The Paths and Methods of Analogical Formation of Contextual Variant Characters in Dongba Script
This article examines "contextual variant characters" (语境异体字) in the Dongba script of the Naxi people—character groups that emerged when early writing was not yet standardized, using different graphic images tied to specific linguistic contexts to denote different referents while sharing a common core meaning. The author argues that some of these variants have undergone regularization (类化) into fixed, general-purpose characters through three main pathways: (1) adopting the most frequently used variant as the standard form; (2) extracting the shared component expressing the core semantic feature as an independent unifying character; and (3) creating an entirely new character synthesizing features of the variants. Regularization occurs through the "bleaching and dropping" of supplementary meanings, allowing the core semantic feature to be preserved while additional meanings become independently lexicalized and recorded separately. The study further notes subtle differences between regularization patterns for nominal versus verbal contextual variants, illustrated with examples drawn from the "Complete Translated Annotations of Naxi Dongba Ancient Texts."
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