经济原则视角下的语言“开放性”:以英德汉外来语为例

Language "Openness" in the Economic Perspective:An English-German-Chinese Contrastive Study of Words from Other Languages

本文研究了英、德、汉三种语言吸收外来语的不同情况,发现语言吸收外来语的情况和其词汇系统的理据性之间存在着对应关系:理据性高的语言,呈现出对外来异质成分较强的排斥倾向,更倾向于利用自身的内部资源满足产生新词的需求;而理据性低的语言,对外来异质成分的排斥较弱,倾向于较多地利用外部资源产生新词。语言有词化需求时,依照经济原则在利用语言的内部资源和外部资源之间做出选择;而语言的"开放性"则是这种选择的结果。本文认为,各种语言为满足其真正的需要而吸收外来语的能力是同等的。

The study examines the differences of words from other languages in English,German and Chinese and finds that there is a correlation between the ＂openness＂ and the motivation of a lexical system,i.e.a highly motivated lexical system encounters greater difficulty in assimilating words from other languages and tends to produce more new words by its own resources;a slightly motivated lexical system comes across less difficulty in taking in words from other languages and tends to produce more new words with the outside resources.The Economy Principle decides whether a language will produce new words more by its own resources or more by the outside resources,and thus leads to the different ＂openness＂ levels of lexical systems.The study maintains that all languages have the equal ability to assimilate words from other languages when there is a real need,if the difficulty or the ＂costs＂ to assimilate them is fully considered.