Between lexicography and intercultural mediation: linguistic and cultural challenges in developing the first Chinese–English dictionary

ABSTRACT

Almost 200 years ago Scottish protestant missionary Robert Morrison published the first volume of A Chinese–English Dictionary, the first bilingual dictionary of Chinese and English ever published. While some bilingual vocabularies and dictionaries of the Chinese language in other European languages had been produced earlier, Morrison's achievement in compiling and publishing a complete bilingual dictionary of the Chinese language in English while residing in China was a significant milestone. This paper explores the way Morrison positioned himself as a bilingual lexicographer between two very different languages and their associated cultures; cultures that had very little interaction prior to his task of dictionary compilation. He undertook the task in a context in which the study of Chinese language, ownership of books in Chinese, and printing materials in Chinese were all prohibited. His dictionary entries, illustrative examples, and cultural explanations went beyond typical bilingual lexicography. His efforts were more so an experience in intercultural mediation; the provision of detailed cultural and contextual explanations of the Chinese language, made accessible to a Western readership wishing to learn Chinese and understand its culture. The impact of his efforts on future Chinese bilingual lexicographic work in China, and reflections on his achievements, are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Equivalence
• cultural values
• target audience
• bilingual dictionary
• Chinese language

Notes on contributors

Andrew Scrimgeour is a Research Fellow at the Research Centre for Languages and Cultures (RCLC) at the University of South Australia. Andrew has been involved in a wide range of research on aspects of languages teaching and learning, including languages education pedagogy, curriculum design, assessing student outcomes, and, particularly, on issues in teaching and learning Chinese language. He has been involved as a researcher and professional development provider for a number of federally funded, collaborative research projects through the RC LC, including The Guide to Teaching and Learning Languages, the Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning Project, the Professional Standards Project, and the Student Achievement in Asian Languages Education (SAALE) Project.

Notes

1 Morrison's phonological renderings of Chinese character entries into a Romanised orthography were based on the southern, Nanking (Nanjing) variety of kwanhwa (guanhua) or Mandarin. References to Morrison's orthography in this text include contemporary Pinyin Romanisation in parenthesis. Contemporary Pinyin Romanisation is based largely on the northern (Peking) variety of Mandarin, which Morrison spoke but decided not to use as the basis for his phonetic orthography in his dictionary. Thus the phonetic rendering of the Nanking pronunciation of ‘學to learn is represented as ‘heo’ in the dictionary and is supplemented with the Pinyin Romanisation (based on northern (Beijing) pronunciation) of ‘xué’, hence the presentation 學 heo (xué) in this text.