Semantic Analysis Of Judicial Glossary In Han Shu

Modern linguistics stresses the importance of systematic study of words. As a synchronic, descriptive study of the glossary of a particular epoch is the basis for further research on the evolution of the glossary system of classical Chinese, so too is a special lexical study for a comprehensive investigation of the glossary system of one particular time.Han Shu is the first Chinese chronological dynastic history book. It has enjoyed a very high reputation in the academia since the day when it was published. Thus far, academic achievements about this book attained from linguistic and lexical perspectives have been rare, and of these achievements so far available to us most are in the form of a single paper, merely doing explanatory work on the words. Therefore, more efforts are needed in a systematic study of the lexical system in the book.The object of study is judicial glossary, one part of the lexical system in Han Shu. Compared with unearthed papers written on bamboo and wood slips,a meticulous study will proceed along the lines of semantic field theories, examining the various semantic relations in the semantic field of the judicial vocabulary. After that, a conclusion will be drawn with regard to the semantic features of the judicial glossary system, and some relevant theories concerning the subject matter will also be included in the study.The study of the history of jural vocabulary is an important part of the study of Chinese jural language. And an exclusive investigation of the jural vocabulary of one particular historical period is the groundwork for the history of jural vocabulary. Written laws and judicial documents of the Han Dynasty haven't been able to survive to this day for an obvious reason-they were too distant in temporal terms. So, in addition to ancient bell inscriptions and unearthed papers written on bamboo slips and silk, Han Shu is perhaps the most important document that can provide useful data for us to study that time's law vocabulary.This paper has semantic field theories as its principal guidelines, which will be complemented by cognitive linguistics and cultural linguistics. Methodology which includes subjective description, semantic component analysis, and quantitative and qualitative analysis will cover 132 semantic components in the semantic field of the judicial glossary in Han Shu. Such a research can be summed up as being one that is comprehensive, meticulous, and exhaustive.This thesis is divided into 4 chapters:Chapter 1 IntroductionThis part includes some basic information regarding the subject matter. First, a general survey will be given with regard to research already done on Han Shu and its language, ancient Chinese jural vocabulary, and Chinese semantic fields. Secondly, a method will be introduced as to how to draw boundaries between semantic fields in jural glossary. Lastly, I will offer some explanations and comments concerning the text. The basic information part involves the reasons of the choice of the subject, the task and objective of the author, theories that will be of use, the writer's methodology, and the merits of the research. The above mentioned discussions will elaborate, with more details, on the author of the book, research done on the annotations and sememes in past ages, the evolution of semantic field theory and the study of it in China, why I classified the semantic fields into 5 subfields, and the principles I adhere to in word selection, semantic analysis, and data collection.Chapter 2 to chapter 3 is my description and analysis of the semantic fields present in the jural vocabulary in Han Shu. On the basis of the practical judicial activities in the Han Dynasty, I categorized the 132 sememes into 15 semantic fields. Chapter 2 is on 6 noun semantic fields,which are lawsuit,witness and exhibit,confession,prison,prisoner,police instruments; chapter 3 on 9 action sematic fields,witch are accuse and expose, conduct, investigate, arrest, imprison, interrogate, verify,plead guilty and sentence.Chapter 4 is semantic and composition analysis of the sememes.A summary is given about the 132 sememes discussed in this thesis, after which more fields are touched on, including the sememe system in the semantic field of jural glossary in Han Shu, the relations of the 15 semantic fields, the relations between sememes, and the relations of jural glossary to common glossary.The jural semantic field, in Han Shu is a huge semantic field comprised of 15 sub-fields, which likewise consist of fields of lower levels, all by means of associations.From the angle of semantic system,there are some symptoms merits attention.1.Sememe vacancyThere are two reasons acause this phenomenon.1).The sub-sememe is very particular ,there is no word embodies its corresponding sememe,which Sometimes is the embodied by its upperseat word .2). The sub-sememe has correspondng sememe,but do not appear in the boos we studied.A. T he book we studied lay particular stresses on important political events,and neglect the commom civil lawcase and criminal suits.B. T he narration if the book is general,so the legal terms are not plentful.2. SynonymsThe most distinguishing characteristic is the synonymic sememes.Of all the sememes in this semantic field 72% are synonyms, thus a large number of subfields comprised of synonymic sememes. Those synonymic sememes comprise these parts:1) .Sememes in deferent style of writing. 2) .The synonymic mono-syllably words combined to a multiple-syllable word.3 ) .Couched sememes emerge and combine with their original words, thus locate themselves and the latter in the same semantic field.3. AntonymsThere are three pairs of antontms,two pairs are adverse,one pairs are complemetry.4,.Hyponyms.The sememes in deferent lever are mainly hyponyms.There is a particular phenomenon in the hyponyms.some upperseat words are their sub-words,such as鞫.At last ,We anyltsis the composition of the judicial glossary,which includes the deferent style of writing, mono-syllable words and multiple-syllable words,special jural words and common jural words.1.There are 21 literary words,which are 16 % of all the words we researched.The proportion is high.This is an example of the archaic and abstruse writing of the book.The 21 literary words appear 91 times altogether.and every word appears 4.3 times on the average. The other 111 common words appears 1851 times, and every word appears 16.6 times on the average.which is 3.9 times of the literary words.2. There are 53 mono-syllable words and 79 multiple-syllable words.The number of mono-syllable words is less than multiple-syllable words,but the appearance of every word is 4.7 times of the multiple-syllable word.So the multiple-syllable words is the primary words in the book.The more number of the multiple-syllable words mean that the compound words are increasing gradually.Most of the multiple-syllable words are compouded by the 53 mono-syllable word.Of all the multiple-syllable words, coordinating and substantive-modifier relationship are main.Most of the multiple-syllable words are new in Han Dynasty.3. There are 118 special judicual words and 14 universal judicual words.There are 40 mono-syllable and 78 multiple-syllable words in special judicual words. The 40 mono-syllable words can be divided into two parts. Some word's original meaning are used in judicual field,such as收,獄.The other words are extended from common words.There are two kind of extension,one is reducing denotation, such as徒,告.The other is transfering connotation.Some based on resembility such as牢,阱.Some based on similarity, such as繫,拘.Of all The 78 multiple-syllable words,68 are compouded by the mono-syllable words we researched.8 words in the rest are extended from common words, Some based on resembility such as蠶室,檻车.Some based on similarity, such as累紲,圜牆,金鐵,木索,三木,赭衣.The rest two words are compounded by common mono-syllable words,but only used in judicual field,they are自出,请室。The meaning of universal judicual words are changed with the changing of context. When they are used in judicual field, the common meaning of these words are particular.