English lexical items in Chinese business advertisements in Malaysia

Abstract

According to Mclaughlin, 1984 (in Hoffman 1991), code mixing occurs
within the sentential level and usually involves the use of lexical items.
It has been found code mixing does not only exist in conversations
among the language users in Malaysia, but it also exists in business
advertisements in Malaysian Chinese dailies. In particular, the use of
Chinese (Mandarin) and English concurrently in these advertisements
seem rampant. The study hopes to identify the roles of English lexical
items used in these advertisements as well as to provide more
information on how the use of English lexical items in Chinese business
advertisement can lure customers. A maximum of one hundred
sentences in Malaysian Chinese advenisements were collected from
China Press, Oriental Daily, Nanyang Slang Pau and Guang Ming Daily
from July 2005 to December 2005. The researchers also interviewed five
individuals from the Chinese advertising industry to identify the roles
of English lexical items that have been code mixed into the
advertisements. It has been identified that nouns, verbs and adjectives
in English were often more predominantly used in the themes of
sentences in Chinese business advertisements. Some proper nouns in
English were not translated into Chinese to preserve the concept and
to ease understanding. Besides that, English abbreviations such as
"CO", "VCD", "DVD", "SMS" and "IT' were inserted into the Chinese
advertisements, making the sentences simpler and easier to understand.
In addition, English adjectives such as "in", "kick" and "hot" were
inserted into Chinese advertisements to create a sense of stylishness
and to exert some sense of modernity, to attract the attention of the
young generation. Interjections such as "wow" and "yeah" were also
inserted into Chinese advertisements. This occurrence causes the
sentences in advertisements to have more spoken features and hence,
more easily acceptable among the readers in general. It was also
discovered that "No. 1" was inserted into the advertisements to increase
the status of the products and services advertised. At times , the
extensive usc af"No. 1" in Chinese advertisements can also be seen as
one of the techniques of advertising.