56
MA MENG
T
mao-tun, contradiction; po-shiao H, exploitation; fu-shê radiation; and cheng-k'ung, vacuum. It should be noted that some of these combined expressions such as ke-ming and mao-tun first appeared in the classics in the Book of Changes and the Book of Han Fei Tzu respectively. The growing use of such combined expressions in place of individual characters has thus been a great aid in introducing modern concepts into the Chinese language.
The Chinese language has also been enriched by the absorption of colloquial and regional expressions. This has been especially true on the Mainland in recent years, where such practice has been deliberately employed, particularly in party or government publications. However, in Taiwan and in the overseas Chinese communities, it has not had any marked influence.
In the creation of an adequate modern Chinese vocabulary one problem still remains unsolved: that of creating standard technical terms. The problem as such is not new but has become more complicated with the rapid increase of new technical terms in recent years. Efforts to create new technical terms have often foundered because the public has not been willing to accept them. Thus the words used in technical texts often remain unknown to industrial workers, whose own expressions, in turn, are not understood by engineers. In Hong Kong and in the overseas Chinese communities this difficulty has often been resolved by the use of English terms.
Another aspect of recent changes in the Chinese language is the development of a standard spoken language. Although within limited circles a common language known as kuan-hua T meaning official language has been in use by officials and some intellectuals for a long time, it was not till the beginning of this century that the development of a standard spoken language was consciously promoted. The history of kuan-hua goes back to the Ming Dynasty, which made Peking its capital in the fifteenth century. Throughout the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, kuan-hua, which is based on the Peking dialect but pronounced with different accents, served as the medium of verbal communication between officials of different provincial origin appointed to posts throughout the empire. Kuan-hua continued to develop through the centuries because of the lasting need for such a common language.
56
MA MENG
T
mao-tun, contradiction; po-shiao H, exploitation; fu-shê radiation; and cheng-k'ung, vacuum. It should be noted that some of these combined expressions such as ke-ming and mao-tun first appeared in the classics in the Book of Changes and the Book of Han Fei Tzu respectively. The growing use of such combined expressions in place of individual characters has thus been a great aid in introducing modern concepts into the Chinese language.
The Chinese language has also been enriched by the absorption of colloquial and regional expressions. This has been especially true on the Mainland in recent years, where such practice has been deliberately employed, particularly in party or government publications. However, in Taiwan and in the overseas Chinese communities, it has not had any marked influence.
In the creation of an adequate modern Chinese vocabulary one problem still remains unsolved: that of creating standard technical terms. The problem as such is not new but has become more complicated with the rapid increase of new technical terms in recent years. Efforts to create new technical terms have often foundered because the public has not been willing to accept them. Thus the words used in technical texts often remain unknown to industrial workers, whose own expressions, in turn, are not understood by engineers. In Hong Kong and in the overseas Chinese communities this difficulty has often been resolved by the use of English terms.
Another aspect of recent changes in the Chinese language is the development of a standard spoken language. Although within limited circles a common language known as kuan-hua T meaning official language has been in use by officials and some intellectuals for a long time, it was not till the beginning of this century that the development of a standard spoken language was consciously promoted. The history of kuan-hua goes back to the Ming Dynasty, which made Peking its capital in the fifteenth century. Throughout the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, kuan-hua, which is based on the Peking dialect but pronounced with different accents, served as the medium of verbal communication between officials of different provincial origin appointed to posts throughout the empire. Kuan-hua continued to develop through the centuries because of the lasting need for such a common language.
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