美式英語中的外來語「lose face」

Abstract

美式英語中的 “lose face” 乃借自華語的「丟臉」（牛津英語詞典）。本文旨在探討此語言借用背後的語用及社會因素。研究問題是：(1) 哪些社會政治因素導致了“lose face” 的借用，(2) 外來語 “lose face” 在採用過程中經歷了哪些語用調適？我們從ProQuest 數據庫的The New York Times報紙資料庫中檢索lose face的相關語料，計得31條相關新聞。接著運用Wortham 和 Reyes (2015) 提出的歷時語言人類學的話語分析來進行研究。分析結果顯示 “lose face” 的社會政治背景和語用階段：首先，「丟臉」 的使用語境步出了中國，接著“lose face” 進入國際，最後再進入美國政治。進一步我們揭示了“lose face”在戰爭與和平之間的語用價值路徑。我們的發現有助於理解從屬文化之於主導文化間的語言借用，特別是對於接觸相對較少的語言之間。  This paper aims to identify the socio-political contexts in which the American English loanword lose face was borrowed from Mandarin Chinese diū liǎn丟臉 ’lose face’. Aside from focusing on the context of initial borrowing, it attempts to detect adaptations in the pragmatic meaning undergone throughout its adoption into American English. A diachronic linguistic anthropological approach outlined by Wortham and Reyes (2015) is used to analyze the usage of lose face in 31 articles of The New York Times newspapers. Four main stages of socio-political context are identified, in which the context of use of lose face travels out of China into international and American politics. Additionally, the pathway of pragmatic value for lose face is first a marked association with the maintenance of peace or a trigger for war, then an unmarked association with politics in general as the loanword became more integrated into American English. The findings contribute to the understanding of borrowing from culturally subordinate to culturally dominant languages in cases of relatively little language contact.