Metabolism of English Loanwords in Chinese: An Ecolinguistic Perspective

This study investigates the metabolism of 329 English loanwords listed in the Modern Chinese Dictionary (MCD1-7) from an ecolinguistic perspective, focusing on their distribution, vitality, and endangerment. First, the synchronic ecology of these loanwords was analyzed using the MCD as a static corpus, which provides a comprehensive overview of their current status. Second, their diachronic ecology was evaluated through niche breadth measurements based on the Media Language Corpus (MLC), a dynamic corpus. To further validate the dynamic vitality of these loanwords, a Questionnaire of Lexical Acknowledgement was designed and implemented. The results reveal significant variation in the ecology of these loanwords, influenced by both external and internal factors, such as word length, frequency, semantic domain, part of speech, and translation method. Notably, only 113 loanwords exhibit medium ecological niches, indicating that approximately one third retain meaningful vitality. Among the 96 endangered loanwords, 32 are extinct, 39 are critically endangered, 19 are endangered, and 6 are vulnerable. The study underscores that the metabolism of English loanwords in Chinese is influenced by external factors (ecological environment) and internal factors (linguistic system).