Meaning Trees and Original Meanings
Meaning Trees and Original Meanings
A character’s original meaning is the one sense its written shape was invented to picture. A meaning tree is a record of the character’s senses, arranged from that original meaning. Every later sense came about in one of two ways: derivation from an earlier sense by metaphor or metonymy, or attachment to the form because two words sounded alike. The tree stores the original meaning and the later senses a reader could not work out from the original meaning. Every other dictionary sense is left out.
Core takeaways
- The original meaning is the only sense the written form pictures. Any explanation of why a character looks the way it does uses that sense.
- A later sense arises in one of two ways: derivation from an earlier sense, or a sound loan, where the form is borrowed for an unrelated word that sounded alike. When the original sense cannot be found, the earliest recorded use takes its place.
- A loan sense is circled with 〇. The circle records that the form and the sense have no link, so the reader stops trying to invent one.
- The tree stores only senses that cannot be worked out from a more basic one. On 長 zhǎng, “to grow” is stored, and context rebuilds “grow old,” “develop,” “increase,” and “leader.”
- A character with two readings gets two trees. A character used as a component inside another character gets a separate tree for its use as a component.
- A tree draws arrows between senses to show which sense could have produced which. Only the original meaning is verified history.
Where a character’s senses come from
The original meaning is the only sense the form pictures. An explanation of why a character looks the way it does always goes through that sense, even when the everyday reading has moved away from it. 木 was drawn as a tree. The everyday reading “wood” is a later sense derived from that picture, and it is the sense people give first. Until the reader knows the original sense, the everyday sense and the strokes have no link.
Derivation is the first way a new sense arises. A new sense comes from an older one, the way English “hit the bottle” uses the container to stand for the drinking. 漢 started as the name of a river, which is why 氵 sits on the left. People living beside that river took its name. The dynasty that rose from the region took the name next. Then the ethnic group that dynasty named. Then an adult male of that group. The modern sense “Han / Chinese” is reached only through that chain of senses. The water component explains the first step and none of the later ones.
Sound loan is the second way. A form is borrowed to write an unrelated word that sounded alike. 我 was drawn as a saw-toothed pole weapon. After the loan, the weapon sense went out of use. The form still pictures the weapon. The modern word has no link to it.
Senses that went out of use this way often got a new character. 其 lost its winnowing-basket sense, and 箕 added ⺮ to keep it. 必 lost “dagger-axe handle,” and 柲 added 木. That successor pattern is the same sound-borrowing mechanism, called rebus, that Sound Components describes. In a meaning tree it matters only as the visible sign of the lost sense. Semantic parts that carry the same original meanings into later host characters are described on Meaning Components.
When the sense the form was invented for cannot be found, the earliest recorded use is used as the original meaning. This is the fallback. 恢 already means “vast” in Warring States texts. That sense has no link to 忄, and 灰 is the sound component. The fallback is rare. Derivation, sound loan, and this fallback cover every case. There is no other way a sense arises.
How a tree is written
A meaning tree records the line of descent of the senses. The original meaning is tagged as original even when it is no longer in use. A loan sense is circled: 〇. Marking the loan at once stops the reader from trying to make up a link between the form and the sense. A marked break is easier to remember than a break the reader keeps trying to repair. Derived senses are graded by stage: first-stage, second, third, and the indentation matches the stage. Arrows show which sense could have produced which. Only the original meaning is verified history. Tracing the true historical chain would multiply the work several times over and would change nothing that belongs on the card. The tree records a possible order of derivation. It does not record the documented historical order.
A character with two readings gets two trees.
長 cháng:
- old person → long in time ⇒ long in space
- later: good at / strong point
長 zhǎng:
- grow old → grow, develop ⇒ increase
- plus: leader
Each role a character plays gets its own tree. 臣 in a text is a ruler’s subject. As a component inside another character, it is the eye of someone bowing. 又 as a word is “again.” Inside 取 it is a hand. The construction of a character is analyzed with component meanings. Words are read with character meanings. Three Attributes of a Character lists meaning as one of a character’s three attributes, and these trees organize that attribute. Surface vs Deep Structure gives the parse the trees attach to. Character role and component role are kept separate.
Which senses are stored
Cutting senses is the main step. A sense that can be worked out from a more basic one is not stored. If B can be guessed from A and C, B is left out. If B and C both follow from A, only A is stored. On 長 zhǎng the stored sense is “to grow.” Context then rebuilds “grow old,” “develop,” “increase,” and even “leader.” Rare senses are left out. A reader who learns the whole list of dictionary senses at once forgets many of them before ever using them.
What the tree does
The tree does three jobs. It links today’s ordinary sense back to the strokes. It shows how the other senses developed, or did not. It cuts the stored set down to what cannot be rebuilt.
Building a tree takes three steps. First, ask whether the form and the ordinary modern sense are linked. If they are not, the sense gets a 〇. Second, choose which senses to keep. Third, draw the arrows between the kept senses. The saved effort adds up across thousands of characters.
The tree does not record full historical chains. The cost of the method is one root-finding pass per character. The cost it replaces is storing a flat list of every sense. Rules of Effective Memorization gives the general rules: understanding, association, load-minimization. This cutting of senses is one instance of them.
Four wrong links
Inventing a link to a loan sense is the first. 造 has no path from “create” to 辶. The component served the original sense “to arrive” (ancient cào). “Create” is circled. “Manufacture” is derived from “create.”
Explaining the form from the modern sense is the second. Looking for “Chinese” in the strokes of 漢 is folk etymology. The river sense already explains 氵.
Confusing the two roles is the third. Carrying a character meaning into the analysis of construction, such as 臣 as “official” inside a host character or 又 as “again” inside 取, produces strained explanations.
Lookalike parts are the fourth. 必 shares no history with 心. The 旦-shaped element in 是 is unrelated to 旦. Both are Empty Components: leftover shapes that carry no meaning.
Limits of the method
The basic modern meaning is the sense a native speaker gives with no context. When no native speaker is available to ask, a good dictionary’s first gloss stands in for that answer.
Almost no character has a set of senses that are all equally basic. That statement is about how senses develop. It is not a measured count from any dictionary.
The method is not a course in 訓詁. A tree that invents links is folk etymology. A tree that stores every gloss has not been cut down. The method does nothing for a reader who will not look up an original sense. The cost is one root-finding pass per character. If the tree keeps growing to match a dictionary entry, the cutting failed. After the pass, the stored set is the original meaning plus the later senses that cannot be worked out from it. The reader stops trying to link a circled loan to the form.
Memory Handling describes the general method of leaving out what can be inferred. The meaning tree applies that method to single characters.
The original meaning is what stays stored. Context rebuilds the obvious derived senses. Loan senses stay circled. The form pictures only that oldest sense. The stored set is small enough to use.
How to practice this
- Pick one character. Look up the sense its written shape was invented to picture. Notice whether the sense you would give first is that one or a later sense.
- Ask whether the form and the ordinary modern sense are linked. If they are not, circle the sense with 〇. Notice that you stop trying to invent a link between them.
- Drop every sense you can work out from a more basic one. If two senses both follow from one sense, keep only that one. Notice how short the list becomes.
- Draw an arrow from each kept sense to the sense it could have produced. Indent each derived sense by its stage: first, second, or third. Notice that only the original meaning in the chain is verified history.
- If the character has two readings, write a separate tree for each. If it appears as a component inside another character, use its component meaning there. Notice whether the explanation of how the host character is built stays simple.
- Compare the finished tree with a dictionary entry. If the tree has grown to match the entry, cut it again. Notice that what remains is the original meaning plus the senses context cannot rebuild.
Related pages
- How Chinese Characters Work: the hub page for the pages on Chinese characters. It shows how those pages are ordered, and where the tree pages come after the component pages.
- Three Attributes of a Character: meaning is one of the three attributes, and these trees organize it.
- Meaning Components: semantic parts that carry the same original meanings into host characters.
- Sound Components: the rebus mechanism behind sound loans and successor characters.
- Surface vs Deep Structure: character roles versus component roles, and the parse these trees attach to.
Open questions
How does a sense that was left out of the tree get added back once it starts appearing in real text?
A dictionary’s first gloss stands in for asking a native speaker for the sense with no context. How far that stand-in differs from the sense a native speaker would give is still open.
Sources
Qiu Xigui, Chinese Writing, trans. Gilbert L. Mattos and Jerry Norman (Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China, 2000). The public 本義 / 引申 / 假借 distinction this page restates as original meaning, derivation, and sound loan.
Standard 訓詁 handbooks on 本義 as the sense a graph was invented to write, 引申 as metaphor and metonymy from that root, and 假借 as attachment by sound alone.
The 漢 river-name chain and the 我 weapon-to-pronoun loan are the ordinary textbook accounts of those two characters; they are not house etymologies.