"shrimp, roast, dress, spit, stick, ammonia, manage and forget".
the radicals associated with the meaning of pictophonetic characters are called pictophonetic radicals, and the radicals "insect, fire, clothes, mouth, wood, qi, king (jade) and heart" in the previous examples are pictophonetic radicals; The radicals "Xia, Kao, Shang, Tu, Gan, An, Li, Wu" are the radicals that are related to the pronunciation. A pictophonetic character is a Chinese character which consists of a pictophonetic character and a phonetic character.
A shape-side or sound-side can be associated with multiple Chinese characters and act as the radicals of multiple Chinese characters, which not only improves the usage rate of radicals (many of which are also characters), makes Chinese characters more systematic, but also facilitates users to quickly understand the meaning of words, master the pronunciation and use them correctly. For example, the Chinese characters with "bird" as the side of the shape are all related to birds, such as "bird, Peng, owl, cuckoo, thrush, thrush, thrush" and so on; The words next to the word "Hu" are pronounced the same as "Hu", such as "Hu, Hu, Hu, Hu, Yan, Yan, Yi" and so on.
Compared with pictophonetic characters, signifier characters and knowing characters, pictophonetic characters have obvious advantages. They can see the meaning according to the form, know the sound according to the form, and organically integrate the two functions of ideographic and phonographic characters. The recording language is more scientific and reasonable, which not only meets the needs of distinguishing homophones and homophones in Chinese, but also adapts to the situation of great differences in Chinese dialects and pronunciation. Therefore, pictophonetic characters developed rapidly as soon as they appeared. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the proportion of pictophonetic characters is still very small, while in inscriptions on bronze, there is a developing trend. In Han Dynasty, pictophonetic characters have become the mainstream of Chinese character system. According to statistics, Shuowen Jiezi compiled by Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty contains 9353 Chinese characters, of which pictophonetic characters account for 82%. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zheng Qiao made a statistical analysis of more than 23, Chinese characters, and pictophonetic characters accounted for 9%. Among 7 modern Chinese characters, pictophonetic characters also account for more than 8%.
from the above statistics, it can be seen that the modern Chinese character system is mainly pictophonetic characters. These numerous pictophonetic characters are all composed of a limited number of pictophonetic and phonological characters. According to statistics, there are about 25 pictophonetic characters and about 13 phonetic characters. These pictophonetic characters and phonetic characters cooperate with each other to form the pictophonetic character system of Chinese characters.
There are various collocations of shape and sound, mainly including the following six kinds:
Left-sided sound and right-sided sound, such as Qing, Song, Cheng, Fishing, Beaver, Emotion, Description, Hat and Spinning
Left-sided sound and right-sided sound, such as Gong, Ling, Salvation, War, Suburb, Release, Duck and Gone with the Wind. Such as: smell, stuffy, braid, argue, and ask about the internal sounds in the shape, such as: circle, pavilion, longing, illness, rush, hall, and proximity < P > Among various combinations of pictophonetic characters, the types of left-form and right-form are the most, accounting for almost 8% of the commonly used pictophonetic characters in modern times, followed by left-form and right-form, accounting for about 6%, and the pictophonetic characters of other structures are the most. The positions of some commonly used shapes are regular in pictophonetic characters, for example, shapes such as single, wooden, vertical, twisted, clothes and display are generally on the left side of the characters, shapes such as vertical knife, ge, bird and owe are generally on the right side of the characters, and shapes such as grass, bamboo, treasure and rain are all on the right side of the characters. This structure has been fixed since it developed from seal script in Qin and Han Dynasties to official script. Second, the function of pictophonetic characters beside the shape and sound
(1) the function of the shape
1. Prompting the meaning of the word
The most prominent function of the shape is to prompt the meaning of the word. However, pictographs do not represent the exact meaning of words, but the generic meaning of words. Its function is to provide people with information about the meaning of words visually and narrow the association range of understanding the meaning of words. For example, seeing the "bird" beside the shape in "Siniperca, Siniperca, and Siniperca" is associated with the meaning of birds; Seeing the word "cow" beside the shape in "Mao, Sacrifice, Plow, Sacrifice, Calf", I associate this kind of word meaning with cow; When you see the shape of the handle in the words "hit, pull, push, expand, grab and throw", you know that the meaning of the word is related to the action of the hand.
There are three kinds of relations between shape and word meaning:
(1) The same and similar relations. That is to say, the meanings of the homographs beside the shape are the same or similar, such as "father" beside the shape and the pictophonetic characters "dad, dad and grandpa", "white" beside the shape and "jiao, ai, xi and hao", "boat" and "boat, ge and Mao" beside the shape. However, such pictophonetic characters account for a small proportion.
(2) the relationship between genera and species. That is, the shape side indicates the upper concept and the subordinate concept, and each Chinese character is a lower concept and a kind of concept. There are many such pictophonetic characters. For example:
wood-poplar, willow, persimmon, peach, maple, locust, elm, eucalyptus, nanfish-carp, crucian carp, silver carp, squid, sturgeon, bream, pomfret, loach and bream
bird- That is to say, there is a certain relationship between the shape side and the meaning isomorphic side of Chinese characters. For example, "river, river, sea, ocean, shock, current, wave, wave, wave, surge, Peng" changes from "Yun" (three dots of water is the deformation of "water"), "shame, shame, annoyance, hate, pleasure, quickness, fear, timidity, fear, anxiety, anxiety, anxiety, anxiety, anxiety, anxiety, anxiety, anxiety and anxiety.
The various connections between pictophonetic characters and word meaning reveal the word meaning information from the configuration, which provides some suggestive conditions for people to associate with and further understand the word meaning, which is of positive significance for people to identify the word meaning. For example, when people see "capital, poverty, loans, goods, trade, fees, rewards, wealth, gifts, credit, and meanness", they think of property and economy through the appearance of "shell"; When you see "speaking, talking, discussing, discussing, remembering, talking and training", you will associate it with speaking and speech by the word "distortion". However, the information provided by the phonetic symbol is very limited, rather general and vague, and the exact understanding of the meaning of the word depends on the assistance of the phonetic symbol.
2. Distinguishing homonyms
Many words in homonyms are composed of the same phonetic side, and their pronunciations are the same, which constitutes homonyms, and the phonetic side has become an important means to distinguish these homonyms. For example, "Huang, Huang, Huang, Li and Yi" all pronounce huáng, "Lai, Gan, Lai, Lai and Re" all pronounce lái, and "Gang, Gang, Steel and Gang" all pronounce gāng. Although these words have the same pronunciation,
By using the differences between pictophonetic characters, we can distinguish some pictophonetic characters that are easily confused in writing, and avoid writing typos. For example, "Artemisia" is a grass prefix, and its meaning is related to grass, while "pole" is a bamboo prefix, and its meaning is related to bamboo; "Hang" is beside the hand, the meaning of the word is related to the movement of the hand, "Gui" is beside the wooden word, and the meaning of the word is related to the trees.
(2) the function of phonetic symbols
1. The function of phonetic symbols beside phonetic symbols is that they can provide people with phonetic information visually, so that people can hook up with a syllable in the voice through phonetic symbols, and then determine the phonetic symbols. When you know a certain sound, you can sometimes deduce the pronunciation of a series of words. For example:
Xi (xΡ): Se, Sacrifice, Mi, Ci, Habitat
Xi (xΡ): Rare, Olene, Xi, Xi
Mei (méi): Mei.
2. Distinguishing glyphs
The function of distinguishing glyphs beside the sound has two aspects.
first, distinguish words of the same kind. Many Chinese characters choose the same shape to form words because of the correlation in meaning, and as a result, they form the same kind of words with the same meaning. This situation is very common in the Chinese character system. Some pictographs can command dozens or even hundreds of Chinese characters. These Chinese characters with the same meaning are distinguished by phonetic symbols. For example, the shape of "river, river, wave, wave, downpour and surge" is surrounded by "water", and the shape of "beating, pulling, hugging, grabbing, pressing and grabbing" is surrounded by "hand". However, due to the prompt function of the sound side, these words are associated with the morphemes that pronounce a syllable in the language, which makes the meaning of the words clear and definite.
second, distinguish between similar characters. Some pictophonetic characters are similar in form and easy to be confused, but they can be distinguished from each other because of their different pronunciations. For example, the words beside the sound with "lun" are generally pronounced with LUN sound, such as "Lun (lūn), Lun, Lun, Lun, Lun (lún), Lun (Lù n)"; Chinese characters next to the word "cang" are generally pronounced with the sound of "Cang", such as "Cang, Cang and Cang", and some vowels pronounce "iang" or "uang", such as "gun, grab, choke, wound, sore and pang", which is like "LUN" and "grab". Another example is that you don't pronounce wèi, and you pronounce mò at the end, so the words "taste, sister, ignorance and charm" can be easily distinguished from the words "wipe, foam, Mo and Mo" because of their different pronunciations, and the radicals in them will not be misspelled.
3. Analogous pronunciation to correct the dialect.
There are many dialects in Chinese, which are quite different from Putonghua. Some initials and finals in Putonghua are often confused in many dialects, for example, there is no distinction between flat tongue and tongue, no distinction between nasal consonants and nasal vowels, and so on. In learning Putonghua, we can use the phonetic characteristics of pictophonetic characters to analogize the pronunciation of a series of words in Putonghua, so as to get twice the result with half the effort. For example, "Zhi" pronounces the initial consonant of the tongue, so all the words beside "Zhi", such as "Nephew, Tun, Ya, Hirudo", are also pronounced. Another example is:
branches (rolling tongue sounds): branches, limbs, toes, squeaks, wings, and black beans. Zi (Pinghua): Zi, Zi, Zi and Zi.
medium (rolling tongue): species, bell, swelling, cup, loyalty, perseverance, lingering, and middle.
Sect (Pinghua): brown, comprehensive, trace, mane, zongzi, cong, cong. Shen (pre-nasal rhyme): Shen, Shen, Shen, Shen, As, Si, Shen.
Sheng (after nasal rhyme): Sheng, Nephew, Sacrifice, Heng, Sheng, Xing, Xing and surname.
slaves (nasal initials): anger, nu, crossbow, squatting, squatting, squatting and squatting.
Lu (initial consonant): skull, fork, Lu, fork, fork, fork, bass.
shape and sound are interactive. On the one hand, the meaning class is determined by the shape, which distinguishes homonyms; On the other hand, the pronunciation of words is determined by the sound side, so that similar words can be distinguished. These two aspects work together to closely link words with morphemes, thus making the meaning of words clear.
3. Limitations of pictophonetic characters
(1) Ambiguous meaning of pictophonetic characters
From the three situations that pictophonetic characters are related to word meaning, there are very few pictophonetic characters with the same and similar meaning, and most pictophonetic characters are related to each other. Therefore, pictographs only indicate the general and vague meaning of words, not the exact meaning of words. The meaning of the same shape is very different in different words. For example, "push", "pull", "block" and "block" are all shaped by "hand" (transformed into a hand). If you don't look at the sound side, it is impossible to understand their exact meanings only by the shape side. Another example is the word "wood", which has the following meanings:
indicates the names of trees: cypress, pine, elm, tung, fir, eucalyptus, locust and orange.
indicates the parts of trees: roots, stems, branches, shoots, branches, and branches.
stands for wood products: cabinets, sticks, sticks, chairs, cabinets, cases, chess, combs and coffins.
other contents: withered, withered, squeezed, planted, school and village.
Due to the differences between ancient and modern concepts and the extended development of word meaning, the relationship between the shape and word meaning of modern pictophonetic characters has become less and less, and some of them can't be seen at all. For example, "mirror" is changed from "gold", "cheat, test, arrogance, drive and stay" is changed from "horse", "rape, jealousy, jealousy, madness, greed and suspicion" is changed from "female" to "discipline, red, correction, classics, end and level" If we don't study the history and culture of the Han nationality, it is difficult to see the relationship between the meaning of these groups of pictophonetic characters and the shape.
(2) Phonetic phonetic notation is not necessarily accurate
When pictophonetic characters were first created, phonetic phonetic phonetic notation was generally accurate. In the process of language development, because of the inconsistency between the development and changes of phonetic radicals and word sounds, phonetic radicals are not very accurate. The situation of phonetic notation of modern pictophonetic characters is complicated and varied. From the perspective of the relationship between the phonetic components of all pictophonetic characters and the phonetic components, it can be concluded that the relationship between the phonetic components of modern pictophonetic characters and the phonetic components mainly includes three situations: accurate phonetic components, basically accurate phonetic components, and no phonetic components.
1. Accurate pronunciation
Phonetic consonants can accurately represent the pronunciation of words, and their sounds, rhymes and tones are exactly the same. For example:
Hu (hú): lake, paste, butterfly, gourd, scorpion, scorpion.
Huang (huáng): Huang, Wu, locust, Huang, Yu, Lu, Huang and Fu.
man (màn): slow, diffuse, tendril, man, man, mantle, man, man, eel.
Lu, Lu, Lu, Lu and Lu.
2. The pronunciation is basically accurate.
The shape is the same as the initial and final of the word sound. For example:
ma (m?): Ma (mā), Ma (má), Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma (m?), Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma.
ting (tíng): ting, ting, ting, ting (tíng) ting, boat, ting, ting and collar (tǐng).
height (gāo): engage, draft, pole, pick, pole, pole, pole, pole and pole (g? o).
ke (kě): ke, ke, ke, ke, ke, ke, ke and ke.
3. Not expressing phonetic sounds
In this kind of pictophonetic characters, the pronunciation and phonetic sounds of the phonetic side are far from each other. Some initials are the same, some finals are the same, some initials are different, some tones are the same, and the phonetic side has completely lost its phonetic function, which is just a symbol to distinguish the glyphs. For example:
Gong (gōng): cylinder, anus, shoulder (gāng), shoulder (káng), empty (kōng), red, rainbow (hóng)
Fu (hòng), Jiang, xiàng (jiāng).
shào (shā o): sand, sand and yarn (shā), second, long, long (mi?o), wonderful (mi?o), copy and bill (chāo),
noisy and speculation (chǎo), and so on.
There are most pictophonetic characters that don't express the sound beside the sound, accounting for about 6% of modern pictophonetic characters. According to statistics, pictophonetic characters with the same phonetic sound, rhyme and tone account for only a little more than 2% of modern pictophonetic characters. Chinese has a tonal language, and the tone plays a different role. Therefore, only the initials and finals beside the sound are the same as the sound of the word, but the tone is different. Strictly speaking, it should be regarded as a pictophonetic word that does not express the sound of the word. It can be seen that in modern pictophonetic characters, the phonetic rate of phonetic side is quite low.
We often see the phenomenon of reciting "white characters", and the main reason lies in the inaccurate phonetic notation of modern pictophonetic characters.