On July 15 th, 2012, the Commercial Press released the sixth edition of the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary. Once presented to the public, this dictionary raised immediately some criticism on several aspects of its compilation: the main objects of disapproval were some neologisms collected, which represent just a little number of those appeared in the Chinese language in the latest years. The most bitter commentators felt so much dissatisfied that on August 28 th they denounced one of the chief revisers to the General Administration of Press and Publication and to the State Language Commission: in their opinion, the collection in the main part of the dictionary of the ‘words starting with Western letters’ (mainly borrowed acronyms) violated the Language law, the Regulations on publication and its modifications and the Notice on Standardization of Language. This has filed what has been named “linguistic lawsuit”. In the present contribution, I will provide an overview of the Chinese lexicographical activity of the latest 30 years regarding the akin lexical categories of neologisms and borrowings; secondly, the controversy on the neologisms and in particular on the Western-lettered words of Contemporary Chinese Dictionary will be considered in the light of the decade-long contest over the Chinese lexicon and the presence therein of borrowings, which in turn resembles a debate going on in the 1950s. I will finally formulate a hypothesis on the future of the litigation between these parties and the treatment of borrowings in Chinese lexicography.
The sixth edition of the CONTEMPORARY CHINESE DICTIONARY and the “linguistic lawsuit”
PELLIN, TOMMASO
2014-01-01
Abstract
On July 15 th, 2012, the Commercial Press released the sixth edition of the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary. Once presented to the public, this dictionary raised immediately some criticism on several aspects of its compilation: the main objects of disapproval were some neologisms collected, which represent just a little number of those appeared in the Chinese language in the latest years. The most bitter commentators felt so much dissatisfied that on August 28 th they denounced one of the chief revisers to the General Administration of Press and Publication and to the State Language Commission: in their opinion, the collection in the main part of the dictionary of the ‘words starting with Western letters’ (mainly borrowed acronyms) violated the Language law, the Regulations on publication and its modifications and the Notice on Standardization of Language. This has filed what has been named “linguistic lawsuit”. In the present contribution, I will provide an overview of the Chinese lexicographical activity of the latest 30 years regarding the akin lexical categories of neologisms and borrowings; secondly, the controversy on the neologisms and in particular on the Western-lettered words of Contemporary Chinese Dictionary will be considered in the light of the decade-long contest over the Chinese lexicon and the presence therein of borrowings, which in turn resembles a debate going on in the 1950s. I will finally formulate a hypothesis on the future of the litigation between these parties and the treatment of borrowings in Chinese lexicography.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
