A Review of Research on Homographic Characters in Naxi Dongba Script
This review essay surveys scholarship on homographic characters (identical graphic forms serving two or more distinct characters) in Naxi Dongba script, tracing the concept from Wang Li's 1953 coinage and Qiu Xigui's fourfold classification of Chinese-script homographs through subsequent Dongba-specific studies by Zheng Feizhou, Yu Suisheng, Deng Zhangying, Liu Yue, and Bai Xiaoli. It credits these scholars with identifying causes of Dongba homography, chiefly the visual similarity of real-world referents, and disambiguation strategies such as adding semantic or phonetic components, switching to phonetic symbols, or altering component parts, while criticizing the field for inconsistently distinguishing "homographic" from merely "formally similar" characters and for relying too heavily on dictionaries rather than primary scriptural and everyday-use manuscripts. It calls for future research to clarify these boundaries and study homograph distribution by region, era, genre, and scribe.
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