Research On Monosyllabic Antonyms Of Lun Heng

In the studies of Chinese lexical history, the studies of antonyms in ancient Chinese appear relatively weak compared with studies of other aspects, which is more obvious in both theories and the studies of antonyms in some single books. Such situation is undoubtedly unfavourable for further development of Chinese lexical history research. In this thesis, the author tries to discuss antonyms in Lun Heng, which is regarded as one of the most valuable books on philosophy, as well as to make an exploration in theories of antonym research, aiming to disclose its theorical meanings and practical values. After briefly reviewing the theories of antonyms in ancient Chinese since the 1980s, and going over the studies of some single books, the author pointed out the problems existing in this field. Theoretically, the problems lie in the standards of definiting, the means of analyzing and describing as well as the examining of some frequently-used antonyms; practically, the problems lie in the deficiency of studies of antonyms in single books written in both Eastern Han Dynasty and modern Chinese. Based on works of predecessors and contemporary scholars, the author pointed out the importance of furthering the studies of antonyms in single books. In this thesis, the author selected Lun Heng as the subject to be studied, aiming to illustrate its important effect on the study of vocabularies in mid-ancient Chinese. In favor of some contemporary scholars'views as to the period of Wei Jin Northern and Southern Dynasties and Sui Dynasty as the mid-ancient Chinese in the division of ancient Chinese, the author agrees that the study of Lun Heng can reveal a general picture of monosyllabic antonyms, can inspect the use of antonyms in mid-ancient Chinese, can help to understand the meaning system of some polysemies and can also find out how the frequently-used antonyms changed after conducting some dicachronic distinctions. As a result of the relatively weak studies of antonyms in ancient Chinese, some concrete theories and methods depend on further discussion. Based on works of predecessors as well as contemporary scholars and taking Lun Heng as an example, the author shows the definition of antonyms and standards of collecting them. At the same time, the author agrees that antonyms should be termed like this: they not only belong to the same language, the same history period, but also have the relations of contrast and cite to each other in the specified language circumstance, meanwhile, they have the same functions whereas they are relative or opposite on one or some sememe; therefore, a antonym should conforms to the four standards as follows: 1) they should belong to the same language as well as the same period; 2) they should have contrast relations under a certain circumstances; 3) they should have at least one contrast or contrary sememe; 4) they should be content words sharing the same functions. The study of antonyms in single books is actually the study of antonyms in parole; therefore, we should attach great importance to the study of parole. At the same time, we shouldn't neglect the close relations among antonyms in a certain single book, and we can consider the above point by the following standards: 1)by two sharply constrasting words and by the coupled words of opposite meanings; 2)by some symbolic words, such as "Bu (不)","Huo(或)","Yi(一)";3) by reference and explanatory notes; 4) by considering words used in the books. All these methods cannot only be applied to Lun Heng, but they also have referencial meanings to other books. According to the above methods and standards, the author shows that there're 371 pairs of antonyms,including 133 verbs, accounting for 36%, 70 nouns 19% and 168 adjectives45%. All these antonyms appear in Lun Heng 3542 times. The author also make out a list of antonyms. According to the meanings, 371 pairs of monosyllabic antonyms appeared in Lun Heng can be classified into 2 categories: simple antonyms (one versus one ; 79 pairs ) and complicated antonyms (one versus many; 292 pairs ). In this thesis, the author's attention is focused on complicated antonyms and the author subclassified these antonyms into 3 groups: 1) Words having several antonyms sharing the same meaning; 2) Words having several antonyms sharing different meanings; 3) Polysemy versus several antonyms, which forms a complex paradingm. Conducting diachronic comparisons and examining the development of language is one of the most important means and purpose of studying the history of Chinese. In order to disclosing the development of some frequently used antonyms, the author tries to make a comparison among Zuo Zhuan, Lun Heng and Yan Shi Jia Xun. By careful studying, the author comes to the conclusion that antonyms are changing with times. Constrained by economic and concise principles, some antonyms were elimlnated through competition while others which are rich in meanings are passed on. The number of words having several antonyms sharing different meanings are decreasing while those words with only one antonyms have become the main stream, which indicates that those frequently-used antonyms are becoming steady. Based on above analysis, we may come to the following conclusion: There are a great number of monosyllabic antonyms which are frequently-used in Lun Heng, and these antonyms contribute to the liveliness of language. Analyzing antonyms, we can disclose contrast between meanings, inspect meaning systems, exploring the origin of words and learn the relations between...