A Study On The Chinese Views Of Robert Morrison

Robert Morrison was an English missionary who came to China in the early 19th century.He lived in China for more than 20 years.Robert Morrison has made great success in the field of Sinology,and his views on Chinese language and his successful experience in learning Chinese are worthy of further study.However,most of the existing studies are limited to the simple carding of a certain work.There is a lack of diachronic and synchronic comparative study,and Morrison’s systematic and comprehensive Chinese view has not yet been constructed.The purpose of this paper is to systematically investigate Morrison’s view of Chinese by combing his Chinese works,describing and analyzing his understanding of phonetics,Chinese characters and grammar.In addition,it puts Morrison’s view of Chinese in the historical context and makes a diachronic and synchronic comparison with other sinologists,so as to further explore the characteristics of his view of Chinese.Through the analysis of Robert Morrison’s works such as A Grammar of the Chinese Language,A Dictionary of the Chinese Language and A Grammar of the English Language,the author concludes that Robert Morrison’s views on Chinese language are as follows:From the view of phonetics,first,Robert Morrison did not approve of such Chinese traditional phonetic transcription methods as " Anti-cutting method ",and second,paid attention to the practicality in the construction of Chinese phonetic transcription system;Thirdly,the pronunciation learning strategy of"Ignoring aspirated and tone" is emphasized.From the perspective of Chinese characters,first,Robert Morrison believes that the pictographic features of Chinese characters are not obvious;second,Robert Morrison believes that Chinese characters have advantages over the western alphabet in some aspects;third,great attention is paid to the form of Chinese characters;fourth,attention is paid to writing practice,to provide a large number of examples of word-assisted learning.From the perspective of grammar,first,Robert Morrison divided and analyzed Chinese parts of speech in the framework of the English grammar system;second,he integrated the language and cultural contents in the light of Chinese characteristics;third,he used the example method in teaching,fourth,the morphology and syntax are mixed,pay attention to word order.In addition,the author puts Robert Morrison’s view of Chinese into a diachronic and synchronic perspective,and compares it with other sinologists to further explore the characteristics of Robert Morrison’s understanding of Chinese.This paper aims to study Morrison’s view of Chinese,in order to further enrich the study of the history of Western Sinology,and provide some reference for the study of Chinese ontology.By analyzing Robert Morrison’s views on Chinese language,we can also open up new ideas and provide inspiration for the compilation of modern Chinese as a foreign language and Chinese textbooks.