A typology of lexical borrowing in Modern Standard Chinese

Lingua Sinica

Table 1 Comparison of classes of lexical borrowing in Modern Standard Chinese and English

Class of borrowing	Example from English	Example from Modern Standard Chinese
Partial calques	earworm^a	瓶颈 píng-jǐng “bottleneck”
Holistic calques		盗版 dào-bǎn “to pirate”
Symbolic loans, non-autoch. script		の de ≡ 的 de ATT; NOM
Symbolic loans, autoch. script	BMW	科学 kēxué “science”
Pure transliterations	fengshui	伊妹儿 yī-mèi-ér “email”
Phono-semantic matches	chaise lounge	托福 tuō-fú “TOEFL”
Transliteration + explanation	tsunami wave	爱滋病 àizī-bìng “Aids”
Transliteration + translation		因特网 yīntè-wǎng “internet”
Phonetic representations		Q “elastic; chewy”
Graphic puns		taxi ≡ tài-kěxī “such a pity”
Borrowed initialisms		CD “CD”
Borrowed acronyms		SARS “SARS”
Wholesale borrowed words	pâté; naïve; déjà vu	fans “fans”
Hybrid I: letters + characters		BB机 B-B-jī “pager”
Hybrid II: letters + numerals		3Q sān-Q “thank you”

^aThis expression, calqued from the German Ohrwurm, denotes a catchy and sometimes annoying tune that gets stuck in one’s head