Study on the Negative Transfer from English (L2) to Japanese (L3) — Taking the Lexical and Semantic Changes of “Japanized English Words” as Examples_英语论文

摘要

今天的世界是一个新的全球化时代。在这个时代，跨语言交流显得尤为重要。为了打破和消除语言障碍和隔阂，越来越多的人正在学习多种外语。因此，有关双语，三语以及多语的研究也在大规模地开展起来。根据教育部的要求，英语专业学生需要必修除英语以外的第二门外语，日语是最受欢迎的选择之一。本论文主要讨论英语到日语的负迁移。相比起在二语习得方面的研究，三语习得的研究则相对较少。然而，三语习得中存在着相应的语言迁移无可置疑，而且已被证实，但是需要更深入的研究来说明问题。

英语外来词在日语词汇当中占比较大。“和制英语”是英语外来语当中的一种，它表面看似英语，但实在发生了词形变化和语义变化。英语学习者不了解这些变化，因而把以前所学的英语词汇知识迁移到日语，导致误解“和制英语”。该论文可能有助于学习者认识“和制英语”所产生的语言变化，避免日本词汇习得过程中的负面转移，从而更好地学习日语。

本研究是基于对三语习得和迁移理论进行的探讨，这不仅有助于英语专业学生的日语学习，而且还推动了语言学领域中相关理论的发展。本论文当中负迁移的研究将通过从名古屋大学语言文化部进行的调查来证实，并从中国英语专业学生的通用二外日语教材《新版标准日本语》收集和分析具体例子。

关键词: 三语习得 负迁移 词形变化 语义变化 和制英语

Abstract

Today’s world has embarked upon a new global era, in which cross language communication gains ever-increasing significance. To break and bridge the language barriers and gaps, a growing number of people are now studying more than one foreign language; thus, the researches on bilingualism, trilingualism and even multilingualism is afoot in a no small scale. Chinese Ministry of Education requires English majors to take up another second foreign language other than English, and Japanese is among the most popular choices. The thesis is a brief study on the negative transfer from English to Japanese. Compared to Second Language Acquisition (SLA), Third Language Acquisition (TLA) is relatively under-explored. Nevertheless, language transfer in TLA is undeniable and has been manifested, but more detailed research is needed to clarify. 

As English loanwords take up no small proportion in Japanese, and “Japanized English words” is the very kind of loanwords undergoing semantic and lexical changes from their English derivation, therefore, English (L2) learners, who are unaware of the changes, are expected to transfer the previously-learned English knowledge to Japanese and thus miscomprehend “Japanized English words”. In this sense, the thesis might help to arouse the awareness of the changes, to avoid negative transfer in the course of Japanese lexical acquisition, and thus to facilitate Japanese acquisition.

The thesis is conducted based on the research on TLA and language transfer, not only to facilitate the English majors’ Japanese acquisition on the part of learners and but also to advance the development in the linguist field of language transfer in TLA. The study of the negative lexical effect will be manifested and exemplified by data collected both from a revealing survey done in Nagoya University; and the commonly-used textbook by Japanese as L3 students in China, “Standard Japanese for Sino-Japanese Communication (new edition)”.

Key Words: Third Language Acquisition; Negative Transfer; Lexical Change; Semantic Change; “Japanized English Words” 

Contents

摘要 I

ABSTRACT II

1. INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION 1

1.2 SIGNIFICANCE 2

1.3 LAYOUT 3

2. LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 THIRD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 5

2.1.1 The Definition of TLA 5

2.1.2 The Main Researches in TLA 6

2.1.3 TLA and SLA 7

2.2 LANGUAGE TRANSFER 8

2.2.1 Definition of Language Transfer 8

2.2.2 Language Transfer in TLA 9

2.2.3 Negative Transfer 10

2.3 SUMMARY 11

3. JAPANIZED ENGLISH WORDS 12

3.1 THE DEFINITION OF JAPANIZED ENGLISH WORDS 12

3.2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF JAPANIZED ENGLISH WORDS 13

3.3 LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC CHANGES OF JAPANIZED ENGLISH WORDS 14

3.4 SUMMARY 15

4. DATA ANALYSIS 17

4.1 THE INTRODUCTION OF DATA 17

4.1.1 Survey done at Nagoya University 17

4.1.2 The Textbook 20

4.2 LEXICAL CHANGE OF JAPANIZED ENGLISH WORDS 20

4.2.1 Coinage· 21

4.2.2 Clippings 22

4.2.3 Blendings 22

4.2.4 Acronyms 23

4.2.5 Functional Shifts 23

4.3 SEMANTIC CHANGE OF JAPANIZED ENGLISH WORDS 24

4.3.1 Semantic Broadening 24

4.3.2 Semantic Narrowing 24

4.3.3 Semantic Shift 25

5. CONCLUSION 26

5.1 MAJOR FINDINGS 26

5.2 LIMITATIONS 27

BIBLIOGRAPHY 29

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 33