Peter T. Daniels wrote:

> > I was talking yesterday about a table of Chinese characters used

to

> > transliterate foreign names into Chinese, which I have seen on
> > [Coulmas 1999].
> > [...]
>
> Typically mis- or underinformed statement from that book (1996,

BTW, not

> 1999).

Well, I don't think you believe that Coulmas could have *made*up*
that table... But I agree that it would have been much better to have
more details about the origin and the scope of usage of that table.

> Quite a few (well-known) foreign names are rendered in Chinese
> with characters that not only have a relevant pronunciation, but

also

> have meanings that are literally, metaphorically, or ironically
> relevant.

Certainly. E.g., I remember a lengthy article about how the Chinese
translators of Harry Potter's books transcribed the names: they
carefully chose the characters(=hanzi) whose meaning hinted about the
character(=moral quality) of each character(=personage) in the novel.

(BTW, don't you think that English has too many meanings for the
word "character"? :-)

> Examples can be found in most of the semi-introductory books
> on Chinese writing or even the Chinese language. This table would
> only be for quotidian usage.

That's my guess too. I don't think Chinese journalist would use that
table to transcribe names of people such as George Bush or Vladimir
Putin: probably the decision of how to transcribe such very names
requires a meeting of the editorial staff (if not a memo from the
ministry of foreign affairs).

But what if a Chinese journalist is asked to review a book by a
certain "Peter T. Daniels" from America, or to report about (TOUCH
WOOD!) the murder of a certain "Marco Cimarosti" from Italy, and she
is given half an hour to deliver the article...

--
Marco