A Comparative Study On The "Methods Of Words Recording" Between Ancient Chinese Writing And Egyptian Hieroglyphs

The ancient Chinese writing and the Egyptian Hieroglyphic are both mature writing systems. They have both independently achieved the goal of recording language fully in the early period of human civilization. A full writing system realizes the goal of a complete record of language by recording every smallest independent unit of the language system——word. Therefore, the core skill of recording language is the "Method of Recording Words". Each word has two aspects:sound and meaning. The ancient Chinese writing and Egyptian writing (also the Sumerian writing and the Maya writing) apply three basic methods of recording words:1. the method of recording word meaning; 2. the method of recording word sound; 3. the method of recording meaning and sound combinedly. And the foundation of the above three basic methods is the method of creating basic characters.This thesis is a systematic comparative study of the ancient Chinese writing and Egyptian hieroglyphic from four aspects:the method of creating basic characters, the method of recording word meaning, the method of recording word sound, and the method of recording meaning and sound combinedly. In the comparative study, we try to investigate the relationship between the creation of writing and human cognition, civilization (natural environment, material and cultural situation, spiritual situation), and characteristics of languages.First of all is the comparison of the method of creating basic characters. The creation of basic characters can be divided into two steps:first, to abstract an image, and second, to symbolize that image. For image abstraction, both ancient Chinese writing and Egyptian hieroglyphic apply the method of "abstracting from both self and distant things". Following the principle of humanism, both writing systems have abstracted from human body a large number of images. Meanwhile, because the two nations living in different natural environments have created different material and spiritual culture, the images they abstracted reflect obvious regional and cultural differences. Besides, there is also a big difference in the symbolization of basic characters. Symbolization of basic Chinese characters is sketchy and nonobjective, while that of Egyptian hieroglyphs is more realistic. The difference of symbolization bears some relevance to the different social functions of the two writing systems and the different aesthetic spirit of the two nations.The second is the comparison of the method of recording word meaning. The method of recording word meaning is the foundation of both ancient Chinese writing and Egyptian writing. They are created early in the writing history, intuitive and natural, and embody rich culture of ancient civilization. Based on the common law of human thinking, the two writing systems both employ some basic methods of recording meaning such as "what you see is what you get", extensions, combination and complement. Comparatively speaking, the meaning expression in ancient Chinese writing is more independent and more systematically solid, while that in ancient Egyptian writing is less independent with the addition of phonograms indicating feminine nouns and diacritic symbols. The difference is mainly related to linguistic features of the two languages. The method of extension of both writing systems is realized by the means of categorization, metonymy and metaphor. However, there are some differences in the direction of extension, revealing different psychological content. This is due to the difference of natural environment, material culture and spiritual culture of the two nations.The third is the comparison of the method of recording word sound. It is by the method of phonetic expression that the ancient Chinese writing and ancient Egyptian writing have realized a complete record of language. The essence of phonetic expression of both writing systems is "phonetic loan", i.e. borrowing sense characters as "loan phonograms" to express the sound of new words. The common characteristics of "loan phonograms" of both writing systems are as followings:1. multiple functions; 2. no corresponding relation or assigned relation with the phonetic system; 3. the number of "loan phonograms" is much larger than the number of letters in alphabetic writings; 4. lack of exactness. However, there are also obvious differences between the methods of phonetic loans of the two writing systems. The ancient Chinese writing applies a holistic borrowing pattern, while Egyptian hieroglyphic applies an analytical borrowing pattern. The number of loan phonograms in ancient Chinese writing is much lager than that of the Egyptian hieroglyphic. This mainly has something to do with the difference of the two languages. Ancient Chinese words are mainly monosyllabic and their derivation is such a fusional type that it's very hard for people to separate the roots and affixes. But the Egyptian words are mainly polysyllabic with clear roots of consonantal structures. The roots and the affixes can be easily separated.The fourth is the comparison of the method of recording meaning and sound combinedly.1. Both Chinese writing and Egyptian hieroglyphic employ semantic-phonetic compounds to optimize the writing systems, and so gradually become pervaded by such compounds.2. In both writing systems, the implement of the combined method is later than the method of recording sound. The real drive of the new method is the social demand for exact writing record. And its interior foundation is the method of phonetic loan.3. Both writing systems have applied three types of semantic-phonetic compounds, such as phonetic complement to ideograms, meaning complement to phonograms and direct combination. Among the three types, direct combination has the strongest power of new character creation. 4. In both writing systems, the semantic-phonetic compounds are in fact phonetic structures with meaningful determinatives.5. After the systematic application of semantic-phonetic compounds, the two writing systems both become mature, stable and advanced in the aspect of character creation and word expression.There are also some differences between the methods of semantic-phonetic compound of the two writing systems:1. in ancient Chinese writing, there is a phenomenon of "phonetic complement by changing original form of characters", while in Egyptian writing there is not. Because this method is a reform based on semantic compounds, while in Egyptian writing, semantic compounds are very rare. Besides, the realistic symbolization of basic characters in the Egyptian writing makes each character more distinguishable and recognizable, and less likely to be changed or reformed; 2. The semantic-phonetic compounds in Egyptian hieroglyphic often employ many determinatives, which is rare in the ancient Chinese writing. It's probably because that the square-formed Chinese characters exclude excessive complements.By the comparison of the ancient Chinese writing and the Egyptian hieroglyphic, the thesis puts forward four perspectives for the study of independently created classical writing systems, such as Chinese, Egyptian, Sumerian, and Mayan writings:the linguistic perspective, the psychological perspective, the societal-cultural perspective, and the technological perspective. Studying classical writing systems from the above four perspectives can broaden our eyesight, deepen our understanding, and lead us to new significant research fields.