Essays in Honor of John Defrancis on His Eightieth Birthday
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SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 27 August 3 1, 1991 $35.00 Schriftfestschrift: Essays on Writing and Language in Honor of John DeFrancis on His Eightieth Birthday edited by Victor H. Mair Order froni: Department of Oriental Studies University of Pennsylvania Phdadelphia, PA 19 104-6305 USA SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series edited by Victor H. Mair. The purpose of the series is to make available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor actively encourages younger, not yet well established, scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. Contributions in any of the major scholarly languages of the world, including Romanized Modern Standard Mandarin (MSM) and Japanese, are acceptable. In special circumstances, papers written in one of the Sinitic topolects (fangyan) may be considered for publication. 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If issues are urgently needed while the editor is away, they may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. N.B.: Beginning with issue no. 171, Sino-Platonic Papers will be published electronically on the Web. Issues from no. 1 to no. 170, however, will continue to be sold as paper copies until our stock runs out, after which they too will be made available on the Web. _______________________________________________ Table of Contents ... Tabula Gratulatoria lll Introduction v Victor H. Mair Publications of John DeFrancis vii Hanzi Bu Tebie Biaoyi I Zhang Liqing Typology of Writing Systems Zhou Youguang Dui Hand de Jiizhong Wujie Yin Binyong The Information Society and Terminology Liu Yongquan A Bilingual Mosaic Einar Haugen The Polysemy of the Term Kokugo S. Robert Ramsey Memorizing Kanji: Lessons from a Pro J. Marshall Unger Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard David Moser Ethnolinguistic Notes on the Dungan Lisa E Husmann and William S-Y.Wang Korean Views on Writing Reform Wm. C. Hannas Language Policies and Linguistic Divergence in the Two Koreas Ho-min Sohn - Okinawan Writing Systems, Past, Present, and Future Leon A. Serafim Proposal of a Comparative Study of Language Policies and Their Implementation in Singapore, Taiwan, and China (PRC) Robert L. Cheng The Topical Function of Preverbal Locatives and Temporals in Chinese Feng-fu Tsao Yes-No Questions in Taipei and Peking Mandarin Robert M. Sanders Patronizing Uses of the Particle "ma": Bureaucratic Chinese Bids for Dominance in Personal Interactions Beverly Hong Fincher Gender and Sexism in Chinese Language and Literature Angela Jung-Palandri A zhezi Anagram Poem of the Song Dynasty John Marney Some Remarks on Differing Correspondences in Old Chinese Assumed to Represent Different Chinese Dialects Nicholas C. Bodman Can Taiwanese Recognize Simplified Characters? John S. Rohsenow Simplified Characters and Their (Un)relatedness Chauncey C. Chu The Teaching of Culture and the Culture of Teaching: Problems, Challenges, and Opportunities in Language Instruction Eugene Eoyang The Culture Component of Language Teaching K y oko Hijirida Thinking About Prof. John DeFrancis Apollo Wu Wo suo Renshi de De Xiansheng Chih-yu Ho Two Poems for Professor John DeFrancis Richard F. S. Yang . Announcement Stephen Fleming TABULA GRATULATORIA Olov BdAnderson Ivan Aymat Dayle Barnes Yung-0 Biq David Bradley Susan Brennecke Chauncey C. Chu Madeline Chu Alvin P. Cohen East Asian Studies, Washington University in St. Louis SenEgerod Eugene Eoyang Mary S. Erbaugh Esther ~igueroa Joshua A. Fishman Stephen Fleming Feng-fu Tsao Martin Girnm Christoph Harbsmeier C. Y. Ho Henry M. Hoenigswald & Gabriele L. Hoenig swald Vivian Ling Hsu Robert L hick Betty Jacobsen . Frank A. Kierman, Jr. Y. C. Li J. C. P. Liang Louis S. Mangione Richard B. Mather John Marney Cynthia Y. Ning Jerry Norman Alain Peyraube Angela Jung Palandri Rulan Chao Pian & Theodore H. Pian Gilbert W. Roy Wayne Schlepp C. P. Sobelrnan Clara S. Y. Sun R. McMillan Thompson & Sandra A. Thompson H&w-% Wang: For the past ten years John's books have been an indrspensable part of my language program. I have been able to design a computer program based on the ciear and systematic grammar content, Chinese characters, and supplementary matmals of John's Beginning Chinese Textbook. I am always on the look out for more supplementary materials from John. John, God bless you for the invaluable work you are doing! Jing Wang With special thanh to Ivan Aymat, Louis S. Mangione, Feng-fi Tsao, Chauncey Chu, Hsiao-Min Wang, Henry & Gubriele Hoenigswald, Rulan Chao & Theodore Pian, Eugene Eqvang, John Maw,Gilben Roy, Frank A. Kiennan, Jr., Easr Asian Studies (Warhington University in Saint Louis), C. Y. Ho, C. P. Sobelman, Cynthia Y. Ning, Alain Peyraube, Sundra A & R McMillan ~E?ornpson,OZov Bertil Andmson, Vivian Hsu, Yung-0 Big, Angela Jung Palandn', Clara S. K Sun, Susan Brennecke, and Stephen Fleming. And a big debt of gratitude to John S. Rohsenow. S~hI7frfls~hc$:Essays in Honor of Johrl DeFrancis Introduction Victor H. Mair University of Pennsylvania The honoree of this volume may be chronologically eighty years old, but he is decidedly a young man at heart A number of associates in China and in the United States are currently involved in a strenuous effort to compile the first general-purpose, Chinese- English dictionary arranged strictly according to a single alphabetical sequence of whole words. None of us is more energetic or enthusiastic than John DeFrancis. When our ABC dictionary becomes a reality in a couple of years, no one will have been more responsible for its conceptualization and execution than John. And if any proof is needed for that statement, I have a stack of memos from him in my office to show how amazing are his attention for detail and ability to think through problems clearly. But it is not just the ABC dictionary that reveals John to be a man of enormous vision and productivity. These characteristics have been evident in his life and work for over half a century. It is hard to imagine that John published his fmt book over forty years ago and just as difficult to conceive of a man his age continuing to write equally eloquent and important works up to the present moment. 1 do not need to name John's numerous books and articles one by one -- the partial bibliography of his works that follows this introduction will suffice to give a sense of their wide range and great significance. What has always impressed me about all of John's writing, since long before I ever had the good fortune to meet him personally, is his keen perceptivity. John has an almost incredible talent for cutting through obfuscation and seeing what the crux of any given matter may be. This penetrating insight enables John to define issues clearly, to analyze them incisively, and to present his solutions lucidly. Furthermore, John's well-organized mind permits him to achieve feats of practical scholarship that can only be dreamed of by the common mortal. On top of all these other stellar qualities, John is possessed of nearly superhuman industriousness and efficiency. Let me put it bluntly: if the necessary facts are out there somewhere, John will be able to dig them up - even from the middle of the Pacific Ocean! -- and put them to good use. So John is a superb scholar with many excellent works to his credit. Yet there is another ingredient, or pair of ingnxhents, that sets John DeFrancis apart from all the other fine scholars whom I have encountered -- that is his passion and his compassion. John cares. Whatever John does is because he wants to help improve things. His classic Ndiomlism and Longrcage Reform in chi^ was dedicated to Old Wang. If we turn to p. 143 of the same book, we can find out who Old Wang was: Known as Old Wang. Age thirty-five. Totally illiterate. Occupation: peasant. Lives in a tiny village four and a half miles northeast of Peking.