Introducing and translating Otto Jespersen in China in the past
100 years
Embracing, shunning, forgetting and reviving
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.
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
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References