A Study On The Compound Words In Ancient Chinese

Now widely spreaded Shangshu glozed by Kong Yingda,25 of which are not in Jinwen Shangshu passed along by Fu Sheng,called Guwen Shangshu. Guwen Shangshu was identified as fake by scholars like Xu Ruoqu, but some other scholars,such as Mao Qiling thinks it true or reserves a cautious attitude.As an important part of studying Shangshu, even if the 25 late articles are not the true ancient texts from Confucius’ wall, they still have precious academic value in the history of thoughts, Linguistics, and history.This article takes compound words as the research object, making a comparative study between Jinwen Shangshu and Guwen Shangshu.This article is divided into two parts. The first part is the introduction. It mainly introduces the value of researching Guwen Shangshu, present situation of the study of Shangshu compound words. Even if the 25 late articles are not the true ancient texts from Confucius’ wall, they play an important role In the compilation of historical data, exploring the origins of Chinese thought and researching of Linguistics.The study of Shangshu compound words is limited in Jinwen Shangshu, this article tries to make up for the defect and make a comparative study. We mainly use standard of significance, structural standard,grammatical standard and rhetoric standard to define the compound words in Guwen Shangshu.The second part is the core part which is divided into five chapters. Chapter One is the study of side-by-side compound words in Guwen Shangshu. From the point of view of the semantics, we describe 121 side-by-side compound words of Guwen Shangshu and classify them into three categories:Synonymy joint, Antisense joint and Related joint. Between morphemes’ meaning and words’ meaning,we also classify into three categories:Merging type, Integrated type and Compound type. From the point of part of speech,by comparing morpheme A and B with compound word AB,we conclude that most compound words ’grammar nature is consistent before and after the combination. Side-by-side compound words characterized mainly as diversification of word formation, enrichment of the meaning and stabilization of word order in this period.Chapter Two is the study of modifier-head compound words in Guwen Shangshu. From the point of view of the semantics, we sum up 192words into three types:the first of main morpheme is about people, things or objects, the second is about movement behavior, the third is about the nature of the state. From the point of part of speech,compared with Jinwen Shangshu, the percentage of nouns significantly reduces but the percentage of adjectives and verbs significantly improve. With the improvement of human cognition, it is urgent to the intuitive embodiment of language diversity. Modifier-head compound words characterized mainly as complication of morphemic relationship as well as diversification of the structure of parts of speech.Chapter Three is the study of other types of compound words in Guwen Shangshu. There’re 31 verb-object-type compound words.In the early Qin period, verb-object-type compound words were mostly limited in names of officers.They expand to Ordinary nouns and verbs such as Yu Shi,Cheng Gong,Zuo Shu,Ban Shi in Guwen Shangshu. There’re 2 subject-predicate-type compound words:Zi Man and Zi Jin. subject-predicate compound words like "Zi—",it can be a sign to see the powerful capabilities of word-formation in Guwen Shangshu. Action-style compound words have 2 examples,whicn are weak in creating words.Chapter Four is the study of causes of formation of compound words in Guwen Shangshu.Compared with Jinwen Shangshu,it has obviously changes in the amount and types.For the reasons,there’re three aspects:firstly the need of accurate expression,secondly the development of tighten structure,thirdly the need of flow of speech and of Linking words to know the meaning.Chapter Five is the comparison study of Jinwen Shangshu and Guwen Shangshu.By comparing the formation and the characteristic of words,we find that compound words’ formation have been further enriched and developed during the period of Guwen Shangshu aslso many structure types keep positive growth trend. The proportion of nominal compounds declines,but the proportion of adjective and verb compounds are on the rise.What’s more, sources of speech of Guwen Shangshu are more plentiful and balanced than Jinwen Shangshu.An exhaustive statistics and analysis has been used in this article, with the comparison study on compound words between Jinwen Shangshu and Guwen Shangshu.We hope to attract deserved attention of scholars on research into Guwen Shangshu and provide some data and references for the development of Chinese vocabulary history study.