A Comparative Study Of The Commonly Used Words In Analects And Its Han-Wei Annotation

Since Western Han Dynasty, Analects has been the compulsory book for one who are literate. And it is a common practice for people to read the annotation while reading Analects. Analects and its Han-Wei Annotation are very influential in the history of Chinese Philology for the language used represents the spoken language of pre-Qin period and the written language of Han-Wei period respectively. The evolution features are well preserved in the vocabulary systems of Analects and its Annotation while are typical of the alternation of Remote Antiquity and Middle Ancient Period. The evolution of commonly of used words esp. better reflects the many features of the evolution of language and its vocabulary during that alternation.This dissertation consists of five parts. Part I is the brief introduction in which matters related to the study are expounded, such as its the term , the commonly used words, is briefly defined, content selected, its status quo discussed, the plereme, and sememe defined, the signified of words meaning discussed, the standard for the choice of the materials in Analects proper and the annotation illustrated, and the theories employed in this study are presented and organized. Part II is the comparative study of the commonly used compounds and co-ordinate structures are well organized, the newly appeared compounds and co-ordinate structures in Annotation essentially analyzed, and their formation, plereme, sememe and the conventional system of words meaning are compared correspondingly in Analects and Annotation. Part III is the comparative study of five groups commonly used single form words, in which the corresponding textual research analysis and comparison are carried out among the five groups which appear both in Analects and Annotation. Part IV is on the problems of commonly used words during theirevolution, in which a brief conclusion is drawn on what has been analyzed and textually researched in the previous two parts, and issues on the word meaning of the commonly used words during their evolution have been summed up.After the textual research and analysis of the plereme and sememe among some commonly used disyllabic or polysyllabic words and the five groups of commonly used monosyllabic words by employing the theories related to plereme, sememe and meaning, the dissertation summs up the similarities and differences of the two, and personal viewpoints have been proposed on the evolution of the commonly used words after the reference to some materials in ancient books relating to those periods. Our first viewpoint is on the concealment of the plereme, which in fact to a large extent manifests the disappearance of the ancient plereme. The main reasons for such a phenomenon may be as follows: the descendants are unfamiliar with the motivation of the words because of the development of the society, alternation of people's concept, change of the psychological customs and living environment est. or the descendants, influenced greatly following majority opinion of prevalent practices, only notice the usage of the words among general public which in fact does not throw light on its motivation, and these lead to the disappearance of the ancient plereme. Our second viewpoint is on the break-up of field of word. Thorough and intricate knowledge demand the break-up of field of word, which will enable people to express their ideas in more well-conceived and detailed ways. Our third viewpoint is on the reorganization of the plereme, which is one of the means by which new sememes come into being, and which is the necessary demand of the deepening of human knowledge. There are two way for the reorganization of the plereme in terms of the structure: One is that the signifiers remain the same and pleremes are reorganized and new pleremes are produced; the second is that the signifiers changes and pleremes are reorganized and new pleremes are produced. The first is commonly employed in pre-Qin period, which the second is employed on a large scale ever since the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties. The fourth point...