Between phonemic loans and descriptive labelling: principles, examples and lexical innovation in the Huaxue cailiao Zhong-Xi mingmu biao
The article is an analysis of the Huaxue cailiao Zhong-Xi mingmu biao 化學材料中西名目表, or Vocabulary of names of Chemical Substances, a glossary of technical and scientific terms edited by the English translator John Fryer (Fu Lanya 傅蘭雅, 1839-1928) in cooperation with his Chinese colleagues, particularly Xu Shou 徐壽(1818-1884). In the first two chapters of the article, the author traces the origin of the glossary, its principles and the translation choices adopted in the text, briefly highlighting the theoretical background of Fryer’s work.