A Tentative Norm Principle of Chinese English and Its Implementation

○ Tian Zhenjiang

(Hulunbuir University, Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, 021008)



A Tentative Norm Principle of Chinese English and Its Implementation

○ Tian Zhenjiang

(HulunbuirUniversity,Hulunbuir,InnerMongolia, 021008)

English has been upheld as the most valuable foreign language in China and the rise of different English usages from the English standards of native countries takes place in China. It becomes controversy to judge whether these differences are errors against the exonormative standards, or innovations made by Chinese English speakers in the pragmatic context of China. This article is to present the linguistic feature of Chinese bilinguals of English with the data analysis inChinaDaily, discuss how to judge errors or innovations of English performed by Chinese people, and demonstrate a tentative norm principle of distinguishing innovations from errors.

language errors, language innovations, Chinese English, world English norms

I. Introduction

English has been upheld as the most valuable foreign language in China. Especially since the new century, social policymakers, academics and common people in China have seen English as a crucial panacea for social advance and personal development. The fast growth of the demand for English creates the seeding bed for the rise of different English usages from the English standards of native countries. On the different usages of English, there are roughly two claims. Some believe that English must be in English way. The English usages different from the standards of British or American English are regarded as errors, which need to be corrected or avoided; others do not think that the exonormative standards of English need to be promoted in English usage for non-native English users. It is natural for local English to have some particular features because of the influence of the local language, local social contexts, local speakers’ cognitive conceptions, etc. Language, including English, is the innovation in pragmatic uses. It becomes controversy to judge whether these differences are errors against the exonormative standards, or innovations made by Chinese English speakers in the pragmatic context of China. This article is to present the linguistic feature of Chinese bilinguals of English with the data analysis inChinaDaily, discuss how to judge errors or innovations of English performed by Chinese people, and demonstrate a tentative norm principle of distinguishing innovations from errors.

Ⅱ. Linguistic Feature of Chinese Bilinguals of English with

the Data Analysis inChinaDaily: The Pragmatic Norm

It is claimed that there is a pragmatic norm of English in China (Kirkpatrick 2002). Chinese scholars (Wang 1991; Du and Jiang 2001; Jiang 1995; Jiang and Du 2003; Wei and Fei 2003) have discussed several salient linguistic features in justifying Chinese English as a variety of English. Ma (2011) has presented English with Chinese features in texts of newspaper,ChinaDaily(a major English newspaper of China).

Chinese English exists with the influence of Chinese language, Chinese social context, Chinese people’s cognitive conceptions, etc.

1. English translated by Chinese proverbs and idioms

Repairthehousebeforeitrains(2008-07-23) (by Chinese proverb: 补漏趁天晴，读书趁年轻)

Oneshouldkeepexpenditurewithinthelimitsofincome(2008-07-08) (by Chinese proverb: 量入为出)

Knowyourenemyandknowyourselfandyoucanfightahundredbattleswithoutdisaster. (2008-08-19) (by Chinese proverb: 知己知彼，百战不殆)

2. English used in Chinese social context such as on China’s political regulations and institutions, China’s policy, and China’s tradition.

theNPC:theNationalPeople’sCongress

全国人民代表大会

theNDRC:theNationalDevelopmentandReformCommission国家发改委

theAll-ChinaFederationofTradeUnions

中国全国总工会

3. English in Chinese people’s cognitive conceptions

ButTaooftheBeijinghospitalisdeterminedtopressahead: “WeshouldbecomemastersoftheInternet,insteadofitsslaves”.Tosaveourchildren,adultsmustbegintolookatthemselves.

(2008-12-22)

Ifwecanfreeourselvesofthetemptationsofmaterialcomforts,wewillbetheboss,notslaves,ofmaterialgoods.

(2008-12-4)

The wordsslavesandbossused here indicate the style of Chinese expression. Chinese people believe that almost everything could be controlled by human if we are determined to do it with strong will and perseverance. With this conception, we would like to use the words such as slaves, owners, boss, etc. For instance in the sentences:wemustbetheowneroftime.Don’tbeslavesofmoney.

4. Collocation and syntax

Localgovernmentshavebeenencouragingpeoplewholosthusbandsandwivestotryandrebuildtheirliveswithnewpartners. (2008-12-12)

The part oftryandrebuildtheirlivesis a typical Chinese expression. The collocation ofrebuildlifeis not commonly used in English. Chinese people are likely to use adverbial or adverbial clause because we attend to present the background before the main theme appears. For instance:AlthoughIam67yearsold,ifitispossible,IwouldliketogotoTaiwan. (2009-3-14)

Besides English with Chinese features, there are some English with some problems and even errors.

5. Unsuitable words

Halfofprostitutesunawareofcondoms’benefits

(2008-11-26)

The wordprostitutestays with negative attitude and should be sex workers according to Standard English.

6. Repeatedness

Guangdongherbaltea,knownasLiangChainChina,islistedasanationallevelnon-materialculturalheritageinthecounty(2009-5-13)

SomepeopleindevelopedcountrieshavebeencriticizingChina’senvironmentpollutionproblem. (2008-7-15)

The word “level” and “problem” are repeated with the feature of Chinese language and can be deleted according to English norms.

7. Errors

Italsofoundthat52percentthoughtitstemmedfroma“weirdinclinationtotreatforeignersbetter”,and36percent“wanttoknowwhydotheChinesehavetopay”(2009-7-2)

Wehavenoreasontonotfeelboldandassuredaboutit

(2008-8-18)

Thewholeheritageconservationproject,involving64archaeologicalteamswhoseworkitistosave829culturalrelics,isthelargestofitskindintheworld. (2008-9-3)

OverseasvolunteerswhoknowaboutBeijingandChinacanveryhelpful,”LiuJian,BOCOG’svolunteersdepartmentdirector,said(2008-7-23)

In terms of intelligibility of World Englishes, all the differences mentioned above, whatever we call them features or errors, could become problems in comprehension by English speakers

around the world. On the other hand, these Chinese or China English is used commonly in the range of China, and works no problem in communication between Chinese bilinguals with English. This phenomenon seemly can not be changed soon. Therefore, it is a question whether English need to remain with the exonormative standards but impossibly, or become localized but with the problem of being understood world wide. Consequently, it becomes important to interpret this question above, to find some principles to codify Chinese English, and to suggest English teachers in China to have a reasonable understanding or conception on Chinese English they face in teaching.

Ⅲ. Discussion: Errors or Innovations

It is commonly accepted that any localized English has some features of their own as mentioned above from (1) to (6), but it is worthwhile for us to discuss errors and mistakes in Chinese English as mentioned in (7) above. The interpretation of errors and mistakes shifts from the scope of Second Language Acquisition (for SLA in the following part) to the range of language contact and English indigenization. According to the theory of SLA, correctness must be within the range of native English norms; errors and mistakes are distinguished: an error is the use of a linguistic item (e.g. a word, a grammatical item, a speech act, etc) in a way which a fluent or native speaker of the language regards as showing faulty or incomplete learning, whilst a mistake made by a learner when writing or speaking by lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or some other aspect of performance (Richards. et al 1992: 159). For example, when the past tensewentis written asgoed, it is an error made; when it is written aswint, it is a mistake. The explanation isgoedresults from incomplete knowledge, and it is a generalization of past tense verbs though it is not within the correctness; butwintis a mistake without any principle of language system.

With the theory of World Englishes diffusion and consideration of language problems, Chinese scholars and educators of English start to change from the old concepts and become more tolerant toward Chinese English. CCTV (China Centre Television) reported (September 12, 2009) that 70% netizens in China agree the use of Chinglish. They think Chinese English can exist with British, American, Indian, Singaporean English, etc. CCTV also commented that “Chinglish is a cultural phenomenon”. An activity of Top Ten popular Chinglish in 2009 was voted on the website as followed:

Goodgoodstudy,daydayup.

Howareyou,howoldareyou?

Youhaveseed.Iwillgiveyousomecolortoseesee.

Youaskme,measkwho?

Wetwowhoandwho?

Nothreenofour.

Horsehorse,tigertiger.

Peoplemountain,peoplesea.

Ifyouwantmoney,Ihaveno.Ifyouwantlife,Ihaveone.

Onecarcome,onecargo.Twocarpengpeng,onecardied.

All these utterances look like errors or mistakes of English, but these ten Chinglish are very popular among Chinese English speakers, and soon become accepted (not as teaching models) as language innovations instead of errors or mistakes. We need to analyze them in order to discover how errors become innovations. When measured according to norms of SLA theories, all of these Chinglish are errors but not mistakes because all of them are word-for-word transliterations from Chinese language but not the results by lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or some other aspect of performance. There are no spelling mistakes as thatpeopleis written aspoeple. The difference is that most of them are not in native English sentence structure, but within the sentence structure of Chinese language. In other words, they are correct English words with correct Chinese syntax.

Ⅳ. A Tentative Norm Principle of Chinese English

Thus we discover that there exists a different principle of correctness which functions when accepting the errors or mistakes as innovations. All errors are potentials of indigenized English innovations, because they are not arbitrarily made, but within both the two language systems of English and localized language. For instance, the sentence ofYouaskme,measkwho? (No. 4) is a Chinese sentence structure with English words. The subjects and objects are not differently marked in Chinese language, so there are no differences between the first me as an object and the second me as a subject. Meanwhile in the process of word-for-word transliteration, reconstruction within the bilingual system of Chinese and English takes place. Its innovation also reflects in the creation of the English structure for expressing content of

localized language, and vice versa. The ninth is a typical example. Chinese sentence isyaoqianmeiyou,yaomingyitiao, but it is reconstructed in the process of transliteration. Firstly, the sentence structure is Anglicized withif; secondly, English subject you is added; thirdly, English negation have no is used for the Chinese negation here:mei(no)you(have). Besides identifying it as an error or innovation, this reconstruction within the bilingual system reflects the innovation of Chinese English. These innovations do not include output or creation within the language system of neither English nor Chinese and those are mistakes. Chinglish with mistakes are, generally perhaps not

absolutely, hopeless to become innovations such as Chinglishgentleman(for gentleman). With the demonstration above, the innovations are the creation within the language system of English and a localized language. The mistakes are outside the language system. This principle of correctness could establish a framework of the acceptance of Chinese English. In the process of intercultural communication with the international language English as a medium, “translated English” appears frequently with the transmission of local culture. Sometimes, the translated English beyond English grammar spreads as well. The direct-translated English here are the films titles:

CrouchingTiger,HiddenDragon(wohucanglong: undiscovered talents);

EatDrinkManWoman(yinshinannv: prime wants of human);

TheWeddingBanquet(xiyan: a banquet for relatives and friends at Chinese wedding);

PushingHands(tuishou:a kind of Chinese Kongfu)

With transliteration of Chinese language, the English titles of films by Li An (also spelled as Ang Lee) show both Chinese stories and Chinese language structure. These Chinese English has spread with the films with the transmission of Chinese culture into the world. The differences in language and culture, as language innovations, become attraction source in spreading as well.

Ⅴ. Implications for English Teachers and Further Study

One of the international competence must be tolerant to English pragmatic norms, though educational norms still remain. The discussion on errors or innovations involves us into the consideration into how the exonormative standards function in English usage in China. The pragmatic norms of Chinese English are English with Chinese features. As English teachers, we are supposed to update the conception of the correctness principle in

accordance with the Second Language Acquisition. Language contact is inevitable in the modern world. Mono-standard is not any more suitable for commenting English now. English teachers need consciousness to identify errors among the production of localized English because it is related not only to the exonormative standards, but also to local language, local socio-cultural background, and the conception of the local people. Corpus study needs to be done for description of Chinese English usage.

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[3] Kirkpatrick, Andy, Xu Zhichang. 2002. Chinese Pragmatic norms and “China English”[J].World Englishes, 21(2).

[4] Kirkpatrick, Andy. 2007. World Englishes[M].Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[5] Ma, Wenli. 2011. Discourse Analysis of Chinese Contemporary English Newspaper[M].Central Compilation & Translation Press.

[6] Tian, Zhenjiang. 2011. Norm Orientation of Chinese English: a Sociohistorical Perspective[M].Goettingen: Cuvillier Verlag Goettingen.

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[8] Wang Rongpei. 1991. China English is an objective reality[C]//Wang Rongpei. Studies in English lexicography (pp.90-103). Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

呼伦贝尔学院教学研究课题“英语语言学课程与测试研究”(ZDKT-010)。

田振江，男，呼伦贝尔学院外国语学院副教授，柏林自由大学英语语言学博士，研究方向：语言学及应用语言学。

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1672-8610(2015)06-0012-03

中国英语的规范探究及启示

田振江

(呼伦贝尔学院 外国语学院，内蒙古 呼伦贝尔 021008)

英语在中国的广泛使用促使了具有中国特色的“中国英语”的存在。对待“中国英语”有两种的态度。一种认为中国英语是违背英语母语标准的错误；另一种认为中国英语是中国人在本土语境下的语言创新。本文通过《中国日报》的语料呈现中国英语的语言特征，分析如何判断中国英语中的错误与创新，从而探索“中国英语”的评价标准。

语言错误； 语言创新； 中国英语； 世界英语标准