The Research Of Chinese Christian Vocabulary In Morrison’s English-Chinese Dictionary

For a long time,Chinese Christian vocabulary has not been accepted into the research field of Chinese vocabulary as a large etymology type,and few scholars have touched on the investigation of such vocabulary.As the first Chinese-English Dictionary in Chinese history,Morrison’s Chinese-English Dictionary contains the vast majority of Chinese Christian vocabulary,which is basically the embryonic form of the modern appearance of such vocabulary.Based on the Chinese Christian words in the third part of the Morrison dictionary,the English-Chinese Dictionary,and using methods such as synchronic anddiachronic research,quantitative and qualitative research and literature retrieval,this paper explains the boundaries,structural categories,and characteristics of Chinese Christian words in the Ma’s dictionary,and clarifies the historical changes of these Chinese Christian words,which are of positive significance to the history of Chinese and dictionary compilation.The article is divided into six parts:The first part is introduction.This chapter first gives a brief review of the English-Chinese bilingual dictionaries that appeared in the 19th century in chronological order,and also makes a historical review of the spread of Christianity in China since modern times.Secondly,it introduces the research status of this topic at home and abroad from three aspects: the study of Morrison’s Chinese-English Dictionary,the study of loanwords in Ming and Qing Dynasties,and the study of Chinese religious vocabulary.At last,the paper puts forward the problems to be solved according to the current research situation,and clarifies the research significance and research methods of this paper.The second part is the definition and identification of Chinese Christian words in English-Chinese Dictionary.The article proposes three criteria for judging Chinese Christian vocabulary,namely: these vocabularies must be able to express the concept of Christianity,can only be expressed in the Christian category and is a set of wordsand phrases.It is thus concluded that the definition of Chinese Christian vocabulary is: a word used in a Christian religious group to express the corresponding Christian concept(word or phrase).The third part is semantic types of Chinese Christian words in English-Chinese Dictionary.According to the semantic types of vocabulary,this chapter divides the Chinese Christian vocabulary in the English-Chinese Dictionary into 11 semantic category groups,such as character category,supernatural category,teaching category,doctrine category,classics category,etiquette category,festival category,etc.,and explains in detail the conceptual content of each word.It is believed that only through a clear understanding of synchronic can diachronic analysis be better carried out.The fourth part is the localization types and characteristics of Chinese Christian words in the English-Chinese Dictionary.The author emphasizes that the localization of foreign words should be divided into two stages: One is "the localization of foreign language words" and the other is "the generalization of foreign words",and this phased approach has been moved to the study of Chinese Christian vocabulary in the English-Chinese Dictionary.This chapter is based on the first stage,that is,from the perspective of the localization of foreign language words,to see how the Christian vocabulary in the dictionary is transformed into the corresponding Chinese features,and to summarize the localization methods used there in and the corresponding forms of Chinese Christian vocabulary.In addition,by observing the Chinese Christian words in the English-Chinese Dictionary,we also find that they have the characteristics of forming many groups of synonymous polymers,being close to Buddhism and Confucianism,and having various forms of foreign language foundation.The fifth part is the generalization of Chinese Christian vocabulary in English-Chinese Dictionary.Formally,through sorting out the changes of translated names,four general characteristics of these words in their diachronic development are summarized.In terms of meaning,the qualitative change of meaning is the common change of rational meaning and color meaning from the two angles of "qualitative change of meaning" and "quantitative change of meaning".Through the comparative analysis of the meanings of the three Chinese dictionaries,the evolution process of each kind of Chinese Christian vocabulary is carefully studied and its evolution rules are summarized.The changes in form and meaning mentioned in this chapter are completely different from those in the previous chapter.The form and meaning changes discussed by the former occur between the two language systems,while the form and meaning changes of the latter only exist in a single language system.This is the manifestation of the two corresponding stages of "the localization of foreign words" and "the generalization of foreign words".This is not only true for Chinese Christian words,but also for the localization of any kind of foreign words.The sixth part is the influence of Chinese Christian vocabulary in English-Chinese Dictionary on later dictionaries and Chinese language history.This chapter illustrates the influence of Chinese Christian vocabulary in Morrison’s English-Chinese Dictionary on the study of Chinese language from the perspectives of lexicography and Chinese history.As far as lexicography is concerned,first,most of the words collected in Morrison are inherited by later bilingual dictionaries.Second,these words collected by Ma’s dictionary also laid the foundation for their collection in future Chinese dictionaries,making them a member of the modern Chinese vocabulary system.The third is to make Modern Chinese Dictionary present a unique meaning setting mode.From the perspective of Chinese history research,it is mainly manifested in three aspects: First of all,they can provide more complete materials for the study of Chinese Christian vocabulary.Secondly,they can become a key node in the development of some early Chinese Christian vocabulary,and can also be the beginning of the formation of some vocabulary in modern Chinese.Finally,their appearance provides a certain terminology foundation for religious disciplines in our country and promotes the generation of such terminology systems.