Paper proposal for the 2009 Chinese as a World Language Conference

At Seton Hall University, 16 May 2009

By Peter Leimbigler, Ph.D.

Email: PeterLeimbigler@aya.Yale.edu

Does Pinyin contribute to Chinese being a world language? -

Segmentation of Pinyin expressions and other Pinyin spacing issues

The phonetic transcription Hanyu Pinyin, when written in a second line parallel to a Chinese character text, makes Chinese readable for speakers of other world languages, and thus constitutes a bridge to an otherwise phonetically oriented world. Considering the importance of Pinyin as an auxiliary system in teaching Chinese, we should make every effort to comply with the Pinyin transcription standard.

While Pinyin orthography, especially the spacing of words and syllables, has been officially standardized since 1996, many publications inside and outside China do not follow the standard. We find Chinese textbooks and computer learning programs that use monosyllabic Pinyin, or are inconsistent in complying with the rules of Pinyin orthography in other respects.

After a brief overview of Pinyin Romanization, we look at examples where the Pinyin spacing is controversial, so that different dictionaries present different spacing solutions. Commenting on the various versions, I make reference to the official Pinyin standardization document, as well as to the mainstream Chinese dictionaries that include the Pinyin Romanization of the expressions.

Especially in the transcription of four-character fixed expressions (chengyu) we find a great deal of insecurity regarding spacing and hyphenation: are the four Pinyin syllables written with spaces in between, are they written in pairs of two syllables, or are they hyphenated? The difficulties originate from the fact that, when writing a chengyu in its Pinyin transcription, the spacing rules are determined by the semantic and grammatical infrastructure of the expression. This means that before one can write the Pinyin transcription of a chengyu with its correct spacing, one has to first understand the meaning of the expression and the grammatical relationship between the components (parallel pairs of two characters, phrases of four characters based on classical Chinese “wenyan”, etc.).

This presentation intends to make the audience aware of the Pinyin spacing rules in general, and their application to chengyu in particular, which – among all the other world languages - are a unique Chinese creative and imaginative phenomenon of communicating complex ideas and concepts by way of metaphor.