In Reference to the Methods for Expressing Speech Contamination by Means of the Chinese Writing System (Based on Works of Fiction)

Abstract

The authors put forward the hypothesis that contaminated speech can be expressed by means of the Chinese system of writing. However, as compared with alphabetic languages, its application in the Chinese language is quite limited. The objective of the study is to find methods of expressing contaminated speech by means of the Chinese hieroglyphic writing. To achieve the objective the authors set themselves a number of tasks: to study the approaches to the study contaminated speech, classifications of the phenomenon; to find and analyze the elements of contaminated speech in the Chinese fiction. In the course of the research, the authors concluded that, despite its morphological features and the writing system, speech contamination can be expressed by means of the Chinese language. The analysis of the empiric base of the research showed such methods as phonetic stylization; stylistically colored lexemes; graphic substitution of characters for 错别字 (“incorrectly written characters”) and violation of grammar and punctuation rules are used for the indication of contaminated speech. Within the framework of a work of fiction, contaminated speech works as an element of the artistic language with special linguistic and pragmatic functions, allowing the reader to form the opinion about the linguistic personality of the character. 

Keywords:

contaminated speech, contamination, Chinese, Chinese characters, linguistic personality, linguopragmatics