Jinwen "chancery" And "ya," Meaning Class Case Studies

Jinwen Shangshu(The Book of Document), one of the source literature of written Chinese, reflects systematically and from a cover-all view, the language feature of Shang-Zhou period (from Shang dynasty to Zhou dynasty), and so has irreplaceable value as important corpus. Erya dictionary is the first monograph on lexical meaning, and the first dictionary compiled generally on the basis of syntactic system and classification of things. Since Erya dictionary is closely related to other classics, comparative study on Jinwen Shangshu and Erya dictionary is valuable as corpus, and is theoretically important.Study of lexical meaning is an important aspect of lexical and syntactic study of Chinese language. Word is the unity of form and meaning, in which meaning plays a decisive role. Lexical meaning, the relationships between the meanings of a lexical system, and the evolving rules of lexical meaning are, to some extent, sensible but hard-to-explain problems for studies of lexicology and syntax. Ancient and contemporary learners have done adequate and diverse observation into lexical meaning of Chinese language, but throughout history and contemporary research into lexical meaning of Chinese, no works on comparative study between Jinwen Shangshu and Erya dictionary in the respect of lexical meaning is found, neither relative papers.This article intends to compare term by term, Shang Shu Tong Jian by Gu Jie-gang with Erya Jinzhu by Xu Zhao-hua, and in this way, thoroughly collect all the words appeared both in Jinwen Shangshu and in Erya dictionary, so as to describe the relationship between the meanings of the words to be compared, and explore the forming system of monosyllables'multiplication, on the basis of comparison, division and conditioning, striving to provide theory reference for the research into the rules of lexical evolution and development of Chinese language.Research approaches adopted in this article include statistic method and contrastive analysis to a large degree, and diagrammatical method, diachronic and synchronic comparison, as well as induction and deduction at proper cases.This article is composed of five chapters. The first chapter is"examples of comparison between the original meaning of the homographs (same characters) in Jinwen Shangshu and Erya dictionary". This chapter analyses 97 monosyllabic homographs in Jinwen Shangshu and Erya dictionary, which have the same original meaning, and concludes them into five types by observing the evolution of lexical meaning and the relationships between the senses in the lexical system of a word, and as well, inquires into the development of the antique words'original meaning in the long time of passing.The second chapter is"examples of comparison between the extended meaning of the homographs in Jinwen Shangshu and Erya dictionary". This chapter analyses 152 monosyllabic homographs in the two classics, which have similar extended meanings, and generalizes four types through comparison. Many monosyllables in Jinwen Shangshu, with a number of extended meaning, are multiple-meaning words, and the use of some of the meanings becomes fixed and steadily retains in literature language.The third chapter is"the relationships between the different meanings of the homographs in Jinwen Shangshu and Erya dictionary". A large number of the compared homographs in Jinwen Shangshu and Erya dictionary have no equivalent sense. There are totally 144 these words, further divided into two types as homographs of similar meaning and homographs of different meanings. After detailed observation on the former type, we find the homographs are not isolated from one another, seen from the perspective of lexical meaning, rather, they have some hidden relationships in depth, some even closely related with each other. As for the latter type, there doesn't seem to be any relationships between these words in meaning. They, mainly proper names, just share same sound and spelling.The fourth chapter is"Tongjia (interchange of Chinese characters) of the monographs in Jinwen Shangshu and Erya dictionary". In Jinwen Shangshu, there are a great number of Tongjiazi (a Chinese character used to express another character because of same or similar pronunciation in ancient China), nearly in every chapter. Erya dictionary doesn't only explain original meaning and extended meanings, but it also explains a few of Tongjia meaning. Tongjia is so frequently used in Jinwen Shangshu so that it, to some extent, resulted into the fact that explanations in Erya dictionary differ from the lexical meanings of the same words in Jinwen Shangshu. It is proved by research that Tongjia of particles remained comparatively stable.The fifth chapter is"motive of the multiplication in meaning of the monosyllables in Jinwen Shangshu and Erya dictionary and the value of the comparison between the meanings of them". This chapter observes in depth the motive for the monosyllables to evolve multiple meanings, from cognitive and cultural perspectives. Jinwen Shangshu is composed mainly of multiple-meaning monosyllables. Multiplication in meaning of monosyllables corresponds both to the cognition rules of human thinking, and to the economic rule of language. Multiplication in meaning of a word is closely related to categorization during human cognition, and is inevitably related to metaphor and transitive metaphor. Metaphor is a projection from the source field to the target field, and transitive metaphor is the substitute for a thing by the prominent thing in the same cognition field. And it is by means of metaphor and transitive metaphor, and through association (association in similarities and in connections), that the multiplication in lexical meaning is realized. Lexical meaning is the medium between human and the cultural world. From the evolving track of lexical meaning, we can detect the cultural deposit, philosophical thinking, concept of value, and system of rituals of Han nation. And because of the colorful culture, lexical meaning becomes variegated. Study in culture is an important aspect to study lexical meaning, and meanwhile a more profound perspective that transfers from description to explanation.Comparative study on the lexical meanings of the homographs in Jinwen Shangshu and Erya dictionary is an aid to generalize the several characteristics and rules in the lexical movement of the ancient Chinese words. Erya dictionary, as an encyclopedia of pre-Qin lexes, is of great documental value to us in our understanding of antique words. Moreover, by observing the proportion of antique words in Jinwen Shangshu distributed in Erya dictionary, we can further infer the mainstream of dissemination in the cultural and ideological realm in pre-Qin times.