“Foreign”一词在中国英语新闻中的用法——一项基于语料库的研究  

The Use of “Foreign” in China's English Newspapers: A Corpus-based Study

作　　者：俞希[1] 

机构地区：[1]南京大学外国语学院,江苏南京210093

出　　处：《外语教学》2006年第6期23-26,共4页Foreign Language Education

摘　　要：本文通过比较中国和英国的英语新闻语料库分析了“foreign”一词及其派生词“foreigner”的使用频率和语境。研究发现,“foreign”和“foreigner”的词频在中国英语新闻中均明显较高;“foreign”的右搭配名词也更加多样化,但英国英语中较少用“foreign”来修饰个人和团体;中国英语新闻将“foreigner”一词视为中性词,而在英国英语新闻中该词隐含贬义。总的说来,“foreign”的使用符合语法,具有较高的可理解性,同时又折射出中国人的思维方式和对国际交往的积极开放的态度。但为了保障交际的顺利与和谐,笔者建议用词应尽量避免产生歧义。In an attempt to further examine the implicit features of English used in China, the present study probes into the frequency and collocational patterns of the word ＂foreign＂ （in addition to its derivative ＂foreigner＂） in China＇s English newspapers. A textual analysis has been made on the basis of the one-million-word corpus CCEN, with a native speaker corpus NBNC （the newspaper branch of the British National Corpus） used as a reference. The major findings include： 1） In CCEN, both ＂foreign＂ and ＂foreigner＂ appear significantly more frequently; 2） The collocates of ＂foreign＂ tend to be more diversified in CCEN; in NBNC, however, it is seldom used to modify individuals or organizations; 3） While ＂foreign＂ used in CCEN mainly covers its core senses, it displays more flexibil- ity in terms of wordormation; 4） A neutral noun in CCEN, ＂foreigner＂ may involve a somewhat negative connotation in NBNC. Generally speaking, the use of ＂foreign＂ in China＇s English newspapers is regarded as grammatically acceptable and semantically intelligible （though not always appropriate）, which reflects Chinese people＇s way of thinking and their open attitude towards international exchanges. In order to ensure smooth and harmonious communication between different cultures, it is suggested that ambiguity and misunderstanding be avoided in the choice of words.

关 键 词：本土化 中国英语新闻 使用频率 使用语境 

分 类 号：H313[语言文字—英语]