X-gate and its reflection of social and cultural psychology
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The production of the “X-gate” Words and the Social and
Cultural Psychology They Reflect
Abstract: Since the world-shaking “Watergate Scandal”, the “X-gate” words have become a new powerful word group in cyber space by the spread of the Internet. For instances, Zippergate, Filegate, Irangate, ect. The suffix of “X-gate” is a loan affixation from English word-formation. After its introduction into Chinese, the suffix“X-gate”has extended its semantic scope different from the English suffix “X-gate”. Through the exploitation of the origin and meaning of the word of “X-gate”, the present article aims to study the phenomenon from a sociolinguistic perspective, which is then found to strongly correlate with language contact, social values, economy, culture and ideology.
Key words:“X-gate” words; the meaning of “gate”; social and cultural psychology.
1. Introduction
Since the world-shaking “Watergate Scandal”, the “X-gate” words have become a new powerful word group in cyber space by the spread of the Internet. For instances, Monicagate, ("Zippergate", "the Lewinsky scandal") —named after Monica Lewinsky who had an "inappropriate relationship" with the former U.S. President Bill Clinton; Irangate or Contragate (also referred to as the Iran-Contra Affair) —The Reagan Administration sold weapons to Iran and diverted the proceeds to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua; Filegate —The illegal possession and scrutiny of 300-900 FBI files by the Clinton Administration without the file's subject's permission. In recent years, due to the widely spre ading of English new suffixes “X- gate " and drove by the diversity and vividness of the language expression, when report some negative news about a public figure, no matter retailing the news abroad or reporting the
domestic news, Chinese began using the suffix "X-gate". In less than a decade, Chinese has enlarged a large number of “X-gate” words. In these two or three years, the using of" X-gate" words is in an increasing tendency. For examples, Sexy Photo Gate —The 2008 scandal in Hong Kong concerning illegal distribution over the Internet of intimate and private photographs of actor/singer Edison Chen with various notable celebrities, destroying the showbiz careers of all those involved. The present article aims to study the phenomenon from a sociolinguistic perspective, which is then found to strongly correlate with language contact, social values, economy, culture and ideology.
2.the origin, introducing, meaning and extending meaning of the suffix of
“X-gate”
2.1the origin of the suffix of “X-gate”: W atergate Scandal
On June 17, 1972, five men connected with the Republican Party were arrested for breaking into the Democratic Party's national headquarters in Washington, D. C., located in the Watergate, an upscale office and apartment complex. The ensuing uproar, which culminated in President Nixon's resignation in 1974, came to be known as "the Watergate scandal," or simply "Watergate." “Watergate” gradually changes from a proper noun to a common noun. It refers to a political scandal reminiscent of the Watergate incident. However, it later turns to a verb, referring to “to deal with in a covert or criminal manner”. In order to attract readers? attention, when reporting news, people derive an “X-gate” from “Watergate” and regard it as a suffix.
2.2The introducing of the suffix of “X-gate”
The suffix is used to embellish a noun or name to suggest the existence of a far-reaching scandal. As a CBC News Online column noted in 2001, the term may "suggest unethical behavior and a cover-up”. The same usage has spre ad into languages other than English; examples of “X-gate”being used to refer to local
political scandals have been reported from Germany, Hungary, Greece and the former Yugoslavia.
The adoption of “X-gate” to suggest the existence of a scandal was promoted by William Safire, the conservative New York Times columnist and former Nixon administration speechwriter. As early as September 1974, he wrote of "Vietgate", a proposed pardon of the Watergate criminals and Vietnam War draft dodgers. Subsequently he coined numerous “X-gate”terms, including Billygate, Briefingate, Contragate, Deavergate, Debategate, Doublebillingsgate (of which he later said "My best [-gate coinage] was the encapsulation of a minor ... scandal as double billingsgate"), Frankiegate, Franklingate, Genschergate, Housegate, Iraqgate, Koreagate, Lancegate, Maggiegate, Nannygate, Raidergate, Scalpgate, Travelgate, Troopergate and Whitewatergate. Easily detachable from its original partner, “X-gate” was the perfect shape for clipping and recombination. It has now been more than 35 years since the Watergate scandal, but “X-gate”is still the first option for pundits who need a name for the latest political outrage. The inheritance and creativity of language can be demonstrated in the derivation of the “X-gate” new words. Its extension and sense development correspond with Chinese people?s cognitive thinking and ability of analogy.
2.3 The meaning and its extending meaning of the suffix of “X-gate”
According to the origin and relevant examples, “X-gate” is mainly about political scandals and very important political events. It is a conventional using in international news report. An essay Why so many “X-gate” events happened in American political circus published in People's Daily by Wangnan in the year of 2005, generalized the three main characteristic of “X-gate” events incisively. Firstly, persons concerned mostly are important officials even the president or those who can frequently contact the important officials. Secondly, these …X-gate” events are mainly shameful and inglorious events. The press called these events as political scandals. Here the “X-gate” can imply the interesting meaning of a door that is used for covering
shameful and inglorious events. Thirdly, its influence is great. “X-gate” new words vivid imply the complex political scandal. Therefore, it is introduced by many countries, China is included. Now we can conclude the extending meaning of the suffix of “X-gate” into three parts as follows:
1.Scandals
1)Political scandals
①Monicagate, ("Zippergate", "the Lewinsky scandal") —named after Monica
Lewinsky who had an "inappropriate relationship" with the former U.S. President Bill Clinton;
② Irangate or Contragate (also referred to as the Iran-Contra Affair) —The Reagan
Administration sold weapons to Iran and diverted the proceeds to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua;
③ Filegate — The illegal possession and scrutiny of 300-900 FBI files by the Clinton
Administration without the file's subject's permission;
④Debategate — A political scandal in the United States involving the suspicious acquisition of debate preparation documents in 1980.
2)Scandals in entertainment, sports and economic circle
①Sexy Photo Gate —The 2008 scandal in Hong Kong concerning illegal
distribution over the Internet of intimate and private photographs of actor/singer Edison Chen with various notable celebrities, destroying the showbiz careers of all those involved;
②Crashgate —Sporting scandal in Formula One in which the Renault team were
charged with race fixing after their driver Nelson Piquet, Jr. alleged he was asked by the team to crash his car to help teammate Fernando Alonso to win the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix;
③Henrygate — Controversy surrounding a handball by the French captain Thierry
Henry, playing against the Republic of Ireland during the playoff for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
④Peppergate —Pepper-spraying of peace demonstrators by the RCMP during an
APEC summit in Vancouver in November 1997.
2.Personal affair of a public figure
①Kanyegate —Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech for Best
Female Video at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, saying Beyoncé had "one of the best videos of all time" with "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"
②Nipplegate —Justin Timberlake reveals Janet Jackson's nipple during the
halftime show of Super Bowl.
③Picturegate — An incident on the 2008 edition of the British reality TV show Big
Brother, in which contestants got involved in an argument which ended with one contestant being spat on, resulting in an immediate expulsion of a contestant.
3.Accident
① Qualitygate —A Carrefour in Shanghai had bought an pork cheek from America
which is beyond the expiration date more than three times on May 11, 2006.
②Mobile Phone Batterygate —Nokia was sued for its batteries beginning to swell
bigger after using one year.
3.The social and cultural psychology the “X-gate” new words reflect
Language is a mirror of social culture and it can reflect the social and cultural life. Among the many elements of language, words are the most active. Moreover, it is also the most sensitive to the change and development of the society. Any changes of the society can be reflected from the words directly and quickly. If there are any socio-economic, political and cultural changes, there will be corresponding new
words soon. Therefore, we also can get knowledge from words about the social phenomena at that time. The development of “X-gate” new words profoundly embodies the culture and makes us know more deeply into the new word formation. During its development, we know the real social culture development and its reflection of the social and cultural psychology.
3.1 The production of the “X-gate” new words VS the psychology of preferring
novelty
Nowadays, globalization and the rapid development of mass media blend different cultures together more easily. The spread of the Internet has accelerated a new social form and way of life in modern society. The Internet links all fields, different languages and dialects or language contact frequently and produces a large number of new cyber words. As a result, it is a fact that English as a stronger language transfer to Chinese. People are likely to follow English. Due to the psychology of preferring novelty, since the world-shaking “Watergate Scandal”, Chinese has enlarged a large number of “X-gate” words.It is usually put in the news headline. A news headline is most important for news report, because it is the key to attract readers? attention. An interesting, unique and novel headline can arouse readers? interest and curiosity. “X-gate” new words add a thin veil of shameful and inglorious events. It can arouse readers? interest and curiosity to deepen into the news reports.
3.2 The production of the “X-gate” new words VS the psychology of preferring
simplification
Simplification is the inevitable trend of language development. As technology advances, great changes took place in the world. It requires the corresponding language to keep pace with the development of the changes. Putting the main words that reflect the main information on the important position and omitting some less important words or minor components as far as possible in the economic law of the
language can be concisely to use words. Only with concise and lively, can language have vigor and vitality. Therefore, the simple from of “X-gate” was produced. Its production and development is in line with the development of language, which makes it become popular soon. “X-gate” was the perfect shape for clipping and recombination. It may "suggest unethical behavior and a cover-up”. It vividly and describes the features of scandal in a simple from.
4.Conclusion
Language is closely related to culture. The development of language, especially words also reflects the social and cultural psychology. The production of "X-gate" new words and its reflection of social culture psychology are active factors to study the evolution and development of language. In the development of language, "X-gate" new words will continue to enlarge. These new words, some of them will not be used any longer, the others may be used for a long time and become fixed new words.
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8维基百科https://www.360docs.net/doc/8412115806.html,/wiki/List_of_scandals_with_%22-gate%22_suffix