John DeFrancis (August 31, 1911January 2, 2009) was an American
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
,
sinologist
Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...
, author of
Chinese language
Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...
textbooks,
lexicographer
Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines:
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries.
* The ...
of
Chinese dictionaries
There are two types of dictionaries regularly used in the Chinese language: list individual Chinese characters, and list words and phrases. Because tens of thousands of characters have been used in written Chinese, Chinese lexicographers have d ...
, and
professor emeritus
''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus".
...
of Chinese Studies at the
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi system and houses the main offic ...
.
Early life
John DeFrancis was born in
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the List of cities in New England by population, fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Loc ...
in a family of modest Italian immigrant origins. His father, a laborer who had changed his name from DeFrancesco, died when DeFrancis was a young child. His mother was illiterate.
Professional life
After graduating from
Yale College
Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
in 1933 with a
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
in economics, DeFrancis sailed to China with the intent of studying Chinese and working in business. In 1935, he accompanied H. Desmond Martin, a Canadian military historian, on a several-thousand-mile trip retracing the route of
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...
through Mongolia and northwestern China. His book ''In the Footsteps of Genghis Khan'' (University of Hawai'i Press, 1993) describes this journey riding camels across the
Gobi Desert
The Gobi Desert (, , ; ) is a large, cold desert and grassland region in North China and southern Mongolia. It is the sixth-largest desert in the world. The name of the desert comes from the Mongolian word ''gobi'', used to refer to all of th ...
, visiting the ruins of Khara-Khoto and rafting down the
Yellow River
The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...
. Along the way, he met the Chinese Muslim
Ma Clique
The Ma clique or Ma family warlords is a collective name for a group of Hui (Muslim Chinese) warlords in Northwestern China who ruled the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia for 10 years from 1919 until 1928. Following the colla ...
warlords Ma Buqing and Ma Bukang. DeFrancis returned to the United States in 1936 and did not visit China again until 1982.
DeFrancis began graduate studies in Chinese, first at Yale under George A. Kennedy and then at
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
due to Columbia's larger graduate program in
sinology
Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilization p ...
. He received an MA from Columbia in 1941, then a Ph.D. in 1948 with a dissertation entitled "Nationalism and Language Reform in China", which was published by Princeton University Press in 1950. He began his academic career teaching Chinese at
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
during the height of the
Red Scare
A Red Scare is a form of moral panic provoked by fear of the rise of left-wing ideologies in a society, especially communism and socialism. Historically, red scares have led to mass political persecution, scapegoating, and the ousting of thos ...
, and was
blacklisted
Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considere ...
for defending his colleague
Owen Lattimore
Owen Lattimore (July 29, 1900 – May 31, 1989) was an American Orientalist and writer. He was an influential scholar of China and Central Asia, especially Mongolia. Although he never earned a college degree, in the 1930s he was editor of '' Pac ...
from unsubstantiated allegations of being a Russian spy, and eventually laid off in 1954.
After an unhappy stint as a vacuum-cleaner salesman, DeFrancis eventually returned to teaching, notably at
Seton Hall University
Seton Hall University (SHU) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizab ...
from 1961 to 1966, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa from 1966 to 1976. In the 1960s, at the request of John B. Tsu, he wrote 12 volumes of textbooks and readers for
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...
, popularly known as the "DeFrancis series "and published by
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...
(), which were widely used in
Chinese as a foreign language
Chinese as a foreign or second language is when non-native speakers study varieties of Chinese, Chinese varieties. The increased interest in China from those outside has led to a corresponding interest in the study of Standard Chinese (a type of ...
classes for decades; DeFrancis was one of the first educators outside China to use
Hanyu Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means ' Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin'' literally ...
as an educational aid, and his textbooks are said to have had a "tremendous impact" on Chinese teaching in the West. He served as Associate Editor of the ''
DeFrancis retired from teaching in 1976, but remained an important figure in Chinese language
pedagogy
Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...
, Asian
sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...
, and
language policy
Language policy is both an interdisciplinary academic field and implementation of ideas about language use.
Some scholars such as Joshua Fishman and Ofelia García consider it as part of sociolinguistics. On the other hand, other scholars such as ...
, as well as a prolific author. One of his most well-known books, '' The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy'' (University of Hawai'i Press, 1984) attempts to debunk a number of what DeFrancis considered "widespread myths" about the language—including what he referred to as the "ideographic myth". Another influential work of his was ''Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems'', which addressed more myths about the Chinese writing system, and has been called his
magnum opus
A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship.
Historically, ...
by colleague
Victor H. Mair
Victor Henry Mair (; born March 25, 1943) is an American Sinology, sinologist currently serving as a professor of Chinese language, Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania. Among other accomplishments, Mair has edited the standard ''Columbia His ...
. DeFrancis spent his final years diligently working as Editor in Chief of the "ABC (Alphabetically Based Computerized) series" of Chinese dictionaries, which feature innovative
collation
Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office fi ...
by the pinyin romanization system.
DeFrancis died on 2 January 2009, in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, at the age of 97.Nora Caplan-Bricker John DeFrancis, 97, Chinese language scholar, is dead . ''Yale Daily News'', January 16, 2009.
Works
John DeFrancis was the author and editor of numerous publications.
The "DeFrancis series"
Textbooks (Yale Language Series, Yale University Press):
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Supplementary series
Accompanying ''Supplementary Readers'' for the ''Intermediate Chinese Reader'', (Yale University Press, 1976):
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Books and monographs
* ''Chinese Agent in Mongolia, translated from the Chinese of Ma Ho-t'ien'' (Johns Hopkins Press, 1949)
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* ''Report of the Second Round Table Meeting on Linguistics'', Language Teaching Monograph Series on Languages and Linguistics, Number 1 (Georgetown University Press, 1951)
* ''Bibliography on Chinese Social History'', by E-tu Zen and John DeFrancis (Yale University, Far Eastern Publications, 1952)
* ''Talks on Chinese History'' (with Elizabeth Jen Young) (Far Eastern Publications, 1952)
* ''Chinese Social History'', by E-tu Zen and John DeFrancis (American Council of Learned Societies, 1956)
* ''Chinese-English Glossary of the Mathematical Sciences'' (American Mathematical Society, 1964)
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* The Prospects for Chinese Writing Reform , ''Sino-Platonic Papers'' No. 171, 2006
Dictionaries
Editor of bilingual Chinese dictionaries (University of Hawai'i Press), which are used as databases for software such as Wenlin:
*'' ABC Chinese-English Dictionary'' (1996, pocket edition 1999) .
*''ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary'' (2003) .
*''ABC Chinese-English/English-Chinese Dictionary'' (2010)