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Part of
History of Linguistics 2017: Selected papers from the 14th International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences, (ICHoLS 14), Paris, 28 August – 1 September
Edited by Émilie Aussant and Jean-Michel Fortis
[Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 127] 2020
► pp. 143–156

Introducing and translating Otto Jespersen in China in the past 100 years

Embracing, shunning, forgetting and reviving

| Dalian University of Foreign Languages

As a prolific linguist Otto Jespersen used to have a strong impact on the Chinese linguists who wrote descriptive grammars in the first half of the 20th century for the Chinese language. However, his influence was interrupted during the Cold War decades and then neglected in the land that once embraced his ideas. In the recent decade, a revived interest in Jespersen propels a retrospect on the complicated history of his influence in China. Based on the critiques and translations published in China, this paper intends to explore both the linguistic and the extra-linguistic reasons for the history of the Chinese acknowledgement of Jespersen’s linguistic ideas.

Keywords: Otto Jespersen, Chinese grammar, linguistic historiography, extra-linguistic reasons
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Embracing Jespersen among the grammarians (1923–1956)
    • 2.1The “movement of grammar” in China
    • 2.2Embracing Jespersen’s “three grammatical ranks”
    • 2.3Further reasons for Jespersen’s popularity
  • 3.Shunning Jespersen during the Cold War (1956–1979)
  • 4.Neglecting Jespersen intentionally and unintentionally (1979–2006)
  • 5.Reviving Jespersen (2006–now)
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 20 May 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sihols.127.10qu
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