A Study On The Cognate Words In Exegesis Of The Literary Expositor By Hao Yixing

When writing Exegesis of the Literary Expositor, the best one in all the commentaries on the classic, Hao Yixing collected lots of cognate words. This dissertation takes a systematic study on these words in the book.Owning to the influence of the flourishing phonological study in Qing Dynasty and the instruction, directly or indirectly, of the exegetic master such as Mang Niansun and Ruan Yuan, Hao Yixing had a deep understanding of the theory "Sound and meaning integrating together". Therefore, he had made a great achievement in interpreting the Literary Expositor by putting into practice the sound-prominent principle.The terms of Hao Yixing's collecting cognate words present several types: (1) the same sounds representing the same meanings, (2) similar sounds representing similar meaning, (3) sound change, (4) interchangeable words, (5) alliteration or/and rhyme, (6) explanation by sound, (7) other formers.According to the explicit forms, The cognate words in Exegesis of the Literary Expositor can be classified into following types: (1) one-syllable cognate words, which are the main body in all the words and are made up, concerning with the forms of characters, of the words (i) with the same forms of characters, (ii) with the same phonetic elements, (iii) with different forms of characters. (2) compound cognate words, (3) cognate words with different syllables.The terms used by Hao Yinxing to point out the sound relationships of the cognate words consist of six categories such as the same sounds, similar sounds, sound change, alliteration or/and rhyme, combined sound and the two sounds interrelated. The connotations of the first three terms embody several sound relationships including that not only the initial parts but also the final parts of the syllables are the same, that the initial parts are similar while the final parts the same and that the initial parts are the same while the final parts similar. It can be referred to that there is no much difference among the connotations ofthe three terms.The sound patterns of the one-syllable cognate words in Exegesis of the Literary Expositor contain several forms :(1) Not only the initial parts but also the final parts of the syllables are the same. (2) The initial parts are similar while the final parts the same. (3) The initial parts are the same while the final parts similar. (4) Both the initial parts and the finial parts are similar.The semantic relationships of the one-syllable cognate words in Exegesis of the Literary Expositor are described in three groups. The first group of words has the same or correlated etymologic sememes and different classifying sememes. For the second group, the etymologic sememes of some derivatives are just the meaning of the original words. The third group of cognate words are interrelated with the same etymological sememes and marked off by the distinct sememes.The methods of Hao Yixing's collection can be summed up in three points: first, collecting cognate words through sound and meaning with the help of many kinds of documentary materials; second, looking into the semantic relationships of the cognate words; third, analogizing.Although Hao Yixing had achieved a great deal in collecting cognate words, there are many defects and even errors in his book such as unsystematic collection, ambiguous terms, misunderstanding of some sound change words, incorrect explanation by sound and a lesser amount of exploration into original meaning of proper noun.In conclusion, it is valuable for us to clear up the cognate words in Exegesis of the Literary Expositor, to learn his methods and try our best to make them perfect and to look out not to make the same mistakes as Hao Yixing's.