Tradition and innovation in language: a case study of the development of chemical terminology in the 19th-century China
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The history of modern chemical terminology used in Chinese-language scientific discourse offers a vivid and compelling example of how, against the backdrop of shifting epistemological paradigms, traditional worldviews—formed over millennia—intertwined with innovative approaches and the creative ingenuity of native Chinese speakers and users of the ancient Chinese script. This article seeks to demonstrate how these complex and multifaceted processes influenced the development of inorganic chemical terminology, and how chemistry, having become an independent scientific discipline, penetrated the organic fabric of the Chinese language. Nowadays, this has triggered a new wave of linguistic creativity in online literature and digital communication in China. The article analyzes the methodological challenges faced in the 19th century by the pioneers of Chinese scientific terminology—translators John Fryer and Xu Shou—who devised an ingenious method for generating Chinese words for chemical elements. It also discusses the distinctive aspects of neographic innovation in the present-day context.
Source: Письменные памятники Востока
DOI: 10.55512/wmo692205
Author: Elena N. Emelchenkova
Institution: St Petersburg University
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funder: Harvard University
OpenAlex ID: W7128680600