Manifest Quasi-Universals and Embedding Conceptual Clusters
We start this article with a discussion of the problematics involved in translating into modern English a (modern) Chinese text concerning a classical Chinese notion, namely qíng 情. Then, we suggest that it is necessary to distinguish between two levels on which a language is used. The first is the...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Ljubljana Press (Založba Univerze v Ljubljani)
2022-09-01
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| Series: | Asian Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/10738 |
| _version_ | 1828061073774739456 |
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| author | Jaap van Brakel Lin Ma |
| author_facet | Jaap van Brakel Lin Ma |
| author_sort | Jaap van Brakel |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
We start this article with a discussion of the problematics involved in translating into modern English a (modern) Chinese text concerning a classical Chinese notion, namely qíng 情. Then, we suggest that it is necessary to distinguish between two levels on which a language is used. The first is the manifest level, where one finds family resemblance between, say, Chinese nù 怒 and English “anger”. The second is the generic level, where one finds qíng in classical Chinese, qínggaˇn in modern Chinese, and emotion(s) in English. We argue that the meanings of words at the generic level can only be accessed via the manifest level. It is misleading to directly identify and compare notions at the generic level (in this case, emotion(s) in English and qíng in Chinese). We call the connections at the manifest level “quasi-universals”, and we refer to the notions at the generic level as “embedding conceptual clusters”.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T22:08:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7c7e3e795b7b4ea0a19dd3e683441c9c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2232-5131 2350-4226 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T22:08:51Z |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | University of Ljubljana Press (Založba Univerze v Ljubljani) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Asian Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-7c7e3e795b7b4ea0a19dd3e683441c9c2023-01-18T09:00:43ZengUniversity of Ljubljana Press (Založba Univerze v Ljubljani)Asian Studies2232-51312350-42262022-09-0110310.4312/as.2022.10.3.127-156Manifest Quasi-Universals and Embedding Conceptual ClustersJaap van Brakel0Lin Ma1University of Leuven, Higher Institute of Philosophy, BelgiumRenmin University of China, School of Philosophy, Beijing, China We start this article with a discussion of the problematics involved in translating into modern English a (modern) Chinese text concerning a classical Chinese notion, namely qíng 情. Then, we suggest that it is necessary to distinguish between two levels on which a language is used. The first is the manifest level, where one finds family resemblance between, say, Chinese nù 怒 and English “anger”. The second is the generic level, where one finds qíng in classical Chinese, qínggaˇn in modern Chinese, and emotion(s) in English. We argue that the meanings of words at the generic level can only be accessed via the manifest level. It is misleading to directly identify and compare notions at the generic level (in this case, emotion(s) in English and qíng in Chinese). We call the connections at the manifest level “quasi-universals”, and we refer to the notions at the generic level as “embedding conceptual clusters”. https://journals.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/10738translationChineseqíngquasi-universalsembedding conceptual clusters |
| spellingShingle | Jaap van Brakel Lin Ma Manifest Quasi-Universals and Embedding Conceptual Clusters Asian Studies translation Chinese qíng quasi-universals embedding conceptual clusters |
| title | Manifest Quasi-Universals and Embedding Conceptual Clusters |
| title_full | Manifest Quasi-Universals and Embedding Conceptual Clusters |
| title_fullStr | Manifest Quasi-Universals and Embedding Conceptual Clusters |
| title_full_unstemmed | Manifest Quasi-Universals and Embedding Conceptual Clusters |
| title_short | Manifest Quasi-Universals and Embedding Conceptual Clusters |
| title_sort | manifest quasi universals and embedding conceptual clusters |
| topic | translation Chinese qíng quasi-universals embedding conceptual clusters |
| url | https://journals.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/10738 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jaapvanbrakel manifestquasiuniversalsandembeddingconceptualclusters AT linma manifestquasiuniversalsandembeddingconceptualclusters |