Radicals with Diplomatic Semantics in the Ancient Chinese Dictionary Shuo Wen Jie Zi: Verification of Etymology
https://doi.org/10.24833/RJCSC-2022-3-44-58
Abstract
There are several signs that contain “diplomatic” semantics among the 540 most ancient radicals of Chinese writing, presented in the Shuo Wen Jie Zi dictionary (1st century AD, Han era). Before the dictionary was created, Chinese writing had already existed for several thousand years. Therefore, some researchers (Zou Xiaoli, 2007; Oshanin, 1943) consider that the etymologies of the radicals in Shuo Wen were formulated under the influence of the later eras and are often erroneous. Attempts are made to verify the etymologies of these signs with “diplomatic” semantics by comparing them with the more ancient forms jiaguwen and jinwen, discovered and scientifically described only in the 20th century. Such a comparison and interpretation will reveal the probable correct etymologies of the analysed radicals of the Shuo Wen dictionary and verify them. In addition, the study will shed light on the beginning of diplomacy in ancient China. The article also touches upon the problem of etymological analysis in a language with an ideographic type of writing, which is carried out not at the level of morphology, as in European languages, but at the level of hieroglyphic sign graphics. The problem of semantics and etymology of radicals was considered mainly by Chinese scientists (Zou Xiaoli, 2007; Wang Fengyang, 2011, etc.), while in European linguistics, the problem was studied only fragmentarily (Kondrashevsky, 1982; Karasyova, 2019; Dictionary of Etymologies, 2019). The radicals “with diplomatic” semantics analysed in this article have not been subjected to special study. The purpose of the present article is to verify the etymology of a number of radicals that contain “diplomatic” semantics in the ancient Chinese dictionary Shuo Wen Jie Zi; consider information about the dictionary, its basic radicals and their semantics; briefly describe the features of etymological analysis in general, and in the Chinese language in particular; and compare the definitions of these radicals in various etymological dictionaries, thus verifying the etymologies presented in the Shuo Wen Jie Zi dictionary.
About the Author
E. A. Khamaeva
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University)
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Elena A. Khamaeva, PhD, Assistant Professor
Department of Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Laotian Language
119454
76 Prospekt Vernadskogo
Moscow
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Review
For citations:
Khamaeva E.A. Radicals with Diplomatic Semantics in the Ancient Chinese Dictionary Shuo Wen Jie Zi: Verification of Etymology. The Russian Journal of Cultural Studies and Communication. 2022;1(3):44-58. https://doi.org/10.24833/RJCSC-2022-3-44-58
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