A Brief Introduction of Three Linguistics Books in the Ancient China from the Synchronic Point of View

【Abstract】This essay， from synchronic point of view， is to introduce three important books that play a vital role in the history Chinese linguistics， which also makes a major contribution to the development of Chinese linguistics in the ancient time so that people could executive a clear understanding about parts of Chinese linguistics in the ancient time.

【Key words】Chinese linguistics； book； synchronic

1. Introduction

Research findings of modern linguistics show that India， Greek and China are the footstone and cradle of linguistics from the perspective of philosophy. For Chinese linguistics， people may mainly analyze the language research in Han Dynasty. In the first place， Han Dynasty is the base and flourished period of Chinese linguistics. In the second place， from Han Dynasty to Qing Dynasty， the category such as lexicology and phonetics is similar during this period. More important， the three influential books about Chinese linguistics， Interpretation of Nouns， Dialect， and Shuo Wen Jie Zhi are all written in Han Dynasty.

A synchronic study of language is about study at some point in time， it studies that language exists in time. Therefore， a study of the three books in Han Dynasty would be a synchronic study.

2. Body

These three influential works including Shuo Wen Jie Zhi， Dialect， and Interpretation of Nouns are all published in the Han Dynasty and act an important role for Chinese linguistic history.

Firstly， Interpretation of Nouns written by Liu Xi plays a huge part in promoting the establishment of Chinese etymology so that it enjoys a renowned position in Chinese linguistic history. It is written by Liu Xi， whose courtesy name is Chengguo， a linguist in eastern Han Dynasty. His purpose of writing is to find out the origin of words clearly， no matter the words are elegant or popular. He uses the sound training technique （phonetic exegetics） to peruse the source of words. with the regard to its influence and contribution， this book has reference value about the source of words （etymology） and difference between the ancient sound and the ancient meaning.

Secondly， Dialect is the first book in Chinese history specialized in dialect. Yang Xiong is a linguist， litterateur and philosopher， which has a little stutter and slow of speech， but is famous for his articles. On the part of linguistics， he initiates the style of Er Ya and creates uniquely and individually Dialect so that it opens up a new linguistic discipline-dialectology. Therefore， the complicated dialect research is studied by Yang Xiong comprehensively and systematically.Dialect is the first book in Chinese history specialized in dialects；and it creates dialectology as an independent discipline.endprint

Lastly， In 100 AD， Xu Shen wrote the first book on interpretation of Chinese characters， and Shuo Wen Jie Zi is also one of the earliest dictionaries in the world. In this book， 9353 Chinese characters are collected by Xu Shen and can be classified into 540 categories. Based on radicals， he abstracts on the basis of their structures. Xu Shen（58 AD-149AD） whose courtesy name is Shuchong is a scholar in Han Dynasty and devotes himself to developing Chinese traditional culture. Consisting of 15 volumes， Shuo Wen Jie Zi takes Small Seal script as its object and create Chinese radicals from “一” to “亥”. Shuo Wen Jie Zi categories 540 radicals from thousands of words， which pioneers a new method of combination of Chinese character by using radicals. Modern Chinese character is based on this system.

3. Conclusion

Shuo Wen Jie Zhi， Dialect， and Interpretation of Nouns are the most influential masterpiece in the field of linguistics in ancient China. The Han Dynasty marks a pioneer era in Chinas language studies， and has great influence on Chinese linguistics of later times. Interpretation of Nouns exhibits for us the Chinese etymology；Dialect opens up the new field of Chinese dialectology and Shuo Wen Jie Zhi plays an important part in the interpretation of Chinese characters. All these language studies developed can prove that China is one of the linguistic foundation countries in the world and it will flourish in the future with a profound language culture.

References：

[1]劉潤清，封宗信.語言學理論與流派[M].江蘇：南京師范大學出版社.2003.

作者簡介：崔詩文（1993.3.5-），女，漢族，遼寧鞍山人，現就讀于遼寧大學外國語學院2016級外國語言學及應用語言學專業，主要研究方向：語言學。endprint