"rites" Linguistic Thought Research

The Book of Rites, one of the classical works of Confucianism, reflects the traditional Chinese cultural characteristics. There are two functions to study The Book of Rites, find out its linguistic phenomenon and summarize its linguistic thought from the linguistic perspective. That is, on one hand, it can enrich the theoretical system of Pre-Qin Days’ linguistic thought, and on the other hand, there is certain enlightening and directive significance to the study of modern linguistic theory. This thesis consists of five parts:Chapter one is introduction. This chapter introduces the value of selecting this topic, present research status, research methodology and the selection of quotation edition appeared in this thesis. Presently, researchers and scholars study The Book of Rites from the perspective of the study of Confucian classics and the study of literature, but rarely from the perspective of linguistics, but the study of The Book of Rites from linguistic perspective lie in an inferior position. On the basis of sorting and analyzing the relevant language materials, this thesis analyzes and summarizes, displaying the unique style of linguistic thought reflected in The Book of Rites.Chapter two summarizes the understanding of "language" in The Book of Rites, mainly including three aspects, namely, the understanding of way of expression, the understanding of language efficacy and the understanding of dialect and common language.Chapter three analyzes the pragmatic thought in The Book of Rites, which is the place where most prominently reflects linguistic thought and is the core of this thesis as well. Firstly, this chapter explains that The Book of Rites requires that people’s words should accord with "proprieties". Secondly, this chapter analyzes the pragmatic standard on the premise of proprieties. Such pragmatic standard can be generalized as the principle of faithfulness and carefulness. Lastly, this chapter analyzes the factors, which influence the communicative effect, reflected in The Book of Rites. These factors are that people should speak in line with time, occasion and their identity.Chapter four studies the appellation system and taboo phenomenon in The Book of Rites. The complicated appellation in The Book of Rites is the maintenance of the hierarchical system of people’s status in The Chou Rituals. This thesis sorts and analyzes the appellation of the monarch and his ministers, the appellation of the relatives and the appellation of the monarch and his subjects’ wives and concubines. The particular phenomenon appeared in appellation is taboo. The taboo phenomenon in The Book of Rites is mainly reflected in the appearance of the perfect rules of taboo, the requirement of the taboo about birth, death and giving name as well as the taboo terms about death.Chapter five analyzes the rhetoric in The Book of Rites. The rhetoric in The Book of Rites is firstly displayed as the perfect combination of language content and language form. Then it is displayed as the affirmation of the beauty of language and rhetoric, namely, the focus on the ways of language expression.The last chapter is conclusion part, which summarizes the modern language theory involved in the linguistic thought reflected in The Book of Rites. This thesis points out the limitations of this study and shows the necessity and practical significance to the further study of linguistic thought in The Book of Rites.