the adjectives that are often used to describe Americans in their

twenties, an age group dubbed generation X”(US News & World Report1995,5,8 ).In

this paper, the description is as below “Between 1993 and 1996, the number of 25-year

–old is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 1.9 percent, roughly twice the

increase of the population at large. There are about 69 million Americans between the

ages of 18 and 34 today, compared with 69.5 million baby-boomers. Some 66 percent of

generation X high school graduates enrolled in college, more than any other generation

University of Michigan in 1993 found that entrepreneurs between the ages of 25 and 34

created 70 percent of all new business start-up.” (US News & World

Report1995,5,8 ).people grown up in this Generation X , undoubtedly , is called

“generation X-ers” . “Generation X-ers also work 3.6 percent longer than the nation

No more examples are needed to exemplify that social change can exert new words.

5. Conclusion

This paper is aimed to analyze the general features of English lexicon in

postmodern culture from four aspects. First, words are more brief than before, as people

prefer simple things rather than complicated ones. Second, old words are given new

meanings. Third, more and more foreign words from Asian or other countries are added

to English lexicon. Fourth, new words are coined, especially new words coming into

being on the Internet. In the atmosphere of postmodern culture, everything is changing,

though the change is subtle. The 21st century is growing up in postmodern culture, thus

it is strongly influenced by this atmosphere. In economy, almost every country has seen

the most prosperous development in the 21st century compared with the previous times.

In technology, economic development stimulates scientific advancement or they

facilitate each other. New invention comes into being, consequently, new terms for new

things are created. In the moral system, postmodern is gradually bringing its shock on

moral sense. In postmodern era, the norm for moral criterion is not unchangeable.

Compared with the old moral system, the present moral hierarchy is more flexible and

forgivable. This change, undoubtedly, gives expression to new language delivery. Some

words that have negative meanings in the past now are just normal expression. For

example, “Miss” in the past is negative, but now it is a common address. So the analysis

of general features of English lexicon is necessarily important for us to grasp the

essence of English language and to make a good use of language to benefit our life.

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