| Abstract |
Barclay’s translation of the New Testament was published in 1916, and his Old Testamentin 1933. Both of these works preserve many of the linguistic forms of early Southern Min.Since translations of the Bible in classical Chinese, simple classical Chinese, Mandarin, andSouthern Min all existed before Barclay’s version, this article will compare and contrast thesimilarities and differences in the use of vocabulary in various translations, and explore thelexical features of Barclay’s translation. An investigation into Barclay’s works would help usunderstand the language use in earlier written literature as well as observe some of the uniquevocabulary of Southern Min at the time. This article will further discuss whether the lexicalselection of Barclay’s translation is systematic, and whether words with the same or similarmeaning have an obvious distinction or are mutually competing in terms of pragmatics. |
