假借 (jiǎ jiè) — to borrow a character phonetically; to use a character for its homophonous value; to make phonetic loan use of a character
Definition
假借 (jiǎjiè) is a technical term in Chinese paleography for the 'phonetic loan' principle, where a character is borrowed purely for its sound to write a word it originally had nothing to do with — unlike normal borrowing, no semantic link is involved.
verb
to borrow a character phoneticallyto use a character for its homophonous valueto make phonetic loan use of a character
Examples
- 假借。Gǔ rén cháng jiǎ jiè tóng yīn zì lái biǎo shì chōu xiàng gài niàn.Ancient people often borrowed homophonous characters to express abstract concepts.
- ，假借。Zhè ge zì běn yì shì yì zhǒng wǔ qì, hòu lái bèi jiǎ jiè wèi rén chēng dài cí.This character originally meant a type of weapon; later it was borrowed as a personal pronoun.
- 假借。Yán jiū jiǎ gǔ wén de xué zhě jīng cháng tǎo lùn jiǎ jiè zào zì fǎ.Scholars who study oracle bone inscriptions often discuss the phonetic loan method of character creation.
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