Contrast of Lexical Motivation Between English And Chinese

周倩

【ABSTRACT 】This thesis aims to make a contrast between English and Chinese in their lexical motivation in order to seek the source of form and meaning to further promote the study，explanation and application of lexical meaning.The contrast of lexical motivation is mainly discussed from three aspects：phonological motivation，morphological motivation and semantic motivation.Through the combination of diachronic study with synchronic study，the conclusion is drawn：the English lexicon is basically arbitrary while the Chinese one is highly motivated，namely，Chinese motivation is much more obvious than that of English for Chinese is an ideographic language and English is a phonemic language.

【Keywords】contrast； lexical motivation； pictographic ideography； linear phonography

I INTRODUCTION

In a broad sense，motivation refers to the agent that promotes and stimulates the origin，development or extinction of some language phenomena and language entity.Based on that，lexical motivation refers to the basis on which names of objects or phenomena have originated，indicating lexical creation，development or extinction.

II CONTRAST IN PHONOLOGICAL MOTIVATION

Phonological motivation refers to the connection between sound and meaning.Those words，such as ping-pong，bang，rattat，ding-dong，moo and meow，dingdong，didi，honghong，huahua ，wigwag and dididada，are onomatopoeia and interjections which take up a small percentage of the whole vocabulary.Phonological motivation mainly refers to conscious lexical creation by phonology in the self-organization of linguistic system.This term is used to describe items or events，and a vast majority of words belong to this category.

In terms of phonology，Chinese onomatopoeic words are more similar to the natural sounds because English ones imitate sound symbolically and associatively while Chinese ones imitate natural sound directly.English onomatopoeic words are full of single-morpheme words and each animal is designated a unique onomatopoeia while Chinese ones usually describe generally and employ repetitive diplophonia.

III CONTRAST IN MORPHOLOGICAL MOTIVATION

Morphological motivation refers to direct connection between lexical morphology and meaning.

In terms of morphology，Chinese motivation is much more obvious than that of English for English is a phonemic language with weak ideography while Chinese is an ideographic language with strong ideography.Chinese single-morpheme words take up less than 10% and even if words are derivatives，their internal structure also indicates meaning，which is an important evidence to show that motivation of Chinese vocabulary is obvious.

There is also a stronger tendency towards assimilation in Chinese than that of English.In most cases，loanwords are translated into common Chinese words.Such Chinese words as 香波，芒果and 脫口秀 transliterated from shampoo，mango and talk show，which merely represent original sound，but their meanings or connotations can be felt.The Chinese ways of borrowing words from other languages are an important sphere in the study of morphological motivation.

IV CONTRAST IN SEMANTIC MOTIVATION

Semantic motivation of vocabulary refers to the basis of associated and metaphorical lexical meanings.

Semantic motivation of both English and Chinese is mainly illustrated in compounds and idioms.There are categories of this motivation according to extended meanings and figures of speech，such as motivation through simile like snow-white and 劍眉，motivation though metaphor like dark horse and 飯桶，motivation through metonymy like in the cradle and 紅顏，motivation through synecdoche like stout heart and 名嘴 and motivation though euphemism like under-achiever and 洗手間。

Many metaphorical ways of word-formation in Chinese cannot be found substitutes in English，for the latter is a phonemic language with innately weak sense of motivation.Chinese is an ideographic language with innately strong sense of motivation since monosyllabic morphemes are basically content morphemes with independent meanings，in which way two morphemes can be combined as metaphorical objects.Equivalences in English are merely single-morphemes and undoubtedly such English words tend to lose their metaphorical meanings.For example，the shape of “仙人掌” is similar to human palms but different from normal palms and therefore is likened to celestials' palms.By contrast，the English equivalence is the single-morpheme word “cactus，” which has nothing with deity existences.

In sum，Chinese motivation is more obvious in that compounds abound and single-morpheme words are much less.Lexical meaning can be reflected by ways of figures of speech in both English and Chinese.Compared with English，Chinese is richer in figures of speech and animals tend to be likened to humans.

VI CONCLUSION

To sum up，Chinese motivation is much more obvious than that of English for Chinese is ideographic language and English is phonemic language.

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