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Nils Göran David Malmqvist (6 June 1924 – 17 October 2019) was a Swedish
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 ...
, literary historian, sinologist and translator. He was also a member of the Swedish Academy between 1985 and 2019.


Biography

Göran Malmqvist was born on 6 June 1924, in Jönköping, Sweden. Following introductory studies of Chinese under Sinologist Bernhard Karlgren at Stockholm University, Malmqvist studied in China in 1948–1950. He then returned to Stockholm, taking a Licentiate of Arts degree in 1951. His international research career started shortly thereafter with a lectureship in Chinese at the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
in 1953–1955. He was then appointed Swedish cultural attaché in
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
and worked in China in 1956–1958.


Academic career

After his years in China he moved to Australia in 1958, where he worked for seven years at the
Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...
in
Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...
. After some important essays on Chinese language history he was appointed Professor of Chinese at the university in 1961. During his professorship at the Australian National University, Malmqvist published academic articles on both old Chinese and modern Chinese. The articles concerned e.g. phonological issues and literary
dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...
s during the
Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...
, the
syntax In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituenc ...
of bound forms in Sïchuanese and western Mandarin phonology.


Writing and translation

In 1965, Malmqvist was called to Stockholm as Professor of Sinology, particularly Modern Chinese, at the newly established Section of Chinese in the Department of Oriental Languages at Stockholm University. Back in Stockholm, his career as a translator also began, with a series of interpretations of
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
lyrics in the anthology ''Det förtätade ögonblicket'' (The compact moment). Malmqvist translated more than 40 volumes of Chinese literature from different epochs, different Chinese varieties, and different literary genres. In 1971, Malmqvist published several textbooks including ''Nykinesisk grammatik'' (Grammar of Modern Chinese) and ''Nykinesisk fonetik'' (Phonetics of Modern Chinese), a number of translations, chiefly in the academic journal ''Orientaliska studier'' (Oriental studies), and the large section on ''Chinese literature 500–1779'' in the joint Nordic ''Litteraturens världshistoria'' (World history of literature). This was followed in 1973 with the section on ''The literature of China 1780–1890'' and ''Chinese literature 1890–1965''. The same year he published the translation of Lao She's short stories in ''Det sorgsna skrattet'' (The sorrowful laugh). In 1974, Malmqvist published the popular volume ''Kinesiska är inte svårt'' (Chinese isn't difficult). During the 1970s, he was also working on the translation of the over thousand page
picaresque novel The picaresque novel ( Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for ' rogue' or 'rascal') is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish but appealing hero, usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrup ...
'' Shui Hu zhuan''. The Swedish title is ''Berättelser från träskmarkerna'' (Tales from the swamps) and the work appeared in four volumes between 1976 and 1979. He also translated the five volumes of '' Xī Yóu Jì'' (''Journey to the West'', with the Swedish title ''Färden till västern''), a 16th-century story of how in the 7th century the pilgrim
Xuanzang Xuanzang (; ; 6 April 6025 February 664), born Chen Hui or Chen Yi (), also known by his Sanskrit Dharma name Mokṣadeva, was a 7th-century Chinese Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making ...
brings the holy writings of
Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
from India to China. During the 1970s and 1980s, Malmqvist's research turned chiefly to classical Chinese
philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...
, syntax and
semantic Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...
s.


Swedish Academy

Göran Malmqvist was elected to the Swedish Academy on 11 April 1985 and admitted on 20 December 1985. Malmqvist succeeded the literary historian Henry Olsson to Chair number 5. From the time after his election to the Swedish Academy, the over five-hundred page biography on his teacher Bernhard Karlgren was of particular note: ''Bernhard Karlgren – ett forskarporträtt'' in 1995; (Bernhard Karlgren – portrait of a scholar). Malmqvist here follows Karlgren's path through the pioneering era of Sinology from his early dialectological fieldwork in China in 1910–1912, which aimed at reconstructing the sound pattern of ancient Chinese. Following the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Chinese author Mo Yan in 2012, Malmqvist was criticized for a possible conflict of interest, as he had close personal and economic relations to Mo Yan. Malmqvist had translated several of Mo Yan's works into Swedish and published some through his own publishing house. Mo Yan had also written a laudatory preface to one of Malmqvist's own books, and been a close friend of Malmqvist's wife for 15 years. The Nobel committee denied that this constituted a conflict of interest, and said that it would have been absurd for Malmqvist to recuse.


Bibliography

* ''Det förtätade ögonblicket: T'ang-lyrik'' (1965) * ''Problems and methods in Chinese linguistics'' (1964) * ''Han phonology and textual criticism'' (1963) * ''Gunnar Martins samling av kinesisk och japansk litteratur'' (1947)ae-info *- Göran Malmqvist books.
Retrieved 20 October 2019
* ''111 nykinesiska satsmönster'' (1973) * ''Nykinesisk grammatik'' (1973) * ''Kinesiska är inte svårt'' (1974) * ''Nykinesisk fonetik'' (1974) * ''Nykinesiska satsmönster'' (1981) * ''Vägar till Kina: Göran Malmqvist 60 år'' (1984) * ''Henry Olsson: Inträdestal i Svenska akademien'' (1985) * ''Bernhard Karlgren: Ett forskarporträtt'' (1995) * ''Nio röster från Taiwan: Modern kinesisk poesi'' (1999) * ''Haiku för ros och oros skull'' (2002) * ''Strövtåg i svunna världar'' (2005) * ''Guldfisken som älskar att sjunga Mozart'' (2013)


Notes


References

* ''Stol nr 5 – Göran Malmqvist'', Official biography by Jan Arnald, Swedish Academy: Stockholm, 2005.


Further reading

* Göran Malmqvist, A selective guide to Chinese literature, 1900–1949. 4 vol. Leiden, 1988–1990. * Göran Malmqvist, Modern Chinese literature and its social context, Nobel Symposium, 32. Stockholm, 1977. * Göran Malmqvist, ''Problems and Methods in Chinese Linguistics'', The Australian National University: Canberra, 1962. is a compact introduction to Chinese linguistics. * Göran Malmqvist, ''Bernhard Karlgren: Ett forskarporträtt'', Stockholm: Norstedts, 1995, * Göran Malmqvist, ''Det förtätade ögonblicket'' (The compacted moment), Stockholm: Forum, 1965 * Lao She, ''Det sorgsna skrattet'', Stockholm: Forum, 1972, * N.G.D. Malmqvist, ''Kinesiska är inte svårt'', Stockholm: Aldus, 1974,


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malmqvist, Goran 1924 births 2019 deaths Alumni of the University of London Linguists from Sweden Members of the Swedish Academy People from Jönköping Stockholm University alumni Swedish expatriates in China Swedish expatriates in Australia 20th-century Swedish historians Swedish sinologists Translators from Chinese Translators to Swedish 20th-century Swedish translators Cultural attachés Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences