Research on the Meaning of the Chinese Word "Shui"

Abstract

From the Oracle period, the character “Shui” (water) has been created as a single pictograph and has been frequently used. In the long history of Chinese development, the connotation of “Shui” has been constantly enriched, with some lexical items appearing and disappearing, and some new lexical meanings being frequently used in contemporary communication and gradually being stereotyped. Based on the corpus of Center for Chinese Linguistics (CCL) of Peking University, this paper takes the meaning of “Shui” as the research object, comprehensively summarizing the meanings of water in each period at the diachronic linguistic level and analyzing the relationship of the terms of the meaning of “Shui” at the synchrony linguistic level. The research shows that the meanings of “Shui” in earlier periods were primarily extended from its basic sense, with straightforward derivations. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties and modern times, new meanings often arose through metaphor and metonymy. These metaphorical meanings became more intricate and less directly linked to the original, enhancing expressive vividness and reflecting a strong connection to life while maintaining simplicity