In this article I will expose the results of a lexicological inquiry about the Chinese lexicon of Western grammar in the temporal span 1879-1898, when the first Chinese essays dealing with Western grammar appeared and the issue of the creation of a Chinese grammatical lexicon arose. The aim of my research is to propose a study of the lexicon within its own historical and social context, in order to improve the comprehension of the communicative motivations that determined some lexical choices and the concrete meaning that the authors attributed to these lexical terms.