The Comparative Research On Pictographs Of Oracle-bone Inscriptions And Sumerian Proto-cuneiform

The pictographs came into being earliest when the writing systems were created and developed, which is the foundation of creation and development of other script graphs as well as the whole writing system. They are the connection of the pro-graphs and the early writing system which is comparatively developed. Oracle-bone Inscriptions and Sumerian Proto-cuneiform all belong to the ancient self-generated writing systems. It will definitely promote the study of the two writing systems themselves and enrich the theories of comparative linguistics and general linguistics if we compare the pictographs of the two writing systems. It's also pivotal for discovering the origin development of the writing systems.So the author compares the pictographs in the two writing systems to count them precisely and describe them in details, using the theories of comparative linguistics and general linguistics.The thesis can be divided into three chapters:Chapter one is about the background information, introducing the background information of the Sumerian Proto-cuneiform for the most of part, including the location, Sumerian civilization and the development and spread of cuneiform. Chapter two is about the definition and choosing of the pictographs. The author defines the concept of pictograph, by taking the discourses of other scholars for reference. According to the new definition, the author chooses the pictographs from the two writing systems and tabs them at the end of the thesis. Chapter three is about the comparison of the pictographs of the two writing systems. And this is the most important part of the thesis. The author compares them in five different aspects, such as characteristic appearance, the image-taking and types of words that the pictographs denote. The author tries to describe the general and different characters of the pictographs of two writing systems objectively and find out the reasons as well. Chapter four is the conclusion and enlightenment. The conclusion is that the two writing systems have more general characters than different characters. And the enlightenment is the number graphs can help people to discover the origin of the writing system.