"Key" is an comparative adjective. One might say that the laboratory is a key facility. But it's use in a title would be out of the normal. This is similar to they way you would not call the Laboratory the "best" laboratory in the title, though my limited understanding of mandarin says that it would be normal in that language. "Key" gains its meaning because the last stone in an arch is the "key" stone. This translates better to "imperative" or "essential." My understanding from what you've written is that the entire ceramics production in China will not fall to ruin without this facility. I would use "Primary" instead. It has the same meaning, but carries more gravitas. "Primary", on the other hand, implies that while there are other facilities they are less important, and perform less of the work.
Hi, Jack Asher. Thanks for your participation in this discussion. Just now I googled "key laboratory" and I got almost all search results which are English names for Chinese research labs translated from Chinese. On the webpage of http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/english/research/laboratory.html I seemed to have successfully traced it back to its origin; in the introduction to their important labs, the Chinese University of Hong Kong on this webpage includes the following sentence: Another important initiative during the period was the establishment of the State Key Laboratory Scheme in 1984(I assume that this scheme was launched by the State Council of the Chinese Central Government). I have no way to know which Chinese guy first translated this Chinese expression into English this somewhat hilarious way, but the lasting impact of this English rendering is felt now everywhere in China. What seems to me to be mysterious is that scientists working at the Chinese Unversity of Hong Kong, many of whom come from English-speaking countries and conduct their sessions for students in English, have never questioned this mistaken use of the word. Just now I also googled "primary laboratory" and I got only several results like "Danish Primary Laboratory on Acoustics" but my impression, as you talked about the absurdity arising from "key" used in the title of a lab and any other facilities or anything, was that such evaluative adjectives even as "primary", let alone "key", should not have been used in the title in the first place. Certainly we can use such adjectives to talk about labs, though. By the way, after I have discussed with you guys in this thread, I find "Key Laboratory" in the title is the wrong translation. But to be honest, in China, we never include "best" in the title of a lab; only when an organization like a scientific society or the government of some level awards a prize to a research lab, then the wording of the prize certificate may have "the best" in it. You can never imagine seeing "the best" on a plaque hanging on the entrance of any lab; otherwise, it would be sheer boasting which will never be acceptable to anyone who sees it. Lastly, I want to tell you something which may be interesting and simultaneously embarrassing to many learners of English. I have consulted "key" in the online dictionary of http://dictionary.reference.com/ and got its meaning of "chief;major;important;essential;fundamental;pivotal". I have also keyed in "primary" in its search box, and I have found its first sense reads "first or highest in rank or importance; chief; principal". When you cited "the keystone" as an example while explaining the inappropriateness in including "key" in the title for a lab, I sensed that you were telling me that "key" means "indispensable", which is easier for me to understand and remember and comes to my mind quicker than its synonym "essential" when a situation calls for the expression of the idea in English. As I said in a previous post, I think I am a slow language learner. I find a lot of English words--even very basic ones-- are difficult to "take in"-- to feel comfortable with. To my knowledge, many Chinese learners of English use the bilingual editions of authoritative dictionaries, which give English and Chinese explanations at the same time before listing example sentenses, or use dictionaries published by Chinese presses which give only Chinese explanations about words' meanings. Many Chinese learners using a bilingual dictionary, when looking up a new word, never care about what the English explanation about a certain sense of the word is and will go directly to the Chinese explanation to save time and brains. Part of the reason is that English explanations are more likely to get them confused about what the word actually means; however, the dilemma is, the Chinese explanation is more likely to be inaccurate or misleading. Hope my "rambling" hasn't got you confused.
I've heard from a linguist that English is one of the easiest languages to learn, but it's highly idiomatic nature makes it very difficult for languages that have few idioms. If I'm right about the origin of the word, and I'll be honest I'm really just guessing with that one, then "key" even started out as an idiom. But at least I didn't have to explain, "sack up", which tripped up another ESL friend recently.
I apologize for sounding offensive to you.But surely that was not my intention. The gist of my previous post is that whether one nonnative learner of English thinks it is difficult or not depends on which level of proficiency he or she wants to reach.
