Loanword: Mirror of Social Contact ()
ABSTRACT
As an essential reflection of language contacts, the loanword is not only
an important way of metabolizing vocabulary, but also a crucial approach to the
creation and evolution of language and culture. This article does a detailed
study of the loanword by observing the borrowing climaxes, analyzing the
motivations for borrowing and assessing the values of borrowing in English.
Through exemplification and comparison, the writer focuses on illustrating why
the loanword is the mirror of social activities, unequal social status and
people’s ideology which includes openness, compatibility and laziness. All
these factors are reflected by the loanword and in turn stimulate and promote
the process of borrowing. By exploring the loanword in English profoundly, we
should develop a proper attitude toward the foreign cultures, objecting the
so-called absolute refusal for the sake of Sinicism or the passive acceptance
in the guise of globalization.
Share and Cite:
Zhan, W. (2023) Loanword: Mirror of Social Contact.
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
11, 274-283. doi:
10.4236/jss.2023.1111018.