Changing Concepts of Religion from Traditional to Modern Chinese, 1890-1949

本研究采用历史语义学的方法，考察汉语宗教相关术语的语义变化对宗教或宗教话语的影响。它的出发点是语言的模糊性和言语话语的多层次性，其含义由于其使用而不断变化，就中国现代宗教词汇而言，一方面是由于与西方的相遇和西方语义学的适应，另一方面是由于中国多元宗教史的旧意义层。本文旨在了解：（1）现代宗教词汇在多大程度上取代了旧词汇，或在多大程度上保留了前现代词汇的语境独立性（弹性），这取决于不同的使用语境;（2）西方词汇通过何种载体（话语共同体）、传播渠道和话语事件进入现代汉语词汇。因此，该项目一方面考察了中国宗教术语和话语领域的概念变化和语义修饰的过程。另一方面，它旨在了解与东亚现代化进程和话语相互作用的宗教相关词汇的作用和变化。因此，概念的语义分析将与语境化话语分析相结合。

The project applies an approach of historical semantics and investigates the semantic change of Chinese religion-related terminologies that has effected the present usage in discourses on religion or zongjiao. It takes as its point of departure the linguistic ambiguities and multilayeredness of verbal utterances whose meanings are constantly shifting due to their usage and which in the case of Chinese modern vocabulary on religion are formed on the one hand by the encounter with the West and adaptation of Western semantics and on the other hand by older layers of meaning of the plural Chinese history of religions.The subprojects examine keyterms in the semantic field of religion and aim to understand (1) to which degree – dependent on diverse usage contexts – modern religion-related vocabulary substitutes older terminologies or how much premodern vocabularies might have preserved contextual independance (resilience); (2) by which carriers (discoursive communities), channels of transfer and discursive events Western-coined vocabulary has entered the modern Chinese lexicon. The project examines therefore on the one hand processes of conceptual change and semantic approriations in the field of Chinese religious terminology and discourses. On the other hand it aims at understanding the role and change of religion-related vocabulary in interplay with processes and discourses of modernization in East Asia. Semantic analysis of concepts will therefore be combined with contextualizing discourse analysis.