翻译 - 汉语(简体)-英语 - 文字学

文字＋学（比如charactology）
charact+ology(for example charactology)
the author want to get a word have this structure
Biology Ecology geology cytology
but the translation from IanMegill2 don't conform to it.
I ask some professer in English and French ,all of them think there is no word in English and French can describe it.
They think the word Lexicology is more better than others.

Hello, Michel Lao, thanks for your reply.

Sorry, but as there are no words in English nor in French, we could not accept any neologism in these languages, and we are obliged to use the closer meaning terms.

Lexicology seems not to be suitable here.

IanMegill2's translation is the only one acceptable, as we don't have the right to validate any neologism. That's what I said to pluiepoco under the original text.

It should be "Chinese graphology."
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/graphology?view=uk

Unless, however, it means characters in general. It is correct then. I guess it depends on the meaning of the Chinese.

Thanks Spasty,

You know, I had thought about "Chinese graphology" too, and in the pure linguistics sense it's probably very close. The problem for me was that "graphology" now has in English a very strong connotation as the art of "guessing what kind of personality/character a person has, judging from their handwriting."
So I didn't use it, much like we would avoid using the word "gay" these days, if we meant "happy" in the phrase
He looks gay today!


Also, I don't think even the pure-linguistics kind of graphology would completely cover the field of
文字学 (WenZiXue)
which also includes such things as historical developments in the use, the form, and the way of writing the characters, concrete reasons for their detailed structure (why they have the form they do, i.e. what real-world reference they were trying to represent pictorially), etc...
However, I have been known to be wrong sometimes!

Anyway,
Chinese graphology
may indeed be the closest -ology in the West to correspond to what the requester wanted! It could certainly at least be included in the Remarks about the Translation section, I should think, if not as the main Translation itself.

Thanks again!

CC: Spasty kafetzou

I think that what you originally chose is better, Ian, so I'm going to accept it. It is clear and cannot be misunderstood.

Today I find the word "文字学" in some dictionaries

１　文字学——Philologie Page 1051
“Dictionnnaire Français De La Lange Chinoise”
《汉法综合词典》1976 L'INSTITUT RICCI

２　文字学——Filologia page 1058
“Diccinario Espanol DE La Lengua China”
《汉西综合词典》1977 INSTITUTO RICCI

3 文字学——Schrifenkunde page847
“Das Neue Chinesisch-Deutsche Worterbuch”
《新德汉词典》1984 北京外国语大学 商务印书馆

I think the word in English is "Philology"
but the word now means the studty of language
not the study of charact

Yes, Michel - philology has come to mean more the study of literature. Here is the definition from the online Merriam-Webster dictionary:

1: the study of literature and of disciplines relevant to literature or to language as used in literature

2 a: linguistics; especially : historical and comparative linguistics b: the study of human speech especially as the vehicle of literature and as a field of study that sheds light on cultural history

This is definitely not the word we want here.