Native language -- China; Buddhism -- Social aspects; China -- Languages; China
摘要
The premise of VICTOR H. MAIR's wide-ranging article is that written Chinese emerged not as transcribed speech, but rather as a special, radically shortened cipher with its own grammatical and expressive conventions. He calls this written form Literary Sinitic (LS) and finds the disparity between it and any form of spoken Chinese, which he refers to under the general heading of Vernacular Sinitic (VS), is of a wholly different nature than the contrast between written Latin and any modern written or spoken Romance language. Indeed, he argues, Literary Sinitic remained incapable of serving as a means of recording spoken Chinese or any other language. Thus, for Mair, the question becomes: How did vernacular written forms emerge in a milieu in which Literary Sinitic dominated intellectual life? He finds the earliest instances of written Vernacular Sinitic occur typically in Buddhist texts. He believes the Buddhist emphasis on the principle of teaching through the local dialect (desa-bhasa) was a major impetus for the development of written vernacular, but concludes it is difficult to determine exactly which aspects of Buddhism had the greatest influence on the slow maturation of written Vernacular Sinitic. Mair's article broadens the consideration of written Chinese that Daniel Gardner (50.3 [August 1991]:574-603); Chad Hansen (52.2 [May 1993]:373-99), (52.4 [November 1993]:954-57); and Marshall Unger (52.4 [November 1993]:949-54) have explored in recent issues.
目次
Early Written Vernacular in China 709 Buddhism and Language 713 Translation, Linguistics, and Psalmody 714 Social Values, Intellectual History, and Religious Mission 719 The Indian Background 722 The Concept of "National Language" 725 Mandarin as koine 728 The Japanese Inspiration for kuo-yu 730 Language Reform in Korea 731 Conclusion 738 Abbreviations 739 Glossary 739 Texts 744 List of References 745
