『설문해자』수록자의 <아동> 어휘장 연구

The Study of the Lexical Field of Chinese Characters Meaning 'Child' in “ShuowenJiezi[說文解字]”

This study examines the semantic interpretations of 9,353 characters in the Shuowen Jiezi (Explaining and Analyzing Characters) to analyze the lexical field of “<children>” in Chinese characters. Where necessary, the analysis references Shuowen Jiezi Zhu, Hanyu Dazidian (Comprehensive Chinese Character Dictionary), and ancient script forms. The findings are as follows: Key Findings: Five characters—子 (zi), 孺 (ru), 兒 (er), 婗 (ni), and 嫛 (yi)—were identified as encompassing both the semantic features of <newborn> and <infant>. Additionally, interpretations from Shuowen Jiezi Zhu and Hanyu Dazidian reveal that characters such as 孩 (hai), 嬰 (ying), 幼 (you), and 童 (tong) also share semantic features associated with <infant>, <toddler>, and <child>, reflecting a more modern understanding of these age groups. Lexical Field and Relationships:The characters 子, 孺, 兒, 婗, and 嫛 form a horizontal relationship within the Shuowen Jiezi, with shared semantic features of <newborn> and <infant>, establishing a synonymous relationship. These characters are organized into a lexical field with 子 serving as the hypernym, under which the other characters are arranged horizontally. Comparison to Modern Perspectives: Unlike the modern classification of “child” (or a-dong, <아동>) into detailed age groups ranging from 0 to 18 years, the concept of “child” in ancient times primarily referred to “newborns” or “nursing infants.” Future Scope: Further analysis of the synonymous relationships among 子, 孺, 兒, 婗, 嫛 and characters such as 孩, 嬰, 幼, 童, as well as the processes by which these monosyllabic characters evolved into compound words or morphemes like 孩童 (hai-tong) and 兒童 (er-tong), will be addressed in subsequent sections.