形聲字 起源說에 대한 考察 - 唐蘭의 형성자 기원설을 중심으로

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is not to directly examine the origin of the pictophonetic(形聲) method, but to criticize the origin of Tang Lan(唐蘭)’s pictophonetic method. As for the origin of the 6 classification, consideration should be preemptive from which first occurred in the process of changing or developing the 6 classification. Chinese characters are both complex and multilayered. This is especially true because the Pictophonetic method consists of semantic and phonetic codes. Pictophonetic method is a word-formation method combining one element of a character indicating meaning and the other, sound, into a new word. Form element(形符) indicates the word’s meaning and characteristic. Phonetic element(聲符) indicates the pronunciation of the word. Therefore, it is meaningful to question and consider the origins of these Pictophonic Characters. Presumably, Chinese characters were developed in the way that Pictograms occurred first and then the remaining Chinese characters were created based on them. On the origins of these Pictophonic Characters, this paper especially discusses the validity and failure of Tang Lan’s The theory of conjunction Characters(合文說) and he theory of Acousticization of hieroglyphic characters(聲化象意字說). As a result, it is expected to improve the understanding of Xuchen’s 6 Chinese character classification.