Analyzing the Changes to Common-use Sinitic Vocabulary Combining the Research on Historical Literature and Modern Dialects

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17H07224
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Nanzan University
• Principal Investigator: Suzuki Fumiki 南山大学, 外国語学部, 講師 (20803886)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-08-25 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 言語地理学 / 漢語方言 / 漢語語彙史

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Combining the research of historical literature and modern dialects, this study attempts to clarify the diachronic changes in common-use Sinitic vocabulary. In historical literature, it has been observed that the main word form denoting a certain meaning was sometimes replaced by other word forms. This study found that this phenomenon did not always represent a fundamental change to Sinitic but was a reflection of changes which occurred in local areas to varying extents.

Free Research Field

中国語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

史的文献研究と現代方言研究の統合の試みは少なくないが、語形分布地図を作成・分析する言語地理学的手法を現代方言研究に用いたことに本研究の特徴がある。言語地理学研究による語彙変化の推定と、史的文献に基づいた記述をつきあわせることで、より精度の高い歴史的変化の過程を明らかにするとともに、そのメカニズムを現代方言と史的文献の双方から漢語語彙史の中に位置づけようと試みた点に学術的意義が認められる。