A SEMANTIC FRAME ANALYSIS OF CHINESE CHARACTER: RELEVANCE AND LIMITATIONS

Abstract

Chinese characters are one of the earliest forms of writing known to man.  They represent one of the four independent inventions of writing in human history to be universally accepted by scholars (Jianyu Li 2012). Chinese characters are carriers of Chinese history, culture and visualisation of Chinese perception. The Chinese language, from the discovery of oracle bone inscription to the contemporary form, has gone through several stages of development that emanates features generally studied by scholars. Using the frame semantic framework, this work looks at the principles of character formation in the Chinese language. The phono-semantic principle is one of the most prominent features of the characters. In the collation of 7,697 characters in 100 CE, 82.3% of the characters are phono-semantic characters--Xu Shen’s <Shuo Wen Jiezi >, which account for character pronunciation and/or relevant semantics for the character formed, while also on several occasions give pointers to the historical etymology of the characters. This research analyses the semantic and phonetic frames present in phono-semantic characters, their relevance, and limitations.