Catchwords as markers of change in China

Abstract

A CATCHWORD is a lexical item or phrase, whether created within a particular language or adopted from foreign languages through translation or transliteration or a combination of the two. In Chinese discourse, catchwords spread rapidly within a particular group of people at a particular time and in a particular context (cf. Gu Wei, 2004): a definition from work undertaken at the Institute of Applied Linguistics (founded in 2002 at the Beijing Language and Culture University). The topic is the subject of a treatise, ‘The longitudinal study of catchwords in newspapers’ and is one of the items on the agenda of the Tenth Five-Year Plan, for consideration by the Chinese Language and Characters Committee. Zhang Pu (2003), a professor of language information processing at Beijing Language and Culture University has argued that ‘[a] catchword is not only a lexical phenomenon, but also indicates people's values from a cultural psychology point of view, as well as reflecting social reality’.