What is a wailaici? The Chinese dictionaries of lexical interferences and their theoretical outlook

Economic and cultural contacts and exchanges between Chinese and non-Chinese people have always been frequent; consequently, cases of lexical interference in the Chinese language are not uncommon. However, the interest of Chinese linguists in studying lexical interference arose only in the nineteenth century, when the first dictionaries of native neologisms and lexical interferences coined for referring to things and ideas imported from the West appeared. The historical events of the 1960s to 1980s led to a decline in dictionary-writing, but lately it has begun to flourish again. In this study, I will provide some insights into Chinese history and culture and how they have influenced the field of lexicography and the academic debate surrounding the nature of lexical interference in China. Along with some explanation of the various models of lexical interference in Chinese, I will illustrate the major features of the principal twentieth-century dictionaries of lexical interference and in particular their theoretical underpinning.