An Analysis On The Meanings Of Words Of Human Visceral Organs In Chinese

Human bodies, which people are familiar with, are objective in existence. There are a large number of words composed of morphemes of human organs in Chinese. The visceral organs'words of them are flexible in use, which can be used singly or correlated with each other. Moreover, some of them associate with human mentality, emotion, character and so on to convey various feelings, which has exceeded the scope of physiology. At present, the researches on the words of human bodies have drawn on great attention from the circle of linguistics. However, the words made up of human visceral organs seldom appear in the researches, which are only taken for example, but are focused on the limited words of high- frequency use such as: liver, gallbladder, bowel and so on. Consequently, the researches on words composed of human visceral organs are not quite systematic and profound. What features are the words of human visceral organs in semantic? How and why can their meanings come into being? What underlying associations are the words of human visceral organs with the culture of the Han ethnic group? This thesis comprehensively reviews all the questions above in hope of being helpful for enriching the research on Chinese vocabulary. It is composed of five parts.The first part, the introduction accounts for the reason why we choose the theme of the thesis. We review the present situation of the researches on the words of human visceral organs in the academe. Then we give an introduction about the research scope, the research methods, the train of thought on the research and the source of data.The second part shows semantic analysis on the words of human visceral organs. In the part, we classify the words into single words and compound words of human visceral organs. Through analysis and summary on the meaning of the single words, we find out that the meanings of the words of human visceral organs in nature are different because the physiological meanings they denote are not same. However, they have a common ground---both being visceral organs. Based on the essential trait, the words of human visceral organs except for stomach and kidney all have the derivative meaning of"inner heart". In addition, some of the words can correlate with each other to form compound words.1."heart"can correlate with other visceral organs besides stomach and kidney"to produce compound words of human visceral organs denoting"inner heart"except that it correlates with"gallbladder"likely to denote the meaning of"courage".2. The compound words without"heart"consist of liver-gallbladder, liver-intestine, spleen-stomach and intestine-stomach.The third part analyzes the semantic features of the words of human visceral organs. In the part, on the basis of Chinese, we analyze the features of denoting meaning of the viscera words in Chinese with reference to the visceral words in English.The fourth part is the core of this paper. From the cognitive law, the norm of language and theories of traditional Chinese medical science, we explain the reason of forming semantic features of Chinese visceral words, generally as follows:1. The derivative meanings of"heart and gallbladder"mainly come from the understanding of functions of the two organs in the traditional Chinese medical science.2. Most of Chinese words of human visceral organs can denote the meaning of"inner heart", which results not only from linguistic extension, but also from self-reflective realization.3. The arbitrariness of the visceral words while denoting the meaning of"inner heart"is the need of enriching language and the outcome of general realization of the functions of human visceral organs on the whole.4. The existing ranks of the visceral words while denoting"inner heart"are in line with human cognitive law and are influenced by the understanding of functions of the visceral organs in the traditional Chinese medical science5. The meaning formation of the compound words of two visceral organs is influenced by the balanced view of yin and yang in the traditional Chinese medical science.6. The multi-dimensions of meaning of the visceral organs come from different angles when people realize objects.7. The visualization of meaning of the visceral organs embodies the representational mind of the Chinese nation.The fifth part is a conclusion that summaries what this paper have achieved and points out deficiencies of this thesis.