A Study On The Semantic Field Of Commonly Used Verbs In Dunhuang Sheyi Documents

The dissertation is based on semantic evolution and conducts the study on the semantic field of commonly used verbs in Dunhuang Sheyi documents which are one of Dunhuang soci-economic literatures.It involves the history of Chinese vocabulary,exploring word evolution and its rules and providing the profound explanations of the formation of words in Dunhuang literatures and the system of modern Chinese vocabulary.Specifically speaking,the introduction mainly introduces the current situation and values of the research on Dunhuang Sheyi documents and illustrates the significance of the chosen topic.Chapter one provides an overview of the linguistic features of Sheyi documents and the folklore of northwest China reflected in the documents,such as the customs of funerals and treating guests on arrival,and then analyses the ideology of general publics in northwest China.Chapter two focuses on the semantic field of "entertain" type verbs in Sheyi documents,discussing the semantic fields of "entertain" type verbs and nouns respectively.Based on the theories such as synchronous extension,mutually affected semantic generation and sememe analysis,this chapter probes into the semantic evolution of some words in each sub-semantic field,such as "submit","look","insight","banquet",and then makes the sememe analysis of the members in each sub-semantic field.Chapter three focuses on the semantic field of Chinese "donate" type in Dunhuang Sheyi documents,mainly involving the semantic fields of "help" type and "give away" type.When describing the use condition of words and analysing semantic evolution,the dissertation finds out that there is some relationship between the formation of words such as "help" and "relieve" and Buddhist principles "saving human beings from suffering".Chapter four focuses on the semantic field of "onerous loan" type which includes the semantic fields of "loan" type and "repay" type,describing the members in each semantic field chronically and synchronically,discussing the semantic evolution of these words such as "loan","borrow/lend","bian","lodge","tian","pay",and examining the bisyllables which are built with these morphemes.Meanwhile,other words in the semantic field are analyzed and depicted.Chapter five classifies other commonly used verbs in Sheyi documents and generalizes the semantic fields of "negotiate" type,"punish" type and "incite" type,whose members are depicted chronically and synchronically.Furthermore,this chapter analyses the semantic evolution of these words and arranges other words related to the semantic field.By making a general and theoretical analysis of the formation of words in Sheyi documents and the semantic evolution,chapter six concludes that the semantic evolution of monosyllabic verbs in Sheyi documents is acquired by extension and commonly used disyllabic verbs are mainly juxtaposed compound words and then analyses the formation of disyllables.It is found out that the formation of the words in Sheyi documents and even in all the Dunhuang literatures is related to the fact that Chinese language is bisyllablized and Buddhist classics were vigorously translated in Tang dynasty.Therefore,a cognitive analysis is made to explore the semantic evolution of words in Sheyi documents.From the above,under the theory of semantic evolution the dissertation makes the chronic and synchronic descriptions of the use condition of the members in the semantic field of verbs in Sheyi documents,analyses the semantic evolution and the logic of word extension and then explores the causes and laws of semantic evolution in order to probe into the formation of the lexical system in Dunhuang Sheyi documents and the modern Chinese vocabulary system.