Diccionarios bilingües de la lengua china

Abstract

Lexicographical works form an integral part of Chinese Hispanicism and have evolved as contacts between the two linguistic communities have grown closer. Over the past two decades, the development of Spanish-Chinese lexicography has gathered pace with the rapid growth of Spanish language teaching and Hispanic studies in China. This academic field has its roots in the time of the first Spanish missionaries to China in the fifteenth century but was only sporadic in output until the first half of the twentieth century. In 1952, the first department of Spanish was created in a Chinese university, which began the institutional teaching of Spanish at degree level. The first Spanish-Chinese dictionary was prepared by young Chinese Hispanicists and published in 1959. The teaching of Spanish saw its second boom in the 1970s thanks to the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Spain and more than ten American countries. Since then, the lexicographic output of Chinese Hispanicists has been prolific. To date, some 60 titles of various types have been published including general and specialist bilingual dictionaries, in one-way, two-way, pocket-size and large-volume format. It is important to be aware of the linguistic and cultural gap between Spanish and Chinese when considering the theoretical and methodological approach needed for the preparation of bilingual dictionaries. The enormous difference between the two languages brings with it major challenges for the application of Spanish in China, in areas such as teaching, translation, and the creation of bilingual dictionaries. In this chapter, we present our research and conclusions on the problems of inputs, meanings and definitions. Chinese Hispanicists are well aware of the importance of bilingual dictionaries as a tool for promoting the diffusion of language and culture in both directions and for increasing reciprocal knowledge and economic and cultural exchange between these two equally huge linguistic communities. Knowing how much remains to be done in the lexicographic field, we lay out some specific proposals regarding future Spanish-Chinese lexicographic works.