A Study Of Phonetic Transcription Classification On The Annotation Of Classics

The Annotation of Classics, written by Lu Deming (about 550-630) in Tang dynasty, is a phonetic explanation monograph annotating, by phonetic notation, 14 classic works such as Book of Changes in pre-Qin dynasty. It picks out and annotates those to-be-interpreted characters in the sequence of the original texts and former notes, so that, with the assured or differentiated pronunciations and significations of those characters in the context, readers can understand the texts and notes.The Annotation of Classics summarizes the former annotations and the studies of characters, crambo and allocution. Its phonetic annotations, enclosed in the notes of the texts, are the necessary tool for the classic works reading. What is more, the book provides abundant and valuable materials for research work associated with the Chinese phonetics, lexics and study of characters. Therefore, it is precious for the research work of the philology and language noumenal study.For over 1400 years, it is The Annotation of Classics but not its foundation that has been studied a lot: the stylistic, the connotation of the terms, the classification, contents and the features of the phonetic transcription, the book itself and the quality of the phonetic transcriptions, etc. Because of the lack of the basic research work, the associated research using the phonetic transcription materials in The Annotation of Classics cannot hold the water, resulting in the different conclusions with the similar materials.This article has the profound basic research on The Annotation of Classics, analyzing the stylistic and the used terms. Based on the terms, the article classifies all the phonetic notations and studies the stylistic, contents and the features systematically.Focusing on the phonetic transcription materials in The Annotation of Classics, the article has the close and limited studies on the language data. It is the massive research on the original text itself, belonging to the datum study of the three classifications—the methodology, the theology and the material research on the linguistics. After the limited data classification and statistic, the rules are revealed and the theories are drawn. Of course, there will be some exceptions and variations during the analysis, but these are of little influence on the credibility.Here is the process. Firstly, we make cards of the phonetic notes according to the interpreted characters in The Annotation of Classics, with which the sentences are complemented. Secondly, we input the cards and establish a phonetic transcription database, so that with the computer we can analyze and study them systematically, making data statistics and table arrangements. Thirdly, with the revealed frequency of the phonetic transcriptions and inward rules, we can get the logical interpretation and accurate qualities and definiens, then the generalized linguistic theories.According to the classified data, 7371 interpreted characters in The Annotation of Classics are remarked with 70803 phonetic transcriptions with the terms such as"phoneticizing","fanqie","A/B of AB","reading". These phonetic transcriptions include four parts: 52.3% for directly marked sounds indicating the meaning; 44.2% for differentiating and analyzing mutational word-formations; 2.3% for identifying borrowed characters ; 1.2% for distinguishing the graphemes. The classification of the various terms and contents reveals the various rules,features and language information as well.This article contains four chapters. In each chapter, firstly we determine and analyze the meanings of the major terms and secondary ones; then we discuss all the data respectively, calculating the amount, finding out the frequency and listing the examples; and then, analyze the functions and the significances, summing up the rules and features.Chapter I:"Phoneticizing". This the secondly used term, which means to use one character with the same sound to annotate the interpreted one, noting the entire syllables. In The Annotation of Classics, there are 18671 phonetic notations including 11184 times for directly marked sounds and indicated meanings, 6204 times for differentiating and analyzing mutational word-formations, 873 times for identifying borrowed characters, and 410 times for distinguishing graphemic features. It is easy and direct to use one character to note another one by phonetic notation,because this way reveals the relations between them in the forms,pronunciations and meanings. For example,they contain the same meanings but in different forms,or they have the same originated meanings. Therefore,it is valuable in the study of characters and linguistics. It must be noted that there are 1576 pairs of"early and late characters",which direct the relations among the derivation of Chinese characters,word--formations and the variations of the characters.Chapter II:"Fanqie". This term is used mostly in the book,which means to annotate the interpreted character with the blending syllables from another two characters. This way can also be used for elements of phonetics .In The Annotation of Classics,this way is employed for 48238 times: 25745 times for directly marked sounds indicating the meaning, 21889 times for differentiating and analyzing mutational word-formations, 509 times for identifying borrowed characters, and 95 times for distinguishing graphemes. Compared with"phoneticizing",this way does not show the relations between the words in the forms. Accordingly,the usage of the distinguished graphemes and borrowed characters is rare,so there is no"early and late characters". As mentioned above,this way can be for the elements of phonetics. For its accuracy,it can be used for rare-used words and the indication the meanings directly. And it is for differentiating and analyzing mutational word-formations because of its capability of analyzing the elements of phonetics."Fanqie"appears 2.5 times as many as"phoneticizing"in The Annotation of Classics, indicating the practicability of the former term in the age of Lu Deming. Some unsystematical transcriptions for the interpreted characters show the variations of the former transcriptions; while the systematical transcriptions indicate that Lu Deming has sorted out the references. The classified data of the massive use of the term manifests lots of phonetic information,and offers great help to the research work on the development of phonetics.Chapter III:"As characters". As a descriptive phonetic transcription term, it is the tertiary important term in The Annotation of Classics. In the whole book, there are 3035"as characters": including 74 times for directly marked sounds and indicated meanings, 2515 times for differentiating and analyzing mutational word-formations, 108 times for identifying borrowed characters, and 338 times for distinguishing graphemic features."As characters"---the usual pronunciation, is opposite to the unusual pronunciations. When a character has two or more different pronunciations in regarding to different meanings,"as characters"refers to the one, which fits the commonest habitual use of that time. That is to say, it means"pronouncing as how the character itself is pronounced", while the unusual pronunciations are the derived new pronunciations and new meanings."As characters"matters with the graphemic features, and some characters are annotated by differentiating the graphemic features or the borrowings of characters while few are annotated directly with pronunciations. 82.5﹪of"as characters"work for differentiating and analyzing mutational word-formations, while the opposite unusual pronunciations are more often made through the forms of"reading", pronouncing a word through another two relative characters, or"A/B of AB". Since the cooperation of the two ways of pronouncing shows the panorama of mutational word-formations, I concentrate on the discussion of the situations, characteristics and some theoretical problems concerning mutational word-formations in ancient Chinese.Chapter IV:"A/B of AB","readings","borrowing"and"harmonizing rhyme". These are used to discuss the last small group of phonetic transcription terms."A/B of AB"is one used with contextual restrictions, describing the pronunciations and meanings of the annotated characters in the form of phrases. In The Annotation of Classics, 36 annotated characters are indicated with"A/B of AB"for 621 times, and 97﹪of them are for differentiating and analyzing the mutational word-formations."Reading"is a common annotating term by annotators, it is more often applied to identify borrowed words, yet it also has other usages, in The Annotation of Classics, it is quoted under 284 annotated characters with the phonetic transcription examples of"reading"by predecessors. Besides all the phonetic transcription data of identifying borrowed characters that have been discussed in other chapters, there are still a few practical examples indicated directly"borrowing"in The Annotation of Classics, and also some phonetic transcriptions of this category in several small academic terms. This chapter concentrates on these transcriptions as well as general problems relating"borrowing"."Harmonizing of the rhyme"refers to the special phenomenon of pragmatic mutation, which changes the pronunciation of a character temporarily for the sake of rhyming harmony. This type of phonetic transcription appears 37 times in The Annotation of Classics, most of them are quotations from predecessors'practices, which are precious records of mutations. It is clear that, by quoting these materials, Lu Deming has already got the vague idea of diachronic mutations. However, the transcriptions of"harmonizing rhyme"he quoted, are, mostly, connected to mutational word-formations, in this case their meanings are still to be identified through the pronunciations.Through all the studies above, we are able to achieve a better understanding concerning some main problems we surely have to face when the phonetic transcriptions are employed in The Annotation of Classics.1. As an annotation book for ancient works, The Annotation of Classics is different from a rhyming book. A rhyming book has to indicate the pronunciation for a character through another two relative characters, for all those characters that have the same pronunciations but different ways of writing and can substitute for each other; it has to, as well, sort out a normative common phonetic system. However, The Annotation of Classics is a book, which gives the pronunciations and meanings right along with the texts. It makes annotations for characters that need an interpretation or differentiation, while for common words like"two, mouth, door, snow, I, many, buy"etc., both the pronunciations and meanings are obvious and there is no other unusual pronunciations, hence no phonetic transcriptions are available. In addition, 2003 items in The Annotation of Classics are identified purely with meanings, no pronunciations are indicated, which proves clearly that the major task of The Annotation of Classics is to annotate the meanings, while transcribing the pronunciations is merely one means to fulfill this task, and the book The Annotation of Classics is, itself, a succession and development of the study of traditional annotation.2. The phonetic transcriptions in The Annotation of Classics do not belong to oral pronunciation system, but the pronunciation of the written literature language. The book makes a record of more than 230 schools of phonetic transcriptions by predecessors, and it indicates the pronunciations and meanings of characters in classic literatures, both of which decide the qualities of the phonetic transcriptions it makes.3. In The Annotation of Classics, some transcriptions are purely differentiating the graphemic features, which make them valuable in graphetics. All these transcriptions in the book either indicate or differentiate the meanings, which are quite significant in the study of semasiology. The huge amount of transcriptions in The Annotation of Classics is also an important database for the study of phonetics: whether for the study of pronunciation systems of all previous schools, or of specific phonetic cases, or of mid-ancient pronunciation systems for written works etc., it is fairly precious as well.4. About half of these transcriptions in The Annotation of Classics are devoted to differentiating and analyzing mutational word-formations. They have a more distinct value in the research of the developmental history of Chinese lexicon and word-building, and these data can also be taken to explore the morphological structure of ancient Chinese. The most prominent is the vast phenomena of word-building through changing the third tone in ancient Chinese or changing voiced and unvoiced consonants, which reveals various language information and is absolutely worth further study.5. When we are using the phonetic transcriptions in The Annotation of Classics, we have to be aware of the differences between direct phonetic annotations and indirect phonetic annotations. According to the available data, there are a number of different indirect phonetic annotations. Although they are seemingly marked below the annotated characters, they are actually not annotating the phonetic features but serving for other purposes. If we take them as the pronunciations of the annotated charaters, we are likely to confuse them up and thus make mistakes in our research work.6. We must have a right understanding of both"the first pronunciation"listed first after the annotated characters and the"other pronunciations"listed after which as references. It is also necessary for us to make clear the functions and interrelations of the two kinds of"pronunciations"."The first pronunciation"is the one that fits the meaning of the character in a context, and it is defined according to the meaning of the character. It is thought that"the first pronunciation"is the standard pronunciation that Lu Deming chooses, in fact this is merely a misunderstanding, and"The first pronunciation"does not equal to standard pronunciation.7. We must also have a correct idea of the function of"as characters", as well as its relation with the unusual pronunciations. No matter"as characters"is placed as"the first pronunciation"or among"other pronunciations", it indicates the literal way of pronunciations practiced at that time."As characters"and"the unusual pronunciations"are opposite to each other in terms of meanings, although the change of meanings causes the change in pronunciations, that does not mean that the unusual pronunciations are certainly not habitual ones, and sometimes both of them are habitual literal pronunciations."As characters"and"the unusual pronunciations"may transform into each other in a certain historical period, the former unusual pronunciations in previous times may possibly be more commonly used in later periods, thus become the new"as characters".Lastly, we list all the yardsticks needed for making choices and practicable dealing methods, as we are studying the pronunciation system for literature works with the phonetic transcription materials generated from The Annotation of Classics.