摘 要

在跨文化交流的时代，语言的使用使非罗马语言中的字母词激增。尤其在中国，汉语英源字母词已经成为了一种无法规避的语言现象。作为跨文化交际的产物，汉语英源字母词被定义为借用自英语，由拉丁字母(包括汉语拼音字母)或希腊字母构成的或由它们分别与符号、数字或汉字混合构成的词。其存在与发展一方面见证了中外文化的交融，另一方面又进一步促进了中外文化的交流。

语言经济学是经济学与语言学的交叉学科，其核心观点是认为语言也具有价值、效用、费用和收益等经济学特性，其定义则聚焦于使用经济学的理论、原则、方法来研究语言现象。本文试图脱离单纯的语言学视角，以语言经济学为理论基础，对汉语英源字母词的使用进行研究和分析。

本文将以中国商务新闻网的部分商业新闻为例，从语言经济学的角度对汉语英源字母词的经济学特性进行分析，并运用语言经济学中的市场需求原则、均衡原则、省力原则与择近原则，阐释汉语英源字母词在商务新闻中使用的合理性、经济性，并为汉语英源字母词的研究提供新的思路和方向。

关键词：汉语英源字母词；语言经济学；商务新闻；中国商务新闻网

Abstract

Language use in the cross-cultural era has led to the surge of lettered words in non-Romanised languages. Especially in China, the Chinese English-origin lettered words have become an unavoidable linguistic phenomenon. As a product of cross-cultural communication, Chinese English-origin lettered words are defined as words borrowed from English and composed of Latin alphabet (including Chinese phonetic alphabet) or Greek letters or their respective combinations with symbols, numbers, or Chinese characters. They not only witness the integration of Chinese and foreign cultures but further promote the cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries.

Language economics is an interdisciplinary subject between economics and linguistics. Its core view is that language has economic characteristics such as value, utility, cost, and benefit. Its definition focuses on the use of economic theories, principles, and methods to study language phenomena. Based on the theory of language economics, this paper attempts to study and analyze the use of Chinese English-origin lettered words.

This paper will take some news from Comnews.cn as examples to analyze Chinese English-origin lettered words from the perspective of language economics. With the principle of market demand, the principle of equilibrium, the principle of least effort, and the principle of satisfaction adequacy in language economics, this paper will explain the reasonableness and economy of Chinese English-origin lettered words in business news. It is hoped that this research can provide a new direction for the study of Chinese English-origin lettered words.

Key Words: Chinese English-origin Lettered Words; Language Economics; Business News; Comnews.cn

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Comnews.cn 3

2 Language Economics 4

2.1 Definition of Language Economics 4

2.2 Principles in Language Economics 4

3 Chinese English-origin Lettered Words 6

3.1 Definition of Chinese English-origin Lettered Words 6

3.2 Economic Characteristics of Chinese English-origin Lettered Words 7

4 Analysis of Chinese English-origin Lettered Words in Business News 8

4.1 Principle of Market Demand 8

4.2 Principle of Equilibrium 9

4.3 Principle of Least Effort 11

4.4 Principle of Satisfaction Adequacy 12

5 Conclusion 14

References 15

Acknowledgements 16

A Study of Chinese English-origin Lettered Words in Business News from the Language Economics Perspective: Case Study of Comnews

1 Introduction

1.1 Background of the study

Language use in the cross-cultural era has led to the surge of lettered words in non-Romanised languages, especially in China (Lan amp; Qi，2017). Chinese English-origin lettered words, as a part of loanwords, characterized by the uncertainty of use and identity, make it difficult for us to draw an exact standard for whether lettered words are naturalized into Chinese, which also causes many misunderstandings (Shi, 2019). Since 2009, there have been many disputes over Chinese English-origin lettered words. Initially, in February 2009, a piece of news pointed out that some TV channels in China used the abbreviations of their English names, rather than the standard national language or legal Chinese phonetic alphabets. Subsequently, in 2010, Notice on Further Standardizing the Use of Words in Publications was issued, requiring that the use of English words or abbreviations and other foreign languages should be prohibited in Chinese publications. And the publication of the sixth edition of the Modern Chinese Dictionary in 2012 caused a stir again because it included 239 words beginning with letters in foreign languages.

Even though the use of Chinese English-origin lettered words is restricted to some extent by the state, their use in various fields is common. Take journalism as an example, according to statistics from Li (2019), in People's Daily published in December 2017 (including news headlines, texts, notes, etc.), the number of occurrences of Chinese English-origin lettered words is 887, and that of CCTV News in the same period (including the host broadcast, subtitles, and interviews with journalists) is 36. Chinese English-origin lettered words in economic and business fields appeared more frequently, 253 times in People's Daily; and 8 times in CCTV News. It can be seen that the use of Chinese English-origin lettered words in the business field is challenging to avoid, and the use of Chinese English-origin lettered words in business news is worthy of research.

Similarly, in academia, scholars’ attitudes towards Chinese English-origin lettered words differ. Those who are against Chinese English-origin lettered words pointed out that Chinese-English mixed expressions destroyed the purity of Chinese and caused obstacles to the understanding of language communicators (Hao R amp; Hao J, 2013; Li et al, 2019). In contrast, scholars who hold a supportive attitude mostly analyzed that the use of Chinese English-origin lettered words added a new language expression form to Chinese communication from the perspectives of lexicology, cross-cultural communication, morphology, translation and linguistics (Zhi, 2010; Feng, 2012; ).

It can be seen from the research of domestic scholars that most researches started from the separate English-origin Chinese English-origin lettered words out of a specific language context. And the researches staying in pure linguistics lacked comprehensiveness. For this reason, this paper will introduce the perspective of language economics since it is more reasonable to analyze Chinese English-origin lettered words from its practical application and certain economic and social background.

Based on the contradiction between national regulations and actual usage of Chinese English-origin lettered words, this paper mainly focuses on the use of Chinese English-origin lettered words in Chinese business news and tries to analyze their rationality of application from the perspective of language economics. Firstly, it will introduce the theory of Economics of Language (Language Economics) and then define Chinese English-origin lettered words. Finally, with some illustrative examples, this paper concludes that English-origin lettered words in Chinese business news accord with the principles of language economics and possess rationality.

1.2 Comnews.cn

Comnews.cn was officially launched in 2014. It is supervised by the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and is sponsored by the International Business Daily. It is the primary platform for network publicity and information services of the national business system, focusing on business information, business channel, commodities, business opportunities, business people, business circle.

From the website construction, Comnews.cn is mainly composed of "Headlines", "Focus news", "Photo news", "International Business Information", "Local business" and the other three sections, covering a wide range of contents.

The research objects of this paper are selected from the section "International Business Information". It is of general significance to study this part of the news because this section provides a rich stock of business news, which is not only from the International Business Daily, also from Xinhua News Agency, China News.cn, and other news sites. Furthermore, the business news in Comnews.cn usually uses formal narrative or argumentative discourse, which is more formal in wording, and more standard in sentence pattern. It not only highlights conciseness, accuracy and popularity real-time content, but also emphasizes the professionalism of words and the standardization of expressions.