Cucumis - Free online translation service
. .



Translation - Chinese simplified-English - 文字学

Current statusTranslation
This text is available in the following languages: Chinese simplifiedFrenchEnglishLatin

Category Word - Culture

Title
文字学
Text
Submitted by pluiepoco
Source language: Chinese simplified

文字学
Remarks about the translation
字典里的文字学对应philology一词,经过论坛的讨论,我觉得与其分别西方语言学与东方语言学,还不如暂且置语言学名称于不顾,重新翻译中国的文字学定义,因为中国传统意义上讲,没有语言学,只有文字学,现在所谓语言学,是西方中心主义下的作品,它试图解释全世界的语言,却处处失败,关键在于它的核心是语言=文字,而这个事实在表意文字环境下不成立,所以语言学很失败。所以保留语言学,以示对其尊重,但不可迷信它,把它当成普世真理,信奉的教条,而另对中国本土的“语言学”沿用旧名称“小学”或后来的“文字学”。

我推荐一个翻译方法:文字+学(比如charactology),但是我不懂拉丁,而且拉丁里也没有文字的概念,估计,所以请大家翻译下,结尾一定要是个-学。

最好不要翻译成“符号学”。

Title
The study of Chinese characters
Translation
English

Translated by IanMegill2
Target language: English

The study of Chinese characters
Remarks about the translation
There is no English word for this discipline, because it has not existed independently in English-speaking countries, apart from the study of the Chinese language in general.
Validated by kafetzou - 27 September 2007 03:29





Last messages

Author
Message

26 September 2007 12:46

Michel Lao
Number of messages: 18
文字+学(比如charactology)
charact+ology(for example charactology)
the author want to get a word have this structure
Biology Ecology geology cytology
but the translation from IanMegill2 don't conform to it.
I ask some professer in English and French ,all of them think there is no word in English and French can describe it.
They think the word Lexicology is more better than others.

26 September 2007 13:09

Francky5591
Number of messages: 12396
Hello, Michel Lao, thanks for your reply.

Sorry, but as there are no words in English nor in French, we could not accept any neologism in these languages, and we are obliged to use the closer meaning terms.

Lexicology seems not to be suitable here.

IanMegill2's translation is the only one acceptable, as we don't have the right to validate any neologism. That's what I said to pluiepoco under the original text.

26 September 2007 18:05

Spasty
Number of messages: 48
It should be "Chinese graphology."
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/graphology?view=uk

Unless, however, it means characters in general. It is correct then. I guess it depends on the meaning of the Chinese.

27 September 2007 04:25

IanMegill2
Number of messages: 1671
Thanks Spasty,

You know, I had thought about "Chinese graphology" too, and in the pure linguistics sense it's probably very close. The problem for me was that "graphology" now has in English a very strong connotation as the art of "guessing what kind of personality/character a person has, judging from their handwriting."
So I didn't use it, much like we would avoid using the word "gay" these days, if we meant "happy" in the phrase
He looks gay today!


Also, I don't think even the pure-linguistics kind of graphology would completely cover the field of
文字学 (WenZiXue)
which also includes such things as historical developments in the use, the form, and the way of writing the characters, concrete reasons for their detailed structure (why they have the form they do, i.e. what real-world reference they were trying to represent pictorially), etc...
However, I have been known to be wrong sometimes!

Anyway,
Chinese graphology
may indeed be the closest -ology in the West to correspond to what the requester wanted! It could certainly at least be included in the Remarks about the Translation section, I should think, if not as the main Translation itself.

Thanks again!

CC: Spasty kafetzou

27 September 2007 03:28

kafetzou
Number of messages: 7963
I think that what you originally chose is better, Ian, so I'm going to accept it. It is clear and cannot be misunderstood.

27 September 2007 09:06

Michel Lao
Number of messages: 18
Today I find the word "文字学" in some dictionaries

1 文字学——Philologie Page 1051
“Dictionnnaire Français De La Lange Chinoise”
《汉法综合词典》1976 L'INSTITUT RICCI

2 文字学——Filologia page 1058
“Diccinario Espanol DE La Lengua China”
《汉西综合词典》1977 INSTITUTO RICCI

3 文字学——Schrifenkunde page847
“Das Neue Chinesisch-Deutsche Worterbuch”
《新德汉词典》1984 北京外国语大学 商务印书馆

I think the word in English is "Philology"
but the word now means the studty of language
not the study of charact

27 September 2007 13:29

kafetzou
Number of messages: 7963
Yes, Michel - philology has come to mean more the study of literature. Here is the definition from the online Merriam-Webster dictionary:

1: the study of literature and of disciplines relevant to literature or to language as used in literature

2 a: linguistics; especially : historical and comparative linguistics b: the study of human speech especially as the vehicle of literature and as a field of study that sheds light on cultural history

This is definitely not the word we want here.