Modern Form Of Sound Words Ideograph Ideographic Research

Having semantic function has been a main feature of Chinese character. But Chinese character has developed for several thousand years, so the literal meaning is changing and the Chinese character patterns have changed a lot after Li-character evolution and simplification. These changes will necessarily effect the semantic function of Chinese character. On the other hand, phonograms are the main part of Chinese character, which account for87.39percent of small seal script, and the percentage even runs up to about90percent in modern Chinese Character. Basing on the percentage, we can say that phonograms are always the main part of Chinese Character, and the phonograms are the chief role to show the semantic function of Chinese Character. Therefore, the research on the semantic function of modern phonograms'ideograms will help us understand the basic situation and learn more about the nature of Chinese Character. We choose the3500characters in common use, which covers99%characters used in daily written Chinese, as our language material scope.Because of the big changes in the literal meaning and patterns of Chinese Character, many ancient phonograms may not be phonograms any more in modern Chinese Character, while due to the historical continuity, we can't select phonogram just basing on the literal meaning and patterns of modern Chinese Character. Therefore, we get2415 characters in3500characters as our study materials, using "Shuo Wen Jie Zi" as the basic foundation of the judgement, Semanic symbols as the important condition of the choice, and other special standards as rules for choosing. At the same time, we choose1860characters from them from the point of view of Chinese character source as the study materials on the contradistinction of the ancient and modern Chinese Character.If we want to know the semantic function situation of phonograms' ideograms, we should know what positions and effects of the meanings of ideograms are in literal meanings. So we choose Semantic component analysis and Core moneme and Language situation moneme as our theories to answer the question.We use Semantic component analysis as the guide, and borrow ideas from semanteme analysis mode created by the Mr Jia Yan De to analyze these phonograms one by one. We find16kinds of ways for modern Chinese Character's ideograms to express the literal meanings and10kinds of ways for ancient Chinese Character's ideograms to express the literal meanings. At the same time, in the light of Core moneme and Language situation moneme, we fix a score value for every semantic function, which can show the semantic ability. We have six basic levels. They are0,0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8,1. On the basis of these six levels, we multiply the basic score value by50%or25%, according to the way of expressing literal meanings involving in "extending " or "complicated extending". By this means, every level has its own basic score value. At last, we get the final Ideographical Expression, which is44.87%.To supply a consulting for studying the semantic function of modern ideograms, which can help us to get deeper recognition, we also analyze the1860ancient phonograms with the similar method, and finally we get the Ideographical Expression of ancient phonograms, which is56.55%.According to the comparison with ancient and modern phonograms, we can find that, compared with ancient phonograms, the semantic ability of modern phonograms is declining, while the declining is not very strong. At the same time, the semantic ways of ideograms become more meticulous and complicated. Furthermore, the changes happened mainly in characters on "interrelated" type, and characters on "extending" or "complicated extending" plays important roles on the changing of ideograms'semantic ability. Chinese character is transforming, and it is stable. In1860phonograms, there are915phonograms'meanings keeping unchanging, which account for49.19percent of all the phonograms. And it is another reason that why Ideographical Expression doesn't change a lot.Through the data we got and the analysis relevant, we summarize the reasons why ideograms semantic ability is declining. We think it is closely related with the changes of literal meaning, characters patterns, social life and customs. At last, we expound the thoughts arise in the research process. We think although modern Chinese character has a lot changes, the "meaning-sound-sigh" will be still the nature of Chinese characters for a long time. Furthermore, we also introduce the influence of simplified character on Chinese characters'semantic function.