Study Word Meaning System "Dictionary" Word Unit

Shuowen Jiezi is the earliest dictionary in our country. Xushen, collected all the words in the Five Classcis and firstly classified the9353Chinese Characters into540categories respectively by their radicals. He also studied the meaning and etymology of the words based on the theories in the six categories of Chinese Characters. On the other hand, Shuowen Jiezi is an encyclopedia of ancient society. It memorizes the interpretation of ancient literatures which reflect all aspects of the ancient society by explaining the meanings of words. This thesis studied Characters in Shuowen Jiezi with radical of "yan". By introducing traditional glyphs analysis, relating words with the same origin and semantic field theory in modern linguistic study, primary meanings of all the245Characters in Shuowen Jiezi with radical of "yan" were investigated. On that basis, cultural information hidden in words with "yan" radical were elucidated by Phraseological Symbol Theory in "interactive medium".Introduction in this thesis summarized previous study on Shuowen Jiezi and words with "yan" radical. It also gave the ideas and methods of this study.The first chapter stated the scope of this study and explained the connotation of the word "yan", as well as built the denotation system of words with "yan" radical.The second chapter was about the behavior of "yan". This chapter summarized all the words reflecting behavior of "yan" in Shuowen Jiezi. Words with the same or similar meaning were sorted out in a group. It was found that the most abundant words were those reflecting behavior about censuring, defaming and consulting. Then some words with the meaning of condemnation, defamation, contriving, satire, admonition and complementation were extracted as examples. By studying their primary meaning, cultural significance their reflected were elucidated.The third chapter was about the attitude of "yan". Words telling the attitude of "yan" were divided into two groups, positive and negative, respectively. Positive attitude included integrity and sincerity, cautiousness and respect, harmony and beauty, wisdom and brightness, while the negative attitude was comprised of fraud, magniloquence and flam. Some words from these seven categories were taken as examples to study their primary meaning and cultural significance. Study showed that origins of words reflecting positive attitude were quite the reverse of that reflecting negative attitude.The fourth Chapter is about the state, divided into metal and physical, of "yan". While mental state was relevant to mood, physical state was associated with the volume of the sound, the speed of speaking and the amount of words. Analysis of this study revealed that most words with "yan" radical related to mood had a connection to words with "xin" radical in Shuowen Jiezi and those related to metal states were closely linked to words with "kou" radical. It was also concluded that there were much more words expressing sadness, noisiness and talkativeness than those conveying exaltation, quietness and taciturnity.