Whither Chinese–English lexicography? – From a historical perspective

IF 0.8 2区 文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS
Yongwei Gao
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

2020 marked the 200th anniversary of the publication of the second part of Robert Morrison’s A Dictionary of the Chinese Language which has been widely recognized as the first Chinese–English (hereinafter abbreviated to C–E) dictionary and signaled the beginning of C–E lexicography. From the late Qing Dynasty to the present, literally several hundred C–E dictionaries, small or large, have been compiled, though the number of noteworthy ones is rather limited. Nevertheless, research into C–E lexicography has gradually developed into a distinct field of study as witnessed by thousands of academic papers and over a dozen books devoted to its research. A search of (Chinese–English dictionary) as the keyword in CNKI, a database of journal articles, theses, and dissertations written in the Chinese language, came up with 8,365 results. Most of the discussions center round topics such as dictionary criticism, history of dictionary-making, theoretical construction, and case studies. The history of bilingual lexicography in China, for instance, was under-researched in the past as a result of the lack of original copies of early dictionaries, which, however, has been improved thanks to the reprinting and wide availability of such dictionaries since the beginning of the 21st century. Chinese Lexicography: A History from 1046 BC to AD 1911 (Heming Yong et al., 2008), for instance, devoted only a few pages to the earliest history of C–E lexicography which spans more than 70 years. But now dozens of academic papers and even several books (e.g. Yang, 2012; Gao, 2014) have been written about the early bilingual dictionary-makers and their lexicographical works, presenting a clear picture of the evolution of C–E lexicography. Today more than two decades into the 21st century, the C–E lexicography scene is not as crowded as its English–Chinese counterpart as there are only a few major players. The paper aims to present a brief history of C–E lexicography with a focus on lexicographical tradition and creativity, elaborate on the deficiencies or problems found within the major C–E dictionaries, and finally discuss the future directions of C–E lexicography.
汉英词典编纂何去何从?-从历史的角度来看
2020年是罗伯特·莫里森的《汉语词典》(下)出版200周年,该书被公认为第一部汉英词典(以下简称汉英词典),标志着汉英词典编纂的开始。从晚清到现在,大大小小的汉英词典已经编撰了几百本,但值得注意的却寥寥无几。尽管如此,汉英词典编纂的研究已经逐渐发展成为一个独特的研究领域,数千篇学术论文和十几本专门研究汉英词典编纂的书籍都证明了这一点。以“汉英词典”为关键词在中国知网(CNKI)上搜索,得到8365个结果。大多数讨论围绕着诸如词典批评、词典编纂史、理论建构和案例研究等主题展开。例如,由于缺乏早期词典的原件,过去对中国双语词典编纂的历史研究不足,然而,自21世纪初以来,由于这些词典的再版和广泛使用,这一情况得到了改善。例如,《汉语词典编纂:公元前1046年至公元1911年的历史》(何明勇等,2008)仅用了几页的篇幅介绍了70多年的最早汉英词典编纂史。但现在已经有几十篇学术论文甚至几本书(如Yang, 2012;Gao, 2014)已经写了关于早期双语词典编纂者和他们的词典编纂工作,呈现了汉英词典编纂的演变清晰的画面。进入21世纪20多年后的今天,英汉词典编纂领域并不像英汉词典编纂领域那样拥挤,因为只有少数几家主要的词典编纂机构。本文旨在简要介绍汉英词典编纂的历史,重点介绍汉英词典编纂的传统和创新,阐述主要汉英词典中存在的不足或问题,最后讨论汉英词典编纂的未来方向。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
1.90
自引率
20.00%
发文量
16
期刊介绍: The International Journal of Lexicography was launched in 1988. Interdisciplinary as well as international, it is concerned with all aspects of lexicography, including issues of design, compilation and use, and with dictionaries of all languages, though the chief focus is on dictionaries of the major European languages - monolingual and bilingual, synchronic and diachronic, pedagogical and encyclopedic. The Journal recognizes the vital role of lexicographical theory and research, and of developments in related fields such as computational linguistics, and welcomes contributions in these areas.
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