Skip to main content

Corpus-Based Statistical Analysis of Polysemous Words in Legislative Chinese and General Chinese

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 11831))

Abstract

Legislative language is an effective carrier of legal and judicial justice. It has many characteristics that are different from general language. However, currently the study of the language of legislation, especially legislative Chinese, is still relatively weak. This paper extracts high-frequency words from a legislative Chinese corpus and annotates their word meaning in this corpus. By taking them as target words, this paper then randomly extracts sentences from a large-scale general Chinese corpus (the CCL corpus or the corpus of National Language Committee) for word sense annotation. By comparing word meanings in legislative Chinese and general Chinese, this study finds that there are significant differences between them in terms of the total number of meanings and the frequency of meanings. The reasons of the differences are closely related to the accuracy, written style and contextual features of legislative Chinese in comparison with general Chinese. The comparative study between the two types of languages is helpful for exploring the characteristics of polysemous words in legislative Chinese, deepening the teaching and research of legislative Chinese, and providing references for lexical research in legislative Chinese.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Zhan, W., Guo, R., Chen, Y.: The CCL Corpus of Chinese Texts: 700 million Chinese Characters, the 11th Century B.C. - present (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Jin, G., Xiao, H., Fu, L.: The construction and deep processing of modern Chinese corpus (Xiàndài hànyǔ yǔliàokù jiànshè jí shēnjiāgōng). Appl. Linguist. 2, 111–120 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Sun, C.: Chinese Vocabulary (Hànyǔ cíhuì). Jilin People’s Press, Changchun (1957)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Fu, H.: Modern Chinese Vocabulary (Xiàndài hànyǔ cíhuì). Peking University Press, Beijing (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Zhang, B.: The principles and methods for distinguishing perfect homonyms from polysemes in modern Chinese (Xiàndài hànyǔ tónɡxínɡ tónɡyīncí yǔ duōyìcí de qūfēn yuánzé hé fānɡfǎ). Lang. Teach. Linguist. Stud. 4, 36–45 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Zhou, Z.: Speeches on Chinese Vocabulary (Hànyǔ cíhuì jiǎnɡhuà). People’s Education Press, Beijing (1962)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Li, L.: On the difference between the extended meaning and the metaphorical meaning of polysemous words (Shìtán duōyìcí de yǐnshēnyì hé bǐyùyì de qūbié). J. Huaiyin Teach. Coll. (Soc. Sci. Ed.) 1, 57–60 (1983)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Li, Y.: The Chinese Polysemant Research in Cognitive Linguistics (Rènzhī yǔyánxué shìyù xià de hànyǔ duōyìcí yánjiū). Jilin University (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Wang, R.: A study of polysemy in Chinese from the perspective of frame semantics (Kuànɡjià yǔyì shìjiǎo xià hànyǔ yīcíduōyì de yánjiū). J. Heilongjiang Vocat. Inst. Ecol. Eng. 27, 145–146 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Xiong, S.: A cognitive linguistic perspective on polysemy (Cónɡ rènzhī yǔyánxué jiǎodù kàn yīcíduōyì xiànxiànɡ). J. Anhui Vocat. Coll. Electron. Inf. Technol. 17, 58–61 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Dong, W.: The Research of the Polysemic Verb “da” in Modern Chinese Language in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (Xiàndài hànyǔ duōyì dòngcí ‘dǎ’ de duìwàihànyǔ jiàoxué yánjiū). Hebei Normal University (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Xu, Y.: A Study of the Foreign Students’ Acquisition Error of Chinese “suàn” and the Related Words (Liúxuéshēng duōyì dònɡcí “suàn” jíqí xiānɡɡuān cíhuì de xídé piānwù fēnxī jí jiàoxué cèlüè). Shanghai International Studies University (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Xu, H.: The Study of Acquisition Order in Polysemy “kāi” Semantic Item of Thailand Student and Teaching Advice (Tàiɡuó xuéshenɡ hànyǔ duōyìcí “kāi” de ɡè yìxiànɡ xídé shùnxù yánjiū jí jiàoxué jiànyì). GuangXi University for Nationalities (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Guo, X.: The Error Analysis of the Polysemous word “háishì” (Duōyìcí “háishì” de piānwù fēnxī). Yangzhou University (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Chang, G., Wuliya, M.: Cognitive strategy applied in chinese polysemy teaching (Rènzhī cèlüè zài hànyǔ duōyìcí jiàoxué zhōng de yùnyòng). J. Beijing Univ. Posts Telecommun. (Soc. Sci. Ed.) 15, 99–104 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Xie, J.: The Application of the Contextual Teaching Method in the Advanced Stage of Polysemy Teaching in the Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages Students—A Case Study of the Polysemous Words in the Chinese Extensive Reading Course (Yǔjìnɡ jiàoxuéfǎ zài duìwài hànyǔ zhōnɡ ɡāojí jiēduàn duōyìcí jiàoxué zhōnɡde yùnyònɡ—yǐ zhōngwén guǎngjiǎo gāojí hànyǔ fàndú jiàochéng zhōngde duōyìcí wéilì). Yunnan Normal University (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Yang, K.: Study on the Meaning Characteristics Extraction and Paraphrase Comparison of Legal Words (Fǎlǜ cíhuì de cíyì tèdiǎn tíqǔ jí shìyì duìbǐ yánjiū). Hebei Normal University (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Zhou, D.: On the role of context theory in Chinese translation of polysemous words in WTO legal texts (Lùn yǔjìnɡ lǐlùn zài WTO fǎlǜ wénběn zhōnɡ duōyìcí hànyì de zuòyònɡ). Crazy Engl. Pro 2, 205–206 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Luo, H., Wang, S.: The construction and application of the legal corpus of Mainland China (Zhōngguó dàlù fǎlǜ yǔliàokù jíqí yīngyòng yánjiū). In: The 18th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop (CLSW2017). Leshan Normal University, Leshan, Sichuan, China (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Luo, H., Wang, S.: The Transitional Sentences in Legislative Language in the Cases of the dan and danshi sentences (Lìfǎ yǔyán zhōng de dànshū hé fēidànshū yánjiū). Contemporary Rhetoric (Dāngdài xiūcí xué) 6, 77–89 (2018). [Reproduced by China Social Science Excellence Réndà fùyìn bàokān zīliào, 2, 130–139, 2019]

    Google Scholar 

  21. Luo, H., Wang, S.: The construction and application of the legal corpus. In: Wu, Y., Hong, J.-F., Su, Q. (eds.) Chinese Lexical Semantics, pp. 448–467. Springer, Cham (2018)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  22. Dictionary Editing Room of Institute of Linguistics of China Academy of Social Sciences: The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (Xiàndài hànyǔ cídiǎn). The Commercial Press, Beijing (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Pan, Q.: Forensic Linguistics (Fǎlǜ yǔyánxué). China University of Political Science and Law Press, Beijing (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Pan, Q.: On the general characteristics of Chinese legal style (Lùn hànyǔ fǎlǜ yǔtǐ de yībān tèzhēng). J. Shanghai Univ. (Soc. Sci. Ed.) 1, 8–14 (1985)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgement

This research is supported by the Start-up Research Grant of University of Macau (SRG2018-00126-FAH).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shan Wang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Wang, S., Yin, J. (2020). Corpus-Based Statistical Analysis of Polysemous Words in Legislative Chinese and General Chinese. In: Hong, JF., Zhang, Y., Liu, P. (eds) Chinese Lexical Semantics. CLSW 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11831. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38189-9_67

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38189-9_67

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-38188-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-38189-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics