On The Treatment Of Cultural Information In Foreigner-Oriented Chinese-English Dictionaries

Starting from early19th century, western missionaries such as Robert Morrison compiled Chinese-English dictionaries for overseas learners, which serve as the beginning of bilingual-dictionaries compilation age. Their dictionaries are a great treasure for modern compilers and should be treated with great care and detailed research. Among these dictionaries, Morrison’s Chinese-English dictionaries are especially worthy of studying in that his many ways of presentation are very unique. As is known, Morrison’s dictionaries can be divided into three parts:A Dictionary of the Chinese Language is the first part, made up of three volumes (the Chinese entries are arranged according to the radicals). The second part, namely Wu Che Yun Fu(五车韵府),is also a Chinese-English dictionary divided into two volumes. The last part is an English-Chinese dictionary which only includes one volume. This thesis tries to analyze the dictionary texts of the first two parts in detail based on the semantic theory and related theory on the structure of bilingual dictionaries. The general framework and guidelines for how to present cultural information in foreigner-oriented Chinese-English dictionaries are then brought forward.Specifically, the author tries to study Morrison’s compiling methods on two structures:the microstructure and the macrostructure. The subjects consist of three parts:100entries from the first part of A Dictionary of the Chinese Language are picked out to reveal the unique methods Morrison adopts;46entries are collected to compare the differences between the first part and the second part of Morrison’s dictionaries;30entries are drawn from all three dictionaries compiled by western missionaries (they are:the first and second parts of Morrison’s dictionaries, Samuel Wells Williams’A Syllable Dictionary of the Chinese Language and Fedrick William Baller’s An Analytical Chinese English Dictionary) to find out the strengths and the weaknesses of Morrison’s presentation methods. These entries are studied mainly from four aspects:the explanation of word forms, the meaning interpretation, the selection of entries and the introduction of word usage. The results are shown in the following part:Morrison deletes many pieces of information about word forms and cultural meaning, adding much information about how to use a word instead. His unique way of presenting word meanings are mainly providing word-for-word translation plus detailed explanation of cultural meanings. Moreover, he also presents word usage and detailed explanation of cultural meanings and cultural contrast. For word units with the same referential meaning, but with abundant cultural meanings in one language while none in the other language, Morrison presents firstly the explanation in monolingual dictionary (Kangxi Zidian and Shuowen Jiezi), followed by the English explaining the meaning of Chinese interpretation, which is like the methods used in modern bilingualized dictionaries.The results of analysis show that the first part of Morrison’s dictionaries contains large amounts of cultural information, but he substitutes these pieces into communicative cultural information in the second part. From three dictionaries compiled by three missionaries, the author draws the following lessons:(1) From the aspect of microstructure, compilers should pay attention to the explanation of word forms, cultural meaning and the presentation of cultural notes.(2) From the aspect of macrostructure, compilers should focus on the selection of entry words and the arrangement of orders.The research is aimed at helping compilers of foreigner-oriented Chinese-English dictionaries (henceforth:FOCED) in their practice of presenting cultural information. Ultimately, it targets at making cultural information facilitate overseas users in the cognition of the meaning of Chinese characters and compounds.