Abstract

This article discusses the features, reasons, and values of the mushrooming Chinese English neologisms (CENs). Generally speaking, CENs are a variety of English words, namely Chinese English words, some of which have entered Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Based on data from Web Corp Live, the author finds that: (1) CENs take on the grammatical and morphological characteristics of English words, such as inflection and derivation, which are not found in the previous related studies; (2) CENs belong specific semantic domains, which are closely related to China’s latest social, economic, cultural development in the network era. CENs are the production of language contact between Chinese and English in the time of Internet. CENs possess important values to observe or understand Chinese new social phenomena and to promote the communications between the Chinese and the English world.

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