During XIX century, the great flow of scientific texts coming from the Western countries into China made it necessary for the Chinese scholars to embark on the tremendous task of creating brand new sets of words in order to give a Chinese name to the new concepts introduced from Western learning and that were becoming part of their own learning. The studies carried out in the last fifteen years demonstrated that this process of creation of neologisms underwent an evolution during the period between the half of XIX century and the first two decades of XX century. In this paper, I report the results of the lexical and socio-historical analysis of Chinese grammatical lexicon, as created in the two first Chinese texts dealing with grammar: Yingwen juyu (Examples of English language), by Wang Fengzao, published in 1879, maybe the first Chinese textbook of English language for Chinese students; Mashi wentong (General rules of language by Mr. Ma), by Ma Jianzhong, published in 1898, unanimously acknowledged as the first Chinese grammar of Chinese language. In this paper I carry out a combined interpretation of lexicological data together with the relative historical background. The aim of my inquiry is to see whether and how the differences of historical context influenced the creation of Chinese grammatical lexicon. In general, the purpose of such an investigation is to formulate hypotheses on the communicative motivations that determined different lexical choices and different patterns of creation of lexical terms in a given period and regarding a given lexical domain.
The Introduction of the Lexicon of Grammar into China. Typologies of Neologisms and Historical Background of their Creation
PELLIN, TOMMASO
2005-01-01
Abstract
During XIX century, the great flow of scientific texts coming from the Western countries into China made it necessary for the Chinese scholars to embark on the tremendous task of creating brand new sets of words in order to give a Chinese name to the new concepts introduced from Western learning and that were becoming part of their own learning. The studies carried out in the last fifteen years demonstrated that this process of creation of neologisms underwent an evolution during the period between the half of XIX century and the first two decades of XX century. In this paper, I report the results of the lexical and socio-historical analysis of Chinese grammatical lexicon, as created in the two first Chinese texts dealing with grammar: Yingwen juyu (Examples of English language), by Wang Fengzao, published in 1879, maybe the first Chinese textbook of English language for Chinese students; Mashi wentong (General rules of language by Mr. Ma), by Ma Jianzhong, published in 1898, unanimously acknowledged as the first Chinese grammar of Chinese language. In this paper I carry out a combined interpretation of lexicological data together with the relative historical background. The aim of my inquiry is to see whether and how the differences of historical context influenced the creation of Chinese grammatical lexicon. In general, the purpose of such an investigation is to formulate hypotheses on the communicative motivations that determined different lexical choices and different patterns of creation of lexical terms in a given period and regarding a given lexical domain.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
