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Abstract： Globalization has contributed to the frequent use of English abbreviations in media.Meanwhile， Media plays a central role in information retrieval in people's life， which greatly influences human beings’ cognitions.In order to preserve the purity of Chinese language， political advisors called for the banning of foreign abbreviations.Whether abbreviations make the communication and information－ transmitting less effective？ Will banning foreign abbreviations help？ Do Chinese young people think banning English and English abbreviations on TV is a good way to preserve the Chinese language？ With these questions， this paper tries to find out audience's responses to the reform from Central Bureau by an empirical study of questionnaire.This tentative study is able to not only point out the current situation of Chinese language reform， but also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of“language purification movement”， so that some suggestions in developing language communication and media language usage can be come up with.
Key words： Normalization； English Abbreviations； Medium Language
Ⅰ.Introduction
From early April 2010， China's national broadcaster CCTV banned the use of borrowed English abbreviations such as NBA， GDP， WTO and CPI in all its programs.That is according to a recent regulation from a relevant Chinese government department.Major national and regional broadcasters all received the directive from their regulator that they must avoid using certain English abbreviations in Chinese －language channels and programs.The order not just limits the use of English abbreviation in sports news， but also in economic and political news.The move comes after national legislators and political advisors urged to preserve the purity of the Chinese language.Some Chinese experts say in the long run， Chinese will lose its role as an independent linguistic system for passing on information and expressing deep feelings.But others say， this measure showed cultural conservatism.
The move was launched in line with a government directive after several national legislators and political advisors called for the preservation of the Chinese language's purity.From then on， all the announcers in news broadcast and other programs are encouraged to use Chinese full names of certain information instead of acronym， such as NBA， GDP， etc.The new rule inevitably aroused a heated discussion the moment it was put into practice.This essay， based on such a situation，aims at pointing the essential significance of language reform and calls for the consideration of television viewers’ voices during the process of Chinese language purification.
As for the research methodology， this paper will be analyzed with qualitative and quantitative methods within the background of English abbreviations in media.In order to get a scientific and thorough result， this paper is conducted in the form of questionnaire.Besides， to make the research overall and persuasive， the survey is delivered to people covering different ages and different careers.
This thesis consists of five parts：
Chapter 1 first introduces the research background， and then explores the significance of this tentative study of the banning.Finally it presents the organization of the whole thesis.
Chapter 2 introduces the basic notions of English abbreviations and acronym in Chinese media programs.This chapter accounts for the necessity and theoretical foundations for conducting this paper.
Chapter 3 is the main body of the present study.The research methods and results will be presented.Through content analysis， an overall picture of the news data is clearly shown in front of the readers.
Chapter 4 draws a conclusion of the thesis.
Ⅱ. Literature Review
1.English abbreviations
“Abbreviation” is a general term—“ a shortened form of a word or phrase”listed in the Webster's New World Dictionary and “ a shortened form of a spoken word， or written symbol” .
The word ‘abbreviation’ is from the Latin word “abbreviationis” .In the 15th century， it was first introduced to English through French， however， it was more directly from the practice of copyists in the Middle Ages， at which time shorthand was created in order to save time and energy and make it easy to remember.With the entry of Latin language into European languages， shorthand also came into use in Europe.Although some abbreviations were created by chance or temporarily， most of them had been in use repeatedly for a long time， so today， when we use them，we don´t need to take their history into consideration.
2.Acronym
Acronym is defined as a creative language form to make information exchange more convenient during the course of human communication by language users.Gradually it becomes a special language existence， widely used in the society.In recent years， under the economic principle chasing for“ brief expression”， acronyms appears more frequently in China， especially the English acronyms have become one of the most rapidly expanded language phenomenon in media and propaganda fields.
Acronym is highly valued in linguistics， for it extremely enlarges the form of language and provides the language structure with abundant materials.Shakespeare said： “Brevity is the soul of wit .” Nowadays， people would prefer using acronyms not only because it's simple but also regard it as a fashion.We cannot deny that those English － speaking countries have influenced us a lot in various ways， in such information － explosion time， acronyms are the better choice for use.However， if acronyms get abused used， it will do harm effect to communication and local culture.
3.The characters of media phraseology
（1） Multi － angled
Language changes as the society changes， and it is the product of social environment， especially media phraseology.Democratic spirit， citizen's view， and various styles are required in media phraseology.That means， it is designed to serve both upper classes and the bottom ones and the objective point of view should includes the psychological acceptance.The occurrence of acronyms was based on the social environment， and the action of cancel them is also based on the social changes.
（2） Standard
As the fortress of government， media office should follow the direction of government， which can get well along with national policies or legislation.And it is a duty for all of people working in media and propaganda fields to use the very standard expression and build a healthy using environment.One of the most famous occasions is that at the beginning of 21st century， most of the hosts and announcers in the mainland launched a campaign that putting an end to follow the “Hong Kong －Tai Wan” accent in the programs， which was regarded as a fashion while actually made a chaos.In that campaign， the government led a major role in correcting people's mind and received a good result.Announcers stopped imitating the over －sweet accent and began to spread the formal and standard Putonghua.
（3） Compatible
Apart from the criterion， language is also merged with those alien or new words， which may be given by lower level people， who use language in the most flexible and various ways.Those words maybe not elegant or formal， but it's widely accepted by the public because of its vivid description and they can be easily understood.
Because of the contribution made by numerous citizens and common people，our idioms and slangs get more and more enriched and begin to find their places in the media phraseology.Take an idiom for instance，“Oh my lady gaga” is a hot expression in China now， and its origin is “Oh my God” and the well － known pop star Lady Gaga.The new phrase shows the quick － mind and wisdom of ordinary people.We may admit that sometimes it would effect or go against the formal direction， but in the view of high spreading rate， the step of jointing never stops.
4.Data Analysis and Main Findings
（1） Research Method
The applied questionnaires in this paper are all delivered through QQ and E －mail.To be overall， the survey is delivered to people covering different ages and different careers， including people working in media.The purpose of questionnaire is to find out different attitudes or suggestions towards the rule mentioned at the beginning.Among the valid respondents of all who have answered the questionnaire，college students take a large proportion which holds 61.4％.And there are 8 college teachers， 7 white collars and 12 shopkeepers or peddlers， which share different education background from college education which takes up 84.2％ to middle school education takes 14.2％.Of 79 questionnaires distributed 70， or approximately 89％， were returned.
（2） Data Analysis
① Research Result
Among all the data collected， more than 50％ people regard it improper to ban English abbreviations in Chinese － language channels and programs for the reason that they don´t think the reform has great influences on contents of message but makes Chinese programs complicated and abundant.Meanwhile， nearly 44％ people hold it reasonable and meaningful to have this reform， because they can get more detailed messages in this process and learn some knowledge when watching television.The rest 5％ care little about this reform.They don´t think the reform can have any effect on their daily life.
Referring to the announcement that NBA will be broadcasted as“美国职业篮球联赛” while CBA “中国男子篮球职业联赛”，54％ people are against this suggestion.These opponents say it is difficult to deliberately exclude foreign abbreviations from Chinese people's daily life.They believe these words have already become part of the Chinese language and to accept them reflects the Chinese language's strong tolerance.A partial or blanket ban on foreign abbreviations would limit the source of new words and the vitality of the Chinese language and， at the same time， would also have an effect on the expression of ideas.27％ support this suggestion so as to preserve the purity of Chinese.They support that language， as part of a culture， is an important component of a country's overall strength.The government should be responsible for preventing the Westernization of Chinese and maintaining its purity.The media should also become role models in this drive.Specific opinions will be analyzed as follows.
② Voice of Approval
Some people are glad to see such a change， because they believe that it can help audience to know the information clearly.Indeed， some acronyms like CIA（Central Intelligence Agency）， WB （World Bank） which belongs to the particular fields are really out of their reach， so they need the help by telling the full name instead of some capitalized letters.One of the respondents complained： “I have totally no idea about CIP and I think the news reporter has responsibility to make audience know what is going on… .” Some short forms frequently appear in public， but many people still cannot correctly figure out what they stand for.Take NBA for example， according to the questionnaire， 41％， indicated that they just know it is about some basketball game while when they were asked more details， they shook their heads.And about 7％ of respondents told us that they even don´t know at all about the NBA.Even 37 persons had the confidence to give the answers， their answers varied.Some say it's “Native Basketball in America”，“North America Basketball Association” or“National Basketball Agency”， some believe it should be“美国男子篮球锦标赛” or“美国国家篮球协会”，“国家篮球联盟”…The number of those who gave the very correct answer is just 17， taking 24％ of all the respondents.So the situation has become an emergency.
To keep the standardized language and Chinese culture， they assume that it is an improvement for our government in wielding their authority to purify the Chinese language environment.Moreover， the Chinese Translation Association also showed their approval to the improvement in a recent forum.During the interviews to respondents， many people had been confused by those short forms， not only because most of them just received limited education， but also the words are too professional to understand.They hope that government or media should be responsible to inform reviewers with detailed information.
Apart from the purification of Chinese environment and the audience’ psychological acceptance， from the perspective of spread of Chinese culture， such reform would be helpful for our cultural policy known as“Going out” and “Coming in” .Since English is no more the leading role in future cultural trend with our nation's progress of integrated power and more and more western people start to learn Chinese language， we ought to make more efforts on“Going out” section， which requires us to standard our Chinese firstly.So， the implement of this policy properly follows the main stream.
③ Voice of Disapproval
This reform inevitably attracted many critics.As for whether host/hostess should announce“National Basketball Association” instead of “NBA”， only 2 people choose“strongly support” .While a majority of the respondents （69％） prefer the opposite answer.They believe such a change is unnecessary and repeating the full name in a fierce competition is a torture for audience.Some people even joke that if we are not encouraged to use acronyms， then every time we mention the MP3， we have to say“动态影像专家压缩标准音频层面3” and CMOS will never occur in a shorten way but “互补型金属氧化物隔离栅半导体集成电路”.How about “CCTV”？
These opponents object the “so － called reform” and they insist that it has no relationship with purification of Chinese language.It is just the official’ s impulsive decision without enough social investigations.And they questioned that if our Chinese environment has been ruined by English， why not canceling the CET －4 and CET －6， or Career English Level Test？ And we can put English into optional courses， in order to calm down the “English heat” .
Yin Hong， the vice － Dean of News and Media school of Tingshua University is also against such behavior and the theory of purification of Chinese.He points that during the development of Chinese language， it has absorbed so many alien language elements and it is useless and ridiculous to make it pure by blindly canceling the habitual short forms .“Language was， is， and will be never pure” he argued，“the quality of language is to flow， from one district to another， from one generation to the next， and language always changes with the social diversification.If we say some language is pure， it means that it's dead and becomes a tool stands for the past history .” Facing the problem of many young people using the mixed language， he viewed it as a normal phenomenon， for the purpose of language is to communicate efficiently， if others accept the way we are talking about， why should we regard it as an offence to the language criterion？ Chinese is no more graphic but we use the alphabetic characters nowadays， so it naturally is mixed with English letters.If we want to avoid using any English acronyms， maybe we should alter all the letters on the computer keyboard into Chinese.
Most of Chinese words like “俱乐部”，“台风”，“咖啡”，“巧克力”…were all from alien culture， if we want to purify them， what will we live by？ Some people raised up a solution that we may create some new words with the Chinese as their etymology， he won´t agree with that.And almost 97％ people oppose the invention， according the questionnaire.
Professor Yin took Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty as his support.These two dynasties share a same quality， which is they were not only the most florescent times but also actively exchanged and merged with alien culture.So “it has been a tradition for Chinese people to absorb and exchange with other nations’ culture and language” Mr.Yin felt confused，“why will we cut off the process？”
In view of the strong disapprovals， officials decided to adopt a compromise that when the news reporters have to use the acronyms， they could add the Chinese full name after the acronyms or some further explanations.But netizens and respondents do not think it's a wise way.About 39 respondents， or say 56％， argued that they cannot stand the long description which was very concise by the acronyms.
Ⅲ. Conclusion
Based upon the questionnaire， about 37.4％ of respondents believe such reform makes some sense while 53％ hold the doubted attitude in a general way.Those people who stand between suggest that a title can be added down below the screen when the news reporter talking some rare acronyms， so that TV watchers would understand what it stands for and avoid wordy delivery.As for those usual acronyms as F1， WTO， CCTV， we just keep their existence， in case many audience would feel unaccustomed.
It is said that Russia took the same action years ago and their motivation was to keep Russian purified and noble， and they received the anticipatory result.But we should hold it dialectically， for what the narrow and shallow Chinese chauvinism can do is just weaken the language power and ruin culture communication.In all， the changes in language reflect the changes of society， culture， psychology， etc.and it provides us a convincing sample of linguistic development.
References：
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调查问卷
首先十分感谢您的配合！
如若涉及隐私问题，特此致歉，您有权不予作答。
调查目的：关于中国政府有关部门下令“在央视及地方节目主持人口播、记者采访和字幕中，规避使用外语及英文缩略语”现象的态度及看法。
注意事项：1）本问卷采用匿名化调查，并对参与者个人信息及作答内容予以保密。
2）请在作答时不要查询相关答案，以免影响调查效果，仅凭直觉作答即可。
作答者个人基本信息填写：（请在方框内打钩）
开始作答：
1：您知道NBA确切的全称吗？（ ）
A：知道。（请写出相应答案____）
B：只知道是“某某篮球赛”，不知道确切名称
C：完全不知道，但想知道是什么
D：完全不知道，也不想知道，与我无关
2： CMOS是指（）
A：知道。（请写出相应答案_______）
B：好像和集成电路有关
C：我很想知道它到底是什么
D：完全不知道，也不想知道，与我无关
3：如果在CBA （中国篮球协会男子职业联赛）赛事转播过程中，解说员将解说词里所有的CBA字眼全部改说“中国篮球协会男子职业联赛”，您认为（）
A：强烈支持，汉语中就是不能夹杂着英语字母，否则太不伦不类了
B：尚可，不会因为一个称号对节目产生什么影响
C：不好吧，把约定俗成的东西改名换姓，让人反而不好理解
D：在激烈的赛事转播中重复这么繁琐的名称，简直就是多此一举
4：为了中和上一题中A者和D者的极端情绪，有关部门规定在报道中采取“先讲英文缩略语，再讲中文全称或加以中文解释”的方法，您认为此方式（）
A：这样最好，所有人都能清楚地知道详细信息
B：还成，顺便扫扫盲
C：不是特别好，显得有点啰唆
D：让冗长来得更猛烈些吧
5：对于有关部门在传媒、宣传领域这一改革，您认为（ ）
A：非常有必要，汉语使用环境急需净化
B：可以带来一定的效果，对于特殊缩写词，大家会有更直观地理解
C：不是很有此必要，特殊缩写词只在特殊领域内存在，大部分的缩写大家都知道
D：完全没有必要，会产生受众不适应、播音员言语啰唆等诸多问题
6：英文缩略词在中文中消失是件好事吗？（ ）
A：是的，很多人英语学得很好，但表达汉语时却错误百出，汉语环境从此会更加纯净
B：可以，省得碰到像CPI之类的术语让听众们一头雾水
C：其实保留像NBA、 WTO、 F1、 MP3等小部分缩略词还是可以的
D：不可消失，语言从来就不是纯净的，缩略词体现与发展了语言的交融互通性
7：如果您偏向于赞同上述全部题目中A者看法，那么您是否同意将“咖啡（源于coffee）”、“巧克力（源于chocolate）”等外来词汇也一并规避，另设以汉语为语源的新词，从而达到净化汉语环境的目的呢？（ ）
A：当然可以B：利大于弊C：弊大于利D：无法接受
8：新闻播报中，您认为规范性和传达性二者的地位（ ）
A：规范性占主导，媒体是社会舆论的导向
B：可以兼得，即使不是那么简洁
C：兼容性差，易丧失受众群体
D：传达性占主导，听众理解才是最重要的
9：数年前，大陆媒体与观众共同掀起一股“反港台腔”的浪潮，起到了较好的效果；对比今年媒体这种“去英文化”的趋势，您认为二者在本质上相同吗？（ ）
A：相同，都是为了纯净汉语环境，规范传媒、宣传领域用语。
B：初衷大致相同，但是从实际效果预测，后者的有效性不强。
C：略有区别，前者是从规范普通话的角度出发，而后者则是异类语言文化的清洗。
D：绝不相同，媒体中乱用港台腔是种不良风气，应该制止；而英语缩略语方便了我们的生活与交流，没有必要进行“大清洗运动”。
E：我还要补充：______________
10：总体来说，您对于此规定的结论性态度是：
A：坚决支持
B：有一定的合理性
C：盲目的爱国主义和汉语言主义
D：坚决反对
若您还有什么意见或建议，可在此说明：_____________________
作者简介：申慧丽，女，琼州学院外国语学院助教，硕士，研究方向：国际商务与跨文化交际。王兰春，女，琼州学院外国语学院副教授，硕士，研究方向：英语语言文学。
申慧丽 王兰春
琼州学院外国语学院