On the development and evolution of ancient Chinese word meaning and its reasons
In the development view of Marxist philosophy, it is mentioned that things are developing and changing, movement is absolute, and stillness is relative. Since its birth, language has been in constant development and evolution due to different historical characteristics and social environment. The meaning of words is an important factor in language, and it is constantly developing and evolving.
Reasons for the evolution of word meaning:
1. Social development is the most important factor affecting the evolution of word meaning. Language is a social phenomenon.
Since there was a society, language has existed. Language is produced and developed with the emergence and development of society. Language dies with the death of society. There is no language outside society. Therefore, to understand the law of language development, we must closely combine the history of social development and the history of people who created languages to study languages. Therefore, investigating the evolution of word meaning must also be closely combined with the history of social development. For example, "people" refers to slaves in Shang Dynasty and Western Zhou Dynasty. "Shangshu Duoshi" mentioned that "in a week, people move in yin and are stubborn". After the destruction of Yin in Zhou Dynasty, some Yin people moved to Chengzhou. At this time, these people have become slaves of the Zhou Dynasty, so they are called "people", and because they are out of control, they are called "stubborn people". With the disintegration of the slave economy, the feudal system gradually replaced slavery, and the "people" rose from slaves to free people, and their social status improved. "People" are "people" and "common people". This example fully illustrates the profound changes in the meaning of words brought about by social changes.
2. The customs and habits of the ancients, as well as their understanding and association of things, also have an impact on the evolution of word meaning.
Language is a systematic thing, which is deeply influenced by the groups who use it. Language, grammar and semantics all have established characteristics. For example, in ancient times, "sheep" was regarded as the most delicious food among the six animals. This custom is also reflected in the words and meanings, and there are many pictophonetic and knowing words from "sheep". There are many meanings of "beauty" and "goodness", such as "auspiciousness", which is trained from "sheep" to "goodness". "Goodness" is understood from "sheep" and trained as "good luck" and "beauty". The ancients regarded sheep as auspicious and beautiful things, and its meaning has been abstracted and extended. Many beautiful and kind people and things can be described as "sheep" For example, the poem "The Book of Songs, Zhao Nan, Lamb" is a metaphor for "frugality and housekeeping, and virtue is like a lamb". The lamb is called "lamb". Another example is the word "jade", which originally meant "beautiful stone". However, the ancients believed that "jade" had five beautiful qualities: benevolence, righteousness, wisdom and courage, so all literati wore beautiful jade to compare virtue. "Book of Rites Jade Algae": "An ancient gentleman must match jade." "A gentleman does not go to the body for no reason, and a gentleman is more than jade." It can be seen that all ancient gentlemen were jade, so "jade" was compared to all beautiful things.
3. The evolution of word meaning also has its inherent law, and one of the important factors is people's selective attention to word meaning in language communication.
A word is used continuously in a certain language environment, and the meaning of a broader word will be limited to one aspect for established reasons. Most things or objects are complex, they are a whole composed of several separable parts. Some of these parts are related to what the speaker wants to express, while others are irrelevant. In language communication, people will naturally focus on the important parts related to the conversation. For example, the word "smelly" in ancient Chinese means both "fragrant" and "smelly". Easy Cohesion: It stinks like blue. The smell at this time means "fragrance". Confucius' Book of Ying Da well explained the change of the meaning of the word "smelly": "Smell is another name for qi, and the ancients named it smelly when they smelled fishy smell." In language communication, because the word "smelly" often means foul, people pay attention to this meaning selectively, so the meaning of the word "smelly" has also evolved.
Evolution of ancient and modern word meanings
Vocabulary plays an important role in our daily life, and its meaning has also changed greatly in the historical changes. First of all, we must see clearly the inheritance of language. Therefore, tracing back to the source, we cannot ignore the meaning and evolution of ancient Chinese. In our modern vocabulary, the meanings of some words have remained for thousands of years, and have hardly changed until today. Such as "big", "small", "crying" and "laughing", these are basic words, an important part of vocabulary and one of the important manifestations of language inheritance and stability. On the other hand, there are also some words. Due to the inheritance of language, the present meaning is developed from the ancient meaning, and there must be a relationship between ancient and modern. Some relationships are obvious, while others are vague. These all need our daily accumulation and careful analysis.
The evolution of word meaning is extremely complicated, which can be roughly divided into the following four aspects.
First, the expansion of meaning. The extension of word meaning refers to the extension of concept, and the extended meaning reflects a wider range of objective objects than the original. For example, ancient "poetry" specifically refers to the Book of Songs and The Analects of Confucius for Politics: "There are 300 poems, in a word, thinking innocently", and now it refers to ordinary poetry. Similar words are "Jiang" and "He". In ancient times, Jiang and He were both proper nouns, originally referring to the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. Such as "Public Loss": "The fish and turtles in Jianghan are rich in the world." Historical Records Biography of Xiang Yu: "Xiang Yu led the troops to cross the river ... the generals fought against Hebei and the ministers fought against Henan." Later, the Yangtze River and the Yellow River were extended to refer to general rivers, and their meanings expanded from individual to general. The original proper nouns "Jiang" and "He" were later expressed by adjectives and became "Yangtze River" and "Yellow River". The word "sailing boat" used to refer to walking on water, but now it is also used to refer to planes flying in the air. "Flower" originally refers to the flower of a plant, which is completely expanded into a whole plant, including roots, stems and leaves. For example, "planting flowers" is extended to the verb "spending money", which means "making" and "using".
Second, the narrowing of meaning. The narrowing of word meaning is the narrowing of conceptual extension, that is, the scope of objective objects reflected by post-meaning is only a part or an aspect of the original text. Such as "palace", generally refers to ancient houses. "Palace" and "house" are synonyms, both referring to houses in the pre-Qin period. After Qin and Han dynasties, "palace" refers to the residence of feudal emperors, such as "Epang Palace" and "Weiyang Palace". Now, in addition to some old brands called "Palace", there are only some cultural and entertainment venues called Palace. For example, the Children's Palace and the Cultural Palace. The meaning of "work" is getting smaller and smaller. Another example is "husband", which refers to adult men in ancient times. Shuowen: "Zhou system, eight inches is the ruler, ten inches is the ruler, and people are eight feet long, so they are called husbands." Han Feizi: "The husband of the ancients didn't plow, but he had enough vegetation." Later, the word "husband" only refers to the spouse of a woman. The ancient "bed" refers to both seating and bedding. Shuowen: "Bed, a person to sit on", Duan Yucai changed it to "a few seats to sit on." Mulan Shi: "Open my Dongting Gate and sit on my Xiting Bed." Both refer to seats, and now the "bed" often refers to bedding, and its application scope has narrowed.
Third, the transfer of meaning. The transfer of meaning refers to the transfer of meaning from a thing to a thing that refers to B. There is no generic relationship between A and B. For example, in the seventh volume of Shuowen, "poverty" is "extreme", the original meaning is "exhaustion" or "end", which is extended to suffering or despair; When used as a verb, it means "to the end". Xunzi advised him to learn: "Snakes fly without feet, and mice are poor in five skills." "Journey to the Treasure Toad Mountain": "A knight, what he is good at can't be finished from his mouth. "Later," poverty "had the meaning of poverty and became a synonym for" poverty ",and its meaning changed. There is a difference between poverty and ancient poverty. Poverty and wealth are opposites, and so are poverty and friendship. Later, the meaning of "exhausted" was used less, but it still remained in idioms, such as "the end of the road", "the end of the mountain" and "chasing after it". Another example is the word "Xie" and "Shuo Wen": "Xie, resign. "Tell", "tell" or "take it for granted". "Touch the dragon and talk about the Queen Zhao": "If you enter, you will be in a hurry, and the Lord will thank you. "The Hongmen Banquet": "I went, and now Sean stays to thank you. "Peacock flies southeast:" Mother thanked the matchmaker:' The woman swore first' "Later it was extended to" thank you ",which had no generic relationship with" Ci "and changed its meaning.
Fourth, the meaning is different. Changes in customs and social thoughts often cause people to cherish things and change their evaluation of good and evil, thus affecting the evaluation of word meaning. Some words change from commendatory to derogatory, some words change from derogatory to commendatory, and so on. For example, "slave" refers to ancient brave generals and military commanders. On Putonghua and Vietnamese: "Although a husband has no worries on all sides, a counselor and a slave have to choose." Biography of Li Hanguang: "The general is also a pawn of the country." The modern meaning of "slave" is indeed an accomplice and a running dog, which has become a derogatory term. Another example is "restoration", which in ancient times meant "restoration of the throne" and now means "resurrection of reactionary forces". Some derogatory meanings have become commendatory, such as "exercise". In ancient times, it means "playing with the law to frame people", which is a derogatory term. Now it means "labor exercise", "ideological exercise" and "physical exercise", and "exercise" has become a commendatory term.
Fifth, the meaning is vague. The evolution of word meaning is varied, and some of them often cause changes in part of speech. Although the changes are complicated, there is a general trend. Is from real to virtual. This is the part of speech, and so is the meaning. There were many notional words in ancient times, but few functional words. Function words in modern Chinese are mostly evolved from ancient content words. For example, the word "Xiang" and "Shuowen" say: "Xiang, keep the eye, follow the wood from the eye." "Yi" said: "The land is considerable, but the wood is not." "Poetry" says: "Rats have skins." The original meaning is to look carefully and observe, which is extended to "auxiliary", then to "mutual" and then to words with no practical meaning. "Historical records. "Biography of Huaiyin Hou": "The face of Xiang Jun cannot be sealed, and it is dangerous." (observation). "You Bao Chan Shan": "The Lord is confused in the dark and can't come." (auxiliary). "Introduction to the South": "The sun and the north ride together in Changhuai." The meaning of "mutual" is very weak and gradually becomes meaningless. Peacock flies southeast: "swear not to be separated from mother and go home temporarily." Lost Street Pavilion: "Send another general to help you." Both "separation" and "help" are followed by objects, and such "phase" has become a word with no practical significance.
Generally speaking, the development and change of word meaning is explained by extension. In the evolution of the above five meanings, the expansion of meaning (the increase of meaning items) makes the meaning of words more and more accurate and precise, which is the inevitable result of people's deepening understanding of objective things and phenomena. Paying attention to the evolution of the meaning of words and the relationship between the old and new meanings can help us have a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the meaning of words, so that when reading works, we will not misunderstand some polysemous words by replacing the original meaning with the current meaning.
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