A Study of the History of Commonly Used Sinitic Vocabulary Based on a Wide-Area Map and a High-Resolution Narrow-Area Map

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13187
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 02060:Linguistics-related
• Research Institution: Nanzan University
• Principal Investigator: Suzuki Fumiki 南山大学, 外国語学部, 准教授 (20803886)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 言語地理学 / 漢語方言 / 漢語語彙史

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To clarify the history of the commonly used vocabulary of the Sinitic languages, this study first created a wide-area word form distribution map and a high-resolution narrow-area map of modern Chinese dialects and analyzed them using linguistic geographical methods. We then combined the analytical results with historical documents to present a more accurate language change mechanism and elucidate the entire history of Chinese vocabulary. During the research period, we analyzed eight commonly used vocabulary items to increase the linguistic geography research sample. We also analyzed the characteristics of the dialects of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Free Research Field

中国語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

中国語語彙の歴史研究に、現代方言の語形分布地図を作成・分析する言語地理学的手法でアプローチしたこと、また、広域地図と狭域詳細地図を組み合わせてより緻密に地理分布を解釈したことに本研究の特徴がある。類似する分布傾向をみせる項目を選んで分析したことで、分布類型の平行例を蓄積することができた一方で、その多様性についても新たな知見が得られたことに学術的意義が認められる。