Lexical Semantic Evolution of Polysemous Words in Ancient Chinese—Taking Zǒu as an Example

Tun Yu Hsu, Jia Fei Hong*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

This study will explore the contexts of the lexical semantic change of the word zǒu “to walk” through the concepts of metonymy and metaphor. By examining the documents from ancient times, middle times to early modern times, this study has found that zǒu “to walk” in ancient times meant “to escape”. During the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties, the meaning became “to run”. In early modern times, the major meaning of “to walk” appeared. The semantics of the word zǒu “to walk” in ancient times, middle times, and early modern times has not changed much in basic concepts, following the general concept of “starting point → path → ending point”.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationChinese Lexical Semantics - 21st Workshop, CLSW 2020, Revised Selected Papers
EditorsMeichun Liu, Chunyu Kit, Qi Su
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages756-763
Number of pages8
ISBN (Print)9783030811969
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021
Event21st Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop, CLSW 2020 - Virtual, Online
Duration: 2020 May 282020 May 30

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume12278 LNAI
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference21st Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop, CLSW 2020
CityVirtual, Online
Period2020/05/282020/05/30

Keywords

  • Ancient Chinese
  • Metaphor
  • Metonymy
  • Polysemy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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