Bilingual Lexicography as Recontextualization: A Case Study of Illustrative Examples in A New English–Chinese Dictionary

Abstract

Different from previous research that tends to view bilingual dictionaries as objective and value-free representations of the languages and the world, this paper argues that bilingual lexicography is a complex site of ideological struggle. It conceptualizes bilingual lexicography as recontextualization from the perspective of critical discourse analysis and explores how the recontextualization of lexicographical discourse across cultures and contexts results in the transformation and transfer of meaning. It makes a diachronic comparative analysis of illustrative examples from two editions of A New English–Chinese Dictionary and finds that as the recontextualizers (the dictionary compilers) re-situate the source dictionary in a new context, elements of the prior lexicographic discourse are placed in new perspectives and orientations, brought to the foreground or pushed to the background. By showing how the recontextualizers attempt to de-politicize the words and examples in the source dictionary by using discursive strategies like deleting, replacing, re-signifying, etc., the paper suggests that the ideological functions of contemporary Chinese dictionaries have given way to their educational and social functions. This paper contributes to the emerging critical lexicography, which calls attention to ideology and power in (bilingual) lexicography.