During the Summer School, this page will be refreshed daily, after each session.
If the new page does not appear, please click F5 / Reload / Refreshsession 1 • Intro / Speaking and writing in China
session 2 • Corresponding with Heaven: The early scribes
session 3 • Doing right by a script: The tools of lexicography
session 4 • Catch-up time
session 5 • Excursion: Early sources in Chinese and about Chinese
session 6 • Mapping the sounds: Time travel in phonology
session 7 • Diamonds from Sand City: Dūnhuáng's linguistic treasures
session 8 • Bureaucrats talking: The emergence of Mandarin
session 9 • Mandarin blue: Chinese linguists in the Cold War
session 10 • Pride and priorities: Traditions in the study of Chinese
See the Leiden Summer School in Languages and Linguistics website
and the Course Fact Sheet
Time: |
9- 20 July, Mon thru Fri, 2:00pm-3:30pm |
Venue: |
9-13 July: Vrieshof 4, room 010 |
16-20 July: Eyckhof 2, room 001 |
Language is communicated through sound waves, and writing is a visual medium. How do they match?
When language is put to writing, some elements from speech are preserved and some are lost. Also, the visual signal will contain elements which were absent in the spoken original.
In Chinese linguistics, the majority of our sources are written in Chinese characters. In this first session, therefore, we will explore how language comes to us through the Chinese script.
趙元任 Yuen Ren Chao, 序 "Xù" [Preface]
In: 趙元任 Yuen Ren Chao, 中國話的文法 Zhōngguóhuà de wénfǎ [A grammar of spoken Chinese].
香港 Hong Kong: 中文大學出版社 Chinese University Press, 1980, frontispiece.
Translation of Yuen Ren Chao, A grammar of spoken Chinese.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968. Translated by 丁邦新 Pang-Hsin Ting.
Chao's 序 will be handed out and introduced in class. No preparation is needed for this text.
"The Chinese script"
In: Jerry Norman, Chinese.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988, Chapter 3 = pp. 58-82.
Norman's work is available from the Leiden Asian Library:
- on the linguistics handbooks shelves; and
- as an e-book
Highly recommended: a "must-read" classic. This book is widely available and inexpensive.
– In short: make sure to read this!
Time management: do not underestimate assignment #5 below. It may involve more reference checking than would seem at first glance.
Please make sure you prepare your answers to all questions & assignments in writing.
1. Read the assigned chapter from Jerry Norman's Chinese.
In preparing this text, please check that you are familiar with
Note down any difficulties you may have in reading the text, and bring your notes to class.
technical terms in English and in Mandarin (including the corresponding Chinese characters);
names and dates for dynasties, historical periods and historical figures;
geographical designations.
2. On p. 58, the origins of Chinese characters are outlined.
a. In English, do you know a term for the study of writing systems? And in Mandarin?
b. Can you name (at least) three families of scripts, i.e. writing systems of the world which (as far as we know) developed independently?
c. Is the oracle bone script the undisputed precursor of the modern Chinese character script?
d. Can you name (at least) seven different Sinitic languages?
Please give the English and in Mandarin names for each of these, as well as the Chinese characters (简体 & 繁體) for each name.
e. What is the oldest Sinitic phase which has been reconstructed in phonological detail? Please give (approximate) dates.
f. Is the language encoded by the oracle bone script the undisputed precursor of the modern Sinitic languages?
3. The ideographic notion, i.e. the notion "that Chinese characters in some platonic fashion directly represent ideas rather than specific Chinese words" may be "patently absurd" (pp. 60-61), but it is immensely popular nonetheless.
Find a reference (in print or online) which clearly demonstrates, or is clearly based on, the ideographic notion.
a. From this source, note down one specific statement or claim demonstrating this notion.
b. Formulate a counter-argument against this specific statement or claim, basing yourself (at least in part) on the information in section 3.1.
4. Pages 67-69 introduce the 說文解字.
In one or two sentences, summarize the significance of this work
for the study of the Chinese script; and
for Chinese lexicography.
5. On p. 76, please study Table 3.6 carefully, including the notes on p. 77.
a. Can you read all characters listed in the Table?
For your reference: 國際電腦漢字及異體字知識庫 / International Encoded Han Character and Variants Database.
b. Can you give more recent examples of individual characters created in order to "adapt[..] the traditional script to the modern language" (p. 75)?
6. In note 8 of p. 81, please define the term homophonous in your own words.
7. In note 10 of p. 82, it is noted that "the alternation of words beginning with sh and r in a single phonetic series is unusual".
Find one example of this unusual type of alternation in the traditional character script.
8. In the same note 10, consider the example of ràng 'to allow' again.
Note that "ràng" is italicized, but " 'to allow' " is placed within single quotation marks.
a. In your own words, formulate the difference between these typographical conventions.
Which linguistic units do they represent?
b. Can you list other typographical conventions, representing other linguistic units?
For each unit, give English and Mandarin names, as well as the Chinese characters (简体 & 繁體).
c. Is there also a typographical convention which represents items as orthographic units, i.e. as the written forms of a script?
At the dawn of history, humans were fully modern in the anatomical and in the neurological sense. Their brains and their languages were as complex and as diverse as they are today. There were just fewer speakers.
Even at this early stage, the world must have been teeming with linguists. We know nothing about their theories, but their legacy remains with us today, for they created the first writing systems.
The art of writing was invented more than once, and the puzzle how to represent sound and meaning in graphs has been solved in very different ways. The Chinese case offers us a rare insight in the tenacity of some cultural artefacts.
![]() |
Click left \ right to enlarge Source: Lindqvist, China: Empire of living symbols (2008) |
Asian Library code: SINOL. 12 G 9.
Available in the Leiden Asian Library: see the Reserve shelf for this course.
"月㞢食"
李圃 Lí Pǔ, selection and commentary, 甲骨文選注 Jiágǔwén xuǎn zhù [Oracle bone writing: An annotated anthology].
上海 Shanghai: 古籍出版社 Gǔjí Chūbǎnshè, 1989, pp. 1-8.
East Asian Library code: SINOL. 2086.6.60.
Available in the Leiden Asian Library: see the Reserve shelf for this course.
In: Thurston, Hugh, Early astronomy. New York: Springer, 1994, pp. 84-109.
Leiden University Library code: GORLAE ASTRON QB016 203.
Uploaded to Youtube on 8 June 2011.
in Thurgood, G., et al. (eds.), Linguistics of the Sino-Tibetan area, the state of the art: Papers presented to Paul K. Benedict for his 7lst birthday
Canberra: Australian National University, pp. 85–89.
In: Steele, John M. (ed.), Calendars and years II: Astronomy and time in the ancient and Medieval world
Oxford: Oxbow, 2011, pp. ##–##.
–a draft version is available online.
– for systematic guidelines & conversion, see Appendix D in A grammar of Mandarin – there is an online edition in the Leiden library.
– for ad-hoc conversion, see e.g. the Chinese Text Project's transcription-conversion tool.
– for systematic guidelines & conversion, see Tables 9.3 & 9.4 in A grammar of Mandarin (online edition); or
– for ad-hoc conversion, see e.g. Wikipedia's Stem, Branch and Stem-Branch tables.
Wikipedia has a list of Shang Kings.
9. Miao: I think you still had additional questions about today's session.
Please bring these to class tomorrow!
10. Étienne: please consult with your classmates, and then summarize in your own words (two or three sentences):
why Chao described the phrase
as a carrying a kind of
.
11. All: after today's session, I forgot to collect your paper name tags. Please bring them to class tomorrow! Thank you.
12. All: as explained: before session 2, make sure to collect your Leiden library card , and please bring it to class with you.
13. All: I will bring all texts to class. You do not need to do any preparatory reading, but you can scan these works in the library if you wish.
However, I do expect you to make sure that
- (a) you can describe, in your own words, what a lunar eclipse is;
- (b) you understand how the tradional Chinese sexagenary cycle works.
For details, please consult the Background and Reading notes provided above.
Yesterday, we saw how the invention of writing was embedded in technological and economic change.
Today, we will explore early advances in Chinese lexicography against the backdrop of philosophical and political developments In Qín 秦 and Hàn 漢 times.
Chapter Two, "The Qin and Han creation of the standard"
Imre Galambos, Orthography of early Chinese writing: Evidence from newly excavated manuscripts, pp. 31-63.
Budapest: Eötvös Loránd University, Department of East Asian Studies, 2006.
Available in the Leiden Asian Library: see the Reserve shelf.
A PDF of this book is also available online on Imre Galambos' page
....or use the direct link to this title.
From Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia
![]() |
Source: Archive.org |
許慎 Xǔ Shèn, 說文解字 Shuō wén jiě zì [Discussion of simple characters and analysis of complex characters]
Edition: 说文解字: 附检字 Shuō wén jiě zì: Fù jiǎn zì [Discussion of simple characters and analysis of complex characters: With a character index].
北京 Peking: 中華書局 Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1963.
Available in the Leiden Asian Library: see the Reserve shelf.
Leiden: Brill, 2015, xvi + 714 pp., ISBN: 9789004283657
– there is an online edition in the Leiden University Library
14. Individual items
Étienne: I am bringing two articles on the sexagenary cycle to class. Please remind me to show them to you!
Hongmei: I am bringing Chao's lecture series to class. Please remind me...
Junma: you still had additional questions about today's session. Please bring these to class tomorrow.
15. Read the first two texts:
- Galambos' Chapter Two, "The Qin and Han creation of the standard" and
- the Wikipedia article "Shuowen Jiezi".
Note down any difficulties you may encounter in these two texts, and bring your notes to class.
Also make sure to review assignment #4 above.
16. The third title is a modern reprint of the 說文解字 Shuō wén jiě zì.
(a) Have a good look at this book, which is currently available from the Course Reserve shelf in the Asian Library.
(b) Check that you understand how the work is organised.
(c) Find the characters
,
,
and
in this dictionary.
For each of these four characters, write down
- the page number for the entry in this modern edition
- the Shuō wén jiě zì radical
- the dictionary's definition of the characters, and
- an English translation of this definition
17. Check if you can find a complete edition of the 說文解字 Shuō wén jiě zì online.
Today, we will take out some time to reflect on a number of unresolved issues from this week's sessions.
see Session 1 and Session 3
18. First, we will review assignment 6, 7 and 8 (Session 1).
For answers to assignment 8, please consult the Linguistic toolbox below.
In particular, please read the text on Linguistic transcription carefully.
Note down any difficulties you may encounter in the text, and bring your notes to class.
19. For those of you who had not finished reading Galambos' text (Session 3), please do so now.
Note down any difficulties in the text, and bring your notes to class.
Also make sure to review assignment #4 above.
20. We will also have time for assignments 16 (a)-(c) and assignment 17 today.
Today, Leiden Librarian and Curator Marc Gilbert will receive us at the Asian Library.
We will be shown early masterpieces from the Leiden collections in the area of Chinese linguistics.
We meet at our normal time, 2:00pm – but please note today's venue:
the Rouffaer Seminar Room, inside the left-side entrance to the Asian Library.
We looked at the division of labor between language and script in linguistic research. Since the spoken and the written word are easily – and often unwittingly – confused, the written word can be the curse of synchronic work.
But in the diachronic study of language, written words are a true blessing. The farther we look back, the more we have to rely on writing as the sole surviving witness of utterances which are no longer audible. And in the Chinese case, these blessings are plentiful.
In this session we look at recent work in phonological reconstruction. The main challenge of this field: to figure out what the earliest forms of Chinese sounded like.
"The historical phonology of Chinese"
Jerry Norman, Chinese.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988
Chapter 2, pp. 23-57
Norman's work can be found in the Leiden Asian Library: on the linguistics handbooks shelves, and as an e-book.
"Introduction" & "The evidence for Old Chinese"
William H. Baxter and Laurent Sagart, Old Chinese: A new reconstruction
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
- "Introduction" = Chapter 1, pp. 1-8
- "The evidence for Old Chinese" = Chapter 2, pp. 9-41
This work is available as an online full-text edition in the Leiden University Library.
The "companion document giving proposed reconstructions for over 4,000 individual Old Chinese lexical items" mentioned on p. 1 is available online under the following title:
"Introduction" = Chapter 1 of A handbook of Old Chinese phonology.
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1992, pp. 1-26.
Leiden University Library call number: PL1201 .B38 1992
"The origins" = Chapter I of Hartmut Scharfe, Grammatical literature.
Jan Gonda, ed., A history of Indian literature, Volume V, Part II, Fascicle 2, pp. 77-87.
Wiesbaden: Otto Harrossowitz, 1977.
Leiden University Library call number: 6132 A 33
Development notes: For future runs of this course
Sources to be considered on Old Chinese:
– Ferlus, Michel, What were the four Divisions of Middle Chinese ?. Diachronica, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2009, 26 (2), pp.184-213.
– Handel, Zev J., "A Concise Introduction to Old Chinese Phonology" = Appendix A of James A. Matisoff, Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003, pp. 543-574.
Please make sure you prepare your answers in writing.
21. For both of the assigned texts, note down any difficulties you may encounter and bring your notes to class.
As before, we will go through these text on a page-by-page basis, discussing your questions – and mine.
22. The 反切 fǎnqiè system is explained on pp. 27-28. And in case you are interested, some historical background is given in Hartmut Scharfe's "The origins".
23. The development of tone is explained in section 2.7 (pp. 52-57) and summarized in Table 2.12.Now imagine that you are explaining this notation system to someone who is interested to know how it works, but does not know any Chinese language.
Make your explanation as short and concrete as possible:
- maximally four sentences, and
- based on one concrete example
You may be asked to read out your explanation in class.
(a) Check that you understand all Chinese terminology.
(b) For a Chinese language of your choice, check the correspondes between its tones and the system shown in Table 2.12.
24. Check which other works by William Baxter and Laurent Sagart are available at the Leiden University Library.
25. As you see in this session's Background references, Baxter produced a comprehensive and well-referenced reconstruction of Old Chinese in 1992.
On the basis of your reading of Chapters 1 and 2 of Old Chinese: A new reconstruction, explain in your own words what motivated the publication of a new reconstruction in 2014.
"By far the largest corpus of early Chinese manuscripts available to us today is the huge cache found by Sir Aurel Stein and others at Dunhuang in far western China in the early years of the twentieth century." Peter Kornicki, "Bluffing your way in Chinese" (2008: 2) |
From times immemorial, the desert trails connecting India with China were busily travelled by merchants and monks, artists and adventurers.
Today, we zoom in on the oasis town of Dūnhuáng 敦煌, a.k.a. 沙州 Shāzhōu 'Sand City', whose Mògāo 莫高 caves has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1987.
One of the first scholars who realized that this site harbored a priceless linguistic time capsule was the Hungarian-born Briton Stein Márk Aurél, later Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943).
Initially attracted to Dūnhuáng by its Buddhist art, Stein chanced upon a cave full of manuscripts and prints in 1907. Today, the study of Dūnhuáng documents remains a fascinating multi-disciplinary field.
Volume II, Texts
Volume IV, Plates
Aurel Stein, K.C.I.E., Serindia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China
Oxford: Clarendon, 1921.
Available in the Leiden University Library's Special Collections.
Due to their age, these two volumes are not accessible as "Course Reserve" items.
You need to got to the Special Collections Reading Room to consult these works. This reading room is on the same floor as the Asian Library, but two corridors across.
Special Collections are making these volumes available for students of this Sinographics course. Just show your library card at the desk and remind library staff that both volumes are reserved under my name.
These works can also be consulted online, but if you have time, I would recommend your taking the opportunity to see the real thing.
Susan Whitfield, "Stein's Silk Road legacy revisited".
In: Asian affairs, volume 40, no. 2, 2009, pp. 224-242.
Available as an online publication from the Leiden University Library.
方廣錩 Fāng Guǎngchāng, "敦煌遺書數字化的現狀, 基本思路, 目前實踐及設想 / Status, basic concepts, current practice and tentative plan for the digitization of Dunhuang manuscripts"
Opening keynote lecture, 6 September 2014, of the "Prospects for the study of Dunhuang manuscripts: The next 20 years" Conference held at Princeton University.
(If you want, you can click "Download video" inside the web-player window to create a local copy of this lecture. Note, however, that the recording has audio only.)
Whitfield (2009):
32. The map shown on p. 225 is available online as a scalable color map from the British Library.
Susan Whitfield, Aurel Stein on the Silk Road
London: British Museum Press, 2004.
Published at the occasion of the British Library exhibition "The silk road: Trade, travel, war and faith".
Includes a glossary.
Available in the Leiden Asian Library: see the Reserve shelf for this course.
International Dunhuang Project, "Conservation of the Diamond Sutra".
Uploaded on Youtube on 27 May 2009.
Fascinating footage on the multi-disciplinary challenges of preserving the world's oldest dated printed text.
More video's from the IDP are available at their Youtube channel
Peter Kornicki, "Bluffing your way in Chinese".
Sandars Lectures in Bibliography,
Cambridge University Library, 11 March 2008.
"The problem of nomenclature"
In: Norman (1988) , pp. 135-138.
"Classification of Chinese dialects"
In: Norman (1988), pp. 181-183.
26. As indicated, two volumes of Aurel Stein's original work of 1921 are available in the Special Collections Reading Room, and online.
First, have a good look at these works.
In Volume IV: Plates, check that you understand the page numbering system.
On page C of Volume IV: Plates, find the photo of the "printed roll" at the lower half of the page;
on the same page, find Stein's inventory number for this item;
and in Volume II: Text, under the same inventory number, find Stein's detailed description of the item.
Now, establish whether Stein himself realized the historical significance of this particular scroll.
27. Read Whitfield (2009) and bring your reading notes to class.
We will discuss your questions and remarks on a page-by-page basis.
28. Listen to Fāng's (2014) keynote speech and bring your listening notes to class.
29. In two or three sentences, summarize what Fāng considers to be the major challenge(s) for the digitization of Dunhuang manuscripts today.
30. The International Dunhuang Project (IDP) has uploaded a high-resolution image of the same scroll, which contains the full Chinese text of the Diamond Sutra.
This webpage includes a digital facsimile edition of the scroll, along with a full English translation of the sutra.
Sanskrit title: वज्रच्छेदिकाप्रज्ञापारमितासूत्र Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra
Chinese title: 金剛般若波羅蜜多經 Jīngāng Bōrěbōluómìduō Jīng (note the Mandarin readings for 般 and 若), abbreviated to 金剛經 Jīngāng Jīng
English title: Diamond-Cutter-of-Perfect-Wisdom Sutra, abbreviated to Diamond Sutra
On the IDP page, if you click on "NEXT IMAGE" once,
you will have reached the last line of the printed text, indicating its date of publication. (to see more details, click "LARGE IMAGE")
This line of text is lacking in the IDP translation, but you will find an English translation in the short but useful introduction to the Diamond Sutra by the Silkroad Foundation.
(a) Correct the Silkroad Foundation's English translation of the Chinese date.
(b) Find the name of the emperor ruling the Táng 唐 at the time of publication of this scroll.
(c) Use the Chinese-Western calendar converter provided by the Academia Sinica, Taiwan, to check if the Julian date give by the Silkroad Foundation is correct.
(d) Check if you can tell on what day of the Julian week this Chinese edition of the Diamond Sutra was published.
Étienne: Stein's Volume II: Text notices that the sutra scroll was "in excellent preservation and complete".
Elaborate conservation was undertaken in the years 2003-2010, as shown in a British Library video on the Conservation of the Diamond Sutra.
Now, compare Stein's original picture with the photo taken at the British Museum in the mid-1970s.
Can you point out what type(s) of restoration or conservation work had been performed by that time?
Hongmei: Aurel Stein was not only a trained philologist, but also a skilled archeologist, "recognizing the importance of careful excavation, of stratigraphy and of recording each find's location" (Whitfield 2004: 18).
In two or three sentences, describe the technique of stratigraphy. When did this technique originate?
Junma: What is the Chinese term for 'archeology'? And what does it literally mean – morpheme by morpheme?
Miao: There is a short Chinese text preceding the translation of the Diamond Sutra itself.
What does the first line say?
Vivian: Among the Dunhuang manuscripts, there are detailed drawings of hands held in many different positions.
(a) Find one of these drawings in Stein's Volume IV: Plates.
(b) Do they depict hand positions or hand gestures? What was the purpose of such drawings?
Wei: In your own words, and in one sentence, summarize the dilemma faced by the chemical team at the Diamond Sutra conservation project.
Our short tour of the classical period ended with an early example of cross-cultural linguistic influences. The remaining sessions deal with pre-modern and modern developments.
Some early records of this period belong to another wave of cross-cultural exchange, mediated by European missionaries in Asia.
Today, we focus on the emergence of the language which was to shape our modern image of Chinese: the vernacular of the Mandarins, China's imperial officialdom.
Coblin (2000)
W. South Coblin, "A brief history of Mandarin"
In: Journal of the American Oriental Society
Volume 120, no. 4, 2000, pp. 537-552.
Available online at the Leiden University Library.
Pulleyblank (1984)
"The history of 'standard Chinese' "
"The phonology of Pekingese"
In: Edwin Pulleyblank, Middle Chinese
Vancouver: Universiy of British Columbia Press, 1984.
- "The history of 'standard Chinese'" = pp. 1-4
- "The evidence for Old Chinese" = Chapter 2, pp. 41-59
Available from the Asian Library, on the linguistics handbooks shelves.
32. Individual items
Étienne: please send me your observations & research questions a.s.a.p.
Vivian: did you find present or historical evidence for (broad or specific) military connotations associated with the English term expedition?
Please make sure you prepare your answers in writing.
33. Please identify and look up linguistic terms as well as historical names and events you are unfamiliar with, and/or to brush up your knowledge on these items.
If any terms remain unclear, please raise these in class.
34. Provide your own English translations for each of the book titles mentioned on p. 537/R.
In the remainder of the article, keep checking that you understand the titles of all works discussed.
35. Please summarize the conclusion at the bottom of p. 538/R in your own words.
36. On p. 540/L, the Arte de la lengua mandarina and Vocabulario de la lengua mandarina by Francisco Varo are mentioned.
Check if modern editions of both these works are available – and if so, who are the editor(s).
37. On p. 542/R, it is explained that "the zhèngyīn system of ca. 1450 was based not on the pronunciation of a single dialect or area but was instead a composite entity".
(a) What could be the reason that a purported linguistic standard is in fact composite in nature?
(b) Cite both advantages and drawbacks of a standard of this nature for its speakers;
and for linguists of later generations.
(c) Can you cite other (historical and/or modern) examples of composite linguistic standards in China?
38. As noted on p. 543/L, Jiǎng Shàoyú 蔣紹愚 has pointed out that for historical stages of Chinese, "spoken material has [...] been accessible only indirectly through the medium of the literary sources".
(a) Please paraphrase this statement in your own words, and/or give an example.
(b) Compare this state of affairs with the status of spoken materials in the description of the modern standard language as it arose in the twentieth century.
What sources for spoken Mandarin were linguists using in, say, the 1950s?
39. Please give a (short!) summary of the etymology of the modern perfective particle le as described on p. 548.
40. In the short abstract of this article (p. 537), it is explained that the text exposes a "flawed" view about the provenance of standard Mandarin.
In linguistics as in any other branch of scientific research, flawed views are problematic only inasfar they cannot be falsified; otherwise, their very falsification helps science progress.
(a) Is there a difference in meaning between the terms
standard Mandarin as used here ("in its oldest sense", p. 537/L);
standard Chinese as used by Pulleyblank (1984: 1); and
Modern Chinese?
If so: please indicate the difference(s).
And if not: check if these terms differ in other way (e.g. style, user base, varieties of English)?
(b) Give examples of flawed views in the field of language reconstruction (not necessarily Chinese) which have since been falsified.
(c) Give examples of views in linguistics which cannot be falsified.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, a surprise air attack by Japanese forces on Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i, sparked off American involvement in the Second World War.
Apart from the material challenges, the United States were also confronted with a serious linguistic problem: there was an essential lack of personnel trained in the languages spoken at the Asian front. Substantial federal funds were allocated to remedy this situation.
After the war, army language manuals were converted into university textbooks, and with continued funding, a new and influential generation of oriental linguists arose among the former Allies in the United States, in Russia and in Western Europe.
Today, we will read – and hear – about a Chinese language program initiated by the British army. Between 1951 and 1962, some 300 National Servicemen were enlisted for training in spoken Mandarin and sent out to Hong Kong to perform voice interception work.
Emily Buchanan, "Listening to China"
BBC News Magazine, 4 February 2010.
Original URL: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8498980.stm>.
Radio report, length: 27'47".
First broadcast on BBC Radio Four on 1 February 2010.
Reginald Hunt, Geoffrey Russell and Keith Scott,
Mandarin blue: RAF Chinese linguists in the Cold War, 1951-1962
Oxford: Hurusco Books, 2008.
- "Preface" and "Timeline", pp. i-xv
- Chapter 1, "Looking into the mirror", pp. 1-9
- Chapter 3, "Mandarins in Whitehall", pp. 24-31
- Chapter 5, "Never daring to ask", pp. 48-55
- Chapter 6, "Gwoyeu Romatzyh", pp. 56-65
- Chapter 7, "Learning and repeating", pp. 64-83
- Chapter 11, "Keen spirits", pp. 113-130
- Appendices C, D, E and F, pp. 177-180
John DeFrancis, Nationalism and language reform in China.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950.
Mark Swofford, "Gwoyeu Romatzyh"
拼音/Pinyin.info, 2010.
Jeroen Wiedenhof, "Purpose and effect in the transcription of Mandarin".
李哲賢 / Lee Jer-shiarn (ed. in chif),
2004 漢學研究國際學術研討會文集 [Proceedings of the International Conference on Chinese Studies 2004].
斗六 / Touliu: 雲林科技大學 / National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, pp. 387-402.
41. Individual items
Étienne: Compare assignment #32. Pick two or three of your nineteen research questions and
- identify and formulate an observation which prompted to the question
- send me these two or three observations, each together with the corresponding research question – adapted if necessary.
– Buchanan (2010):
42. Listen to Buchanan's (2010) radio report and bring your listening notes to class.
43. Check if the Mandarin song (0'28") contains any hints of linguistic change over the past half century.
– Hunt e.a. (2007):
44. Read the assigned sections and bring your reading notes to class.
45. Apart from the name, can you identify the publisher of Hunt e.a. (2007)?
46. Please reflect on the use of the term linguists in the title of Hunt e.a. (2007).
Hint: try to point out similarities and differences between the meanings of English linguist and, for instance, yǔyánxuéjiā in Mandarin or taalkundige in Dutch.
47. On p. 8, we read about the linguistic recrutes' "immersion in the Chinese language".
(a) On the basis of your reading of the assigned sections, please evaluate the appropriatenes of the term "immersion" to characterize the educational methods of the Joint Services School for Linguists.
(b) On the basis of your own experience in Chinese language training, please comment on the relevance of "immersion" as a didactic device today.
48. Consider the table on p. 60, illustrating tone transcription in GR.
(a) For each row, check which of the four forms might be considered most basic.
(b) Explain the pattern that emerges, and explain the exceptions to that pattern.
49. On p. 70, please identify the "two authors", listing at least two other linguistic publications for each.
50. In Appendix C, provide English translations for the Mandarin test sentences #3 and #7.
– Swofford (2010):
51. Transcribe the first two paragraphs (42 words) of Dàshuǐ Guòhòu / After the Flood in Gwoyeu Romatzyh.
Enigma
"the German Enigma machinese were unlocked" (Hunt e.a. 2007: 3)
This spy story of was the subject of a 2014 film:
The study of language requires close collaboration with a variety of disciplines. Over the past few weeks, our examples have included archeology, astronomy, literature, philology, art history, geology and religious studies.
These cross-discipline relations vary over time and – perhaps even more so – across cultures and regions. As a consequence, defining the scope and domain of linguistic research has always been subject to widely different assumptions and attitudes.
In our final session, we reflect on a number of similarities and differences between native and non-native traditions in Chinese linguistics.
邢公畹 Xíng Gōngwǎn, 汉语 "Hànyǔ” [Chinese]
In: 孙宏开 Sūn Hóngkāi, 胡增益 Hú Zēngyì, 黄行 Huáng Xíng (eds.),
中国的语言 Zhōngguó de yǔyán [The languages of China].
北京 Peking: 商务印书馆 Shāngwù Yìnshūguǎn, 2007, pp. 108-144.
Available at the Leiden University Library.
We will read and discuss only the first 21 pages: pp. 108-128.
pp. 181-182 of
Jerry Norman, Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Asian Library: on the linguistics handbooks shelves; and as an e-book.
52. On the meaning of the term 行用 on p. 108 of Xíng (2007), see this Baidu page.
53. Please note down any difficulties you may encounter in these two texts, and bring your notes to class.
– Unless indicated otherwise, all assignments are about Xíng (2007).
54. Can you spot anything remarkable about the publishing details printed on page ii?
55. How would you characterize the first paragraph of p. 108?
56. On pp. 109-111, tone is established as the main criterion for a division of Sinitic dialect groups. Are other criteria available?
To answer this question, please consult pp. 181-182 of Jerry Norman, Chinese
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
57. Are the two tabels on p. 111 given in phonetic or phonemic transcription?
58. Please check carefully if the overview of Peking Mandarin initials, finals and tones on p. 111 is complete.
59. On p. 113, the general lack of "形变" is described for Peking Mandarin.
Can you name a productive morphological process in Peking Mandarin nonetheless?
[Note: check the meaning of productive as a linguistic term]
60. The overview of Cantonese tones on p. 113 (lines 4-6) is followed by a number of examples.
(a) Make an inventory of all the 入声 tones given here. For each of these, please
- give the tonal values according to the five-point scale used in the text;
- cite the example, providing transcription, Chinese character, and English translation;
- try to pronounce the example, and if possible, check your pronunciation with a Cantonese speaker.
(b) Please check if all 入声 tones that you can think of are covered in this overview.
- If the answer is yes, please provide your own examples, citing free (not bound) forms only.
- If the answer is no, please write down any missing tones, indicating their tonal values according to the five-point scale used in the text.
61. In note 1 of p. 115, the original table quoted and reproduced here is supplemented by one extra possibility. Can you give more?
62. Please make sure that you understand all technical terms in the section on 六书 on p. 116.
63. On p. 124, please identify 王力 and 俞敏.
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Updated 19 July 2018 | home