Is China Entering WTO or shijie maoyi zuzhi--a Corpus Study of English Acronyms in Chinese Newspapers

TL;DR

This study quantitatively analyzes the usage patterns of English acronyms versus Chinese translations in Chinese newspapers, revealing factors influencing language choice and variation across concepts.

Contribution

It is among the first to empirically examine English acronym usage in Chinese texts using corpus data and statistical modeling.

Findings

Different concepts have widely varying usage of English acronyms (2% to 98%).

Language economy, concept frequency, and initial appearance influence acronym usage.

Linear models can predict the percentage of English acronym usage for concepts.

Abstract

This is one of the first studies that quantitatively examine the usage of English acronyms (e.g. WTO) in Chinese texts. Using newspaper corpora, I try to answer 1) for all instances of a concept that has an English acronym (e.g. World Trade Organization), what percentage is expressed in the English acronym (WTO), and what percentage in its Chinese translation (shijie maoyi zuzhi), and 2) what factors are at play in language users' choice between the English and Chinese forms? Results show that different concepts have different percentage for English acronyms (PercentOfEn), ranging from 2% to 98%. Linear models show that PercentOfEn for individual concepts can be predicted by language economy (how long the Chinese translation is), concept frequency, and whether the first appearance of the concept in Chinese newspapers is the English acronym or its Chinese translation (all p < .05).