New words and meanings arising from literature in modern Chinese: A case study of English loanwords in Lu Xun's novel Call to Arms

Faculty of Arts and Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, 999077, China

^* Corresponding author: xyuanao@connect.ust.hk

Abstract

In the period of the May Fourth New Culture Movement, under the background of the Europeanization of Chinese with Western learning in the East, a large number of loanwords were absorbed into Chinese in this period due to the extensive language contact. The use of loanwords in Lu Xun's representative vernacular novel Call to Arms embodies Lu Xun's vocabulary concept of constructing modern vernacular. This paper focuses on the study of English loanwords in Call to Arms, and classifies them into four categories: pure transliteration, transliteration and free translation, letter words and Japanese borrowing form words. These words mainly involve the fields of science, technology, politics, humanities and society, at the same time, new affixes and word formation have appeared in modern Chinese. After being introduced and transformed into the Chinese language, they have been continuously integrated into the specific meanings in the Chinese cultural background during the development process, and gradually localized, forming a unique Chinese vocabulary form.