A Study On The Characters’ Usage In Lingnan Zazi Literature From Qing Dynasty To The Republic Of China

Folk literature has gradually entered the vision of researchers in recent years.However,Zazi literature has not yet attracted widespread attention as folk literature.The academic circle has paid less attention to Zazi literature’s language and writing problems,especially the specialized research on the writing phenomena is even rare.Zazi is an essential resource for Chinese language and characters,traditional culture,and local culture as one folk literature.At the same time,since Zazi literature is used as folk reading and literacy teaching material,its nature is different from that of general folk literature.Zazi literature itself has unique characteristics worthy of significant attention and in-depth exploration.Based on the study of the functions and use of Chinese characters,this essay takes the Lingnan Zazi literature from Qing to the Republic of China as the object,examines the basic phenomena and research value,analyzes the various word usages,and explains the difficult words,and summarizes the characteristics.These efforts positively affect the collation and interpretation of Zazi literature and have crucial academic value for studying Chinese word relationships,the study of the functions and usage of Chinese characters,the history of the Chinese language,and the compilation of dictionaries.This dissertation aims to arouse the academic community’s attention to Zazi literature and promote a more in-depth and comprehensive study and utilization.The full dissertation consists of the following six parts.The first chapter is an introduction,which briefly reviews the current research status on the functions and usage of Chinese characters and Zazi literature.This chapter explains the related materials,theories,and methodological issues of this research.The existing studies imply that there is still a broad research space for the functions and usage of Chinese characters,the research on language and philology has not paid enough attention to Zazi literature,and the utilization rate of materials is still meager.It is of great significance to interpret the use of characters in Zazi literature from the perspective of the functions and usage of Chinese characters.The second chapter mainly summarizes the specific appearance and research value of Lingnan Zazi literature from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China.According to the content and genre,the basic categories of Lingnan Zazi literature of this period are roughly classified into common sense education and lexicographical tools.The research value of Lingnan Zazi literature of this period is mainly embodied in three aspects: philology,phonology,and lexicology.The third chapter focuses on analyzing the original special characters used in the Lingnan Zazi literature from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China.The original special characters are divided into two types.The first category is that the universal characters are the original characters,and the Zazi literature uses the original variant characters.The second category is that the universal characters are borrowed ones,and the Zazi literature uses the original characters.The fourth chapter focuses on analyzing the special borrowed characters used in the Lingnan Zazi literature from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China.The special borrowed characters are divided into two categories.The first category is the universal characters are the original characters,and the Zazi literature uses the borrowed characters.The second category is the universal characters are borrowed characters,and the Zazi literature uses other borrowed characters.The fifth chapter examines and identifies more than 50 complicated characters that appeared in the Lingnan Zazi literature from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China,including three types: “difficult characters with variation in shape”,“difficult characters with special construction”,and “rare commonly borrowed difficult characters”.The analysis of complicated characters could provide references for the interpretation of Zazi literature and the compilation of dictionaries.The sixth chapter mainly reveals the characteristics of characters’ usage in Lingnan Zazi literature from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China.First,there are many variations in writing,such as adding or subtracting strokes,moving positions,changing shapes,confusing parts,and others.Second,being heterogeneous and peculiar,which is reflected in assimilated character construction,homogeneous character construction,word construction(the parts of the character can be joined into a word),redundant character construction(characters with useless components),and others.The third is the borrowed more than the original,the reasons include randomness,habit,the pursuit of convenient writing,the pursuit of clear pronunciation,the ignorance of the original words,and others.Fourth,many dialect words with regional characteristics are used,which exist independently as the attribute of the characters themselves,and the changes in recorded words and characters are closely related to the regional distribution.