Abstract
The phenomenon of literary quotations in dictionaries finds its origin in the days when the search for equivalents was intertextual rather than interlingual based. For both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries the purpose of literary quotations is to supply evidence of usage and illuminate the meaning of the relevant headword, with the difference that for bilingual dictionaries this is done via translation. This article examines this phenomenon in a nineteenth century Dutch–Chinese dictionary by analysing sample sentences that the compiler has extracted from original Chinese texts. Discussion of examples from different types of text will probe the functioning of the quotations and the intention of the compiler. The inclusion of the quotations in the dictionary appear to be the result of both linguistic and cultural intention, in the sense that they are revealing of the syntax of Chinese but also aspects of Chinese culture. These findings will contribute to the understanding of the practice of the inclusion of literary quotations in bilingual dictionaries and the role of the compiler in introducing foreign cultural aspects.
Highlights
The practice of including literary quotations in dictionaries dates from the days when the compilation of dictionaries was based on the search for inter textual rather than interlingual equivalence
The aim of this study is to examine the intention of the compiler and the functioning of the literary quotations in the nineteenth-century Dutch–Chinese dictionary Nederlandsch–Chineesch Woordenboek met de Transcriptie der Chineesche Karakters in het Tsiang-Tsiu Dialekt 荷華文語類參 Hô Hoâ Bûn-Gí Luī-Ts'am [Dutch–Chinese Dictionary with Transcription of Chinese Characters in Zhangzhou Dialect]
The publication process of the dictionary has been described in detail by Koos (P.N.) Kuiper in his study on early Dutch sinologists, which contains an elaborate overview of the contents of the dictionary and its reception (Kuiper 2017)
Summary
The practice of including literary quotations in dictionaries dates from the days when the compilation of dictionaries was based on the search for inter textual rather than interlingual equivalence. The aim of this study is to examine the intention of the compiler and the functioning of the literary quotations in the nineteenth-century Dutch–Chinese dictionary Nederlandsch–Chineesch Woordenboek met de Transcriptie der Chineesche Karakters in het Tsiang-Tsiu Dialekt 荷華文語類參 Hô Hoâ Bûn-Gí Luī-Ts'am [Dutch–Chinese Dictionary with Transcription of Chinese Characters in Zhangzhou Dialect]. The compiler of this dictionary was the Dutch sinologist Gustaaf [ spelled Gustav] Schlegel (1840–1903) who started collecting the data for the dictionary upon his arrival in China at the end of the 1860s. I will conclude with what the inclusion of literary quotations means in terms of the functioning of the dictionary, as a word-list and as an intellectual history of China's culture and Schlegel's contribution to it in terms of selection and translation
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