scholarly journals Motives for Semantic Borrowing and Calquing from Old Chinese into Japanese

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Zisk
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Old Chinese ◽  
Chinese Texts

<p>This presentation examines the metalinguistic motives behind semantic borrowing and calquing from Old <br />Chinese into Japanese. Traditionally, semantic loans and calques are said to derive from homonymy and <br />synonymy between the donor and recipient languages; however, in Japanese, no homonymy and oftentimes <br />little synonymy are observed between the two languages. Instead, semantic loans and calques are believed to <br />arise from prescribed translation practices such as kundoku, the word-by-word rendering of Chinese texts into <br />Japanese, and kun-yomi, the ascribing of Japanese native words to Chinese characters. This practice of <br />prescribed translation plays a crucial role in the historical development of Japanese.</p>

The Oral Dimension

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Francis Kornicki
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Limited Extent ◽  
Chinese Origin ◽  
Chinese Texts

This chapter first examines the oral dimension of the dissemination of Sinitic texts in East Asia. Although a few individuals who had spent many years in China or who were of Chinese origin were able to read Chinese texts in some form of Chinese pronunciation, this was not the case even for most members of the elites, for few spent much time in China. In most societies, conventional pronunciations developed for Chinese characters and these conformed to local phonologies. The first stage of vernacularization, therefore, was in the oral domain. Conversely, however, since there was no common spoken language like Latin, opportunities for intellectual exchange with people from other societies were limited. The remainder of this chapter, therefore, examines the limited extent to which interpreters were trained and other people learned spoken foreign languages. The chapter concludes with an examination of brush conversation, a written substitute for oral conversation.

scholarly journals Using Network Models to Analyze Old Chinese Rhyme Data (用網絡模型來分析古代漢語的韻母數據)

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann-Mattis List (游函)
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Network Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Network Models ◽  
Online Application ◽  
Historical Phonology ◽  
Old Chinese

The evidence one can draw from the rhyming behavior of Old Chinese words plays a crucial role for the reconstruction of Old Chinese, and is particularly relevant to recent proposals. Some of these proposals are no longer solely based on the intuition of scholars but also substantiated by statistical arguments that help to assess the probability by which a given set of rhyming instances can be assigned to an established rhyme group. So far, however, quantitative methods were only used to confirm given hypotheses regarding rhyme groups in Old Chinese, and no exploratory analyses that would create hypotheses regarding rhyme groups in a corpus were carried out. This paper presents a new method that models rhyme data as weighted undirected networks. By representing rhyme words as nodes in a network and the frequency of rhymes in a given corpus as links between nodes, rhyme groups can be inferred with help of standard algorithms originally designed for social network analysis. This is illustrated through the construction of a rhyme network from the Book of Odes and comparing the automatically inferred rhyme groups with rhyme groups proposed in the literature. Apart from revealing interesting general properties of rhyme networks in Chinese historical phonology, the analysis provides strong evidence for a coda *-r in Old Chinese. The results of the analysis and the rhyme network of the Book of Odes can be inspected in form of an interactive online application or directly downloaded. 古代漢語的詞語所反映的韻為對上古音系的構擬，特別是對於最近的一些上古漢語構擬系統，異常重要。其中有一些構擬系統不再僅僅靠於學者的直覺，而且還用統計參數證實來評估分韻和派韻的概率。然而，迄今為止，定量方法僅用於確認關於上古韻部的假設，並且沒有進行探索性數據分析來創建初步分韻假設。本文提出了一種將韻母數據模型為加權無向網絡的新方法。此方法將韻母模型為網絡中的頂點，將某個語料庫的合韻率模型為聯頂點的邊緣，用社會網絡分析的標準算法來推斷語料庫所反映的韻母。為了更具體的說明此方法，本文用“詩經”來構建韻母網絡，而且比較自動與學者所推斷的上古韻部。除了揭示古代漢語韻網的一些有趣特點，“詩經”韻網分析了支持上古漢語韻尾* -r的新證據。“詩經”韻網和韻網分析的結果可以用交際在線應用來訪問而下載。(This article is in English.)

马来学生对汉字的认知方式和认字教学的实践方法

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-134
Author(s):  
黄灵 燕
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Comprehension Test ◽  
Chinese Texts ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
High Level ◽  
Alphabetic Writing ◽  
Chinese Language Learners

AbstractThis study mainly investigated cognitive methods adopted by Malay learners who were taking Chinese proficiency courses at the University of Putra Malaysia. The respondents were learners who came from an alphabetic writing background. The findings of this study revealed that three cognitive methods were adopted by these respondents to recognize and retrieve the meanings of Chinese characters. The first method was to use phonetic symbols to write down the pronunciations of Chinese characters in order to comprehend the meanings of the characters. The respondents needed to pass through the intermediary stage of the inner language to activate the meanings of the characters. This response is a normal psychological reaction from the Chinese language learners who come from an alphabetic writing background.For the second method, the respondents used the vocabulary of their mother tongue to translate the meanings of Chinese characters. The findings showed that they depended on their mother tongue when comprehending the meanings of Chinese characters. Some respondents needed to search for the equivalent vocabulary in their mother tongue to translate the meanings of Chinese characters before they could retrieve the accurate meanings of the characters. This reaction shows that the method of acquisition of the mother tongue can affect the cognition ability of learners when comprehending the meanings of Chinese characters and during the reading process of Chinese texts.The third method concerned some respondents who could master Chinese characters and obtain a high level of Chinese proficiency. They were able to retrieve the meanings of Chinese characters directly from Chinese orthography without depending on the stimulus of the inner language or translation of the mother tongue to decode the meanings of the characters. The results of the Chinese comprehension test revealed that the respondents who obtained a high level of Chinese proficiency were not hindered by the difficulties in recognizing and comprehending the meanings of the Chinese characters. Their scores in the comprehension test were the highest.The feedback from the questionnaire used showed that some respondents did not necessarily have to rely on the stimulus of the inner language as the intermediary stage to activate the meanings of Chinese characters. Most of the respondents preferred to use the vocabulary of their mother tongue to help them to retrieve the meanings of the characters. Regarding the stimulus of the inner language or the translation of the mother tongue for decoding, both these methods showed that there was interference from the mother tongue’s orthography of the respondents. However, the results of the comprehension test revealed that when the respondents were familiar with Chinese characters, they could abandon both the methods mentioned when retrieving the meanings of the characters.Finally, this study suggests some instructional practices for recognizing Chinese characters to assist Chinese language learners from the alphabetic writing background to better recognize the characteristics of Chinese orthography. These practices emphasize learning activities for standard Chinese language orthography. Emphasis also is given to the knowledge relating to the features and characteristics of Chinese characters from an ideogram language. Further stress is on the effective methods to retrieve the meanings directly from Chinese characters.

scholarly journals Cognates of Old Chinese *-n, *-r, and *-j 
in Tibetan and Burmese

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan W. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Han Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Old Chinese

Following a suggestion of Starostin (1989), Baxter & Sagart (2011) reconstruct *-n, *-j, and *-r as distinct finals in Old Chinese. These three finals have regular correspondences in Tibetan and Burmese. The Trans-Himalayan proto-language distinguished *-n, *-j, *-r, *-l, and *-rl. Burmese loses *-r and generally loses *-l, except after -u-, where it changes to -y. Tibetan loses *-y and changes *-rl to -l. Chinese changes *-rl to *-r. Because Burmese shows different reflexes for *aj (-ay) and *əj (> -i), the merger of *ə and *a in Tibetan and Burmese are independent innovations; and this merger does not confirm a ‘Tibeto-Burman’ subgroup (contra Handel 2008). These correspondences require confirmation through further research on evidence of *-r in the Min dialects and Han dynasty Buddhist transcriptions from Indic languages in Chinese characters.


scholarly journals On the Strata Analysis of First Division Unrounded Finals of Xiè Rhyme Group in Proto Min and Related Issues

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-176
Author(s):  
Rui-wen Wu
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Time Sequence ◽  
Six Dynasties ◽  
Old Chinese ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
Southern Chinese ◽  
Chinese Dialect ◽  
Chinese Dialects ◽  
Diachronic Development

This paper analyses the different phonological strata of first division unrounded finals of the Xiè Rhyme Group （蟹攝），specifically the Xai rhyme and Tài rhyme, in the finals system of proto-Min and explores the distinction between double rhymes in old Jiangdong dialects. Norman (1981) reconstructed five finals for Xai rhyme and Tài rhyme. They are:*əi for Xai 菜咍栽咍來咍 *oi for Xai 袋咍 *ɑi for Tài 帶泰蔡泰蓋泰 *uəi for Xai 改咍 *yəi for Xai 開咍 According to Norman’s reconstruction, there are four finals for the Xai rhyme but there is only one final for the Tài rhyme. Therefore, some issues need to be clarified. To begin with, what is the time sequence of those four forms of Xai? Additionally, three forms are reconstructed by one cognate in proto-Min. It is highly doubtful to regard those forms as a single stratum individually. Furthermore, the double rhymes, Xai and Tài, could be distinct in the Qieyun system but merged in most modern Chinese dialects. However, some southern dialects retain the distinction (refer to Cao et al. 2000, Wang 2004 and Wu 2005). How is the distinction of double rhymes expressed in proto-Min? It is worth examining those questions in depth.The methodology of this paper is the comparative method. We would like to expand Min dialectal material and find more reliable cognates to reexamine Norman’s finals of Xai and Tài. From the perspective of historical development, proto-Min has several different phonological strata. After thoughtful and cautious analysis, those strata could be an important reference for the reconstruction of both Middle Chinese and Old Chinese. An important aim of this paper is to reconstruct the Jiangdong dialect, a southern Chinese dialect used in the Six Dynasties period, using proto-Min and related common dialect systems.In conclusion: 1. both Xai and Tài could be reconstructed as two forms in the finals system of Proto-Min. In brief, *-əi and *-oi are for Xai; *-ɑi and *-ai are for Tài. 2. from a diachronic development viewpoint,the pattern *-oi: *-ai reveals the distinction of Xai and Tài, i.e. double rhyme, in the Six Dynasties Jiangdong dialect. 3. Relatedly, the pattern *-əi: *-ɑi could be traced to differences between the Zhi group （之部） and Jì group （祭部） in Old Chinese.

scholarly journals Early Sino-Vietnamese Lexical Data and the Relative Chronology of Tonogenesis in Chinese and Vietnamese

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 3-33
Author(s):  
Mark J. Alves
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Old Chinese ◽  
Relative Chronology ◽  
Lexical Data ◽  
Level Tone ◽  
Tone Category

Vietnamese has numerous early-era Chinese loanwords with ngang and huyền tones, which in Middle Chinese loanwords correspond to the pingsheng level tone category, for words that should have sắc or nặng tones, corresponding to the Middle Chinese non-level qusheng departing tone category. 1 It is proposed that this layer of Early Sino-Vietnamese represents borrowing of Chinese words in the period after which Old Chinese had lost final *-s and prior to tonogenesis in Viet-Muong, thus leading to words with the level-tone category when tones emerged in Viet-Muong. This paper provides 60 items of Early Sino-Vietnamese that exemplify this phenomenon of ngang/huyền tones in qusheng words, but also 120 items exemplifying the previously noted reversal of sắc/nặng and hỏi/ngã tones between Early Sino-Vietnamese and later Sino-Vietnamese (the formalized readings of Chinese characters). Altogether, this allows for an overall relative chronology of the development of tones in both Sinitic and Vietic.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-42
Author(s):  
Gregory Adam Scott
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
The State ◽  
Chinese Buddhism ◽  
Methodological Basis ◽  
Sacred Spaces ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
State Of The Field

This chapter surveys the state of the field of material culture and sacred spaces in Chinese Buddhism, as well as the historical development of monastery layouts. The chapter explores how both the material and the human elements were affected by destruction events, and accordingly reconstruction of a monastery inevitably addressed both spheres. A devoted and charismatic reconstruction leader, who was often an outsider to the community, typically played a crucial role in enabling the reconstruction to occur. Building upon the work of architectural historians and scholars of modern Chinese Buddhism, this chapter establishes the theoretical and methodological basis for the chapters that follow.

The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003: a Mere Coming of Age or Trusted Guardian of the Nation's Treasures?

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 180-189
Author(s):  
Kieran Lee Marshall ◽  
Kate Faulkner
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Free Access ◽  
University Library ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
The Future ◽  
Information Professionals ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Literary Output

AbstractThe UK's legal deposit libraries play a crucial role in ensuring the country's intellectual and literary output is systematically captured for the use and enjoyment of readers, listeners, and researchers, now and in the future. This article, by Kieran Lee Marshall and Kate Faulkner, summarily examines the legislation that underpins that scheme – the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 and Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations 2013. Over three parts, it explores the historical development of legal deposit in the UK; its operation in the context of the modern deposit library – using a university library as its primary paradigm; and considers ways in which the current law and policy may be developed to better support deposit libraries, the information professionals that run them, and the library and archive users who greatly depend upon barrier-free access to deposited resources. It concludes by outlining three areas on which prospective reform may focus.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document