On How to Distinguish Ancient Chinese Synonyms
Huang Jin-gui · Journal of Zhejiang University(Humanities and Social Sciences) · 2002
Distinguishing is a prerequisite for identifying whether discrimination and interpretation of an- cient Chinese synonyms are good or bad. In understanding that one meaning is same,which is criterion to distinguish synonyms, we will have tos solve problem of how to distinguish a group of words for which only one meaning is same. Many researchers came up with various related methods, which have proved futile, because they failed to understand how to define or name synonyms correctly and misunderstood equivalents. This paper proposes two methods of distinguishing synonyms on basis of others. Synonyms can be divided into two kinds: one being differently named words with same rational meaning and different appended meaning and other being normally named words with same rational meaning in some cases but not in other cases. For former kind, we can use distinguishing methods of the same concept and the same target, according to different name and address. For latter, we can use method of generali- ty to explain according to main meaning and basic meaning of their sameness. In addition, we can use distinguishing metheds regarding critical interpretation of ancient texts and thesubstitution for both kinds.