| Chinese paronyms were previously called Tongyuan Ci (literally means "words derived from the same historical source") in the academic circles. In order to avoid the confusion with cognate words from different languages, the scholars have replaced Tongyuan Ci with Tongzu Ci (literally means "words belong to the same family") according to Xu Tongqiang’s opinion. However, we still call Chinese paronyms as Tongyuan Ci in this thesis so as to bring into correspondence with Wang Li, whose Dictionary of Paronyms was a significant work on the study of paronyms. In this dictionary, Wang has developed a method to confirm the relationship among paronymas:a group of paronyms should have similar sounds and related meanings. This method has been adopted by almost all the subsequent works on etymology. Following the methods of Wang Niansun, Zhang Taiyan et al while dealing with the sounds, Wang Li has also payed attention to the meanings. As a result, the relationship among more paronymas have been confirmed. In this way, Wang Li’s method has progressed the study on paronyms quite a lot.But Wang Li’s method was not free from limitations. In his study on ancient sounds, he used mainly the materials agreeing with the rhymes of Shijing due to his attachment to the phonetic system of Shijing, which caused the abandonment of overall adoption of partial tone. For the purpose of making a systematic description about partial tone, we study the ancient sounds described in Shuowenjiezi by contrasting them with mesoid sounds described in Guangyunshengxi. Going by the principle of quality over quantity, we have dealt the sounds with prudence so as to exclude all the farfetched illustrations. We have also placed great emphasis on not only the corresponding relation between ancient sounds and mesoid sounds, but also the evolution of the former into the later. As for the meanings, Wang Li has given priority to concrete meanings instead of words’etymons. As supplementary, we have given attention to both of them. Relationship between graphemes and meanings has also been taken into consideration. What’s more, the evolution of meanings were also described in this thesis. Having used large numbers of materials, the motivation of word-formation has been probed into so as to seek for the truth behind the appearance.Referring to Jiyun, Guangyun, Guangyunshengxi, Shuowenjiezi, Shuowenjiezizhu and so on, we have supplemented Wang Li’s Dictionary of Paronyms in this thesis. Synthesizing the methods of the senior scholars, we have generalized the words with different phonetic complements into three word families:Zhi(脂), Zhi (质) and Zhen (真). Applying for the methods about ancient sounds, mesoid sounds, the correspondence between them, the extension of word meanings and Wang Li’s method about the variation of sounds, we have made a research about the relationship between sounds and meanings from the word families divided by the partial tones and the way in which they changed. Word families have been founded, not only to seek for the rules of Chinese, but also to discover the etymons of paronymes and the transformation of word meanings. In this thesis,193 paronymes have been studied. |
