The Study On The Historical Evolution Of The Hand-wiping Verbs

In this paper, we take the hand-wiping verbs as our research objects. In order to describe and analyze the hand-wiping verbs in detail, we select different corpora and divide the time into three periods:ancient times, middle ancient times and modern times. On one hand, we observe the development of dififerent members in the same period; on the other hand, we investigate the replacement process of members in different periods.In ancient times, the frequency of the hand-wiping verbs in the literature classics is not high. There are five hand-wiping verbs in "wipe" semantic field. Among them, "shi(拭)" and "fu(拂)" are at the core of the status. At the same time, "wen(擦)", "zhen(挋)"and "gu(扦)" play marginal roles.In middle ancient times, there are seven hand-wiping verbs in "wipe" semantic field. Among them, "shi(拭)" and "fu(拂)" are still playing an important role. The words "kai(揩)" and "mo(抹)" are new members which have great potential. But they cannot replace "shi(拭)" and "fu(拂)" at this time. Besides, "zhen(挋)" and "gu(扦) disappear in the literature classics. As a result, they exit the "wipe" semantic field. In addition, "wen(擦)" "zhan(搌)" and "dan(掸) play marginal roles.In modern times, there are eight hand-wiping verbs in "wipe" semantic field. The words "ca(擦)" and "wen(揾)" come into being as new members. This time, "kai(揩)", "mo(抹)" and "ca(擦)" catch up from behind. They gradually replace the status of "shi(拭)" and "fu(拂)". Because of the low frequency, "wen(擦)" exits the "wipe" semantic field by degrees. The word "wen(揾)" has a relatively high frequency of using in Song and Yuan Dynasties. But it plays a marginal role after competing with other words. What’s more, "zhan(搌)" and "dan(掸) have some changes in this time. In fact, "zhan(搌)" disappears while "dan(掸) plays a part in "wipe" semantic field.The hand-wiping verbs have changed their meaning, number and status in the long history. The evolution of the hand-wiping verbs is the result of the comprehensive function of language, society and cognition. It results from internal language, social factors and cognition style.