Journal of the Central University for Nationalities (1990, No. 1)
This article examines Tang Lan's influential theory that "compound graphs" (合文) in oracle bone inscriptions were precursors of phono-semantic characters (形声字), a view recently extended by other scholars to Naxi Dongba pictographic script. The author first surveys oracle bone compound graphs: roughly 300 exist, in four graphic layouts (parallel, vertical, interlaced, embedded) and covering numerals, ancestral titles, ganzhi terms, set phrases, and proper nouns, with grammatical structures split among coordinate, verb-object, and modifier-head types. The author then argues that transforming a two-character compound into a single phono-semantic character requires solving two unresolved problems: assigning semantic/phonetic roles to the two original characters, and reducing pronunciation from two syllables to one, while preserving equivalent meaning. Using this framework, the article critically reassesses whether compound graphs genuinely explain the origin of phono-semantic characters in both scripts.
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