Chinese keywords of modernization : loanwords from Japanese? : a critical analytical survey

要旨

Due to the continuous language exchange between China and Japan in a long history period, the loanwords from Japanese can often be seen in modern Chinese. As a widespread sociolinguistic phenomenon, it is confirmed that in the climactic decades around 1900, the number of loanwords from Japanese is the largest one among loanwords in Chinese. In the words of using Chinese characters (漢字hànzì/かんじ kanji) as the expression, how are those loanwords from Japanese used nowadays in China? The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the conditions from the importation to the use of the loanwords from Japanese, especially the translated words of these loanwords for the terms from conceptual history in sociolinguistics, in modern Chinese, and the functions and influences of these loanwords in the Chinese Modernization. \n\nI first collect the translation words in Japanese and Chinese for the modern western concepts listed in two vocabularies created by two European scholars Reinhart Koselleck and Raymond Williams as the keywords, and then analyze these translated word with the help of several English-Chinese, Chinese-Chinese, English-Japanese and Japanese-Japanese dictionaries for a history survey, and also probes the word-frequency in recent academic studies . The main emphasis is placed on the problem of judging the literally Japanese-made Chinese (和製漢語 わせいかんご wasekango). In the following parts, I will explain the conditions of how these loanwords from Japanese borrowed and used in modern Chinese. Therefore, it is necessary to classify and sub-classify the Japanese and Chinese translated words for the concepts from Kocelleck’s and Williams’ vocabularies based on a historical survey. Didactic examples are included to illustrate the typology. I divide the translation words between Chinese and Japanese that correspond to the English words from the two vocabularies into categories and analyze the formation criterion of these three categories in the thesis. A brief methodology used in definition of loanwords from Japanese in modern Chinese is discussed. In the conclusion, the paper outlines the functions and influences carried out by loanwords from Japanese in the Chinese Modernization, the development and actuality of these words in modern Chinese today. The theoretical and practical values will be incarnated through the analyses in the thesis. The historical survey on the study targets was carried out and provides some reliable data for future research. \n\nKeywords: loanwords from Japanese in Chinese, literally Japanese-made Chinese, Chinese Modernization.

主題