Two Great Transfers of Word Emotive Overtones In Modern Chinese

Jiaquan  Abstract: Since 1949, modern Chinese language has, in the course of its development in Mainland China, twice witnessed large-scale transfers in its word emotive overtones. The first began in 1949 and went on all the way till the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1977. Derogation manifested itself in that period, during which the derogatory words enjoyed their greatest number, widest usages and highest frequency in the history of the Chinese language. The second began from the Reform and Opening Up Policy in 1978 and lasted untill now. De-derogation has manifested itself in this period, during which the derogatory words have had the smallest number, least usages and lowest frequency in the history of the Chinese language. The two large-scale transfers result from their specific social backgrounds and the development of the Chinese


Introduction
Word emotive overtone, commendatory and derogatory, is very important and common among its types of meanings, and co-varies closely with social life and language psychology. It reflects our common emotional standards on the true, the good and the beautiful, the false, the bad and the ugly and the ethical judgment, which have already been established in the history of mankind, onto word meanings. Therefore, emotive overtone is part of the sociality and stability of word meanings. However, social development and progress of the times and knowledge can make subjects change their emotional standards on judging their objects, which means some changes will take place in word emotive overtones in the course of their development (Yang Zhenlan, 2003:169).
(b) A large number of newly coined derogatory terms appeared. During the Cultural Revolution derogatory terms took a high proportion of newly coined words. For instance, 39 derogatory words of the 141 entries which were in fashion in 1967 are collected in The Contemporary Dictionary of China"s Fashionable Language, compiled chronically by Xiong Zhongwu (1992), and they take 27.7 percent, among which is a high proportion of derogatory terms such as "xiǎo páchóng (小爬虫, small reptile)" and words like that. And during the Cultural Revolution some of them were even coined with labels such as "hēi jùdiǎn (黑据点, black stronghold)", "hēi sīlìngbù (黑司令部, black military command)", "hēi Xiūyǎng (黑《修养》, black Self-Refinement, name of a book)", "hēi zǔzhī (黑组织, illegal organization)" and others of the "hēi (黑, Black)" series, up to almost 40 derogatory entries of the frequently used popular terms then (Zhou Jian & Li Genxiao, 1998).
(c) The already existing derogatory terms also had an increase in the frequency of their uses, which is considered to be related to their widened scope of applications. Refer to Tables 1 to 3 for their increased frequency of uses. Another example is in critical essays, the descriptive and commentary adverbs before verbs which are mostly derogatory words, such as "jíduān kuángwàng de gōngjī (极端狂妄地攻击, to ultra-wantonly attack)", "jiǎohuáde xiànzhì (狡猾地限制, to craftily restrict)". (Note: In Chinese, when used to modify verbs adverbs usually go before verbs.) After an investigation into the uses of the derogatory terms in different periods and in different stages in the history of Chinese language, it is found that the period of the Cultural Revolution is one in which derogatory terms were used most widely and most frequently. However, contrary to the large-scale uses of derogatory terms, some of them were employed in a narrowed scope and less frequently. They are the derogatory terms which were not elevated politically during the Cultural Revolution. (Diao Yanbin, 2007) The trend of derogation rose against the background of sharp political polarization. While many commendatory terms were used in a narrowed scope and less frequently, and shifted in the direction of derogation, i.e. the negative growth of the commendatory terms, some commendatory entries, which could be used to praise the people and the objects relevant to "gémìng (革命, revolution)", e.g. "gémìng lǐngxiù (革命领袖, revolutionary leader)", "gémìng zǔzhī (革命组织, revolutionary organization)", "gémìng qúnzhòng (革 命群众, revolutionary masses)", "gémìng shìyè (革命事业, revolutionary cause)", "gémìng xí ngshì ( 革命形势, revolutionary situation)" and "wéngé yùndòng ( 文革运动, revolutionary cultural movement)", had a positive growth, resulting in a wider scope and higher frequency. Such an antithesis can be clearly and universally noticed, in the positively growing entries and the negative ones. Five antithetical pairs from the People"s Daily from different years are listed here to show their frequency; they are examples of the positive growth terms: "fēngshuò (丰硕, fruitful, plentiful and substantial)", "gāo"áng (高 昂, in high spirits, or hold one"s spirit high)", "gé mì ng (革命, revolution)", "háomài (豪迈, bold and generous)", "zìhá o (自豪, be proud)", and those of the negative growth terms: "fēngmǎn (丰满, full and round, well-developed)", "gāomíng (高明, wise)", "géxīn (革新, innovation)", "háoshuǎng (豪爽, straight-forward)", "zì"à i (自爱, self-respect)".  In spite of the polarization, cruel struggle and merciless attack were the theme of the Cultural Revolution, and the derogation was thus still the main trend of the language of this period.

The second large-scale transfer
In the new era of Opening to the Outside, the Modern Chinese language experienced the second large-scale transfer in its word emotive overtones. As against its derogation in the first large-scale transfer, the second one features "de-derogation", which is reflected in the following five aspects: (a) A thorough correction of derogation in the first large-scale transfer brings a large number of terms back into their original emotive overtones. The above discussed "Xiào (孝, to be filial)", for instance, resumes its totally commendatory sense regardless of whether it is used as a single word or to form a compound; "qǐtú (企图, attempt)", as another instance, begins to carry some neutral senses, though it is mostly used in derogatory senses. Moreover, other terms such as "dì (帝, Emperor)", "huáng (皇, Emperor)", "Wáng (王, King)", "bà (霸, tyrant)", all of which were used derogatorily as a single word or a morpheme during the Cultural Revolution, have become frequently-used commendatory words or morphemes, for example, "yǐngdì (影帝, best actor/actress winner)", "tiàoshuǐ nǚhuáng (跳水女皇, Queen of diving)", "sānguànwáng (三冠王, winner of three gold medals in one season)", "chēngbà quántán (称霸拳坛, to dominate the boxing like king)" and so on. Even some other terms have similar changes such as "cèhuà (策划, plan out)", "jítuán (集团, groups)". They were neutral in emotive overtones before the Liberation, derogatory during the Cultural Revolution, but they resume their neutral colors in the new era after the Opening to the Outside policy.
(c) Many existing derogatory terms realize their emotive color transfers in their new senses, which is an attractive phenomenon even at present. A typical example is the word "shǎguā (傻瓜, a fool)", which used to be a word to curse somebody. However, it now means "(of something) that can be conveniently handled or operated" (Wang Junxi, 2003) or "easy to use", "easy to understand". It is at least neutralized, and therefore is used to form compounds, e.g. "shǎguā xiàngjī (傻瓜相机, a point and shoot camera)", "shǎguā xǐyījī (傻瓜洗衣机, an automatic or easy-to-operate washing machine)", "shǎguā diànnǎo (傻瓜电脑, an easy-to-operate computer)". Similar transfers like this in the word "shǎguā (傻瓜, a fool)" also happen to "lǎnhàn (懒汉, a lazy dog)", "móguǐ (魔鬼, a devil)" and so on. (Zuo Linxia, 2004:35) (d) There are very few newly-coined derogatory terms. So far in the new era, although there is a rapid growth of newly-coined terms, in that large number newly-coined derogatory terms take a very small proportion. Lin Lunlun and other scholars (2000) collected 1800 new terms, among which there were 68 derogatory ones, approximately 3.8% of the total. Compared with 27.7% popular derogatory words in 1967, as discussed above, there is a great decline. For newly coined derogatory words, their senses come more from the entailed ugliness of the denotata (e.g. "sānpéi (三陪, the girl who provides illegal sexual service, esp. prostitute)", "chī ná kā yào (吃拿卡要, to eat, take, block and to racketeer)", "bāo èrnǎi (包二奶, to keep a concubine)", "bàng dàkuǎn (傍大款, to be a concubine to a rich man)", than from the subjective comments based on "revolutionary" thoughts and ideals in an earlier stage (like "hēi jùdiǎn (黑据点, black stronghold)", "sǐ lǎohǔ (死老虎, dead tiger)", "lāo dàocǎo (捞稻草, to catch a straw, means to make full advantage of enemy"s or opponent"s minor mistake(s) to change his/her doomed fate)", "xiǎo páchóng (小爬虫, small reptile)", etc.
(e) Once excessively-ranged and over-frequently used, derogatory terms have been narrowed and lowered considerably. This can be obviously inferred from the following table on the occurrences and frequencies of the four derogatory terms which are sampled from our period-based corpus (6 million Chinese characters in total, covering different styles of writings). (More details about the Corpus are covered by Diao Yanbin, 2004:139-141) (f) The new derogatory terms coming into existence during the Cultural Revolution, like "xiǎo pá chóng (小爬虫, small reptile)", "hēi jùdiǎn (黑据点, black stronghold)", "hēi sīlìngbù (黑司令部, black military command)" and so on, are not in use anymore. Xie Haihong & Zhang Zhiyi (2003) suggested that "social life has imposed such a great impact on the transfers of language emotive overtones that when a society experiences an abrupt change, values and moral standards change substantially as well, making many words" emotive overtones change significantly". This is squarely proved by the two large-scale transfers of commendatory and derogatory emotive overtones in Modern Chinese language.

The reasons for the large-scale transfers of word emotive overtones
To sum up in a word the main features of the times in which the two big transfers happened, "dòuzhēng (斗争, struggle)" is the only right word to cover the period from the foundation of the Communist Party of China to the Cultural Revolution. The slogan during the Cultural Revolution was "class struggle is the very centre", and the purpose of struggle was of course to "break up the old and build up the new". With such a thought and mindset, people intended to re-examine and re-judge the reach-me-downs and old thoughts and ideology. As a consequence, many were labeled "feudalism, capitalism and revisionism", and emotive overtones were imperatively transferred from the commendatory to the derogatory. Meanwhile, some love-or-hate terms were happily coined and used, even in an increasingly great expansion of their scopes. The Cultural Revolution is the period in which derogatory terms were used in the greatest number, scopes and with the highest frequency in the history of Chinese language development.
The most important reason for the second of the two great transfers is closely related to socioeconomic development and the Opening to the Outside policy. It is the product of changes in social life and values. Mainland China, in which the second great transfers happened, was a pluralistic society where "economic development is the core" and commercial mentality was strongly held, money worship, individualism and vulgar culture were booming. Only with this notion and mindset could people change their thoughts of class struggle, as discussed above, and resume the order from chaos caused by class struggle, and rise with a relatively more placid state of mind than that of "class struggle". This mindset alone could support the social commercialization. Some commendatory and derogatory comments, once distorted, were finally restored. Some conventionally derogatory language was also used more neutrally. Among the newly-coined terms were few derogatory words subjectively dominated. Therefore, the new era dating from 1978 has been a period during which derogatory terms were used in the smallest number, the least wide scopes and with the lowest frequency. For example, the change in the sense of the term "xiǎojiě (小姐, Miss, or young lady)" reflects not only the changes of social economic ties, but also the changes of the social climate. It is the change in people"s cognitive psyche reflected in language, and it stands as a "rearview mirror" of language use and cognitive psyche, and meanwhile as a living fossil of the social changes (Hu Fanzhu & Fan Xiaoling, 2007;Guo Duling, 2005).
With the influence of vulgar culture, de-derogation of derogatory terms is looked on as an efficient way in our present language uses to demonstrate the new initiatives. In this respect, trademark wording is the most typical of this trend. Traditional trademark wording greatly emphasized good association so as to stimulate purchases, so commendatory terms or morphemes were used more. However, it seems not to be the case today. Wordings of a large quantity of local name brands like "jiǔguǐ (酒鬼, Drunkard, a brand of liquor)", "xiǎo hútu (小糊涂, Little Drunkard, a brand of liquor)", "xiāngbalǎo (乡巴佬, Jaap, a brand of halogen ready food)", "shǎzi (傻子, Fool, a brand of melon seeds)", "bèndàn (笨蛋, Stupid, a brand of eggs)", "Wáng Pó (王婆, Mother Wang, a brand of water melon)" and so on (Wu Hanjiang, 2005:35) are "making every effort to advertise their individualized features", a social psychology which is another reason for the transfers of emotive overtones. (Sheng Yinhua, 2002) With the shift of social attention, the approach of word associative meanings has changed (Ma Qinghua, 2000:202-224), which also casts a good impact on the changes of emotive overtones. As is known to all, many senses of a word, the sememes of each sense, the semantemes of a compound word and features of a word joined by others all shape its associative meanings. Take the sememes as an example, "(huáng)dì ((皇)帝, Emperor)" has the sememes [+male], [+feudalist age], [+within (a state)], [+supreme] and [+in power]. During the first great transfers, "dì (帝, Emperor)" in "dì wáng jiàng xiàng (帝王将相, Emperor, Commander, and Prime Minister)" is mainly associated with sememes such as [+feudalist age] and [+in power] (so, he is an [+exploiter] and [+oppressor]), it was derogatory. During the second transfers, "dì (帝, Emperor)" in "yǐngdì (影帝, outstanding movie star)" is associated with sememes such as [+within (a state)], [+supreme] and [+in power]. "yǐng (影, movie)" was used as a component so as to change its application scope, and it became commendatory.
One more reason for the second great transfers comes from much exposure to foreign languages in the economy reform and international exchanges. For example, "huāhuā-gōngzǐ (花花公子, playboy)", a literal translation from a foreign name brand of Playboy, means in Chinese "a child born to a rich family who never attends to his proper duty or business but loves foods, drinks, play and merriness" (Ref. The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary, the Commercial Press, 2005), and its English meaning can be easily derived from the introduction on a home page of the Playboy"s corporate agent. It says, "The name brand Playboy was created in 1953 by an American called Hugh M. Hefner. Playboy can be paraphrased as fashion, elegance and happiness, implying a style of being "fashionable and young forever"". Although the Chinese "huāhuā-gōngzǐ" means nothing of the English Playboy, it gives the derogatory "huāhuā-gōngzǐ" a non-derogatory emotive color after its entry into China.
The transfers of emotive overtone in the word "fēngkuáng (疯狂, crazy)" is another example. The term itself is derogatory, and now it is partially used as a neutral term and in quite high frequency. Surfing the Internet brings a lot of its compound words into our eyes, such as "fēngkuáng yīngyǔ (疯狂英语, crazy English)", "fēngkuáng xiànchǎng (疯狂现场, crazy scene)", "fēngkuáng lùntán (疯狂论坛, crazy forum)", "fēngkuáng xuéxí wǎng (疯狂 and red ghost in hell, which turn into usually beautiful girls and men and appear in human"s world. Besides, it also means a person like a ghost, referring to a man of great intrepidity or valor or one who is extremely cold-hearted (e.g. "tǎozhàiguǐ (讨债鬼, a cold-hearted dunner)", or referring to the degree of one"s determination, concentration or attention on some business (e.g. "gōngzuò guǐ (工作鬼, a workaholic)"). If "guǐ (鬼)" is used as a prefix to a noun, it means valor, cold, abnormity and massiveness, such as "guǐ wǔzhě (鬼 武者, a valor and cold Kongfu bearer)" and "guǐpó (鬼婆, abnormal lady)". (Liu Yuanman, 2003:145) How the transfer of Chinese language emotive overtones is impacted by the Chinese localization of loaned terms and their influence on Chinese language has not been discussed. A lot can be done in this respect.