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Journal of Beijing Normal University(Social Sciences) ›› 2020, Vol. 0 ›› Issue (2): 60-67.

• Linguistics and Philology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Interaction between Vocabulary Grammaticalization and Character Evolution in Chinese

LI Yunfu1, SUN Qian2   

  1. 1. Research Center for the Inheritance Dissemination and Education of the Chinese Characters Civilization,Zhengzhou University,Zhengzhou 450001;
    2. School of Chinese Language and Literature,BNU 100875,China
  • Received:2019-07-25 Online:2020-03-25 Published:2020-12-07

Abstract: There is a relatively fixed correspondence between Chinese characters and words,and one change affects the other.A similar interaction exists between vocabulary grammaticalization and character evolution in Chinese,and the influence of vocabulary grammaticalization on the change of Chinese characters are illustrated in the following aspects:first,the semantic components of Chinese characters become redundant gradually with the recession of lexical meaning,leading to the phenomena of reduction and sonification;second,the reinforcement of grammatical meaning breeds specially-used Chinese characters with the function of distinguishing words;third,Chinese characters used to record certain words can be replaced and adjusted under the influence of sonification.On the other hand,the evolution of Chinese characters can either promote or hinder vocabulary grammaticalization,including accelerating the reduction of word meanings and pronunciations,promoting the derivation of new words and meanings,highlighting and solidifying the grammaticalization function,and leading to reverse lexicalization,etc.The evolution of Chinese characters may cover the truth of vocabulary grammaticalization,which brings interference to the study of text interpretation and grammaticalization.Therefore,attention should be paid to the evolution of Chinese characters when issues of the vocabulary grammaticalization are studied.

Key words: vocabulary grammaticalization, the evolution of Chinese characters, relationships between Chinese characters and words, interaction.

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